Half-life: Invasion

Hour 2: Raid

Icarus held his assault rifle tight, wading through the sewers. The headless, featureless humanoid soldiers he'd not been trained to fight marched overhead on the streets. His helmet jostled itself with his motions. In front of him was his squad's shotgunners. Behind him were three heavies from his squad. Next to him were his buddies, Sven and Roka. They were riflemen too. The squad consisted of survivors from Omega, who were going through the sewers to another base.

Icarus could barely hear a hunter's screech. He darted his eyes around.

A heavy looked back to see the blue, glowing eyes of a three-legged monster, as if ghosts of alien dead. It let out an electronic roar as it fired it's flechette projectiles.

"Run! We've got a Hunter!" He shouted before getting covered in flechettes.

The rest of the squad jumped forward before the flechettes exploded. The heavy exploded into chunks. They ran away as fast as they could. Icarus flung a grenade behind them. The grenade exploded, hitting the Hunter, but the beast kept after them.

There was a ladder that hung on the wall, but the entrance was covered by the sewer lid.

Roka climbed up the ladder and slammed his fist into the solid metal, freeing it up and pushing it out, but fell off the ladder into the water, blue flechettes sticking from his back, quivering.

Sven lifted Roka up and climbed up.

They made it to the ladder, which they climbed up one after another.

Icarus fired a grenade from his rifle into the sewers. It killed the hunter, light enshrouding it.

They had made it back to base. There a few units of the country's military and some HECU marines were based. Icarus took his canteen from his pack and sipped from it. He didn't know when they'd get more drinking water, so he was holding out on it.

Sven gave Roka off to the medics.

Icarus had joined the Hazardous Environments Combat Unit after escaping Black Mesa. He figured the special forces were for him since he had no-one waiting for him at home anymore.

He sat with Sven. Roka had been hit with a few flechettes, it seemed. He was being treated for severe burns. The sound of gunfire and artillery droned on in the air.

"Do you think he'll make it?" Sven asked.

"Maybe. You never know with those Hunters."

They entered the medical tent. Roka had been put on life support. He looked over to them.

"A-ah... Glad you guys made it."

"Doc said I'm going to be alright... But I doubt it's true..."

"You saved us, Roka. You're a hero." Icarus reassured him.

"I just did my job." Roka stated.

"You did it better than any of us will." Sven stated bluntly.

He suddenly flatlined. He fell limp. There was still a fragment of a flechette in him.

"Dammit...!" Sven shouted.

A higher-up strutted over to them.

"What do you two think you are doing? Defend the perimeter!" He barked.

They stood up and walked to the concrete dividers that were lined between two buildings. On the dividers were high-caliber mounted guns. They were manned by HECU.

Sven lit a cigarette and dragged on it.

"That Grachmann guy is an idiot, just do what he says and he'll leave eventually." Sven said, having already detached from death. Sven had already been a marine during the incident.