Half-life: Invasion

Hour 3: Holding The Fort

Icarus listened to the radio chatter, manning the machine gun in the window of the judicial building. There were others on mounted guns on the same floor. His breath clouded up in the cold. He looked below him, trucks and APCs laid on their sides or upside down. The lower half of a statue stood, a few flechettes stuck into it that failed to explode.

The red cracks of light in the cold night sky, flashed as if fuel-depleted lighters in a dark room.

The other half of the statue lay on top of the body of a Hunter.

The corpses of zombies, soldiers, aliens, and Combine alike were strewn across the dark courtyard like sardines, most of the time on top of each other. Red flares lay glowing on the ground spewing red embers, shining in the dark.

A tank's engine burned bright steadily, the front buried in the ground and the barrel crumpled up like a cigarette butt. The night sky had an ominous shadow that blotted out the moon. The stars weren't visible.

The smell of gunpowder and blood filled the air. There were machine guns and artillery firing in the distance, muffled shouts and cries of mankind fighting for survival.

A heavy rain had settled in, thunder in the distance eventually conjoined itself with the roar of vague gunfire, creating an androgynous roar.

There was of course, some living that lay strewn out in the courtyard, bleeding out, moaning, praying. Medics were very much scarce, and many couldn't even help everyone.

Icarus had heard before that every crack of a rifle tells a story, but sometimes there's just too many stories to count. They all ended, no matter how sweet.

"Some men you just can't reach." Icarus said under his breath leaning in the windowsill, reciting the words of a prophet long dead as his breath clouded in.

The rain poured, clanking on his helmet.

A lightning bolt flashed and hit the bottom half of the statue, detonating the flechettes. Icarus hardly flinched.

He took another swig from his flask.

Icarus' radio was chattering, as constant as the flow of water.

A 'Check-in' was issued. He responded with an 'all clear'.

A few minutes passed by. He adjusted his helmet.

He felt his helmet move, as if someone has pushed it. He took it off and looked at it.

White paint on his helmet read:

'Prepare for unforeseen consequences...'

Soon enough, the writing was gone as soon as it arrived.

He didn't remember putting that on his helmet, much less the writing being present on it.

The picture of him and his brother as young kids was strangely missing.

The chatter was eventually broken with an alert.

"Omega! We've got multiple targets on our radar heading towards you! Set up your defenses, it looks like there's no way out! I repeat: Set up your defenses!" The radio said.

HECU marines, and other military units rushed to the machine gun nests and some set up laser trip mines in the courtyard. The heavies set up their machine guns, and the shotgunners loaded up.

Blue dots filled the streets around them, the glowing of the soldiers' eyepieces. The mines detonated, sending the front line of soldiers flying. Marines opened fire, killing the second line of them. They heard the ground shake. Gigantic spider-like aliens moved towards the Marines.

"Watch out! Striders!" A marine shouted.

Icarus let go of the machine gun, going to a cache a bit away from the emplacement, grabbing a rocket launcher.

He aimed the RPG at a strider, firing at its body. Smoke trailed with the rocket as its flame ignited, hissing toward the strider. The rocket hit it in the underside. The beast roared and opened fire on the HECU below, killing many.

Icarus reloaded and fired again, this time the strider collapsing. The artillery shot shells into the striders, the ordinances detonating and tearing them apart.

He grabbed the emplacement again, firing into the Combine below.

They'd swept the first wave out, but had lost a lot of men. A few minutes later a giant wave of Super Soldiers charged towards the building. They were heavily armored. Icarus fired his last rocket in the middle of the Super Soldiers, killing only the few that had been right next to it. He tossed the launcher to the side

They couldn't hold them off much longer. He stood his ground, firing the machine gun wildly at the mass of Combine below.

A Super Soldier fired a ball of plasma towards the window. Icarus dove to the ground. The plasma ball bounced everywhere at incredibly high speeds. Nobody had said get down. Nobody had time. The light of the projectile blinded him. It dissipated with a loud electronic burst after two seconds. When he regained his vision, none of the other gunners on his floor were there. A lit cigarette was still smoking on the ground where a gunner once was, spinning wildly.

"Floor Two, is anyone still up there?" The officer from earlier asked on the radio.

"I-it's just me sir. What happened?"

"Get down Dagfinn, get down from there!" He shouted, above the alien wailing of a gunship, suddenly being cut off after gunfire.

Icarus ran down the stairs to find he was the only soldier alive here.

As he exited the building, a Gunship charged a laser. Icarus dove behind the base of the statue. The laser hit the judicial building, making it burst. Shards of concrete, metal, and glass flew everywhere. Shrapnel flew into the ground.

He made a mad dash for the nearest base. The gunship was close behind him. He opened a manhole cover, jumping in while unslinging his assault rifle.