(no subject)

[acts_of_gord]

Alyx posted her recruiting memo on the chat... thing... that Shephard brought them the equipment for. That's fine. Gordon is good with that. He's not sure how many people here use that service, though, which is why he's sitting down at one of the tables with a big piece of oak tag and a black magic marker and trying to decide exactly what needs to go on the recruiting poster.

Beyond "Humans of Earth in need of assistance for assault on alien overlords' stronghold", anyway.

Feel free to ask him why he's staring at the posterboard as if the words will appear on their own.

Comments

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko isn't really sure the words will come by osmosis, Dr. Freeman, but she's gonna be sitting over here watching you consider them.

"You could get one of those old world war two recruiting posters. Y'know, the 'I Want You' ones?" she asks. "Just edit the text."

[acts_of_gord]

"That might work," Gordon admits. "Last time I mostly just talked to people. Didn't have to draw up much of anything."

Words are not, and have not ever been, his friends.

[electro_kinetic]

"What changed?"

[acts_of_gord]

"Not that much," Gordon says. "Mostly, we need more people this time. We've got you, and Annabelle Newfield, and... probably some other people. But last time was just causing hell in City 17. This is something of a last stand for the Combine terraforming forces."

[electro_kinetic]

"Don't know how many friends I've really got that come here routinely, but I'll ask X if she'll come along." Nori has seen what those claws, attached to that person, can do.

She's not exactly eager to see it again, but...well. If it needs to happen it just needs to.

[acts_of_gord]

"That would be good," Gordon says. "She's fought with us before- she knows what to expect. It won't be like what happened with Charlie."

[electro_kinetic]

"I heard Alyx mention something like that, but what exactly happened with that guy?"

[acts_of_gord]

"He signed up to fight," says Gordon sourly, "and then said he wouldn't carry a weapon. Which would've been fine if he had some kind of powers, but he was an ordinary human with martial arts skills instead. Basic Combine soldiers are augmented humans made faster and tougher than any ordinary human short of Batman could hope to fight hand-to-hand. I seem to remember him having a problem with the idea of killing Combine soldiers, too."

"And when we finally came back here he basically said 'guess I'm not suited for war after all' and just walked off."

[electro_kinetic]

She rolls her eyes expressively.

"Dumbass."

[death_gone_mad]

She saw Alyx's memo, but…

Irrational fears are irrational She was too busy with happenings back home to respond. Still, the memo was interesting enough that she watched the conversation that was going on. Closely.

When she comes down from her room, she spots Gordon puzzling over the stiff piece of paper. She wanders over after grabbing a basket of fried calimari and a drink from Bar. Sorry, no Slayer's Respite this time. It would be the wrong type of inspiration for this type of work anyhow. "Hello," she greets. "Working on something?"

[acts_of_gord]

"Recruiting poster," says Gordon. "We've got one more gene worm to go- the last one died pretty spectacularly."

[death_gone_mad]

"Gene worm…" she searches her memory. "That would be the terraforming beast that was mentioned in Alyx's me-mo, right?"

At least, if it wasn't some cat pretending to be Alyx.

It could be.

Cats with thumbs. She's seen them. Here. Ugh.

[acts_of_gord]

"That's the one," Gordon says. "Same kind as the creature I had to kill last time. Thank you, by the way. That beer made things interesting."

[death_gone_mad]

"You're welcome," she says, grinning. There is nothing better in the world than someone who recognizes killing as an effective means of solving problems. Well, there are better things but this makes her happy.

"So, since you are still recruiting, does that mean I can volunteer myself for this expedition?"

[acts_of_gord]

"Don't see why not," says Gordon, pushing the oak tag aside for the moment. "What kind of skills do you bring to the table?"

Around here, the answer could be just about anything.

[death_gone_mad]

"Well, unfortunately, that teleportation magic I told you about is not my specialty when it comes to magic. I've focused more on raw firepower," literally. "It should be very effective on anything that encases itself in metal." Anything that conducts sound, electricity, and heat means a triple whammy for the wearer of such armor. "I am very good with ranged and close combat weapons, and even hand to hand combat if it comes to that. Although… I haven't fired a gun in my life. Closest I have come is using a hand canon a couple of times."

"Plus, I have found I am relatively skilled at," something that Bar translates as xenobiology. "I am sure my world doesn't receive as many alien invaders as yours does, but in the past, it didn't take me too long to figure out how to kill whatever needed killing."

Back when the other gods were actively pulling creatures from other worlds and creating brand new ones to help their own side in the wars she had lots of practice, even after she had her godhood stripped away. Now-a-days, not so much.

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon considers this. "Combine armor isn't made of metal," he says after a bit, "but their soldiers and Synths are usually crammed full of cybernetic implants. There's a lot of metallic material involved there. There's usually metallic elements on the surface, too. As long as you've got the power, it probably won't matter much if you haven't got a gun. We've had people come through before who had other destructive abilities and didn't need external weapons."

[unbreakableben]

"The dreaded blank page stare, I know it well," says a large guy in pseudo Air Force fatigues who's eating a plate of paradoxes at a table nearby. Ben would have read and responded to Alyx's recruiting memo if he were the technology type of guy but since he isn't, he has no clue what's going on.

[acts_of_gord]

"Hm?" Gordon looks up. "Oh. Yeah. It's been a while since I've had to do any recruiting for back home. Not much good with words."

[unbreakableben]

"Reciuting?" Ben says with a slight frown. "What's going on back home? If you don't mind my asking that is."

[acts_of_gord]

"Aliens," says Gordon. "We've had them for some time. They conquered the planet sixteen years ago- sit down if you want. I can tell you about it."

[unbreakableben]

"Sure," Ben says, scooping up his paradoxes and their sauce before heading over to sit. "I'm Captain Ben Grimm by the way. United States Air Force."

A hand is offered once free of the fried goodness.

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon leans over to shake the offered hand. "Gordon Freeman," he says. "Can't say I've met too many people from your service here, just... I don't remember Rhodes' rank." He shrugs. "Anyway. I used to be a theoretical physicist. These days I'm busy fighting the aliens that overran my world in the Seven Hours' War."

[unbreakableben]

"'Seven hours'?" Ben asks. "It must have really hit the fan."

Of course the Gah Lak Tus or the Chitauri could have made just as short of work on Earth if not for him and his peers.

[acts_of_gord]

"So they tell me," says Gordon, with a faint scowl. "I was in a different dimension at the time. Two months there, twenty years on Earth."

He shakes his head sourly.

"The Combine Empire rolled over Earth and established themselves as overlords sixteen years ago. The human population hasn't recovered because the first thing the Combine did was establish some kind of energy field that prevented human reproduction. They've spent that time evaluating us for addition to their armies as cybernetically enhanced slave soldiers. We've only just barely managed to start pushing back at their strategic points, and this is going to be one of the big ones."