I Remember BöTech,

MattGoose Speaking: This is probably altogether too long of a post, but I felt horrendously unhelpful, and wanted to aid the record keeping process. I leave this in your capable hands, Mr. Zach.

One sunny day, during the early years, Zach, Ben, and myself loaded into Gmod_Construct. This was before tiberium, before spacebuild, even before wiremod if I remember correctly: just the basic tools with a few prop packages, in what was probably Gmod version 10.

It went something like this.

We each went our separate ways once on the map. Zach headed to the elevated balcony/overhang that cast its shadow on the small lake below (and was fiddling with hoverballs, thrusters, and light-weight wing designs to perfect glider technology for survey reconnaissance). Ben started work in the grassy knoll (presumably also on survey equipment, and observation banks for receiving information sent by remote cameras). I set to work inside the garage, lashing some wheels to a dumpster chassis, and was building a little ramp on its side (for access to the interior of my horrible truck) when inspiration stuck.

Undersea Base.

I erased everything I had built, and leaned out of the garage, watching my compatriots, both incredibly absorbed in their work. I considered setting off some kind of remote explosion inside the giant warehouse behind Ben to draw their attention, but realized that Zach would intersect my path to the lake probably after Ben arrived at the scene to find the remains of some exploding barrels and call off the search. Or, on the other hand, their interest would prematurely blossom, and they’d canvas the map, and find my plan, or me.

Best to just go stealth.

I sprinted to the shadows of the overhang, and while Ben was preoccupied with the early screen systems, and the sounds of Zach clanking around above me were at their unique crescendos: I took the dive.

Thank goodness for Gmod’s early ‘breathless’ character designs.

I could move around underwater fairly expediently, and took great pleasure in not having to return to the surface every other minute, and not requiring inordinately loud oxygen generators to persist. I put together a simple platform of blast-doors, and incorporated a short fence on the edges to keep oneself from drifting off. I made a little living area with a couch and some other random (but unimportant) props, and then set to work on my control station.

The Combine computer screens felt especially well-designed, to me. Large, ominous, a dark subtle blue. With a wrap-around bank of multiple kinds, all roped and welded together I was almost in business. I froze a barrel in place just below the water’s surface, but some distance above my new home, and attached a single, bright, white lamp with a really long cord to the barrel. Almost like some kind of unholy umbilical to my insidious, newly born, waterlogged lair.

Then the real work began.

I selected particular I-beams to form a grossly disproportioned skeleton, locked in some kind of all-encompassing panda-bear-type hug-position. At the ends of the limbs I attached extremely powerful detonators, and along the spine a series of hoverballs and thrusters. All silent, of course. Except the detonators. To the ‘head’ I strapped a camera of my own, and after adding a screen to my little console, we set out.

I raised the … thing, out of the water, at the very edge of Zach’s workspace. Ascending inch-by-inch until I could just peek over the edge. Zach had his back to the lake. Excellent. I lowered a touch, and turned to see Ben, similarly facing away from my little pond-lair. The Jaws theme was my private musical accompaniment for this operation. I rose above the puny array of materials and scraps on the balcony, and started to drift lower, and lower towards poor, hapless Zach. Much to my own, suddenly, horribly, nefarious chagrin, I saw that Zach was working almost exclusively with wooden pieces that would break apart when exploded at. I made a mental note to attach an explosive barrel prop spawner to the belly of the beast, when I brought it back down, to increase its destructive capabilities. The machine drew closer: had Zach possessed his new Aurora instead of dear old Alecta, (did I get those names right, Zach?) the shadows of the thing would have suddenly become visible, as my machine of metal and fire, blotted out the sun.

Suddenly, and without warning, Zach flew backwards at my device. I hit the ‘ascend’ key, trying to fly away before my plan was ruined, while simultaneously attempting to remain calm and composed, to not arouse suspicion. Zach swore, “Damn physics!”, and I attributed the near miss to a prop getting out of hand, with enough momentum to smack him away from his intricate work. A common mishap, almost ending in my mission’s failure. But! Now that he was busy trying to repair what had been done, I could work my wickedness. I lowered again, creeping up close, I could almost imagine the leg ends entering Zach’s peripheral vision before:

BOOM-BOOM-KABOOM!

Wrecked wood went flying everywhere, and I pulled the machine desperately, and quickly aware from the scene. As it spun from the explosion, and the thrusters trying to wrest control back, I suddenly saw Ben, in the field, setting up another monitor, and for a trace second, I witnessed the infinite regress of camera-screen-camera-screen illuminated in the frame.

I was undone. If I didn’t get that camera off now before it could be oriented and found, or if Zach saw where the machine went down….

TO BE CONTINUED!

Explore posts in the same categories: BTSC, Games, Memories, Random