This was compiled hastily in a few hours.
"Dammit... we're dying out here...." the faint radio transmission crackled. "These Strogg bastards are everywhere...." The transmission ended. Lara stopped the tape, and picked up the tape recorder. She pressed 'record', and began to speak softly into the microphone. "This civilization was apparently of some alternate planet Earth, with technologies light years advanced from the present. There was apparently some kind of war with another, alternate planet, a planet that the transmissions seem to refer to as 'Stroggos'. The natives of the planet, called 'Stroggs' were apparently hostile towards all civilizations, and looked to capture and assimilate all forms of life outside of their civilization. Several references in the tape detail various element of torture humans endured on the planet, including captivity and senseless beatings, and the ultimate consequence: execution. However, I am as of yet unconvinced as to the unprovoked and senseless nature of the beings known as Stroggs. There must have been some alterior motive for the race's apparent hostility to humans, other than some errant malicious trait common to the civilization. Knowing human nature to not tolerate what is different, I will endeavor to listen to the other archived recordings to make some sense of this all. Lara Croft, November 9th, 1998." Lara pressed the stop button on the recorder, and slowly replaced it on her desk. She yawned slightly, and fell asleep in her hotel room bed.
Lara's eyes opened slowly to let the morning light in. However, darkness still enveloped the Albuquerque horizon. She was awakened rudely by the sound of the bedside phone ringing. Lara wearily picked up the receiver. On the other end was a very excited fellow archaeologist. It was Peter 'Bulldog' Johnson, a leary yet gruff middle-aged digger with a life only for the profession. "We've found it Lara.... It's the moment we've all waited for!!!" the enthralled voice on the other side of the line exclaimed. "The pinnacle of all our careers.... it's the find of a century! No... the find of a millennium! We just have to show the rest of the world this... it's just magnificent.... omnipotent... domineering almost... a revolu...." Lara hated to cut the joyous man off, but she just had to know what her colleague's incessant rambling was about. "Hold it a second.... calm down PJ.. what exactly is it that you've found?" Her colleague composed himself, and calmly responded in his usual monotone voice: "Sorry Lara. I do believe I got slighlty carried away there...." Lara smiled on the other end. She'd never heard the 'Bulldog' so excited in her 5 years of working with him. "Anyway..." he continued. "We've found an odd artifact. It seems to be some kind of archway... a threshold. There's some Strogg inscriptions on it. I'll have my experts on it just as soon as I can get them on the phone. We also found some odd documentation around the object. We think this artifact along with these papers is the key to unraveling one of the latest archaelogical mysteries.. I think you should come inspect it yourself, as you did organize this dig." The 'Bulldog's' voice then schrank to a whisper so no one around him would hear: "You know, I may be slightly ashamed to say this, but I must admit... I do feel quite giddy right now.... Tee hee...." Then the dial tone came up. Lara grinned briefly at her compatriot's unusually cheery demeanor and then went and got dressed.
Lara barely had time enough to stop by the hotel souvenir shot to grab a cup of tea in her rush to get to the dig site. The dig site was off a dirt road, out of Albuquerque city limits by about 10 miles. The site was once a canned food company that was demolished about 12 years before. The site was picked by Lara after months of wafting through documents about the Strogg-Humanoid war and was by consultations of 100's of scholars studying about the civilization. As Lara rode to the site, she recalled the circumstances by which she came to learning about the Stroggs. She recalled the events of two years ago:
Lara groaned. She was asked yet for what seemed to be the 100th if she wanted an hor'duerve, and frankly she thought it to be a pain in the ass to be asked minute after minute. She didn't like the tight dress she had to rent for this gathering, as it was too formal an outfit for her taste. However, it was the only way she could meet Max Isis, millionaire and chairman of the board of the Smithsonian Insitution. She had to get in good with the board to raise money for her next excursion to Tanzania to explore ancient tribal ruins. She was focused on one goal. And that was to meet him. She scanned the crowd of hob-knobbers and billionaires to find Mr. Isis. She gazed upon the buffet table, upon which expensive and stylish entrees and wine were spread out upon and the walls upon which originals of timeless classic paintings were decked. The huge mansion and aristocratic atmosphere was enough to make her sick to her stomach. She gazed down yet again at the picture of Mr. Isis. He looked rather charming, and was in good form for a man his age. He had gray hair, which he flaunted exceedingly, perhaps as an obvious indicator of his age and supposed wiseness. He had the look of an aristocrat. He had a conspiciously round chin, which seemed to fly above the ground as the most prominent feature of his. His eyes looked into the camera lens confidently, not blinking or squinting, and his lips arched to form a clearly fabricated smile that said nothing to the viewer. "Dammit..." she thought. "Where is the bloke...?" Immediately after her thought, she felt a light tapping on her shoulder.
She looked behind her, and was surprised. She saw the man in the picture, true to form and looking like the mirror image of the still, two-dimensional version of himself, complete with tuxedo. She looked down upon the short man as he spoke: "Lara Croft... archaeologist and adventurer extraordinaire, aren't you? Otherwise I do hate to make such humble acquaintence of such a beaming young woman..." Lara eked out a smile. "Aritocratic language..." she thought. "Incomprehensible and cheesy..." She spoke:"I do believe you have it quite right. And you are..." Mr. Isis rudely interjected: "...Max Isis...." he continued for Lara, taking her hand and meeting it with his lip. Lara cringed inside and thought: "Who says this upper-classmen are refined and mannered. I must remind myself to clean my hand... there is truly no telling where his lips have been. She continued. "Mr. Isis.... I have a current project going on..." Again, Mr. Isis rudely interjected: "As do I... Ms. Croft. I am investigating the ancient Strogg civilization.... a civilization not only spanning history but also the future... Because, as you should know, history has several planes, according to each dimension...." Lara thought to herself again, "This fellow seems to be more suited towards a comic book convention rather than an archaelogical dig...." She began listening to him again: "Of course, though I do have the money, I have not the strength to organize my own archaelogical dig.. I must have someone head the committee for my venture. "Ah..." Lara thought. "Funding a venture, taking all the credit, all without getting your hands dirty. Is that the way he plays it?" Lara was not buying into Mr. Isis's 'venture'. "Of course... I understand that this venture will be a serious undertaking for anyone who decides to man this operation. As a result, I am offering to the person that successfully heads the dig and brings to me the remnants of this inter-dimensional civilization, free travel on Worldwide Isis Air, and any amount of money for this person's future archaelogical ventures.... for life." Lara's eyes went still at this sentence. Never to worry about money for an archaelogical venture for life. This was quite a prospect. As inane as her suitor's venture was, Lara simply could not fathom not accepting such an offer. In a few seconds, she had her scheme all planned out. She would organize this dig, fake the work for about a year, and give him some old artifacts from her collection. He wouldn't notice the difference. And she would collect her reward. And quite a reward it was. She accepted the offer, and shook the man's hand. This would be the easiest scheme she had thought.
As the months progressed and she was given more authentic government documents and recordings, she began to be more absorbed in the work. She began spending many sleepless nights, trying to decipher recordings and documents. What unraveled was a complex story of an ancient civilization of beings, part human, part machine, that existed during the BC era, in the Americas. Yet not in the Americas on this earth, but the Americas of another dimension. An 'alternate' earth. There was apparently some kind of clash between the two factions of human and Strogg, and civilization was decimated, paving way to our dimension, which she termed the 'Light' dimension, a less advanced civilization to come into existence through the great catacylsmic events that happened between the humans and the Strogg. She began to realize through the workdays that the Strogg probably did indeed exist, and that they were beckoning to have their stories told. While the whole story was quite cryptic, she believed that the Strogg were the key to understanding of very existence on Earth. She eventually organized a dig in New Mexico, where it was believed that the Strogg dimensional 'gateway' was.
That brings us to the present. Lara stepped off her bike. She quickly grabbed her satchel from her cycle basket, and slung it over her shoulder. She ran over to the excavation that they had made and quickly descended the ladder. What she saw shocked her. She saw her team of archaelogist gathered in a group. They were silent and unmoving, save for the ones that were trembling slightly. She ran over to the tallest man of group, who was Johnson. "Johnson..." she began. "What's happening." Not receiving a response, Lara stepped out in front of him. Johnson had his pith hat in his opened right palm. "Johnson..." Lara repeated. "What's happening..." After a few moments Johnson blurted out a response. "Th..th..th.... th.... gate..way... i-i-i-issss open.... It... s-s-sucked in Thomas.." he stammered. Thomas was the youngest of the dig crew. He was just earning his degree in paleontology, and was only 2 credits away from receiving it. "What do you mean.." Lara asked, slowly speaking each word so as to address her apparently shell-shocked colleague. All she received was a shake of a head and the burial of the head into the helmet, and a flood of tears gradually emptying out of the archaelogist into his helmet. Lara turned her head away from her stunned colleague, and looked to the artifact. It protruded out of the ground and was slightly slanted. It seemed to be etched out of some kind of metal and had odd symbols on it that seemed to be a cross of Arabic and Western American lettering. Eminating from it was some kind of strange, florescent light. The adventurer took a deep breath and ran towards the artifact. She intended to find out what happened to Thomas... and what this was all about. She went in front of the oval archway and took a step into the radiant glow that originated from it.
II
For a moment, Lara felt like cotton was all around her. She was blinded by a flash of light, and then she was thrust forward into empty space. She got up, not knowing from what she rose from nor where she was or how long she was there. She shook off a dizzy spell and proceeding to examine her surroundings, confused as to where she was. She looked into front of her to see a broken window. Gazing behind her she saw a massive object that eerily resembled a coffin, except it was made of metal, and had the US Flag painted upon it, as well as a serial number of some kind. She then gunfire in the distance. Then a human scream resounded in her ear. Slightly frightened, but more curious she ran over to the sound of the scream. She heard some talking in a non-comprehensible language. As a precaution, Lara drew her trusty pistols out. Without warning, a human-like figure stepped out of the shadows. It fired some type of laser blast at her direcion. Re-acting, she immediately pulled the triggers on her pistols. However, she was not swift enough to dodge the projectile that came hurtling her way. The last image she remembered was the yellow beam shooting at her with unbelievable speed.
Lara awoke feeling slightly groggy. She felt a liquid dripping upon her forehead. She groaned as she felt her head pounding. She saw someone... or something... stepping out of the shadows. She tried to reach for her pistols, but she found that her gunbelt was not there. She tried to get up, but her body was limp. Lara could only hope that the figure that beset her was friend, not foe. A hand came down upon her. It felt her forehead. The figure's head then came unmasked from the shadows. It looked human, but barely. It seemed to talk:"You O.K?" the figure said in plain English. Lara did not answer, still in shock from the appearance of her apparent host. He continued: "I'm Sergeant Peters, Earth Defense Force, but my friends would call me 'Pep'.... if they were still around." The figure stepped back into the shadows. Lara was still mystified by her host. "I don't know where you're from, but you look human. More than me anyway. I've been on this damn planet for almost a year now and I think I'm becoming more like these Strogg S.O.B.'s I'm fighting more than I know. You're probably from Earth... at least the pictures I seen of it before this freakin' war. "War...?" Lara eked out of her weak mouth. The hunched figure in uniform stepped out of the shadows again, looking at Lara in the eyes. He pulled out something from his first right breast pocket: a wallet. He showed her some pictures. "This is me when I first joined the EDF." he said. Lara saw a spritely young man in the picture, clean shaven and fair skinned, with a neatly pressed uniform. He flipped the picture. "This is my wife and kids. The one all the way to the left is Jane. We call her Janey, for short. The one in the middle is Karen. She's my second born. Now, the one to the right is Brian. He's my first born. He always feels left out, being the only boy in the family and all. The pretty lady's my wife of 9 year's and counting, Willow." Lara gazed upon the plain brunette in the picture. "You don't know about the war do you?" he said. "Well, seing's as I haven't talked to a human being for quite a while, I'll tell ya."
The tale the soldier told was horrible. The Strogg civilization coming into contact with the humans. The humans welcoming the Strogg with open arms. And the Strogg people responding by capturing and assimilating the parts of the humans to create more of their own man/machine hybrids, expanding their empire. He told the tales of the air strikes, and how every strike was foiled by the technologically advanced Strogg every time, causing many a good soldier to be passed. He told the tales of the ground strikes and the unspeakableness that was done upon the POWs. He told of the families being seperated and the last air raid that was intercepted, and how he was one of the few to survive and yet how he wished that he didn't.
After the story, which took possibly hours to tell was done, Lara still lay on the ground in the small enclosure in the ground, limp. She shed tears for the sad stories the soldier had told. "Well, that's about it." the soldier concluded. "So, what's your..." The solider was interrupted by the sound of gunfire. He grabbed his rifle from the ground and tossed Lara's gunbelt to her. "Watch your back!" the soldier yelled as he rose out of the trench. He yelled out, "You want some, you Strogg bastards???? Taste this!!!" Lara heard gunfire exchange for several minutes and the battle cries of the soldier. She then she heard from the her host a slight gasp and some muttering: "You dumb mu-th..." The soldier then came crashing down onto the floor, beside Lara. They had got him. After looking over the fallen soldier for a few moments, Lara turned her head to the noise being made overhead. She heard some odd sounds and footsteps from above. Within moments, several Strogg troopers swarmed the hole. Lara was unable to grab her guns, much less struggle with her apparent captors. She closed her eyes as the troopers jumped into the hole....
"Stat... she's back. Good job people." Sounds of beeping resounded in Lara's ear. She opened her eyes to see Johnson hunched over to see her. "Morning Lara. It seems you took a mighty wild ride falling off your motorcyle." "Huh?.." Lara began. "Uh-uh, Lara. No straining yourself now. Doctor's orders. That includes talking. Someone else wants to see you now." As Johnson stepped aside, Lara saw Mr. Isis at her bedside. "Good job Ms. Croft. I see you found that artifact. You will get what you were promised. "Where's Thomas?" Lara demanded. "Thomas is just fine." the man assured her. "He's in the room next to this one. Took a nasty fall you know." "Why do you care about that artifact so much?" Lara demanded again. "And why do you seem to want to cover up what happened at the dig site?" "I deal in secrets Lara. Government secrets. As a defense contractor, secrets are part of my job. As a matter of fact, secrets are what my business is made of." he responded. "Yeah, and lies." snapped Lara. "That artifact is meaningless to a museum. Why do you think I'm head of the Smithsonian when I don't know jack shit about the difference between King Tut and King Richard III? It just reveals more than the people need to know.... That's all. We're keeping the public safe. You take a rest now. And remember: if it didn't happen, no one will believe you. And what seemed to happen to you didn't happen." The millionaire parted with Lara with another kiss of the hand, and promptly left. In light of the strange events, there was only one question on Lara's mind: Where was the artifact?"
A Warehouse in Alaska, 3:00 PM.
"Number?" the security guard asked the driver. "1938485A" responded the driver. "Another artifact, huh? Well, at least Uncle Sam keeps the kids in college and the meat on the table, I'm happy. Put it in Sector L, Space 124" said the security. "Amen..." responded the driver, who pressed his foot on the table and drove to the designated spot. Just another day....