[ WP ] It 's the year 3000 . Half-Life 3 is finally released .

It's the big day. I've finally done it. Every late-night spent in the lab. Every day out in the blistering heat, searching through ancient buildings. 
 
 Four years ago, my team went on an expedition to investigate the ruins of the ancient city of Bellevue. We did a quick overview of the ruins on the old repulsor-jet platform we rented, and one of my students spotted a glimmer in the distance. 
 `` Let's check that out'' 
 `` Alright, but it's probably just a piece of glass.'' 
 And sure enough it was. But it seemed like a good enough area to start a dig, and so I had a student pull out the HHGPRs ( Hand Heald Ground Penetrating Radars ). I started a methodical scan, instructing everyone to designate a 10x10 meter area to sweep. The scanning took about half an hour, and the sun beat down on our backs, but it was worth it. I plugged each scanner into a USB-1246.0 on the small black box I produced from my pocket, and tapped a grey circle on one of the sides. `` Initializing'', the familiar female voice said. The holo-terminal popped itself into existence in the air above tha plastic box, and it began to piece together the scans. A large set of letters could be seen in the bottom left corner. I quickly translated them: VALVe. 
 `` This could be an ancient old industrial building, like the Dark Matter reactor they just finished in New New Old Old New Old Old New New New York.'' 
 `` Fascinating'' 
 We unloaded the Plasma-Arc Excavator, and instructed it to vaporize all dirt in a ten meter radius for two meters down. Everyone stepped back, and the device whirred into action. 
 Once the excavator had produced a cilindrical hole, we shut it off, and went in with brushes. I recovered a barely intact silver disc. It had writing on it, in the ancient script: HALF LIFE 3. I thought nothing of it at the time, hardly realizing I had just made the most significant archaeological discovery of the 30th century. 
 
 After 4 years of hard work painstakingly pieceing together the code, on this night, I finally run the file. I boot the `` Windows 12'' emulator on a University computer, and cross my fingers. I tap twice on HALFLIFE3.exe. It boots up. The loading screen opens `` SOURCE 2''. I make it to the menu. 
 `` Welcome to the closed beta of Half Life 3. We've been working very hard, and I think our testers will like this version''... 

