The Life Of A Turret (Portal)

Part 5- Failure

This next test chamber clearly bigger than the last one. It has another one of those small buttons on a stand which makes a Weighted Storage Cube drop out of a tube. That tube is vertically aligned with a white painted platform. Just beside the button on a stand is a large button which is on the floor. There is also another white painted platform at a spot on the floor, but that's it.

I am at an elevated spot in the room that is near the buttons. I am with another turret, and we are both facing the circular door which is northwest of us.

I hear the sound of the door opening, a few footsteps, and then I see an orange portal appear on the white surface on the floor. And that's when I see the test subject.

The test subject is a female this time. She wears the same orange jumpsuit as the one in the last test chamber. It must be some kind of uniform that they wear. I also see printed on the jumpsuit: "Aperture Science Enrichment Center". It was the same thing I saw on a wall when I was still being constructed. Is this what the so called 'Enrichment Center' does? Put people through deadly tests then have them die without honor? And even if they do complete all of these? What do they get as an award? Do they even get one?

But anyway, the test subject looks at our direction and fires her portal gun at our spot. The surface behind me must be white because she appears next to me and snatches the other turret with her portal gun. Looks like the gun is also capable of carrying objects.

So, I open my sides but I only manage to hit her with two rounds, both in the shoulder. She seems to be in pain, but she still keeps on going. She disappears into her portal while still carrying the other turret.

"Please put me down," the other turret says in a soft and polite tone. Not really the perfect tone to use when someone carries you around with a portal gun. She is in my line of sight, but I can't shoot her because my sides can't really turn around that much. I can only fire at the places near the circular door and the big button.

She then places the turret on the ground and kicks him over causing the turret to fire around wildly, hitting nothing but the wall. His sides close and he says, "Critical error,"
The red from his eyes disappear and he just lays on his side, not doing anything.

The test subject then does some other things; placing portals and pushing buttons. I don't pay much attention since the only thing I need to do is shoot her.

She manages to get her hands on a Weighted Storage Cube. She looks at my place first, then to the large button on the floor. She takes a deep breath and runs toward it.

She places the cube on the button quickly and goes out of my firing range again. The circular door opens, revealing the exit. Then, she gets the turret and runs quickly. She runs for the exit and goes through a thin, transparent, blue forcefield-like wall at the door. When she passes through, only the turret dissolves into ashes and lets out what I guess to be a scream of pain.

"Owowowowowowowowowow!"

It doesn't look like much, but it makes me a bit sad to see one of us die.

Only then do I try and shoot her. "Target acquired," I say. I fire a few rounds but she is gone and the door closes behind her. I hear the female voice again. She congratulates the test subject on finishing this test chamber and told her something about a surprise she was going to give her or something like that. I didn't really give much attention to what she was saying.

That was the first time I failed to do what I had to do. I feel disappointed at myself for failing. I had one job. And that was to shoot people. That doesn't seem hard. It was what I was made to do. But I still failed at it.

Ever since then, I would not accept failure. I became more aggressive. I fired my bullets at test subjects relentlessly, even if the test subject was behind a wall of bulletproof glass. After a while, well, I don't mean to brag but, I personally think that I got really good at my job.

And my job was to kill people.