"Test Associate, are you ready to start the procedure?" The Announcer System cheerfully asked. "Yes," the Test Associate answered. "Test Subjects, are you ready to start the procedure?" The Announcer asked, directing the question to the three test subjects strapped into their chairs. "Yes," said the man with a gravelly voice, "I'm ready for this adventure!" He shuffled in his chair, teeming with excitement. The man next to him nodded. "Yes," he replied. The Test Associate nodded, and looked at the third man. The third man shook, not with excitement, but fear. "What if this hurts?" He said. "What if this doesn't work? What if I can't go back if something fails? What-" The Test Associate walked over to the young man and put a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be okay," she told him. "If anything goes wrong, we'll do our damned best to get things back to working condition, including you." The young man nodded. "Yes, then," he said.

"Good. Please take a moment to rehearse your purpose and name, so that they are correctly transferred over." The Announcer said. The first man called out "Rick! For adventure!" The second was more calm, simply stating "Craig; facts." The third shivered. "Kevin, astronomy." "Good. Remember to repeat this in your head as the procedure is performed. Test Associate, please begin the transfer procedure," The Announcer chirped. With that, the Test Associate walked away to join up with the other scientists, and pushed the pedestal button at the edge of the room. The room shook, and lights began to flicker. Cables swung from side to side and contents on shelves began to jostle. As the shaking became more violent, the scientists began to murmur amongst themselves, some showing fear across their faces.

Kevin looked over at the scientists, and focused on one face: the Test Associates. She was calm, relaxed; she showed no signs of fear, which calmed Kevin down. He closed his eyes and turned his head back forward, and repeated his name and purpose in his head.

Kevin, astronomy.

"Warning: Consciousness Transfer Computer CPU overheating," the Announcer cried.

Kevin, astronomy.

"Warning: Power loss imminent, Redirecting power to Consciousness Transfer Room."

Kevin, astronomy.

"Power failure imminent. Please stop the procedure and evacuate immediately."

And with that, Kevin blacked out. Slowly regaining consciousness, Kevin looked around as best as he could. Some scientists surrounded him, taking notes. Kevin blinked, and looked up at the lady in front of him. "Hello!" He chirped. "Did it, did it work?" She nodded. "So far, yes." Her and the other scientists took a step back. "What's your name?" She asked. "Uh…" Kevin screwed his eyes shut. A second later, they flew open. "Kevin!" They wrote something on their clipboards. "Good. What's your purpose?" Kevin tilted his head a tad, and then said "Astronomy?" She nodded. "Yes! So it worked properly?" Kevin asked. He then noticed the info running across his eyes. "Woah, wait, what's all this text and stuff I see? It moves when I move…" The scientists stepped closer. "That's your HUD, Kevin. That shows you your battery level, time, date, and much more." "Woah, that's so cool!" He said. He rotated in his assembly for a bit, sputtering words of amazement as the HUD moved with him. He then focused back onto the scientists. "I feel like you guys did an amazing job! I feel really good! Like, no pain, no fear, nothing! Just, happiness! Giddiness? I don't know the right word to use," he said. "Wait, how did the other two do? Um, Craig and Rick?"

The lady, who Kevin now remembered as the Test Associate, shook her head. "Rick did very well. He's still on and on about adventures, though I think the transfer might have accidentally exaggerated that part of him. Craig…." She trailed off. Kevin's eye aperture tightened. "He didn't die, did he?!" He cried. She looked back up at him. "No, thank goodness. However, he did corrupt… now all he says are unfactual facts, if that makes any sense." "So… so he won't remember me? I liked him…" The Test Associate patted his top plate. "We're working on it, Kevin. Give us some time, and he'll be himself again." Kevin nodded. "Yes, ma'am!" "For now, though, we're going to be attaching you to the management rail. Go ahead, ride around the facility for a little while. We'll let you know when we need you," the Test Associate said. She picked him up by his handles (which he found really weird and frightening), and lifted him up to the metal beam above her. He felt himself smack into the rail, and new processes activated. She let him go, and for a split second, he screamed. Then he looked down, and saw he wasn't falling. Looking in an upwards direction, he saw the rail. "Huh."

Kevin spun around, rotated his different assemblies, messed around with his eye assembly; basically just testing his new features. "Wow, this… it's amazing! Like I said, it's so cool and such an amazing experience! Sorry for the constant use of 'amazing', but I'm not very good with words, and that's the best one I can think of." The Test Associate nodded. "I'm glad you're liking this so far! Before you go, though," she started. Kevin looked at her. "Forget something that I need to do?" He asked. She nodded. "Do you remember anything from your human life? Like, family and whatnot?" Kevin took a second to plunder through his memory bank, twitching with reactions to each one. "Yeah, I remember my job here, the testing I had to go through to be eligible for this project." He shook himself. "And my 17th birthday was a few months ago," he ended.

The Test Associate nodded. "Good," she replied. Kevin once again spun around on the rail. "Well, I should get going? Do you think I'll run into Rick?" He asked. The Test Associate nodded. "He took off a little while ago. You'll most definitely run into him. Just listen for his 'danger music'," she said with a laugh. Kevin laughed as well. "Will do!" And with that, and after some testing of how to use the management rail, he left the room to explore the facility.

Space Core woke up to more of Wheatley's rambling about how sorry he was. "SPAAACCCEEE!" Space Core interrupted. "Yup, still in space, mate," Wheatley said, returning to his rambles. Space Core shook his eye assembly. It's been so long since they left Aperture and ended up in space, and Wheatley never stopped. Rick was spinning somewhere off in the distance as well. "Ginger, if you don't shut up, I will punch-kick you into the, uh, the sun!" He snarled. "Try to reach me, then," Wheatley snapped. Rick rolled his eye. "We're all getting annoyed with your sappiness, ain't that right Space?" He asked. "SPPPAAAACCEEE!" Space Core replied. "See, even Space Boy agrees with me," Rick told Wheatley. Wheatley acted like he never said anything, and continued practicing his apology.

"Meteor!" Space Core cried. "Well, at least you've said something other than 'space' or 'space cops', mate," Wheatley called out, and once again continued his ranting. Rick's eye opened wide. "Uh, Ginger, he literally means meteor," he said as his aperture shrunk. "Well yeah, meteors and uh, stars, and other, space objects are in space. I'm not a moron," Wheatley refuted. "METEOR!" Space Core cried out with much more urgency. "GINGER!" Rick bellowed. "What?!" Wheatley snapped. He rotated around best as he could to Rick. "Look mate-" He saw the fear in Rick's posture. Flipping around to where Rick was looking, he could see why he was scared. "Oh, bollocks…." Wheatley whispered as the meteor closed in on them. All of them started screaming, which from an outside perspective, looked absolutely hilarious considering sound doesn't travel in space. But to the cores, it wasn't funny: it was terrifying. As soon as that meteor struck them, they could all die.

The meteor missed Space Core, but he was caught in it's trail, thus bringing Space Core with it. Wheatley got a solid smack from it, but wasn't killed. A lot of his systems were damaged, and his HUD was flashing rapidly indicating this damage. Rick was missed as well, but just like Space Core, was dragged into its trail. Very rapidly, they fell through Earth's atmosphere. Wheatley was taking the brunt of the heat, and once again his HUD was flashing all sorts of warnings. Space Core and Rick didn't really have that kind of issue, sitting behind the meteor, but they were just as terrified.

The cores were each given a message from the Announcer System: "Warning: terminal velocity reached. Rapid descent to Earth has been detected. Attempting to contact Central Core." "No no no no!" Wheatley cried. "Error: unable to connect to an Aperture Science Network. Descent data and geographic location will be sent to the Central Core once connected to an Aperture Science Network," the Announcer said.

A little while later, the Announcer made another message: "Warning: impact with Earth in 10 seconds. Attempting to slow down via Aperture Science Rapid Descent Slowdown Thrusters. Error: Access to Aperture Science Rapid Descent Slowdown Thrusters denied. Please contact an Administration Associate to gain the required permissions."

Impact.

A/N: Yes, I'm a dick. You get a cliffhanger, and you get a cliffhanger! I 100% did it on purpose, cause I'm such a bad girl :). And also cause I wanna see if this manages to hook people in. I have huge plans for this story. While I have been writing for a few years now, this is only my second published work (I deleted my first; a rewrite for World Portals is planned), so feedback is uber appreciated! Thanks for reading this far, if you did! I don't plan on adding Author's Notes at the end of each chapter, as I feel like taking up a few paragraphs for these notes is unnecessary. Like I said, thanks for reading, and I'll be getting the second chapter up soon!