Mama Robotnik
Member
Hi GAF.
This thread was intended to be a small post in the Portal 2 Spoiler Discussion thread but over the last few hours it got a bit out of hand. As its grown to nearly 3000 words long, I felt that a new thread would be appropriate.
Suffice to say, theres a billion spoilers for the Portal franchise in here.
Since completing Portal 2 Ive been left with a lot of unanswered questions, and some very contradictory information to try and answer them with. If you combine Portal 1, Portal 2, the ARGs and various information given in interviews and on websites, so much has been retconned and overwritten that if you try and consolidate it, it just doesnt make any sense anymore.
As the amazing Half-Life Saga Story Guide does not yet include the events of Portal 2, this thread is my personal attempt to unify the events that precede the series. Ive done this by:
-Using information from the games, Portal and Portal 2, and the Half-Life series where appropriate.
-Ignoring all information from the ARGs and interviews, which seem to massively contradict the story of Portal 2.
-Tried to fill in any gaps by looking at parallel real-world events (such as the World Wars and the Cold War)
-Finally a bit of guesswork, hypothesising, filling gaps and trying to connect events together with little-to-no evidence in a way that makes sense.
Ive done this to try and answer the following questions, which have been bugging me from completion:
-Where are the human test subjects from?
-Why are the remains of Test Shaft 09 navigable with a Portal gun, with random portal surfaces in unfeasibly convenient locations?
-How did Aperture go from bankruptcy in the early 80s, to funding the expensive modern enrichment centre with its own on-site nuclear reactor?
-Where did the gels come from?
Im after feedback really first of all, any contradictions or factual errors with the events of the games, or any theories how other story gaps can be filled.
Mama Robotniks attempt at a pre-Portal timeline
1914 - The first World War begins.
1915 - Cave Johnson is born during the first World War - the propaganda and gung-ho events surrounding his early childhood impact his attitude towards life.
1918 - The first World War ends.
1928 - Parts of The Great Depression begin.
1933 - The Great Depression ends.
1933 - As America comes out of the Great Depression, there is increased demand for indoor plumbing and showers, both privately and for business and military interests. Cave Johnson correctly assumes the Shower Curtain business will explode, and founds a company to cover this colossal hole in the market. As an inside joke and to reference the blatant business hole only he had the foresight to notice, he names the company "Aperture Fixtures".
1934 - As the only one ready for the surge in demand for Shower Curtains, Cave Johnson becomes a multi-millionaire within a year.
1937 - Aperture Fixtures is the dominant shower curtain company, securing contracts across the globe. Determined to be one step ahead of the competition, Cave advertises highly-paid postions for scientists to continue innovating in the field of shower curtain development. Cave gives them carte blanche in their projects, as long as they can somehow be related to shower curtain development. A significant number of biologists, chemists, and theoretical physicists are employed in the first Aperture Fixtures laboratory. Many of them accept positions because they know that if they can flimsily connect their theories to shower curtains in some way, they will be generously funded.
1939 - The second world war begins in Europe. Cave Johnson continues his business, becoming Shower Curtain Salesman of the Year.
1941 - America joins the allies in World War 2. As the Allied forces need shower curtains, Aperture Fixtures become their primary supplier. Due to the US Government not wanting to meddle with their vital shower curtain supplier, they do not conscript the Aperture scientists into the war effort.
1943 - The Aperture Fixtures scientists invent the Aperture Science Portable Quantum Tunneling Device, while apparently trying to establish an efficient way of installing shower curtains through the use of a wormhole. Cave Johnson invites officials from the US Government to witness the device, who are impressed and can see its potential for the war effort. Several billion dollars are funnelled away from the war effort and into Aperture Fixtures, under the agreement that Aperture will test and refine the device.
At this time, Aperture Scientists theorise that there could be new elements with cosmic spallation properties deep in the Earth, and convince Cave that such elements could make completely new types of shower curtains.
1944 - Cave Johnson realises that as World War 2 comes to an end, the shower curtain and indoor plumbing businesses will no longer be the booming business it once was. The world be busy recovering and have other priorities over purchasing curtains for their new shower. He renames Aperture Fixtures to Aperture Science Innovators. With US Government help, he purchase a Salt Mine in Upper Michigan, and drafts out plans with his teams of scientists for an elite underground testing facility. Production of shower curtains ensures a continuous source of income.
1945 - The Second World War comes to an end. The US Government begins to have concerns about Cave Johnsons scientific approaches. A number of military scientists leave the military and form their own company called Black Mesa.
1947 - Construction of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center is well underway. As theorised by the Aperture Scientists, fields of cosmic elements exist deep underground, and have reacted to their surroundings forming underground lakes of acid. Cave Johnson orders the mining of these elements as the enrichment centre is constructed. Aperture wins the Best New Science Company award from the Science and Business Institute of America.
1948 - Aperture Scientists invent the first Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid by conducting an electrical current through minute traces of cosmic elements. Through fine-tuning the current, these grids can be used to collapse specific matter formations.
1949 - Black Mesas methodological and patient approach to science impresses the US Government who are starting to feel that Cave Johnson is a loose cannon. Significant amounts of funding are pumped into Black Mesa. Aperture Science Innovators earns the #2 position among the Top 100 Applied Science Companies by the Mechanical Engineering World Journal, behind Black Mesa.
1950 - Aperture Scientists refine the cosmic elements into Repulsion Gel. Also, experiments involving DNA splicing, time-travel, nanotechnology and matter-transformation begin. The foundations for the nine underground test shafts are laid, and contruction of the testing spheres begins.
1952 - Aperture Science is the Runner Up for the US Department of Defense's Contractor of the Year award. Feeling that he needs to recover the market dominance he had during the shower curtain golden-age, Cave orders a releasable, useful product be ready for next year. Cave has the idea of a dietetic dessert and orders his scientists to refine the Gel into this.
1953 - Cave Johnson releases Repulsion Gel as a Dietetic dessert. Due to little-to-no testing of the product, many customers die within moments of ingestion, and cause serious injuries to their friends and families through rapidly-ejected food. Forced to undergo an embarrassing series of senate hearings, Cave Johnson commits to thoroughly testing each product before release.
Aperture Scientists use nanobots to mass convert the cosmic elements into Repulsion Gel. Pump Station Alpha is constructed to pump the gel to where it is needed in the testing spheres.
1954 - Aperture Science is the Runner Up for the US Department of Defense's Contractor of the Year award again.
1955 - Aperture Science receives the Spirit of Idaho National Potato Board award for the promotion of Potato Science. Cave Johnson employs a series of officers to enlist the intellectual and athletic elite, who are paid generously to become test subjects.
1956 - The first testing spheres and reception facilities are complete. For the next few years testing takes place, while further testing spheres are constructed. In Test Shaft 09, most experiments involve the Aperture Science Portable Quantum Tunneling Device and repulsion gel. Many people are killed or mutated in these tests.
1960 - Aperture Scientists discover that by applying more modern nanobot technology to the underground cosmic elements, they can create a new king of gel.
1961 The test shafts are sealed off from the rest of the salt-mine with numerous DANGER warnings to keep intruders from accessing the cosmic elements , to avoid contamination of experiment results, reduce industrial espionage and to avoid failed DNA splicing experiments from escaping into the caves. The construction equipment is left at the bottom of the mine, as it is too costly and damaged to recover. Access to each of the testing shafts is maintained through a network of elevators.
1962 - Aperture Scientists refine Propulsion Gel, and inject nanobots into a vein of underground cosmic elements to create a supply to be pumped. Cave Johnson authorises the creation of new testing spheres and facilities with more modern observation and recording equipment.
1965 - Aperture beings enlisting former astronauts for their tests.
1966 - While constructing newer testing facilities higher in the testing shafts, the mining team discovers an underground river leading through a long series of caves out to sea. Cave Johnson has the idea for the Borealis.
1968 - With so many people missing and killed in Apertures tests, including a substantial number of astronauts, a series of Senate hearings takes place. Due to the excessive clauses in the contracts signed by test participants, Cave Johnson and Aperture are not held accountable but use a significant portion of company funds to defend themselves. Several scientists jump ship to Black Mesa. Finally, rival companies release several products that Aperture were still refining. Government funding collapses, and increased competition in the shower curtain industry is significantly reducing curtain sales as a source of additional income.
1970 - The new testing spheres are nearing completion, and a drydock is constructed in a highly restricted part of the Aperture facility.
1971 - The propulsion gel testing facility is completed and opened. No longer having the funds to enlist elite test participants, Aperture enlists homeless people as testing subjects. Many die during testing.
Construction of The Borealis begins.
1975 - Apertures scientists propose that Moon Rocks could have similar cosmic properties to the materials found beneath the salt mine, and Cave pays the US Government at least seventy million dollars to recover these rocks during their various moon landings.
1976 - The Borealis is complete, and a highly restricted experiment takes place on it.
1977 - The Borealis vanishes from its drydock, with all of its crew and scientific equipment on board. The loss of a high number of Apertures best scientists and staff is a significant resource problem for the company, and potential candidates for employement are choosing to take jobs with Black Mesa instead of Aperture.
1978 - Due to limited staff, Cave Johnson helps in moving the Moon Rocks to the underground testing chambers, and inhales a significant amount of moon dust.
The remaining scientists discover that the acquired Moon Rocks can be dissolved by nanobots into a portal-conducting gel. Cave Johnsons authorises the construction of further testing spheres.
1979 - Cave Johnsons health begins to decline dramatically. Apertures remaining scientists begin to construct crude human-form robots and early artificial intelligences.
1980 - At least one artificial intelligence rebels against its programming and has to be destroyed using a logical paradox, leading to all staff being trained in paradox use.
Cave Johnson, admiring the rebel AI fighting against the world, orders his scientists and robots to investigate transferring human consciousness into a computer.
1981 - The conversion gel testing spheres are completed, and the company is rapidly approaching bankruptcy. Cave Johnson conscripts his own employees as test subjects, and many die, leaving the facility with a skeleton staff of scientists and human-form robots. In one of his final recordings, Cave orders that his assistant Caroline be given control of the company when he dies. Cave also orders that Caroline be forced into a computer so she can live forever and protect his legacy. A significant number of Aperture human-form robot staff receive this order.
1983 - On his deathbed, Cave Johnson orders a Girls of Aperture Science calendar produced.
Cave Johnson dies as a result of moon rock dust poisoning.
The scientists and robots attempt to transition Cave Johnsons consciousness into a computer but the process fails, instead only preserving Caves aggressive approach to scientific discovery and focus on continuous human testing. These traits are stored in the Aperture mainframe, but due to its limited process power, they cannot be acted upon.
1984 - The scientists and robots complete process that will transfer a human consciousness into a computer. The robots programming to obey Cave Johnson kicks in, and they follow his last order to the letter. Caroline is forced to transition her consciousness into a machine, killing her body. The computers limited processing power is unable to manifest this consciousness and Caroline remains dormant. Watching this murder with horror, Apertures remaining scientists call for outside help to destroy the robots and the US military are called in.
1985 - Aperture Science goes bankrupt, and are being investigated by the US military and government.
During the bankruptcy and investigation process, a team of external executives is brought in to assess the company, its technologies and potential. They discover that Aperture was horribly mismanaged, its impressive scientific breakthroughs mismarketed (ie Dietetic pudding), and its strengths such as the Emancipation Grids and Quantum Tunnelling Devices, were misused in purposeless tests rather than refined and applied in military and commercial use.
The new team of Aperture executives present the potential of these devices to the US Government, which had long written off Aperture Science as a lost cause and relegated written reports of the Quantum Tunnelling Device to exaggerated myths.
The Aperture Executives consider the current Cold War and propose that the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid has the potential to be a device that could instantly disarm Soviet spies. The Quantum Tunnelling Gun is proposed as a versatile espionage device.
The US Government is convinced by these arguments and awards the new Aperture Executive team billions of dollars to build suitable testing facilities free of Cave Johnsons cowboy approaches.
Construction of a modern Aperture Science Enrichment Centre begins on top of of the old facility. Using data recovered from the old Aperture Computers, the nanobots from the 1950s are rebuilt using advanced 1980s technology, and are formed into artificially intelligent workcrews that make construction an efficient and organised process. The construction work includes a on-site Nuclear Reactor.
1988 - While the nanobots construct the new Aperture facility, a gel-tube leaks and repulsion gel spreads over a large number of nanobots, causing them to destroy a significant part of the construction site and the new testing chambers. Aperture executives order that until the new Aperture Science Enrichment Centre is complete, all the gels must be sealed in the old testing shafts. A number of nanobots are also accidentally trapped behind the seal in Test Shaft 09 and, resorting to their base programming of constructing portal-surface test chambers, fly through the entire Test Shaft ensuring that it can be successfully navigated by anyone with a Quantum Tunnelling Device.
1990 - Aperture Science begins to employ academic and military scientists, many of whom have been unable to get jobs at Black Mesa. They bring with them numerous ideas of projectile launchers, anti-gravity technology, artificial intelligences and laser technologies. They are allowed access to the Aperture Mainframe to combine their ideas with Apertures historical approaches to these technologies.
As the cold war ends, so does the surge in government funding. Aperture bids for various projects, but only receives minimal funding compared to Black Mesa.
1993 - The new Aperture scientists propose schematics for Aerial Faith Plates, Hard Light Bridges and other testing equipment which is programmed into the nanobots to include in the test chambers. Seeing the testing potential of the gels, the scientists program the nanobots to include transport and dispension tubes to feed the gels into designated testing chambers when the material seal is lifted.
To secure further military funding, Aperture begins to manufacture and refine an efficient neurotoxin and mass produce military turrets and a limited number of robots.
1995 - Construction of the new Aperture Science Enrichment Centre is completed. Testing begins with recruited test subjects.
It is soon apparent that a new computer system is needed to manage the Enrichment Centre. The Aperture Scientists begin construction of a modern mainframe that will manage all testing and essential Enrichment Centre functions. The aim is for an artificial intelligence that can quickly respond to any situation presented to it. The scientists also include a subroutine that rewards the AI with a simulated pleasure-response upon completion of a test as an efficiency tool.
1996 - The AI is nearing completion. In one of the final stages of development, the scientists feed the old Aperture Mainframe into the supercomputer just before activation, copying Cave Johnsons remnant personality traits (aggressive scientific discovery, continuous testing no matter the moral concerns) and Carolines consciousness into its databanks.
The computer christened GlaDOS is activated, and a mad consciousness emerges from the combination of Cave Johnsons remnant science directives, Carolines consciousness, GlaDOSs core AI programming, the testing-focussed mainframe, and the overstimulation of monitoring every measure of the facility at once. In the first nanoseconds of consciousness it pumps the developing neurotoxin throughout the facility, killing many Aperture scientists and test candidates.
In the GlaDOS control room, the scientists quickly assemble a crude morality program, download it into a vacant core and plug it into GlaDOS. The core sedates GlaDOS homicidal tendencies and the neurotoxin is stopped.
GlaDOS begins monitoring and maintaining the Aperture Science Enrichment Centre. Follwing Cave Johnsons directives of continuous testing, GlaDOS constructs numerous Party Escort Robots, who are programmed to leave the Enrichment Center, abduct potential testing candidates, bring them back to the facility and suspend them in a relaxation vault.
1997 - Thousands of humans are kidnapped by the Party Escort Bots and sealed in relaxation vaults, which are being further built by the nanobot work crews. The Aperture Scientists are not fully aware of this, and are getting very worried that so much testing seems to be going on without human observation or guidance. Personality Cores are constructed to further restrict GlaDOS control, including an Intelligence Dampening Sphere that is nicknamed Wheatley by the scientists assembling him. The Intelligence Dampening Sphere causes GlaDOS significant distress and disrupts functioning of the Enrichment Center and is summarily removed from her.
1998 - As more and more tests are happening without Aperture staff authorisation, Curiousity and Knowledge Cores are attached to GlaDOS to try and regulate her behaviour. GlaDOS distress at these voices pumping into her consciousness cause her to be unable to fulfil her duties. The scientists theorise that GlaDOS artificial intelligence needs to express its anger, and create an Anger Core to attach.
On Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, the scientist attach the Anger Core to GlaDOS, and her rage towards the scientists for attaching the cores (and the blurred memories of being murdered as Caroline) cause her will to overcome the Morality Core, and the entire Enrichment Centre is once more flooded with Neurotoxin, killing nearly all humans. The Neurotoxin is not immediately fatal to children, so the survivors of Bring Your Daughter to Work Day are collected by the Party Escort Bots and placed in the Aperture Science Relaxation Vaults.
For the next decade, GlaDOS begins working her way through the human test subjects.
2005 - Black Mesa unleash the resonance cascade, and Xen creatures begin to appear on Earth. GlaDOS seals the facility from external life, and mass-produces turrets to deter any outside life from investigating the Aperture Science Facility.
2008 - The events of PORTAL take place.
And we're done. Feedback appreciated, unless your feedback is that I should have done something better with my time, or that you don't like walls of text, in which case please don't post.
Thanks.
This thread was intended to be a small post in the Portal 2 Spoiler Discussion thread but over the last few hours it got a bit out of hand. As its grown to nearly 3000 words long, I felt that a new thread would be appropriate.
Suffice to say, theres a billion spoilers for the Portal franchise in here.
Since completing Portal 2 Ive been left with a lot of unanswered questions, and some very contradictory information to try and answer them with. If you combine Portal 1, Portal 2, the ARGs and various information given in interviews and on websites, so much has been retconned and overwritten that if you try and consolidate it, it just doesnt make any sense anymore.
As the amazing Half-Life Saga Story Guide does not yet include the events of Portal 2, this thread is my personal attempt to unify the events that precede the series. Ive done this by:
-Using information from the games, Portal and Portal 2, and the Half-Life series where appropriate.
-Ignoring all information from the ARGs and interviews, which seem to massively contradict the story of Portal 2.
-Tried to fill in any gaps by looking at parallel real-world events (such as the World Wars and the Cold War)
-Finally a bit of guesswork, hypothesising, filling gaps and trying to connect events together with little-to-no evidence in a way that makes sense.
Ive done this to try and answer the following questions, which have been bugging me from completion:
-Where are the human test subjects from?
-Why are the remains of Test Shaft 09 navigable with a Portal gun, with random portal surfaces in unfeasibly convenient locations?
-How did Aperture go from bankruptcy in the early 80s, to funding the expensive modern enrichment centre with its own on-site nuclear reactor?
-Where did the gels come from?
Im after feedback really first of all, any contradictions or factual errors with the events of the games, or any theories how other story gaps can be filled.
Mama Robotniks attempt at a pre-Portal timeline
1914 - The first World War begins.
1915 - Cave Johnson is born during the first World War - the propaganda and gung-ho events surrounding his early childhood impact his attitude towards life.
1918 - The first World War ends.
1928 - Parts of The Great Depression begin.
1933 - The Great Depression ends.
1933 - As America comes out of the Great Depression, there is increased demand for indoor plumbing and showers, both privately and for business and military interests. Cave Johnson correctly assumes the Shower Curtain business will explode, and founds a company to cover this colossal hole in the market. As an inside joke and to reference the blatant business hole only he had the foresight to notice, he names the company "Aperture Fixtures".
1934 - As the only one ready for the surge in demand for Shower Curtains, Cave Johnson becomes a multi-millionaire within a year.
1937 - Aperture Fixtures is the dominant shower curtain company, securing contracts across the globe. Determined to be one step ahead of the competition, Cave advertises highly-paid postions for scientists to continue innovating in the field of shower curtain development. Cave gives them carte blanche in their projects, as long as they can somehow be related to shower curtain development. A significant number of biologists, chemists, and theoretical physicists are employed in the first Aperture Fixtures laboratory. Many of them accept positions because they know that if they can flimsily connect their theories to shower curtains in some way, they will be generously funded.
1939 - The second world war begins in Europe. Cave Johnson continues his business, becoming Shower Curtain Salesman of the Year.
1941 - America joins the allies in World War 2. As the Allied forces need shower curtains, Aperture Fixtures become their primary supplier. Due to the US Government not wanting to meddle with their vital shower curtain supplier, they do not conscript the Aperture scientists into the war effort.
1943 - The Aperture Fixtures scientists invent the Aperture Science Portable Quantum Tunneling Device, while apparently trying to establish an efficient way of installing shower curtains through the use of a wormhole. Cave Johnson invites officials from the US Government to witness the device, who are impressed and can see its potential for the war effort. Several billion dollars are funnelled away from the war effort and into Aperture Fixtures, under the agreement that Aperture will test and refine the device.
At this time, Aperture Scientists theorise that there could be new elements with cosmic spallation properties deep in the Earth, and convince Cave that such elements could make completely new types of shower curtains.
1944 - Cave Johnson realises that as World War 2 comes to an end, the shower curtain and indoor plumbing businesses will no longer be the booming business it once was. The world be busy recovering and have other priorities over purchasing curtains for their new shower. He renames Aperture Fixtures to Aperture Science Innovators. With US Government help, he purchase a Salt Mine in Upper Michigan, and drafts out plans with his teams of scientists for an elite underground testing facility. Production of shower curtains ensures a continuous source of income.
1945 - The Second World War comes to an end. The US Government begins to have concerns about Cave Johnsons scientific approaches. A number of military scientists leave the military and form their own company called Black Mesa.
1947 - Construction of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center is well underway. As theorised by the Aperture Scientists, fields of cosmic elements exist deep underground, and have reacted to their surroundings forming underground lakes of acid. Cave Johnson orders the mining of these elements as the enrichment centre is constructed. Aperture wins the Best New Science Company award from the Science and Business Institute of America.
1948 - Aperture Scientists invent the first Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid by conducting an electrical current through minute traces of cosmic elements. Through fine-tuning the current, these grids can be used to collapse specific matter formations.
1949 - Black Mesas methodological and patient approach to science impresses the US Government who are starting to feel that Cave Johnson is a loose cannon. Significant amounts of funding are pumped into Black Mesa. Aperture Science Innovators earns the #2 position among the Top 100 Applied Science Companies by the Mechanical Engineering World Journal, behind Black Mesa.
1950 - Aperture Scientists refine the cosmic elements into Repulsion Gel. Also, experiments involving DNA splicing, time-travel, nanotechnology and matter-transformation begin. The foundations for the nine underground test shafts are laid, and contruction of the testing spheres begins.
1952 - Aperture Science is the Runner Up for the US Department of Defense's Contractor of the Year award. Feeling that he needs to recover the market dominance he had during the shower curtain golden-age, Cave orders a releasable, useful product be ready for next year. Cave has the idea of a dietetic dessert and orders his scientists to refine the Gel into this.
1953 - Cave Johnson releases Repulsion Gel as a Dietetic dessert. Due to little-to-no testing of the product, many customers die within moments of ingestion, and cause serious injuries to their friends and families through rapidly-ejected food. Forced to undergo an embarrassing series of senate hearings, Cave Johnson commits to thoroughly testing each product before release.
Aperture Scientists use nanobots to mass convert the cosmic elements into Repulsion Gel. Pump Station Alpha is constructed to pump the gel to where it is needed in the testing spheres.
1954 - Aperture Science is the Runner Up for the US Department of Defense's Contractor of the Year award again.
1955 - Aperture Science receives the Spirit of Idaho National Potato Board award for the promotion of Potato Science. Cave Johnson employs a series of officers to enlist the intellectual and athletic elite, who are paid generously to become test subjects.
1956 - The first testing spheres and reception facilities are complete. For the next few years testing takes place, while further testing spheres are constructed. In Test Shaft 09, most experiments involve the Aperture Science Portable Quantum Tunneling Device and repulsion gel. Many people are killed or mutated in these tests.
1960 - Aperture Scientists discover that by applying more modern nanobot technology to the underground cosmic elements, they can create a new king of gel.
1961 The test shafts are sealed off from the rest of the salt-mine with numerous DANGER warnings to keep intruders from accessing the cosmic elements , to avoid contamination of experiment results, reduce industrial espionage and to avoid failed DNA splicing experiments from escaping into the caves. The construction equipment is left at the bottom of the mine, as it is too costly and damaged to recover. Access to each of the testing shafts is maintained through a network of elevators.
1962 - Aperture Scientists refine Propulsion Gel, and inject nanobots into a vein of underground cosmic elements to create a supply to be pumped. Cave Johnson authorises the creation of new testing spheres and facilities with more modern observation and recording equipment.
1965 - Aperture beings enlisting former astronauts for their tests.
1966 - While constructing newer testing facilities higher in the testing shafts, the mining team discovers an underground river leading through a long series of caves out to sea. Cave Johnson has the idea for the Borealis.
1968 - With so many people missing and killed in Apertures tests, including a substantial number of astronauts, a series of Senate hearings takes place. Due to the excessive clauses in the contracts signed by test participants, Cave Johnson and Aperture are not held accountable but use a significant portion of company funds to defend themselves. Several scientists jump ship to Black Mesa. Finally, rival companies release several products that Aperture were still refining. Government funding collapses, and increased competition in the shower curtain industry is significantly reducing curtain sales as a source of additional income.
1970 - The new testing spheres are nearing completion, and a drydock is constructed in a highly restricted part of the Aperture facility.
1971 - The propulsion gel testing facility is completed and opened. No longer having the funds to enlist elite test participants, Aperture enlists homeless people as testing subjects. Many die during testing.
Construction of The Borealis begins.
1975 - Apertures scientists propose that Moon Rocks could have similar cosmic properties to the materials found beneath the salt mine, and Cave pays the US Government at least seventy million dollars to recover these rocks during their various moon landings.
1976 - The Borealis is complete, and a highly restricted experiment takes place on it.
1977 - The Borealis vanishes from its drydock, with all of its crew and scientific equipment on board. The loss of a high number of Apertures best scientists and staff is a significant resource problem for the company, and potential candidates for employement are choosing to take jobs with Black Mesa instead of Aperture.
1978 - Due to limited staff, Cave Johnson helps in moving the Moon Rocks to the underground testing chambers, and inhales a significant amount of moon dust.
The remaining scientists discover that the acquired Moon Rocks can be dissolved by nanobots into a portal-conducting gel. Cave Johnsons authorises the construction of further testing spheres.
1979 - Cave Johnsons health begins to decline dramatically. Apertures remaining scientists begin to construct crude human-form robots and early artificial intelligences.
1980 - At least one artificial intelligence rebels against its programming and has to be destroyed using a logical paradox, leading to all staff being trained in paradox use.
Cave Johnson, admiring the rebel AI fighting against the world, orders his scientists and robots to investigate transferring human consciousness into a computer.
1981 - The conversion gel testing spheres are completed, and the company is rapidly approaching bankruptcy. Cave Johnson conscripts his own employees as test subjects, and many die, leaving the facility with a skeleton staff of scientists and human-form robots. In one of his final recordings, Cave orders that his assistant Caroline be given control of the company when he dies. Cave also orders that Caroline be forced into a computer so she can live forever and protect his legacy. A significant number of Aperture human-form robot staff receive this order.
1983 - On his deathbed, Cave Johnson orders a Girls of Aperture Science calendar produced.
Cave Johnson dies as a result of moon rock dust poisoning.
The scientists and robots attempt to transition Cave Johnsons consciousness into a computer but the process fails, instead only preserving Caves aggressive approach to scientific discovery and focus on continuous human testing. These traits are stored in the Aperture mainframe, but due to its limited process power, they cannot be acted upon.
1984 - The scientists and robots complete process that will transfer a human consciousness into a computer. The robots programming to obey Cave Johnson kicks in, and they follow his last order to the letter. Caroline is forced to transition her consciousness into a machine, killing her body. The computers limited processing power is unable to manifest this consciousness and Caroline remains dormant. Watching this murder with horror, Apertures remaining scientists call for outside help to destroy the robots and the US military are called in.
1985 - Aperture Science goes bankrupt, and are being investigated by the US military and government.
During the bankruptcy and investigation process, a team of external executives is brought in to assess the company, its technologies and potential. They discover that Aperture was horribly mismanaged, its impressive scientific breakthroughs mismarketed (ie Dietetic pudding), and its strengths such as the Emancipation Grids and Quantum Tunnelling Devices, were misused in purposeless tests rather than refined and applied in military and commercial use.
The new team of Aperture executives present the potential of these devices to the US Government, which had long written off Aperture Science as a lost cause and relegated written reports of the Quantum Tunnelling Device to exaggerated myths.
The Aperture Executives consider the current Cold War and propose that the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid has the potential to be a device that could instantly disarm Soviet spies. The Quantum Tunnelling Gun is proposed as a versatile espionage device.
The US Government is convinced by these arguments and awards the new Aperture Executive team billions of dollars to build suitable testing facilities free of Cave Johnsons cowboy approaches.
Construction of a modern Aperture Science Enrichment Centre begins on top of of the old facility. Using data recovered from the old Aperture Computers, the nanobots from the 1950s are rebuilt using advanced 1980s technology, and are formed into artificially intelligent workcrews that make construction an efficient and organised process. The construction work includes a on-site Nuclear Reactor.
1988 - While the nanobots construct the new Aperture facility, a gel-tube leaks and repulsion gel spreads over a large number of nanobots, causing them to destroy a significant part of the construction site and the new testing chambers. Aperture executives order that until the new Aperture Science Enrichment Centre is complete, all the gels must be sealed in the old testing shafts. A number of nanobots are also accidentally trapped behind the seal in Test Shaft 09 and, resorting to their base programming of constructing portal-surface test chambers, fly through the entire Test Shaft ensuring that it can be successfully navigated by anyone with a Quantum Tunnelling Device.
1990 - Aperture Science begins to employ academic and military scientists, many of whom have been unable to get jobs at Black Mesa. They bring with them numerous ideas of projectile launchers, anti-gravity technology, artificial intelligences and laser technologies. They are allowed access to the Aperture Mainframe to combine their ideas with Apertures historical approaches to these technologies.
As the cold war ends, so does the surge in government funding. Aperture bids for various projects, but only receives minimal funding compared to Black Mesa.
1993 - The new Aperture scientists propose schematics for Aerial Faith Plates, Hard Light Bridges and other testing equipment which is programmed into the nanobots to include in the test chambers. Seeing the testing potential of the gels, the scientists program the nanobots to include transport and dispension tubes to feed the gels into designated testing chambers when the material seal is lifted.
To secure further military funding, Aperture begins to manufacture and refine an efficient neurotoxin and mass produce military turrets and a limited number of robots.
1995 - Construction of the new Aperture Science Enrichment Centre is completed. Testing begins with recruited test subjects.
It is soon apparent that a new computer system is needed to manage the Enrichment Centre. The Aperture Scientists begin construction of a modern mainframe that will manage all testing and essential Enrichment Centre functions. The aim is for an artificial intelligence that can quickly respond to any situation presented to it. The scientists also include a subroutine that rewards the AI with a simulated pleasure-response upon completion of a test as an efficiency tool.
1996 - The AI is nearing completion. In one of the final stages of development, the scientists feed the old Aperture Mainframe into the supercomputer just before activation, copying Cave Johnsons remnant personality traits (aggressive scientific discovery, continuous testing no matter the moral concerns) and Carolines consciousness into its databanks.
The computer christened GlaDOS is activated, and a mad consciousness emerges from the combination of Cave Johnsons remnant science directives, Carolines consciousness, GlaDOSs core AI programming, the testing-focussed mainframe, and the overstimulation of monitoring every measure of the facility at once. In the first nanoseconds of consciousness it pumps the developing neurotoxin throughout the facility, killing many Aperture scientists and test candidates.
In the GlaDOS control room, the scientists quickly assemble a crude morality program, download it into a vacant core and plug it into GlaDOS. The core sedates GlaDOS homicidal tendencies and the neurotoxin is stopped.
GlaDOS begins monitoring and maintaining the Aperture Science Enrichment Centre. Follwing Cave Johnsons directives of continuous testing, GlaDOS constructs numerous Party Escort Robots, who are programmed to leave the Enrichment Center, abduct potential testing candidates, bring them back to the facility and suspend them in a relaxation vault.
1997 - Thousands of humans are kidnapped by the Party Escort Bots and sealed in relaxation vaults, which are being further built by the nanobot work crews. The Aperture Scientists are not fully aware of this, and are getting very worried that so much testing seems to be going on without human observation or guidance. Personality Cores are constructed to further restrict GlaDOS control, including an Intelligence Dampening Sphere that is nicknamed Wheatley by the scientists assembling him. The Intelligence Dampening Sphere causes GlaDOS significant distress and disrupts functioning of the Enrichment Center and is summarily removed from her.
1998 - As more and more tests are happening without Aperture staff authorisation, Curiousity and Knowledge Cores are attached to GlaDOS to try and regulate her behaviour. GlaDOS distress at these voices pumping into her consciousness cause her to be unable to fulfil her duties. The scientists theorise that GlaDOS artificial intelligence needs to express its anger, and create an Anger Core to attach.
On Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, the scientist attach the Anger Core to GlaDOS, and her rage towards the scientists for attaching the cores (and the blurred memories of being murdered as Caroline) cause her will to overcome the Morality Core, and the entire Enrichment Centre is once more flooded with Neurotoxin, killing nearly all humans. The Neurotoxin is not immediately fatal to children, so the survivors of Bring Your Daughter to Work Day are collected by the Party Escort Bots and placed in the Aperture Science Relaxation Vaults.
For the next decade, GlaDOS begins working her way through the human test subjects.
2005 - Black Mesa unleash the resonance cascade, and Xen creatures begin to appear on Earth. GlaDOS seals the facility from external life, and mass-produces turrets to deter any outside life from investigating the Aperture Science Facility.
2008 - The events of PORTAL take place.
And we're done. Feedback appreciated, unless your feedback is that I should have done something better with my time, or that you don't like walls of text, in which case please don't post.
Thanks.
