The titular space vessel.
"I'm very concerned about these electrical force field barriers, what happens if we have an electrical outage?"
-Scientist
USS Darkstar is a Half-Life mod that is created by Neil Manke and his team set in the far future of 2066, where Gordon Freeman and other researchers conduct experiments on the titular USS Darkstar.
Much like in the original game, Gordon is late for work and must go to the research lab for a special experiment his fellow scientists are conducting. Things inevitably go wrong, and Gordon soon has to fight his way through the vessel to reach an escape pod.
USS Darkstar contains examples of:
- Bolivian Army Ending: The mod ends with Gordon being pursued by a large (presumably alien) vessel, with no indication if he managed to get away or not.
- Chest Burster: One headcrab bursts from the chest of a dead security guard at the start of the game, unwittingly causing a chain of events that leads to all the aliens onboard being set free.
- I Choose to Stay: The scientist who predicts the disaster will refuse to follow Gordon to the escape pod, telling him that he must remain there.
- Killed Offscreen: The captain of the USS Darkstar is reduced to a pile of gibs by a Vortigaunt by the time the player finds him.
- To Serve Man: You can find a couple of Headcrab Zombies roasting the body of a dead scientist over a makeshift campfire.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: One unfortunate scientist is completely unaware of the disaster unfolding in the USS Darkstar because he was busy trying to get Gravy Trader running.
- Shout-Out: The USS Darkstar itself is a reference to the Nostromo from Alien, and the scene where a headcrab bursts out of a dead security guard's chest calls to mind the iconic Alien chestburster scene.
- Tempting Fate: One particular scientist muses about how it's good that the forcefields are up, and ponders what will happen if there is an electrical outage. Soon enough, an electrical outage is triggered and all hell breaks loose.
- Token Good Teammate: The Chumtoads, unlike most of the alien fauna, are completely harmless and will not attack Gordon. This doesn't mean he can't attack them however.
