首先是概要介绍：
《驶向17号城的列车》
《驶向17号城的列车》是系列编剧马克·莱德劳（Marc Laidlaw）在《半条命2》开发初期创作的一篇短篇小说，后来收录于《半条命2：举起撬棍》（Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar）一书中。
概要
这篇短篇小说以脚本形式写成，极为详细地描述了标题中所提及的“狂野列车”之旅期间的场景、氛围以及发生的事件，阐释了它旨在向玩家传达的信息和感受。正如莱德劳所指出的，这一场景旨在展示《半条命2》的游戏世界及其背后的技术，并在该游戏与原版《半条命》之间架起一座桥梁。不断变化的风景、列车广播、海报以及无意中听到的对话，都将为玩家了解这个新世界提供线索。
为了给人一种戈登仍处于G - Man控制之下的感觉，并暗示一种非写实的时空流逝，每当列车穿过黑暗的隧道，车厢内的乘客就会发生变化。透过车窗看到的“狂野之地”的风景，也会逐渐从偏远的荒地转变为防御严密的城区，最终抵达17号城内部。在列车行驶过程中，玩家可以在车厢内自由活动，但唯一会与戈登互动的角色是塞缪尔（Samuel）。
列车外将会上演各种各样的场景。在旧世界的废墟中，可以看到许多异形（Xen）和其他外星生物，包括一个类似巨型章鱼怪（Gargantua）的生物，它在与另一辆列车碰撞后丧生，还有一个触手怪物会砸碎其中一扇车窗。列车经过一道带电的防护铁丝网、巨大的废墟堆、设有岗哨炮塔的巨型大门、由焚化者（Cremators）守卫的安全区域以及由国民护卫队（Metropolice）和追踪者（Stalkers）巡逻的旧调车场之后，将会驶入城市。它首先会穿过旧城区域，然后进入布满冰冷且像堡垒一样的建筑以及播放着布林博士（Dr. Breen）广播的巨型显示屏的新城，并且能短暂瞥见位于城市中心的城堡（Citadel）。故事随着列车在通往17号城的安检门前停下而结束。
Train to City 17
Train to City 17 is a short story written by series writer Marc Laidlaw early in Half-Life 2's development and later featured in the book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar.
Synopsis
Written in script form, the short story describes the settings, atmosphere, and events taking place during the titular Wild Train ride in great detail, explaining what information and feelings it aims to convey to the player. As noted by Laidlaw, this scene was intended to showcase Half-Life 2's world and the technology behind it and bridge the gap between the game and the original Half-Life. A changing landscape, train announcements, posters, and overheard conversations were to clue the player to the new world.
To give the impression that Gordon is still under the G-Man's control and imply a non-literal passage of time and space, the population of the car would change each time it passed through a dark tunnel. The landscape of the Wild, viewed through the side-facing windows, would also gradually shift from a remote wasteland to fortified and urban areas, eventually ending inside City 17. During the ride, the player would be able to move around the car freely, but the only character that was to interact with Gordon was Samuel.
Various scenes were to play out outside of the train. Among the ruins of the old world, numerous Xen and other alien life forms were to be seen, including a Gargantua-like creature that would be killed after a collision with another train and a tentacle monster that was to smash one of the windows. After passing by a protective electrified wire fence, enormous mounds of debris and scrap, a huge set of gates with sentry turrets, a security area guarded by Cremators, and an old switching yard patrolled by Metropolice and Stalkers, the train would enter the city. It first traveled through its Old City sections, then into the New City filled with cold and fortress-like buildings and giant monitors broadcasting Dr. Breen, and the Citadel is briefly glimpsed at its center. The story ends as the train comes to a halt at a security gate, the gateway to City 17.

接下来是故事剧情：
第一篇文章
简介：如同在《半条命1》中那样，此次火车之旅必须展示出我们对新游戏及其技术所做出的所有承诺。从叙事角度来看，火车之旅的展开方式必须有助于讲述在戈登缺席期间所发生的故事。从熟悉的元素开始，随着我们逐渐接近17号城，沿途的风景会变得越发奇异且破败不堪。火车广播、车厢内的海报以及无意中听到的其他乘客的交谈，也都将为玩家了解这个新世界提供线索。
火车脚本
你身处一辆狂野列车之中，正飞速穿越这片狂野而不祥的大地。
火车公共广播（待定）
火车广播持续播放着，与车窗外的景色形成了一种颇具讽刺意味的对照。它们让乘客们（进而也让玩家）为抵达17号城做好准备，让他们对抵达时必须提交的文件和手续有一定的了解。
非写实的过渡效果：每次列车穿过黑暗的隧道，车厢内的乘客就会发生变化——给人一种你仍处于G-man影响之下的感觉，仿佛时间和距离的流逝变得模糊不清。独特的音效和视觉特效将有助于赋予这些时刻G-man的印记，并且在游戏的后续部分，比如在过渡或神游状态的时刻，当我们再次希望跨越时间间隔并展示G-man的影响时，这些特效也会被用到。G-man的“震撼剪辑”风格应当基于那张实验性的危险课程地图来进行原型设计。
在接下来的几分钟里，我们将穿过这片狂野之地的代表性区域，每个区域都讲述着过去十年间的部分故事。我们从偏远的荒野逐渐进入防御愈发严密的城区，直至抵达17号城的中心地带。这种变化是渐进式的，涵盖了一个范围。与此同时，我们将与你身旁的乘客上演一场戏，包括以下所描述的事件：我们会播放来自这片荒野列车公共广播系统的广播；我们允许玩家自由移动并四处张望，提供足够多的事件，以便他们可以多次体验这个开场情节，并不断注意到和发现新的细节。车窗外的景色总是列车所抛在身后的事物，这为以往的火车之旅带来了一种新奇且令人迷失方向的变化。
这节车厢本身是一节破旧的客车车厢，丑陋、怪异，注重实用性而非舒适性。车窗由百叶窗保护着，可根据列车司机的意愿升降；有些车窗布满了撞击产生的裂纹。剥落的宣传海报上印着布林博士的脸以及城堡的画面。其他乘客都蜷缩在自己的座位上。车厢后部的那位乘客名叫塞缪尔·G - 11789RF；他是唯一会与你互动的角色。如果你试图与其他乘客互动（使用“使用”键），他们只会咕哝几声，摇摇头，然后嘟囔着“别烦我”。
当列车启动（开始行驶）时，它飞速穿过一片噩梦般的景象，广袤的全景展现出一片支离破碎的乡村。远处破败的物体在地平线上呈现出剪影。原本是树木的地方如今扭曲变形，成了由枯木交织而成的杂乱丛林。偶尔能看到坍塌的烟囱以及建筑物地基的痕迹。破损的道路上横七竖八地躺着汽车、卡车、公共汽车、拖拉机的残骸。而在这一切之中，还能瞥见一些动静；外星生物群。那些脏兮兮的形状可能是巨大的猎头蟹；一群群的狗眼怪，饥饿使它们变成了凶猛、贪婪的掠食者；还有一些前所未见的新生物。
Brief: As in HL1, the trainride must showcase all the promises we're making about our new game and technology. From a storytelling perspective, the trainride must unwind in such a way that it helps tell the story of events in Gordon's absence. Starting with familiar elements, the landscape will get stranger and more ravaged as we approach City 17. Train announcements, posters on the train, overheard conversations among other passengers will also serve to clue the player to the new world.
TRAIN SCRIPT
You are in the the Wild Train, speeding across the ominous landscape of the Wild.
TRAIN PA
(tbd)
Train announcements play continually, in ironic counterpoint to the vistas seen from the windows. They prepare the passengers (and by extension the player) for arrival in City 17, giving them some idea of the paperwork and processing they must submit to when the arrive.
Nonliteral transition effects: Each time you pass through the darkness of a tunnel, the population of the car changes-to give the impression that you are still in the G-man's influence, that the passage of time and distance is being blurred. Distinctive sound and visual artifacts will help to give these moment's the G-Man's stamp, and they will be used in later parts of the game, at moments of transition or fugue, when we again wish to bridge the passage of time and show the G-Man's influence. The style of the G-Man " shock-cut " should be prototyped based on the experimental Hazard Course map.
For the next several minutes, we pass through representative zones of the Wild, each sector telling a bit of the story of the last 10 years. We move from remote wild into successively more fortified and urban areas, until we are in the heart of City 17. The changes are gradual, covering a spectrum. Meanwhile, we play out a scene with your fellow passenger, including the incidents described below: we run announcements from the Wildland Train's PA system: we allow the player to move and look around freely, providing enough events that they can play this opening sequence several times and continue to notice and discover new details. The views are always of things the train is leaving behind, providing a novel and disorienting twist on previous train rides.
The train car itself is a decrepit passenger car, ugly, weird and functional rather than comfortable. The windows are protected by shutters that raise and lower at the engineer’s will: some are webbed with impact cracks. Peeling propaganda posters show the face of Dr. Breen as well as views of the CITADEL. The other passengers sit huddled in their seats. The one at the rear of the car is known as SAMUEL G-11789RF; he is the one character who will interact with you. The others will only grunt, shake their heads, and mutter, "Leave me alone" if you try to interact with them (using +use).
As the ride begins (in motion), the train speeds through a nightmarish landscape, with wide panoramic views of a mutilated countryside. Distant ruined objects are silhouettes on the horizon. There are twisted shapes of what used to be trees, tangled forests of dead wood. An occasional crumbled chimney and marks of building foundations. Broken roads with overturned hulks of cars, trucks, buses, tractors. And in the midst of everything, glimpses of movement; Alien fauna. Grimy shapes that might be massive bullsquid; packs of houndeyes that hunger has turned into fierce, voracious predators; and new things, never seen before.

第三篇文章
下一个区域是一个从前的调车场。你可以看到其他列车通过其他大门驶入17号城。国民护卫队在站场巡逻。追踪者们在昏暗的光线下忙碌地穿梭着，很难看清他们的全貌。其中一个追踪者被一列火车的铁轨碾过，但似乎没人注意到。
越过调车场，列车沿着一条高架轨道驶入旧城。地面陡然下降，我们缓缓穿梭于古老的砖砌建筑、截断的高速公路匝道、荒无人烟的街道之间。坍塌的建筑物中燃烧着大火；里面可能有人，但很难确定。在下方的一条街道上，一个男人从一条小巷里跑出来，沿着与列车平行的街道狂奔。在他身后，一队国民护卫队（都市警察）从小巷里走出来并开火射击。男人倒下了。随着列车驶入一条隧道，这一幕也从视野中消失了。
当列车驶出隧道时，它正蜿蜒穿行于新城的一个区域。灰色的、堡垒般的建筑，冰冷而又不友好。列车缓缓驶过一座看起来像监狱瞭望塔的公寓楼。你瞥见了其中一套公寓；里面毫无吸引力，陈设简陋。墙上的电视闪烁着，在屏幕上，你第一次看到了活着的布林博士，他正在发表一场没完没了的广播演讲。有一家人围坐在电视旁。他们都穿着橡胶防护服，戴着口罩。在公寓楼之外的一个露天广场上，一个巨大的显示屏俯瞰着下方的大街。同样是布林博士的广播在这里播放着。你能看到行人和公共汽车在下方移动。一切都太过井然有序。规规矩矩。
在这些建筑上方，你第一次看到了城堡，那座不祥的外星尖塔耸立在17号城的中心。目前只是匆匆一瞥。
列车此刻尖叫着驶入17号站，开始刹车。车站高于街道平面，安检站、楼梯、坡道和自动扶梯通向街道，或者通往一些建筑物。你进入一条隧道，也就是车站内部，列车在安检门前停了下来。
火车公共广播
现在到站。17号城。
The train moves at reduced speed through a security area. CREMATORS are at work in the train yard, hosing the yard with fire - catching headcrabs incinerating them.
The next area is a former switching yard. You can see other trains coming into City 17 through other gates. Metropolice patrol the yard. Stalkers move about busily, in the dim light it’s difficult to see them clearly. One of the stalkers is crushed beneath the rails of a train, but no one seems to notice.
Beyond the switching yard, the train passes out into the Old City on an elevated track. The ground drops away, and we thread slowly between old brick buildings, lopped-off freeway ramps, deserted streets. Fires burn down in the crumbled buildings; there might be people in there but it’s hard to be sure. In a street below, a man runs out of an alley and rushes down the street, parallel with the train. Behind him, a squad of Metropolice step from the alley and open fire. The man falls. The scene passes from view as the train moves in, into a tunnel.
When the train emerges, it is winding through a section of the New City. Grey, fortress-like buildings, cold and inhospitable. The train slides slowly past an apartment building that looks like a prison gun-tower. You get a glimpse into one of the apartments; it is uninviting, sparsely furnished. A TV glares from the wall, and on the screen you have your first glimpse of the living Dr. Breen, making one of his interminable broadcast speeches. There is a family gathered around the TV. All of them are wearing their rubber suits and masks. Beyond the building, in an open square, a giant monitor looks down on the avenue below. The same Dr. Breen broadcast is projected here. You see pedestrians and buses moving below. Things are too orderly. Regimented.
Above the buildings, for the first time, you get a view of the Citadel, an ominous alien spire that looms at the center of City 17. It’s a brief glimpse, for now.
The train now screeches into Station 17, braking. The Station is elevated above street level, beyond the security checkpoints, stairs and ramps and escalators run down to the street, or arch off to some of the buildings. You pass into a tunnel, the station proper, and the train comes to a halt at the security gate.

幕后
一份手写笔记表明，火车上的扩音器声音可能是由《半条命》介绍电车之旅时的同一位配音演员配音，这样就能更好地呼应第一部游戏的开场
A handwritten note suggests that the train PA could be performed by the same voice actress who was heard in Half-Life's introductory tram ride, thus greater mirroring the opening of the first game.

补发
第二篇文章
在一侧，你看到另一辆列车在黄昏中疾驰而过。这让你对自己所乘坐的列车有了一定的了解。车头由一个巨大的、致命的类似排障器的装置保护着，那是一个锋利的钢制犁头，旨在将任何可能误入铁轨或试图正面撞击列车的生物群冲散。一个类似旧日巨型章鱼怪的东西从一道裂缝中冒出来，扑向并行的那辆列车，而车头径直将其劈成了血淋淋的碎片，散落在铁轨上。
荒野逐渐变成了一种更具郊区特色的废墟。现在我们能看到破败的建筑物、堵塞的街道，怪物也变少了。在地平线上，远处，我们能看到巨大的三脚架形状的物体，那是巨大的迫击炮机甲，它们的剪影在泛红的天空映衬下行进着。机器已经取代了野兽，成为了最大的威胁。在游戏的后续进程中，我们将会徒步遭遇这些生物以及所有这些区域。
有个东西猛地撞向列车，砸碎了一部分车窗。有毒气体开始渗入车厢。那个东西，不管它是什么，紧紧攀附在车厢顶部。你能听到它在上面抓挠的声音，但你只能看到一只带有吸盘的抓取状附肢或触手，它还在不断地猛击那扇破碎的车窗。乘客们对此几乎没什么反应。坐在破碎车窗旁的乘客只是起身，走到了车厢的另一侧。当列车被撞击时，车厢剧烈摇晃，几个行李箱从头顶的行李架上滑落，砸在了地板上。它们都是空的。
靠近17号城的铁轨开始穿过一道由带电铁丝网构成的防护屏障。铁丝网上挂着一些试图获取这片荒野中最可靠食物来源而丧命的怪物的骨架和烧焦的残骸。在铁丝网之外，其他生物眼巴巴地望着列车驶过。偶尔，会有某个巨大的家伙冲向铁丝网，然后在一阵火花四溅中死去。
离城市更近时，列车穿过一座座由废墟堆积而成的小山。仿佛推土机把旧世界的所有残骸都推到了这里，形成了一道环绕17号城的巨大屏障。你可以看到下方满是有毒液体的沟壑，怪物们在残骸中觅食和打洞。如果你知道自己在看什么的话，会发现一辆迫击炮机甲破损的外壳就躺在列车附近。
列车无缘无故地放慢了速度。在车尾，你察觉到一群野生怪物不知怎么地进入了铁轨防护栏内。它们正从后面朝着列车飞奔而来。当它们越来越近时，列车缓缓驶过一组巨大的大门。怪物们快要追上列车了——就在它们即将跃过大门之际，安装在大门两侧的一对自动炮塔开火了，将这些野兽撕成了碎片，大门也随之砰然关闭。
列车以较慢的速度穿过一个安全区域。焚化者正在火车站场工作，它们用火舌扫射着站场，将那些被捕获的猎头蟹烧成灰烬。
Off to one side, you see another train hurtling through the dusk. It gives you some sense of the train you are riding. The nose of the engine car is protected by a huge deadly variant on a cow-catcher, a sharpened steel plow designed to shear through herds of whatever creatures might stray across the tracks or try to take the train head-on. Something that resembles the old Gargantua looms up from a fissure, lunging at the parallel train, and the engine slices right through the thing, leaving it in gory pieces on the track.
The wild gradually gives way to a more suburban variety of ruins. Now we see broken buildings, choked streets, and fewer monsters. On the horizon, in the distance, we see huge tripodal shapes, enormous mortar-mechs, marching in silhouette against the marbled strip of reddish sky. Machines have replaced beasts as the biggest threat. We will encounter these creatures, and all these areas, later in the game, on foot.
Something hurls itself against the train, smashing part of a window. Noxious gas trickles into the car. The thing, whatever it is, clings to the roof of the car. You can hear it scrabbling about up there, but all you see is one grasping, sucker lined appendage or tentacle which continues to flail at the broken window. The passengers take little notice of it. The passenger sitting at the broken window merely gets up and moves to the other side of the car. When the train is struck, the car shudders and several suitcases slide from the overhead racks and crash down onto the floor. They are all empty.
The train tracks, closer to City 17, begin to run through a protective barrier of electrified wire fences. Caught in the wires are the skeletal and charred remains of monsters that have killed themselves trying to get at the most reliable source of food in the wild. Beyond the wires, other creatures watch hungrily as you pass. Occasionally, something huge makes a rush at the fence and dies there in an explosion of sparks.
Closer to the city, the train passes through mountains of debris. It’s as if bulldozers have pushed all the remains of the old world out here, forming a huge barrier that surrounds City 17. You look down into ravines full of poisonous liquid, monsters foraging and burrowing in the scraps. The broken carapace of one of the mortar-mechs lies near the train, if you happen to know what you’re looking at.
The train slows for no obvious reason. At the rear, you become aware of a pack of wild monsters that have somehow gotten inside the track barrier. They are galloping up on the train from behind. As they come closer, the train pulls slowly through a huge set of gates. The monsters are gaining on the train – just about to leap through the gates when a pair of auto turrets mounted on either gate open fire on the pack, tearing the beasts to shreds as the gates slam shut.

如果我没有记错，追踪者应该指的是幽灵，当我看到一个幽灵被火车碾过的时候我开始胆寒了——早期的幽灵是会表现出害怕与颤栗的，那个被碾过的幽灵恐怕是想起了自己原来是谁，接着意识到自己被改造成了什么，最后在难以想象的痛苦与恐惧之中崩溃，选择这样的方式结束自己