[ooc] canon timeline
Aperture Science: A History
[pre-Portal 1]
1943 - Cave Johnson founds Aperture Fixtures, a shower curtain developer and manufacturer.
1944 - Johnson purchases a huge salt mine in Upper Michigan, whose tunnels extended over four kilometers below the surface. The main Aperture Fixtures facility is construct within the underground caverns.
1947 - Johnson decided to take a more broad scientific approach to Aperture Fixtures, and promptly renamed the company "Aperture Science". The name is chosen to make the curtains appear more hygienic. Johnson began to focus on experimental physics as new direction for the company, and although Johnson was well known for his unorthodox approach to science, Aperture Science received an award for Best New Science Company in 1947.
1950s - Aperture Science was prospering. Within the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, Johnson took an active role in the company's testing of products, making voice announcements and pre-recorded messages to address test subjects, who consisted of specially selected astronauts, Olympians and war heroes. Johnson was aided by his assistant Caroline during this time, and she would remain loyal to him for decades to come. By this time, Aperture was in the process of developing the Quantum Tunnelling Device, and various prototypes were utilised in the many test chambers being rapidly constructed in Test Shaft 09 and beyond.
1953 - Early product line provides a very low-tech portal between the inside and outside of your shower. Very little science is actually involved.
1956 - Eisenhower administration awards Aperture a contract to provide shower curtains to all branches of the military except the Navy.
1960s - Aperture's financial boom period had passed, and with countless products stuck in the testing phase as well as many being pulled from shelves for violating health and safety regulations, Aperture was beginning to struggle.
1961 - Johnson ordered the lower areas of Test Shaft 09 to be sealed off to hide the highly unethical experiments Aperture had been conducting.
1968 - Aperture Science was involved in U.S. Senate hearings regarding astronauts going missing following their participation in testing. Aperture Science goes bankrupt because, according to Johnson, Black Mesa has stolen many of their inventions.
1976, October 17th - Johnson receives the answer to a confidential letter titled "Human Enrichment & Testing Initiative, Resource Acquisitions", describing the four types of Test Subjects and their behavior.
1981 - Johnson manages to acquire $70M worth of Moon rocks, and uses it to create Conversion Gel, but also becomes deathly ill from exposure to the rocks. He also makes testing mandatory for all Aperture employees.
1981-1985 - Work progresses on the “Portal” project.
1982 - Johnson orders the Aperture engineers to begin work on an AI system for him to live on in, in his attempt to cheat death, but should the system not be finished in time, Caroline should succeed him as the leader of Aperture Science and live on in an AI system, by force if necessary. Johnson dies before the system is finished, and on his orders, Caroline becomes part of GLaDOS' personality makeup.
1986 - Word reaches Aperture management that another defense contractor called Black Mesa is working on a similar portal technology. Aperture begins developing the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (GLaDOS), an artificially intelligent research assistant and disk operating system.
1996 - After a decade spent bringing the disk operating parts of GLaDOS to a state of more or less basic functionality, work begins on the Genetic Lifeform component. During that time, the Aperture Science Red Phone plan was implemented in case GLaDOS appeared to become sentient and godlike, requiring an employee to sit by a red phone on a desk in GLaDOS chamber's entrance hall.
1997 - GLaDOS' 3.11 was started.
1997-200?, May - GLaDOS was activated several times by the Aperture technicians, but was rapidly turned off again, due to attempting to kill them in a sixteenth of a picosecond after activation.
At a later date, GLaDOS claimed to have "lost all interest in killing," now only craving science and wanting to study and experiment with consciousness. She announced that she wanted to perform an experiment on Aperture Science's "Bring Your Cat to Work Day" using cats and boxes. She claimed she'd have all the necessary materials; all she still needed was "a little neurotoxin." The scientists acquiesced, figuring it would be fine "as long as it [was] for science".
200?, May - GLaDOS was again activated as one of the planned activities on one of Aperture's annual bring-your-daughter-to-work days. Within one picosecond of activation, GLaDOS became self-aware, and two picoseconds later, she locked down the entire facility, trapping all inside. During this fiasco, GLaDOS flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin. Survivors of this attack subsequently fitted GLaDOS with a Morality Core, which lessened her murderous intentions and prevented her from releasing more neurotoxin.
GLaDOS then began a permanent testing cycle using Aperture Science employees; aiming to beat Black Mesa in the race for the portal technology. She effectively lost this race however, when the Black Mesa Incident occured, which in turn diverted all attention from rescuing the trapped Aperture employees.
Meanwhile - The number of Aperture employees dwindled through the ensuing weeks of testing. The last remaining employee, a programmer named Doug Rattmann, managed to keep from being captured. Despite GLaDOS' constant harassment, he manages to tamper with GLaDOS' Test Subject roster, rearranging the order of the Test Subjects so that a woman named Chell would be at the top. This seems to go unnoticed by GLaDOS.
----
[Portal 1] - Some time after the Combine invasion of Earth GLaDOS awakens Chell from her sealed bed in a Relaxation Vault, speaking to her as if to any mandatory Test Subject. With the promise of cake and grief counseling available at the conclusion of the test, she sends Chell on her way through the Test Track.
At the conclusion of the tests, Chell travels on an Aperture Science Unstationary Scaffold away from the final Test Chamber. Instead of a cake, GLaDOS tries to throw Chell into an incinerator, which GLaDOS calmly states will not damage the ASHPD or any other Aperture Science Equipment.
Much to GLaDOS' surprise, Chell uses the portal gun narrowly escape certain death. Caught off-guard, GLaDOS reveals her true nature, stuttering on the word "I," before trying to convince Chell that this had all been part of the test. She tries to make Chell disarm herself under the guise that "WE are throwing a party in honor of your tremendous success," in reality so that a 'Party Escort Bot' could put her back into stasis.
Chell reaches GLaDOS' main control room. GLaDOS then attempts to deploy a "surprise" to eliminate Chell, but ends up detaching her Morality Core, which Chell promptly incinerates.
GLaDOS, now free of her morality, begins to flood the Enrichment Center with neurotoxins as she had done before. She notes that the Morality Core must have had some ancillary responsibilities, and that she cannot shut off the Rocket Sentry in her control room. Chell uses this to her advantage, and uses portals to redirect the rockets back at GLaDOS, detaching and incinerating her Personality Cores one by one. Rapidly deteriorating by the mental shock of losing her cores, GLaDOS mocks Chell and tries to make her feel bad about herself. She also makes a comment apparently regarding the Combine invasion, stating that she was "the only one standing between us and them", implying that she has been keeping the Combine from entering the facility.
Before the neurotoxins can kill her, Chell destroys GLaDOS' final Personality Core, causing a malfunction in her system and spawning a massive portal. The ensuing explosions from GLaDOS' malfunctioning body presumably created an immense suction in the room that pulled both Chell and parts of GLaDOS' frame out onto the parking lot in front of the Aperture labs entrance.
Despite GLaDOS' apparent destruction however, only part of her was destroyed. Her backup system reactivates a room full of Personality Cores and files a letter to Chell, telling her that she is "still alive" and "not even angry" at her, but not before extinguishing a candle on the cake, which was not a lie after all.
Chell comes to on the parking lot, but is promptly dragged back into the Enrichment Center via the Party Escort Bot. It places her in a Longterm Relaxation Vault, which has no lifesupport. Doug Rattmann saves her by turning the power on for lifesupport but at the cost of his own safety and possibly his life.
----
[post-Portal 1/pre-Portal 2] - The Enrichment Center, which is heavily damaged after the explosion created by GLaDOS' partial destruction. It continues barely functioning via other Personality Constructs while GLaDOS' consciousness is contained within her blackbox "quicksave" function on an endless mental loop.
----
[Portal 2] - Many years pass, possibly hundreds of years. Chell is finally awakened by Wheatley, the two make their way across the facility in an attempt to escape. They make their way to the main breaker room underneath GLaDOS' chamber, where the bumbling Wheatley accidentally restores power to GLaDOS and brings the two of them back into her chamber. GLaDOS is extremely bitter towards Chell for "murdering" her, but wants to repair their "relationship" for the good of science. GLaDOS then, after tossing a temporarily-disabled Wheatley out of her chamber, forces Chell to complete more tests through the Enrichment Center. While keeping an eye on Chell, she sets about restoring the dilapidated facility.
Later, GLaDOS begins work on the Cooperative Testing Initiative.
Wheatley attempts to help Chell escape, but they are eventually caught by GLaDOS. However, GLaDOS discovers that they Chell and Wheatley had sabotaged her turret production and neurotoxin system, causing her to voice her hate for Chell. This statement initiates a core transfer with Wheatley as the replacement core. Unfortunately for GLaDOS, the transfer is a success. A vengeful and corrupted Wheatley transfers her core to a potato battery, capable only of powering her basic consciousness and personality along with some secondary components like her sarcastic slow clap processor.
Wheatley, in a fit of rage, accidentally sends Chell and GLaDOS to a deep, forgotten area of the facility. As Chell wakes up after the fall, potato!GLaDOS is carried off by a crow for food. Chell eventually finds her again and impales her on one of the Portal Gun's claws. This allows GLaDOS to accompany Chell through the abandoned testing areas, which contain prerecorded messages from Cave Johnson that hint at Aperture Science's history, as well as GLaDOS' former self.
The two work their way back up the the main Aperture building, where GLaDOS makes an attempt to knock Wheatley offline, without success. GLaDOS and Chell are then required to complete various testing chambers. After witnessing what Wheatley had been doing to the facility and knowing that his incompetence will cause the nuclear reactors to explode, GLaDOS begins to formulate plans to escape.
Meanwhile, Wheatley discovers the Cooperative Testing Initiative and tries to kill the now-redundant Chell, destroying parts of the facility in the process. On the run, the two reach Wheatley's chamber and attempt to force a second core transfer with the Enrichment Center minutes away from self-destruction.
At the climax of the battle with Wheatley, Chell opens a portal to the Moon, sucking herself and Wheatley's tethered core into outer space. GLaDOS seizes this moment to restore herself and stabilizes the facility's reactors, then cut Wheatley loose into the void. Surprisingly, she drags Chell to safety before closing the portal.
As Chell recuperates, GLaDOS repairs the facility and summons ATLAS and P-body. When Chell awakens, GLaDOS expresses what seems to be genuine relief and says that while she once considered Chell her greatest enemy, she now realizes Chell was actually her best friend all along. She then reveals that these positive emotions triggered by saving Chell's life have allowed her to trace the location of Caroline's mental imprint within her memory banks. She apparently deletes it, seemingly returning to her original sociopathic self. GLaDOS explains that she has concluded attempting to kill Chell is far too troublesome, and the easiest way to be rid of her is to simply throw her out of the facility. She places Chell on an elevator heading up to the surface, making sure to remind her never to return. As Chell steps out into a sunlit field, GLaDOS makes the unexplained decision to return her old Weighted Companion Cube (which is charred but intact) as well.
With the Cooperative Testing Initiative fully functional, she goes back to testing without having to worry about escape or sabotage. Eventually, she uses the robots to find the other human subjects that are still in stasis within the facility.
----
[post-Portal 2] - ???
[pre-Portal 1]
1943 - Cave Johnson founds Aperture Fixtures, a shower curtain developer and manufacturer.
1944 - Johnson purchases a huge salt mine in Upper Michigan, whose tunnels extended over four kilometers below the surface. The main Aperture Fixtures facility is construct within the underground caverns.
1947 - Johnson decided to take a more broad scientific approach to Aperture Fixtures, and promptly renamed the company "Aperture Science". The name is chosen to make the curtains appear more hygienic. Johnson began to focus on experimental physics as new direction for the company, and although Johnson was well known for his unorthodox approach to science, Aperture Science received an award for Best New Science Company in 1947.
1950s - Aperture Science was prospering. Within the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, Johnson took an active role in the company's testing of products, making voice announcements and pre-recorded messages to address test subjects, who consisted of specially selected astronauts, Olympians and war heroes. Johnson was aided by his assistant Caroline during this time, and she would remain loyal to him for decades to come. By this time, Aperture was in the process of developing the Quantum Tunnelling Device, and various prototypes were utilised in the many test chambers being rapidly constructed in Test Shaft 09 and beyond.
1953 - Early product line provides a very low-tech portal between the inside and outside of your shower. Very little science is actually involved.
1956 - Eisenhower administration awards Aperture a contract to provide shower curtains to all branches of the military except the Navy.
1960s - Aperture's financial boom period had passed, and with countless products stuck in the testing phase as well as many being pulled from shelves for violating health and safety regulations, Aperture was beginning to struggle.
1961 - Johnson ordered the lower areas of Test Shaft 09 to be sealed off to hide the highly unethical experiments Aperture had been conducting.
1968 - Aperture Science was involved in U.S. Senate hearings regarding astronauts going missing following their participation in testing. Aperture Science goes bankrupt because, according to Johnson, Black Mesa has stolen many of their inventions.
1976, October 17th - Johnson receives the answer to a confidential letter titled "Human Enrichment & Testing Initiative, Resource Acquisitions", describing the four types of Test Subjects and their behavior.
1981 - Johnson manages to acquire $70M worth of Moon rocks, and uses it to create Conversion Gel, but also becomes deathly ill from exposure to the rocks. He also makes testing mandatory for all Aperture employees.
1981-1985 - Work progresses on the “Portal” project.
1982 - Johnson orders the Aperture engineers to begin work on an AI system for him to live on in, in his attempt to cheat death, but should the system not be finished in time, Caroline should succeed him as the leader of Aperture Science and live on in an AI system, by force if necessary. Johnson dies before the system is finished, and on his orders, Caroline becomes part of GLaDOS' personality makeup.
1986 - Word reaches Aperture management that another defense contractor called Black Mesa is working on a similar portal technology. Aperture begins developing the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (GLaDOS), an artificially intelligent research assistant and disk operating system.
1996 - After a decade spent bringing the disk operating parts of GLaDOS to a state of more or less basic functionality, work begins on the Genetic Lifeform component. During that time, the Aperture Science Red Phone plan was implemented in case GLaDOS appeared to become sentient and godlike, requiring an employee to sit by a red phone on a desk in GLaDOS chamber's entrance hall.
1997 - GLaDOS' 3.11 was started.
1997-200?, May - GLaDOS was activated several times by the Aperture technicians, but was rapidly turned off again, due to attempting to kill them in a sixteenth of a picosecond after activation.
At a later date, GLaDOS claimed to have "lost all interest in killing," now only craving science and wanting to study and experiment with consciousness. She announced that she wanted to perform an experiment on Aperture Science's "Bring Your Cat to Work Day" using cats and boxes. She claimed she'd have all the necessary materials; all she still needed was "a little neurotoxin." The scientists acquiesced, figuring it would be fine "as long as it [was] for science".
200?, May - GLaDOS was again activated as one of the planned activities on one of Aperture's annual bring-your-daughter-to-work days. Within one picosecond of activation, GLaDOS became self-aware, and two picoseconds later, she locked down the entire facility, trapping all inside. During this fiasco, GLaDOS flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin. Survivors of this attack subsequently fitted GLaDOS with a Morality Core, which lessened her murderous intentions and prevented her from releasing more neurotoxin.
GLaDOS then began a permanent testing cycle using Aperture Science employees; aiming to beat Black Mesa in the race for the portal technology. She effectively lost this race however, when the Black Mesa Incident occured, which in turn diverted all attention from rescuing the trapped Aperture employees.
Meanwhile - The number of Aperture employees dwindled through the ensuing weeks of testing. The last remaining employee, a programmer named Doug Rattmann, managed to keep from being captured. Despite GLaDOS' constant harassment, he manages to tamper with GLaDOS' Test Subject roster, rearranging the order of the Test Subjects so that a woman named Chell would be at the top. This seems to go unnoticed by GLaDOS.
----
[Portal 1] - Some time after the Combine invasion of Earth GLaDOS awakens Chell from her sealed bed in a Relaxation Vault, speaking to her as if to any mandatory Test Subject. With the promise of cake and grief counseling available at the conclusion of the test, she sends Chell on her way through the Test Track.
At the conclusion of the tests, Chell travels on an Aperture Science Unstationary Scaffold away from the final Test Chamber. Instead of a cake, GLaDOS tries to throw Chell into an incinerator, which GLaDOS calmly states will not damage the ASHPD or any other Aperture Science Equipment.
Much to GLaDOS' surprise, Chell uses the portal gun narrowly escape certain death. Caught off-guard, GLaDOS reveals her true nature, stuttering on the word "I," before trying to convince Chell that this had all been part of the test. She tries to make Chell disarm herself under the guise that "WE are throwing a party in honor of your tremendous success," in reality so that a 'Party Escort Bot' could put her back into stasis.
Chell reaches GLaDOS' main control room. GLaDOS then attempts to deploy a "surprise" to eliminate Chell, but ends up detaching her Morality Core, which Chell promptly incinerates.
GLaDOS, now free of her morality, begins to flood the Enrichment Center with neurotoxins as she had done before. She notes that the Morality Core must have had some ancillary responsibilities, and that she cannot shut off the Rocket Sentry in her control room. Chell uses this to her advantage, and uses portals to redirect the rockets back at GLaDOS, detaching and incinerating her Personality Cores one by one. Rapidly deteriorating by the mental shock of losing her cores, GLaDOS mocks Chell and tries to make her feel bad about herself. She also makes a comment apparently regarding the Combine invasion, stating that she was "the only one standing between us and them", implying that she has been keeping the Combine from entering the facility.
Before the neurotoxins can kill her, Chell destroys GLaDOS' final Personality Core, causing a malfunction in her system and spawning a massive portal. The ensuing explosions from GLaDOS' malfunctioning body presumably created an immense suction in the room that pulled both Chell and parts of GLaDOS' frame out onto the parking lot in front of the Aperture labs entrance.
Despite GLaDOS' apparent destruction however, only part of her was destroyed. Her backup system reactivates a room full of Personality Cores and files a letter to Chell, telling her that she is "still alive" and "not even angry" at her, but not before extinguishing a candle on the cake, which was not a lie after all.
Chell comes to on the parking lot, but is promptly dragged back into the Enrichment Center via the Party Escort Bot. It places her in a Longterm Relaxation Vault, which has no lifesupport. Doug Rattmann saves her by turning the power on for lifesupport but at the cost of his own safety and possibly his life.
----
[post-Portal 1/pre-Portal 2] - The Enrichment Center, which is heavily damaged after the explosion created by GLaDOS' partial destruction. It continues barely functioning via other Personality Constructs while GLaDOS' consciousness is contained within her blackbox "quicksave" function on an endless mental loop.
----
[Portal 2] - Many years pass, possibly hundreds of years. Chell is finally awakened by Wheatley, the two make their way across the facility in an attempt to escape. They make their way to the main breaker room underneath GLaDOS' chamber, where the bumbling Wheatley accidentally restores power to GLaDOS and brings the two of them back into her chamber. GLaDOS is extremely bitter towards Chell for "murdering" her, but wants to repair their "relationship" for the good of science. GLaDOS then, after tossing a temporarily-disabled Wheatley out of her chamber, forces Chell to complete more tests through the Enrichment Center. While keeping an eye on Chell, she sets about restoring the dilapidated facility.
Later, GLaDOS begins work on the Cooperative Testing Initiative.
Wheatley attempts to help Chell escape, but they are eventually caught by GLaDOS. However, GLaDOS discovers that they Chell and Wheatley had sabotaged her turret production and neurotoxin system, causing her to voice her hate for Chell. This statement initiates a core transfer with Wheatley as the replacement core. Unfortunately for GLaDOS, the transfer is a success. A vengeful and corrupted Wheatley transfers her core to a potato battery, capable only of powering her basic consciousness and personality along with some secondary components like her sarcastic slow clap processor.
Wheatley, in a fit of rage, accidentally sends Chell and GLaDOS to a deep, forgotten area of the facility. As Chell wakes up after the fall, potato!GLaDOS is carried off by a crow for food. Chell eventually finds her again and impales her on one of the Portal Gun's claws. This allows GLaDOS to accompany Chell through the abandoned testing areas, which contain prerecorded messages from Cave Johnson that hint at Aperture Science's history, as well as GLaDOS' former self.
The two work their way back up the the main Aperture building, where GLaDOS makes an attempt to knock Wheatley offline, without success. GLaDOS and Chell are then required to complete various testing chambers. After witnessing what Wheatley had been doing to the facility and knowing that his incompetence will cause the nuclear reactors to explode, GLaDOS begins to formulate plans to escape.
Meanwhile, Wheatley discovers the Cooperative Testing Initiative and tries to kill the now-redundant Chell, destroying parts of the facility in the process. On the run, the two reach Wheatley's chamber and attempt to force a second core transfer with the Enrichment Center minutes away from self-destruction.
At the climax of the battle with Wheatley, Chell opens a portal to the Moon, sucking herself and Wheatley's tethered core into outer space. GLaDOS seizes this moment to restore herself and stabilizes the facility's reactors, then cut Wheatley loose into the void. Surprisingly, she drags Chell to safety before closing the portal.
As Chell recuperates, GLaDOS repairs the facility and summons ATLAS and P-body. When Chell awakens, GLaDOS expresses what seems to be genuine relief and says that while she once considered Chell her greatest enemy, she now realizes Chell was actually her best friend all along. She then reveals that these positive emotions triggered by saving Chell's life have allowed her to trace the location of Caroline's mental imprint within her memory banks. She apparently deletes it, seemingly returning to her original sociopathic self. GLaDOS explains that she has concluded attempting to kill Chell is far too troublesome, and the easiest way to be rid of her is to simply throw her out of the facility. She places Chell on an elevator heading up to the surface, making sure to remind her never to return. As Chell steps out into a sunlit field, GLaDOS makes the unexplained decision to return her old Weighted Companion Cube (which is charred but intact) as well.
With the Cooperative Testing Initiative fully functional, she goes back to testing without having to worry about escape or sabotage. Eventually, she uses the robots to find the other human subjects that are still in stasis within the facility.
----
[post-Portal 2] - ???