Chapter Text
It took several hours in the cold, numerous miles traveled, and several granola-bars worth of energy spent, but the silent syndicate finally reached their destination. However, if you asked them, they would probably comment on how it is not about the journey. They came upon a ledge with which they could see nearly the entire camp – if there weren’t a giant gate in the way.
Amidst the hazy blur of what they could see though, they could make a small thing out. Well, small things. Things that blended in with the snow, held weapons, and emitted the occasional radio crackle.
‘Combine’
A look of disdain appeared on their faces; they clearly did not want anything to do with this outpost. To Gordon, this would be the equivalent of storming the citadel again. To Chell, this would be outside her paygrade. None of them wanted to go inside this camp. Hell, Chell still doesn’t even know who this Alyx person is. But she seemed important to everyone at the compound she has started to make a living in, so she might as well shoot first and ask questions later.
The two mute maniacs look at each other to devise a plan. Gordon moves his hands in a way that signifies he will go in and take out as many as he can while Chell provides covering fire. He hands her a pistol.
Keep in mind, Chell has never fired a real gun, and the portal gun has little to no recoil when fired. But hey, how hard can it be?
Turns out, pretty hard. Gordon quickly cocked his shotgun and jumped down the ledge, running into the camp. Chell, caught off guard, quickly scrambled to run after him, wondering how he stayed alive for so long.
The first shot rings out, a bullet ricochets off Gordon’s suit. The Combine had been alerted to their presence, and all hell was about to break loose. The first shell is unloaded into a soldier, dropping them instantly, the recognizable sound of death making itself known.
One, two, three guards taken down in the span of a few seconds. Several bullets came his way, as he was attracting all the attention of the guards, but they all just fell short. His suit of armor was impenetrable. Six, seven, eight, nine guards taken out now.
*Click*
Uh oh.
*Click, Click*
He was out of ammo and being charged at by a band of angry soldiers who very much wanted to do unpleasant things to him. He has to change weapons, but he doesn’t have the time, he’s about to get whacked. He braces for impact.
BANG BANG BANG BANG
It seems the soldiers have quite literally fallen short. He looks over to where the gunfire originated and sees the familiar site of gun smoke coming from a snow mound. She gives him a quick nod. He smiles and nods back, continuing the onslaught.
Taking out his submachine gun, he gets ready to face the next wave of soldiers. More soldiers came out of the camp, and more soldiers fell to the ground. Eventually, he was able to make it to the gate, suffering a small number of gunshot-related wounds from his armor starting to give out. He began to give out free samples of covering fire to cover for Chell so she could join him at the gate of the camp.
Laying down to avoid detection, she looked for a spot where she could place a portal, but all of the surfaces were too uneven or just downright unsafe to pop out of. She might have to just make a mad dash for it.
While she’s thinking about how to make it across though, there’s movement in the snow behind her. A red eye pokes through the snow, and an elite soldier pushes himself up. Chell is only made aware of its presence when she hears the sound of reloading behind her.
She quickly turns around and is met with a barrel to her face. She has to act quickly. It’s moments like these where she wishes she brought the frying pan with her. She rolls over to the right, just in time for the bullet to deafen her instead of the alternative.
With ringing dominating her ears, she quickly aims her pistol at the guard and fires, knocking them back and allowing her to get up. While the guard stumbles, Chell takes advantage of it and charges into them, forcing the gun from their hands and into the snow. She notices this, and knows that if the guard gets the gun again, she won’t make it. She lurches for the gun and is able to grab it before the elite soldier can regain his senses, points the gun, and-
BANG
The red light goes dim as the elite soldier falls to their knees and slumps over. If her hearing wasn’t stunted before, it was now. All she could hear was a faint ringing, but she couldn’t let that set her back. She still has to cross the field of fire. She looks over at the Combine soldier.
‘Bingo’
Gordon was starting to get worried. He hadn’t seen Chell in a long time, and ammo was starting to become a scarcity. At least with the number of bodies he had stacked up, gunfire had decreased. Which means he has time to focus on other things like the elite soldier charging right at him-
‘Oh crud’
He braced for impact again, but it never came. When he was finally brave enough to open his eyes, he noticed the guard closing the gate behind them, providing more cover fire with their pulse rifle. He was deeply confused until the guard took off their helmet, revealing the determined face and long hair of his new companion. What a happy change of pace.
She looks back at Gordon and bumps her chest twice. She has his back as long as he has hers. Looking around the camp, he starts to notice a lack of security. Did they all rush out to defeat them? Or are they walking into an ambush?
The duo spreads out to cover more ground and explore. Chell takes the left side of the camp, which covers a tower and armory area, whilst Gordon takes the right, which covers a cave.
Following Chell into the armory, she takes the time to refill her ammo in the unlikely case a couple battalions of Combine appear. While she’s here, she might as well make sure that no one else can use these weapons. So she breaks them. Turns out, it’s quite easy to do – just break it over the knee.
Exiting the armory, she looks at the tower. Conveniently, the door isn’t secured, allowing her to take the elevator straight to the top. At the highest point, it looks like an office, fitted to the size of a giant. It was a large area, and an empty one thankfully. Walking around, she notices documents on the mammoth-sized desk. A little espionage never hurt anyone right?
Spreading out the papers, she discovers the horrible secret of what the Combine have planned with this “Borealis”. Onboard the vessel is a prototype of the Portal Gun, one that is much less stable – but capable of so much more. There are pictures too. Her eyes widened. These pictures were of the vault inside the boat.
And it was open.
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On Gordon’s side of the camp, he enters a cave fearless of what may be in it. He holds his magnum in one hand and his flashlight in the other as he slowly traverses further. Walking down deeper, he notices prison bars. Or at least, what he thinks are prison bars. It’s really too dark to tell.
He was about to disregard it and turn back. Until he heard a whimper. He quickly turns to the noise, shining his light on the source. There he discovers one Alyx Vance, curled up and very close to dying. He quickly drew out his crowbar and made the effort to open the cells.
The bars were pried open in record time, allowing Gordon to step inside the dimly lit cell. He could barely stand it for a minute, and she had to stand it for days. He walked over the small ball on the floor, kneeling down to reach her face. She looked up.
“Gordon... y-y-you made it... please tell me y-you have a way out...”
He shook his head; he hadn’t really thought about a way back until now.
“Well... I g-g-guess we’re g-going to be here a while... M-mind helping me up? I can’t feel a th-th-thing...”
Gordon wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled her up. She was leaning against him the entire time as they walked out of the cave. As they leave the cave, they’re both blinded by the glare of the sun, taking what felt like years to adjust. The bright shine that invaded their sight had finally started to subside, yet they still saw about four white blobs in front of them.
“Anticitizens found.”
Aw crap, that’s what he was scared of.
“Hands up. Drop your weapons.”
The pair, knowing they would be shot if they didn’t obey, grudgingly raised their arms above their heads. Not even an HEV suit could save someone that many bullets. The soldiers, satisfied their commands had been obeyed, slowly advanced towards the duo. One reached out their hand to apprehend Gordon.
BANG
Only to be stopped with a hole through the head.
The other guards turn towards the source of the gunshot, only to be met with three head-holes of their own. They fall to the ground as their legs buckle beneath them, emitting the common dial-sound that most Combine make upon death. Gordon and Alyx look upon the guards with awe, wondering what just happened. That’s when another white-suited figure walks up to the bodies.
Chell kicked the guard as she stood at the entrance of the cave, looking at the bodies with disdain in her eyes and a scowl that could kill worse than any gun ever could. In one hand was the smoking, scary-looking sidearm, and in the other a couple of pictures. Gordon smiles at the sight of his savior, while Alyx stands there, staring dumbfounded at the newcomer who just saved them.
Gordon picks up his few weapons and wraps his arm back around Alyx as they walk out of the make-shift prison, meeting up with his teammate. They turn to look at each other as they start to “communicate” with each other.
‘You owe me one now.’
‘I’ll pay you back by getting you off this iceberg.’
‘I’ll take you up on that’ she said, her face starting to drop as she finishes her gestures.
‘Got some bad news for you.’
She hands Gordon the documents, his brow furrowing as he looks at them closer and closer.
“G-Gordon? Who is she?” Alyx stutters out.
His attention is broken at the sound of his cold friend. He takes a look at her, then at Chell, then back to her.
‘A good friend.’
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“...So that’s about it.”
Adrian was flabbergasted. An alien race, one that emerged from the portal he was meant to destroy, had taken over humanity in only seven hours. They ruled for decades and were taken down by the man he was sent to kill in the span of a couple days. A simple physicist. Some alien species they were.
“Now you know. So, are you going to help us rid the world of those things?” Barney asked.
“I’m not sure I like the alternatives. I may hate you and your team of scientists, but I do enjoy living a little bit more.” he replied, a joking tone underlying his words. “Don’t have much of a choice anyways, as I'm quite literally tied up.” Barney smiled a little, his grin stretching up to just under his nose.
“Glad we could come to an understanding. What even was your job in the military anyways?” He said, starting to untie the rope binding Shepherd to the chair.
“I was a corporal. I was supposed to be leading some of those guys on their mission at Black Mesa before it all went awry.” He answered, stretching out his arms as he could bring them in front of him. “Don’t see how that matters very much now though, seems the military was wiped out right?”
“Well, they might not be at hand to receive your orders, but we could sure use them on our mission. If you’re truly against these guys, you could help us get rid of ‘em. For good.” Barney replied, emphasizing the importance by slamming his gloved fist into his open palm. He extended his hand towards Adrian in a gesture of good faith.
“So, what d’ya say? I’ll be sure to spread the word of your heroics. After the incident with our scouting team, you may need it.”
Shepherd looked at the gloved hand for a moment. He grabbed it firmly, pulling himself up and shaking it.
“You got yourself a deal. What’s the mission?”
“We got four of our best in the arctic right now. We had suspicions that there’s a couple of Combine there, but it may be a bit worse than we thought. Lost communication with them a while ago, but we’ve been getting some sound from the pilot. They were supposed to be looking for a boat called the Borealis, maybe you heard of it-”
“Get on with it.”
“Yea, yea, I’m gettin' there. They need to get on the boat and destroy it, but that’s going to be a dream if they can’t get through that Combine. That’s where you come in. The pilot is heading in the same direction as the group, so he’ll meet up with them soon. We’re hoping that his radio will be better closer to a hub. You’ll be giving him strategy for how to get through whatever is going on over there.”
Shepherd brought his hand to his chin, pondering the best course of action for a mission such as this. Truth be told, he was thinking about how stupid it was, but he shouldn’t say that out loud.
“I’ll see what I can do, but I need more intel from the field. I’m sure your guys’ info is great, but what you know and what’s happening are two different things.”
“Walk with me, I’ll take you to the radio.” He said, waving him over.
Barney went over to open the door of the tiny room they had been in for hours, holding it for Shepherd to leave. Adrian walked out, giving a quick nod down as a thanks, a smirk tugging at his lips. As he left, Barney took one quick look of the room, shut off the dim light, and left, bringing an end to the interrogation.
And bringing a beginning to the end.
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Heavy footsteps crunch the snow. A very angry man in a green jacket stomps towards the rendezvous point, a task much easier done with the assistance of a helicopter... but the closest thing to a helicopter was blown up a couple miles away. Nevertheless, the trek continues.
In the distance, he can faintly see a compound. At least, what he thinks is a compound. One he hopes is also empty. He unholsters his pistol, ready to shoot should it come to it, and marches towards the entrance.
Slipstream’s mind starts to wander as the monotonous landscape drones by. Why do they even want to kill Freeman so bad? What is so important about the Borealis? Why did they have to send me to get stuck in the arctic as well? All of these questions would remain unanswered, for he was by himself.
“BZZZZZZ Come i- BZZZZZZZ"
The radio starts to buzz to life as he steps closer to the compound. He quickly reaches for the radio in his back pocket, thankful it didn’t break in the crash.
“Hello? Hello?! This is Slipstream, do you read me?”
Upon not hearing a response, he does a quick double take of the compound and the radio before running towards the giant gate in front of the hub. Thankfully, it has the exact effect he was hoping for. He messed with the dials on top for a tiny bit, adjusting the frequency to see if it would help.
“ BZZZZZzzzzz Come in Slipstream, do you read us? Respond.”
“Yes! Yes, I read you. Can you hear me?”
“Praise the Lord. We thought we lost you, kid. What happened? Where’s Gordon and Chell?”
“We got hit by some anti-air, locked on a bit before the rendezvous. Chopper landed a fair couple miles out, but your friends got knocked out of the cabin. I couldn’t see ‘em, but I won’t rule ‘em out just yet. I’m heading towards the mission site right now, see if I can find something that can help us.”
“Sounds like you got a plan. We found someone at White Forest, popped out of thin air. They were a Corporal in the Marines; we’re hoping he can help you with some strategy should you find Gordon and Chell.”
“Can I meet this Corporal? If I’m taking orders, I’d like to know from who.”
A second passed by before a new voice came on the radio.
“How’s the weather over there? Name’s Adrian, I’ll be your Corporal for today.”
Slipstream rolled his eyes at his humorous introduction.
“Nice to meet you Adrian, people call me Slipstream. What ya got for me?”
“Well Slipstream, not much ‘til you can tell me the entire situation. Not just what you know, but everything. Barney said you were near the rendezvous, how close are you?”
“I’m standing in front of a giant gate. I think the boat is through here, but I don’t see a way I can get in. Looks like it opens from the inside.”
“Search the area a bit more. Look for something like-”
BANG
The radio was shot out of his hand. He turned his head quickly, ready for a fight. And a fight he was about to get. He expected a couple of Combine soldiers, but what he saw was a bit scarier and a bit less than a couple of Combine soldiers.
A single, giant Combine Elite stomped slowly towards him. Taking in the surroundings around its victim, some steam escaped from its suit. It looked like it was holding back rage. It let out a low growl as it gazed at Slipstream. It’s one, large eye locked onto him. And it started to grow red. It let out a loud growl, its stance widened as he slammed its foot down on the ground. In its hand, a large shotgun that should realistically be a part of a cannon is cocked, ready to deliver a fatal blow.
“Uh oh.”