The hangar was made of cold dark metal, as was the rest that made up the Citadel, but because of it's massive opening to the ouside it was colder then most.
Hangar 19 was built far higher then most of the others the Citadel held, the intense winds from the high altitude made it hard at times for routine maitanence crews to keep solid footing on the smooth navy blue floors.
At the moment the hangar only had a cool breeze coming into it, but even that was enough to send a chill into the ranks of officers and units of Civil Protection that lined its far left wall.
Commander Carloff Harthen, the newly promoted Commander in Chief of Civil Protection in City 17, exhaled a large cloud of smoke he had drawn from the cigarette between his fingers.
He was a well built man in his mid-thirties with dark trimmed hair and thick eyebrows. The prefered uniform he wore was something reminisant to the commanders of the old Soviet Union, Harthen had studied the history of the Old World before the Seven Hour War and had found Russia's past to be the most interesting considering his position within the Combine Overwatch. Having been uniquelly fasioned after the Russian's style of dress, the commander's dark brown uniform stayed true to the original design except for a few minor adjustments. His had a high collar with the Combine symbol on either side while his uniform jacket closed down the middle with three buttons fashioned from Combine metals.
As for the rest of his uniform, he wore knee high black leather boots, beige trousers and black leather gloves.
After sucking in another lungfull of smoke, Harthen turned to face the rest of the hangar with twelve Trans-Human officers standing behind him, each wore a gray and black uniform with an officer's cap.
Being officers they were not required to wear the standard CP helmeted mask, each had deeply pale faces and shrunken yellowish eyes.
Beside these officers stood three ranks of Civil Protection, these men wore the full black and white body suit and face mask with their shiny black gloves and combat boots.
As the commander waited with his ranks of men the shrill of Hunter helicopters rang throughout the hangar as a squadron of the jet black fighters flew past the hangar's opening to reinforce the city far below.
Suddenly a heavy rumbling began to vibrate within the hangar, Harthen inhaled one last time from his cigarette before letting it fall to the floor and crushing it under the toe of his boot.
The rumbling continued as its source came closer to the Citadel, the control booth that managed the flow of shuttle traffic in and out of the hangar de-activated the blue tinged energy field that kept out un-authorized objects.
A large Combine shuttle-craft appeared through the thick white clouds outside the hangar, the rumbling of its engines nearly defening as it slowed down to a near hover as the hangar's fields dropped to allow it passage. The shuttle slowly pushed its way inside before landing in front of Harthen and his men, gentle clouds of steam escaped from the underbelly of the ship as it's engines began to cool.
More steam blew from vents near the loading ramp of the shuttle as it began to lower so that it's passengers could disembark.
Harthen exhaled his last breath of smoke before he walked over to the lowered ramp, ready to greet the man he had been ordered to assist in stemming the tide of the battle that continued to rage within the city.
Three figures disembarked from the shuttle, two of them were standard Combine Soldiers from the Trans-Human Army that governed Earth, but the third that walked ahead of them was differnet.
This man was dressed in a red and black Combine military uniform that seemed to stick to his body, showing off the man's blocky muscle bound frame while wearing a black and red Combine Hazard mask.
The deep red that shone from the mask's two menacing eyes made Harthen straighten to attention from a sudden chill running down his spine.
"General Tigen, this is a pleasure I am honored by your presence," Harthen said as he turned to follow the Combine general at his side.
"You may dispense with the pleasentries commander, I have been brought here to bring City 17 back under Combine control," Tigen said in a deep crisp voice through the filter in his hazard mask.
Harthen had been excpecting scrutiny once the military had been brought into the fight, keeping his composure under control would help in dealing with men such as Tigen.
"I assure you general, my men are putting out the best effort they can," Harthen said as they came near the hangar's heavy blast doors.
"Perhaps my men can find new ways to motivate yours," Tigen said in a malice tone as he entered a code into a nearby wall panel.
The thick metal door slid open to one side, but Harthen stopped Tigen before he could leave.
"City 17 will be brought under Combine control within the next twenty-four hours."
In a quick motion Tigen's left hand snapped up and grabbed Harthen's neck in a steel grip, the ranks of CP units lining the wall slightly turned to the two men and the two soldiers who simply stood and watched the scene unfold.
"As much as the Administrator and other commanders might, the Advisors and I do not share your optomistic look on the battle that is coming ever closer to this Citadel, given the right time the Resistance could enter the base of this tower with a rallied force in a matter of six hours, while it would take an entire day for your Civil Protection to track their movements through the ruins of the city that your bombing runs have been unable to break," Tigen said in a cold voice as he slightly tightened his grip.
Harthen tried to pry the general's grip away from him, but the Combine enhancements given to all who joined the military made it almost impossible for the human commander to do anything.
"They asked the impossible.....if I am to track where the rebels are coming from....I need more men," Harthen said in a strained voice as he cleanched his teeth to ease the pain from Tigen's grip.
Quickly the general released Harthen who immediately began coughing the instant the general's fingers eased on his wind pipe.
"Then perhaps you can explain that to them when they arrive."
Even as he massaged his neck, Harthen's eyes widened. "The Advisors are coming here?" asked the commander weakly.
"That is correct commander, and they are most displeased with Civil Protection's inability to gain control of this uprising," Tigen said, his crimzon eyes making Harthen cringe slightly at the thought of failure in front of the Advisors.
Harthen straightened to attention, "we shall double our efforts, I shall deploy more units and begin launching Head-Crabb carriers into the city, we will gain control."
Tigen pointed a reminding finger at the commander.
"I hope so for your sake commander, the Advisors are far less forgiving then any human could be."
With that Carloff Harthen watched General Tigen and his two guards exit into the corridors before turning back to debrief his ranks of men.