"Attention all protection forces. Non-compliant individuals detected. Deploy, engage, dissect"

The Overwatch Voice. I shivered. It had come to announce more killing. Which of us would be alive after this latest round?

"We must protect the research on the Project." Judith thought of scientific equipment first, and only then about the people using it.

I didn't hesitate to bark instructions: "Alyx, grab the rockets and Magnussons. Judith, take the research we need into the chopper."

"I shall go ahead of the Free Man and charge on the Overwatch. Chur lung companum Taar!" I'd call him Zabad the Brave from now on. He leapt off the front of the hull, burying half his legs in the snow beneath.

Just then we saw a Dropship ahead. It was about half a mile in front of us. Dropships tend to land out of weapon-range, then leave for more troops. Zabad jumped from the snow and ran towards the soldiers.

"Look Gordon, that way." Alyx had seen Striders arriving from our east. "Maybe four minutes and we're in their range."

We lowered down the Magnusson Device portal, the Gravity Gun, and a rocket launcher, then jumped into the snow. It was the most bitter cold I had known; even worse than the environment on Xen. The chill seemed to pierce even my Hazard Suit. How could the sun be there, clear with no clouds, and it be colder than the borderworld?

I pulled a Magnusson Device onto my Gravity Gun and ran for the nearest Strider. I needed to keep a quick pace, destroy one, dash back, grab another device and destroy the next one. If they got too close they'd blow our chopper and we'd be stranded in the Arctic.

The first shots came, landing only a yard away; yet I kept my pace until I was close enough. Aim at its head. Pull the primary trigger. Switch to the Magnum and destroy. I had knocked down a dozen of these in White Forest

Estimate the arc of the shot. Fire the device. And keep running. A single headshot and I'm dead.

I propelled the Magnusson towards the Strider. It knocked the front leg, then fell into the snow.

Missed. First shot a failure. We now had maybe three minutes before they could blast the ship.

I ran back to the device portal. "Go again Gordon, hit 'em all!", Alyx shouted, before firing a rocket at the soldiers on the other side. I grabbed a device and repeated my move: run to the right, dodge the shots, stop to aim.

I got near enough. Avoided maybe twenty cannon shots. I prepared the angle to fire, when a pulse blast collided with my left ankle.

The Hazard Suit can protect against these, but the force knocked me into the snow. I spat out a mouthful of ice, and held firm on the Gravity Gun. I fired, landing the Magnusson on the Strider's surface. A blow from the Magnum and it went down.

There were three more coming, each of them firing at me. I ran back, and briefly viewed the other battle. The Dropship came to land more troops. Alyx aimed a perfect shot at the carrier section. I don't know how, but the entire thing blew itself into a mess of flaming debris. We were winning. I just had to do my part.

Judith called from the deck: "Everything's loaded. I'm starting the engines." Just down to me then. Hit the Striders and we're safe.

I ran to the left this time, then diagonally forwards to the right. The second one had just passed the corpse of the first when I stopped and took my shot. Hit. I pulled my Magnum and missed three times. Carelessness. A pulse blast scraped the edge of my Hazard Suit, but I wasn't hurt so fired again. Gotcha. Six bones down, six to go.

Alyx and Zabad had by this time defeated the soldiers and come to assist me. "Go Gordon, land some more and I'll finish the job." It gladdened me that I was fighting with Alyx. If I am to die here, may it be by her side.

"I shall attract their gaze. The Free Man must shoot unhindered." Zabad was still without fear. We were going to win this, how could we not?

Running back, I went to the right and Zabad to the left. The furthest Strider fired at him, the nearest at me. Sprinting past its cannon I got in range. Aim and shoot. The angle was correct, the Magnusson attached. A bullet came from Alyx and we had one left.

Back now, last time. Judith called to us again: "The helicopter's ready. As soon as that last Strider goes down I'll be with you." Onto the Gravity Gun went another Magnusson. Zabad had drawn the Strider's movement towards the exploded Dropship, putting more distance between it and the Borealis.

Towards him we went. I watched his agility and swift-winged movement. He would be at least two feet away from every blast. A leap, a duck, a jump. The Strider had a discernible sense of frustration; it just couldn't get the Vortigaunt. I only needed to not be noticed. Some more yards of sprinting, and I have him.

I got close, perhaps riskily close, but if this shot worked we had won. Aim above the pulse cannon and shoot. It landed. One pistol round from Alyx and the skeleton crashed before us. I made a large snowball and threw it at the falling beast. A brief celebration, yet well deserved. All of us were safe. Including Alyx. Alyx had made it unharmed. Thankfulness for this overwhelmed me. We hugged, and I felt a tear of hers roll onto my cheek.

"We survived Gordon. Are we unbeatable? If you are, I want to be. But only if you are."

My love for another human shone more now than at any time since my mother's death. I was unused to close relationships with women, having never had any success before. But she, this Alyx, this daughter of a fellow physicist, she was making me a man of sensitivity and emotion.

The chopper appeared overhead. It flew just above us, then gained both speed and height. Judith waved from the cockpit, and flew back the way we had come. She was leaving alone - letting us be stranded here.