8.

Barney's group was the first to hit trouble. Shortly after heading through their door, the troops were bombarded with Combine guards and Stalkers. Some of his troops even became surrounded at one point, but were rescued thanks to Barney's fancy footwork. They had already reached the fourth floor with just one distraction, and were making decent time. "Just twelve more floors to go, everyone. Great job! Push forward!" Barney said as they exited a data chamber.

Gordon's group was the next unit to encounter some conflict. As Gordon made his way to the fourth floor, he caught the attention of a Stalker, which caused the Stalker to close off the large room they were in and drop some rollerbombs from a large compartment overhead. To their disadvantage, they had no gravity guns, and Gordon was the only one with a hacker tool to change the rollerbombs' settings. Their only choice was to destroy the bridge behind them that the rollerbombs were on, in hopes of discouraging future attacks. It was a temporary fix to a large problem, but no one had been injured, and that was Gordon's main concern. After checking everyone and his surroundings, Gordon cautiously made his way to the fifth floor. He was concerned, however, that he hadn't encountered any Combine yet. He assumed everyone else had, and that made him terribly uneasy.

Griffith Anderson caught the worst of the Combine presence. Shortly after his cavalry hit the fourth floor, a Combine soldier heard them and alerted his comrades. They ended up facing thirty two Combine soldiers in a matter of minutes. Sadly, four of his men died in the struggle. He radioed Gordon with the bad news. "Gordon! Mr. Freeman! Oh no... not more!" was all he managed to get out before more soldiers showed up. Gordon decided to send more of his troops to assist Griffith, and assist they did. The skirmish was wrapped up in a few more minutes with only one more casualty. "Gordon, we've lost five men over here. I'm going to keep yours with me. I'm headed to the fifth floor. We shouldn't run into any more Combine on this end. Watch out your way!" Griffith's voice echoed through the metal walls of the tower. "Okay, Griffith. Keep an eye out, and watch your back. We need every person we can keep."

No matter what Gordon ran into, he couldn't help but think of what Alyx was experiencing. He hadn't heard from her yet, but no news is not always good news. He worried about her so much, and was afraid of what she would go through. "No Gordon, she's an experienced woman. She can handle it," he kept telling himself. No sooner than he had said it again, she called over on the radio. "Gordon, there's something you need to see over here."

Gordon and his following made their way out of the large room they were in. They found a service hallway that cut across to Alyx's area and made another turn through a room and a large door into the place where Alyx was.

None of them could believe their eyes. Surrounding them enclosed in glass cases were hundreds upon hundreds of advisors. There were enough to take out a large city if need be, and they were all right there in front of the resistors. The entire room was a tint of blue from the light the portal was emitting, and the illumination allowed them to see as deep as the room was, and everywhere there was room, there was an advisor.

"How long did it take them, you think?" Alyx asked.

There was no answer. Gordon was too busy thinking about the consequences of destroying the tower. "Do you realize that if we destroy this tower and portal, those advisors will be let free?"

It was true. Gordon and the rest of the movement had to find a way to destroy every advisor before they could do anything to the portal or the tower. "Let me talk to Kleiner and Wallace. They may have a solution," Alyx said, facing Gordon. "There MUST be a way."

"Alright. You stay here with half of your group. The other half come with me," Gordon directed. "Keep her safe. Nothing touches her. And Alyx, work with the doctors. Find out anything you can, and go through any means possible to stop them before we stop the portal. Keep me updated."

Alyx conceded a nod and whipped out her hacker tool. The troops split up, and Gordon left her and a handful of protection standing there in that room. "Seal yourselves in until something can be done, Alyx. Stay smart," he yelled as he turned to see her again. "Come on, guys. We have to find the others."

While Alyx was working diligently on a fix for the Advisors, Gordon made his way to the seventh floor. There, he crossed paths with Barney and Griffith. Gordon informed them of what he had seen.

"Come on. ANY more surprises? ANY? Really?" Barney asked.

"So far, this is as bad as it gets. We need to do something about them, which Alyx is working on that as we speak. Dr. Kleiner and Dr. Wallace are trying everything they can," Gordon assured them. "Shall we move on?"

The trio and their set of troops kept moving up the hallways. There were so many Stalkers in all of the rooms that they had to be as discreet as possible in advancing from area to area. Finding an easier, more quiet way up to the top of the tower was a great idea. Turning around a corner, Gordon discovered a small maintenance pathway and corridor that reached an open area where ships were made and launched. This was their shortcut to the upper areas; a tight ledge wrapped around the building and graded upwards slightly to a ladder leading up two floors. If they wanted to sneak in unnoticed, this was their chance. The ledge, barely two feet wide off the wall, was only wide enough for single file movement. One wrong move, and you could make the last footstep of your life, for the plunge down below was at least seven stories. Barney, Griffith, and Gordon went first, leading the way around tight turns and ledges. After half of the men had made it to the ladder, they were surprised to hear gunfire coming from behind them. To Gordon's horror, a small fleet of Combine soldiers was chasing after them around the ledge. "Oh no, not now!!" Barney yelled as he held the ladder with one hand and shot behind him with the other. It was immensely hard for the troops on the ledge to fight back; they couldn't shoot without hitting the man behind him. Gordon watched as three, maybe four of his men were shot as they fell to the abyss below. He just kept shooting. As the second to last Combine soldier was shot, Gordon heard a yell, a metal sound, and saw Barney's grip on the ladder fail as he drifted below. "Barney! Someone catch him!" Gordon yelled down below him to the others. As he yelled, Griffith Anderson leaped from the ladder, grabbed Barney, and managed to grab onto the ledge below. Men scrambled around trying to reach the two who were dangerously dangling by only four fingertips.

Gordon was helpless. There was nothing he could do to assist them. He raced down the ladder and commanded the troops who were not shooting the Combine to reach Griffith at any cost. Barney, who was holding on to Griffith's other hand, managed to inch his way up to Griffith's shoulders and reached up to grab the ledge. Now the two men were left nearly helpless above a deathly depth. Now that Gordon was down on the ground, he reached one arm to Griffith while holding onto the ladder with the other. Five others reached down to grab Griffith and Barney and pull them up. Just as soon as they were back on solid ground, however, a noise from above got their attention.

The Combine's trash dump was about to open.

Everyone raced to the ladder as fast as they could go. They did not want to be left below to be pelted by falling debris. Most of the men made it up safely, but tragically, three more soldiers were knocked off of the ladder into the deep hole when they were hit by wasted metal.

Now with six, maybe seven less troops, and adrenaline in everyone's veins, they pushed onward. Only one more floor to go. As they prepared to ride the elevator up to the portal floor, Alyx rang in on the radio.

"Gordon! We found a way! We can do it!"

"You can destroy the advisors?"

"Yes! Dr. Kleiner made a virus to upload into the advisors' mainframes! If the virus is put into their minds, they won't be able to move; they'll explode!"

"Alyx, that's wonderful... only problem is that if they explode... something that size could take out the whole building!" Gordon spoke aloud across the radio.

"Right! So when you guys go up there and disable the portal, I'll upload it and start a timer! Then we can get out in time to see the show!"

Gordon had to admit, it was a great plan. "That sounds amazing! We're outside of the portal room now. Be careful, Alyx. We're going in."

Gordon closed out the conversation and gathered everyone around in preparation for entering the portal room. He hacked the door open and walked through. The portal was just around the corner, but to his surprise, there were no Combine at all. No defenses, no anything! Suspecting a trap, they all entered softly and quietly as possible.

"What do you think, Gordon?" Barney asked.

"I don't know, Barney... lets see the portal."

As they rounded the corner to face the portal, a voice echoed through the room... a voice that froze everyone in their tracks.

"Hello, Dr. Freeman. I see you found me once again."