High above the fighting, above the war and above the death. An old soldier silently sighed to himself. Observing a rebellion in an office, miles above the ground, with no glory or fighting to be had.
This was no way for a soldier to live.
This man was Prime Minister Harold Wolfe.
In his life in the citadel, he often had time to think, and to wonder.
Right now, he was wondering why the Overwatch nexus had turned into a giant black mess.
He leaned over to the intercom.
"Report on the nexus?"
A voice obscured by static spoke from the radio.
"Some sort of dark energy device malfunction, miniature scale meltdown, possible failure of the reactors."
Wolfe snarled.
"The rebels?"
The radio cleared, and the static-free voice answered.
"Possibly, wait… they have artillery on top of some buildings near the nexus. Scans are unusual, hold on…sir! The rebels are deploying dark energy based technology, your command?"
Although no one would hear him, Adrian cheered. Never since the days before black mesa had he seen such magnificent fireworks. Oily black flowers blossomed across the combine nexus, the buildings reactors failed and the power supply became another part of the field of black growing over the area.
Adrian's radio crackled
"Well? What' you think?" Jackson yelled, the explosions were causing havoc on the radio system.
"What! In gods name was that?" Adrian roared back, his eyes still glued to the black fire in front of him.
The radio static cleared. "Never mind, ill tell you later."
The fires and explosions ceased and Adrian lowered himself into the crater. The crater was not very deep around the edges; the centre reached at least ten metres down.
"What's our next move, command?" Adrian returned to the radio.
"Shepherd? This is HQ, we have an update, there is a rebel chopper approaching from the northeast, its taking a stealth route towards our position."
Adrian coughed. a helicopter? A tank was one thing but a chopper?
"Can you confirm the passengers?"
"Negative shepherd, they say that they only need to refuel." HQ responded.
Adrian's weapon had been outfitted with a scope; it had an 8X zoom, more or less enough to make out the details of the chopper.
It was a Chinese design, or so Adrian thought, it had obviously been kept in well enough condition to fly. He could see into the pilot's compartment.
The one driving it was a young woman, and the other, Adrian could not make out the facial details, but there was something he recognized.
A suit, an orange, powered suit. The HEV protective system. Adrian knew at once who this man was.
"Gordon Freeman…"
AUTHORS NOTES: anyone who is reading this. DON'T STOP BECAUSE I'VE PUT FREEMAN IN IT!!
I will keep to the 'no talking' character and he won't be around for long, anyway.