Freeman, Gordon Freeman. Of all the rebels in the entire world to turn up in London, it would be freeman.
Adrian moved to another part of the crater, he checked the chopper again, he could see freeman's face.
The same man, the same beard the same glasses. He looked the same age as he did during black mesa.
Adrian prayed he would not have to face up to him during the refuelling process, Adrian had been one of the last people to see freeman in black mesa, and Adrian's unit had killed untold amounts of innocent personnel that day.
Adrian would not at all mind meeting the other occupant of the chopper though…
He snapped back to the point, there WAS a war going on, and the combine were beginning to inspect the area.
"Easy," he whispered under the helmet "just avoid them"
"What was that?" Jackson broke in; the receiving was not good on the radio, which Adrian realized he had not switched off.
"Nothing" Adrian sighed back.
Jackson obviously couldn't make out what the radio was saying either.
"NUT 'EM? What are you on about?"
Adrian hit the radio in his helmet a few times.
"Look! Just pack the artillery up and move back to the armour" Adrian shouted
"WHATS THAT ABOUT MY MOTHER?"
Adrian was losing the plot because of the static. The resistance could get tanks but no good radio service?
"PACK THE FUCKING ARTILLERY UP AND MOVE BACK TO THE TANKS!" Adrian roared into the radio.
Then he realized that the shouting had attracted the combine.
A few police were positioned around him, three Overwatch soldiers were behind them and one elite was commanding them.
"Err…" Adrian lowered his weapon. "Yeah…I'm having a few problems here, could you…maybe come back later"
The combine all raised their weapons and the elite fired three shots at Adrian's chest. His PCV absorbed the impact but the elite did not fire again.
Perhaps it had something to do with the crowbar stuck in its head.
The group of combine turned to anarchy, two of the police fired randomly into the ruins, the other police trained their guns on movements in the rubble, the Overwatch threw grenades into the ruined buildings, and showers of rubble covered their enemy's approach nicely.
Adrian lifted his SMG and felled three policemen, through the dust and rubble, he saw an orange clad figure sprinting towards the combine, there was a sickly sound as the figure pulled the crowbar from the elite's skull, he then jabbed the sharper end through a policeman.
The combine took careful aim at the assailant; Adrian saw one of them fire an SMG grenade. Instead of an explosion, there was an odd sound and the grenade was seen hovering in the air, centimetres away from a glowing orange tool.
There was a loud electric CRACK and the grenade exploded in the centre of the Overwatch soldier's formation.
The final metro cop, the man dispatched by throwing his crowbar, picking it up with the orange gun, and firing it through the unfortunate combine's heart.
Gordon freeman stood triumphant.
Adrian formulated a way to explain things to him. Adrian had, after all, been part of the purge of black mesa.
"Err, hello?" Adrian began. Freeman ran over to the dead metro cop, and started to pull the crowbar free.
"You won't remember me, but I feel I should apologise, I am one of the marines who were sent into black mesa, look, I didn't really kill any innocents, but I'm really sorry." Adrian really had no idea of what to say in this situation.
Freeman remained silent.
"Look, I said I'm sorry, just, say something, please?" Adrian sighed
Freeman was unresponsive as ever.
"Oh come on, don't play silent with me. I said I'm sorry, what do I have to do?"
Freeman was, again, silent. Then he sprinted into the ruins.
"Hey! WAIT! WE DON'T KNOW WHATS IN THERE!"
Freeman ignored Adrian and continued around a corner, the marines had caught up with Adrian by now.
There was a loud sniper rifle shot, and then a thud as an orange armoured body hit the ground.
"MEDIC!" a marine yelled, and then a man with a red cross on his shoulder ran to freeman.
The medic at once began to work on the wounds, a sniper round had gone through freeman's neck.
"Bastard should have worn the helmet"
The squad camped out near freeman's body, standing guard over the medic as he did his work.
A few marines with a stretcher arrived to carry freeman back to HQ. The local CO strode over to Adrian.
"We're moving freeman back to HQ, the combine have been pushed out of this sector, we are making a push towards the citadel." With that, the CO briskly walked into a building being used as a command post.
The medic, whose services were no longer required rejoined Adrian's unit.
"What condition is he in?" Adrian nodded to freeman, who was being mounted on the stretcher
"Even if he didn't talk before, he sure as hell ain't talking now." The medic replied with a grunt.
"Why was he even here, I thought the chopper was refuelling"
One of the marines looked to Adrian.
"The chopper was damaged and had to land closer to your position, the engineers are fixing it up. Apparently freeman thought it would be fun to join in while the chopper got the works"
Adrian shook his head.
"God knows how he survived black mesa, still. You heard the man; we're making our move and attacking the citadel. No idea of how we're going to take it down but…"
Jackson interrupted Adrian with an unusually loud cough, he stroked a mortar gently.
"Okay… we still don't know whether or not we are going to demolish it, command might want it captured." Adrian continued, before a rebel interrupted.
"Hey, didn't the combine, like, self destruct the citadel in city 17 when the rebels there won?"
"To be completely honest I hadn't been told about that yet, I only just got back remember?" Adrian shrugged.
One detail worried Adrian, and he had not seen his former captor for some time now. If that bastard interrupted at a crucial moment in the siege…
"Lets move" Adrian spoke calmly, the comm. Channel started to explain the details of the plan to the rebellion.
"Everyone listen up! The marines have clearly stated that they wish to capture the prime minister, and refuse to participate in the attack unless they are allowed to do so. Therefore, we are NOT going to blow that eyesore up, the citadel is staying where it is for now."
Quite obviously a rebel speaking.
"the tanks are going to blow a hole near the ground level, the citadel is, as you know, built in a bloody large hole in the ground. We have stolen some combine force field technology and we plan on making a bridge with it."
For Christ's sake. Here the rebels were, with an entire city. Trying to think up ideas as to how to cross a few metres gap, and this was their best idea?
"oh, and the marines are the only ones going in, general Spence requested that I read this message to a certain marine: Jackson, no explosives."
The message finished, Jackson hit a wall in frustration, sighed, and produced a magnum revolver from his holster, well, it may once have been a magnum revolver but it certainly was not now.
For one, it had four barrels and a clip for each. Jackson noticed Adrian staring at the weapon.
"Another product of my bored mind, it's essentially a magnum shotgun; it can fire up to four rounds at once with minimum spread. It also makes a nice loud bang when fired." He smiled.
"and this is the backup" he took a regular magnum out of his other holster, he prepared to load a fresh clip, but only pulled one bullet out of the chamber.
"It also serves as cig storage" he indicates that the bullet was, in fact, a cigarette.
"What if you need it in the middle of a fire fight?" Adrian raised an eyebrow (although no one would see it)
"I don't" Jackson smiled
The area around Adrian and Jackson's squads was teeming with life now, the rebels having set up an outpost there. Typical of a rebel outpost, tables with radios, small scrap shelters and fuel depots had been set up.
Additionally, the X appeared to have been fighting nearby the area, as they were beginning to swarm into the street. The voltigores began trampling deserted buildings to make room for construction; the shock troops were carrying scrap and makeshift building materials. The things known as "pit drones" were setting up shop with food and supplies. The manner the pit drones went about their business (or rather, the way they were preparing food and building shelters) reminded Adrian of some of earths older oriental cultures, whereas the shock troops were all behaving more like the western cultures in their behaviour.
The X must have different variants of the species, instead of being a union of different ones, as Adrian had thought during black mesa.
Adrian noticed Xar sitting on a piece of rubble; he clutched a small plant like piece of biomass. Adrian approached Xar, and sat down next to him. The biomass Xar was holding was reminiscent of a photograph; it had an image captured on it somehow. The image was of an X shock trooper and Xar, but the other X was different, more slender, the eye was a lighter shade of amber and there was less muscle on the X's body.
"Xar?" Adrian nodded hello.
"Hey Adrian." Xar responded quietly.
"You doing all right?"
Xar sighed.
"A little homesick"
Adrian glanced at the 'photo' again.
"Who's that?"
"My mate. She… she did not get pulled into black mesa with me; I had this image grown after our visit to Nualgar. All I remember is that we got drunk as hell that night"
"Nualgar?" Adrian guessed it was an X city, or hive, or whatever.
"Nice place, great scenery, the X there were always polite, not that any of that matters now…"
Adrian saw Xars' eye concentrate on the female X in the photo
"You never know, she might have ended up in lack mesa as well"
"Maybe, maybe…" Xar sighed
Adrian was not sure, but he thought he saw a tear gathering in Xars eye. But one thing Adrian was sure of: the X never meant to harm anyone; they only wanted to get back to wherever they had come from to begin with.
Knowing that, Adrian actually felt sorry for them.
