The tram finally reached sector A. Jenna's heart gave a hard jerk in her chest. This was the hazard course sector, where she and Barney competed with each other only days ago, although it seemed like years ago now. They got off the tram and began walking towards the satellite communications center. They were walking down a hallway when a brown alien teleported in behind them. Alyx screamed, and Jenna whirled around. Without even dropping the little girl, she held Alyx in one arm while pulling out her gun with the other hand and firing at the alien, killing it.
Alyx began to cry at the loud sound. Jenna bounced her and tried to comfort her.
"Hey! C'mon, kiddo!" Jenna said, rubbing Alyx's tears from her eyes, "Don't cry! It's just a noise! But you were such a good teammate! You saved my life!" Alyx stopped wailing and looked at Jenna. She gave a small sniffle.
"There ya go! That's better," Jenna continued, "Now, can you do me a favor, sweetie? Can you be my teammate and be my second pair of eyes?" Alyx nodded. "Alright, let's get moving then. Keep a watch out for me" Jenna said, giving Alyx's hair a small ruffle.
They continued on until finally reaching the satellite communications center. Right before they rounded the corner to the main computer area, they could hear voices.
Jenna put Alyx down. "Alright, kiddo, me and my friend Adrian are gonna scout ahead. Keep watch over your daddy and Dr. Kleiner, ok?"
Alyx nodded.
Jenna and Adrian carefully rounded the corner. They were immediately surrounded by three more HECU soldiers.
"SHEPHERD!" said one, who looked like he was an engineer. "Woah, buddy. I'm glad to see you!"
"Yea, we thought you were some more of those masked black op freaks!" said a heavy gunner.
"Hey! Who is this? And why is she wearing a PCV?" asked the third, a medic.
"This is Corporal Jenna Brandenburgh. She is stationed here for research. She was a sniper, but left before you guys joined" Adrian responded.
"My god! You're Corporal Brandenburgh? Man! You're legendary!" the engineer said, taking Jenna's hand and shaking it hard.
"Uh, Thanks. So we're making our way to the surface to get the hell out of here, right after we do some work in here, you guys want to join us?" Jenna asked.
"YES!" all three of them cried. Jenna jogged back to the three people waiting in the hall, and brought them into the room.
"Aww, man! What are we? The local babysitting service?" the heavy gunner said. Adrian gave him a sharp look, and he immediately shut up.
Dr. Kleiner and Eli poured over the computers, while Alyx stayed obediently by Eli's side.
Suddenly, Dr. Kleiner broke the silence, "this is odd," he said softly.
"What?" Jenna asked. She walked over and looked at the readings on the computers. It looked like someone was attempting to set up a teleportation portal on the surface outside the main entrance and parking structure on the facility.
"Someone's making themselves an escape route." Jenna said, looking at Kleiner and Eli.
"It has to be Dr. Rosenberg," said Kleiner, "he's the only one left here who knows how to make a portal that accurate."
"Ok," Jenna said, "That's not too far from here. We'll make our way to the surface, and get to the escape area. We'll try to catch them before they all take off."
Dr. Kleiner and Eli finished on the computers. "We aligned the satellite now," Eli said, "let's just hope it works to stopping this whole mess."
"Ok, Jenna said, "we're gonna have to make our way to the surface. It's not gonna be easy because the elevators are probably out. We'll have to take the maintenance access ways."
They made their way through the access ways, battling hordes of aliens of all forms on the way. The aliens were a lot easier to deal with, with the addition of three more soldiers on their side. They reached a large storage area that had a small equipment lift that would take them to the surface. Unfortunately, as was the case with many storage areas, the Black Ops were using this storage area as a staging point. The five troops ran forward, and Jenna called back to the three others.
"STAY BACK! GET BEHIND SOME COVER!" She yelled, as she ran forward, pulling out her shotgun.
Jenna ran around a corner right into a female black op. The female kicked Jenna in the face and jumped backwards.
"Oh, you stupid bitch!" Jenna yelled. She shook off the pain and aimed her shotgun, shooting the assassin in the chest. Jenna ran around another corner, and took out a male black op before he even saw her. She could hear the other soldiers working on other black ops, so she doubled back to provide support.
She came into the main area, where the gunner and engineer were shooting a group of black ops and the medic was reloading his pistol. The black ops were ducking behind crates, so Jenna took out a grenade and pulled the pin before tossing it their direction. She knew that they would run away from the grenade, but it flushed them out of their hiding spots, making them easy targets to pick off.
She heard Adrian on the other side of the room fire his shotgun, and then the room went silent.
"Recon, check in!" Yelled Adrian
"Area secure!" Jenna yelled back.
Jenna sprinted back to where the scientists and toddler were hiding. She ordered Alyx to cover her eyes again. She carried Alyx to the lift, and everyone else piled on, standing close. Eli pressed the up button, and the lift began to climb to the surface.
When they reached the surface, they quickly dispatched a few brown aliens before regrouping. There was a military humvee still running about 5 yards away.
"Alright! Our ticket out of here!" said the heavy gunner, "Adrian, let's get the hell out of here!"
Noticing that there was no room for all of the group in the truck, Adrian shoot his head, "You guys go ahead, I'm going to help Brandenburgh get these guys out of here. I'll find my own way out."
Eli pointed out the best way to get out of the facility, and the three soldiers got into the car and sped away.
"You didn't have to stay," Jenna said to Adrian.
"Well, I promised you I would help you rescue these guys" Adrian mumbled, "I'm not gonna bail on you now."
"Well, thank you. I really appreciate it." Jenna said.
They continued over the surface, making their way to the entrance on the very far side of sector A. They came across a black op station, but it was abandoned.
"They must have dispersed and set up assaults on different parts of this area" Jenna said. She climbed into the back of one of their trucks, where there were assignment papers laying on the floor. She picked them up, and was shocked to see the results.
She read the briefing, revealing that the black ops' main objective was to kill her and Gordon. There were pictures of them attached and it listed all of their background stats. Beyond that, their objectives were to kill everyone in the base, dispatch of all of the aliens, and there was an assignment for a "delta" team to set off the bomb Adrian peered over her shoulder, reading the papers as well.
"Why would killing you and Freeman be their main priority?" Adrian asked.
"Because Gordon was in the test chamber and… DAMN IT!" she said, remembering what she did to warrant such heat, "I signed off on the sample that caused this whole thing."
She stepped out of the truck, throwing the papers onto the floor.
"What's wrong?" Eli asked.
"They're targeting me because my name is attached to the crystal." Jenna said, frowning.
"Oh dear!" Kleiner said.
Suddenly, a bullet wizzed by them, hitting the floor.
Jenna shoved the three civilians behind a truck, and pulled out her SMG.
She peered around the corner. Adrian was hiding behind another truck.
"I can't see them!" He yelled, "These black ops are SMART!"
Jenna ran out from behind the truck, sprinted into the open and behind another truck. She saw that they were hiding behind rocks. She decided to flush them out again with an SMG and she and Adrian took them out when they were forced out of their hiding spots.
When they were all dead, Jenna looked up, and saw that the open surface area was surrounded by rocky hills, perfect for scouting ahead.
"Ok. This is getting old. But they are after me. So here's what we're gonna do." She said, "Me and Adrian are going to go up into the hills and scout ahead. That way we'll be out of sight, and I won't attract attention to us. We'll clear the path, and I'll holler at you guys when the next section is clear. We'll go about ten yards at a time. Take cover anywhere you can while we scout ahead again. We'll repeat that until we get to the escape area, ok?"
"Got it." Eli said.
Jenna looked at Eli, and saw that Kleiner was trying to keep Alyx preoccupied by telling her stuff about science. Jenna took advantage of Alyx's distraction to talk to Eli.
"Look, Eli, about Azian" Jenna said softly, Eli looked very pained, "I tried everything I could to save her, but… the aliens just….came out of nowhere. I couldn't…. I'm so sorry!" she said, as tears began to well up in her eyes.
"It's not your fault." Eli said, touching her shoulder, "It's no one's fault. No one knew this would happen. I'm just glad you, Izzy, and Alyx are ok. Thank you for coming back for us. If it weren't for you, we would probably be dead by now."
Jenna nodded, and gave a small sniffle. "Ok, we'll go ahead now" Jenna said.
Jenna and Adrian climbed into the hills, out of sight. They slowly made their way across the large canyon. Jenna and Adrian cleared the path of Aliens and black ops, and Jenna would holler at Eli and Isaac to run forward, while Eli carried Alyx who was covering her eyes. They repeated this about 8 or 9 times before they saw a team of scientists hot wiring an SUV by a main entrance up ahead. Jenna saw Barney was part of the group, and she resisted the urge to run to him.
She instead, focused her attention on the three people below. She walked just into their view and crouched down so that only they could see her.
"Alright, guys. They are about 7 or 8 yards away, and the path is clear. Barney is up there, so yell for him to give you cover fire if any aliens pop in. Adrian and I are going to run the other way, to draw attention away from you guys, ok?"
"What?" Eli demanded, "You're not coming with us? That's ridiculous!"
"Listen, Eli. The black ops are after me. I don't want to get into the car, only to have it blown up by a helicopter a mile down the road. We'll draw their attention away from you, and find our own way out. We'll meet up with you later, ok?"
Eli gave a feeble nod, "Please, try not to take too long!" he said.
"Alright," Jenna said, giving him a forced smile "take care!"
"Goodbye Jenna" Kleiner called from below.
"Goodbye JENNA!" Alyx said, waving her hand at Jenna.
They parted ways, as Eli, Kleiner and Alyx ran one way, Jenna and Adrian ran the other way.