Chapter 4:Darkest hour

"Wake up Mr.Freeman, wake up and smell the ashes"-The G-man, Half Life 2

ATLAS-Alpha Section Prison-The Pit-8/9/2435

The pair of Alphas marched along the thin walkway that surrounded The Pit, a giant, hollow cylindrical colossus who's walls were honeycombed with hundreds of small 12x12 foot cells. Rising through the center of The Pit was a giant spire with dozens of walkways leading out to the walls. The prison was different to the one on Sahara; it was dirtier and certainly more dangerous. One quick look over the railings and one saw the curving wall stretching down so far that it was impossible to see the floor several hundred meters down. The pair of guards were carrying a limp object, they opened a cell and tossed the body in it.

"You think he's dead?" The first Alpha asked.

"No just out to it" The other one replied "he'll wake up and he's in for a shock when he does"

The two Alphas marched away, their sadistic laughing echoing around the prison.

'All things that begin, must end, your journey is at a turning point young Sev, remember these words: You are Furion, their meaning will become clear in time, then and only then will we meet…" Sev woke with a start. Breathing heavily he surveyed his surroundings. A prison, his cell was in the shape of a half cylinder, roughly twice his height in length and width. Sev got up cautiously and moved to the door to his cell. What he saw astounded him, Sev had heard rumours about The Pit last time he visited Atlas, but he never expected to see it. The massive hollow cylinder stretched up and down further than the eye could see, it was going to be a real pain to get out of here…

ALPHA SECTION PRISON-The Pit-Recreation Area-12/9/2435

Several days had passed since Sev's capture and he had got the

grip of prison life quickly. It was rough, violent and if you weren't

careful, short. He had already planned his breakout, using the other prisoners to begin a revolt and seize the prison; tonight was the time it would happen, Sev looked down at his tiny shiv a far cry from his sword but it would have to do until he got a better weapon. The guards were not Alpha Section soldiers, guarding prisoners was too trivial a task for them, instead the prison guards were simply basic grunts recruited with promises of glory and stuck on guard duty, armed with nothing but orange coveralls and shotguns. There were rumours of so-called 'elite guards' who had access to heavy weapons and better armour. Sev checked his watch, eleven, it was time. He looked up at the burly walrus across the dusty, octagonal yard on The Pit's floor and nodded. The walrus walked up to the nearest prisoner and dropped him with one swipe, in seconds the guards were down in the yard clubbing the walrus. This was Sev's cue, he dashed forward at the guards, drew his shiv and impaled one in the back, the guard dropped his gun and fell down Sev grabbed the shotgun and turned it one the guards all around him, before anyone knew what was happening the guards were dead and the alarms were sounding "Now!" Sev roared other prisoners raced about, some close enough to the dead guards to grab their weapons other drawing shivs and clubs made in secret. The pack raced toward the exit killing more guards along the way. At the exit they found a squad of guards set up behind a barricade. They surged forward as the guards opened fire with a mix of shotguns and rifles dropping several of the leaders in a hail of gunfire. The crowd overran them slicing and clubbing its way through the defense. Sev slowed to a halt and turned to the other prisoners "Get their weapons and ammo, anyone who doesn't have a gun carries ammo, the wounded will have to stay. They picked up several more guns along with retrieving the ones from the twenty dead prisoners the new gun wielding former prisoners now stood at the front of the pack. "Lets go" Sev ordered. Next stop was the lockers that held the prisoner's belongings but more importantly it was the home of a large room marked 'armoury'…

AIR VENTS

It had been a total disaster the guards had been waiting for them with elites and mounted machine guns. The prisoners had been cut down in droves, whoever survived the machine guns was torn apart by guards with military grade weapons, Sev had fought until he realized it was pointless, he had his own life to save he had dived into an air vent after stealing a new O.I.C.W from a guard and a belt of magazines. He now crouched in a small, gray vent identical to hundreds of others all over the prison, except for one thing, all vents had a small plaque on the wall at intervals of around 20 meters on which were written where the vent went, came from and where it branched off. This one was marked 'exhaust outlet 1152-337'. The only thing gained from the massacre was that Sev had been able to retrieve his belongings from the locker with his name on it. He had found his clothes, sword, nano-sheath and S.A.C in the locker and had put them on in the air vent. Sev crawled onward for what seemed like hours until he saw a tiny point of light ahead, he crawled his way towards it and found himself staring out at a typical alleyway, rows of overflowing bins and skips, rubbish on the ground and a fire escape, opposite. He kicked the grate off and took his first breath of the semi-fresh air of freedom. Around Sev were other vents with steam pouring out of them, other exhaust vents. Unbidden, one thought jumped into his head 'now, to rescue Jade: again'…

ATLAS-Lower Elements-Street level-12/9/2435

A small figure raced through the dense forest of people, pushing his way through with surprising terror-driven strength. The figure squeezed out of the crowd and into an empty alleyway. The figure was fairly short, obviously just a child no more than 13. He ran down the alley and dived behind a large skip, he peeked back out, the trio of large black suited soldiers that had been chasing him barged onward, oblivious of the fact that they were no longer in pursuit of their intended victim. The small child was a goat, clad in a hastily made yellow prison uniform that had been covered up with a stolen jumper and trousers, it was the most outgoing of Jade's orphans, Fehn. He advanced back down the alley slowly, wary of any other pursuers that may be out there. Suddenly a hand with a grip like iron clenched down on his shoulder. He spun around, painfully twisting his pinned muscles. He stared up into a familiar face. "Jade!' He squealed, except it wasn't Jade, though the figure held a great resemblance to jade it was in actual fact a young man who stood there.

"Relax kid, I know Jade." Sev said in a consoling voice.

"Prove it! Who are you?" Fehn snapped.

"I'm an assassin sent to kill Jade…" Sev paused a minute, then threw back his head, now framed with long shaggy hair that fell onto his shoulders and let out a barking laugh. "Gotcha there kid. I'm a mercenary Iris employed me to be some sort of guardian for Jade. Look let me show you my contract. With that Sev pulled the Iris contract out of his S.A.C. Fehn scanned over it and, when convinced handed it back to Sev.

"We gotta rescue Jade and the others. I know where they are! Jade sent me out to find you." Fehn said.

"Me? Why me?" Sev asked, baffled by this, he and Jade had not parted in good company. She had accused him of thinking about nothing but himself, 'she was probably right' Sev thought honestly.

"Leave that to me." With that agreed on the pair made their way back into the dense streets and, on Fehn's instructions made their way to a place even more ominously titled than The Pit, a place known as the Alpha Section PlanetOps building.

UPPER ELEMENTS-PlanetOps

After hiring a taxi to fly them to the Upper Elements of Atlas, with Sev posing grudgingly as Fehn's nanny the two gazed about in wonder. It had been five years since Sev had been in the company of such opulence, the Upper Elements was were the upper crust of Atlas society lived. It was the highest eight levels of the city that covered the planet. It was almost like home, except that home had rolling green plains, amazingly crystal clear rivers and snow capped, cloud shrouded mountains…

Sev shook his head to clear it of his nostalgic dreams of his home planet; it was from a past that was dead and gone, a future that burned with the ashes of Furia, a fire translated into his own heart, burned onto his very soul. Sev marched onward, now oblivious to the glittering of the magnificent structures, which shone as if they were made of gold. In the middle distance Sev's sharp eyesight picked out the enormous, sprawling building with that massive holographic title 'GOVERNMENT HOUSE'. He led Fehn towards it both keeping a wary eye on the guards around them, hopefully the news of their separate escapes hadn't reached the ears of these guards. Even a warrior as good as Sev wouldn't be able to fight of all these guards at once armed as they were. Sev's eye for weapons picked out ceremonial swords, quarterstaffs and halberds but he also noticed the on-ceremonial guards armed with the occasional O.I.C.W, he also picked up H&K MP-500 SMGs, GK-36 Battle rifles, SKS-100 Urban assault weapons and M-23 Urban assault weapons. Against that massed firepower Sev would stand little chance even without having to protect Fehn. Jade would kill him, if Fehn got hurt and that would be if the guards left anything. So Sev kept a low profile, moving with the flow of sightseers as they made their way toward the massive building. As Sev drew closer to the structure he began to see just how difficult it would be to get in. The crowds parted and Sev saw a pair of massive walkers flanking the Government House. The combat vehicles, 30 feet tall had four long, spindly spider-like legs that supported an upside-down hemispherical pod hanging between them. From the pod hanging on thin, highly flexible tubes were two autocannons and, Sev gasped in shock, a long black cylinder that could only be an anti-matter cannon. Along with the walkers were over forty guards plus sentry turrets, scanners and no doubt mines. Fortunately the answer to Sev's problem came several minutes later, with a rocket that slammed into one of the walkers and a cry of "Liberty or death!" a swarm of colourfully dressed people came pouring out of lifts and buildings, they opened fire on the guards using AKMS rifles, stolen H&K MP-500s,GK-36s and SDS 14 shotguns. The guards returned fire despite being caught out in the open, subjecting the resistance fighters to a deadly hail of crossfire from all sides. The resistance split up and took cover, as the boulevard became a battlezone. By now Sev noticed that he and Fehn were all alone, the sightseers and tourists having run to the nearest cover. Sev dashed over to a small knot of resistance fighters and joined them inside what turned out to be a court. He immediately encountered a small army's worth of guns aimed at him. Sev thought fast, if he didn't respond quickly they would kill him 'Safe and sound in its shell the precious pearl is the slave of the currents'. The resistance fighters lowered their weapons and Sev realized that the he had spoken the words that had come into his mind.

"You know our password." A fighter with a cybernetic eye and arm said.

"Uh, yeah." Sev replied, "I'm a long time revolutionary." 'Idiot'.

"Well that's good enough for me. You look well armed enough. We gotta take down those walkers or they'll cut us to pieces" Another fighter said, this one was cradling a shotgun.

Sev though quickly, small arms couldn't take down those walkers not even if the resistance had brought along any RPGs or AP rocket launchers. "Give me covering fire, make sure those guards keep their heads down, if the don't blow them off."

"What're you gonna do?" A third fighter asked.

"I'm going to get up inside one of those walkers and use it to toast the other one."

"You're fraggin crazy man." A shark fighter told him.

"Maybe but it's the only thing that's going to wreck that walker" Sev replied. Without another word the group rushed out to relay the orders to other fighters. Sev turned to Fehn "Fehn, I'm serious here. I want you to stay right here, don't move unless the building gets blown up. Stay here Fehn, I'll be back as soon as this is over." With that Sev dashed back out onto the streets just as the walkers joined the fight. Immediately chaos erupted as the resistance fighters desperately employed RPGs and Anti tank rifles in a futile attempt to stop the walkers. Sev watched as a trio of RPG rockets exploded harmlessly off the walker's armoured carapace. The walker turned, singled out its attackers and opened fire with its dangling cannons, the solid durasteel ground was ripped to shreds and the pocket of fighters died in a blaze of fire and autocannon shells. Sev heard their screams from where he was standing. It chilled him to the bone, Sev shook the thoughts from his mind 'focus on your goal' he told himself 'Hold on Jade, I'm coming.'

'Sev!'

Sev nearly fell over from shock. He had just heard Jade's voice inside his mind, and his heart. He had heard of certain people being able to communicate on a telepathic level before but he never thought he'd see it, much less experience it.

'Jade, is that you?'

'Who the frag d'you think it is, your grandma!'

The sheer attitude in the reply conformed it 'Jade, its so good to hear your voice... Uhhh I mean its good to know your alive.'

'Right, now's not the time Sev'

Jade sat alone on the bunk in her 12x12 foot cell, desperately trying to maintain the telepathic link.

'What, Jade, 1 have to say this, I've fallen. Oh frag!

The link was severed without warning, Jade felt a white hot pain in her gut, like a giant bombed had punched through her ribcage and exploded. She didn't know at the time but it was that pain that a victim of a 25mm HE autocannon shell felt when they where hit by one. Just like the shells being used by the walkers outside…

WALKER AT0056

Commander Dernud Lown watched the massacre through the cluster of glowing red photoreceptors on the walker's head. His walker was butchering the rebels, it had lumbered down the boulevard, chasing the fragmented remains of the rebel attack down the street, culling their numbers with long swathes of 25mm death and leaving blood smeared ruins behind it. The boulevard was now totally unrecognizable; every surface was covered with bullet holes, shell craters and smeared blood. At the remains of defensible positions were clusters of corpses riddled with bullet holes and melee weapon cuts. The streets and walls twisted sheets of pockmarked steel. And ahead more destruction lay in wait. Every time the walkers fired their explosive shells tore up huge chunks of metal leaving long jagged tears in the boulevard. Lown surveyed all this with satisfaction, he knew this might be what got him promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and it would be a desk job, no more butchering pathetic rebels and innocent bystanders from the safety of his giant machine. But it would be a nice, relaxing job after his many years of active service. Lown was not an old man, just into his early forties and only staring to go grey. He had a weathered, lined face that smiled only when he could see his enemies crushed beneath the long, stilt like legs of his machine. Lown had steel gray eyes that matched his icy soul, a military standard haircut and a goatee. He was wearing a standard blue uniform with his name, rank and medal representatives sown on to it. On each shoulder was a circular patch with '431st Armoured Division' and a picture of a hover tank on it. Lown might have been an exemplary soldier, as his medal representatives showed, but at the moment he was too focused on the task at hand to notice the small figure scaling his walker's leg.

Sev flopped onto the walker's body. The climb had exhausted him, he had been forced to drag himself up 30 feet of smooth steel and the swing across to the body. He lay there for a moment, catching his breath and then started crawling across the swaying carapace of the giant machine. Sev had never realized just how loud those twin autocannons were. The deafening sound gave him extra incentive to get inside. He found a small hatch and prized it open with his sword, he lowered himself into the walker and dropped down smack in the center of the walker's cockpit. Sev made a quick head count, two pilots and a commander all staring at him with a mixture of shock and mild fear. "Ello guv'nor" Sev said in his best accent. It was the last thing Lown ever heard. Sev impaled the cold-hearted commander on his sword, drew it out and delivered the same treatment to the pilots. In the blink of an eye, the walker was his. Sev kicked Lown's body out of the way and sat down at the commander's chair. He jimmied a plate and set to work rewiring the controls. Predictably.

"Welcome New User, you have the con." Said the impassive computer voice.

"excellent." Sev said to himself. He reached out and took control of the walker, bringing it around and lining up the other walker. He activated the anti-matter cannon.

"Warning, friendly in the line of fire."

"Override" Sev ordered.

"Order accepted, powering anti-matter cannon."

Sev lined up the other walker and pressed the firing stud. A long beam of purple energy lanced out of the barrel and slammed into the target walker, vapourizing a circular hole through the whole body. The walker staggered sideways from the force of the blast and collapsed into a building. Sev then turned the autocannons on the soldiers flocking around his walkers feet. Within 30 seconds it was a complete rout. The few remaining soldiers had gone into hiding and the ragged remains of the resistance attack force stood clustered around the base of the walker, cheering at their victory. Sev managed to operate the grav-lift in the walker to take him down to ground level. There he was met by swarms of rebels who hugged him, thumped him on the back or shook his hand. One young female human even came up to him and kissed him on the cheek. Sev blushed, smiled and asked for whoever was in charge.

"I'm still here," the rebel he had spoken to earlier said, grinning from ear to ear "This is a great day for us and you made it happen."

"Were still not finished." Sev replied. He was about to continue when something small and furry attached itself to his leg. Sev looked down to see Fehn clinging tightly to his leg. Sev pulled him off and put Fehn up on his shoulders where he could see better and wouldn't get stood on.

"You did it Sev you did it!" Fehn yelled in his ear

"I know, now we can rescue Jade"

"It won't be easy. My people are exhausted we need to rest before we bust in." The rebel commander informed Sev.

"I know, but Jade's in there somewhere and she needs me, I know, I can feel it…"

The rebels rested for an hour before moving in. Sev spearheaded the assault, cutting down the few remaining guards with ease. The rebels encountered little resistance, most of the guards having been sent outside during the earlier battle. It wasn't long before they found what Sev was looking for.

Sev stood outside the massive durasteel double doors leaning against the wall next to them, a squad of rebels at his back. He summoned a small block of door breaching explosive out of his S.A.C and tossed it across to the rebel on the other door. Then he got one for himself. As one they set, armed and activated the charges. 5..4..3..2..1..the charges went off, forcing the doors to swing open to reveal the Alpha Section PlanetOps, Sev and the rebels gasped in amazement. What had seemed but a simple room was really the gateway to a massive durasteel cave which itself held a sprawling framework city like a scale model of Atlas itself. Their current room was like a massive lobby, which led to a large landing bay full of small grav-sleds of several varieties. It was several full seconds before a furious storm of gunfire broke out as the rebels and Alpha Section gunners vied for control of the lobby. The rebels had little cover and so improvised, going prone behind the corpse of a comrade and hiding behind the pillars saved the lives of those who had not been cut down in the initial trade off. Sev quickly advanced behind the pillars, sword in one hand Alliant/H&K M-29 SABR/O.I.C.W in the other despite its weight. He snuck up on an Alpha position as the guards traded fire with the rebels. He raked the group with 5.56mm rounds and dived at the survivors with his sword outstretched. Sev hacked through the group and immediately moved onto a pair of Alphas manning an -540 SAW he sliced one in half, ducked the others swing and brought his sword up underneath the guards armour lifting him off the ground, Sev dropped the body off his sword just as the gunfire ceased. IT seemed that the rebels had done most of the work.

"All right people find a grav-sled and start freeing the prisoners. Teams nine through twenty set up a perimeter on the shortest route back to HQ take the prisoners there in small groups. Teams 21 through 30 sweep the surrounding areas, try and find someone important looking and see what info you can get them to cough up. Everyone else start work on getting those prisoners out." A chorus of enthusiastic 'yes sirs!' met the resistance commander's orders as team captains relayed orders for their men to fall out and begin work. A team of rebels broke into the lobby's office and immediately sat themselves down at the consoles, filling up the entire room; together they worked to start opening cages and bringing systems on-line.

Sev wasn't one to be distracted. HE grabbed a two-man grav-sled and flew to the back of the chasm city. There was a small tower with its own landing pad. Sev put down on it after reading the massive sign which said 'SPECIAL PRISONERS UNIT-NO PERSONEL UNDER LEVEL 5 CLEARANCE' 'This is a as good a bet as any to find Jade and her friends, I'm sure the Alphas would consider her a 'special prisoner' time to get to work'. Sev marched through the doors. This place seemed strangely empty; he hadn't even seen a servitor bot. IT was like everyone packed up and left when they heard that the rebels had bested the exterior guards and by the look of the place, that seemed to be what had happened. Sev found the brig after a dew minutes of searching, still not seeing a single guard or worker or robot. He pressed the button to open the door, it slid open easily they hadn't even locked the doors. Inside was a set of 12x12 foot cells each one covered with an energy barrier.

"Sev!" Sev heard the shout and rushed to the cell, Jade was standing at the barrier looking worried. "Sev they took Pey'j and Hub somewhere, I don't know where they are." Jade's large green eyes were filled with worry and sadness, Sev was surprised that she hadn't broken down yet.

"Don't worry." He reassured her, "If they're out there we'll find them. Lets get you out of here first." With that Sev hit the release button on the barriers control panel, the barrier shimmered and vanished. As soon as it was down Jade rushed out and flung her arms around Sev's neck, clinging to him tightly like a young child.

"Sev they've taken them, Pey'j, the kids, Hub, all of them. They took them somewhere! They said they were taking them somewhere I'd never find them, if they survived, their words exactly! Sev, I'm afraid that they'll die, I could never forgive myself if any of the kids came to harm!" Jade gushed out, getting all that weight of her shoulders, even with all her strength, even she had her limits of how much she could take and she had gone way past them.

Sev put his arms around her shoulders. "Relax Jade," he said softly, despite still being slightly surprised at the sudden outburst. "C'mon he" said gently prizing her of. He held her by her shoulders and said "I promise Jade, wherever they are we'll find, whatever it takes." Jade leaned in closer to him stretching up to reach, Sev looked down at her. Just at that moment Sev's S.A.C beeped, startling both and ruining the moment, Sev detached his earpiece "Go ahead" he said, thoroughly annoyed at whoever had called at that precise moment.

"We're nearly done here, come back with whoever you find."

"Right.' Sev said, trying to maintain a level voice, with one last glance at a thoroughly embarrassed looking Jade he set off for the hangar.

After another half hour the majority of the prisoners were well on their way to rebel HQ and the stream had slowed to a trickle when the hologram suddenly materialized in the middle of the room.

"Ah, resistance members. You know who I am; you all thought I was dead didn't you. You were wrong! AHAHAHA! You might have won this small victory but it won't change a thing, Hillys is in the middle of a civil war!" Said the sinister figure. Sev took down details in his mind, very large, two blue stripes on his cheeks, Alpha Section armour and a nametag that read…General Kheck. The hologram vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

A storm of protests burst out immediately from the rebels and former prisoners

"No it can't be!"

"He died!"

"I don't believe!"

"This can't be happening"

"I saw him die!" Jade shouted, startling Sev and a pair of nearby rebels.

"Then what's he doing talking to us now?" Sev asked, it was the first time the two had spoken since the prison barracks; they had carefully avoided eye contact after ever since arriving back at the lobby. No more time now for being shy, especially with this new supposedly resurrected foe on the scene. "Who is he?" Sev asked Jade.

"He was the leader of the Alphas on Hillys, way back when before all this started. I saw him near his moon base not a few months ago.

Dead or not, Sev could feel that this guy was trouble. Something told him they needed to get back to Hillys right away. Though he wasn't sure whether that was his feelings or Jade's, the telepathic link seemed to have strengthened and now he was picking up small clues about Jade's feelings. Confusion, fear for her family and friends, exhaustion, anger at the Alphas, but the one thing that had been nagging him constantly he had been sensing ever since they met: love, for someone nearby. He tried to banish any thoughts of it being him with little success 'Stop daydreaming and get on with the job. I don't know what to believe anymore. I'm not working for money now. It's a greater cause I have been fighting, for what I believe is right. And for this…'

As luck would have it Sev's ship Icarus was being held in the warehouses at the Government House. Sev and Jade climbed aboard for the trip to Jade's war-torn home planet.