AN:The next chapter is here. Hope you enjoy!
Distorded Mirrors: You're absolutely right about the ending of the prologue, I actually hadn't written it as an ending, but as part as chapter 1. However, before uploading it, for some weird reason I decided to add the first sequence as a prologue and the rest of the chapter as chapter 1. Thank you very much for your review, and I hope I well be getting more advanced critique, because I appreciate the time you take to improve my writing.
BlindAcquiescence: Thank you for the review and I hope I will manage to keep you entertained with the chapters yet to come. As to your question: I don't think Dr. Kleiner was seen throughout Half life, or Half life: Blue shift. Barney (Calhoun, that is) escaped with the help of three scientist, the most important being Dr. Rosenberg. We never knew how Kleiner, Dr. Vance, or any of the other scientist escaped, and for my story I'm just assuming they never met again with Barney, or any of the other survivors before city 17. I'm here to tell you how they met and how the real resistance started. (Well, my take on things anyway) :)
Enjoy!
Chapter 2
The rescue
It was quite dark on the corridor that led to the stairs. Barney noted that most of the lights had been disabled, probably thanks to Alyx. He tucked his face mask under his left arm, not wanting to put it back on just yet, and headed towards the stairway. Alyx followed him closely and didn't seem to concerned about being heard by anyone.
"I guess you took out the whole squad then." Barney said, observing her behaviour, and raised his eyebrows. Alyx just refrained from answering, and kept going. Barney looked as she moved past him and decided to not give up just yet. "How did you manage to take them all out without allerting anyone?"
"I didn't." Alyx answered, sighing. "Those that were in the same room sure as hell noticed that I was there. But I disabled their radios."
"You did?" Barney asked, awed at this revelation. "That explains a lot. How did you manage that?"
"Thanks to this." Alyx replied, holding up a small device that wasn't like anything the undercover civil protection officer had ever seen before. It seemed as if had been custom made, consisting of parts carefully welded together by experienced hands but with the help of inadequate tools.
"What is it?" Barney said, reaching out to take it. However, Alyx seemed to be a bit protective of it and snatched it away from his grasp. This resulted in a fake hurtful look from the former security officer.
"This," Alyx said, turning the tool in her hands while admiring it. "mister Calhoun, is probably one of our most promising tools. It allows us to hack into Combine systems, though it takes a bit of time. It's still a prototype, but I must admit it worked quite well on this mission."
"You can hack into systems using that?" Barney asked, not sure if he was supposed to laugh or be impressed.
"I used it to disable the main radio system in this building, so the Combine wouldn't be able to contact other outposts. However, radio contact between the same squad was still possible..." She said this with a thoughtful look at Barney. "Actually, I'm surprised you weren't alerted by their alarm calls."
Suddenly Barney flushed and shook his head. "I...disabled my radio set. I was busy with my own 'little mission', and didn't want to be interrupted or called upon for a routine inspection. Frankly, I thought if they came to check on me I could just blame it on a malfunction of some sort." He said, thinking back now he thought it quite foolish of himself. Alyx nodded in understanding, though and started to make her way down the first flight of stairs. They lapsed in comfortable silence for a while, before Alyx reached the beginning of a new hall way and decided this was the time to tell him what had been slightly bothering her.
"If we're going to get those people out of there, we need a plan." She pointed out, carefully stepping over a blown out apartment door that lay across their path.
"Don't worry, I think I have an idea." Barney answered, almost tripping over the same wooden door. He steadied himself, and decided to leave it at that and just continue their previous conversation. "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is it that Cubbage had to find out?"
"Odessa? Oh, just some data on combine technology." Alyx said, waving her hand vaguely while rounding the corner and coming up to the end of the hall way. "If you really want to know, we're trying to find out if the Combine have figured out to use the concept of entanglement. We're on our way to try and use the borderworld as an 'unexpressed axis', and-" Suddenly she stopped, eyed Barney and then shook her head. "Wait, you probably don't understand any of this. It's like the concept of the portal---" However, before she could explain herself more clearly, Barney interrupted her;
"Sounds to me as if you're trying to work on teleportation!" He gave a shaky laugh. "But even I know nobody would be stupid enough to try that again after what happened at Black Mesa."
Alyx looked at Barney curiously. "You know about the concept of teleportation?" She asked, clearly surprised by the man's understanding of her scientific explanation.
"Well, yes. And I should! You pick up a thing or two when you're working as a security guard at earth's first teleport research facility." He answered her question. Alyx halted, unbelief written on her face.
"You worked at Black Mesa?" She exclaimed, clearly not suspecting that answer. Barney nodded and gave her a sad smile.
"Yeah. And let's just say that I experienced first hand why you shouldn't mess with such dangerous technology."
"But that means you survived the resonance cascade...we didn't belief there were any others." Alyx muttered, suddenly lost in thought.
"I escaped and saved a couple of scientists in the process. I was just really lucky." The former Black Mesa employee said, clenching his fists. "I don't think a lot of others escaped, if any."
"But if you know about the teleportation, that means you've probably met a couple of the scientist that worked there." Alyx stated, frowning.
"Yeah, It's hard to miss those stubborn stuck up arrogant bastards." Barney muttered darkly. Alyx looked up in surprise.
"Were they really that bad?" She asked, giving a slight smile, thinking of her own father who had worked there before the Combine invasion. "I find that hard to belief."
"Well a lot of them were. To us 'lowly' security guards, anyway. They felt themselves superior, and only saw us as an annoying necessity." Barney replied. Clearly the man had taken this behaviour as a direct insult.
"Of course there were a couple who were not so bad at all." He admitted. "I happen to have escaped with the help of Dr. Rosenberg. I hadn't met him before the cascade, but I had heard of him! Dr. Keller was always complaining about him." He laughed, "But you had others, too, like Dr. Kleiner and of course Gordon..." He trailed off, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the subject.
"You worked with them?" Alyx asked, getting more and more surprised with everything the man in front of her revealed about his past.
"We were friends...sort of." Barney said, smiling sadly. "Dr. Kleiner was the one who got me transferred to Black Mesa...Of course they're probably all dead now. Gordon got trapped in the border world, but I never found out what happened to the rest of them, including Kleiner, after the incident."
There was a stunned silence from Alyx, who tried to think of what to say. "But, don't you know?" She asked, feeling slightly weird at this unusual piece of news.
"Know what?" Barney asked, confused by her strange reaction to his revelations.
"Dr. Kleiner survived, along with a couple of other Black Mesa employees, including my dad, Dr Eli Vance!" Alyx replied, her eyes locked with those of the man in front of her, who stared at her in shock.
"He's still alive?" He repeated, shaking his head as if to clear up his mind. "Wow, I never thought...This is so unexpected, I'm so...relieved to know he made it!"
"Yes! He's here in city 17, working with my father on a method to use Xen as a slingshot during teleportation, so we can achieve a form of reliable local transport!"
Barney halted in mid motion, "Relief is gone now." He said in a monotone voice, before returning to himself; "Teleportation, and Dr. Kleiner is involved!..." He exclaimed. Alyx took a step back, frightened by the sudden outburst.
"We're all doomed." Barney muttered, burrowing his face in his hands.
Allan Kestler traced the form of one of the many small tiles that covered the floor with his right hand because of lack of anything better to do. Not that he was bored, on the contrary; His heart was hammering in his chest and he his ears listened intently to anything that might be happening outside. Rather, he made the movements with his hand to preoccupy his mind so that he did not dwell on what might come to pass in the next few hours. He swallowed slowly, trying to not make a noise, and looked to the man beside him. His name was Victor, and Allan had come to know the man in the past few months as a silent but interesting type. He had a full grown beard, and his bushy eyebrows leaned heavily above his sunken eyes that stared intently through the forcefield. They seemed to burrow themselves into the opposing wall, and Allan was almost surprised to see that it did not crumble under the intense and accusing stare of the man. He thought better not to comment and instead looked over to his other side, where the pale face of Lukas was just visible underneath his arms that were wrapped tightly around his knees. It seemed as if Lukas wanted to shut himself off from the outside world, and Allan noticed the young man was softly mumbling to himself. He turned his head back and looked at the two Combine overwatch officers that were standing outside the forcefield. They hadn't moved or talked much the past few hours, but he kept a close eye on them nevertheless.
The group had been transferred to this checkpoint only a few hours earlier, during the beginning of the evening. Though it was well into the night by now, nobody dared to fall asleep. Allan knew they were close to the train station as he could hear the coming and going of the trains. Every time the far away alert and klaxon could be heard of a new train, Allan said op straightly, abandoning his trace work, and instead listened carefully, dreading the door would open and Combine soldier would come in and take them away.
It was a nerve wreaking situation, and Allan felt as if he was kept awake only by the pure amount of adrenaline that was surging through his veins. He didn't know how long he could keep this up before passing out, but there was no way he would allow himself to fall asleep. Somehow there was still a tiny bit of hope in the back of his mind. Maybe, possibly, if the right moment would arrive they had a change of surviving this all. But to be able to take advantage of that moment he had to keep himself awake. So, that was why he kept on tracing the tiles, focusing on the noises that managed to penetrate the walls, the two Overwatch soldiers outside the forcefield and the door that lead outside. They all knew what was to come, and they all knew there was little change of escaping it.
The faint sound of a horn from the train station could be heard, and Allan help his breath. He noticed that the whole group seemed to sit up straighter, and even Victor tensed up a bit. All eyes came to rest on the door, and there was a moment of silence. When nothing happened, they all let themselves fall back slightly.
"I can't take this!" A sudden voice rang out, though not to loud in fear of the guards. Allan turned to see who had said this, though he could have guessed with the think English accent that accompanied it. Odessa looked vary pale and a slight tremble was visible in his hands as he let them rest on his bowed head. Of course this whole thing had been the colonel's fault, but nobody felt like pointing it out as they all awaited the same faith, anyway. Before the colonel could possibly say anything further about his emotional state, however, one of the Overwatch soldiers stepped up to the forcefield and let his hand rest on the shock stick that was hanging from his side.
"Silence, citizen!" The distorted and menacing voice of the officer rang through the air and the people around Odessa involuntarily shuffled away from him. Odessa looked up alarmed, and panic was in his eyes once he realized the guards intentions. He opened his mouth to speak, but he was interrupted when the door suddenly flew open with a loud bang. Allan's adrenaline level surged and he thought he might be in the process of having an heart attack when a Civil Protection soldier stepped through the doorway, followed closely by a young woman. The whole group took in an collective breath as they watched the new arrivals with fearful eyes.
"We have an outbreak!" The new soldier exclaimed, pushing the woman in front of him. "Anticitizen activity in apartment block C 11. Team down!" The crackle of his radio was still audible when one of the guards stepped up.
"Report!" The soldier barked, clearly of an higher rank, and the new officer shoved the woman forward yet again, though harder this time. The woman stumbled and shot a venomous glare towards the soldier.
"Unexpected attack, 5 casualties. This female citizen was captured but a male one has been spotted and gotten away, possibly more. Advising backup." The soldier reported, and the higher ranking officer stepped towards the command console.
"Alert, all teams, Anti citizen activity reported in sector C 11. Outbreak!" The inhuman voice reported over the radio, accompanied by all it's glorious fizzles and clicks, before the soldier took towards the door.
"Unit 48902, lock up prisoner and report to checkpoint 8B." The Overwatch officer ordered, and left through the door just as a faint alarm could be heard going off in the distance and the female voice of the Combine radio unit filled the room as it directed any nearby combine patrol troops.
The second Overwatch soldier began tapping away on the command console like mad, and the new CP unit shoved the woman forward towards the forcefield. Allan jumped up, not really knowing why he was doing this, but his movement was followed by the majority of the group. The CP soldier took out it's weapon and reached out to deactivate small portion of the forcefield when suddenly the voice of Odessa rang through the air again.
"Alyx?" He exclaimed, unbelief written on his face. Allan looked to see if the woman acknowledged Odessa, but if they did know each other, she did not show it. The CP unit turned his attention towards the old English man, taking out his shock stick, clearly intending to use it.
"Citizen, step b-" However, whatever he was going to say next was stopped short when the young woman trusted her elbow into the soldier's chest with great force, and successfully floored him with the help of her right foot. The unit let out a small cry and the second soldier looked around, alarmed. He reached out for his weapon, but his motion was cut short when the woman shot the soldier with great accuracy. The soldier fell to the ground with a loud thud, and a eerie beep came from his helmet. The beep was followed by the female voice of the radio unit, that was informing the room that the unit was, in fact, dead. The woman then took out the two camera's on both sides of the room in quick succession. Allan had little time to take in the action, and was completely at loss as to how and where the woman had managed to get the weapon from so quickly.
"Yes!" The colonel cried, and pointed excitedly towards the soldier that was still laying on the ground. "Quickly, shoot him and get us out of here!" He exclaimed, practically jumping up and down. Allan held his breath, not daring to belief what he was seeing. The woman turned around to look at the soldier, who surprisingly was still laying flat on his back. Suddenly, his excitement was turned into terror when he saw the woman extending her hand to help the soldier up and gave him his weapon back. The room fell into silence, and all eyes stared in shock at the scene that was unfolding itself in front of them.
"What in God's name are you doing, you idiot!" Odessa exclaimed, a look of absolute horror on his face. The soldier looked at Odessa for a second and then directed his attention down towards the shock stick that he was still holding in his right hand. He turned towards the woman;
"Do you want me to shock him anyway?" He asked nonchalantly, followed by the fizzles and clicks of his radio. This resulted in an even deeper silence, before Allan suddenly realized what was going on. He stepped forward, not daring to belief that this was all actually happening.
"Barney? Is that you?" He asked. He couldn't think of anyone else who would make such a comment in such a situation, and he nervously laughed to himself.
"Yes it is me, thank you Allan." Barney replied, though the sarcasm was lost because he still had his combine helmet on, which distorted his voice. He took off the front mask, revealing his face, and reached out to deactivate the forcefield.
"Okay guys, this is the plan; You're going to follow Miss Alyx Vance here through the sewers, she'll be able to take you somewhere save. I'm going to stay here and try to direct the Overwatch soldiers somewhere else. No doubt they have already been alerted so I want everyone to go now. And by now, I mean right now!" He yelled, directing them towards the back door. Not losing any time, Allan scrambled out of the room, followed closely be the rest of the group.
Barney halted Alyx as she holstered her own weapon and made for the door. "I know I said I'd come with you, but don't wait for me, take these people out of the sewers and somewhere save." He said, and Alyx frowned at him.
"How will you be able to find Kleiner's lab on your own?" She asked, wanting to make sure if this was a good idea.
"Look, they'll be looking all over for you, I would really appreciate it if you get these people off the streets first." He gave a small grin. "Besides, I can always visit this so called lab of Kleiner another time. You've got my people with you, they'll be able to find me." He finished. Alyx nodded and opened the door to lead the group down through the canal and into the sewers.
"Good luck!" Barney yelled as he watched the dark forms of the group scramble towards the low bridge on this side of the bank. It was dark, so he only listened to the faint sounds of splashing to confirm that the group was jumping down into the dark, polluted water of the canal. He sighed, put his face mask back on and returned inside to face the music.
