As the meeting ended, a Vortigaunt sidled up to where Alyx and Gordon were standing.
"If the Freeman and the Alyx Vance would accompany me to the laboratory wing..."
The trio made their way along a twisting maze of corridors that formed part of the old Kraken Base, established long before the Seven Hour War. Aside from the labs, which had been specially sealed, the rest of this area was slowly decaying. Here and there snowdrifts had leeched into the corridors, and some sections had collapsed completely under the weight of the ice and snow that had been piled onto the roof as camouflage.
Dr Kleiner met them at the door. "Come in you two. Thank you, Uriah, I will see you later."
The Vortigaunt bowed, and retreated with a speed that betrayed his dislike of the cold.
The room was a mixture of pre-war human technology, including several workbenches and fume cupboards, and decidedly alien objects. On the nearest workbench, hooked up to a hybrid Combine-human computer, was a white object. Gordon found himself squinting at it in the bright light for several seconds before he realised what it was.
Kleiner, with some effort, dragged a pair of sturdy lab stools over to the bench, and he motioned for Alyx and Gordon to sit. He turned the object around, revealing a white Elite helmet, scuffed and bettered, and streaked with purple stains down one side.
"Thanks again for bringing that Combine soldier to me, you two. Its helmet has divulged a substantial quantity of information which I believe will prove useful to the Resistance. I took the liberty of downloading files from the inbuilt camera almost as soon as it arrived here, and found quite a few interesting pieces."
Kleiner pushed his glasses back, and leaned in towards Alyx. "Alyx, would you be so kind as to tell me what happened the night before last? The footage seems to show – well, something I'd hoped we had seen the last of at Black Mesa."
Alyx pushed the monitor towards Gordon. On screen, a pair of gloved hands appeared below the camera, holding a pistol. Between the flashes of light that followed, the silhouette of a hulking alien creature was visible, looming out of the darkness.
"What...but...they should have all died."
Alyx looked confused. "You've seen these things before?"
"Yeah. At Black Mesa. The Nihilanth – that thing that made the portal between Earth and Xen – sent these guys through with the Vorts. I must have fought dozens of them, both on Earth and back in the Borderworld. It wasn't as if they were particularly smart, although they were pretty strong."
Alyx snorted. "Tell me about it. Thing was about to punch through a steel door and rip me to shreds before Dee stopped it."
Gordon looked up. "Dee? Alyx-"
"What? I'm allowed to talk to him, aren't I?"
Gordon sighed. "He's dangerous. D-9 stays under lock and key until we work out what his game really is. He took you hostage, Alyx. You can't trust someone who is so...concerned for their own survival."
...
Smooth, sleek and menacing, the Combine spaceplane hung in space like a hovering falcon. This vessel was the largest in the Combine arsenal on Earth, over a hundred metres long and weighing hundreds of tons. It had been dispatched to this remote spot, halfway between the Earth and the Moon, for a critical mission.
The spot chosen for the rendezvous was a Lagrange point, a spot where the gravitational pull of both planets cancelled each other out, creating an area of true zero-g.
"Extra-Atmospheric Control. Vessel Tau-15 in position. Requesting ETA on insertion."
"Tau 15. Position acknowledged. Re-align on vector 6,4,9,9 and open cargo doors."
Gas jets on the flanks of the spaceplane puffed silently, and a panel drew back to reveal a voluminous cargo bay. Seconds later, a battery of high powered lights snapped on, bathing the area around the spaceplane in a halo of ghostly white light.
"Tau 15. Activate inertia dampeners and hold exact location. Insertion window has begun."
"Confirmed."
Several silent, motionless minutes passed. The sun had disappeared behind the Earth, leaving the spaceplane alone in a tiny pool of light.