Barney slapped himself in the face a few times, trying to get some warmth back into his cheeks. Patrol duty was one of the few things that made him wish he hadn't given up smoking. His vehicle, a captured Combine APC in arctic livery, was patrolling the Kraken Base perimeter zone, a rough circle that extended ten kilometres out over the permafrost.
The trip computer pinged, and Barney pulled himself up into the plexiglass gun turret to scan the horizon. To give patrol crews a break from staring out across the blinding vistas, the computer required that the crew halt at one kilometre intervals for two minute's observation, and spend the rest of the trip inside the cabin.
Barney put the binoculars up to his eyes, and panned them back and forth across the horizon. The too-bright landscape slowly swam into view, punctuated by the occasional icy boulder or fissure. Inside the cabin of the APC, the radio crackled into life.
"Hey, Barney. Morrison here."
"Yeah, go ahead."
"Scout relief team is on its way back to base in one of the microlights, and they're just coming in to land now. They say they could see something out on the ice as they passed over the perimeter zone, 'bout a klick and a half from where you guys are. Some sort of weird reflection. Check it out, and then you can come in early before that storm front hits. Morrison out."
The APC turned, and drove north. The horizon was heavy with cloud, and Barney hoped that they would get back to base before the blizzard really set in.
...
Tau 15 burst from the clouds, its hull still glowing cherry red from its high speed descent through the atmosphere. Engines off, the ship was in a steep glide towards City 14, and the Airwatch Nexus that lay on the city's outskirts.
Tires shrieking in protest, the spaceplane eased its tremendous bulk onto the runway. A set of magnetically charged rails acted as a reverse mass driver, negating the need for drogue chutes and bringing the vessel to a halt parallel with the entrance to the Airwatch bunker complex. On either side of the runway, the huge Combine eleven-square mile radar communications array stretched out, the landscape studded with a forest of ariels and dishes.
Before the tire smoke had even cleared, a pair of hulking synths, poised on three legs, hustled out from their blast shelter and began attaching umbilical cables to the ship. Alarms blared, signal lights flashed, and squad of Overwatch soldiers marched out from the entrance to the bunker complex, and stood smartly to attention in two neat rows directly under the plane.
A pair of mechanical arms extended out from the underside of Tau 15, and reached towards the cargo bay. Reaching inside, they drew out a gigantic egg-shaped object, wrapped in silvery foil and covered in wiring and electrical instruments. The arms gingerly lowered the egg down towards the tarmac. An APC drew up alongside, towing a large trolley, and the egg was laid gently onto it. The soldiers attached restraining straps to its flanks, then the APC set off down the runway at high speed, preceded and followed by a pair of hovering tanks. The convoy turned off onto the main road that lead to the City 14 Citadel, and as they sped off three gunships took up positions behind them. For the Combine, no amount of security was too great to keep this new asset safe from the Resistance – and its former owner.