Short chapter, but it had to be done. I own nothing of Valve's!

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The lift reached a hallway on the ground floor. Chell ran out when the doors opened and sped past cubicle after cubicle trying to find an exit. She soon found herself near the door, but saw something she hadn't expected: turrents. She couldn't help but to feel fear as she saw them, but soon noticed that they had no interest in her. The front door had been broken down, and strange, three-legged creatures were rushing at the enrichment center. The turrents seemed completely capable of defending the building, right up until a larger, more biological creature came into view.

The Hunters moved aside as the Strider approached, charging its cannon. The blast destroyed the turrents, and knocked Chell across the room. This didn't seem to cause much of a problem for the Enrichment Center, as two more turrents were put into place by mechanical arms and immediately picked up were there predecessors left off.

Chell wondered if they would actually be able to destroy this construct, and what would happen if GLaDOS couldn't handle the situation after the damage she had caused. Her fears were put to rest when an energy ball shot out at the Strider, destroying it. This ease at destroying such fearsome creatures on GLaDOS' part made Chell feel proud to have been able to defeat the AI, but this feeling passed when she remembered the report that was played during her escape.

Meanwhile, in City 17, Doctor Wallace Breen sat at his desk, glaring at the Metrocop who had just given him the bad news. Another forty-five hunters, and three striders were lost to Aperture Science today. Not to mention all the manhacks and scanners they had sent out to search the area and eliminate minor threats. With a sigh, he dismissed the messenger and retreated to a room containing a large computer. He hit a few keys, and the screen soon lit up with the image of one of the slug-like Advisors.

Breen looked at his superior and frowned at the thought of what it would do if it was angry about this failure. He took a deep breath and began speaking to the monstrous being "We have, once again, failed to acquire the Aperture Science portal technology. All units assigned to this have been lost yet again, and we have no way of getting past the front door. I even sent one of the damn gunships out there, but it got blown out of the sky by a rocket! We believe that the rebels have their own portal technology, though it is much less advanced than what Aperture Science came up with. I am sending all of the soldiers assigned to the Enrichment Center to find any traces of rebel teleportation technology instead of wasting more resources trying to tackle something that we just can't destroy."

The advisor was angry at this, and with good reason. They were a trans-universal empire, and they couldn't even get into one human building! Regardless, Breen had a point. If they were losing troops -striders even- to the Enrichment Center, it would be best for them to find an alternative, and crush some rebels while they were at it. The being dismissed its peon, and went back to planning the Combine's next invasion.

Breen left the room and retreated to his office. As he sat there, the intercom activated "Doctor Breen, your guest has arrived. I will send him up immediately." Breen frowned, knowing who it was. It was this man's fault that Black Mesa was lost, along with its technology. After all, he had activated the nuke. The administrator put on a fake smile as he saw his guest walk in, though secretly, the most powerful man on earth felt nothing but fear toward the man in the suit.

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Yes, this chapter focused a lot on Breen and the Combine, but I wanted to add a G-Man appearance to set him up for the Half-Life portion of this, along with show just how much trouble the Combine is having taking down GLaDOS. It will switch back to focusing on Chell in the next chapter. Since Aperture should be in America, Ill have to find a way to get her to City 17, which is in Europe. I'm sure it will work out though. Enjoy the upcoming chapters, and PLEASE review!