2.
Gordon and Alyx stood in disbelief as Barney Calhoun stepped out of a torn and totaled dune buggy.
They hadn't seen him since they had tried to save the citizens from the Combine. Last they had heard, he escaped from City 17 and was fighting Combine to the north of them with a small resistance unit labeled Turma. From what Gordon and Alyx heard, Turma encountered plenty of trouble... But they never heard what had happened to Barney.
And now, he stood two stories down, as if he had been there the entire time.
"Gordon, Alyx, it's great to see you're okay. I've been concerned about your safety, and I'm glad to see familiar faces."
Barney looked up at them, hoping it was real. Hoping that he hadn't come nearly 300 miles for nothing.
Truth is, Turma needed help.
But so did Gordon and Alyx.
Barney had bitten off more than he could chew. His troop of 245 quickly dwindled down to 56 in a month. Added to Gordon and Alyx's 67, they could probably put up a good fight.
This wasn't the only reason Barney was here. Every so often, it's good to reconnect to old friends.
Gordon looked down at Barney. "Barney, I'm glad to see you alive too. We heard of your resistance troubles. We're here to help, and you know that. We're coming down."
Everyone assembled on the first floor of the research complex. They all had to band together and come up with a strategy, and they had to do it fast. Otherwise, the advisors could come back, or the Borealis could be found. Who knew how close the Combine were to finding it.
They all decided to band together the fleet of 13 helicopters on the base to search out the Borealis... Whatever was on the ship, they had to find it. Whether they destroyed it or not was up in the air, but everyone knew they had to find it.
Gordon and Barney planned everything they could out. "We can't be certain about ANY of this," Barney said. "All we know is that we have to find Dr. Mossman. Her last known location was about 560 miles northeast of White Forest. How can we find her? She's a needle in a frozen haystack!!"
The two guys and the rest of the troops made their way to the helicopters. Everyone pitched in to load them with supplies, food, water, and ammo. So far, they planned on retrieving Barney's troops and flying north to search for Mossman.
Alyx remained grief stricken over her father's death. Her thoughts went back and forth between anger and sadness, but she somehow felt a deep sense of belonging, of need, of hope, in finding what was on the Borealis. Joining the others, she stayed by Gordon's side, boarding his helicopter and taking the seat beside him. Barney's copter lifted off, followed by all the rest of them.
"One more time, Alyx? Can you do it?" Gordon said, peering into her glazed, puffy eyes.
"One more time, Gordon."