"So here we are."

"Here where?"

"Above the Borealis."

"I see only ice here."

"Look better."

"The only thing is that canyon...."

"Precisely. The ship is there."

"How do you know?"
"The position of the anomalies I tracked based on combine observation remarked a...."

"Okay, forget I asked, let's just land. Though we'll never fit the chopper in there."

"We'll find a way to descend."
The helicopter softly touched the icy ground, its paddles sliding on ice.

"So here we are... where everything begun." said Alyx.

"You mean where everything ends." answered Gordon.

"What do you mean?"

"You said.. where it begun.. but this is not where..."

"I didn't say a thing..."

"You... you... well, let's get moving."
They packed everything they could carry, food, weapons, clothes, energy cells and healing kits hoping to have enough to survive even if they would not find Mossman.

Meanwhile, In White Forest Base the secondary silo alarm rang.

"Not AGAIN! Someone kill those goddamn crows!"

"Magnusson... are you sue it's really crows this time?"

"Since we've been working here false alarms have been more or less a billion and the true one has been ONE, so yes, I think it's crows. Plus, the gates are closed and nothing bigger than a damn pest could go in."
"Anyway, we could send someone... well, armed."

"Fine." Magnusson turned on the loudspeakers. "Thank to the persuasion of our beloved doctor Kleiner, an armed squad must go in the secondary silo and take out those crows. Be careful, they might peck you to death! AND NOW MOVE!"

Two rebels grabbed their weapons and descended in the corridors below the silo, crossing the blasted blast doors.

"I have a bad feeling."

"Don't worry, it can't be Combine again... it's simply impossible..."

"Yeah... but I still think...."

"Listen, we'll just have to chase away some crows. We did it a hundred times."

"Do you hear this too?"
"This what?"

"Like... like someone whistling..."

"I can't hear a thing."

"Listen... it's getting closer...."

"Oh, fuck.. I hear it too..."

"I know this music...it's... it's..."

"It's that march...."

"It's... it's called... it's called... 'when Johnny comes marching home'. It was.. it was an American march... before the war...."

They saw a man at the end of the corridor, or at least it was a humanoid. It walked almost hunchback, and wore a full body armour. On his head, a gas mask and green goggles.

"Any idea why is... that thing... whistling it?"

"No.. but... that is a combine, isn't it?"
"It looks like one...."
"It is not."

The two rebels started when they heard a Vortigaunt behind them.

"That being is strong in the Essence." continued the alien "it's not one of our enem..."
It couldn't finish the phrase. His head rolled aside and a fountain of yellow blood sprouted for the neck.

"What... what the...."

The combine-like man was standing between the two rebels, with a knife in his hand. It had not stopped whistling.

"How... you were there...."

"Don't speak, just shoot!"

The two opened fire, but the creature had disappeared again. Before they could understand where it was, another severed head reached the Vortigaunt's on the floor.

"Why!? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM..."

Another cut. Another choke.

The second alarm rang.

"Oh my... oh God no...."

"Magnusson? What has happened? It's not...."

"Full Alert! All the fighters in the base ready their weapons! Seal the silo doors! Everyone, MOVE!"

The rebels in the base acted as one man, trained by the precedent emergency and determined by the death of Eli. The doors were sealed, a defence was readied, and before the whistling creature had reached the silo's exit a battalion of rebel warriors was ready to receive him.

"Where are we going Magnusson?"

"Don't you guess, Isaac? To the damn Hangar A, where we are not at risk. Even in case of invasion, that hangar is the safest place."

Magnusson was pulling his colleague by the sleeve through the courtyard, heading to the building where the Advisor was. The responsible Vortigaunt was standing on the doorway.

"Uriah! How do you explain this?! The Advisor has called reinforcements!"

"No." The Vortigaunt's tone was utterly calm and unemotional.

"What do you mean? Do you think those invaders have just decided White Forest was a good place for a trip?"

"No."

"Then what the Hell is happening?"

"It has come here. The Verigai."

"The what?! Stop speaking in riddles!"

"The Verigai. It is unknown to me how could humans name it. The guide maybe or, he-who-conducts."
"Then... what is it doing here? And why is this thing attacking us!?"
"It aims to the Shaulato. It's purpose is that of annihilating the advisor."

"All of this is very interesting, but I really couldn't care less! I want five Vorts guarding Hangar A from outside until this emergency is over!"

"So we will do. But there's no reason nor chance to obstacle the Verigai's path."

"We'll see" growled the scientist "we'll see."

"So what do we do now?"

Alyx, Gordon and Chell were entering the icy canyon through a side passage, steep and narrow but still walkable. Gordon lead the group, hacking on the ice with the crowbar and keeping balance despite the slippery ground.

The wind, blowing through the fissures and the tunnels, screamed like a Banshee carrying shards of ice and striking like a frozen whip on the three. The didn't speak, while they kept descending to the core of that cavern.

Every step was harder than the one before, every second the chance of falling and rolling down all the way was greater. The HEV suit could keep Gordon warm enough to survive, but it wasn't enough to be comfortable. Cold froze their junctions and entangled their motion.

After more or less thirty minutes, which to them seemed to last days, they saw the tunnel widening and a blinding light coming from outside. The winds carried small drops of salty water, and they saw it.

Inside the main canyon, a long, deep crack into the peck , a torrent of sea water ran around a ship, still anchored to it's deck.

The Borealis.

"So this is it." Alyx stared at the white letters on the side of the mastodontic ship. Ice covered the whole surface of it, stalactites leaning from docks and balconies. In the corner of his eye, Gordon saw someone entering a door in the cabin of the Borealis; he didn't have to see his suit or his briefcase to understand who it was.

"We must find your allies here." said Chell. She had been quite silent since they had landed, and had insisted on carrying a strange black and white item with the Aperture mark on it.

"How do you know there are our friends here?" asked Alyx, hostly.

"You wouldn't have been in such a hurry otherwise, nor you could have any information since the area is completely isolated and...."

"Okay, okay. But remember you're not the one in charge here."

"So what do we do?"

"We.... we...."

"She's right, we must find Mossman." Gordon looked at what they could see of the ship through his crossbow's scope, but he didn't see anything.

"Where could they be?"

"Inside, this is most certain. And this is where we need to go, it's almost evening."

"Well, in the Arctic, speaking of "evening"....."

"It's evening enough. It's getting colder, if you didn't notice. And the wind is increasing. We need to get inside quickly."

"If you say so...."

They carefully walked on the dock, climbing on the snow which had piled on it in years. The ship was a giant, a monstrous gargoyle they hesitated to defile by walking on it. It was more than hallowed: they were treading on a legend.

The closest door to the catwalk had been evidently blown open recently, and the modern lock which was keeping it closed had still to be completely brittled by ice.

"If we break this, we won't have anything to close it again." said Alyx.

"Crush it open. We won't be able to enter any other way." Chell was again on her commanding mood.

"And how do you know it?"

"Do you promise not to interrupt me this time?"

"Oh, please spare me, don't bore me to death!"

"Yes, I guess the most articulated thought you might have in you pretty little head is 'I hungry, I eat', and my concepts could be...."

"You dork freak, you think you can outsmart me just because....."

"I can outsmart you because it's as hard as outsmarting a coconut!"

"Do you girls want to keep arguing inside, so we can warm up a bit at least?"

"Gordon? How did you open the door?"

"The key was inside the lock, geniuses."