I continued moving further away from the action, which I hoped would make my chances of being caught slightly less likely. I kept to the platform that followed along the tracks after I emerged from the passageway and back out into the open. The train had moved a considerable distance while I was caught up watching Aaron's brawl, though it was still in view, and seemingly appeared to have stopped.

It wasn't going to be easy to catch up to it this time around because I spotted soldiers on the platform on the other side of the tracks running in the other direction, most likely sent to pursue Aaron. I was forced to hide behind the sparse metal containers spaced around my platform until I knew they were gone. I took this moment to briefly evaluate my odds of navigating alone in this place.

I had limited ammunition in my pack for both of my weapons, so I could only hold my own against these soldiers for so long before my resources were depleted. I would probably have to take one of the guns off the soldiers like I saw Aaron do, but these guns looked energy-based, which required a bit more time to understand how to use, unlike the mechanical weapons I had on hand now. I had never stopped regretting losing my staff again and cursed myself subconsciously for nearly every moment since letting that happen. There were no compromises with it; I always fought at my very best with it. So, what were the odds that I would end up picking up its soft ping the further along I followed the train?

Like a whisper in my ear, my senses were drawn in a certain direction, close to where the train had stopped. My body tingled with recognition. It was here, and it was close.

My priorities shifted instantly once I picked up my staff's signal, and my courage drastically grew also. I was still cautious while treading forward, but my determination was at an all-time high. There was no way I would turn this opportunity down to reclaim my precious heirloom—especially when it was practically calling for me.

After catching up to the front end of the train, I had deduced that my staff was indeed somewhere beyond its platform. It was hard to see where exactly with the train obstructing my view, so it looked like I had to cross over. I looked to see that the tracks were still suspended above a deep chasm, which did frighten me, but my rush of excitement helped me overcome that initial hesitation and hopped down onto the reflective metal rails. Thankfully a series of sleepers were welded underneath the tracks despite there being no ground to stabilise on, so at least there was something to grab onto should I slip and fall, which I thankfully didn't, and I found myself climbing up the side of the train shortly after.

Once I reached the top, I discovered to my rotten luck that I was not alone there. Down on the platform were a couple of soldiers standing by the carriage I was on top of, oblivious to my presence as they watched what I assumed was the loading or unloading process taking place. I couldn't sense who or what was inside the carriage performing these tasks thanks to this confounded alloy. I was completely exposed on top of this train and frantically searched for a place to run for cover, which was not a long search because my staff's signal was leading me towards that large cargo hold just beyond the platform. There were no security fields present at the doorway, and there was plenty of cover inside. The only problem was getting there without any detection, and I didn't think my feet were light enough to not make a sound should I decide to jump behind the soldiers.

I suddenly remembered that I might have had something in my pack that could help me. I carefully removed it from my pack and dug around inside it for a moment before withdrawing one of the two fragmentation grenades Aaron had given to me before we left the state. I held the cylindrical explosive device in my hand as I looked for a place to throw it and landed on a corner by the far end of the platform to my left.

I concluded that this would be an easy distraction for those soldiers. Having settled on this, leaned up a little for range, pulled the pin, and threw as far as I could, hoping my motion wasn't noticed by those below me. After a few seconds of silence, an explosion went off nearby, which did not go unnoticed by the soldiers, all as planned.

"Alert one."

"Possible malignant contact inbound."

"Converge and prepare for sterilisation. Code: reaper."

"Copy that. Weapons free."

After that brief exchange shared between the two of them, the soldiers already had their rifles drawn and made haste to where the grenade had detonated. I wasted no time and made a grand leap off the train while the soldiers had their backs turned. I landed into one quick summersault before sprinting for the goods bay and did not stop until I was inside and hidden behind some cover, which was thankfully in abundance here.

I had my back against a row of shelves that were packed with various kinds of bulky equipment, taking another moment to catch my breath and to hear if anyone was coming into the room. I relented after I was convinced I hadn't been spotted and began to look around. The room I was in was large structurally but was tightly packed with all kinds of equipment and other supplies contained in angular metal containers. A large spotlight in the upper corner of the room provided the only source of light, which made the rows of shelves cast dark and lengthy shadows that I hoped would aid in my efforts to stay hidden.

The beacon was stronger than ever now that I was inside, proving that my staff was in here somewhere. It was this same beacon that subconsciously drew Fox to find it when he began his adventures on Sauria after I had lost it during a fateful aerial skirmish. It was a potent feeling that was hard to resist, which shouldn't have made it hard to find it here.

Keeping my head down, I kept to the shadows and was subconsciously ushered to the other end of the room, where I was introduced to a whole wall filled with strange angular metal pods. Small control panels were positioned adjacent to each of them, which only seemed to consist of one button on each. I walked along this peculiar row of modules, both studying their intended purpose and to see which one of these contained my staff. The magic drawing me here must have been able to breach past the metal that hampered my telepathy, which was nothing short of a miracle for me.

I passed five of these wall-mounted pods until I made an abrupt stop at the sixth. It was like the metal detector in my head was pinging right out of the metre, but configured to detect magical artefacts. I found it.

I stood before the pod and hovered my finger over the button that was wired to it before pressing it. A couple of jets of steam shot out of its seams for a second before its latch began to collapse and fold upward, revealing not only my retracted staff inside but also my backpack, though I did not fully acknowledge it at first. My elation was beyond words as I quickly reached out and grabbed it and began hugging it close to my face like I was a child finding their lost stuffed companion—which wasn't too far from the truth in all honesty.

"I'm sorry I lost you again," I muttered, still grinning from ear to ear in relief. "I promise that will have been the last time that ever happens, old friend…"

I may have sounded silly, but my feelings were genuine. My staff truly was my lifelong companion; it kept me safe and brought me comfort in hard times. In many ways, being that it was the only connection I had left to my parents and my home, I used to often speak to it as if it were them in some way, or at least a means to talk with them even though I never received an answer. The patterns around my staff's retracted shaft began to flicker softly with bluish light as if it were saying it was happy to see me too.

Not long after this reunion, I finally noticed my backpack and began to rummage through it, discovering that not only were all of my rationed supplies still in it, but also my homing beacon for the Cloud Runner. A wave of hope I desperately needed already began to surge in me once more. It occurred to me then that maybe I was meant to be transported here at this very depot when I was captured if all of my belongings were here. I had to at least thank the Combine for keeping these safe for me so that I could pick them up later.

My moment of rejoicing had abruptly ended when I heard the sounds of heavy boots coming into the room, accompanied by those synthesised thoughts that the Combine soldiers all shared—specifically four of them. I quickly retreated into the shadows as soldiers began infiltrating the room. Looking through the clutter on the shelves, I could see them spreading across the room with their weapons drawn as they chattered to one another.

"Overwatch has issued a perimeter quarantine in this sector."

"Sweeping for bio-contaminate."

"Initiate mandatory infection protocol. Locate, expunge, and report."

"Cauterisers free."

Their speech was rather difficult to understand with ears alone, but their intentions were obvious. My presence had to have been notified and they were coming in here to snuff me out. They were sure in for a nasty surprise.

Knowing the time to act was seconds away, I commanded my staff to grow to full length, holding it close and pointing its speared end at the corner where one of the soldiers was nearing. I watched those glowing blue eyes approach my line of fire as my spear's end began to open up, charging up with a magical blast.

Once the masked soldier finally rounded the corner, I released my charge, sending a streak of fire soaring across the room that engulfed him whole in a wall of flames, killing him nearly instantly. His garbled cries alerted his comrades as they began rushing to their burning mate's position, but I was quicker. I sprinted forward before jumping above the flames and kicking off the wall straight over the rushing soldiers. I flipped around and landed on my feet right behind them, but I had already been spotted as they whirled around with their guns pointed at me.

"Contact confirmed!"

"Ripcord! Ri—!"

I silenced their chatter by rushing up and punting one of the soldiers in the chest with the butt end of my staff, making him drop his weapon before I raised my arms and brought my staff hard down on his head, incapacitating him. Taking full advantage of this narrow space between the shelves and the wall we were all confined to, I spared no second as I leapt over his collapsing body and treated the third one in the line to an identical flurry of blunt attacks with my staff, and he met an identical fate as the others.

I sensed the fifth and final soldier elsewhere in the room, and I quickly realised he had stayed back to guard the exit. "Sector is not secure. Bio contaminant is communicable; requesting reinforcements."

I turned around just in time to see the last soldier pointing his rifle at me, but I leapt out of the way behind the cover of the shelves just as he fired. He kept shooting at the floor where he could see my feet, which pushed me to run faster to the other end of the room. Holding my staff up, I jumped around the corner again to face him directly. I conjured a magical force field around me and charged. His barrage of pulse bolts was ineffective against my shield, which allowed me to get close enough to whack his weapon out of his hand and kick both of his knees in, causing him to cave backwards against the wall.

I shouted with adrenaline as I smashed the end of my staff with all of my might against his head, causing his mask to fly off into shattered pieces. This was enough to kill him, for he came collapsing onto the floor by my feet. I breathed heavily through my clenched teeth now that the incursion was done. Since no one was currently shooting at me, I was able to spare a glance at the face that had been behind that mask I shattered.

Now, I have had an odd feeling about these soldiers ever since I read their thoughts. They showed no fear when they were succumbing to me and I sensed no fear from the whole squad that was getting decimated by Aaron. No SharpClaw, no matter how tough and enormous they came, emoted fear. Pilots in the space fighters I shot down emoted fear, and even the Aparoids and their queen emoted some level of fear. These soldiers emoted nothing.

When looking at the face of one of these unmasked Combine soldiers, seeing the pale leathery skin, the fused breathing apparatus, and the plethora of wires sticking out of his eye sockets, I realised that I was dealing with something of a completely different nature than anything else I had faced before. My leftover adrenaline faded, quickly becoming supplanted with a sense of confused horror at the sight of the grotesque appearance of that pale face before alarms began blaring off by the loading platform outside, signalling to me that it was time to boost before more of those monstrosities showed up.

After triple-checking that I had all of my reacquired valuables on me, I made off with tremendous haste off the loading platform and back down the tunnel where I had come from (running on the opposite side of it this time).

Alarms continued to blare throughout the complex, and I had a reasonable hunch to suspect that they weren't just for Aaron anymore, which was cemented as fact once I heard that omnipresent voice again as I ran across the depot. "SECURITY ALERT. ALL OF PEPTIC HAVEN. QUARANTINE BREACHED. INFECTION COERCING FROM EXCHANGE CANTONMENT IN SECTOR D6. ERECT PERIMETER FORTIFICATIONS IN SECTORS B2, F8, AND SUBLEVELS 9, 15, AND 2. EXTERMINATION CODES: SCALPEL. COAGULATE. SOLVATE."

It would seem that my discovery had stirred up the hive even more severely, all the more reason to keep moving and find Aaron. I couldn't locate his thoughts anywhere in this forsaken complex, so I had no choice but to find that sublevel I had spotted him on a little while ago and hoped that I could somehow follow it to find him. He couldn't have gone far—at least I certainly hoped I didn't.

This task was much easier said than done because squads of troops were appearing on the platforms on the other side of the tracks and opening fire on me. I pulled off tricky manoeuvres to avoid their shots and took any cover that I could find, all the while lobbing volleys of fire their way with my staff, setting the platforms and the soldiers ablaze. I took any chance I could to keep moving while they were distracted, and before long I returned to that tunnel again where I found this side's observation window of the sublevel below.

The few lifeless bodies of Combine soldiers indicated that Aaron had been that way indeed. The glass pane was thin but surprisingly strong; I tried to shatter it as hard as I could with my staff and it did not even dent it. I considered shooting it with my pistol at one moment, but I was dissuaded by the chance that my bullets could somehow ricochet and poke a hole through my head. Perhaps a little ice could make a difference here.

Hoping a little magic could turn the tables, I planted the spear-end of my staff up against the glass and commanded it to freeze, and the whole window was then completely overtaken with a wall of ice that I could hear was seeping and snapping its way through. Once there was enough ice to make the air cold enough to see my breath, I reeled my weapon back and gave it a hefty whack, making the whole thing shatter into icy pieces. I wanted all of them to crash and settle on the floor below before I jumped out and landed on my hands and feet (well away from any potential stray shards of glass, of course).

I jumped to my feet again and took off down this now large hallway in hopes of finding and assisting Aaron. While he was certainly much more of a fighter than I had originally thought, he was still on the older side. He could only fend off waves of soldiers by himself; I just hoped that I wouldn't be too late.

There was a trail of Combine bodies all around as well as countless pockmarks all around the floors, walls and ceilings. No doubt this was all Aaron's handiwork, but that didn't necessarily mean he was succeeding. I followed this trail for about three minutes before I began to hear distant gunfire again, compelling me to hide once I arrived at the source.

I came across a balcony that had a body strewn over it along with a little pool of blood dripping from it. I was hesitant to reach it at first once I sensed the computer-like chatter of Combine soldiers discussing their plans for euthanizing their target. Sensing this made me courageous enough to run up to the balcony to see that Aaron had fortified himself behind some kind of barrier on the other end of this atrium-like area. More than a dozen soldiers were currently firing on his sheltered position while he retaliated with a barrage of shots, but they were weakened and reserved, and I sensed overwhelming distress coming from him.

Realising instantly that I needed to do something groundbreaking to save my friend, I took about ten steps back away from the balcony, loosened my shoulders, and took a deep breath before I sprinted towards the edge of the balcony. "AARON! HOLD ONTO SOMETHING, NOW!" I telepathically commanded him with ferocious persuasion, hoping he had received my vital message before I leapt off the balcony.

I commanded my staff to charge up my most volatile attack yet. As gravity pulled me down towards the oblivious soldiers below, I raised my staff over my head, which was now fizzling with winding energy, before driving the bottom end straight into the metallic ground as I landed, generating an enormous ground quake that made the whole area erupt in a destructive seismic combustion that swept every soldier off their feet.

I had thought that the blast was so loud it made my ears ring, but I realised that it was the audible cacophony of every soldier's lifeline in their augmented suits going flat all at once. It must have been powerful enough to completely fry their life support systems, at least that's what I guessed after getting that unwanted glimpse of how they looked underneath those bulky uniforms.

I retained my kneeling position for a moment after the blast was released before finally cracking an eye open. Giant fracture lines in the metal floor had split up from the discharge let directly to the epicentre, the end of my staff, and every Combine soldier around me was most certainly dead and no longer a danger. The deafening silence accompanying this was as foreboding as it was relaxing knowing that the danger had momentarily passed. I sighed to myself once I was sure of this.

"Lassie?!" the voice of Aaron peeped up in disbelief.

I raised my head to see Aaron looking out from his cover, complete bewilderment adorning his bruised face as he saw me. I quickly stood up in relief. "Aaron!" I called, using my staff to lift myself. Aaron began to emerge as well, stepping out into the clearing, where I saw that he was clutching his side left arm, which was revealed to be bleeding.

"Oh no, Aaron, you're wounded," I noted, rushing over to see if there were any more injuries, but the enormous old man stepped back away from me as he continued to stare at me with amazement.

"This ain't nothing, lassie; I've been dealt worse," he reassured, hardly sounding worried about it. "But lassie…how in the world did you pull that off? And what's that fancy little trinket you got there?" he pointed at my staff, regarding it almost like it was radioactive—which wasn't completely irrational.

I managed a proud smile as I spun my staff around in my hand. "I finally found what I lost, my friend—along with something else of equal importance to me," I said, shaking the strap of my backpack.

Aaron looked like he had so much to say but couldn't find the words for them, which was something I sensed in him before, but he appeared quite pleased with the results my heirloom produced for us. "That's great news, lassie; just as great as seeing you made it safe and sound without me."

I squinted my eyes from his remark, though he meant it with sincerity, which was why I kept smiling. "Light and nimble, remember?" I reminded him, twirling my staff around a couple more times in vindication.