It was late in the afternoon by the time I had made it to the mine that housed the Limpiadores' headquarters.
It was roughly six miles away from Red Bay further inland, just shy of the mountain chain to the north. The mine's exterior was quite an unexpected sight for me. Just down below the hill on which I stood was an expansive pit that had a near-mile-long radius that went down at least three hundred feet deep, where a stagnant green-hued pool of water resided. Its stained, beige rocky walls were well-defined sedimentary layers that jutted out a considerable amount of length, wide enough to walk across with relative safety. It had been mentioned to me briefly before my departure that this used to be an old copper mine, and it was a considerably large one at that.
"Fortunately, our destination does not reside in yonder pit," the reddish brown vortigaunt stated, whom I designated the name, Jerry, for he did not previously have his own conventional name. "The Limpiadores are housed beneath the main facility, just beyond the circumference. Follow."
Me and Ben proceeded to follow our guide around the edge of the pit just as we had been doing across this arid country. The vortigaunts were a quiet party and spoke little to me or each other, but it was a mindful kind of quiet. Peaceful, even. These were the only two vortigaunts I had met, and I was getting a premonition that most vortigaunts rarely spoke vocally unless one truly had to. Perhaps this elusive vortessence played a key role in their communication as well.
Minutes later, we arrived at the grounds of the main processing plant. A large white rusty building with groups of equally rusted wheeled lorries with massive dumping beds was our destination, and two armed humans wearing padded clothing appeared out of some overgrowth that had been growing through the splitting asphalt road. The sentries had their weapons pointed at us, but their postures were passive, and their thoughts told me that they had maintained a visual on us, suspecting that we were the envoys that they had been messaged to meet.
Even still, I raised my hands as we made our approach, as well as the vortigaunts, and sentries' befuddled gazes were fixed on me unsurprisingly. "Yield, humans. We arrive in peace," Jerry called to the gunmen, raising one of his hands. "Your chief has knowledge of our coming. Bring us to him so that we may proceed with our urgent plight."
The two sentries glanced at each other for a second, mutually expressing uncertainty about me in particular, though they nonetheless complied and showed us inside. In a sequence that somewhat mirrored the events when I first met Doctor Mofuni, the sentries, who had not once spoken to us, guided us to a large loading platform of some kind inside this processing plant and we began to make our descent into the earth. After a slow, roughly two-minute descent, we reached the bottom of the shaft, where a large tunnel running parallel to the platform was revealing.
The sentries began to lead us through the tunnel, which was a little damp as exposed rock made up the round walls and ceiling, illuminated by florescent lighting. There were other humans down here roaming this network of tunnels; they weren't armed, but they regarded me with less-than-friendly attitudes and gave the impression that they knew where to find a gun should they feel a reason to get one. I had been warned that this rebel group was not tolerant of aliens before coming here, so I made sure to keep my hand hovering close to my sheathed staff clipped to my belt, which thankfully the humans didn't seem to fixate on.
After about a three-minute walk deeper into the tunnels, the sentries led us to a set of two large metal doors, leading into a room that the mining cart tracks seemed to go into via another opening in the wall (which was currently blocked off with a wire barrier). One of our escorts punched in a code on the keypad just off to one of the doors and the whole set began to shutter and groan, sliding open to reveal a dark, dank, yet fairly bustling interior. The room was cavernous and had rows of old conveyors leading up from possible loading bays along cart rails to the upper levels made of grated metal and railing, which had a fair amount of people meandering about.
Large machines could also be noticed flanking the walls, disused and out of working order, though large amounts of graffiti could be seen decorating the old rusted plating of the units. While there was certainly a good amount of eye candy to behold in this room, my eyes were drawn to the centre of the room, where a large man sat behind a desk made from the wooden sleepers of some torn-up tracks if I had to guess. The man at the desk appeared to be busy working on a computer, which had several cables running out from it connected to longer extension cords that ran across the room. A few big mats were placed over the cords along with a plastic sign next to them that warned others to be wary of the cables.
"Red Bay's emissaries are here for you, Chief," one of our guides announced, speaking for the first time.
It took the unnamed Chief another second to look up from his monitor to see us. The glow of his monitor highlighted his round, grey and burly bearded face. His bloodshot eyes widened as he stood from his chair, pursing his lips. "Well, what do we have here?" he asked, smiling at me with intrigue. He had a slightly phlegmy voice and walked with a slight limp as he stepped around his makeshift desk, which quickly revealed him to be supported by a cane on his left side. He wore a long dark grey coat and was a bit on the heavier side, though his puckish exterior was misleading.
I ran a telepathic scan of this man's thoughts; he was a dubious opportunist who was already planning on how to handle me. I had encountered and contested with space-faring criminals much more imposing than him, but I knew it wasn't wise to underestimate him. His cunningness warranted him the devoted following he had all around him, and I could sense that he could easily turn them on us if he so pleased. I would play it cool as encouraged, but I knew where to keep my hand.
The first thing the Chief did once he stood before us was to look to the men who took us to him. "Boone? Danny? You may leave us," he ordered with a twiddly wave of his hand.
The two armed men did just that, though their faces changed once their backs were turned to him. 'Boone? That's a new one,' one of them thought. I got the idea just then that maybe the Chief wasn't good at keeping names.
As they marched out of the room, the Chief smiled at me and put his hands behind his back―paying no regard to the vortigaunts standing on either side of me. "You sure are a sight for sore eyes, young lady," he said, initiating the motion to walk around and inspect me on all sides. "What's the story with you? Mutation of some kind? Just an average little fox that wandered into a vat of toxic sludge and blue hair dye? Please don't take that offensively, I'm only ballparking."
I fought the urge to sneer. "I'm not a mutant," I refuted as he circled us like he was a thief perusing through a jewellery store. "And I'm not of this world either. I hail from another universe."
"You don't say?" the Chief raised an eyebrow sceptically. "Well, should that be the case, you're most certainly a nice change of pace from all the other unearthly demons that've spawned on our once-thriving world. No ill feelings towards you fine vorts either, you've proven your worth, even after the role you played in all of this."
Ben and Jerry did not look flattered and only pensively glared at him in silence. The Chief waved off our shared dislike of him, which I sensed he was well aware of, and motioned over behind his desk so that he would sit down. "Ah, but never mind past evils. We're in the present now, and we all gotta start planning for a better future," he said, sitting back down with a heavy plump on his rickety old padded wooden chair before resting his elbows on his desk. "So, what can I do for you fine outerworlders today?"
"I believe you already know," I said, taking a couple of steps forward. He most definitely did know after I read his thoughts again, though he believed that playing a game would stir us up for his amusement. I never had much patience for games, especially during times of emergency. "Most of Red Bay's resources have been destroyed in a fire," I stated bluntly. "You must relent your grip on the supply routes and allow them access again."
The Chief made a surprised face like this was news to him, but his abrasive thoughts were loud enough I almost worried they might sound off out of my ears: 'Great, she's a whiny alien also…' The Chief twirled his thumbs for a moment as he looked around the room contemplatively, but he had already made up his mind before we even met him. "I've made my conditions clear to ol' Sabrine, darlin'. Numerous times, even. Hand over Mofuni, and you get your necessities. I can't understand why harbouring one of the roaches who effectively rolled out the red carpet for the Combine is more important than keeping that town of hers fed is beyond me."
The audacity of this sloth was astounding. "You would seriously allow a town of escapees to starve because of a misplaced grudge?" I asked, a little bit of indignation managing to slip out.
The Chief's face darkened instantly upon my objection, and the urge to lash out at me was there. Grudgingly, he kept his composure. "Misplaced?" he asked, his eye twitching. "Darlin', being that you're new around these parts, gimme an opportunity to lecture you a bit. These scientists? These Ivy League bastards with all the portal tech and know-how? Every damn tragedy and massacre can be attributed to them. They've got all of this blood on their hands and they expect us to follow along with their quaint little plan to get the Combine off Earth? They're the reason they're here to begin with! Those godless Black Mesa grant-guzzlers should've stayed there and got nuked along with everything else that was festering in it."
His hatred was so prominent and deep-rooted. I didn't need to read his mind to know that if Doctor Mofuni was brought here, he would be brutally tortured by this man's hands alone if he didn't execute him first. As flawed and obnoxious as Doctor Mofuni could be, I knew that the blame for the Combine's presence was wrong to be placed on him and should be protected.
"Mofuni had no business with Black Mesa," I argued. "He was employed by a company called Aperture."
"Same difference!" the Chief snarled viciously, making me back up, and making a good many humans up on the grated balconies stop to see what was going on below. "Black Mesa, Aperture, Delta Labs; they've all played with quantum space holes to other dimensions. Their competitive research initiated the domino effect that led us to where we are now. Mofuni will pay, and so will all the others out in the east. When we rise up, we'll topple the citadels over, be rid of all other synthetic abominations, and finally put those brainiacs on the chopping block."
The chief of the Limpiadores may have lacked the physical prowess of a SharpClaw bruiser, but he somehow felt crueller than one. And although he was certainly intimidating in his own subversive way, I remained steadfast. It wasn't in me to let bullies get off easy, regardless of the power they wielded.
"You're a madman," I stated honestly, losing my patience with this malicious rhetoric. "Killing anyone will never correct the wrongs that they've done."
"The Eli Vance is indispensable to the liberation," Ben interjected, coming up to my side. "To disregard the strides that he and those like-minded have made to bring us closer to freedom would be a regression of the utmost insincerity."
The Chief's face became so red I thought a blood vessel was moments away from bursting in his forehead. Rather than erupt at both of us, the Chief instead honed his vengeful attention on Ben. "You better watch what you spew, vort. Your kind is far from sinless here," he pointed at my friend, unsettlingly quiet in his delivery.
All of Ben's eyes glowered with resentment as the Chief continued his hateful babbling. "I was there when your brood first began materialising out of thin air and began ransacking the whole place, killing anybody you saw. You've got a collective memory, don't ya? Surely you remember that without even doing it yourself?"
Ben remained poised and silent, but I had never felt him this angry before. Jerry then stepped up to intervene right before things got too heated, which was the smart thing to do. "Enough. Refrain from further escalation. We are losing sight of what is important."
Despite his boiling desire to flip his desk over at us, the Chief reluctantly subdued himself and took a nice deep breath, making some of the red leave his sweating face. "I'm over this," he said, sounding resigned as he began waving his hand at us while turning away. "Leave my mine. Get out of my face."
"You can't be serious…" I grimaced.
"Sure am. Would putting a bullet in between your eyes convince you so? 'Cause I can certainly do that for you," the Chief offered. "Otherwise, beat it. Tell your friends that if you don't surrender Mofuni in three days, we'll raid that happy lil' town and grab him ourselves. Tell him his time's almost up."
I was about to pop my own blood vessel when I lost all of my tolerance for this bully. I began to turn around and make for the exit in frustration with my two vortigaunt friends following passively behind me. A part of me wishes that the whole exchange had ended then and there, dreadful outcome and all. However, the Chief suddenly got a bout of inspiration that unfortunately kept us here a moment longer, and drastically affected my near-future.
"Wait! Wait. Wait…" the Chief hollered out, making me and my friends turn around a little timorously.
"What?" I asked, already disliking that distant and horribly-inspired gawk he had on his face. The Chief began to look over at me with a malevolent grin, clearly pinning me as the key to his scheme.
"Tell you what, darlin'. I'm willing to make a deal with you," he proposed, pointing a gentle yet steady finger at me. "I can give Mofuni a full pardon and get the supply chain rolling again, no takebacks. You just gotta do a little favour for me in exchange…"