For the very first time, I was afraid to return home.

I was awoken abruptly in the early hours of the morning by an overwhelmingly lively and adrenalised Doctor Mofuni while everyone else in my quarters was asleep. He was spontaneously in the spirits to return to Red Bay and regain access to his lab and desired some reliable help for protection and company. His primary reason for going there was to try to see if his communications equipment was still functioning so he could reestablish connections with the broader resistance and his scientist friends in the east.

I understood the great importance of this quest. My aerial blitz and the subsequent annihilation of a major regional military base no doubt sent shockwaves across the occupied world. While not entirely certain about it himself, Mofuni wanted to check in with his friends to see if I had accidentally signalled the uprising with the magnitude in which I executed my raid.

I was up and ready to go moments after Mofuni roused me, grabbing my staff as my only true essential. Shephard had been bunking close by; he had been having trouble sleeping, so he decided to join us once he saw the opportunity presented to him. On our way out, we were initially confronted by Gus, but he allowed us to leave once he was briefed on the situation. While my relationship with the Chief of the Limpiadores was still on less than stable grounds, I found it refreshing that he was at least acting more pragmatic now in the wake of these shifting tides.

After about an hour of cautious treading in the dark of early morning, we arrived in Red Bay by the time the light of dawn came.

It was a heavily foggy morning; a dark grey sky hung above us, and we could only see about one kilometre of distance through the mist that coated the coastal landscape. Misty mornings were a common occurrence in Red Bay, and I often found them a tranquil scene to be welcomed with when waking up and taking my first steps outside. It felt eerily haunting now given Red Bay's abandoned state.

We entered through the east gate, which was destroyed when Combine APCs rammed through them during the assault. The empty town was freshly scarred by the raid, and it was now that I got a good look at the level of devastation. The open plaza was now a graveyard for mangled and half-melted Combine vehicles caused by my laser fire, and the former green ground was charred and cratered with an abundance of cold cinders and ashes.

The buildings, while in a relatively better state than I last recollected, were damaged with many sections blown out―both on street level and up high. And some buildings weren't even there at all, like the third largest office building along the remains of Main Street that had been reduced to rubble by the strider. Debris lay strewn all over the place, from chunks of wood and bricks, and a smoky aroma still permeated the air. I regrettably was acquainted with these smells and imagery, for they were similar to decimated villages in the aftermath of a SharpClaw raid.

But worst of all, not unlike what I often saw on Sauria after a battle, numerous bodies were still lying out in the open―both Combine and rebel alike. I knew many of these human faces. While I never knew them intimately, they were faces I saw nearly every day. It was distressing to see them so lifeless and still and left out to rot.

We crossed several too many while walking down the ruined Main Street on our way to the garage that housed Mofuni's underground lab. "We gotta give these poor folks a burial," Shephard said, noting the many bodies that we could see along with the ones we had yet to see.

"Yes. All too tragic," Mofuni acknowledged as he strode in front of us. He was disheartened, but he was more goal-focused than us. "At the moment, however, we must make sure everything in my lab is still preserved and running. We'll worry about funeral services after the fact."

I was slightly ruffled by Mofuni's disinterest in honouring the falling at this present time, but he was right in the fact that we were a little pressed for time. Even still, I muttered blessings in Saurian to each body that I could see, including Combine. Whether they intended to end up the way they did or not, they lost their humanity, and I prayed that they somehow reclaimed it wherever they ended up now.

"We'll have to make a large pyre," I suggested to Adrian, who also remained on the topic. "Who knows how many that are out here with so many still missing."

"Or a mass grave," Shephard offered. "I dunno if making so much smoke is such a good idea if we're trying to keep a low profile now."

"Fair point," I considered. "It is a questionable practice, but it might be the safest option."

"Certainly. How about where we buried Hal a few days ago?" Mofuni suggested, spontaneously interested in our conversation now. "Oh, right, that actually reminds me. I've got a little theory buzzing about as to how the Combine suddenly were made aware of us, and it might concern our former unfortunate friend."

Shephard and I stared at him from behind. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"Remember how he died of mysterious causes?" Mofuni recalled. "Somehow―again, pure speculation―the Combine must have planted a failsafe in the poor fella when he was taken prisoner. Such a thing is not unheard of in their troops; I reckon they do the same with their prisoners to some extent. We haven't been able to free enough of them to know for sure, sadly. The kill switch must have also transmitted a homing signal of some kind, leading the Combine straight to our doorstep."

I did remember Francis Travone mentioning this phenomenon happening with soldiers. I was persuaded to believe a similar contingency was in place for certain prisoners―especially if they were a part of any resistance group. I knew that we would never truly learn what tipped the Combine to our location, even when the jamming pillars were active, but it was a plausible enough theory for me to accept it as a definite possibility.

"Shit…" Shephard said as he let that idea sink in. "The guy was a bit wimpy, but that shouldn't have happened to him. He couldn't have wanted to cause this…"

"Being in the resistance is filled with risks, dear boy. We're all brutally aware of this," Mofuni said. "What makes the Combine so dangerous in defying is that we don't always know what they can do if we do."

We were already approaching the marina. The storehouse for all of our catches had its roof caved in, I could smell the foul stench of rotting fish even before we arrived near the pier side. I could deduce with certainty that what we kept in there was well past the point of expiration.

Walking a little farther along, we were nearing the row of warehouses where Mofuni's garage was the first in that line. The whole time we had been walking, I couldn't shake the feeling that we maybe weren't entirely alone here. I assumed that a few stray headcrabs were still roaming around, or maybe a gull or two was idling about. I realised soon that this psychic sensation carried striking familiarity. I registered a very familiar signal, and it wasn't far away.

My eyes lit up once I realised who it might have belonged to. "Could it be…?" I wondered aloud, making the others turn to me curiously.

"What?" Shephard asked.

"Hold on a moment," I said before I stuck two fingers in my mouth. I whistled loudly a few times, hoping the call would reach my intended receiver. My heart soared like my Cloud Runner when I heard a loud and resonant round of neighing ring out through the mists up ahead.

It made the other two froze in their tracks. Mofuni was more startled by it at first, but Shephard began to grin with joy. "Aw, you gotta be kidding me…"

Moments later, the sounds of beating hooves could be heard coming down the road in front of us, accompanied by the loud clanging and smashing of metallic rubble as they trampled over it. Before long, the dark shape of an equine began emerging out from the thick of the fog, and the warm brown and creamy form of Dahlia came charging down the street towards us.

"Oh!" I yelled out jubilantly as I ran out front to meet her. She cantered to a slick stop and reared her front legs in excitement, knickering with triumph before we closed in for a reuniting nuzzle. "You cheeky girl! Were you waiting here for me all this time?"

Dahlia knickered some more, restlessly dancing her hooves while remaining in place. It was enough to tell me that she did exactly what I suspected, even without telepathically confirming so. I was actually brought to tears when I realised this as I hugged her long muzzle. "Thank you, my friend…"

Shephard came over and ruffled Dahlia's bright blonde mane. "She's one devoted one, that's for sure," he grinned happily.

"Yes, yes, heartwarming. We all love the pony," Mofuni acknowledged, rather disinterestedly as he continued past us. "Come along now, we're almost at my lab!"

Apart from a raised eyebrow from Shephard, neither of us regarded Mofuni because of how enraptured we were to see our tenacious mare friend again. Of all the gloom that followed the attack yesterday along with returning to the aftermath, seeing Dahlia once again, and unharmed, had already made my day. I couldn't bear to see her amongst the dead that lay amongst the ruins, especially knowing it would have happened because she refused to leave me in the middle of a war zone.

At the same time, while I was giving Dahlia all the loving hugs she deserved, I looked over her neck to get a glimpse of the piers now that they were more in view. I gasped to myself when I saw that our only working fishing troller was still docked right where it always was, completely unharmed as it bobbed around tranquilly in the lapping current. Somehow, I felt a dollop of hope when I saw that boat still floating there. I had a nagging feeling that maybe the town we knew and loved had a chance to make a comeback one day.

Not only was the lift to Mofuni's lab still working but everything down there was revealed to be relatively intact and unharmed―aside from the occasional knocked-over trinket and beaker from all the quakes.

And much like the lift itself, Mofuni's computer was also still operational and booted up with little issue. Shephard and I were informed that Mofuni had a personalised Combine mini-reactor rigged up down here in a nestled place that powered all of his sensitive equipment. It was the same as the other reactors used to power the town, though Mofuni's ran completely independent from the main grid.

Mofuni had mentioned he intended to show us a surprise while we were down here, but we had to wait until he was done catching himself up to speed with the outside world and reaching out to global resistance leaders. It took over twenty minutes, but Mofuni was able to get confirmation that news of my attack on the airfield in City Three was felt far and wide. However, there was apparently great confusion amongst those he was speaking to, for there was no confirmation that any branch of the resistance caused the incident.

This was when I learned that Mofuni had not informed his colleagues of my presence on Earth yet, nor my Cloud Runner. He was keeping me and my ship confidential for the time being―for 'research' purposes. Regardless if it was for personal ambitions as I had sensed just then, I felt relieved either way that he wouldn't indict me as the cause of the incident and wrote back that he was just as baffled, likening a one in one thousand chance that the Combine had just experienced a rare major accident.

Mofuni was also reluctant to voice the reality that Red Bay had also fallen, citing that he had not caught up with them due to locking ourselves down in light of the mysterious incident. What I cared about most of all was that my raid, thankfully, did not initiate a premature rebellion like I had been fearing all morning. The airfield, though strategically valuable in our region of the continent, was apparently not amongst the several vital locations that would begin the uprising if they were compromised or destroyed.

Once Mofuni had gathered all the information he needed through his text chat, he hopped right to it and marched over to the other end of the room to show us his surprise. It was a good thing we were moving along now; Dahlia insisted she would wait for me some more while I was down here, and was anxious to get back with her herd again now that she knew I was all right. I loved her to death, but her stubbornness was proving to be a bit of a pain sometimes.

He skipped right on over to a secret door that was hidden behind a bookcase full of documents and other odd keepsakes―which happened to be the only bookcase that had wheels on the bottom. This made me instantly curious, and Shephard just as much. There was a little latch on the unveiled door that Mofuni had to pull hard on to get the door to move out of the wall; it made a loud creaking screech that made my ears flatten, but it soon stopped when Mofuni opened the door sufficiently enough.

He then hurried into the dark secret room first before flipping on a light switch along the wall. The whole room then illuminated, revealing a slew of mysterious machinery inside that beckoned us to come inside and investigate. Shephard and I did so a little cautiously.

Once inside, we discovered the room was no bigger than the main laboratory, but it was considerably sparser. All the extra space was evidently needed for the giant dusty machine that took up nearly half of the room. It was made of dark metal, not unlike Combine machinery, which led me to believe that much of this was likely made from salvaged parts.

It was massive and intricately designed with a mess of cables running along the ceiling and floors, wired to outlets that must have hooked up to Mofuni's mini-reactor in some way. The most eye-catching feature of this assembly was the large circular platform in the centre of it all surrounded by an assortment of half-ring segments that laid dormant on the floor.

"Ta-da…" Mofuni introduced with extended wide-open arms, speaking in an unfitting sultry voice for whatever reason.

"Wow…" Shephard stared. "That is a…thing all right. What is that thing?"

Mofuni smiled devilishly with clamped hands. "Our receiving point," he answered. "That stockpile of experimental weapons and hardware I mentioned last night? The one that's on the other side of the ocean? Well, this baby here is how we will bring them here. It's a teleporter."

I was now fully invested. "Incredible," I marvelled, stepping closer to observe it more closely. "Where does this link to?"

"One of my company's old facilities," Mofuni explained. "A lot of weapon testing amongst other experiments was conducted in the exact place where this teleporter is linked to. I've managed to build one of these from scratch thanks to plans I was able to snag along the way before finding my way here. The idea of somehow one day returning there and reclaiming this hidden stockpile has been in my mind for over a decade, so I constructed a direct line to it in my free time. It was painstaking and took years, but I did it, and it's been waiting for an opportunity to be used ever since. Please pay no mind to all the cobwebs; I haven't done much dusting back here."

"Teleporter, eh?" Shephard said, examining the neglected machine quizzically. "Why haven't you gone there and back already if it's ready to run?"

"Because the one on the other end isn't. I've tried syncing with it but its signal is silent," Mofuni stated. "It's been deactivated, or in a state of disrepair. I won't know for sure until I'm there to assess. Once it's reactivated, we can use it to transfer the goods right on over here where they are direly needed to take on the Combine. I, unfortunately, never had the means to travel there until our perky blue vulpine friend crash-landed into all of our hearts."

I looked at the inactive teleporter machine again for a moment, contemplating the possibility of what Mofuni was proposing here. "What do you think, my dear girl?" Mofuni asked, wrangling my attention again. "Is your spacecraft capable of covering a distance of a roughly eight-thousand-mile round trip?"

I considered that for a second and nodded. "The Cloud Runner can cover a distance three times that before needing refuelling, and my cells have gotten a very good charge now. I will most certainly help you bring this plan to light. We will need everything we can to stand up to the Combine now."

"Excellent," Mofuni beamed with delight. "We will leave as soon as we're all prepared. This'll be quite a treat for all involved!"

"Where exactly are we going, doc?" Shephard asked, indirectly confirming that he planned to go with us, which delighted me as well.

Mofuni didn't answer at first, but instead turned to his machine and placed a ginger hand on it. The answer he intended to give evidently made him slightly uneasy, which told me that it was significant if it made Mofuni of all men think twice about it. However, Mofuni conceded with himself, knowing that there was only one place we needed to go where we would find the arms we needed.

"Why, where Aperture conducted many off-grid researches," he said. "Arbeit Communications…"