Although burdened and bereaved over the loss of our coastal home, a new hope was quite literally on the horizon.

Hardly a day after Doctor Mofuni officially broke the news to Red Bay's surviving refugees and their Limpiadores hosts, I was already shuttling him across the Atlantic Ocean so that he could deliver what he promised them. The prospect of obtaining highly advanced weaponry to take on the Combine proved to be a highly appealing endeavour during this time of fear and desperation. Mofuni always knew about them, but the ocean was the only thing keeping him from accessing where they were being stored. The newly revived Cloud Runner proved to be the very thing he needed to achieve this dream.

With everyone's prayers blessing us, I took it upon myself to shuttle Doctor Mofuni to this forgotten facility that once belonged to his old employer in the Cloud Runner. I counted my lucky stars that my insistence on a passenger bay in my wing managed to pull through when Space Dynamics built this prototype, otherwise making Mofuni sit on my lap during this flight would not have been a pleasant venture.

Me and the Doctor were not by ourselves on this trip, for Adrian Shephard was also joining us―both out of a sense of duty and curiosity. I was delighted by his coming, and not just because of the added muscle he brought to the company. He was resigned to the back compartment just behind my seat with Mofuni, and I realised then while taking off that maybe it was too cramped back there.

Rob had managed quite comfortably back there being the only passenger but having two appeared to be exceeding the limit. Mofuni and Shephard sat shoulder-to-shoulder the whole way to Arbeit, had very little legroom, and had to lean forward a bit due to the low curved ceiling. I felt guilty that my craft offered so little accommodating space for them, but this was the amount Space Dynamics was willing to make given that Arwing variants were only ever intended to be single-pilot fighters.

The two men were rather tolerant of these deficiencies at first though. The novelty of riding in the backseat of an alien spacecraft made them much more immersive than they would have been otherwise. However, it didn't take long before Shephard began to air some expected grievances given how wired he was for practicality.

"Damn. And I thought Humvees were a tight fit," he mentioned, trying to get himself more comfortable back there with Mofuni squeezing up against him. It didn't help that he was also wearing his fatigues and PCV, which only added to his bulk, and having his large backpack, AR2, and headgear right at his feet restricted his movement even more.

"Oh, for shame, my dear boy," Mofuni disciplined. "We are currently flying in the most advanced piece of aerial hardware to ever fly on this planet and all you do is whinge about legroom? Be grateful that you have the privilege to take part in such an event!"

"I am, don't get me wrong," Shephard insisted. "It's just that I've never been partial to confined spaces, especially when I've got to share with someone that smells like roasted woodchips."

"I beg your pardon?" Mofuni winced. The brewing tension made me turn my eyes towards the back. "Do you know how important my daily dose of Postum is for maintaining what remains of my cognitive stability? I've had to ingest three cups of the stuff before setting off. Three! That's how critical I am taking this mission! I conserve as much as I can of it!"

"Hmm, very smart move, doc," Shephard mused with sarcasm. "That just means you'll have to pee very soon, and we've got a long flight ahead of us."

"Are you implying that I can't hold it in?!"

"I would prefer that you didn't put yourself in a situation where you might have to," Shephard insisted. "I'm not looking forward to you whining about pulling over to relieve yourself while standing out on the nose of this thing."

"I won't have my pants all the way down when I do! Who'd do that?!"

"Hey! Enough!" I called to the back, making the bickering men stiffen. "If you two boys can't behave yourselves, I'm turning this thing right back around, and there will be no adventure for anyone."

"Yes ma'am."

"Sorry ma'am," both Shephard and Mofuni resigned begrudgingly, making me nod in satisfaction. I looked back ahead at the open ocean flying by as silence once again returned to my cockpit. I was never going to change my course, but I got a little smile on my muzzle when I just did that. I supposed that was a little taste of what it might have been like if I ever were to become a mother; a dream that I hoped that one day would come true.

"Poor foresight aside, I think we jolly lot should stay on target, no?" I called back to my passengers again after half a minute of quiet. "Doctor? What exactly are we to expect upon arrival? Any automated defences I should know about?"

I could hear Mofuni shuffle forward a bit closer to me. "I truly don't know what to expect, dearest," he lamented. "Much of North America has been coldly silent for two decades―and that's especially the case for where we're going. It also isn't extensively known if the Combine sustain a large presence there. We can only project our signals out so far before they start tracing them back to where we dwell. We're quite literally flying blind here, I'm afraid."

"I see," I said, looking at all of my holographic readouts in front of me, minding my onboard radar for possible hostiles, my optimal G-Diffuser integrity, and the global coordinates Mofuni gave me for Arbeit Communications juxtaposed to the Cloud Runner's. "We'll be ready for anything that may greet us," I reassured, trying to maintain positivity. "Our shields are at their max, and our laser reserves are well replenished. Should the Combine be waiting for us, they'll be in for a surprise."

"Yeah, no shit," Shephard chuffed to himself in agreement, still kind of reeling in the events of the other day when my ship not only singlehandedly waylaid a Combine invasion, but also obliterated its home base. "I'm up for some more fireworks if we happen across any bogies. I'll able to enjoy it a lot more up in here than down on the ground."

I agreed and made a silent nod to myself.

"The point of this mission is to be as covert as possible, Corporal," Mofuni pointed out contrarily. "We don't want the Combine to see what we're up to over there. They could discover our coveted cache! We can't risk losing that edge when we barely have anything left."

Shephard couldn't argue with that, so he shrugged complacently.

"Well put, Doctor," I commended. "But what should we expect if no Combine are present? Is it relatively easy to get inside this facility?"

"A simple scan of my old ID card should suffice if reserved power is still active," Mofuni said, jostling an Aperture employee keycard that had the face of his younger self clipped to his heavy coat. I too was wearing an old winter coat that had a furred hood, for I had been forewarned that the region of the planet we were flying for was quite chilly. "The whole facility should have gone under lockdown sometime after the Resonance Cascade as a reactionary precaution. With any luck, everything inside is completely preserved. Maybe even the staff as well. As bones in all likelihood."

I wanted to believe Mofuni had only relapsed a smidge at that moment, but I felt that he meant that genuinely. That didn't sit right with my stomach. Shephard felt the same way as well, though he did not address it and instead moved on to another matter before the morbidness could settle in too much.

"So, what's so special about this Arbeit place anyway, doc?" he asked the man he was packed in with. "Were you guys doing weapons research there? Hence why the stockpile we're trying to send back to the homestead?"

"A great many things were being conducted at Arbeit Communications, my boy," Mofuni explained. "Everything from medical testing to cross-dimensional hopscotch. Arbeit and its complex of facilities weaving around the mountain range housed a little bit of everything, and it's this interconnectivity that will allow us to acquire our goods and send them over to the front lines where they are needed. When front lines are eventually established, that is."

"Double Dutch," Shephard stated, appearing to sound satisfied with that plan―even if he still didn't fully understand it given the unprecedented means it required to work. "You used to work there or something? You've got a pass to get in there for a reason I take it?"

"You're only half right. I'm a former Principal Scientist slash Executor of Aperture Laboratories," Mofuni confirmed with a little pride. "I primarily worked in the Enrichment Centre in Michigan. Arbeit was a former West German communications company we used to work with extensively before we acquired it and its assets in the early nineties."

"Aperture?" Shephard wondered, appearing to not have familiarity with that name. This surprised me almost as much as Mofuni because I assumed Shephard had been told of the Doctor's background at some point. I supposed this was proof that he hadn't.

This nonetheless befuddled Mofuni. "Oh, don't tell me you've never heard of us and our groundbreaking scientific achievements? We're Nobel Prize winners after all!"

"Not really. Should I have?"

Mofuni sighed in a tiny threat of frustration. 'Kids these days…' I heard his irritable thoughts clearly, which prompted me to look back and watch quietly for a moment. "We've made national headlines dozens of times throughout the twentieth century!" he insisted. "The 1968 Senate Hearing on missing astronauts? The world's inadvertent leading producer of potato batteries? Heck, the Take-A-Wish foundation?"

"Not ringing any bells," Shephard shook his head, legitimately ignorant about Aperture's exploits―let alone its existence.

Mofuni frowned with disappointment and even crossed his arms like a pouty child. "Well, it's unfortunate that you haven't been well informed about our presence in the scientific community," he said with a knit but patient brow. "Your old Marine base was stationed near Black Mesa, yes? We used to be their greatest rivals. They undoubtedly obscured any reference to us in their end of the country. Black Mesa monopolised Department of Defence contracts; I bet your higher-ups were instructed to make you oblivious."

Shephard wasn't very receptive to Mofuni's somewhat belittling assumptions as he tried thinking of what Mofuni was previously telling him. I could see Shephard's eyes then suddenly light up like a flare with realisation. "Oh, I remember now! You were those guys over in Nevada, right? Delta…Particles? Or something like that?"

Mofuni's face was still, baring a few twitches in his right eye. "No, son, you're thinking of Delta Labs," he corrected with greater patience and refrained disappointment. "Aperture is headquartered in Michigan. I mentioned that a few moments ago."

"Oh. That explains it," Shephard realised. "I've hardly ever left the Southwest."

"Indeed, that would explain it…" Mofuni mumbled indignantly, making me smirk a bit as I returned my gaze forward, still seeing nothing in all directions apart from an endless ocean.

"So, wait, are we going to Michigan right now?" Shephard then asked. Mofuni kept growing increasingly frustrated with this Marine, which I found to be more entertaining than concerning.

"A little farther north than that," Mofuni corrected again. "Where the Northern Lights shine. Krystal's got the coordinates locked in as she has reassured. Even though we might have broken the sound barrier a few times in the past several minutes, it's still going to be a long flight…"

I began thinking about what Mofuni just said. It had been slow to occur to me in the rush and excitement about flying off to parts unknown that I had forgotten that several things were currently stacked against us, aside from the aforementioned obstacles like the Combine detecting us out here or over there. We were extremely vulnerable out here in the open ocean, and my radar, which covered miles in every direction, was not a crutch I wanted to have.

And arguably worse than all of that, the Cloud Runner had only just recently come back to life as a hybrid flyer with extremely experimental modifications. I was rather squeamish about pushing them to their limits at this point, and the atmospheric drag was putting needless resistance on the ship as it flew at full speed. Perhaps the time had come to take advantage of its space-breaching capabilities to save on time and power.

To do this, I temporarily relinquished the throttle and steadily let it fall to a slow crawl, drastically reducing our velocity. Despite the G-Diffusers negating any influence momentum had on our bodies inside, the sight of the waves outside served as the primary indicator that we were slowing down, which was somewhat alarming to my passengers.

"Hey, why are we slowing down?" Shephard asked, a little startled by the unannounced change of pace.

"You know, boys," I uttered, breaking the steady silence on my end of the cockpit, "I'd like to get there quickly myself, and I just remembered that I know a way we can get there quicker."

"Ooh. And what might that be, my dear girl?" Doctor Mofuni asked, insatiably curious.

"I'll have to rest my power cells for a few minutes so they can build back up," I mentioned, right as the Cloud Runner slowed to a comfy twenty-five-mile-an-hour glide over the water after pulling my yoke controls back towards my breast. "We're going to be making a little orbital detour. It won't take long at all."

Silence overcame the two men for a brief moment. "How'd you mean orbital?" Shephard questioned, a little apprehensively.

I turned back to look at him and said, "It's better if it speaks for itself."

After a few moments of suspenseful silence on their end of the cockpit, I regarded my holographic displays favourably as I saw my once burning fuel cells now having risen back up to max after giving them that needed cooldown. This gave me the confirmational confidence I needed to begin diverting all power to the plasma thrusters on my display, causing the Cloud Runner to tremble a little as I oriented my craft up to the cloudy sky. A part of me was worried that my take-off would potentially incinerate my fusion engine's organic patchwork, but I had no choice but to have faith that it would pull through.

"All right, gentlemen," I announced. "Brace yourselves. Things might get a little shaky―even with the G-Diffusers."

"Got my seatbelt on and I'm wedged beside a disturbed egghead. Couldn't be more secure," Shephard quipped, much to Mofuni's annoyance, but I could sense it was to quell his sudden anxiousness. "Just how much turbulence are we gauging―jeez…!"

Shephard silenced himself as the Cloud Runner shot into the sky at a hundred-and-ten-degree angle, effortlessly breaking the sound barrier again as she made the water below combust in a massive wave that grew smaller and smaller every second before obscured completely by the clouds that were breached. We popped out of the cloud top not a second after, basking beneath the bright blue of the wide-open sky, which was steadily becoming consumed with an all-encompassing blackness with each passing second.

I maintained a steady grip on my yokes, firmly keeping them in front of me as I hummed to myself to quell my own anxiousness. While the G-Diffusers removed g-forces, the trembling of the Cloud Runner was still nerve-wracking, but even that was growing silent as we breached through each layer of Earth's atmosphere by the moment. After a suspenseful minute of a rather uneventful ascent, my onboard atmospheric sensors alerted me that we had just reached the thermosphere, providing me with the cue I needed to angle my Arwing downward to reduce my ascent and return to a levelled acceleration paralleled to the world below us.

The moment the horizon before us became consumed with the insatiable blue aura of Earth was one that I would never forget, and I had flown over several worlds before in that time. "Like the view, boys?" I asked my passengers, leaning back in my seat while awaiting their answer.

Shephard and Mofuni were silent at first as they took in what beheld their gazes. I could feel that their emotions were running wild, but they both ultimately settled on bewitchment and adoration. I could feel that this moment marked a turning point on some level for both of them, and the lack of sound outside the ship only helped to enhance the awe permeating this moment.

"I've always wanted to visit space…" Doctor Mofuni sighed humbly, sounding quite emotional.

"Hot damn, Pop-Tart," Shephard observed, awed disbelief lacing his tone as he stared at the blue and white world below us. "This sure wasn't something I thought I'd see today. I don't know what to say right now…"

"Just appreciate it for a mindful moment. Everyone should have the opportunity to see their home world from space at least once in their lives," I encouraged, lacing my hands over my stomach as I eyed our desired planetary coordinates, noting that we were covering more distance much faster now that we were in orbit. I took in the orbital view as well as we serenely soared above it.

Despite all of the discord and oppression being inflicted upon this sick world as it was being robbed of its resources, Earth was still a gorgeous and vibrant planet to look upon. It was certainly an inspirational sight; its blue aura somehow communicating that hope was not lost, even now. I suppose Aaron's dear mother was correct when she told him that blue skies were the Divine's way of saying everything was going to be okay in the end. Even past all the dreary blanket of grey clouds like the ones we just pass through, the sky was still blue, and that much was evident way up here.

"Thank you for this, my dear girl…" Doctor Mofuni eventually said, trembling in his words as he began to cry silently to himself, which caught me and Shephard off. However, we were compelled not to interject or make commentary on it. Realising that I inadvertently fulfilled something very deep and very personal to him, I played it easy as I looked down at my lap.

"You're welcome, Doctor."