//------------------------------// // 10 - Insecurity // Story: Half-Life : A World Beyond // by Random Gamer //------------------------------// It was already night when the two of us arrived at the beach surrounding the prison. I saw multiple dome-like buildings up on the hill as we moved into cover behind a large rock. The air smelled of dead antlions, gunpowder and blood. I was already used to feeling all of those, especially the last, but the combination of all three was a bit overwhelming. "When I get my hooves on whoever came up with this plan," she let out, juggling the bugbait with one hoof. "I'm gonna show them real pain!" Afterwards, she peeked her head out of cover, only to quickly hide it just a few moments later. "Recon group my flank!" A large whale-like creature flew overhead, carrying some sort of container on its belly. It came to a stop near one of the buildings up on the hill and soldiers started crawling out of it. Well, now we were screwed. Antlions weren't able to provide us with a path into the prison and Trixie's awkward silence even further proved that there's no way out. Or at least, no way out from my point of view. In a fit of desperation, I grabbed the bugbait and just randomly threw it into the air. Only when I saw it in the air did realize the mistake I have made. That squishy, alien thing was the only thing that kept us from being antlion food. I quickly took out the gravity gun to grab it, but I was too slow. Just like lady bad luck would have it, a stray bullet managed to hit the damn thing in mid-air, scattering the soft innards all around. That gave out our position almost immediately as until now, the combine were too occupied with the antlions. As parts of the rock were blown off by continuous fire and the two of us were forced to get closer to each other, I would have sworn I could see balls of fire in Trixie's eyes. Guy mentioned in prophecy or not, she had the look of a tiger about to pounce a gazelle. She even growled like one. But then, something happened. The ground shook violently and up on the hill, the ground burst open. Soldiers were already onto this unwanted guest, but they were no match for it. Both of us only stared in awe as one by one, they were send flying by an enormous, glowing antlion. It roared after it left a bunker it had cleared and charged towards another one almost instantly. "Well, that's convenient," she let out nonchalantly. "Come on, this thing I'll buy us a lot of time." After peeking out once more and waiting for just the right moment, she ran for the hill, with me closely behind. "I just wasted our only antlion repellent," I let out. "How is that convenient?" I figured she would slap me now, as this was probably the sixth or seventh stupid question in a row that she had to endure. A regular pony would probably snap by now, but she didn't. Instead, she just silently followed the dead bodies the antlion left in its wake. Within minutes, we reached the prison in all its antlion-ridden glory. Oddly enough, one of the towers was already destroyed and collapsed right on top of the prison's main building. Despite a rather bittersweet relationship with us and the shadow group, I had to admit that they knew how to make an entrance. An inconvenient, but impressive one nonetheless. "Tactical geniuses," let out Trixie. "Each and every one of them." Seeing as the combine were occupied by the antlions, the two of us hid behind the collapsed tower and had a brief pause. "Are we going to use this to get in?" I asked, tapping the tower's metallic frame with my hoof. "I don't see any other way in." Trixie merely shook her head. "They probably got through like that," she explained. "But I'm not risking it. Not to mention they probably have a forcefield up there." Without saying anything else, she peaked out of cover and looked both sides. Combines were seen fighting on both of them, but one of the sides' defences were starting to crumble, with the occasional antlion getting through, only to be gunned down within seconds. The defences consisted solely of shotgun-wielding soldiers, with the assault rifle ones covering them while they reloaded. Their tactic, however, was starting to fail and Trixie saw a chance to capture the tower they protected, a tower very likely to have all the power flowing through it. "See that tower over there?" she asked me, pointing her hoof to said tower. "With all the wires leading to it, I'm fairly certain it's the main power source for outside defences." I had a peak and she was probably right. The base of the tower was heavily reinforced and as the big antlion attacked it and caused the metal to bend, I could see something glowing inside. "We're gonna destroy it." Upon hearing that, I just nodded and reloaded my pistol. After waiting for a couple of seconds, the defence finally crumbled and we charged at it, killing any antlions that stood between us and the power outlet. I was about to use the gravity gun to tear the bent metal out, but the glowing antlion came back for more. Trixie immediately started gunning it down to have it target her instead of me, wanting to buy me some time. I aimed and pressed the second trigger, but nothing happened. The metal just shook a little and stayed in place. Eventually, whatever was keeping it in place finally snapped and I promptly tossed the piece of metal aside. The power source was unlike anything I've ever seen before. It was a shining ball of light, bouncing up and down whilst surrounded by a transparent blue forcefield in the shape of a cylinder. How it kept bouncing like that without damaging the forcefield was a question for another day. "I'm empty!" shouted Trixie, her weapon clicking as the antlion roared at her. "Grab the power source and zap this thing!" Without hesitation, I grabbed the ball of light and flung it at the antlion. It deflected it. The antlion flinched, nonetheless, but that thing barely did any harm to it. The fact that the deflected power source managed to kill a few soldiers was even more mind-blowing. To worsen the already bad situation, the antlion was now after me. I dropped the gravity gun on the ground and took out my pistol, unloading the entire magazine into the antlion in a matter of seconds. While it did cause profuse bleeding, the antlion still brushed it off with just a flinch. I immediately started running away, but to no avail. Just like last time, it outran me and sent me flying. The aftermath, however, was different. In addition to scraped ribs, I was unable to stand up and my vision was slowly turning yellow. In the corner of my eye, I could see the antlion coming round for another attack. Out of panic, I hopelessly tried moving despite the paralysis, but it was pointless. As it got close, I could see all the important events in my life being shown to me like some sort of montage. I've heard about ponies who, when facing imminent death, saw their who lives flash before their very eyes, but to see it for myself. Even if it didn't kill me right away, I was sure whatever toxin I had would. Then, I heard a loud hum, a whoosh and a loud thud. The antlion let out a deafening shriek, fell before me and I passed out. When I woke up, I found myself inside a building, with Trixie injecting me with something green. "W-what happened?" I asked her. "Where are we?" "The toxin knocked you out," she explained, discarding the needle after she was done. "Then, I had to drag you somewhere safe and give you an antidote." I let out a sigh of relief. I was sure I would die there. We've already went through a few moments like this one, but none of them were as death-defying as this one. She was a very capable fighter and I was starting to question whether I was really needed for this whole ordeal. However, because I knew how futile it would be to voice my doubts again, I just stood up and gathered my surroundings. The shadow group left such a mess that one could easily mistake them for an army. "Hey, I think you dropped this," Trixie let out as I was examining the carnage. "Try to use it next time." After turning my attention to her, she tossed me the gravity gun. I caught it, dusted it off a little and checked if both triggers worked. They did. Afterwards, the two of us followed the trail of bodies left behind by the shadow team...