//------------------------------// // 5 - Converge // Story: Half-Life : A World Beyond // by Random Gamer //------------------------------// Trixie walked out her cover, smg raised when a couple of CPs approached us. She lowered her weapon and carefully listened. "Officers, we have been tasked with escorting you to Sector 23." said one of them. "For what reason?" she asked. "Can't we go alone without any of you fools interfering?" "Certainly not. Your clearance is only up to Sector 17 and you somehow to get to the 18th one. So, for your own safety, we, as senior officers, will escort you to the mentioned sector." said the other one. After I heard this, I walked out of my cover and stood next to Trixie. "Okay." I said. "We'll be happy if you help us." Trixie kicked me shortly after I said this. "Hehe. What my partner wanted to say was that while we appreciate your help, we'd rather backtrack and find an alternative way." She said nervously. "You guys probably have better things to do." The officers looked at themselves for a brief momen, probably puzzled and then replied. "Doubt it. There's no other way to 23 so we'd appreciate if you let us accompany you." Trixie was dumbfooted by this reply and had absolutely no other choice than to allow that. "Fine. We'd appreciate an escort." she said, annoyed. "But we would also appreciate if this could be performed in the shortest time span possible as we have plans to do." "Understood. It will be but a minute." said one of them and started escorting us out of the sector. However, instead of heading directly for Sector 19, they took us to an empty interrogation room. And then, just as soon the doors closed, Trixie aimed her smg at one of them and as obviously out of her mood. "One more step and you'll be reported as dead." Now she was angry. "Trixie, I recommend you to put your gun down before doing something you'll regret." For some reason, they spoke without the usual voice masking and could be fully understood. "How... how'd you know it's me?!" Even a blind stallion could say her blood was starting to boil. Instead of reasing their weapons, which were shotguns, the officers removed their masks and revealed their identities. "So this is how you say thanks to a bunch of guys who managed to save your butt?" Said Terin. "Terin, Darek?" said Trixie suprised and put down her smg. "How'd you get here? I though you were on an outside mission." "You though you were alone on this? Vans sent us in to help you because he believes five people have a bigger chance of pulling this off. Still, I do believe you could have taken an easier route than these dreaded canals." said Darek. "Is it really that hard to plan ahead?" "No, but were had to improvise to get here and even though the canals are dangerous, it's the safest route." she replied. "We'll get to Novum Prospectu, no matter what." "Who's the fifth?" I asked. "And how will we get to 23?" "Clara, the best assassin the resistance has. Currently, she's holed up in a sniper nest and will provide us with cover if neccesary." answered Terin. "Due to the amount of security, we'll have to literally shoot our way through to get past five sectors." "You... you don't expect me to shoot, do you?" I uttered nervously. "Actually we do. Five pones shooting through a train station is better than four." proclaimed Darek. Well, I didn't plan on shooting anyone on my way to the prison but since this leaves no place for democracy, I'll have to. "Now, we'll walk out of this room, take out our guns and start shooting on signal." uttered Terin and we nodded. After that we carefully walked into Sector 20, took out our weapons and faced the CPs, which, if I counted right, were numbered at more than ten. "Halt! This a public transit zone, you are by no means allowed to use-" Clara silenced yet another CP with a precise shot in the head and opened fire. We hid behind a low barricade and occasionally leaned out to shoot. "We need help in Sector 20, I repeat, we need help at Sector 20. Send in everything we have!" hastily transmitted one of the CPs we were shooting at. After a while of shooting, we managed to get all of them before the reinforcements. "Gimme a sec, gonna buy you guys some time" transmitted Clara through our frequency. The transparent wall behind became solid and so did every other one except the one leading to 21. "Alright, go go go!" shouted Terin and sprinted for the checkpoint leading to the next sector. We quickly followed him but the thing we saw was too much for us to handle. A small canal leading to 22 and beyond was barricaded and protected by a mounted plasma machine gun with more than seven units behind it. "Well, now what?" said Darek. "That thing will tear us to shreds if we try to get past it." "Hey, anyone seen Random?" asked Trixie and looked up. I was trying to climb a steep wall because it had a hole in it and that could serve as our way past. "Random, what are you..." said Terin. "Oh, right. Smart boy." I helped Trixie up and we got inside through the hole. Once there, we once again had to shoot our way through, but it was quite easy due to my accuracy and Trixie's near-perfect reflexes. Then the rest of the gang got in and we eventually got inside the machine gun nest which protected by a simple wooden door to the side. I kicked it open and in a brief moment, we managed to end everyone in there. Man, that was fast. "Everyone okay?" asked Terin before moving on. "I'm fine." replied Darek. "Unwoonded so far" answered Trixie. "Clean" I uttered. "Hey, what happened to you guys? I lost visual on you. Where'd you go?" asked Clara. "Hello?" "No worries, Sally, we just cut through a machine gun nest and managed to get past 20 or so CPs." transmitted Darek. "Today was a good day so far." "Oh, good, good. Keep it up. You're almost there. Clara out." After the transmission was turned off, we continued to Sector 23, our final destination or otherwise known as the place where all trains stop. It was a sector like every other but boasted a feature not many of them had - a rail track. This meant that whoever wanted to get past had to be careful not be hit by a train and to be honest, there's wasn't much space to hide, so it was basically a training ground for snipers. It also housed the entry to the canals, the place we were hoping to find. After our arrival, we saw the tall blue building in the distance and many, many houses. Patrols were regulary seen around here and getting around them would prove quite a challenge. "Alright guys, this is it. The place we were hoping to find. You ready?" asked Terin. "I think such a stupid question can only be answered with a yes." replied Darek. With this sortred out, we begun our way to the canals entry, killing anyone foolish enough to stand in our way. And so, in a matter of minutes, we managed to enter the canals and witness a train hit two CPs who were chasing after us. The canals were flooded and full of all sorts of junk but we managed to swim to a part of the canals which only had wrecks. One particular wreck housed a pone and we had to go through to get further in the canals. We entered it though the top hatch and landed on a matress. "Hey, you're the guys they're after?" he asked. "Yeah." I said. "Don't tell anyone you've seen us here." "Don't worry, I won't. I was kinda hoping you'd show up." He opened the side door of the train and saluted. "Good luck out there." he said. "Well, this is where we have to split up again." said Terin. "We've got you to the canals." "What, why?" asked Trixie. "We're gonna need you." "I'm quite sure you won't, Beatrice. Besides, the airboat, a vehicle you're going to need, is just two stations up front. I'm sure you can handle that" said Darek. "We have to get to NLO. Sorry." Trixie was quite sad that they had to leave but was sure we would see them again. They shared hugs and then went through a different way. I was indifferent to this, but felt that this is not the last time we're gonna shoot our way through. Now we just need to get our of the city.