//------------------------------//
// 6a - Iridescent 
// Story: Half-Life : A World Beyond 
// by Random Gamer 
//------------------------------//

	After a couple of minutes of walking, we reached an enormous metallic bridge which was also used by trains. Underneath was a large drop with small puddles of water and apart from the bridge, had no way through. Since we wanted to be certain we were going the right way, we once again contacted Clara.

"Clara, come in." transmitted Darek. "We need you help again."

"Well, did you make it out?" she transmitted.

"Yes, the tunnels gave us the creeps but we managed to get through." I said. "Now, we're near an old bridge and want to know if it's safe to cross it."

"I'm afraid it isn't. You see, the whole thing is a base of operation for the local soldiers and it appears to be blocked by a particle wall." she replied. "You'll have to take the side path and go underneath it, but even then, you won't be able to stay off the crosshairs of the soldiers."

"I never expected this to be easy." responded Darek. "What about you? Did you get out of the city?"

"Not yet. I hitched a train ride and will drop off at the bridge in a couple of minutes." she said and sounds reminescent of a train could be heard in the background. Shortly after, we saw Clara jump out of the train and do a roll. She then got up,  dusted off her clothes and walked to us.

"Whoa, now that's what I call a smooth arrival." I said.

"Yeah, thanks." she replied. "I hope the sniper rifle is still in one piece."

"Wait a second," said Darek, puzzled. "you're carrying a sniper rifle?"

"Yep." she answered him and took out the overwatch sniper rifle. It was quite long and heavy but was without doubt the best long range weapon in Equestria.

"About the side path..." I said and walked down. "What exactly did you mean by that?"

"Well, apart from going straight across, you can walk on the bridge's metallic frame and get across that way too." she replied and showed us the way. "Problem isn't getting there but not falling down. Believe me. I've been here before and I don't think it got any safer." We nodded and used a ladder to get up on the catwalk surrounding the bridge's frame.

There were whole groups of soldiers lollygagging about and patrolling the numerous catwalks. There were also smaller rooms scattered along the catwalks, possibly housing ammo and other kinds of supplies, vital to the soldier's duties. But what really caught our attention was another ladder which lead to some sort of stairs up on the bridge. That was, without doubt, our ticket in.

Using advanced tactics, we got all of them, one by one and to make it harder for the Overwatch to find and report their death, we also dropped every one of them off the bridge. We stocked up on supplies and got up on the ladder and onto the stairs. These possibly lead to some sort of command centre since we heard chatter nearby.

"Heard about the things in the tunnels?" A soldier was teasing one of his friends.

"Was there ever a day you didn't talk about that?" replied an annoyed soldier. "No such things as ghosts or other sorts of things."

"E378 and E379. I recommend you to stay focused for the remainder of this day." said their commanding officer. It was quite funny all things considered, since we had to shoot our ways through Haunted Station because of undead CPs and these fools though it were just rumours. Clara told us to split up and attack the E's while she takes down the commander. We did exactly that, but the commander called in reinforcements, despite being shot with a sniper rifle. He later bled out and we had another problem to deal with.

"Guys, look at this." said Darek as he opened a weapon crate. "Is that what I thing it is?"

"Shoulder-mounted missile launcher. Jackpot!" I said and took the weapon.

"Umm... I don't want to sound like someone who panics but they sent two hunter-choppers." proclaimed Clara as she was scouting the catwalks and to keep her away from the choppers, managed to find a place where they couldn't fire at her. I didn't hesitate and went there, dodging a spray of bullets from both of them and then, when they stopped shooting while their weapons were cooling off, I shot missiles. Much to my suprise and pessimism, I took both of them with just one shot each. Truly a wonderful invention it was.

"Yeah!" I shouted as the wrecks of them were falling down into the water. I then victoriesly walked back to the command centre along Clara.

"Impressive." said Darek. "Ehm... I found a switch powering the gates and pressed it. We should now have no problems getting to NLO."

"Agreed" I replied. We returned back to the bridge through the catwalk and walked across. Now, it was just a matter of time until we finally reached New Little Odessa, our designated location where we're needed. Even though I was sure Clara could tap into the APC's interface and even drive it, there wasn't a single one around and thus, we have to walk, again.