Half-Life : A World Beyond

by Random Gamer

7a - Elementary

Much to our suprise, we reached NLO without any sorts of problems and were kindly greeted by it's residents, but most notably Winchester, the town's blue-maned leader. We found him just when as he was instructing newest rocketeers to the use of the missile launcher. They reminded me more of fillies than real resistance members but since their numbers were decreasing by hour, I guessed they needed all the help they could get.

"This, my pegasi recruits, is a VX-54 Anti-Aircraft Missile Launcher or RPG for short. Half original design and half design stolen from a late engineer, this is our best way of taking out a gunship or any of those pesky hunter-choppers. If you dodge their attacks and land a few direct hits, you'll be sure to produce a fiery wreckage of varying size. Ah, I couldn't ask for finer volunteers!" he said as he saw us.

"Actually, we already have one of those." I said and took out the missile launcher. "Stole it from the Combine at Bridge Point."

"Ah, splendid!" he exclaimed. "At least I won't have to give you this one." He gave it to one of rocketeer recruits and then introduced himself.

"I'm Colonel Wartlesby Winchester." He bowed. " At your service."

"I'm Darek, he's Terin and that mare in the back is Clara." said Darek, pointing his hoove at said ponies.

"Ah, you must the team Vans' sent! Truly this day keeps getting better and better!" He said and smiled.

"So, now that we're here, what are our intructions?" asked Clara. "Have you contacted Vans or Dot?"

"One of my fellow engineers are fixing the radio tower mounted on the nearby lighthouse. Since we lost contact, we stayed up all the day to watch out if any gunships or chopper plans to-" he was interrupted when a rotor and gunfire was heard.

"Gunship! Gunship!" shouted someone from the outside. Wartlesby started panicking and started calling for help via the radio while we ran out the building he was holed in. As soon as we did, the gunship shot relentlessly at it and we knew that Wartlesby was now either wounded, dead or lucky as hell.

There wasn't much place to hide since the town only had four buildings but we instinctively chose the biggest one and got a nice view of the gunship via the hole-ridden rooftop. Despite that, it still provided the much needed cover while allowing us to shoot through it. Darek took aim, shot out a missile and it went right after the gunship. Shortly after, however, the missile was shot down, exploding in mid-air. Then, the gunship aimed at the roof and started shooting. The the so-called rocketeers were nowhere to been and we saw no way out of this situation. A whole minute worth of shooting later they finally showed up, flying out of cover and armed with RPGs.

"To protect the world from devastation!" said one of them after landing a direct hit at the gunship, which caused it to flinch and produce a high-pitched sound. Moments later, the gunship started steering at a much-higher speed as well as shooting, forcing the rocketeers to fly faster to dodge them.

"To unite all rebels within our nation!" said the other one after landing yet another direct hit, this time damaging the gunship's engine and causing it to have problems keeping altitude. For some reason, I though the things they were saying were silly and unneeded.

"Rocketeers, blast off at the speed of light!" they said and turned on their laser-targeting for a final shot. "Surrender now or prepare to fight!" They uttured and shot a missile each, causing the gunship to break into pieces and shower the area beneath with scrap metal.

"Whoa, those guys really like to show off." I said. "I mean, who needs a freaking motto?" Cheering was heard as they landed and we though it would be polite if we cheered for them too.

"What's with the fancy words around?" asked Darek, "You could have just keep shooting at it."

"What's wrong with a little morale boost?" said Reek, the male pegasus. "Sure, silence is cool but where's silence when they're shooting at you?"

"Since when does uttering complete nonsense make you a resistance member?" asked Clara. "Did your parents approve of this?"

"Clara, leave him al-" said Darek but was interrupted by Clara, who was turning this friendly conversation into a fiery opinion exchange.

"You think we do this for fun?" uttered Clara. "The Combine are out there, killing hundreds per month and there's nothing keeping them from doing that over and over again until they get more food. And then there's us, the Rebels, standing at the other side doing our best to save civilians while resorting to complete discretion." The rocketeers were completely speechless and all of the cheering had died down as everyone listened to Clara.

"Now, tell me how good are two fillies, armed with RPGs, singing a silly song while taking down one of the many Gunships." proclaimed Clara.

"Ehm... Well, we're..." said Tether, the female pegasi, in an attempt to break her monologue.

"...quite good? I'll show you what's quite good." Clara took out her sniper rifle, tore out Reek's badge and instructed Tether to threw it up as high as she can. After the badge was in mid-air and barely seen, Clara took aim with the sniper rifle and shot it, causing it to split into more than seven pieces.

"Whoa..." said Reek, amazed by her skills.

"I don't care who told you to join but go home while you still can. I've seen brave and experienced ponies die and a few more dead fillies wouldn't make it better." Sadness was heard in her voice as she remembered the old days of having a whole team under her command.

"But... the resistance. They need us. Reek's sis and my father are rebels too. We really want to help them." said Tether. "We want to... make them proud."

"Signing up for a war to make someone proud won't make them proud." said Clara and kneeled a bit so that she could look into their red and yellow eyes. "You have a family - something I don't - and the best you can do for them is to give them a reason to come back home." Wartlesby, the not-so-brave local leader of the rebels appeared behind us, glad that we helped him.

"Ah, that gunship went down as a fly!" he said. "I couldn't have done it better myself!" I rolled my eyes, sorry for the rebels to have such a coward for their leader.

"Your sorry ass wouldn't even dare to walk up to an unarmed soldier." said Clara and turned to him. "Only a coward recruits fillies as his recruits."

"Clara, I think you've said-" Darek tried to calm her down.

"Enough? I don't think I did." she replied. "There is much more to be said." Wartlesby was not impressed and instead motioned them to get back into the house. Even though Clara was right in every way, I don't think it was right to call him a coward. Without a leader, the locals would turn into a herd of cows, not knowing what to do and an easy target for the Combine. Thus, Winchester, as leader, did what was right as a leader and tried to stay alive.

"While you were fighting the gunship, I've established connection with Shorepoint and the news they brough me was quite... troubling." he said. "Well, better hear for yourself." Darek turned set the transmitter to output sound via the speakers.

"Leon?" he said. "You there?"

"Darek?" replied the pony on other side. "Yes, it's me. We've got very bad news for you."

"On with it." I said. "What's worse than being almost killed by a gunship?"

"The Dam was raided. Vans was reported to be missing and only a few ponies along with Trixie escaped. Her companion Random was unable to escape with her due to a cave in and had to go through Ravenholm. We're getting some escapees from the Dam right now but no signs of Trixie or Random."

"Damn it!" said Clara. "How did they sniffed them out?"

"No idea. But most of us 'round these parts thinks it was someone from the inside."

"A double-agent?" I said, "Who would betray us because of the combine?"

"We have no tips so far, but a team's working on it." he said with a short pause. "Before the raid happened, Vans gave out instructions to various teams, yours included."

"And?" I asked. "What does he want us to do."

"He... he wants you to go to Novum Prospectum and lead a small team through it, freeing anyone you can along the way."

"What about Random and Trixie?" asked Clara. "What are they supposed to do in Novum Prospectum?" Leon stayed silent for a moment and then his voice was replaced by female one.

"Trixie here, I just arrived from the Dam." she said. "They got Vans."

"We've been assigned a team to infiltrate and free the prisoners in Novum Prospectum." said Darek. "Maybe you should join."

"Sorry Darek, I can't. I have to wait for Random to arrive." she said, "I hope he will."

"Very well." I said. "NLO out." We turned the transmitter off and said goodbye to Wartlesby, along with an apology by Clara. The lighthouse's engineers showed us a secret cliffside passage accessible by a hidden door in the lighthouse and we were now at the right track to reach the prison. But problems surfaced when we reached the end of the it and were warned by a sign telling us not to step on the sand. It was antlion mating season after all and so, we had to be very careful when moving forward. Jumping across via boulders, we saw a pair of rebels nearby, desperately trying to get across...