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chell

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Outside the bugs might still be screaming. It's hard to say. The humans operating the floodlights came forward to grab Chell and Adrian as soon as they saw them- well, to grab Chell. Shephard almost got shot, because when the antlions are swarming and the bullets are flying, a gas mask looks an awful lot like a Combine full face helmet.

Someone saw what they were about to shoot in time, though, so Shephard avoided that fate. They're inside now, being led through the narrow corridors of some sort of concealed base. 'Led' is the operative word, as Shephard is still trying to recover from having floodlights turned on while using his mask's night vision functionality.

"So," says the human closest to Chell, a dark-skinned woman with her shotgun slung over her shoulders. "What's your story, anyway?"

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"'m fine," Adrian says. "Caught me off my guard, that's all. Won't happen again."

"My apologies, Corporal," Tim says at last, though the words are grating and unfamiliar to him. "I lost a lot of family..."

"Yeah, I know how it goes," Shephard answers. "How about we agree this never happened and start over again?"

"I'm good with that if you are." Tim spreads his hands. "Tim Hutchence. Local Resistance leader. And you are?"

"Corporal Adrian Shephard, USMC, Hazardous Environment Combat Unit."

"Pleasure to meet you, Corporal."

"Likewise."

"So," Chell starts after a bit of awkward silence. "What all do you know about this... Scab?"

Tim grimaces, and gestures the two newcomers over to one of the maps. "The Scab used to be Pittsburgh," he says. "These days the Combine use the place as a manufacturing plant as big as... well, anything Earth's ever seen, really. APCs, helicopters, prefab building sections, you name it. They don't do Synth conversion there- just machines. We've managed to sound out the best routes into and out of the place, but it's difficult to get anyone into the place to report on the interior layout. When you don't have a lot of human population to start with, you can't hide one more among the crowds."

"And I suppose they wouldn't have... Vortigaunts, there?" She remembers the name from Gordon's fact sheets, of course, and seeing a few of them around in City 17.

"If they do," says a woman nearby, "we've never seen 'em. About the only things we see on two feet in the Scab are Overwatch, and a few Elites."

"I know the Combine use them as laborers sometimes... that's too bad. You think if they bring the Citadel in City 17 offline, it would make getting into the Scab any easier?"

Help her out, Adrian! You're the one with experience in leading squads and in squad tactics!

"It'd almost have to,' says Tim. "They're prone to centralization. The Combine here would lose touch with their command immediately if that happened."

Shephard, for his part, is examining the map and scowling. "This was a real city once," he mutters. "Had a water supply, right?"

"Beg pardon?"

"Back when humans lived there, Pittsburgh had sewers," says Shephard. "Unless they've got somethin' guarding the pipes from the inside, that's God's own way of sayin' 'here, I want this place undermined'. If there's a way into the Scab from below it'd make getting in on the surface a whole fuck of a lot easier."

Perfect. That's absolutely perfect. "And they've likely mostly dried out by now, right? Sludge at most? It's especially good because I can use my gun there."

"Overwatch don't have much left in the way of a digestive system," says Tim, "so I doubt they've got much use for the sewers themselves. If they're still there, are you two volunteering for a sewer run if the Citadel goes offline?"

"Don't see why not," says Shephard. "I've had to walk in loads worse."

"... I don't want to know."

Chell nods. "I've been in worse, too... I don't think it would be a problem. Smaller groups of people can get through defenses easier, right, Adrian? And there's portals."

"There's what, now?" says Tim.

Shephard smiles slightly. "Chell, you mind showin' this gentleman just exactly what it is you can do?"

"Sure," she says with a smile, and holsters her gun in a pocket, and then sets to unclipping her portal gun. "Stand clear."

She doesn't want to find out if GLaDOS' warnings were true or not right now.

She fires a blue portal at a far wall, and an orange one next to her, and then she steps through, ending up on the other side of the table.

"And that's just the most basic thing."

A murmur (laced with a couple of surprised profanities) runs around the room. Tim's eyebrows rise a good way up his forehead. "INteresting," he says. "Yes, I think that'd be useful- whether or not the Citadel goes down."

Chell's a little peeved at that. "Yes. I already knew that."

Hey, if you've been through the hell she has? You're entitled to be a little frustrated when people make such obvious statements as that.

"I was making an understatement, young lady," says Tim dryly. "That being said, I do have to ask one question. Are you two in need of anything to eat or anywhere to sleep? I'm assuming the antlions interrupted your travels, if you've been in City 17 any time recently."

Chell nods. "We've been foraging our way across the countryside and camping where we can, so..." It's Adrian's decision, really. He's the leader.

"I spent enough time on watch tonight," says Shephard firmly. "Never pass up an opportunity to sleep."

Tim nods. "All right. We'll see you in the morning, then. Natalie?"

Another woman steps forward and nods to Chell and Adrian. "Come on. There's a few available beds in the bunk area towards the back."

"Thank you," Chell says, turning to follow her. "And this should give you a chance to recover from those lights, right, Adrian?"

"Sure hope so," says Shephard. "My head's still spinning some."

"Sorry about that," says Natalie as she leads the way. "It tends to throw the bugs off guard. The only starlight scopes these days tend to be built into Combine helmets, anyway, so..."

"I'm sure it will. Sleep is good like that." She won't go into the specifics. "So, how long have you all been in this... facility?"

"A few years now. Some of us longer than others," says Natalie. "A lot of us were holed up in this or that part of the countryside, hiding and surviving as best we could. Tim and a couple of the other senior rebels managed to find each other and start scouring the countryside, and brought people back here whenever they could."

"That's... longer than I've been awake," Chell muses under her breath. It's still so weird, to wake up to this world that's nothing like what she knew, either in Aperture, or before then. Gordon got a crash course in the center of it all. Chell still feels like an outsider.

Nathalie chuckles quietly. "Some days it feels even longer than that," she says. "Okay. Common dorm is that green door up ahead. Unless you two need anything else, I need to go take my shift on guard duty."

"No, thank you very much," Chell says softly. "Have a good shift."

When she's gone, Chell whispers, "Well, we found others. What do you think of this all?"

"The commander's an asshole, but he's an asshole who knows his shit," says Adrian. "I was watchin' his face. Man's a poker player and he holds his cards damn close to his vest. I say we stick with these folks and see what happens next."