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O Kanonas Ischyei Gia Sena (The Rule Applies to You)

A/N: Pure speculation. It is never stated how the canal station got the chopper turret for Gordon Freeman. So, I decided my own way, with a little vortessence action, yeah! Shows how the rebels are unorthodox, but effective, if only human. Don't own Half-Life, blah blah, you know all this.




Alcander Lauhin is flexible. I mean that in the way that he’s the complete opposite of a stiff. I doubt the man knows the meaning of ‘shut your mouth before I shove a rocket down it’, I’ve said it to him enough times. But Christ, he’s a terror to Combine. Mentally, and physically. Red hair starting to grow back on his shaved head, hazel eyes, and a voice loud enough to rival Overwatch’s booming announcements. Except his voice dripped with a thick Irish accent, unchanged even after years in Combine protected living.

He’s everything the Combine stand against. He’s all they aim to stomp out. Lauhin is a free spirit.

“What, we got a hunter-chopper on our asses now?” Lauhin’s voice lifted in a rhetorical question. Rhetorical, because he heard the warble of the chopper’s turret charging up just as well as I did. I stayed quiet and tapped my fingers against the floor. “Fine. Okay, miss RPG Queen, let the bastard have it. We need Gordon Freeman alive.”

“Yeah... I know.” I touched the launcher on my shoulder affectionately. Maggie. Okay, yes, I named my RPG Maggie. Sue me. “Hey Lauhin, you want to help out, maybe?”

“You’re the one with Maggie. Whaddeya want me to do, throw the rockets at it?” He laughed humorlessly as bullets bounced off the walls of our sentry area. “Take it down, Forakis. Black Mesa East wants Freeman there alive, and he’s already got the airboat at Station 6.” Lauhin moved behind me, and leaned against my back. He’s much taller than me, by a good foot or so, and it doesn’t take much for him to brace me.

I stuck Maggie further out the broken hole in the canal’s wall and set my head against her side.

“Station 6 already?” I whistled appraisingly as I set my eye over the curvature of the launcher. “Damn, he’s fast.” The hunter-chopper whirled from behind the hills, and I depressed the trigger. The rocket blew from the launcher, and it was only Lauhin’s weight on my back that kept me from blowing with the same force backwards.

“Watch it, RPG Queen…” The chopper’s turret crooned again, and unleashed a barrage of bullets on my rocket. I pulled back on the launcher, and the rocket followed suit. Bless the laser guided system, the rocket evaded the chopper’s assault. I swung my arm on top of the launcher and leaned my weight on it. The rocket looped in the air and lodged itself in the back circular blades of the chopper. Alarms wailed in the distance as the blade fell off and landed with a splash in the canals. The chopper still hovered in front of my crude view hole, and charged its pulse turret for another round.

“The hunter-chopper will not go down easily with rockets.” I warned Lauhin. “Too fast.” He pushed against my back.

“Hey, Freeman’ll be happy with that thing gone. They’ve got the whole hive chasing him.“ His bright voice told me.

“Ya really think he’s coming?” I asked skeptically, reaching blindly besides me for another rocket. “Been twenty years since Black Mesa.”

“Hey, Kleiner AND our CP bug have seen him. And Dr. Vance seems to be a firm believer if they let Station 6 give ‘im the airboat.” He mumbled. “The vort is certainly excited about him coming.”

“Where’s the vort, anyways?” I shot another rocket, only to have the chopper shoot it down. “Shit.”

“He went off somewhere, talkin’ about helping the ‘One Free Man.’”

“Hell bells, it’d be better if he was here helping us.” I looked over my shoulder at Lauhin, his hazel eyes tracking the hunter-chopper. “You got a rifle or something? That thing can drive itself, but we can at least knock off the gunner.”

“Naw, you know this checkpoint has shit for weapons. We’ve only got Maggie cause you insisted on carrying her all the way here.” I looked back towards the chopper and shoved another rocket into the launcher. I took a deep breath and followed the chopper with my laser reticule. Maggie’s not a contestant for accuracy next to a sniper rifle… but one wrong twitch and that rocket could come screaming back at us. The hunter-chopper’s alarms went off again as the rocket slammed against the turret, and dislodged it.

“Erh, almost…” I grumbled between my teeth. “Where’s the vort? He can ‘vortessence’ that turret off better than I’m doing right now.” I squinted my eyes at the chopper in the distance. “I swear, it’s only hanging by a wire…” The chopper, now streaming smoke from its sides, spun in the air and raced over our canal tunnel. Lauhin took a sharp intake of breath from behind me, and he yanked on my shoulders. I yelped as I dropped Maggie on my leg and I felt his knees jab into my back.

“Aw-! Forakis, hit the dirt!” A chunk of concrete fell loose from the ceiling and landed a yard away from my legs. “They’re dropping mines on us, we’ve gotta get this thing off our ass.” I scoffed at his blatant observation and shuffled to my feet.

“Do not fear, The For-Kas and The Lauhin…” I smiled as an almost melodically smooth voice oozed through the air. “I shall quell this threat.” The vort plodded his way to our makeshift view port and leaned his elongated head out the ‘window’. His multiple red eyes scintillated as he calmly assessed the chopper buzzing loudly above our structure.

The vortigaunts were invaluable to the resistance. That’s all there is to it. Many times stronger than humans, tuned with the ‘vortessence’, a name for the green electricity they controlled… vorts were alien ass-kickers in a smooth, slug-like form.

“Ah, the hunter-chopper wishes to intercept The One Free Man, does it?” The vort issued a throaty chortle at the ‘copter. “Oh, how terribly amusing. That shall not happen if this one can stop it!” He clapped his clawed hands together as if the hunter-chopper was nothing less than a threat.

“All right, already, just zap it!” Lauhin growled. I elbowed him in the gut.

“He’ll zap you next if you don’t keep your lips closed!”

“That is… unlikely…“ The vort lifted the edges of the skin around his teeth in the vortal equivalent of a smile. “For without The Lauhin, we would lose all brand of entertainment.” I had to smirk. For a vort, he sure had a sense of humor. “However, The Lauhin is right to worry. This enemy is ready to deploy more bombs and therefore…” The vort let out a harsh, barking noise as he thrust his claws out with an electrical crackle.

I know the crashing sounds I heard were of the ‘copter going down. I know the laughter was Lauhin’s. I know the smooth noise of satisfaction is the vort… but all I could hear was the remnants of the vortessence snapping in the air. It hurt like a faulty headset shorting out in the ear, but comforted like a mother’s coo. All in all, it left my stomach somersaulting over itself.

I rubbed my ears underneath my wool cap. The vortessence makes me sick... my stomach tumble and my head pound. The vort told me it was because I’ve been around it much longer than other humans, and was much younger than most when exposed to it. Did something to me, like an allergic reaction. The vorts call me ‘blessed’. I call it ‘me being defective and ridden with migraines‘. The latter seems more like the truth.

My stomach lurched, and I kept a retch down in my stomach. Crap.

“Is The For-Kas well?”

“Mmhmm…” I mumbled distantly. I couldn’t spare consoling words, I was having enough trouble keeping my nasty meal of dehydrated rations down in my gut.

“She’s gonna vomit again… should’ve shoved her out of the room while you shot the chopper down.” Lauhin mumbled to himself. I tore my eyes from the cracked concrete floor long to glare at him. He grinned and raised his arms in innocence. Not like I haven’t seen that look before.

Alcander Lauhin is a practical joker. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pulled not-really-deactivated hopper mines out of my cot, or the reason why I refuse to open my trunk without a pistol in hand. At least he’s serious enough to shove a bucket in front of me when I start gagging around the vortessence.

I control the spasms from my throat long enough to berate him.

“Go get the turret off that chopper before I projectile vomit all over you.”

“Heh!” Lauhin crossed his arms over his chest and leaned forward towards me. “Think our guest will like that?”

“You know it.” I straightened up and exhaled deeply. The crackling in the air was gone, meaning I was spared. Thank God. “Damn, that’s never fun.”

“The For-kiss would do well to avoid such exposures to the vortessence in the future.” The vort turned from the ‘window’ to blink his largest eye at me. “We do not mean such harm, you are not the only one blessed with the reception… we know this. We see this.” His hunched neck drooped even further in humble apology.

“I know you don’t mean it.” I reassured him. “We’ve got more important things to worry about. Like getting that turret. Could be useful, ya know?” I walked over to the hole in the wall and dipped my head over the side.

The chopper was trashed. Potent stuff, that vortal electricity. The machine was half submerged in the shallow canals, still glowing with green sparks. Twisted metal had scattered across the concrete banks of the river, some even lodged into the side of our tunnel. I squinted and leaned as far out of the hole as I dared to. Nope… I couldn’t see the gun.

Yeah, potent stuff alright. Potent enough to give me a migraine and a half... potent enough to take a hunter-chopper down with one well placed shot. Damn glad the vorts are on our side. Damn glad.

“I don’t see the turret.” I called behind my shoulder to my two comrades. “Is it possible you fried it?” The vort wiggled his head, obviously perturbed.

“If only the vortessence was strong enough to melt that wretched machine.” His outer eyes open wider. “Then our resisting efforts would seem much less futile.” The vort clasped his claws together with a soft noise.

“Well, I s’ppose I should get me airboat running again…” Lauhin removed his resistance standard-issue wool beanie and scratched at the red stubble on his head. “Itchy things… why are these things mandatory?”

“Because wool is all we can smuggle out of the city.” I bent down and retrieved Maggie. She settled into the familiar crook of my spine as I slung the strap over my shoulder. Ah, what a lovely security, having an RPG on your back. I paused for a moment. “Wait, your airboat?”

“Yes. ME airboat.” Lauhin cocked an eyebrow at me. “I built this particular one from the trash in the canals. So, it’s mine.” He shoved the beanie over his head in a triumphant manner. I looked up towards the ceiling and sighed.

“Okay, fine. Then you can get YOUR airboat going and bring that chopper gun back.” I walked past him towards the ladder, thumping his shoulder with a knuckle. “Careful, might bring in reinforcements.”

“Naw. You know they don’t send in guys for the hunter-choppers. They only go after small groups of rebels, nothing for the Combine to worry about. ’Sides the fact no other railroad outpost could take one down.” Lauhin turned his head over his shoulder to talk to me. “Though, we’re gonna have split after the Doc comes through.” I nodded and took hold of a rung.

“I’ll start packing stuff.” I stepped onto a lower rung. “And start dousing things in kerosene.” Combine were smart, but if we were lucky, they would think we all died in a freak explosion.

“I shall assist you.” The vortigaunt supplied. “It is the least I can do for causing the For-Kas… discomfort.”

“Eh. Not a problem.” I snickered. I climbed down the ladder into the outpost proper and lifted the barrel of kerosene on the floor. “We’ll need a few more of these, though…”

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Yah. Story. Review? Thanks!