Gordon's mouth twitches fractionally; it's not enough to be called a smile. "Yeah," he says. "Made it through by myself once. Making it back's going to be ugly if we have to go on foot. We'll have to fight our way out of Nova Prospekt just to start with."

After a moment he adds, "Fun part? We'll be going up against what used to be humans. Either way. I don't think anyone's ever actually seen the Combine themselves outside of the Citadel. Just their slave races."