Fantastic, YABSBH (Yet another brilliant story by hotpoint). In thanks have this link to some LOTR music I found while browsing youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QfHKv86gRQ

Well he’s a lunatic for sure. Rather fun and effective one thought.

When Shannon learns English and starts talking back I will worry.

How will Shephard handle repeatedly running into witnesses of HECU murdering scientists? After all, there are so many running around Combine-occupied Earth that I "wonder if there's anyone in this dystopian future who didn't used to work at that bloody place."

Sounds like you need an HECU survivor to spout the party line: "Those asshole scientists started this whole mess with their 'Resonance Cascade'. And it was Freeman's idea. General Kilgore say so. KIL AL SYNTISTS"

If Shephard's smart, he'll realize that his friends were duped into becoming stormtroopers. If not, then at some point The One Free Man and The Shepard will have to settle who's the bigger badass - and who's the guy who kills striders on foot?

Don't ya hate it when the good guys keep disarming you? Luckily Noriko has her head on straight and now Shep gets to kill some bad guys :)

LOL I love how that guy just added in that they fought off hunters with a pipe wrenches.

That was perfect. :)

Great job

Having your reputation precede you isn’t always a good thing. Still better than your aroma preceding you.

Wonder if the names were planed?
Freeman and Shephard.
Both great names for prophesies.

Great names indeed!

I love this story, well written and I can tell you put a lot of great detail into the story.

I love the personality you've given Shepard too, I'm looking forward to more.

Glad you're enjoying it :-)

I just hope all the new people Shepard has just met don't die in the next 5 minutes!

So does he ;-)

I'm sure he & Freeman will hit it off from the start. With that 'not a crowbar'. But at least he's got freaky looking aliens vouching for him.
And boy, does the Marine Corps owe him a lot of back pay or what?

Of course they might argue he was AWOL for twenty years :-p

So Adrian doesn't really like Gordon? What a surprise. I kinda hope they never meet, because that wouldn't be good for Earth no matter who won. Maybe after a few days of hearing everyone gush about Gordon he will know to hide his dislike really well :)

"One Free Man my ass"

*grumble grumble*

:-p

what, he doesn't like the demigod Freeman? That won't make him popular with the Resistance. But a good shockroach should overcome all obstacles.

Freeman killed an awful lot of HECU Marines. Shephard is holding a grudge!

I know nothing of Half-Life but your stuff is generally of a very high quality.
I will await updates with eagerness.

Hope you like it then :-)

So I just got my daily email of TTH story updates - as soon as I saw this story title I perked up, and once I saw the author's name I got very excited indeed! Very interested to see where you're going with this :)

The only downside is that now I'll be waiting longer for more Compelled, Hunted Tribes and the rest! :p

Not that much longer!

Well cool, although I think it is a bit late to insert Shephard... In the middle of Episode 2? You will have to add a lot of content to make it longer than mere five chapters... Probably the surprise crossover is Portal (but it happened between HL and HL2, so hmmm). Or you're planning to expand it to the Borealis. Or whatever.

I'll read it, though I would prefer you continued one of your other stories (I'm tracking/recommending most of them :P)...

Or whatever ;-)