The Combine Empire invades and takes control of the Vortigaunts' homeworld (which we have never seen), and attempt to enslave them, including their leader, Nihilianth (who is not necessarily a Vortigaunt). A long and bitter struggle ensues, as the Vortigaunts flee from planet to planet, battling and evading the Combine forces. With their backs against the wall, they flee to the border world Xen, where they wait their demise. Xen is sort of like a "subway station" of the universe in that it can be used to cross dimensions. Marc Laidlaw calls it "a dimensional transit bottleneck--an area of continual contention."
(A quick note about Xen: Marc Laidlaw has stated that "nothing is native to Xen" which implies that life Xen is a mish-mash of beings from all over the universe, being willingly or unwillingly transported there. I will refer to the beings from Xen as the "Xenians", which include the headcrabs, ant-lions, vortigaunts, the race that Nihilianth commands, and so on.) The Combine attempt to hybridize the dominant species of the planet (In Xen's case, the Vortigaunts) with their own technology to create a "Super soldier" that is adapted to Xen's environment and uses powerful Combine technology. (This is what they attempt to do on Earth, as well). Nihilanth and his people fight bitterly against the Combine.
After this, the creatures on Xen started to strengthen their positions on Xen, what led to a much more longer and bloody war.
Back on Earth, Gordon is studying for his doctorate at MIT. At Black Mesa in New Mexico, teleportation experiments are taking place. Under the supervision of researchers Eli Vance, Arne Magnusson and Issac Kleiner, crystals are retrieved from Xen, and organisms are analyzed. Research is developing.
Black Mesa's chief competitor for government funding, Aperture Science, also develops its own Portal technology parallel to Black Mesa onboard its many research facilities and enrichment centers, including the Borealis, a research vessel. One day, after what seems to be a severe mishap, the Borealis disappears completely off the face of the Earth, taking all passengers and crew with it. GLaDOS, an artificial intelligence program at Aperture Science, is made operational for the first time at one of Aperture's enrichment centers.
They're waiting for you Gordon, in the test chamber.
(i) GMan Orchestrates The Resonance Cascade, "GMan", a very mysterious figure at Black Mesa, whose motives seem to be independent of both humankind and of the Combine, triggers a resonance cascade within the Anomalous Materials sector of the Black Mesa complex, by bringing in a specific test sample to be used. His selection of this hazardous material is masked by a system crash, to cut out formal communication between scientists. The resonance cascade rips open space-time and forms a portal between Earth and Xen. Nihilanth's race sees the dimensional fissure as an escape route. Of course headcrabs and other life trapped on Xen decide to hitch a ride to Earth, for the fun of it. Black Mesa becomes chaos, as the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, a United States Marine Corps Special Forces division, is brought in to quell the results of the Resonance Cascade, including the elimination of all humans caught in the cross-fire.
This resonance cascade is so immense in nature, that the Combine Empire notices it, turning their interest to what is happening on Earth, on the longer run they have decided to put together a massive giant invasion task force what will invade Earth in case their plans fail, and the Vortigaunts flee towards Earth, what will later becomes reality, and the combine indeed invades earth.
One man in a HEV suit becomes of great interest to G-Man during the incident. Gordon Freeman, a newly assigned scientist in the Anomalous materials lab, shows exceptional skill in dealing with Xen beings and U.S. troops. G-Man's interest peaks as Freeman navigates through Xen (the Xenians believe that Gordon is just as much of an enemy as the Combine) and defeats the Nihilanth. G-Man is impressed.
Eventually Black Mesa is destroyed by nuclear detonation (noted in OF). Several survivors exist, including Wallace Breen, Black Mesa's former administrator; Barney Calhoun, a security guard; Dr Issac Kleiner, a prominent scientist at Black Mesa; Dr. Arne Magnusson; Dr. Eli Vance; and of course, Alyx Vance, Eli's daughter. Alyx is of particular interest to GMan
(ii) Gordon is Hired - At the end of Half-Life G-Man, impressed by your work, gives Gordon a choice between his death or working for the G-Man. Half-Life 2 assumes he chose life over death. After you choose to work for him G-Man puts you in a slow-time-warp (i.e., you are put into stasis) to call upon you when needed.
Unfortunately, though Black Mesa has been obliterated, Earth has yet to feel the brunt of this disaster. "Portal Storms", a seeming side-effect from the resonance cascade, form a dimensional rift between Xen and Earth. These Portal Storms spread outside the confines of what is left of Black Mesa and throughout all of Earth, providing temporary, chaotic, and destructive links between Xen and Earth. Aliens (from Xen) of all types are teleported into suburbs. Headcrabs crawl along the aisles of grocery stores while others teleport into swimming pools and homes. Utter chaos erupts on Earth. The freed Vortigaunts use these storms as a ticket out of Xen and onto Earth, fleeing from the Combine.
A huge population shift occurs as people move into the cities, protected by soldiers and barbed wire fences, to escape the monsters. A feeling of safety comes over the people of Earth, as they can once again live normal lives within the confines of the cities, as the alien species continue to infest the outside world. Vast networks of ant-lion nests are formed throughout the Earth's crust, housing millions of new species.
The Combine, who have been keeping an eye on Earth since the resonance cascade, finally decide to take action. They plan on taking the Portal Storms to their advantage and use them as a method to mount an invasion on Earth. Now that Nihilanth's race have fled from the border-world to Earth, the Combine can forget about Xen and enslave both Mankind and Nihilanth's race in one fell swoop, on Earth.
Forcing space-time and the portal storms wider open, The Combine launches a multi-pronged, all-out assault on the governing facilities of Earth, like the UN HQ, and the NATO infrastructures.
The Combine managed to take hostage the whole UN Council, and take hostage the NATO Secretary General. For this event "Quick Talks" begin between countries about negotiation over the current issue with the Universal Union, because all the current countries have noticed that there are no reason for a longer war, because the Combine forces were much more faster then their own actions, what led to the this.
The combine quickly acts and invades every capital city on earth and establishes the Invasion States, which will later execute their plans.
They teleport troops as well as drop-ships, gun-ships, and striders from Combine off-world outposts through the Portal Storms, and onto Earth. Once there, the Combine uses the same technique that they used on Xen on the humans, building a super-army out of the combination of the DNA of the most dominant species on Earth (the humans) and Combine technology.
The primary Citadel is established in City 17. This enormous structure is home to the Earth based Combine control center. Combine armies are produced here as well as vehicles and armaments. Combine presences are established in other cities around the world. (It is hinted that there may be other secondary Citadels around the world, linked by a network.)
While fighting each other, the humans and Combine also have the threat of Nihilianth's race. The freed Vortigaunts ally with the rebel forces, wanting revenge against the Combine. The headcrabs, being headcrabs, just attack anyone they can find. Other monsters find their place assaulting both Man and Combine.
The next stage of the Combine's plan takes root. Wallace Breen, "made" optimistic about the Combine takeover, is appointed the Administrator of Earth, acting as a puppet for the Combine. How he is selected for this role is unknown at this time. Breen's first act is to surrender Earth to the Combine, explaining that the Combine have arrived for good, to immortalize humanity, convinced by the Combine that the loss of life is inevitable in this transition period as Earth joins the Universal Union. Breen formally "surrenders" Earth after figuring out what kind of overpowered force is knocking on his door. Breen being a human helps the Combine, too. He is a species-specific leader - this helps propagate the lie that the enslavement of humans is a positive step forward, and humans, seeing a human in power, can be more readily coerced into their new lives.
Most of the major population centers of Earth are destroyed. Those still alive move into the country, spreading out to avoid Combine capture. Small pockets of rebel fighters surface, but have to establish bases in un-safe areas in the country, where the Xenians have manifested themselves, finding niches in Earth's ecosystem. Still under the spell of the Combine, and ignoring the massive genocide, Breen views the building rebel force as a group of short-sighted troublemakers.
The remaining populated areas are named City 1, City 2... City 17, City 27, etc and are placed under control of the Combine, who are establishing a huge presence on Earth. The United Nations in New York City is taken over and being transfered it's leadership to the Universal Union.
Meanwhile, all scientists have evacuated their facilities at Aperture Science, including their main enrichment center. The events of Portal take place. 1 The 'Aperture Science Hand-Held Portal Device' is inadvertently released into the wild, however, it is not known what becomes of it.
Wallace Breen takes residence in the top floor of the City 17 Citadel, under the close counsel of the Combine, attempting to quell the rebels. Breen attempts to console humanity by permanently making a connection between himself and it. He does by controlling the media. Huge television screens are erected in city centers. Newspapers, television, and other forms of communication are censored and their content is controlled.
Breen's message is simple: That humanity should not attempt in any way to cause friction in the transition period as mankind integrates itself with the Combine. He believes in order to join this Universal Union, Man will have to sacrifice a lot, but he still believes that the ends justify the means. He truly believes that joining the Combine will be positive to humanity, and tries to convert the rest of it to his point of view. After The Portal Storms, mankind are in such disorder that they can and will believe something like this.
The Universal Union have decided to keep Earth's Civil and Military forces, such as the NATO and the UN, they kept the NATO for military and the UN for civil and para-militant purposes, which had a great deal of power and strategical step inside of it, even more for that the people had more trust in them, for this they did this.
Ruling by fear, the Overwatch assure to continue to protect human city centers from the outside aliens, and thus fearful humans continue to live in the cities out of fear for their families and themselves. The Overwatch's brutal reign begins.
The Combine's purpose with Breen is also simple. His purpose now is to prepare Earth for an eventual total Combine migration. His job is to eliminate any resistance to the Combine. Using controlled raids and a "civil-protection" force, Breen captures and converts any resistance to stalkers , human slaves. Additionally, the Overwatch attempt to re-enslave the Vortigaunts, with some success. The Combine's ultimate purpose is to convert all of humanity into stalkers, and all of the vortigaunts into the slaves they were before Gordon freed them.More important minds are taken to Nova Prospekt, where they are stored in containment and experimented on - the Combine want to get as much knowledge out of humanity as they can before they destroy it. All of these things are leading to a drastic change in the purpose of humanity - it is about to become a slave race.
The Combine Overlord orders some transitional tasks, above and beyond Breen's power. First of all, the Overwatch enact a Suppression Field to prevent humans from procreating. (In particular, protein chains important to the development of an embryo were specifically blocked.) They do this so no new humans can be born, and that the humans left on Earth will be the final generation of them. They also put a biochemical in the water supply to make people gradually forget the past, and so they can more easily comply with Breen and the Combine - to forget why they hate them. Finally, the Combine begin to drain Earth's oceans. These tasks show that the Combine are preparing Earth for new residents.
- An incoming InterCity crashes into City 17 main station
- Gordon Freeman dies minutes after his first arrival into City 17
- The resistance and smaller cells begin the planing of "How to get rid of them"
- The combine starts the concentration of citizens
- Major terraforming project begins on earth, operated by the Universal Union
- Large resistance outbreak happens in city 17, and citizens after this outbreak feel away from city, heading towards elsewhere
- Global resisting begins, time for a change. ______________________________________________________
The Human Rebellion is Gordon's first official assignment after Black Mesa, and his second assignment under the supervision of G-Man. G-Man pulls Gordon out of the slow-time warp for his assignment. After a few minutes as G-Man takes out Gordon from stasis he actually finds him self on a train heading towards City 17, and seconds later he arrives.
(SINCE THIS IS AN OTHER DIMENSION, GORDON WASN'T LUCKY...)
An InterCity Express have entered the vicinity of City 17, as it turned out the driving system is damaged and the train won't stop with the 110 passengers on it, and the IC runs into the station minutes later as Gordon Freeman arrives. Under that time Freeman is still watching Dr. Breen talking on the Broadcast screen.
Not enough for Freeman that he was in stasis, but minutes later, the InterCity flies into the Station, braking the railway under it's self and derails, and splats Gordon Freeman with a quick slick.
Gordon seconds later, he find him self without the lower part of him self, laying on the floor in a pool of blood.
The death of Gordon Freeman was never recognised, and nobody ever knew he was on the transit with what he came minutes before the incident.
A week went on and the local resistance started planning an outbreak about "How we should get rid of them", and this went on for about 2-3 days, and they finally started the action.
Under this time, the Universal Union started the concentration of citizens into "Death Camps", what were particularly selected for the Terraforming process, where citizens were forced to do labor, and to server the combine.
Weeks later, a major rebellion happens and a few citizens manage to flee from the cities off else where, and these citizens were followed by the NATO forces.
This major incident caused the whole population to revolt, but still there are parts where this didn't happen yet...
What do you think?
Can you defeat them?
Or you will join them?
It's up to you.
In this world, your actions have an effect on everyone, where everyones actions are in connections with the others.
Be wise. Be safe. Be aware.
I wish everyone a very experience full and fun roleplay. - Sörét
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