About the Portal storms and the combine

[Anticitizen1]

Ok, so this has been bugging me for a while now, why did the combine have to sacrifice the citadel? I mean if the portal storms allowed them to get here in the first place, why cant they just come through again. Instead they have to sacrifice the citadel. Am I missing something, how did the combine get here the first time? Also the "portal storms" we see in episode 2 are more like shockwaves, whats going no here?

 

[Avoidist]

It's nebulous at best.

Perhaps someone could ask Laidlaw to verify these events? The entire scenario concerning the inter-dimensional metaphysics is unclear and speculative.

Edit: Ok, a bad attempt at explaining the situation.

Let us assume, based on Breen's statements and for simplicity, that all the separate universes exist on 3-Dimensional Branes in 4-Dimensional space, and that time is a pan-dimensional 5th dimension. Thus, we have 4 + known universes: our own, Xen, the Vortigaunt's original universe and the Combine's own collection. The G-Man may also have his own universe, or some other mysterious realm. The combine tunnel through to the Vortigaunt's original universe at some time by generating massive energies that rip the brane and form a bridge between the worlds (exact mechanism unknown, likely a dark fusion reactor). War ensues.

Vortigaunts by manipulation of the Vortessence teleport out with their Nihilanth leader through many worlds and universes, finding refuge on Xen. By its nature, Xen does not allow teleportation to it by the Combine's means. This is likely due to the mysterious Xenium which is most likely the matter that the Xen crystal consists of. We can assume that the G-Man first supplied Black Mesa with Xenium crystals so that the bridge between our universe and Xen could be made. These bridges are highly controlled and stable. G-Man then supplies a particularly pure sample from the Nihilanth's own chamber, which when analyzed with the anti-mass spectrometer causes a massive rift between the two worlds, which weakens the 3D space around Earth on its brane, and produces energy fluctuations detectable on other branes as well, alerting the combine to the presence of Earth and the advanced technology Black Mesa posesses. This weakness is likely added to by the death of the Nihilanth on Xen who had some control over the breach and allowed the Xenotheric species to arrive en mass to Black Mesa, most likely to find a new refuge or find a way to strike back at the combine. With Nihilanth dead, the Xen species now find themselves being teleported to Earth all over the place. Whether or not portal storms occur at this time prior to the arrival of the combine is unknown, but I am going to say it is not.

The Combine, using the Overworld, a location harboring a great deal of military forces on one of their conquered universes, generates dark matter portals targeting the now weakened Earth. Strange energy portals start gathering in the sky much like the ones we see in Episode Two. The Portal Storms, almost identical to those seen in Episode Two, come out from these points. In a short time, the portals are fully established, allowing large amounts of combine forces and citadels to be teleported through for the hostile takeover. 7 hours pass and the war is over, Breen gets administration of Earth, etc.

Gordon returns thanks to G-Man, blows up Portal reactor that would have allowed Breen to escape to the Combine Overworld by an established controlled yet temporary link between the Combine Overworld and the Citadel. Gordon stops this link by overloading the portal with dark energy from the energy balls. This creates a massive energetic explosion that destroys the citadel, and Gordon is extracted to G-Man's timeless realm and the Vortigaunts extract Alyx by manipulation of the Vortessence. They then extract Gordon in a similar manner.

The Combine forces still left on Earth try to overload the core of the citadel, a power source previously used to supply electricity to the Citadel and the rest of City 17, to reopen the dimentional rift between Earth and the Overworld. This is successful. The core reaches critical mass and sustains the beam of portal energy required to open the dimentional rift in a short time.

The satellite array, most of which was previously launched at Black Mesa, used Xen crystals with a resonating charge to revert dimensional rifts between universes. The first launch at Black Mesa by Gordon was unsuccessful, likely due to the control of the rift by the Nihilanth, or the fact that the rifts are difficult to close once fully established. However, the satellite array, still active as ever, was able to be reactivated by another satellite if put in launch with another Xen crystal in the possession of Arne Magnuson at White Forest. Now that the Combine's defenses were down, it was the perfect time to launch the satellite and protect Earth from further invasion. The resonator is then activated, and et viola, the infant superportal is no more.

 

[Anticitizen1]

Yes, I was considering e-mailing laidlaw, but I figured I would ask you guys and see if I could pick up anything interesting from you guys first. I noticed this last time I was doing speed runs through all the half-life games with two of my other friends to see who could finish first, I was just starting ep.2 when this hit me(needless to say I lost time while thinking about this )

 

[Narvi]

It's because they needed to get a message out first. They just used the super-portal created in the process to eventually jump in, see?

 

[Anticitizen1]

ahhh, ok thank you this helps clear up many things, especially why the combine would want whats on the borealis, most likely portal tech. Thank you again.