My plot guide

[Atomic_Piggy]

Well, I emailed the guy who did the "Half-Life story plot guide" about all the new revolutions, and he said if I don't agree he urges me to create my own guide.
So I did.
It isn't finished yet, but I was wandering what you guys thought of it. Judging from Laidlaw's qoute, there are more than one Nihilanth type creatures, so I included that. Also, a lot is speculation, just like "my brother guide".
Please don't flame me, but offer constructive critisim. Thanks. :thumbs:

Wait, it won't let me upload, says there's an error.

 

[Asknoone]

Well, there is some sillyness in saying "if you don't agree" considering, you know, it's from Laidlaw itself.
But hey, the guy made a nice website and despite the fact that it is flawed on several levels its still an interesting read. Huzzum.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

The Half-Life plot guide
Rise of the Combine and the exodus to Xen
It is not known when it happened, or where; all that is known is that a race of power-hungry humanoids formed The Combine Empire. This Empire would go to inhabited worlds, and wage war on the inhabitants. After winning the war (and they always did) they would use the DNA of any race that could be of use, and combine it with machinery; creating a synthetic life form, which would be used a the next battle. Aside from this, they would brutality interrogate important survivors, extracting as much knowledge as possible. They also assimilated any and all technology, and drain the world’s resources. Finally, they would kill off any un-usable race. Soon the humanoids, so dependant on technology and slaves, became fat, and grub like. They currently are immortal, but they need large amounts of technology to keep them alive. While they may be physically weak, they’re minds have power unmatched. They continue to govern the Combine from their Citadels.

Meanwhile, a race of creatures, known only as the Controllers, began to construct several large god-like creatures. While very crude, the creatures would govern the Controllers, their smaller brethren. They too became an empire in their own right (albeit significantly smaller than the Combine). They enslaved a race called the Vortigaunts. The Vortigaunts are bound to a life-binding energy that they call the Vortessence. Somehow, the Controllers and their leaders used their considerable physic abilities to take control of the Vortessence, and soon had complete dominance of the Vortigaunts. The controllers took control of several other races, which they used as their armies. They could not force the Vorts to use their full power, so the Vorts were used as cannon fodder and forced to do manual labour. They “grew” the armies, the living things that were bred as weapons by the Controllers: The Grunts, The Gargantuas, and The Snarks (biological). The Vortigaunts endured these chafing bounds for eons.

However, as the Controllers expanded, it was inevitable that they would encounter the Combine. The two super-empires clashed for years on end, neither scoring a victory worth anything. However, while the Combine’s synthetic armies kept the Controllers and their armies at bay, they’re assassins attacked the ruling council. The crudely stitched gods of the Controllers fell one-by-one, eventually to the point where only one survived: The Nihilanth. With most of the leaders gone, the Controller’s armies began to falter. The Nihilanth, knowing they couldn’t win, opened a portal to a border world known as Xen. The armies of the Controllers and the wildlife alike were brought through. The Controllers, while immune to the portal, allowed the Nihilanth to take them, aiding him by adding their abilities to the portal, effectively a support team. The Combine was unable to follow due to their one weakness: their teleportation, which only allowed them to tunnel into universes, but that was its limits. Thus, they couldn’t reach the border world, which lay in the non-space between dimensions. The Nihilanth sealed the portal, meaning the Combine could not reach the border world, or the galaxy beyond it: The Milky Way.


The Black Mesa research facility

Meanwhile, down in the aforementioned galaxy, on Earth, experiments on teleportation begin in The Black Mesa Research Facility (henceforth referred to as BMRF). An old 1950’s missile silo deep within the New Mexico desert, the government of the United States funded its revitalisation as a research facility (although it was still kept as a missile silo), and soon the surface base and underground silos became living quarters/offices and labs (respectively), and were bustling with activity. One Doctor Wallace Breen was charged with the administration, which he gladly took upon his shoulders in the name of science. Aside from weapon research and technological advancements, BMRF became famous for its teleportation experiments (at least famous with those in the know). They soon discovered Xen, which was where they’re teleporters took them. They were soon taking specimens back to Earth in the forms of wildlife and Vortigaunts alike, assuming they were all just animals. Eventually all the old labs were boarded up as a new revolution began; the ability to teleport locally, using a relay point on Xen to swing around the border world and down to wherever they choose. Never the less, expeditions to Xen continued, at least until the research teams began to be collected themselves.

The Nihilanth set his eyes on Earth. He knew the Combine couldn’t get there, and Xen wasn’t the most hospital of places, so he prepared his forces. All he needed was a stable portal to open permantly, and he’d be able to take control of it and send his armies down to conquer and enslave humanity just as he and the Controllers had done to so many other races.

The HECU and the G-Man

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Thats until I can get the attachement to work

 

[ríomhaire]

Someone should make a wiki of HL plot ideas, that would be great.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Well, I ahven't done Episode One yet, but here most of it is (there is some speculation in):

EDIT: Damn I still can't get attachments to work, it says its an invalid file...
This is it continued from last post...


The HECU and the GMan
It was at a military base in Santiago that he first appeared. A mysterious businessman, dressed in grey, very gaunt with a military cru cut and a slight purple tint on his hair. Those who heard him speak agreed he was not quite comfortable with human speech. GMan quickly selected the best of the best as he watched soldiers train, and these were quickly assigned to extensive indoor training. One of these was one Corporal Adrian Shepard. GMan made sure his name was put down for Advanced Training. After finishing, Shepard and his unit were assigned to become part of a large branch of marines known as the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit. Several days’ later rumours of a mission in BMRF begin arousing. Black Ops are spotted in and around the base. Soon, a mission in BMRF is confirmed, and the marines are put on red alert constantly; they have no idea when the mission will happen. GMan is nowhere to be seen.

The final cog
GMan integrates himself within the BMRF personnel, quickly becoming of high station as he manipulates the administrator. He convinces Dr. Breen that humanities chance to see the stars is nigh, and the latest sample recovered from Xen, a crystal going by the name of GG-3883, is the key. He tells him to run the Antimasspectromotor at greater than 80%. Breen agrees. Drs. Gina Gross and Colette Green are slightly confused by this, but need to agree to test until the real tester arrives: A young scientist known as Gordon Freeman.
Freeman’s old mentor in M.I.T, Dr. Isaac Kliener, offered him the job in BMRF, and Gordon eagerly accepted. He became good friends with Dr. Eli Vance and a security guard known as Barney Calhoun. Gordon passed his Hazard Course, and became an official research physicist of BMRF. Finally, Barney was promoted to Major and his sector changed to sector C.
Shepard and his team remain on alert.

The Black Mesa Incident
GMan had organised a system crash so known of the security cameras worked while he snuck into the test chamber and turned off the Dampening Fields, a crucial stabilizing component in the experiment. Assured it would go as planned, he returns to Sector C to calm the head of Anomalous Materials fears about the spectrometer. Everything does go to hell; Gordon is thrust into the centre of the cosmic war by the teleportation experiment going badly wrong. Alien creatures from distant alien hellholes in Xen scramble through a shattered dimensional barrier and set about butchering the Black Mesa staff as a prelude to exterminating life on Earth. Government forces quickly arrive to eliminate the alien threat, thanks to Drs. Gross and Green. Unfortunately, their methodical killing spree targets human witnesses as well. With the help of several scientists, Barney escapes early before the situation gets really bad.
Thanks to an experimental hazard suit, Gordon is able to navigate this violent confusion of creatures, staff, and homicidal soldiers, eventually doing enough damage and forcing the HECU to pull out. With the marines having failed, the GMan sends in the Black Ops, but he makes sure Corporal Shepard is left behind as the marines evacuate.
Gordon, in the meantime, manages to reach Xen, and destroys the Nihilanth. The victory is short-lived, however. Gordon's heroics catch the attention of one sinister interdimensional bureaucrat. GMan, amazed at Gordon’s work, seals him in stasis far from Earth, thought, and time itself.
Meanwhile, Shepard manages to survive the hostile Black Ops, Xenians and brand new invaders, Race-X (intent on taking Earths resources) only to have the GMan detain him, mostly likely because he didn’t want word of the Black Ops hostility to spread. Shepard also reminds him of himself. With his prize, Freeman, GMan detonates a Nuclear Bomb that wipes BMRF off the map, and clears up the whole situation. In a way.

The Portal Storms
The destruction of the Nihilanth had two side effects – the Vortigaunts were freed, but the resulting backlash of energy bounced of the Lambda satellite and opened portals all over Earth. Without the Nihilanth helping them, the Controllers starved on Xen as most of the food was transported to Earth. Aliens appeared all over Earth, and people were evacuated to tightly packed guarded cities, away from the country and suburbs, which just couldn’t be secured.
The survivors of BMRF explained that things could be worse in that the armies would have been organised and controlled. They explain about Gordon Freeman’s heroics, and he quickly becomes a legend to the world. While the world begins to settle down at last, the Combine juggernaut detects the energy of the portal storms and prepares to invade, passing through Xen using the Nihilanth’ portal, without actually setting foot on the border world. The unsuspecting world begins to return too normal (as normal as things can get) while the Xenians continue to infest the outside world, and the most feared Empire in the Universe bears down upon them…

The 7-hour war
Using the Lambda satellite, the Combine transports their Citadels over every major human city and settlement. They attack brutally, wave after wave of Synth smashing against humanities armies. People flee the cities only to come into contact with the Xenian fauna. Within 7-hours, the last nation falls, and the United Nations building is left burning. At the last minute, Dr. Breen, ex-administrator of BMRF contacts the Combine through a radio tower. From here, he begs of them to bestow immortality and evolution upon humanity. He knows many humans will die, and he knows that they will be slaves forever, but choosing the lesser of the two evils (death and slavery) was his final choice. He promises the Combine local teleportation if they give him power and access to their technology. While not normal procedure, the Advisors agree it’s just too good a chance to pass up, and accept. Breen is made interim administrator by the Combine, which he calls the Universal Union in his propaganda, and charged with human affairs and the assimilation program.

Two decades of oppression
So, humanity was once again herded into tightly packed cities and oppressed by their new alien overlords. Breen installs huge monitors and takes control of the media so more propaganda can be spread. The Civil Protection is founded, a unit where humans can volunteer for a better way of life if they serve the Combine. Policing and bullying the populace, they are rewarded with new living quarters, better food, and other things that are forbidden to other citizens. They also put up posters, spewing more propaganda.
During this time, the cities are renamed, with numbers, and Breen sets up his base of operations in City 17. While all this is happening, the Citadels begin to drill for resources, the Combine begins to drain the sea, a suppression field is activated to stop reproduction, and a chemical is put in the water to make humans forget their pasts and comply more easily with the Combine. Certain areas are set up as assimilation areas, such as Nova Prospekt, where citizens may volunteer to join the Overwatch, the Combines army on Earth. Any untameable resistance is captured, tortured, questioned and transformed into the withering slave of a Stalker. Aside from this, the Combine capture several Gonarch’s, and use their ball sack to spew out headcrabs, which are in turn packed into shells and launched into areas of heavy resistance. One such example of this is Ravenholm. Aside from this, Vortigaunts are captured, forced to do menial labour (citizens see Combine using Xenians, humanties enemies, as slaves, they comply easier) and even living power plants.
Never-the-less, resistance surfaces, led by Dr. Eli Vance, and resist they do. Establishing a series of bases, dubbed the railway, leading out of City 17, they evacuate citizens through the City to their base of operations: Black Mesa East. Eli also convinces the Vortigaunts, who worship Freeman, to join the resistance. The Vorts accept, and a testy alliance begins.
After about a decade of resistance, a “project” is created in an Artic base off the coast of Eastern Europe. The project, whatever it is (most likely some kind of weapon or mech to fight the Combine with) fails. Many rebels leave the resistance, losing hope, while others are taken in by Breen’s propaganda. Yet those who remain continue to fight, hoping against hope that someday the tide will turn.
Eli Vance contacts GMan, and hires out Gordon as the highest bidder, giving the resistance hope for the first time in a decade (ever since the project failed).
Meanwhile, Breen continues to research Combine technology, spewing out propaganda while caring only about himself. He establishes a spy within the rebels’ ranks (Judith Mossman) to take a look at the rebel’s new developed local teleportars, and feed the Union information about it.

Rise of the Free Man
Gordon emerges from the darkness, nearly two decades removed from his last conscious thought. The G-Man has reawakened him, though the briefcase-toting official's intentions are murky at best. Gordon is back on Earth, but it is an Earth marred almost beyond recognition by a succession of alien overlords known as The Combine. Gordon finds himself a powerless, faceless citizen of City 17, a grim metropolis in what was once Europe. Whether through luck or the G-Man's subtle influence, he's soon the centre of the burgeoning resistance movement led by rebel scientists from Black Mesa, including Gordon's friends, Drs. Isaac Kleiner and Eli Vance. More importantly, Gordon is reunited with his protective hazard suit. With the help of Vance's daughter, Alyx, and her enormous pet robot, Dog, Gordon embarks on a fugitive journey that pits him against Combine war machines, alien horrors, and the modified human collaborators who enforce The Combine will. Though he is able to rally the resistance into open war against their totalitarian oppressors, Gordon ends up imprisoned in the massive Combine fortress: The Citadel. Here he meets the Combine's traitorous human liaison, Dr. Wallace Breen. Gordon escapes, and with Alyx at his side, puts an end to Breen's treachery by destroying The Citadel's teleport reactor. As the blast engulfs Alyx and Gordon, the G-Man, his mysterious goals apparently satisfied, reappears to once again toss his pawn into timeless cold storage.

The Aftermath

 

[.Wolf.]

beleivable. and quite good.

 

[A True Canadian]

Great Plot guide!! :O :thumbs:

There's tons of stuff here, and plenty to think about.

This caught my eye:

Eli Vance contacts GMan, and hires out Gordon as the highest bidder, giving the resistance hope for the first time in a decade (ever since the project failed).

This would explain the Hazard Suit dilema. At the end of Half-Life when Gordon was about to be put into stasis, the G-Man tells Gordon that he had 'earned' his hazard suit. While the G-Man stripped Gordon of his weapons he decided to keep Freeman in the suit that had literally kept him alive. This was either a small gesture by the G-Man, or because he knew that Freeman (his greatest prize from the Black Mesa Incident) would likely perform better wearing an HEV suit for future assignments instead of some other armor.

When we start Half-Life 2 we are placed on a train, and it is only when Barney talks to Kleiner about Gordon getting "out of his civvies" do we realize that our Hazard Suit is missing. Where did it go? Well thanks to your theory, now we have some kind of idea.

If Eli did hire Gordon's services, then it's perfectly logical that the G-Man sent Gordon's HEV suit early so that it can be repaired and upgraded. Kleiner's comment about how he "expected more warning" of Gordon's arrival, does not necessarily contradict this. In fact, it's even likely that Gordon arrived before upgrades to the Hazard Suit were completed fully. After all, the only noticable differences are that the HEV Suit now has sprint and zoom functionalities (and that it is more comfortable ).

 

[function9]

It is not known when it happened, or where; all that is known is that a race of power-hungry humanoids formed The Combine Empire.

Just a question. Is the Combine's "natural" form humanoid though? I thought they only took on that shape after they synthesized humans here on earth. But if they were humanoid before, wonder which other planet they took hold of

 

[ríomhaire]

Well, humanoid is a bit of a guess but Raising the Bar states they where once not unlike humans which I took to mean scentient creatures who constantly advanced their technology. But whenever I try to think of what they might have looked like pre-slug an image of the flooded-elites from Halo always comes to mind.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Thanks for the compliments guys. I am going to update it regualry, but the attachemnt thing is a problem...I'll try and save it somewhere else next time...
I hope you didn't mind Roimhaire I pinched your theory about the snarks. If you want them revomed okay, but you'll get credit for that in the final versoin ;D

 

[ríomhaire]

I hope you didn't mind Roimhaire I pinched your theory about the snarks. If you want them revomed okay, but you'll get credit for that in the final versoin ;D

It's like I have it pantented...hold on a minute
*runs to patent office*

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Lawlz...anyway, hes the Aftermath bit, a bit of speculation here and there...pearing in the GCF's helped a lot here...and (adressed to those who look at time posted) I know I get up exceedilnlgy early.


The Aftermath
Wasting no time, the Vortigaunts walk through the Vortessnce to reach the Citadel Core and Alyx. Rescuing her, they converge on Gordon, who is still trapped in stasis. Despite the fact GMan kept his end of the deal, the Vortigaunts block him from seeing Gordon, then rescue the One Free Man. Why? Well, Alyx is the daughter of Eli Vance, their first collaborator and friend. They worship Gordon, and know the resistance need him longer. After all, the deal was over once the rebellion had been sparked and Breen was out of the picture. Meanwhile, the Combine have lost all communications all over Earth due to the Citadel giving out a destructive pulse when the reactor exploded. With no communications, they overheat their core so they get enough power to send a message; and take City 17 down with it.
Aside from this, Eli and Judith escape in a couple of aptly named escape pods. While Eli lands in a Vortigaunt camp in the Wasteland, Judith goes to far and hits the artic. There, she heads for the project with some rebels that remained in the area, in an attempt to hide it; for Combine forces are in the area, and they appear to be searching for it. Maybe even revitalizing it if possible, for the rebels have new technology? Finally, Dr. Kliener hacks Breen’s public broadcast system and addresses the rebels about the abovementioned events (except the part about Judith because he doesn’t know).
Consciousness returns…the Aftermath begins. Rescued from a pile of rubble by Dog, Gordon and Alyx, under orders from Dr. Eli Vance and Dr. Isaac Kliener, re-enter the Citadel to stabilize the Core. They succeed, albeit temporally, and even steal the Combine’s transmission, along with a distress message from Judith, and escape. Battling through the Cities under section, they reach the surface to discover the City is open to the wasteland what with all power going to the Citadel and not to the defence walls. Antlions, Zombies, Rebels, and Overwatch battle each other in the streets, all-desperate to get out before the Core expands.
Inevitably, the Citadel’s Core expands again, and begins to self-destruct. Reaching the Citadel, Alyx and Gordon meet with Barney and push out with the Citizen’s. Finally, Alyx and Gordon hold of a Strider waiting for the final train to come; as it is the transmission the Combine want, not anything else. The two companions manage to escape however, but unfortunately not quick enough as the core extends beyond the Citadels walls, the transmission goes up, and a dark energy flare consumes them as the Combine Advisors escape in pods above them.

 

[99.vikram]

Next chapter in December?

 

[Deleted member 56031]

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Next chapter in December?

In Q1 next year I'll also edit anything proven wrong by you guys/later installmens. I'l try to intergrate POrtla in too, whenever its set.

 

[Costin]

Very nice Atomic_Piggy :thumbs: :thumbs: I'll wait until Q1 next year???Hell yeah!
KEEP IT UP:thumbs: !

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

thx