What WAS the G-Man doing at Black Mesa?

[Jintor]

Haha, Combine = Terrorists.

Specific government theory ftw!

 

[W4d5Y]

Don't let Bush or Rumsie - ~thank god he isn't in charge anymore~- read this, or they'll start throwing bombs onto other countries XDXD
as for Breen's involvement in the cascade, I was always pretty convinced the whole Black Mesa incident was one shit **** thing of an inside job. For the most part it serves the story coz VALVe wanted to create a conspiracy surrounding the events of Black Mesa. So Breen definately was aware that he'd bring the antimass-spectrometer to overcharge, so eventually the combine would fall in -also, maybe the combine got the coordinates from Breen, cause the BLack Mesa personel was very aware of the existence of Xen. So, taking into account that everything in the canon originally has had some sort of purpose or intention of parties and doesn't just happen as a coincidence ('oh lookie! Our beloved Xenians...now we can enslave them once again! heyhey, waht'S taht?!?! Another planet!? Let's ask the guy who is responsible for this wether he turns over controle of his homeworld to us. -Oh yeah, that would be cool, and I could get home for lunch before the interdimensional enslavement conference starts.') you know, if the resonance cascade were in fact an accident it wouldn't fit the story. Also, the incident looks like a planned invasion from the beginning on -Why would have all the vortigaunts and headcrabs teleported in so immediately after the cascade?? Huh?? HUH???!

 

[Rim-Fire]

This leads to MY theory. Although i havent(sadly) been able to play HL2 as of yet, i feel Valve has a Solid Snake thing going on here. Gman used Black Mesa as a proving grounds for Freeman/Shephard whilst accomplishing other goals for his employers, although proving Freeman's/Shephard's worth was one of his objectives.

Of course G also had his hands in many a cookie jar as far as the Xen race go.
Do i think the Combine were his employers at the time of HL1?
-Nope. I think the US Gov. were his employers, for whatever reason they had a bone to pick with the Xen race, hence the inter-dimensional research at BM and the subsequent killing of big N, the head honcho of Xen/final boss of HL1.

DoI believe that the Combine took control of the USG in the 10 to 20 years of Freeman's/Shephard's(not confirmed for Ade, but as far as we know, hes been detained since Freeman went to Xen) and COMBINEd they're powers to rule over Earth, but in turn caused G to pull a 180 and FIGHT his former employers turned tools of alien invaders?

First off, that was a mouthfull. And yes, that is what i believe happened to G's employer's. The Combine took over Xen, used the portals from Xen to enter Earth, then took over the largest military power in the world: United States, G's former employer's. They then COMBINEd their power and have since then utilized US military battalions to form transhuman warriors, etc, and so forth.


Thats my theory on the direction of the story in a nutshell.

So do you think that the g-man is human? Or that he was an alien under contract with the government? Either way I doubt that any humans where his employers.

 

[Darkside55]

Do i think the Combine were his employers at the time of HL1?
-Nope. I think the US Gov. were his employers, for whatever reason they had a bone to pick with the Xen race, hence the inter-dimensional research at BM and the subsequent killing of big N, the head honcho of Xen/final boss of HL1.

Couple flaws with that. First off, Black Mesa isn't a government-run facility. It's private sector. While Black Mesa receives government grants and--due to the nature of the research--has a good amount of pull with the government and the military, the government has no say in what kind of research is conducted there. Secondly, even assuming they did, there's zero evidence that the government knew about Xen...even a shadow government's knowledge of the borderworld would be implausible. The scientists themselves had no idea up until they stumbled upon it.

That being said the G-man himself had knowledge of Xen, likely prior to Black Mesa.

And yes, that is what i believe happened to G's employer's. The Combine took over Xen, used the portals from Xen to enter Earth, then took over the largest military power in the world: United States, G's former employer's. They then COMBINEd their power and have since then utilized US military battalions to form transhuman warriors, etc, and so forth.

Again, nothing says the Combine have reached Xen. In fact the entire reason they spared us was because they require our teleport technology--which, at least in this dimension, requires Xen. If they had that, they would've just killed us off.

As for the absorption of the United States military, you're half-right. After the Combine smashed the armies of the world, some soldiers who were spared (along with numerous civilians) voluntarily joined the ranks of the Overwatch. So while the Combine didn't exactly integrate our military into their empire, soldiers from the world's militaries did find their way into the Combine machine.

And to echo Riomhaire I seriously cannot see the G-man working under the employ of humans. While I personally believe the G-man is human, and is working in the interest of humanity, it's very unlikely that his mysterious employers from the first game were human beings.

 

[Mr. McLost]

I'm pretty sure the Gov were not the employers of the Gman, not in the least. It just isn't plausible, and the Combine are not the 7th cav. And they didn't take over the US government either. They attacked the human race as a whole, they didn't pick a specific government.

What says they ARENT? There is more evidence supporting this theory than there is evidence denying it. OVerwatch soldiers are well versed in military procedures and firearms, work well in teams, the arm patches are identical save for a difference color. Not only that, what Freeman sees is only a small part of the modern Earth. Theres nothing saying that overwatch in City 17 is whats left of 7th Cav, in Europe you have transhuman royal marines, etc.

Darkside: Im not saying the combine still has control of Xen. Rather i should say they attempted to invade Xen, failed or were possibly just shut out. Im sure Xen civilization has more of an understanding of what they're planet can do. Then say the Combine found out little ole Earth has a rip in the seam, and subsequently is a habitble planet. Go to earth, invade, capture, start working on Xen again. < Just my thoughts on the whole story.

I dont see how they would require our technology though. They have mastered intergalactic and interdimensional space travel, yet in the time frame the farthest a human has traveled without teleporting is the moon. I still see the COmbine's interest in Earth is another way of gaining access to Xen and harvesting Earth's resources.

 

[function9]

I can tell you why Breen is running things, but the 7 hour war doesnt have to be staged. It happened, supposedly. There isnt any proof except that basically breen negotiated the Earth's inhabitant's lives at the stake of their freedom, correct? Thats supposedly why Breen is running things, and he is most likely was put in that position to negotiate because of his involvement in BM's interdimensional research. Maybe he helped the Combine gain access to Earth/Xen? Maybe the Combine contacted him after the events of teh resonance cascade?

But seeing the events that took place in HL1, I don't see how if the military is already in agreement with the Combine wouldn't want anything to do with someone from Black Mesa.

I dont see how they would require our technology though. They have mastered intergalactic and interdimensional space travel, yet in the time frame the farthest a human has traveled without teleporting is the moon. I still see the COmbine's interest in Earth is another way of gaining access to Xen and harvesting Earth's resources.

In BME when you first meet Mossman, she explains how the Combine on Earth have to rely on "traditional" means of transportation (can't remember the exact quote). The resistance has the technology of local teleporting. It uses a Xen relay, I would imagine if the Combine were to get ahold of the tech, they might be able to get to Xen.

 

[Mr. McLost]

^ I dont think the US gov. and combine was an agreement, more of a forceful takeover that led to the combine utilizing the military.

I havent played HL2 yet, didnt know that about the combine. As far as teleportation tech, i think they already have it, they just want Earth because of what the resonance cascaded did in opening a seam between earth and Xen

 

[Darkside55]

"They Combine can tunnel through from their own universe, but once they're here they're reliant on local transportation." The Combine can't get to Xen without Earth's technology. In fact, truth be told the Combine's teleporters SUCK compared to ours. They're massive, require huge reactor cores and lots of time to activate, and can only go from universe to universe. From there, they gotta take the bus.

Teleporters built by humans, in contrast, run on much less power in comparison, can breach the dimensional wall, and can teleport things around in local space...point A to point B anywhere on Earth. Anywhere on Xen too for that matter.

You need to get the game, my friend. Explains all this stuff.

 

[Acepilotf14]

What is a guy who hasn't played HL2 doing on this site?
I agree with darkside.

 

[function9]

"They Combine can tunnel through from their own universe, but once they're here they're reliant on local transportation." The Combine can't get to Xen without Earth's technology. In fact, truth be told the Combine's teleporters SUCK compared to ours. They're massive, require huge reactor cores and lots of time to activate, and can only go from universe to universe. From there, they gotta take the bus...

Ah, thank you kind sir.

I agree, Mr. McLost you definitely need to play through HL2.

 

[Rim-Fire]

"They Combine can tunnel through from their own universe, but once they're here they're reliant on local transportation." The Combine can't get to Xen without Earth's technology. In fact, truth be told the Combine's teleporters SUCK compared to ours. They're massive, require huge reactor cores and lots of time to activate, and can only go from universe to universe. From there, they gotta take the bus.

Teleporters built by humans, in contrast, run on much less power in comparison, can breach the dimensional wall, and can teleport things around in local space...point A to point B anywhere on Earth. Anywhere on Xen too for that matter.

You need to get the game, my friend. Explains all this stuff.

But the Combine's teleporters aren't reliant on Xen. We don't even know if it's possible for human teleporters to go to any world besides Xen (and I'd bet if they could, they'd have to go through Xen to get there)

 

[Deleted member 56031]

OMG! Thats so my theory now! *Assplodes, this time actaully at the ass, for the second time in my history, with AHA-Lambda.*

I am honored.

I am honoured too

 

[Darkside55]

But the Combine's teleporters aren't reliant on Xen. We don't even know if it's possible for human teleporters to go to any world besides Xen (and I'd bet if they could, they'd have to go through Xen to get there)

I suppose that could be considered a pro for the Combine teleporters, but they're still large and linear in the way they can travel.

And you're right about humans going to other worlds; it'd only be from Xen, which is why everyone wants it. Laidlaw calling it a bottleneck suggests that anyone who uses that specific manner of teleportation (entanglement?) will ultimately end up on Xen when trying to teleport too far, which makes it like a hub between worlds. The Combine can bypass that hub entirely, cross over into parallel universes by brute-forcing it (the sheer power of their teleporters!), but it means that they can't go back to the hub and get off at another "stop" on the world they're on.

 

[Citadel]

I think that as a few people have mentioned the G-man was using Black Mesa as a proving ground for Adrian Shepard however when he realized the potential in Freeman he pitted the two survivors together. The G-man may or may not have implemented some of the troops into the Black Mesa Facility but if he did it is likely that he was going to make any of the troops his tool but Shepard was by far the most capable so he focused his efforts into perfecting Shepards skills, making him fight the Xen wildlife.

However then Gordon came into the picture, a simple scientist that had never even thought about touching a weapon before (apart from the tennis ball shooter he developed when he was 6 ) and there he was killing Xen creatures with ease. (Well if the player was good at the game anyway) So was Shepard. So the G-man switched his gaze to both of them and as the soldiers were also told to kill any scientists, Shepard included, it would seem fitting to have them pitted against each other. In fact in Opposing Force you even get a chance to shoot Freeman. Unfortunately you can't kill him of course. This implies that Shepard wasn't as capable as Gordon and proved a fatal mistake perhaps.

Then Freeman continues to enter Xen and destroy the Nihillanth as well as escape Black Mesa. Yet Shepard in comparison achieves little. This may have been one of the causes for the g-man putting him in "suspended animation." So Gordon was chosen as the tool G-man would use to his advantage. Whatever this advantage may be of course is unknown.

I don't doubt though that the G-man orchestrated the resonance cascade to test Gordon's skills. He may have somehow for seen the Combine coming but it would be slightly stupid to trigger the event that allows the Combine to invade earth just to see how the person you've chosen to stop them with. It seems a little too far fetched. I don't think he triggered the Resonance Cascade for the purpose of testing Sheaprd and/or Freeman but I think it is initially possible that he tried to stop it to prevent the Combine from coming to earth. Shepard was there for a backup and Freeman was another backup he eventually put to his use.

So I think the only reason Shepard and the G-man were at Black Mesa was because the G-man was simply testing his skills for some event or person. Then because Freeman seemed so much more of a potential, planetary saver he chose Freeman and not his initial choice Shepard, for his gains. I have no ideas what his gains are or who his employers are/were but it seems likely that he needed somebody to stop a disaster and these two men were the people he wanted to do it.

Then the combine arrived and so the story begins. He awakens Freeman and sets him to stop the Combine. I don't believe that the resistance hired him as such but the G-man for some unknown reason has chosen to help the resistance.

Maybe then because the G-man was accepting offers for Gordons services, maybe even the the combine because he had been persuaded by them to "see it there way" that is he reason for the kidnapping of Gordon by the Vortigaunts in episode one. Who knows? Raise your hands.