What is the "7 hour war" ?

[Odysseus]

Hello,
I read some posts of people refering to a "7 hour war", which should be included in possible expansions of the game.

Can someone tell me what it is all about?

[nick_t]

combine attack earth by travelling through their portals. earth gets pwned for 7 hours before it surrenders and is conquered.

[Odysseus]

umm, so that's what it is.

Was this 7 hour war mentioned in Half Life 2? I completely missed it...

[Fighter]

On the clip board in Eli Vance's lab. It is in the newspaper, if you aproach it Eli also makes a few comments about Breen and Earth's surrender.

[Speedkills]

After the resonance cascade at Black Mesa, the combine poured onto earth through the Xen portal. All of earths forces were defeated in 7 hours. Dr. Breen, then administrator of Black Mesa, made a deal with the Combine of Earth's surrender, on the condition that the human race isn't wiped out but is amalgamated into the combine forces somehow. Then the citadels appeared suddenly all over earth in all the cities, and Breen became the administrator for City 17, 14 and some others. The combine proceed to experiment on humans and turn them into "stalkers" to use as slave labour. The choice for humans, basicallly, is total annihilation, or this horrible "half life" of existence being used by the combine. Breen seems to believe that being ruled by the combine is a good thing, but he appears to be a little bit insane (probably impressed by the combine's technological advancement). The rebels see it as being worse than death.

All because of the resonance cascade at Black Mesa....poor Gordan. He must feel a bit guilty.

[GiaOmerta]

There is only one Citadel, the one located in City 17 and Dr. Breen is the 'administrator' to the remnants of humanity.

This probably happened a few years after the resonance cascade. I dont believe it instantly happened.

One of the clippings says something about Portal storms.

Believe these storms are similar to what we saw in Black Mesa, but on a larger level. Entities from Xen are teleported to Earth, naturally being scared, they attack the populace in rural areas.

Urban communities are easier to defend and those who survived these series of storms move the cities.

The Combine whom has probaly been scoping out Earth for sometime, detects this weakness.

Utilizes the dimenisional rips and wages an all out war on humanity.
Humanity isolated within it's cities are easily surronded and eridicated.

Within in seven hours much of humanity has been defeated. Dr. Breen arranges the surrender of the rest of humanitity. For this deed Breen is rewared with the position of Interim Adminstrator.

This seems all fair on paper. Unfortunate for humanity.

Genocide. Supression field prevents reproduction and slowly humanity is being converted into trans-humans and stalkers (human-slaves.) Genocide.

[Fighter]

I think it is mentioned somewhere that the same kind of citadels apeared in other parts of the world as well.

I would say Combine must have made their research about Earth and its armies. While on Earth nobody had an idea of what will happen so no one was prepare for the kind of warfare.

Also Earth has many governments, while we can assume Combine is one force since they are conquering other worlds instead of fighting each other like we do.

I like to think there was more to Combine invasion then "They are aliens that are superior in every way" kind of thing. Because that just makes any resistance pointless.

[Jenga]

Also Earth has many governments, while we can assume Combine is one force since they are conquering other worlds instead of fighting each other like we do.

I like to think there was more to Combine invasion then "They are aliens that are superior in every way" kind of thing. Because that just makes any resistance pointless.

Maybe they're one faction of an entire alien race acting on their own.

Humans will resist enemy invasions, especially when they're considered superior in every way. Guerilla warfare baby. :sniper:

[Cpl_Facehugger]

I like to think there was more to Combine invasion then "They are aliens that are superior in every way" kind of thing. Because that just makes any resistance pointless.

Resistance fighters armed with laser guided RPGs can defeat their vehicles. I wouldn't put too much stock in their power, although we haven't seen *everything* the combine has to throw at us yet. Like those walking thingies in the citadel. Those screamed "tank" to me, so they'd probably be a bit more of a match for angry peasants with RPGs. ;)

Hmm...In fact, I'm wondering if the whole 7 hour war was really going as bad as we think. The two most alien things we see are the Striders and Gunships, and neither of those are able to put up a decent fight against a rag-tag resistance movement. So what I'm wondering is how the far better equipped and trained armies of the world could lose to the Combine. Either the combine has several highly powerful units, and all we've been seeing up until now are police/peacekeeping units (a distinct possibility, given the walkers in the citadel.) OR, the combine wasn't defeating Earth as soundly as we are lead to believe.

In fact, my belief is that the only way the Combine won was through surprise. The troops literally didn't have time to react once the phallic symbols err...Citadels appeared in the streets. We were caught with our proverbial pants down, and we could only muster a half-assed and half-organized resistance. I think that the Combine won the 7 hour war through surprise rather than superior firepower. (If they had superior firepower, why weren't they using it when the Rebellion was knocking at the gates of the Citadel itself?)

[HunterSeeker]

Maybe the combine we fight are just there to keep humanity in check and Striders are combines standard solidiers?

[Chiefi]

Keep it going guys. This is really interesting to read. :) I wish i could add some things, but i didn't really catch the story behind all of this on my first play. I'm replaying the game again and i'm focusing a lot more on details and such. I hope to be a contribution after that. :thumbs: :bounce:

[Quelaar]

Where the heck was it said that the suppression field stopped human reproduction?

Sounds about right, but I haven't heard that yet.

Quelaar

[HunterSeeker]

Where the heck was it said that the suppression field stopped human reproduction?

Sounds about right, but I haven't heard that yet.

Quelaar

Dr. Breen says it in the beginning on the monitors.

[Quelaar]

Dr. Breen says it in the beginning on the monitors.

I thought he addresses questions about when the suppression field will be removed...I thought there was never a direct link tying his speech about reproduction and the concerns about the field.

Time to load the first level for the Nth time I suppose :E

Quelaar

[Combine405]

Finally i understand, i wasnt quite sure about the combine and how they got here...........

[teh_Martin]

I think it is mentioned somewhere that the same kind of citadels apeared in other parts of the world as well.

It was mentioned in some other thread i think, somebody spoke about a deleted scene where Dr. Vance (or Kleiner, I dunno) explaned the course of the 7-hour war.
One of the things he said was that "The citadels began popping up in the center of every city" or something like that

[spencerjrus]

Alright I'm going to explain the story as best as I know it, please feel free to correct me as needed.



-End of HL1

-Portal storms start appearing over major Earth cities, these are portals to the Combine universe, and the Combine can literally drop Citadels straight from their universe into ours, this gives them a HUGE advantage in fighting against Earth forces, as they already have bases in all of our major cities.

-Earth surrenders under the conditions Breen names, essentially the Human race is going to be adopted into the Combine, those who join freely will be turned into trans-human soldiers, those who refuse to join will either be killed or turned into brain-less slaves in the Combine universe.

-Reproduction supression fields are set up.

-The Xen and human resistance members recognize the Combine as a mutual enemy and agree to work together.

-Combine citadels are slowly converting the human race into either soldiers or slaves while simotaneously sucking the natural resources out of the Earth. i.e. the grinding/moving forward aspect of the citadel.

-Gordon is brought out of slow teleport by Gman at this point in time because the life of Eli and/or Alyx is crucial to the resistance (fast teleport anyone?) and Gman cant allow them to die, this is the main purpose of Gordon in HL2.

-Gordon saves the day temporarily as City 17 citadel is destroyed and Eli/Alyx are saved(?)

-Gman puts Gordon back into slow teleport until he is needed again.

-Cue HL3 :)



(One side note, notice in the final speech the Gman says "The right man in the WRONG place can make all the difference in the world." Perhaps the Gman works for the highest bidder, and is not paticularly loyal to the resistance/Xen, perhaps they are just offering him the best deal at the moment.)

[Speedkills]

-Gordon is brought out of slow teleport by Gman at this point in time because the life of Eli and/or Alyx is crucial to the resistance (fast teleport anyone?) and Gman cant allow them to die, this is the main purpose of Gordon in HL2.

This isn't necessarily true, no one is really sure of the main purpose of Gordon in HL2.


(One side note, notice in the final speech the Gman says "The right man in the WRONG place can make all the difference in the world." Perhaps the Gman works for the highest bidder, and is not paticularly loyal to the resistance/Xen, perhaps they are just offering him the best deal at the moment.)

This is a referance to Black Mesa. Seeing as how it was the resonance cascade that allowed the Combine into the Earth in the first place, I'd say in this case it is true that "The right man in the WRONG place can make all the difference in the world".

[eediot]

In reference to one of the posts on the main page, I don't think the 7 hour war was that evenly matched. We don't know who the combine are, but we can have an idea as to the tactics they probably should have used.. I think I read something like this in another thread, it was a fairly good impression I believe:

For some reason, the combine decide to take over earth. Before their attack, they basically send a whole lot of their more aggressive creatures to earth that would flourish there. Like a mix between rabbits in australia [populate and take over the area] and maybe a hyena [ferocious, able to force everyone away]. So after they swamp all of earth with this, everyone moves into the urban areas and cities, because let's face it, you can't survive out in the lesser protected areas anymore. After a while of confinement in the cities, but before the armies can figure out a proper plan to deal with this environmental threat, the combine launch out of nowhere, taking over the key cities. The armies are either in there with the civilians [and thus can't act in coordination] or are separate and a) can't get back in to protect, and b) are a separate entity that can be destroyed with unfamiliar weapons and capability, as well as the element of coordinated surprise.

So the combine have control of the cities, there are no functioning armies or defence forces, and the civilians are trapped between the combine and the harsh environment. And that's how you win a war in 7 hours.

The reason that the resistance was able to win in the end, was because the combine had tactics to win the beginning, and they screwed up in the end. They kept the oppressed, hostile population right inside their base with inadequate defenses separating them from the people, and their converstion and propaganda as well as management of the people to promote acceptance and surrender, was insufficient. Nobody was happy with their situation, they were being pushed around too much, so instead of being subdued, they were fighting for their freedom and survival. And instead of having to get through all the combine defences, they were already inside when they decided to rise up against the combine.

And that's how you win a war in 4 hours. :)

What I'm confused about is how Dr. Breen managed to represent humanity as a whole, when we have so many different nations and governments, and even the government can't properly represent the people it "controls". He probably tried to negotiate, yes, but what cards did he hold? He certainly didn't have the human race behind him...

[spencerjrus]

This isn't necessarily true, no one is really sure of the main purpose of Gordon in HL2.




This is a referance to Black Mesa. Seeing as how it was the resonance cascade that allowed the Combine into the Earth in the first place, I'd say in this case it is true that "The right man in the WRONG place can make all the difference in the world".

That makes no sense, if he was going to tell Gordon about his disapointment at Black Mesa he would do it at the beginning of the game not the end, I'm pretty confident the end speech is solely devoted to the next game and makes few or no prior references.

[Valve_Assassin]

Here's my half assed theory. From things I've read in various locations and posts, the resonance cascade spread out over the whole earth, xen creatures infest the planet, humanity retreats to easily defendable locations, a variatable night of the living dead, yadda yadda yadda. The combine attack and such and such, yes yes we all know.

Now, what I believe about why the resistance in HL2 has been able to "win" is that the real combine are no longer on earth. Breen's administration is what is in power. The Metrocops are most likely citizens who've decided to give in and work for breen (evidenced by Barney being able to be a double agent in the civil protection), while the higher levels, i.e. the guards at nova prospekt and the elites, are genetecially modified "transhumans". The Striders and Gunships and such are obviously combine tools, sentient organic machines. But the only real alien (excluding the Vortiguants) we see in the game is the big green thing breen is talking too. So basically, the combine leave Breen in control and merely use earth's resources for there own.

whoo.. I'm not even entirely sure I made a point.

[Chronos]

Keep it going guys. This is really interesting to read. :)

Sure, anything you like :)

Here's interesting thing for you. :borg: The Combine :borg: & Dr. Breen probably think they did not invade Earth, they LIBERATED it.

Sounds familiar?..

[spencerjrus]

Dr.Breen has gone quite mad.

[LOOKING]

Adrian Shepard will most likely be in the 7 hours war expansion if there ever will be one.

[ukfluke]

heres something that was dropped from the game i wish they had left in. Its from raising the bar. http://www.primagames.com/strategy/book/inside/6534/

describes what happened in the 7 hour war

[insig]

Didn't one of the scientists early on in HL1 say something that linked "the administrator" to the events there? If so, is it not plausable that Breen engineered his own ascent and was communicating with the combine all along? That would explain how the Earth fell so quickly to the combine, and how he became the leading man, rather than some government official.

[Jenga]

Before their attack, they basically send a whole lot of their more aggressive creatures to earth that would flourish there. Like a mix between rabbits in australia [populate and take over the area] and maybe a hyena [ferocious, able to force everyone away].

Is this animal relocation before the 7 hours or part of the attack? Because unless they sent an entire species, i don't see how ANY species can reproduce into that many in less than 7 hours. Even the Facehuggers and Xenomorphs took at least a day to reproduce...

[Triggerhappy41]

I believe the nihilanth was a slave to the combine aliens (because of what the vortigaunts have said to me). Killing the nihilanth freed the vortigaunts, and they chose to join the resistance. Headcrabs and other xen animals are too simple minded to join a race and continue to kill anything they see as a threat.

Since the combine controls xen, activating the resonance cascade opened the door to start a portal invasion of earth with combine aliens and probably xen aliens as well just to make things complicated. For some reason, xen holds the key to teleportation.

Additionally, at the beginning of half life 1, one of the scientists said that the administrator (breen) was quite insistent that the sample be tested. This cues to the probable fact that breen had been contacted by the combine much earlier than we all think and made to start a resonance cascade for them. Another possibility is that the sample was tainted by the combine to let them in. Lastly, it could just be bad luck, because a scientist said that the possibility of a resonance cascade is highly unlikely, but its still there nonetheless.

[HateCrime]

The reason that the resistance was able to win in the end, was because the combine had tactics to win the beginning, and they screwed up in the end.


I wouldn't go so far to say the resistance "won." They took down ONE tower along with Dr. Breen (maybe) in ONE city. Still leaves a LOT of other cities and structures all over the planet to deal with including the Combine technology which is still intact. What's to stop them from dropping another tower in the center of City 17?

And the cost of the win? The death (possible) of Alyx, Eli and Barney (when the 3 mile high tower fell, it probably killed most of the resistance near it); and Gordon is now in statis once again.

[eediot]

Is this animal relocation before the 7 hours or part of the attack? Because unless they sent an entire species, i don't see how ANY species can reproduce into that many in less than 7 hours. Even the Facehuggers and Xenomorphs took at least a day to reproduce...

In my possible theory it is assumed that the xen species were not included in the '7 hour war'. War mostly suggests a coordinated struggle, and the xen species are not coordinated. They are just successful at what they do - survive, and dominate.

HateCrime, those are good points, but until we know more about the combine, there's not really much I can say about it. By the way, when I say 'won', I refer to the fact that the resistance gained control of the city, and their freedom.

I really hope Halflife 3 is the light at the end of the tunnel that pulls it all together, because while the way they've presented HL1+2 was interesting, it's also frustrating, and if there is no climax of knowledge... blah. In my opinion the plot and storyline of the Halflife series has not been set in stone as 'amazing' yet, as it is they are building themselves up to a big finish and justification, but unless Halflife 3 explains everything, it will just be a vague teaser and not really a plot at all.

[spencerjrus]

Well hopefully HL3 wont be an ending to the story, just another piece in the puzzle

[eediot]

Well sure I don't want it all laid out for me, but I do want some conclusions, not just vague references to some unknown storyline.

[GiaOmerta]

"Welcome.... welcome to City 17."
"You've chosen or have been chosen to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers."
"I thought so much of City 17, that I elected to establish my adminstration here in The Citadel so thoughtful provided by our benefactors."
"I've been proud to call City 17 my home, and so wither your here to stay or passing through on parts unknown, Welcome to City 17. It's safer here."

The reference to the Citadel is singular. Hench the 'the'
City 17 is located in Eastern Europe. Why the hell would Breen want to live in Eastern Europe, unless it would be a sacuary for him I.E. The Citadel.

The events of Half-Life 2 would be victory in the eyes of some resistance members.

The destruction of the Dark Fussion reactor seized all interdimension activity.

I've seen alot of references to the old script. Simply changes have been made to it.

[SFLUFAN]

Let this add to your speculation my friends :)

http://www.halflife2.net/media/displayimage.php?album=3&pos=9

[GiaOmerta]

I saw it, looks nice. :)
Reminds me kind of the second renaissance flick from the Animatrix.

Man and machine having it out.

Much like the chapter Follow Freeman. Fighting through waves of Striders and Gunships. Manhacks going out of sky. Warfare was 'probably' similar to those who fought in the 7 hours war

[SFLUFAN]

I would LOVE if Munro was working on a "7 Hour War" mod or better yet - if he had some "inside info" on a possible expansion pack based on the event.

[spencerjrus]

"Welcome.... welcome to City 17."
"You've chosen or have been chosen to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers."
"I thought so much of City 17, that I elected to establish my adminstration here in The Citadel so thoughtful provided by our benefactors."
"I've been proud to call City 17 my home, and so wither your here to stay or passing through on parts unknown, Welcome to City 17. It's safer here."

The reference to the Citadel is singular. Hench the 'the'
City 17 is located in Eastern Europe. Why the hell would Breen want to live in Eastern Europe, unless it would be a sacuary for him I.E. The Citadel.


there are many citadels, this is blatantly obvious.

[Jenga]

Dr. Breen's surrender of the human race wouldn't have been taken seriously without some kind of backing from some factions from the rest of humanity. He was probably a spokesperson for an alien-allied group that represented a lot of humanity and offered to hand them over. That's probably where the bulk of the City 17 (and the rest of the Cities) police forces came from, their "reward" of sorts.

Dr. Breen was probably taking orders from a human higher up in the chain of command, and this superior is who Gordon will take on in HL3?

[GiaOmerta]

there are many citadels, this is blatantly obvious.


Really? Seen only singular references to the Citadel, in game.

[Simson]

Scince he is already talking about city 17, he might be referring to THE citadel in city 17. If I say that Im going to stay in the vatican and visit THE cathedral, everyone knows what cathedral Im going to visit, this does not mean it is the only cathedral on earth.

[ukfluke]

GiaOmerta, did u look at the link i posted ? http://www.primagames.com/strategy/book/inside/6534/
bottem left of the page ELI "There was an illusion of safety,for a time and then the Citadels appeared. It happened in a split second all over the world. A chunk would disappear from the center of a city to be replaced as instant later by one of these headquarters for the combine. Inavsion central."

unless you think they changed it? i agree with the above. he was referering to The citadel because there is only 1 in C17.

[Ennui]

I would LOVE if Munro was working on a "7 Hour War" mod or better yet - if he had some "inside info" on a possible expansion pack based on the event.
some other people and i are working on a mod called "The 7th Hour" which just started up... keep your eyes peeled for news of us in the future.

[brimstone]

There are more biomechanical weapons, like the Strider and Gunship, in the models folder- go through it with HLMV... I wonder if they were originally developed for the slideshow, or for some other deleted scene... there's some kind of hovering mortar catapult, and a big, beefy thing whose purpose is less clear... that's all I've found so far...

[Baldrick]

In the script for the hl2: raising the bar thing
It says that the citadels appeared, and thousands of soldiers came pouring out of them.
Then the human forces formed together and put up a strong resistance, they marched towards the citadel, but they were turned into ashes.
That was probably from the supressor weapon, or whatever it is.
It also says that someone (Its to blurry to read) Announced earths surrender while all of this was happening, we know this to be Dr.Breen.
That means that doctor breen had this all planned, because he reacted so quickly.
He would of had to have ties with the combine, because he was named "consul" by the combine.

Dr eli also says that no one is blaming gordon for what happened.
And it ALSO says that the xen creatures attacked civilians in the outside world fist.
"Headcrabs leaping onto shoppers from supermarket shevles"
"Gargantua overturning a tractor as a farmer flees across a (cant read this) field."

Eli also says:
"There was an illusion of safety for a time, And then citadels appeared."
That means there is more than one citadel, there is most likely one in every city.
"... A chunk would disappear from the centre of a city, to be replaced an instant later by one of these headqauters for the combine. Invasion Central"

And something even more interesting.
Here is even more evidence for resistance, and a better reason for why the combine wear those gas masks.
"Well, you've seen the state of things. They're replacing the air with something we can hardly breathe. They're draining the ocean. We don't know if they are preparing the earth for new residents, or are just stripping it of every possible resource. All we know is that we have to stop them, and thats where you come in, Mr Freeman. It's up to you to...."

That was taken from an early part of the script, that was meant to fill out what happened inbetween the two half lifes.
So.
The combine used the Xen creatures to attack.
The people put up a strong resistance, they thought they were winning.
The citadels appeared, the armies proceeded towards these, only to be killed by the supressor.

Eli must of organised Gordon to come and help them, because so much of this has been planned out.
That supports the theory of the Gman auctioning (or "pimping") off gordon to the highest bidder.


Interesting isn't it?


We should make a sticky with that explination in it.
It fills out lots of the story gap between the two games, plus it also explains a few things.
Like why the combine wear those gasmasks around. (Because they have difficulty breathing the air)

[brimstone]

n/m, the "beefy thing" is what you see crossing the catwalk as you ascend the Citadel, just before the flight of gunships takes off...

[chimpmunk]

In the script for the hl2: raising the bar thing
It says that the citadels appeared, and thousands of soldiers came pouring out of them.
Then the human forces formed together and put up a strong resistance, they marched towards the citadel, but they were turned into ashes.
That was probably from the supressor weapon, or whatever it is.
It also says that someone (Its to blurry to read) Announced earths surrender while all of this was happening, we know this to be Dr.Breen.
That means that doctor breen had this all planned, because he reacted so quickly.
He would of had to have ties with the combine, because he was named "consul" by the combine.

Dr eli also says that no one is blaming gordon for what happened.
And it ALSO says that the xen creatures attacked civilians in the outside world fist.
"Headcrabs leaping onto shoppers from supermarket shevles"
"Gargantua overturning a tractor as a farmer flees across a (cant read this) field."

Eli also says:
"There was an illusion of safety for a time, And then citadels appeared."
That means there is more than one citadel, there is most likely one in every city.
"... A chunk would disappear from the centre of a city, to be replaced an instant later by one of these headqauters for the combine. Invasion Central"

And something even more interesting.
Here is even more evidence for resistance, and a better reason for why the combine wear those gas masks.
"Well, you've seen the state of things. They're replacing the air with something we can hardly breathe. They're draining the ocean. We don't know if they are preparing the earth for new residents, or are just stripping it of every possible resource. All we know is that we have to stop them, and thats where you come in, Mr Freeman. It's up to you to...."

That was taken from an early part of the script, that was meant to fill out what happened inbetween the two half lifes.
So.
The combine used the Xen creatures to attack.
The people put up a strong resistance, they thought they were winning.
The citadels appeared, the armies proceeded towards these, only to be killed by the supressor.

Eli must of organised Gordon to come and help them, because so much of this has been planned out.
That supports the theory of the Gman auctioning (or "pimping") off gordon to the highest bidder.


Interesting isn't it?


We should make a sticky with that explination in it.
It fills out lots of the story gap between the two games, plus it also explains a few things.
Like why the combine wear those gasmasks around. (Because they have difficulty breathing the air)
Nice nice, but i thought combine wore gasmask because the operation (allowing them to live on the other side of the combine portal) made them no longer able to breath earth's atmosphere.

[Baldrick]

Yeah i meant they couldn't breath earths atmosphere.
I would also say that the combine think they are superior to humans, or a higher lifeform based on the picture that people have found of the chimp head, human head, then combine head.