Combine

The Combine, officially the Universal Union, are the major antagonists of Half-Life 2 an intergalactic alien empire that has conquered Earth after only seven hours. Unbeknownst in the original Half-Life, they were the beings that made the Nihilanth and all creatures surrounding it flee to Xen. Upon the Nihilanth's demise at the hands of Dr.Gordon Freeman, the Combine came to Earth through the Portal Storms that had begun on Earth after the death of the Nihilanth. Dr. Wallace Breen rarely uses the phrase Combine save in the prescence of Dr. Freeman upon his capture, and instead uses their proper title, or simply them Our Benefactors.

Dominion on Earth

An example of Combine propaganda, a white dove seen above the Combine insignia.

The intial forces of the Combine were strong enough to shatter the Earth's military forces and within seven hours the planet was taken. It was only through the surrender negoitiated by Dr. Wallace Breen, former Administrator of Black Mesa, that the Combine ended their assault on the planet.

From what can be discovered in Half-Life 2, the Combine asserted their dominion through the installment of Citadels in every 'surviving' Urban centre on the planet. The cities where the Citadels were placed were renamed to a simple number; such as City 17 seen within Half-Life 2, and several methods of subduing and dominating the human civilians, along with the Xen creatures who had come through during the Black Mesa Incident. Dr. Breen was rewarded for the surrender of Earth by being placed Administrator of the Combine Overwatch, and was used to spread anti-resistant propaganda to mankind. Despite these assurances, a reproduction suppression field was placed on humans; making them unable to reproduce, and some humans were taken into captivity and genitically altered into either the trans-human arm of the Overwatch or Stalkers, severely mutated slaves to the Combine. Some humans were given opportunity to join the Civil Protection Unit, where apparently life is suitably better at the cost of punishing ordinary humans through beatings and sometimes through murder.

The Combine's prescence on Earth was extremely clear, not only in the prescence of the Citadel but also the conversion of many human-built structures, such as the conversion of what seems to be a musuem in City 17 into the Overwatch Nexus. Combine-made walls are placed on every street so that citizens must be identified in every section of the cities. On the edges of tall structures, watch-towers have been constructed to overlook civilians in the street. Nearer the Citadels are huge moving mechanical walls that seem to move and grind-up the City, for what purposes other than protection of the Citadel is unknown. The inside of some buildings have been altered completely, which Combine laser-fields, laser-locks and such that also confine citizens to certain areas. One example of major conversion is the older sections of Nova Prospekt, which before Combine-invasion seemed to be a prison. Further into the Half-Life 2 Chapter 'Entanglement' Dr. Gordan Freeman discovered the larger and more mechanical looking areas of Nova Prospekt where prisoners and Stalkers are stored. Surrounding the facility is Combine-made bunkers and 'Thumpers' to prevent Antlion invasion.

The Combine seem aware of the Xen wildlife infestation on Earth and have taken certain steps to prevent their 'surviving urban centres' from being infested. Headcrabs placed inside shells used for aerial raids on known Resistance sanctuaries, such as Ravenholm which was subsequently uncontrollably infestated and caused survivors to flee. It is not known whether Antlions came from Xen, as they are not seen in Half-Life, but is clear that there are infestation problems with them, especially along the coast. Combine-made thumpers are used to prevent infestation where possible, including outside Nova Prospekt. In the Chapter 'Our Benefactors', Dr. Freeman finds himself near the summit of the Citadel and has to use the giant 'thumpers' to get inside. While it remains unclear to what these are meant for, it can be presumed the Combine use them to prevent Antlion infestation, something clearly seen in Half-Life 2: Episode One when the Citadel is near destruction and Antlions have swarmed City 17. Other areas however go unchecked, such as certain rivers and the sea, where Xen leeches and Icthysaurus' can be found. Any Vortigaunts that are found by the Combine are either enslaved or tortured to death.

Along with the supression of mankind, the Combine also have clearly drained Earth of some of its natural resources. Along the coast it can be visibly seen that the ocean has been stretched further back than before and areas of the canal seen within and outside City 17 are nearly or entirely drained. Why the Combine take and what they use these resources for is unknown. One reason could be to chemically alter the water supplied to citizens as suggested by one man early on in the game ("Don't drink the water...they put something in it to make you forget. I can't even remember how I got here"). At another point Dr. Freeman travels through a Water Plant, though no visible signs of attempts to alter the water are seen, aside the fact that it is 'abandoned' somehow, according to a resistance member.

Due to the events of Half-Life 2, presumed twenty years after the surrender of Earth, the Combine have temporarily lost control of Earth due to Dr. Gordon Freeman sabotaging Dr. Breen's attempt to teleport out of the Citadel. The destruction of the Citadel in City 17, with the destruction of the Overwatch forces within it has left the Combine in a vunerable state.

The aftermath of the City 17 Citadel's destruction left the Combine in a severly weakened and vunerable position, however they were able to use the immense energy from the Citadel's melted core to begin a sequence that would open a super-portal to allow the Combine to access Earth once again. The remaining forces of the Overwatch also began to re-group and head north to attack the Resistance base known as White Forest where it was revealed that a rocket was to be used to close the Combine portal. Another of the Combine's assignments were to collect and protect the Advisors that had been able to escape the destruction of the Citadel; how many were found and secured is unknown, as the Vortigaunts reveal their successful hunting of the Advisors and also the one that Gordon and Alyx find in a converted house was hurt by the machinery and fled.

The Combine continued the hunt for Gordon and Alyx, who possessed the Combine Portal Codes which were taken from the Citadel's core. Though Alyx was severly wounded by a Combine Hunter, and on several occasions the Combine attempted ambushes along the path of White Forest, Gordon and Alyx were able to make it to White Forest and helped defeat a breach on the bases' second silo. The Combine later sent a wave of Striders to attack and destroy the base, also armed with a packs of Hunters to aid the Strider's objectives and to kill any Resistance members on the ground, but were once again defeated by Gordon Freeman armed with a new 'Magnusson Device' able to fend off the Striders with ease. The rocket was soon launched afterwards and closed the Combine super-portal. However despite the victory of the Resistance once again, they lost Eli Vance to an attack by two Combine Advisors, though one was injured by Dog in the attack.

It is speculated that the Advisors due to killing Eli Vance with their tongue/tentacle, that they now know of the Borealis and the Resistance fully due to Eli being its leader; whether this is true remains unknown. No mention was given in Episode Two of the squad that tracked down Dr. Mossman and the Resistance fighters already in the Artic, or so its believed. It maybe that the Combine know already, or that they were merely pursuing a known fugitive. It is believed the Combine will make a return in Episode Three, furthering their retaliation against the Resistance.

Structure and Hierarchy

Whilst the Combine have many synths and transhumans at their control, it appears that the 'Combine' are merely the Combine Advisors, seen at the conclusion of Half-Life 2, during Episode One and seen more of in Episode Two. Whilst these creatures appear like overgrown slugs, they have tremendous amounts of power at their disposal, able to use telekinsis and telepathy against humans. Whilst they have not spoken directly to Dr. Gordon Freeman or Alyx Vance, it is clear they have spoken to Dr. Breen as he receives his orders. It is also known that many Combine Advisors are held within Citadels as seen in Episode One and that their protection is of the utmost importance. It can be assumed that the Advisors either cannot survive in human environments and/or require machinery to help them do so.

As part of the main military armies of the Combine, they use synths to fight against any resistance and probably used vast armies of these to overthrow Earth. Such synths are used at the time of Half-Life 2 merely for patrol purposes and to strike fear in human civilians, such as Combine Striders and Combine gunships. Other Combine synths include Dropships, a yet unseen in action Mortar and Tank Synth and Hunters, smaller versions of Striders to be seen in Episode Two.

The Overwatch forces, also known as the Trans-human Arm of the Overwatch, are mainly genetically altered humans who carry out the Combine's military biddings on Earth. Units such as the Overwatch soldiers, prison-guards and the Combine Elite have been stripped of their humanity and are used in areas that could not be trusted to Civil Protection, such as Coastal Areas, Nova Prospekt and the Citadels. Whilst they can be heavily backed up by the synth forces, they also use Combine APCs and Hunter-Choppers in order to quell any Resistance-armed forces.

The Combine are clearly masters of technology, biological manipulation and application of both technological and organic materials in order to create their synths and servants. This is probably where the name Combine derives from. It seems their recent endevours are through teleportation using 'Dark Energy', which is apparently not as able as the Resistance 'Entanglement' project, making their teleporters smaller and able to recharge faster (however it can be noted that Dr. Issac Kleiner's teleporter has only worked successfully once, despite certain interferences), whereas the Combine teleporters seen are huge in scale and need far longer to recharge. It maybe that due to the events of Half-Life 2, the Combine's ability to teleport is severly crippled due to the destruction of the dark energy reactor in the Citadel of City 17 and the teleport at Nova Prospekt.