How did Combine win a war against earth in just 7 hours?

[PeaceMaker]

Ok, I asked what happened between HL1 and 2, but now this has caused another question that bugs me...

How did Combine defeat earth in 7 hours? How is that possible?

Unless they used a giant death ray and wiped out everyone on the planet in one go that just can't be possible.

Did earth's forces even TRY to fight? What about nukes?

Or did they just up and say, "Ok, Breen lad go and negotiate our surrender?"

I'd love to see how even that was accomplished. Humans don't just surrender like that. There must be more to it.

Let me just clarify, it's not Combine winning that bothers me- it's the incredibly short space of time in which they won. You could literally lie in bed asleep for less than a day (or one night) and wake up to suddenly find yourself now ruled by aliens. It just don't make sense to me.

[Graceful Jabberwocky]

what we see in hl2 is only a small force of the combine left over to police the people of earth and drain earth's materials

they're wayyyyyyyyyy stronger than what we see

Originally posted by PeaceMaker:

What about nukes?

good question

the america's were already weak after the black mesa incident and xen creature's invading so i think it's fair the combine defeated them so quickly

[PeaceMaker]

Originally posted by Graceful Jabberwocky:

what we see in hl2 is only a small force of the combine left over to police the people of earth and drain earth's materials

they're wayyyyyyyyyy stronger than what we see

Originally posted by PeaceMaker:

What about nukes?

good question

the america's were already weak after the black mesa incident and xen creature's invading so i think it's fair the combine defeated them so quickly

I'm a bit of a writer and like to think how stuff could happen in a realistic, believable fashion. I've spent time trying to figure out how aliens could theoretically win an attack on earth in only 7 hours with what we know about the Half Life 2 world.

1. It can't possibly be due to combat. there's no way that an army, no matter how big or alien could win a conventional war in 7 hours and still leave lots of people alive to enslave.

2. Maybe alien spies had infiltrated onto earth years ago and groomed Humans to be ready to surrender within 7 hours, but that don't make sense if the aliens only just discovered us.

3. Maybe Combine had some giant beam weapons on space born ships, knew of all the military and politic centers of the world and giant beamed each one into vapour in 7 hours, so there was no way to command the armies, leaving them headless and so they just surrendered? Could be that, I guess.

It's also strange that NOBODY in HL2 explains how it happened- at all- ever.

p.s (Yea, I know the Devs probably didn't even write how it happened, they probably just went straight into HL2 and dropped Gordon into it).

[Tarka]

Originally posted by PeaceMaker:

Originally posted by Graceful Jabberwocky:

what we see in hl2 is only a small force of the combine left over to police the people of earth and drain earth's materials

they're wayyyyyyyyyy stronger than what we see


good question

the america's were already weak after the black mesa incident and xen creature's invading so i think it's fair the combine defeated them so quickly

I'm a bit of a writer and like to think how stuff could happen in a realistic, believable fashion. I've spent time trying to figure out how aliens could theoretically win an attack on earth in only 7 hours with what we know about the Half Life 2 world.

1. It can't possibly be due to combat. there's no way that an army, no matter how big or alien could win a conventional war in 7 hours and still leave lots of people alive to enslave.

2. Maybe alien spies had infiltrated onto earth years ago and groomed Humans to be ready to surrender within 7 hours, but that don't make sense if the aliens only just discovered us.

3. Maybe Combine had some giant beam weapons on space born ships, knew of all the military and politic centers of the world and giant beamed each one into vapour in 7 hours, so there was no way to command the armies, leaving them headless and so they just surrendered? Could be that, I guess.

It's also strange that NOBODY in HL2 explains how it happened- at all- ever.

p.s (Yea, I know the Devs probably didn't even write how it happened, they probably just went straight into HL2 and dropped Gordon into it).

Why does nobody explain how it happened? I would assume something to do with the whole thing being too traumatic for anyone who wants to cling onto their remaining sanity to ever discuss?

Answer 3 I would agree with in essence. The whole game takes place in some obscure corner of Eastern Europe which would hardly have been a major military or political centre at the time of the invasion. It is entirely plausible that all the powerful countries are radioactive glass deserts by the time of HL2 and only countries which couldn't seriously challenge the Combine are still habitable.

Travel far enough west from City 17 and there's a blasted wasteland where Western Europe was. Travel far north enough and there's a giant crater that was Moscow.

The Combine might also have destroyed the most densely populated countries and biggest cities (again, neither of which describes the area where HL2 takes place) to make the survivor population small enough for enslaving them all to be practical.

I don't think the weapons in question would need to be on spaceships though. The invaders came through a giant portal opening inside the atmosphere, so it seems logical that the doomsday whatever-it was came by the same route. If it was possible to move the portal around on earth they could even just build the beam of doom as a static weapon installation on their home world and fire it through the portal, moving the earth end of the portal to each new target.

[PeaceMaker]

Originally posted by Tarka:

Originally posted by PeaceMaker:

I'm a bit of a writer and like to think how stuff could happen in a realistic, believable fashion. I've spent time trying to figure out how aliens could theoretically win an attack on earth in only 7 hours with what we know about the Half Life 2 world.

1. It can't possibly be due to combat. there's no way that an army, no matter how big or alien could win a conventional war in 7 hours and still leave lots of people alive to enslave.

2. Maybe alien spies had infiltrated onto earth years ago and groomed Humans to be ready to surrender within 7 hours, but that don't make sense if the aliens only just discovered us.

3. Maybe Combine had some giant beam weapons on space born ships, knew of all the military and politic centers of the world and giant beamed each one into vapour in 7 hours, so there was no way to command the armies, leaving them headless and so they just surrendered? Could be that, I guess.

It's also strange that NOBODY in HL2 explains how it happened- at all- ever.

p.s (Yea, I know the Devs probably didn't even write how it happened, they probably just went straight into HL2 and dropped Gordon into it).

Answer 3 I would agree with in essence. The whole game takes place in some obscure corner of Eastern Europe which would hardly have been a major military or political centre at the time of the invasion. It is entirely plausible that all the powerful countries are radioactive glass deserts by the time of HL2 and only countries which couldn't seriously challenge the Combine are still habitable.

Travel far enough west from City 17 and there's a blasted wasteland where Western Europe was. Travel far north enough and there's a giant crater that was Moscow.

The Combine might also have destroyed the most densely populated countries and biggest cities (again, neither of which describes the area where HL2 takes place) to make the survivor population small enough for enslaving them all to be practical.

I don't think the weapons in question would need to be on spaceships though. The invaders came through a giant portal opening inside the atmosphere, so it seems logical that the doomsday whatever-it was came by the same route. If it was possible to move the portal around on earth they could even just build the beam of doom as a static weapon installation on their home world and fire it through the portal, moving the earth end of the portal to each new target.

Most of what you say makes sense.

Originally posted by Tarka:

Why does nobody explain how it happened? I would assume something to do with the whole thing being too traumatic for anyone who wants to cling onto their remaining sanity to ever discuss?

I don't agree with this however. In all the numerous wars of mankind, someone, somewhere, always speaks of it, even if in hushed whispers in dark corners. It would be no different just cos aliens did it, unless they drugged them all so their memories slipped away - which might actually be possible. I think there is a person in the early part of the game that warns not to drink the water cos it does something to your memories...?

Anyway, someone would speak of it just for memories sake, just to keep sane that they were not the only ones who went through this and, maybe, if just maybe, mankind gets back its freedom it can bring justice back and punish the Combine with a record of everything they did.

Thanks for your input. Good stuff.

[geordiebroon58]

i dont think that earth couldve really been taken over in 7 hours but at the same time i think earth didnt survive very long as

A) Black Mesa Incident already took out alof ot the military forces enough as it was so a part of earth was already weakend (especially if they relied on black mesa as a co-ordinate to get to eath meaning they wouldve showd up near black meas)

B) we dont know the true power of the combine as there is meany things we havent seen from a army that weaponises creatures from diffrent worls / universes (stridor and gun hip as an example) or even weapons from the plannets they have concured (e.g hellicopters are re armed with combine technoligy)

C) the portal storm despite not affecting gordon or alyx has a massive effect on the enviroment (causing the bridge behind the player to collapse) which could maybe have throwen off things like hellicopters and jets?

D) they have in general way more advanced and durible technoligy than earth's and as mentioned before that they weaponised beings we dont know how big their army forces really is but they maneged to keep earth under control just with public manipulation and combine soldiers for quite some time

and as for nukes well earth will run out of them eventually and they will take a lot of time to re construct which i dont think earth will have that meany to work with (altho it would slow down the invasion)

and that is assuming the portal storm wouldnt affect the nukes in any way

i think people dont think the combine are as threatening as they are ment to be as the player just has game logic on their side and plot armour to just make them seem like nothing

like sure the destruction of nova prospect leads into an uprising after a week and city 17 is a massive war zone but at the same time gordon is pretty much the only reason that people had some opening to fight with etc

[PeaceMaker]

It's interesting. There is a bit more to it I found out:

A friend of mine's got Alyx and he showed me a bit at the beginning where you see a map of the world.

It showed the US has a gigantic 'X' scratched on it then lines going over to Europe. The Asian area has a '?' and so does Africa.

From that, (I'm using logical deduction here), it looks like the aliens invaded and trashed the US first with a massive hit (maybe some kind of WMD super weapon hit) before it could even respond, wiping out most of America, then went over to Europe and took that. Africa and Asia is unknown, maybe just as easily taken or wiped out, but lack of communications make it impossible to know for sure.

I might get the game myself to find out more.

[geordiebroon58]

Originally posted by PeaceMaker:

It's interesting. There is a bit more to it I found out:

A friend of mine's got Alyx and he showed me a bit at the beginning where you see a map of the world.

It showed the US has a gigantic 'X' scratched on it then lines going over to Europe. The Asian area has a '?' and so does Africa.

From that, (I'm using logical deduction here), it looks like the aliens invaded and trashed the US first with a massive hit (maybe some kind of WMD super weapon hit) before it could even respond, wiping out most of America, then went over to Europe and took that. Africa and Asia is unknown, maybe just as easily taken or wiped out, but lack of communications make it impossible to know for sure.

I might get the game myself to find out more.

as far as im aware there is nothing that really follows up on that globe

i think its more of a marking of current state

america being marked as whiped out or completly controlled with alot of places current state being unknowen

[Cat]

All they did was appear out of nowhere and destroyed every of Earth's governments. 7 hours is more than enough time for an evil space empire that travels through wormholes to do that and has breen to surrender.

[BurningCakeDoesAche]

Synths probably. Gunships and striders probably did a lot of damage.

[PeaceMaker]

Funny what you can find with a bit of research. The Alyx game has a little more info it seems. there's a newspaper in that game which says "EARTH SURRENDERS!" it explains a bit ( a very little bit) what happened.

(I'm paraphrasing cos I can't remember it all : )

In the small print it says that earth was beset by a number of unexplained weather and alien phenomenon (like at black mesa) which was stretching earth to its limits. Then the Combine aliens made a major invasion attack causing great casualties on Earth.

A little known professor BREEN popped up (within that 7 hour period!) saying he could communicate with the aliens and arrange peace. Earth's authorities accepted- UNCONDITIONALLY!
That's pretty much it.

I mean seriously? Earth gave up THAT easily? they were like, "Too much hassle, let's just surrender?" I guess they just got super demoralised.

I think there was some shenanigins BEFORE the attack, like Combine had already infiltrated into earth's halls of power and Dr. Breen was one of them, quietly prepped to pop up at the 'right' time. But I'm just surmising, I don't know for sure.

Also what about the PEOPLE? Wouldn't they protest at their governments giving up so easily, get NEW leaders, and try to fight the aliens? What was the immediate aftermath (the weeks and months after) of worldwide protests/fight back?


To be honest, I think the writing of this Lore plot is weak. I hope Valve improve on it and explain better exactly how earth was defeated in just 7 hours. But at least I know the lore of it somewhat.

Thanks to you all for your input.

[Cat]

Originally posted by PeaceMaker:

I mean seriously? Earth gave up THAT easily? they were like, "Too much hassle, let's just surrender?" I guess they just got super demoralised.

Easily? The entire planet was take over and all government forces were destroyed! Breen surrendering saved a lot of lives.

[PeaceMaker]

Originally posted by M18 Hellcat:

Originally posted by PeaceMaker:

I mean seriously? Earth gave up THAT easily? they were like, "Too much hassle, let's just surrender?" I guess they just got super demoralised.

Easily? The entire planet was take over and all government forces were destroyed! Breen surrendering saved a lot of lives.

It don't say all government forces were destroyed in that time. It is impossible to destroy all government forces in 7 HOURS without destroying everyone, unless they had a magic weapon. Military forces don't just sit in one blob waiting to be wiped out. conveniently. We have all kinds of forces around the world. Undersea subs that roam alone, troops here and there. Think about it.

They surrendered IN 7 hours which means they were ready to give up in even less time (they must've decided withing maybe 5 hours). Also, how did they manage to communicate so quickly and effectively in that time?

In war, especially at the start of a surprise attack, there's confusion for HOURS. How did Breen focus so fast and so quick to find and commmunicate with aliens then get back to the government in all the confusion of mass attacks and somehow get the WHOLE WORLD to agree peace, then get back to the aliens to let them know?

And IF they were so effective at destroying the military so quickly, how are they so useless in stopping a few rebels holed up in cities?

Unless other shenanigins was going on, it's impossible. A few weeks, yes, a few days, maybe yes. 7 hours. No.

I need a better reason than "all government forces were destroyed".

[Cat]

It is possible. We're talking about aliens that have enough forces to challenge the entire planet. 7 hours is more than enough time.

[Myst3ry X]

it's because someone on earth said "how about you start combining your mouth with deez nuts"

[Ghidrah1]

Consider massive EMP devices spread out above the planet and then all activated at once. it wouldn't matter where a military unit was, (land, sea, air or underground), all electronic devices would be fried.
Consider all vehicles, land, sea and air at the moment of the pulse hundreds of thousands of people gone directly or collaterally from the event. How much military effort would go to stopping fires, digging through debris for survivors or bodies as opposed to trying to fathom what happened and how to mobilize forces in defense?
Likely only hand weps and manually targeting heavy weps, would be viable. Do they still make those? If so how do they maneuver them from point A to B, malnourished and freaked out horses and survivors pulling on ropes?