in the last half of the 20th century there were two top secret companies experimenting with fringe science. One was titled Aperture Science and the other Black Mesa. These two large companies were competing for a government contract to create a means of teleporting soldiers from one location to another. Aperture had made a break through with the invention of their portal gun but were determined to make it the best they could in the time they had so they initiated a testing facility in which they would take human clones and run them through a series of tests with the portal gun to make sure that the guns were at optimum performing efficiency.
Black Mesa however believed in the theory that there are unlimited parallel universes to our own and that if they were to make a conduit from one to another, in essence, the user could travel a great distance in our universe by traveling a small distance in the other, parallel universe (as i understand it). Through extensive testing they accidentally stumbled across a certain element that had a similar color to gold or brass but had a similar texture and crystaline structure to obsidian which allowed them to open small portals to a "waiting room" universe so to speak. This universe was then dubbed Xen (Pronounced zen).
Black Mesa hired on a new Theoretical Physicist who was a fresh MIT grad named Gordon Freeman who was then placed on the Hazardous Materials Unit and was trained in the fine art of pushing carts of the Crystaline test subjects into the generator which creates the portals to Xen. By the control of a higher being known only as the G-Man swaps one of the purest test subjects Black Mesa had found with a tainted sample. Thus influencing a resonance cascade allowing all of the residents of Xen to flood into our universe effectively infesting the entire Black Mesa facility. Gordon freeman being fitted in a Hazardous Environment Suit Mark IV is the only one in the vicinity of the test chamber to survive.
Escaping the test chamber it becomes his primary goal to reach the surface to call the outside world for help of any form. However the Government sensing that their top secret project is getting out of control, sent in a Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (or HECU) to clean up the mess. Shortly before gordon reaches the surface, the HECUs begin to swarm Black Mesa slaughtering anything that moved and wasn't wearing an HECUniform. Gordon manages to evade these people and on many cases outsmart them leading to massive casualties and loss of large equipment such as tanks, artillery turrets, and even helicopters. Gordon is then informed by scientists who had survived by hiding in the worst of elements that in order to send for help Gordon needs to launch a satellite into orbit.
After launching the satellite into orbit Gordon proceeds to make his way to a sector of the Black Mesa Facility called Lambda Core where he reactivated a largest testing chamber on the facility. With the assistance of Dr. Issac Kleiner, he is successfully sent into Xen at the risk of opening a second, even larger resonance cascade. In Xen, Gordon defeats the leader of the assaulting forces, Nilhilanth. Nilhilanth, unbeknownst to Gordon or anyone at Black Mesa, was created by a species known as the Combine (probably because they're notorious for gaining power by fusing their DNA with other superior species to make super races).
The Mysterious G-Man then plucks Gordon Freeman out from our universe into what seems to be a dimensional observation room and forces Gordon into working for the G-Man and his superiors. Gordon is put into cryo-stasis for an estimated twenty years after which he is pulled out again by the G-Man and told that his hour has once again come. This time he is placed in one of the last cities of the human race known only as City 17, located somewhere in the heart of the former USSR. The combine have invaded the human home world in full force and seized control of Earth in 7 days, then proceeded to create the human super soldiers which became a mirror image to the Stazi of the 1960's.
Gordon accidentally runs into Barney Calhoun, a befriended security guard from Black Mesa who guides him the Dr. Kleiner's lab. Dr. Kleiner is about to trade him off to another Scientist from Black Mesa, Dr. Eli Vance, when the newly inaugurated teleportation technology goes awry sending Gordon on yet another epic quest against the entire combine military. Eventually gordon makes it by foot to Dr. Vance's laboratory which was amusingly dubbed Black Mesa East and he is then forced to make his way to the Citadel, the control tower which looms high over City 17. There he destroyed the primary reactor to the Citadel causing a cascading series of explosions which destroy the top half of the Citadel.
The G-man attempts to pull Gordon back into stasis but is prevented by the now liberated Vortigaunt who were enslaved under Nilhilanth. The combine that are now in terror that one human could best their entire army are in full retreat mode and open a massive portal to retreat through above the remains of the citadel. With Dr. Vance's daughter, Alyx, Gordon plunges back into the Citadel's writhing remains and stabilizes the secondary energy core which would have wiped out the better part of City 17 but only to delay it's breeching for a short period of time. The dynamic trio (Gordon, Alyx, and Barney) rally as many citizens of City 17 as possible in the time permitted and gets them safely out of City 17. Gordon and Alyx board the last train out of the city and are derailed by the explosion of the Citadel.
After waking from the explosion Gordon finds himself in an unknown part of the USSR countryside. meeting up with Alyx, they discover that what used to be the Citadel and about 500 miles in every direction surrounding that, is nothing but a giant crater. Alyx, knowing of an emergency research facility run by a Dr. Magnusson leads Gordon through the forested areas which are littered with remnants of the Combine occupation forces and members of the human rebel faction (which receive their sense of direction from the liberated Vortigaunt). Once they reach Dr. Magnusson's laboratory, their objective is to launch a second satelite into space to communicate with the satellite that Gordon had originally launched into space thus creating a means of locking the combine out of earth for good.
After a long and dangerous battle, the satellite was successfully launched into orbit and communications were successful. The final piece to the puzzle was a ship located in the antarctic that was originally owned by Aperture Science called the Borealis. It's contents were rumored to be the long since lost portal technology which was shipped away from Aperture Science's testing facilities some time in the 70's. However right before Gordon and Alyx set off for the Borealis, Eli Vance dies at the influence of the G-Man causing Alyx to be strongly dissuaded from going on the hunt for the Borealis. The rest of this story is yet to be written and this blog will resurface when it does.
Have you played the Half-Life series? If so, what did you think of this post?
Next Up: Fallout
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