7 Hours?!

A few of my opinions on the 7 hour war.

First, Earth was betrayed by its leading scientist. The political leaders of Earth would have listened to Breen, who, 'seemed' to have all the answers.

Breen told the United Nations to surrender, and they, unfortunately, believed him. He probably sprouted off to the Politicans the same sorta crap he was saying in HL2, that is how they are here to help & improve us, they mean no harm blah blah.

In my opinion, there was no HUGH invasion of Earth. The combine probably teleported a few striders, mechs etc and wiped out some of the US...eg New York (UN Building burning), Washington etc. With Breens betrayal and lies, plus the obvious technological advantage they had over us, must poliiticans would have given in without a fight, especially after all the problems the Portal Storms would have caused previous to the invasion.

My reasoning behind this is that (1) everything you fight in HL2 seems to be build on Earth, the Citadels (and Nova Prospekt) seem to be building the striders, synths & Combine troopers.

2) The difficulty the Combine have in teleporting...to teleport one Person to their dimension needs hugh amounts of power (basically the power produced by a whole Citadel) --- compare this to the 'standard' Xen teleport.

3) For me, the Combine DO NOT control Xen, or, even had any knowledge of it until the betrayal of Mossman/Breen. This is due to the fact Earth Telportation is completely dependant on Xen. If the Combine had control of Xen, they wouldnt have needed Mossman to steal the designs for the Xen teleporter, and would have been transporting Troops/Striders instead of using Drop Ships.

4) The game guide says how the Combine werent aware of Earth until AFTER the Portal storms started. This is what attracted them to Earth. For me the Combine is from a different dimension from either Earth or Xen, but once the Storms started (which were caused by the Resonance Cascade at BMRF) they managed to somehow to contact Dr Breen, arrange a plan and then teleport a small force to Earth.

This scenario means the Combine wouldnt have needed a large force to defeat Earth.
Look at the British Empire during the 19th Century - the Brits build one of the biggest empires ever using the same sort of Tactic. Show your technological superiority, make grandiose promises and con the Leaders.....hey presto, youve conquered a whole country without really having to fight much. Of course when the country in question doesnt back down, usually it gets bloody and sometimes even the army with technological superiority can get beaten (eg in the Zulu wars) - Ive got a feeling if Breen had'nt betrayed Earth one of two things would have happened. Earth would have either beaten off the invaders (which was possible as the Combine had very limited teleport abilites to there own dimension and reinforcement/resupply would have been limited) or the Combine would have destroyed Earth completely (would have been to 'expensive' for them to conquer)

Anyhow thats my two cents
 
Shade70uk said:
3) For me, the Combine DO NOT control Xen, or, even had any knowledge of it until the betrayal of Mossman/Breen. This is due to the fact Earth Telportation is completely dependant on Xen. If the Combine had control of Xen, they wouldnt have needed Mossman to steal the designs for the Xen teleporter, and would have been transporting Troops/Striders instead of using Drop Ships.

You get a cookie from me. And you quoted Lovecraft.

-Angry Lawyer
 
im pretty sure combine woulda mashed us, all the synths we didn't see during hl2, i mean they mauled EARTH in 7 hrs, think what would have happend if more kept on teleportin in.......
 
however all the trouble in sending in 1 man through the teleporter stemmed from the short notice of the act and the fact that it had to be started up. There's no telling how many craploads of units could be poured through a teleporter at any given time.

All we ever saw in game is 1 man trying to get the teleporter prepped and ready on incredibly short notice.

I think that with the resources the combine had at their disposal, they could have easily poured out large numbers of troops in key locations around the world before anything could get effectively mobilized. I'm pretty sure they didn't skimp on the n00ks either, which probably explains why there are alot of americans living in Europe, cause America is probably inhabitable. Probably alot of other places too.

If they were gonna get everyone to surrender in 7 hours they must have cause MASSIVE amounts of destruction, enough to make people go "shit we is gonna get our asses handed to us"
 
Flyingdebris said:
however all the trouble in sending in 1 man through the teleporter stemmed from the short notice of the act and the fact that it had to be started up. There's no telling how many craploads of units could be poured through a teleporter at any given time.

All we ever saw in game is 1 man trying to get the teleporter prepped and ready on incredibly short notice.

I think that with the resources the combine had at their disposal, they could have easily poured out large numbers of troops in key locations around the world before anything could get effectively mobilized. I'm pretty sure they didn't skimp on the n00ks either, which probably explains why there are alot of americans living in Europe, cause America is probably inhabitable. Probably alot of other places too.

If they were gonna get everyone to surrender in 7 hours they must have cause MASSIVE amounts of destruction, enough to make people go "shit we is gonna get our asses handed to us"


Or maybe they're just cowards.

Breen looks like one...
 
A highly advanced military with the ability to teleport into our world, i assume the combine homeworld is united and is filled with large cities maybe 1 gaint city that takes up the whole planet. We have 6 Billion people and our counties are not united. the combine seem to be imperialistic and multi planet based.

Their army could number in the billions, 10s of billions, possible even trillions. even if they had WW2 weapons i'm sure they could outnumber and overwhelm us. that and they would be alot more well organzied.

The are also, without a doubt more advanced that us. Wars now a days dont take years, they take months even weeks. in the future, in real life not just games, wars will be quick. 7 hours seems reasonable, i would guess earth couldn't have lasted more than a few days or weeks agains a foe like this.
 
screechrocket said:
A highly advanced military with the ability to teleport into our world, i assume the combine homeworld is united and is filled with large cities maybe 1 gaint city that takes up the whole planet. We have 6 Billion people and our counties are not united. the combine seem to be imperialistic and multi planet based.

Their army could number in the billions, 10s of billions, possible even trillions. even if they had WW2 weapons i'm sure they could outnumber and overwhelm us. that and they would be alot more well organzied.

The are also, without a doubt more advanced that us. Wars now a days dont take years, they take months even weeks. in the future, in real life not just games, wars will be quick. 7 hours seems reasonable, i would guess earth couldn't have lasted more than a few days or weeks agains a foe like this.

heathen...

j/k
 
What about some sort of virus thingy? Has this been mentioned? I didnt read the enire thread!
 
Well, 7 hours...

Lets see...

Let us compare to something (Most) of us know about. Veitcong war.

In that war, the vietcong used tunnels to go right into our bases. There where no front lines, there was no safe area.

Now imagine suddenly a combine citidel appearing next to your house.

The hell are you going to do about that?

..***n like hell. Grab a gun. And try to shoot the strider that... Oop, your dead.

And suddenly, the military realizes whats going on, and starts... Oops, they are already dead.

...

Combine win.

Its like a bunch of people with axes running at a modern army. They wont last to long. AND if the modern army has numerical advantage, there is no way in hell the axe-wielding maniacs will get to them.
 
Puzzlemaker, most of us have said something exactly like what you have. The reason it's entirely possible for a trojan inflitration on Earth to work is because Earthlings are entirely unequipped for sudden invasion and are inherently inefficient and disorganized in sudden large-scale combat.

In other words, you are right. :)
 
Jandor said:
I really think they fought America and I really think they won, due to two main points. You see Gunships attacking the UN Headquarters in New York, its on the Black Mesa note board.
Point two, America is not invincible, nor god like. In fact, if France found a way to disable your warheads, France could wipe you off the face of the planet.

I seriously hope your joking

Not only is the U.S. military technologically superior to the French Military, the U.S. Military controls not only the oceans, but also the skys. It would be like 12th graders fighting Kindergardeners. Not only does France have a pretty small military, the training isn't exactly top notch. Jesus Christ, some people are so misinformed its sad

Country:
France
Enlistment Age:
18
Manpower: 14,487,165
Expenditure: $45,238.1 Million
% of GNP: 2.6%



United States Military Strength



Enlistment Age:
18
Manpower: 73,597,731
Expenditure: $399 Billion
% of GNP: 3.9%
 
And some people are denying the fact that anybody taken by surprise has a massive disadvantage. Don't blind yourself with patriotism. If the US had its nukes disables, and France were pointing all their missiles at the 'States, I believe it would be cause for panic.

-Angry Lawyer
 
us military may be technologically superior to any other military on the planet, but how do you know its training is better?

its well known that the CIA structure was based on SiS - MI6 as it is more commonly known across the world.

also, the SAS are the best counter terrorist agents in the world - British.

training is a very different thing to technological advatange and does not necessarily require huge amounts of money.
 
The thing is, in Black Mesa East, the traitor doctor(her name completely escapes me right now) said that once the combine were here from their dimension, they were limited to our transportation sys..................... Oh, they can use our teleporters as well. But there wouldn't nearly be enough.
 
Angry Lawyer said:
And some people are denying the fact that anybody taken by surprise has a massive disadvantage. Don't blind yourself with patriotism. If the US had its nukes disables, and France were pointing all their missiles at the 'States, I believe it would be cause for panic.

-Angry Lawyer
I find it funny, you all seem to think nukes are as simple as pressing a button.

If a country were to use just one nuke, it would most likely lost alot of foreign allies.

Also, nukes dont just 'blow up' and thats it. They leave tons of pollution and fallout that gets into the atmosphere and could travel all the way back to France for all we know.

Useing a nuke should be the verrrrrrry last resort of anything, even if we where majorly overwhelmed...
 
MikeL15 said:
Useing a nuke should be the verrrrrrry last resort of anything, even if we where majorly overwhelmed...

Last resort is exactly the scenario the 7 hour war presents. It's either fight and die or give up and suffer.
 
which is why i think the combine would have used nukes on us during the 7 hour war.

They wouldn't have to worry about allies.

Seriously, if they have the ability to drop massive citadels in the middle of cities, and have them harness the power oh high powered orbs of pure energy, and teleport entire armies across the void of space. How can you say that we would be the only ones with nukes, when we have barely gotten the hang of space travel and only recently (a mere 60 years) have figured out how to get energy from nuclear fission, and to a significantly lesser degree, fusion.
 
Flyingdebris said:
which is why i think the combine would have used nukes on us during the 7 hour war.

They wouldn't have to worry about allies.

Seriously, if they have the ability to drop massive citadels in the middle of cities, and have them harness the power oh high powered orbs of pure energy, and teleport entire armies across the void of space. How can you say that we would be the only ones with nukes, when we have barely gotten the hang of space travel and only recently (a mere 60 years) have figured out how to get energy from nuclear fission, and to a significantly lesser degree, fusion.

Actually I'm with you that they would rather completely obliterate us with a weapon of mass destruction, but a tactical nuke would convert Earth into a wasteland, and I think the Combine wanted to colonize Earth instead of destroy it.
 
I very much think that Combine technology has produced things better than nukes, with less lasting side-effects. Think of the Pulse Rifle's secondary fire, on a massive scale.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Or a strategic scale version of the vortex cannon used by the striders and suppressors.
 
Lets see, the combine seem to be primarily interested in air, water, and minerals.

The air processing facility was cut out of the game but the premise is still there. The seas are being siphoned off, and the citadels consume the areas all around and underneath them.

I think they could easily annihilate vast portions of humanity if they give the combine sass, without overlay damaging the goods. Then the combine simply move in to an area and set up the means to drain vast quantities of resources, probably shipping a whole bunch of stalkers and overwatch to an area as well as some human livestock for later conversion
 
How was it that Breen was able to speak on behalf of all the planet? What about those countries that fought on? I still find it hard to believe it came and went in 7 hours.
 
No matter how much resistance was put up in the seven hour war, we'd still have lost.

Our planet is made of countries that often refuse to cooperate. The Combine consist of many worlds, all of which are controlled and supply the majority of their resources to the war effort.

No matter how hard we fight, there are always more Combine coming.

Oh, and they put Soylent Green in the ration packs.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Rennmniscant said:
How was it that Breen was able to speak on behalf of all the planet? What about those countries that fought on? I still find it hard to believe it came and went in 7 hours.

Its quite believable actually. We were first hit by the portal storms, xen aliens pushed us into cities and ravaged the countryside. When the combine attacked they attacked in force, they had us trapped in the cities, they had our population decreased and they caught us at a time we were using our resoruces on fighting xen wildlife.

Then we have divided nations, countries refusing to cooperate, communication ceased...there would have been no time at all.

Then theres Breen, gathering all the power you can in a crisis, probably a large group of people to support him, took control of the radio tower and issued a surrender, most likley using portal technology as a bargaining chip.
 
Tight-ass Llama said:
woah. :eek:
Ive got a friend at who plays PS2 gamz, he thinks the Helgahst from Killzone could beat the combine.....is he insane?
If they wupped Earth in a day they could sure beat a few blue guys in gas maks :dozey:
Anyone who beat Eatrh in a day could beat the OVERWATCH

Anyone who took a day to beat Earth would get f*cked up by the COMBINE
 
exactly

i don't think the world's military forces would exactly be trained for that sort of thing. plus, the combine are pros. surely they've been spreading through the universe taking over planet after planet. after that much practice, earth in 7 days would be cake.
 
gabriel said:
i don't think the world's military forces would exactly be trained for that sort of thing. plus, the combine are pros. surely they've been spreading through the universe taking over planet after planet. after that much practice, earth in 7 days would be cake.

Its not 7 days, its 7 hours ;)
 
oops

oops, my bad. 7 hours still though, i think they could've done it. Corrected: 7 hours would be cake for the combine. :D
 
gabriel said:
oops, my bad. 7 hours still though, i think they could've done it. Corrected: 7 hours would be cake for the combine. :D

Indeed it would ;)
 
Actually Samon. Breen probably communicated with the Combine prior to the Resonance Cascade and caused the 'accident' in the first place to allow the combine to slip through to Earth. Thus the Combine thanked Breen by propping him up as a Puppet Dictator to ease the transition of Alien control. Also, this is similar to the Nihilanth in that, he seemed to be a sort of king(or queen) for the hives of Vortigaunts. Perhaps he was also a puppet dictator tragically singled out because he had a great deal of energy at his disposal and psychic powers. Thus the collars you saw on the vortigaunts (Half Life one) had to have been placed there by someone. Nihilanth's mechanical appendages were probably the work of the Combine to control the lower life forms, and they secured their control of Xen that way.
 
aztecsaxwarrior said:
Actually Samon. Breen probably communicated with the Combine prior to the Resonance Cascade and caused the 'accident' in the first place to allow the combine to slip through to Earth. Thus the Combine thanked Breen by propping him up as a Puppet Dictator to ease the transition of Alien control. Also, this is similar to the Nihilanth in that, he seemed to be a sort of king(or queen) for the hives of Vortigaunts. Perhaps he was also a puppet dictator tragically singled out because he had a great deal of energy at his disposal and psychic powers. Thus the collars you saw on the vortigaunts (Half Life one) had to have been placed there by someone. Nihilanth's mechanical appendages were probably the work of the Combine to control the lower life forms, and they secured their control of Xen that way.


sounds like stuff i read on this site:

http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/

it all sounds right to me
 
aztecsaxwarrior said:
Actually Samon. Breen probably communicated with the Combine prior to the Resonance Cascade and caused the 'accident' in the first place to allow the combine to slip through to Earth. Thus the Combine thanked Breen by propping him up as a Puppet Dictator to ease the transition of Alien control. Also, this is similar to the Nihilanth in that, he seemed to be a sort of king(or queen) for the hives of Vortigaunts. Perhaps he was also a puppet dictator tragically singled out because he had a great deal of energy at his disposal and psychic powers. Thus the collars you saw on the vortigaunts (Half Life one) had to have been placed there by someone. Nihilanth's mechanical appendages were probably the work of the Combine to control the lower life forms, and they secured their control of Xen that way.

Its certainly possible, but theres no proof. I don't really believe there is a connection between xen and the combine, theres definatley no concrete proof - just different points that lead to both sides of the argument.

We'll just have to wait and see.
 
the fact remains that the earth surrenders after seven hours and there is nothing that we can do about it, unless we turn back the hands of time or ask the writers to write another story.
 
The Dark Kreuz said:
the fact remains that the earth surrenders after seven hours and there is nothing that we can do about it, unless we turn back the hands of time or ask the writers to write another story.

joined just to post that? :sleep:
 
gabriel said:
sounds like stuff i read on this site:

http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/

it all sounds right to me

If i've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times. IT'S FULL OF HALF TRUTHS AND ASSUMPTIONS TAKEN AS FACT!

Look, they can't even get the simplest things right:

1 Who are the Combine? The Combine (also known as the Synth...

By default, you can't take anything from that site as solid fact for that glaring mistake alone!

And the "Laidlaw said it's correct" is a misquote. Laidlaw's not actually allowed to comment on the storyline - he most likely said "nice site, pretty good" and had it exascerbated by the overzealous Combine-Xen connection supporters.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Huh! Angry Lawyer signed twice, He who is known as AL as made a mistake! Mine faith in thee hath been shaken!
 
*Fixes his mistake*

That always happens when I write something, sign it, and then change the text again. Didn't spot it that time. Thanks for warning me.

-Angry Lawyer
 
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