Combine Overworld Contact Code

[XJR]

Alright so I just re-started playing Episode 2 again for the millionth time and I noticed something that could hold some significance?

Right at the beginning when you first hear from Magnusson on the monitor in that little shack with the gnome, he mentions that Mossman was hoping to retrieve the code to the combine overworld. I was like "what". Reloaded - and I'm 100% sure he says something along the lines of "You have the code that Mossman was hoping to retrieve."

Does this imply that Aperture had this code on the Borealis? Is this why they wanted to get to it so bad? I'm having difficulty assuming Mossman just stumbled across the Borealis without knowing anything about it because in her little video she calls whatever she's looking for a "Project." They must have known about it. Why else would she have gone North?

If this is the case then it would mean that Aperture knew about the combine - perhaps even had direct contact with them which would explain similarities in their technology.

It gets weirder though. You would have to assume that the combine would want the Borealis destroyed to keep the humans from getting the code - perhaps the key to ending them. So why did Eli ask you personally to destroy the Borealis?

My brain hurts. Am I being weird or?

 

[JossiRossi]

Isn't he talking about information you retrieved from the Citadel?

 

[vivanetx]

I think every point I could make is already covered in the thread you made on the Steam forums.

 

[Omnomnick]

Aperture, or atleast GLaDOS, is most definitely aware of the Combine, or more likely the Xenian invasion. GLaDOS references them at least twice in the original Portal. As for the rest of Aperture, definitely not - the personnel at the facility were dead several days before the Black Mesa incident, meaning that only GLaDOS and the hibernating test subjects could be aware.

As for whether the Borealis contains the code - I very highly doubt it. The more likely reason for Mossman travelling to the ship is because it contains some extremely powerful and dangerous teleportation technology which the Combine are looking to get hold of, due to their Citadel teleportation network being shut off by the destruction of the City 17 tower. They probably need to get access to Aperture's local teleportation technology in order to rebuild what they were attempting to construct at Nova Prospekt, which, as we know, was destroyed by Gordon and Alyx.

Not to mention attempting to use the ship's teleportation power to re-establish the teleportation network with the Combine Overworld and call for reinforcements - similarly to the purpose behind the C17 Superportal. If you get the contact code, you can stop the creation of a portal, just like in the end of Episode 2.

And theres my two cents.

 

[caste]

All teleporters or devices need one common thing - Energy sources. So if the Borealis contains a new kind of energy source it would explain why the ship is in the Arctic, deep down under the ice. The Combine probably wants to adapt their technologies to some unknown but powerful energy source.

 

[MFL]

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