The Citadel - some sort of combine mother ship?

[Colonel Kernel]

Hello,
I've been wondering for a while, though there are numerous things to wonder on in the Half-Life universe, but I was most impressed of the Citadel rising severall kilometers in the cloudy skyes of City 17. Then It hit me - could the Citadel be some sort of transportation/space ship, specificly designed for inter-dimesional travel by the Combine? There is a line from the early conseptual speaches for Half-Life 2, telling us that after a short period of inaction from the side of the Combine, a huge area of the cities on Earth disapeared and on that same place, a tower rising kilometers into the sky appeared. Is it possible that the Combine used some sort of technology to desintegrate an area from the city and then teleport in the Citadel on that same place? From my point of view, it sounds reasonable. Also I think that the dark energy reactor was used to power the hyper-space window between their dimesion and ours, apart from powering the Citadel itself.
I don't know what you think on the subject so please, give it a try.

 

[ríomhaire]

It's really clear. The extract from raising the bar does suggest the citadels might be able to teleport themselves. I think in general stuff like the Raising the Bar snippets are taken as truth unless otherwise contradicted, eg, most people believed most of the Earth to be wasteland like it is in Raising the Bar, until EP2 came out and showed us this isn't the case.

What I'm trying to say is that the story of the centre of the towns disappearing and Citadels taking their place is generally taken to be true, at least until someone in one of the games contradicts it.

On the other hand the portal that Breen's Reactor opens is rather a lot narrower than the citadel itself, casting doubt on whether the citadel can transport itself or whether it needs something bigger to let it cross the dimensional barrier. That said, the core exploding in EP1 makes a pretty big super portal but that was raging out of control. It's not known whether it could make a controlable portal that powerful.

So basically, I have no idea and I've just been rambling for three paragraphs.

 

[Story]

I think it was just a buliding the Combine put in major cities.It jad multile functions such as stopping human reproduction,housing Advisors and Breen,construction facilities for Combine units and the teleporter offcourse,etc.
It does have a interdimensional transportation function amongst others yes.

 

[Shem]

I assume it would be quite dangerous to teleport a fully-functional Citadel from place to place because of the vast amounts of energy it has stored in the core. I do not believe it is a mobile structure, but from the tidbits we have gathered from the information of the Seven Hours War, we could suggest that the various Citadels suddenly teleported onto Earth and possibly simultaneously powered up. Of course, I could probably be contradicting the Raising the Bar booklet since I have never read it before. If this is the case, I would have to agree with riomhaire.

 

[Acepilotf14]

The citadels were the source of the invasion forces of the Combine when they attacked earth; I figure they work as semi-mobile bases.

 

[Darkside55]

^ This. The citadel's a war machine. It's a factory for their forces. And as Riom stated, RtB says that one minute there's a city, the next there's a huge crater and a citadel growing out of it. So yes, the Combine can teleport the citadels from their universe into our own.

 

[Colonel Kernel]

I would also suggest that there is one other area in the Citadel that we never see in game - the undergrond section. At first I would say that It is the dormitory section, though it is "probably" large enough. Secondly, I'd also propose that it's the engine room with all the juice i.e. light-speed engines, control room etc.
But the last one is only if the Citadels were meant to travel trough dimensions and simply space.

 

[Danimal]

I suppose I haven't thought about how the citadel would "Root" itself into the apparent crater.

*Waits for some crazy kid to suggest the citadel is bio-mech-combine-d00d too*

 

[Darkside55]

*Waits for some crazy kid to suggest the citadel is bio-mech-combine-d00d too*

When I read the words "mech-combine" I got an image of multiple citadels transforming and combining into a giant robot.

 

[Danimal]

I AM CITATRON, LEADER OF THE COMBINOBOATS

 

[MorganFreeman911]

I AM CITATRON, LEADER OF THE COMBINOBOATS

Shit, combinoBOATS?!
Serious buisness..

*Waits for some crazy kid to suggest the citadel is bio-mech-combine-d00d too*

When I read the words "mech-combine" I got an image of multiple citadels transforming and combining into a giant robot.

****ing Mecha-Breen's fault.

 

[Colonel Kernel]

I suppose I haven't thought about how the citadel would "Root" itself into the apparent crater.

Launched from the orbit, maybe? Heh, that would seriously need a "Cit'o'launcher".

****ing Mecha-Breen's fault.

I sometimes wish Breen had a twin...

 

[henno13]

This is taken from Raising the Bar, it is an early script written by Marc Laidlaw that shows Eli Vance showing Gordon a slideshow to get him up to speed on the event over the last 20 years. It gives an insight into the Citadel's appearence.

"The countryside, the suburbs, all of those hard-to-patrol places got pretty much uninabitable. people started to crowd into the cities for protection."

People clustered at cyclone fence topped with razor wire, city skyline rising above them; cops stand tensely on guard towers, blasting away at headcrab zombies outside the perimeter.

"There was an illusion of safety, for a time. And then the Citadels appeared. It happened in a split second, all over the world. A chunk would dissapear from the center of a city, to be replaced an instant later by these heardquaters for the Combine. Invasion Centeral.

City center completly cored, building sheared off, an enourmous pit appearing out of nowhere, people falling into it.

.....

"Say hello to your new masters"

Cremators, striders, Combine machines pouring out of the Citadel into the city. Dropships tearing through the air.

"Oh, we resisted"

Tanks, soldiers, human army advancing on the Citadel.
The same Army, reduced to ashes, completely obliterated

"Earth put up a fight that lasted all of seven hours"

A smouldering Pentagon-shaped pile of ashes

...........

Dr Breen was refered to as "The Consul" in this script, that's how old it is.

 

[Colonel Kernel]

Thanks for the extract henno13. Yes, that's what inspired me to post. As the text shows, the Citadels appeared out of nowhere, fitting into the pit. Possibly a teleportation. But as this is pre-HL2 content, I wouldn't say this is it. I just hope Valve ties up this little detail in the following games, hopefully HL2: Episode Three.

 

[Acepilotf14]

I'd say it came in through the warp stor-

I mean, portal storm.

 

[Rehumies]

I always thought those things were "grown". what I mean in game we can see the huge area walls we see expanding, this indicating that while they are machines, they can still be quite flexible.

Also we see citadel transforming and having moving parts quite a bit. This made me always think that they keep growing and transforming.

 

[Dynasty]

If by transforming you mean near the start of HL2 where the alarm is going off, you see the citadel in the distance with the scanners pouring out, and where you get the crowbar, then I dont think it was transforming.

The 'plates' on the outside were certainly moving though, but if you stood and watched, they were (I'm assuming) just closing up. A shield locking into place again if you will.

I can think of no evidence to suggest the Citadel is a ship though. Yes it was almost undobtedly teleported in, and is used as a base of operations for the Combine in the city...but if at the end of EP3 boosters rocket the thing into the sky, I'll be in awe and Im sure part of me will be thinking 'Oh come on Valve, wheres the imagination'.

 

[Colonel Kernel]

Yeah, space ships really started to get cliched in FPSs. But the definition "space ship" really doesn't get off my way when I look at the Citadel.