#they should a portal 3 where the combine is trying to get apertures technology and chell is part of a rebel group that goes in to stop them

[spiribia]

they should make a portal spin off that takes place between 1 and 2 where half-life aliens start breaching the facility while glados is dead because she obviously isn't keeping them out anymore and youre another awakened test subject and you have to use like portals to dispatch them <- starting to slowly get corrupted and appear deranged

[its-rat-time-babey]

I posted 1,591 times in 2022

That's 539 more posts than 2021!

224 posts created (14%)

1,367 posts reblogged (86%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@sansxfuckyou-deactivated20221015

@deathofdelta

@joyflameball

@its-rat-time-babey

@just-curtain-responses

I tagged 880 of my posts in 2022

Only 45% of my posts had no tags

#danny phantom - 194 posts

#fav - 156 posts

#headcanons - 123 posts

#owl house - 120 posts

#the owl house - 62 posts

#memes - 61 posts

#hollow knight - 29 posts

#dannypocalypse - 29 posts

#dannypocalypse 2022 - 28 posts

#vlad plasmius - 28 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#lilith is canonically aroace but she doesn’t seem to know that since she mentions that she doesn’t know why she isn’t attracted to anyone

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

So if half life and portal take place in the same universe, and aperture science already has portal technology that the combine want and multiversal travel capabilities, why don’t the combine just go to a universe like blaberture mesa and steal or buy a portal gun?

The answer is simple.

CAVE. JOHNSON.

Every universe that the combine has taken over is a universe where Cave Johnson died and aperture science faded into obscurity, because any universe where Cave Johnson is alive and/or aperture science wins against black mesa is a universe where the combine lose.

Firstly, Cave Johnson is smart enough to avoid causing a resonance cascade and will cancel any test that even has a chance of causing one. We know this because of blaberture mesa, where Cave cancels a test that could cause a resonance cascade, avoiding the entire black mesa incident and preventing the combine from even entering the universe in the first place.

Secondly, 99% of the things made by aperture science are weapons that could destroy armies if they are so much as looked at wrong WHEN APERTURE SCIENCE IS PRETTY MUCH BANKRUPT, any universe where aperture science has funding is a universe that outguns the entire combine without even trying.

So the combine only invade universes where Cave Johnson is dead and Aperture Science is destroyed by outside forces.

Any universe where Cave Johnson is fine is a universe that the combine cannot enter because they definitely don’t want to give that maniac any knowledge about the combine or their multiversal empire because he will either destroy them instantly or create an even stronger empire focused on science, and since this is Cave motherfucking Johnson we’re talking about, that science will be the most unethical science you’ve ever seen, and the combine will most likely end up as test subjects.

Even if that universe’s Cave Johnson is a perfect supporter of the combine, he’s still Cave Johnson, and should be avoided at all costs because the pros (portal technology) very much do not outweigh the cons (Cave Johnson).

1,640 notes - Posted March 19, 2022

#4

Owl house Fandom for the majority of Season 2B: Free the Collector! Free our boy!

Kings Tide: *happens*

Owl House Fandom: WE CHANGED OUR MINDS! PUT HIM BACK! PUT HIM THE FUCK BACK!!

1,714 notes - Posted May 28, 2022

#3

I know I’m really late to this trend but here’s some in-universe memes.

See the full post

2,289 notes - Posted January 28, 2022

#2

Videos taken in Amity Park tend to become corrupted once they leave Amity Park. The entire thing seems normal while you’re in Amity but once you leave the video warps and corrupts and gains a sort of Analog Horror vibe with sudden cuts to things that were never recorded, videos looping on random parts, random corruption and strange whispering heard throughout the entire thing. It gets worse if a ghost was caught on video before leaving Amity Park because their ghostly aura corrupts the video further, adding random connections to the ghost’s origin, obsession and core. (Example: a video that briefly caught Ember on camera may suddenly cut to scenes of a burning building, sometimes showing a figure resembling a living Ember trying (and failing) to escape the blaze. The video will also contain distorted singing and/or a ghostly voice begging the viewer not to forget about her.) A large amount of stores in Amity Park sell things to counteract this.

You get a similar effect if you set a radio or old tv to static and go near a ghost. Their aura will warp the static and create “Ghost Noises”. Every ghost creates different noises and you can usually figure out what ghost is nearby based on what noises you hear in the static.

If Ember is nearby the you’ll hear a mix of distorted singing and a crackling fire. It may also play music sung by Ember on occasion.

Technus’s presence generates morse code and noises that, when made into a spectrogram, show detailed blueprints for electrical machines invented in the late 1800s. The blueprints are extremely detailed and are all labeled “PROPERTY OF NICOLAI TECHNUS”. The machines range from radios to induction motors to something that looks like an early prototype of a computer with internet capabilities. Most machines have already been invented by other people, but the blueprints seen here are all dated years before those machines were invented.

If you’re listening while Skulker is nearby you’ll hear the sounds of machines wiring and inconsistent beeping. This is the suit giving off ectoplasmic signals and ghost noises as it moves around. Skulker himself is too small and weak for their ghost noises to be heard.

Spectra’s ghost noises sound like whispering. It’s impossible to make out what exactly the whispers are saying, but some have claimed that the whispers addressed them by name, mentioned their families or said things regarding their personal lives with frightening accuracy.

On the rare occasions that Sydney Poindexter is wandering around you’ll hear muffled sobbing. Faint whispering, similar to the noises of Spectra can also be heard in the background.

Youngblood’s ghost noises are mostly silent, but occasionally the very faint sounds of tires screeching followed by a crash can be heard.

Most animalistic ghosts (think Ectopuses, Shadow, Cujo, etc) create faint growling noises, usually the same kind of noises that the creature itself makes.

Johnny and Kitty sound like a mix of engines, tires screeching and gunshots. Faint growling, similar to the sound Shadow makes can also be heard on rare occasions.

The Box Ghost generates the sounds of heavy machinery. If you listen carefully, you can hear someone that sounds like the box ghost arguing with an unknown person in the background.

Phantom creates a noise that sounds like either ice cracking or electricity with extremely slowed screaming noises that, when sped up, sound exactly like Danny’s ghostly wail.

Plasmius creates the sound of acid sizzling as it dissolves something, along with the sounds of fire and extremely slowed down screaming.

The Fright Knight’s ghost noises aren’t like the other ghosts. While other ghost noises are partially obscured by static, The Fright Knight’s ghost noises are clear and unobscured by any static or outside interference, sounding like loud, maniacal laughter with the sounds of buildings crumbling, people screaming, and ghost speak as a constant chant plays In the background, detailing the horrors of the lord of the dead; King Pariah and how to summon him, along with the consequences of making a deal with him.

While no one has ever heard the ghost noises of the King himself, most items associated with him have their own ghost noises that most agree are pretty close to what he would have sounded like. They all sound like chanting. The chanting recalls tales of the ghost king’s cruelty and power. Those who listen quickly become drawn into it, eventually becoming fanatic worshipers of the King.

Clockwork creates the sound of a clock ticking.

Pandora’s ghost noises sound like war chants.

Nocturne creates no noise, but instead creates a sudden pause in the static and a strong feeling of sleepiness.

2,300 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Concept:

Danny needs to turn into Phantom to fight a ghost at school but can’t because he’s not allowed to leave the room and can’t find a hiding place, So he grabs a bunch of paper and markers, makes a fake ritual circle, steps inside and uses his ghost powers to make it look like an actual ritual (making his eyes glow, causing frost to form on nearby surfaces, etc) and pretends to “make a deal with Phantom” via talking to himself before transforming and leaving to fight the ghost.

After the fight someone asks him what the hell just happened and Danny lies and says something along the lines of, “That Fenton kid summoned me and let me temporarily possess him so I could fight that ghost. He’ll be back to normal once I leave.” Then he transforms back and pretends to not remember the fight.

They believe him and no one suspects he’s actually Phantom, but now he has to deal with all of Casper High asking him how the hell he “summoned” Phantom and trying to do it themselves.

Wes is tearing his hair out.

2,916 notes - Posted January 21, 2022

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[liquidink21]

Half-Life 4 Redux

Since writing up that big post about concepts I had for Half-Life 4 I’ve managed to get it together into a coherent story, which I’ll post here.

HλLF-LIFE 4

 Chapter 1: Brave New World

For the first time since HL1 Gordon isn’t immediately dumped there by the G-Man or Vortigaunts. He’s implied to have been part of this world for some time. The entire chapter runs contrasted with HL2’s Point Insertion; instead of a tense walk through the dystopian City 17, after leaving his train Gordon takes a leisurely work to work. Instead of downtrodden citizens surrounded by metrocops, the citizens seem fairly happy though hard at work.

By interacting with the citizens in a few situations and by watching a newsreader on the old Breencast monitors, the player can pick up what they’ve missed since HL3 (they can ignore it if they want). The Combine has been overthrown, and humanity had begun rebuilding and establishing their own societies again. They are in the city of New Odessa, capital of a state known as the Foundation, created from the old Sector 17 resistance. The player learns of an “Empire” that exists in contention with the Foundation.

Level layout is as linear as ever, but instead of cops and barricades the player it blocked by more hopeful and innocent looking things like construction work and things like that. In the distance New Odessa’s citadel can be seen in a partially dismantled state. It’s midday. The citizens have a more normal and varied clothing palette than the old Combine double-denim. In reference to a dismantled suppression field, several young children and pregnant women can be seen. Eventually the player is railroaded to Gordon’s workplace, a large governmental looking building.

 Chapter 2: Threshold

This building has mix between office complex and scientific laboratory aesthetics to it. Gordon is directed by linear level design and some characters giving directions to where Gordon needs to go. If the player wants to go off the path a little they can meet and speak to Kleiner and Magnusson. They can also catch a world map, with the Foundation in East Europe and the Empire around the Great Lakes. The level however progresses when Gordon meets with Colette Green and Gina Gross, Gordon’s lesbian scientist friends. Like in Anomalous Materials Gordon is clearly about to get up to some work that he’d know but the player isn’t privy too.

Colette and Gina show Gordon to the HEV Mark VI. This new model has been upgraded with Combine technology and takes a few visual cues from the Combine Elite model in the helmet (yes, they have fucking helmets). It has gravity guns built into its hands! After donning the suit, the women lead Gordon to a teleportation room. As the women sets up the teleport, Barney comes in and speaks to them. He warns them that there’s been a spike in aggression from the Empire, as they blame the Foundation for a series of attacks on their facilities. The women assure him they’ll be careful.

They are teleported to a large Combine structure out in the Wasteland. It resembles the Beta Air Exchange for no reason other than mythology gag. It’s late afternoon. It’s made evident that Gordon is here to help harvest Combine technology from it. As Gina sets up some machinery (a teleporter to take them back) Colette and Gordon head into the structure. Colette helps the player learn some sort of new puzzle (I don’t know what kind. I’m a writer, not a video game dev.)

Gordon is eventually left on his own while Colette and Gina flirt keep talking over radio. Before the player gets bored the structure is attacked in a cinematographically spectacular way, by Hunter-Choppers like in HL2 but they’re stamped with a logo of the Earth. Colette and Gina tell him to flee back to the teleport. They manage to get away, but before Gordon can get through the teleporter is destroyed. Fortunately, the environment around it has a nice linear looking structure that allows Gordon to flee to safety into the next level.

 Chapter 3: Breakdown

The environment over the next two levels is semi-alpine woodland, much like the Outlands in Episode 2. Gordon loses the Hunter-Choppers and finds an abandoned shack, with a few zombies and headcrabs. This is basically a little tutorial in fighting. Gordon has to throw physics objects at them, and soon finds a crowbar to help. After passing the shack, Gordon is railroaded to a structure in the distance. There are a few zombies in the way. In another building, a more intact and unabandoned structure, he meets “General” Odessa Cubbage who has been seriously wounded. He reveals that the Empire has launched a full-scale attack on the Foundation. As he climbs onto a table with a medkit, he gives Gordon his pistol and apologises for not having anything bigger.

It is sunset. Gordon goes out to fight Imperial troops directly now. Their design is reminiscent of the metrocops. At first he is harassed by their mechanical units; they still make use of manhacks. Very soon he is able to get his hands on the SMG and begin fighting in earnest. Although mostly against their soldiers and lesser robots, in the distance he can see APCs and even larger tanks in battle in out-of-bounds areas. He sees only a few Foundation troops, hauled up and having difficulty against the Imperial forces. There are also sporadic headcrabs and zombies having fun amongst the battle.

Soon Gordon meets up with the Foundation’s counterattack. Large robots that resemble Dog but more professionally built show up and begin hurling APCs off cliffs. A character, revealed to be Winston, the wounded Marine from HL2, explains to Gordon that they’re trying to push back and destroy the Imperial beachhead. Alongside the Foundation forces, Gordon moves through the battlefield. It becomes apparent both sides make use of teleportation; the Foundation making use of more Black Mesa style portals and the Empire sending troops through Aperture style portals.

They make their way to an old building the Empire has appropriated. While not the Imperial landing point, it’s being used as a rallying point so Gordon and Foundationers besiege it and clean it of Imperial troops. There are a few turrets, not of the Combine design but the Aperture design. A soldier reveals that the way to the Imperial beachhead is patrolled by many more tanks and helicopters. Fortunately, the base they just captured has an unmanned tank that was in the middle of maintenance. Gordon takes it for himself.

 Chapter 4: Imperial Entanglements

It is night. The player is treated to a nice vehicle level. The tank is quick, resilient, and its cannon makes things go boom! It’s not invulnerable like previous HL vehicle levels. It has a regenerating shield that serves as hitpoints. Gordon moves through a winding canyon up against Imperial APCs, other tanks, and at least a pair of helicopters. At the end of the canyon, the Empire springs some sort of trap that forces Gordon out of the tank. He has to continue on foot.

He’s moved some distance ahead of his fellow Foundationers, but the pressure (and player impatience) forces him to move on without them. The Imperial beachhead is an old bunker built into a mountain, already fortified. Gordon manages thanks to linear game design to sneak his way inside. The bunker has a similar architecture to the White Forest base, but influences of Imperial occupation evident. There are Aperture style turrets guarding the corridors, and their supply crates resemble weighted storage cubes. The Empire is also fielding robotic soldiers that resemble Atlas and P-Body’s earlier concept art.

Gordon wrecks shit up, but it unfortunately captured in a tractor beam that resembles an Aperture excursion funnel. He is surrounded by soldiers and is confronted by a man they refer to as and resembles the Beta concept art of the Consul. He gives a brief angry speech about Gordon ruining their plan for conquering the Foundation, and blames the Foundation for attacks on Imperial soil. He sentences Gordon to death. He mentions that many Imperial citizens view Gordon as hero against the Combine, so he opts for a quick and bodiless execution there. They open a pair of Aperture portals on two pistons either side of Gordon and smoosh him between them, expecting him to be dumped out of existence.

 Chapter 5: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Instead of killing him, the Portal smoosh dumps Gordon in Xen. Not a bad form of execution assuming the victim doesn’t have a HEV suit. Gordon however survives to wander the realm of Xen to find a way back. Xen resembles to it depiction in Blue Shift. Pinkish-grey landmasses amongst the yellow-blue sky of clouds spreading out forever, and it all takes place on a single Xen continent rather than an island. He encounters a few different biomes moving across Xen (I’m 100% sure what kinds but they should be distinct from Black Mesa’s). This level serves as the equivalent of We Don’t Go to Ravenholm or Residue Processing; it’s a break from the action as Gordon traverses out-of-context terrain.

The enemy for these levels is purely the Xen wildlife. There is no Empire here. There are also plenty of puzzles for Gordon to solve, like the traps in Ravenholm or the conveyor maze in Residue Processing. About halfway through this level Gordon encounters a wandering Vortigaunt, who offers to help Gordon back to Earth. We’re treated to a few maps reminiscent of the tour of the Antlion caves in Episode 2, what with the Vortigaunt companion and all. They arrive at a distinctly manufactured complex, resembling a mix between the Nihilanth’s old factories and human architecture. It’s revealed that this is a Foundation colony, and generally implied that the Vortigaunt works there for the Foundation. The Vort gets a teleporter up and running and says it will take Gordon “where he needs to be.” Gordon takes the teleport.

 Chapter 6: The Right Man

The teleport dumps Gordon right in the middle of a Combine facility, manned by surviving Combine soldiers. Gordon has to quickly fight his way out, heavily disrupting the facility. As escapes, he discovered himself in the middle of a wasteland. Hunter-choppers, stamped with the Imperial insignia, begin assaulting the facility but don’t notice Gordon. Gordon climbs to higher ground and is given a better look at the facility. If the player is smart, they can work out that this is a giant teleporter “plug” that drains water from Earth. Since the ocean wasn’t completely drained in HL2, it can be assumed this facility is in a large lake. It’s implied the Combine there were trying to open another portal to summon reinforcements.

Gordon is in a wasteland. It resembles the old beta concepts for the wasteland. The area is craggy and sandy and has winding canyons that maintain linear level design. It is day, with a small set of dark clouds off in the distance in the skybox. The main enemy is Xen wildlife, especially Antlions which roam the area. A hunter-chopper patrols ahead and gets sight of Gordon. Instead of trying to gun him down, it creates portals from which stronger and stronger Imperial forces try to kill him. Attempting to enter a portal lands Gordon in a barracks type room with no way to escape, forcing him back. Gordon is made to travel some distance though this chapter, emphasised by the maps generally all taking him in a relatively straight line. He follows the path of a railway set above the wasteland floor, apparently built during the Combine era. He has to brave Antlion tunnels on a few occasions too.

In the distance Gordon sees a structure. With nowhere else to go, Gordon “decides” (map design forces him towards) to check it out. As Gordon gets close, terrible explosions erupt from within. It’s identifiable as an Imperial structure at this distance. Entering through a breach in its walls, Gordon briefly sees a battle between Imperial forces and a mysterious dark figure. If the player looks closely, they can see the G-Man watching too. The figure escapes on a train. Gordon has to face off against the remaining Imperial forces and then has a boss fight of sorts with that helicopter that’s been chasing him. After shooting down the helicopter another train arrives. It’s made obvious to the player somehow that they’re meant to enter the train.

 Chapter 7: The Wrong Place

The train segment is composed of two segments. At first Gordon fights through corridors on the train against the Imperials. The second he’s on an open segment with several turrets he can man to defend himself against attempts to stop him. This entire segment should play out like that really fun train level in Crysis: Warhead (the pinnacle of non-Half-Life gaming). On the path ahead, tanks, hunter-choppers, and other armed trains try to stop Gordon.

The environment starts out as more wasteland, before moving through a tunnel for some time, during which the soldiers from the other half of the train try to get Gordon off the train. When the train emerges, it is in a forest. A different style of forest to the Outlands; it’s a midwestern style forest that’s clearly dying. There’s a bit more of the train side shooting before it comes to a stop via violent derailment. Freeman is plunged into an almost dried up river and ends up on its shore. It’s still midday, but the dark clouds now take up half of the sky.

Gordon pushes onwards, following the trail of the railway. He finds himself around a small suburban town covered in collapsing slum-like constructions, entirely infested with zombies. They all seem to be moving somewhere before seeing Gordon. As he moves past the town, he goes through a much thicker area of trees before emerging at the wall. The wall is enormous and surrounds a city. It resembles old earth architecture enhanced by Combine fortifications enhanced further still by modern human architecture. It is manned by Imperial troops and is fending off a large-scale zombie attack. Gordon slips his way inside, and once caught engages in battle with the Imperial forces. He witnesses the mysterious figure from before fighting Imperials themselves, and again the G-Man is watching them. During the battle, a walkway collapses and Gordon plummets and is knocked unconscious.

 Chapter 8: Chirality

Gordon awakens in a prison, stripped of weapons and HEV armour. Outside his cell are a few cops who seem, at best, bored. They have very different designs from the old metrocops; they resemble modern riot police instead. Before long there’s a knock at the door, and a rebel and Vortigaunt pair kill the cops. The rebel reveals herself to be Noriko from HL2, and frees Gordon. They explain he is in the Imperial capital, New Rome, and that his suit has been taken to a special testing facility. They give Gordon civilian clothes (nothing more than a pickup that does nothing), take him outside and point out the facility in the skyline. The storm has now covered the entire sky, giving the city that dark beta City 17 atmosphere. Noriko and the Vortigaunt (implied to be the same one from the Xen level) apologise that they can’t help Gordon get the suit but they’re known to the Empire and have to go hide.

Gordon, weaponless and suitless, is treated to a second “Welcome to City 17” level. The Imperial city is much more like the original Point Insertion. There are checkpoints and cops and scanners everywhere. Differing from City 17 is the fact the Empire makes an effort to keep its people happy. Propaganda is less vague and explicity comments on the hardships citizens face by scapegoating Vortigaunts and other aliens. There is a military parade showing off the big guns to the citizens, being played up as defending against further alien invasions. There are Vorti-cells torturing and siphoning trapped Vortigaunts for energy. As Gordon walks past all this, the police begin stirring as they learn that there’s an escaped prisoner. Gordon makes his way to the Imperial testing facility and sneaks in. The next sequence is a mix of stealth and puzzles to get to the HEV suit.

By the time Gordon is reacquainted with the suit, his presence has alerted the guards. Police and soldiers try to stop him, and Gordon has to flee the building and have a brief Route Canal type flight from them. He gets his weapons back from dead enemies pretty quickly as he flees. Instead of escaping the city Gordon ends up in a factory dedicated to arms manufactury. Citizens are fleeing and soldiers and cops intervening. The factory is being assaulted by the mysterious figure again. This time they notice Gordon back. They take off their mask and reveal themselves to be Alyx Vance. Her suit resembles a futuristic version of the leather suit Gordon was going to wear in the earliest drafts of HL2. It’s not sexy in the slightest; it looks like a black straitjacket to emphasise Alyx’s enslavement to the G-Man. Their reunion is cut short as more Imperials try and flush them out. The pair are separated, and Gordon is forced to flee underground.

 Chapter 9: Unconscionable Ethics

Heading deeper into the underground, Gordon accidentally finds himself in some sort of maintenance area, and continuing from there, finds himself in an Aperture Science Laboratory. It resembles the office areas from Portal 1. It isn’t long before Gordon is noticed by the vast surveillance network of the facility. A voice over a pervasive PA directs lethal military androids and all sorts of other mechanical Imperial units. Fleeing from them, Gordon makes his way to the bottom of the facility, finding a sealed off wing. Gordon finds himself in an enrichment shaft and plummets to the bottom.

The enrichment shaft not as deep as the ones in the Portal 2 complex (hinting just slightly that it’s a different Aperture facility). It still has the same design as the Portal 2 complex, though neither the sphere nor the shaft is flooded by goo. They’re infested with Antlions instead 😊. Making his way back up, Gordon encounters a strange little machine plugged into a power source. It claimed to be Cave Johnson, founder and CEO of Aperture Science, uploaded into an AI machine. His life is torture and craves death and asks to be unplugged and hurled into the abyss. Before Gordon can fulfil this wish, more Lethal Military Androids attack Gordon. Johnson is now curious and wants to find out what’s going on and asks to be plugged into Gordon’s suit. He becomes a pickup then and accompanies the player for the rest of the game.

Gordon re-enters the active Aperture complex while Johnson lists to him what sort of Aperture equipment he should pick up and various ways they could backfire and kill them. Gordon retrieves none of those as he is captured quickly and locked in a sealed chamber, like Chell is at the start of Portal 1. The Consul reappears and has some sort of gloating speech. Important note about the Consul: he’s meant to be a foil to Breen. Breen was a practically powerless figurehead for the Combine but had a pretty deep understand of what was happening what with the Combine and the G-Man and all that. The Consul, in command of the Empire, is the most powerful man on Earth, but has no understanding of anything outside of the range of his guns. Anyway, the Consul leaves Gordon’s fate to that voice on the PA, revealed to be an Aperture Science Personality Core named Octavian, ordering that he be killed in the test chambers.

Octavian briefly runs through what test chambers are available, while Johnson assures Gordon he’ll give him the hints to get through the test. Octavian mentions portal gun tests, gel gun tests, camera tests, and time-machine tests (references to Portal, Aperture Tag, F-Stop, and Thinking with Time Machine) but Gordon lacks the necessary equipment to run any of those tests. What Gordon does have are guns, so Octavian puts him on a live-fire course for military androids. There, Gordon is pitted against all the robotic units of the Empire, including a few he hasn’t seen before.

Before the player can get bored, they’re offered a way out. A pried open piece of wall, similar to a Ratman den, lets the player back into the maintenance section. It plays out like a briefer version of the chase at the end of Portal. Gordon ends up in Octavian’s chamber. Octavian is strapped into a chassis, similar but distinct to the GLaDOS one, strapped with guns and flamethrowers. A boss battle plays out, far more direct that the puzzle bosses of Portal. Octavian’s chamber is at the top of the facility, and as it falls apart from battle damage, Gordon is let loose back into the city.

 Chapter 10: Hunt Down The Vance

There are alarms going off, helicopters flying overhead, and smoke rising in the distance. It is night and the storm has cleared. Everything should look wet like it’s been raining heavily in Gordon’s absence. Gordon pursues the rising smoke, and meets up again with Noriko, who reveals Alyx is leading an uprising against the Empire. The scale of things imply that the uprising is small and lacking the popular support of Imperial citizens. It is in fact mostly composed of Vortigaunts freed from Vorti-cells. The player is told they need to find a meet Alyx again.

Fighting towards the citadel, much like the ending of HL2, Gordon goes up against the full strength of the Empire, more or less. The tone of this level should be that the real action is centred around Alyx, and that Gordon is following in her wake only facing the Imperials attempting to flank her. Gordon is aided by stray rebels and Vortigaunts, though there are few of them. At some point, while under attack by lethal military androids, Gordon would come across a computer outpost, and Cave Johnson would ask to be plugged in. Hacking into their systems, he manages to turn the Aperture robots against the Empire, at least for the time being.

Eventually Gordon reaches the citadel. Alyx is already inside by more subtle means, but Gordon is forced to fight his way in through the front gate, aided by the revolting military androids. After some sort of boss battle that I haven’t thought of ensures, and Gordon makes his way in.

 Chapter 11: Veni Vidi Vici

The Imperial Citadel is very different from the one Gordon assaulted in HL2. While the base Combine architecture is still there, the Empire has added their own architecture into it, giving it a more human feel. There are blatant offices and barracks built into it, giving it the sense that a human Empire is actually run from the Citadel rather than it being a giant factory with a figurehead’s office on top. Combat in this citadel is very vertical, like the Lost Coast cliff but with manufactured walkways. There are also a lot of Aperture Science technologies being used that make it feel like Portal 2.

In a few breaks from combat Gordon can see a few snippets of how the Empire’s citadel runs. It still operates as an enormous factory, with hunter-choppers and tanks being churned out of production lines. There are Combine soldiers taken prisoner being led to production lines to be converted into synths (okay, I didn’t mention this before since I was focusing on story rather than individual enemies but the Empire fields synths. Not the old Combine kind, but new human-based synths we see being made here.) Cave Johnson suggests he get plugged in to hack into the system but panics and asks to be taken out; the Empire has learned of his computerised presence and has improved their firewalls.

Eventually Gordon is captured, yet again. He is taken before a large chamber of figures revealed to be the Senate of the Empire, led by the Consul. While the Consul wears his smart black suit, the senators are all in anachronistic robes. There’s a flamboyantly over-the-top dressed woman who is apparently the “Empress” serving as a head-of-state to the Consul’s head-of-government. With one look at the senate the player should cease seeing the Empire as a serious geopolitical entity and realise that it’s just the power-fantasy for a bunch of freaks with superiority-complexes. The Consul puts on a brief show trial for Gordon, but before the player gets bored Imperial troops arrive to evacuate the senate.

Alyx crashes into the senate chamber and frees Gordon. Once the guards are dealt with, the pair are finally reunited properly. Alyx reveals she has been constantly fighting for a long time. She hasn’t had a proper rest beyond sporadic food, drink, and lavatory breaks since the G-Man whisked her away. Apparently, Earth’s success against the Combine has inspired other slave worlds to begin fighting against the universal union. She warns that the Combine hasn’t forgotten about Earth, and if the Empire tries to go ahead with its plan of interdimensional conquest (I haven’t mentioned that in this document, but yes, it should be made clear through the game the Empire dreams of becoming a universe crossing empire like the Combine, but human-centric) then the Combine will be back within seconds.

 Chapter 12: Critical Point

Alyx takes Gordon in an elevator down to the depths of the Citadel. There, at the very bottom, the Empire has been gathering its forces. A vast hanger off all sorts of combat vehicles, mech-suits, and robotic units (they’ve gotten them back under control now) all ready to be deployed. Alyx has been in the Empire for a week (it should really be obvious by now she was one behind the attacks the Empire blamed on the Foundation) and has learned they intend to start their conquest imminently. She hopes that her rampage has given them pause in launching it but wishes to dismantle their launching point anyway. The pair are captured again one last time. Cave Johnson spots the machinery they intend to open a portal with and identifies it as the same kind used by Aperture Science in the Perpetual Testing Initiative.

The Consul gloats that they shall be witness to the beginning of Earth’s expansion into the cosmos. Alyx pleas with him not to proceed and explains the Combine situation. The Consul assures her that they’ve planned well in advance, and that their target destination is not in the Combine’s sphere of influence (possibly imply he’s targeting Race-X? I don’t know). Cave Johnson mentions the Combine are familiar with the Perpetual Testing Initiative Device and would be able to track it.

As predicted, as soon as a portal is opened the Imperial armada is ripped to shreds. The Combine (their insignia’s clearly visible) deploy the largest synth seen in the series yet; a set of what can only be described as tentacles crossed with centipedes with drills on the ends. It rampages in the hangar knocks Alyx and Gordon free. As synths pour through the portal and engage the Empire (the player can start shooting if they like), Alyx says they must shut down the portal. Johnson points out that the PTI device has been ruined in the synth attack; they’ll have to close it using the Combine’s equipment on the other side. They charge against the synths and make their way into the Combine Overworld.

This is the same place glimpsed through the Portal at the end of HL2. They are standing inside another citadel’s hangar, where the full body of the centipede-tentacle synth is being deployed. There is a console where Cave Johnson can be plugged in. Given the alien operating system, it takes him several moments to get any control of the system. It takes about as much time as, say, a boss fight with the giant synth. As it dies, Alyx spots more flying synths of gargantuan nature heading towards them. Cave says that he’ll close the portal as soon as they cross it. He assures Gordon he’s okay to stay in the Overworld; that living inside the Combine’s circuitry hiding from their anti-virus programs would either give him the death he asked for when he met Gordon or give him a life of excitement worth living. Gordon and Alyx return through the portal.

The hangar appears lifeless, until a wounded and furious Consul appears, blaming Gordon for everything has happened, accusing him of consorting with the Combine. He climbs into a surviving mechsuit, and the final boss fight begins (Yes, a fucking mech suit. Blame Wolfenstein; I’m a slut for it). A mechsuit is inherently less impressive than a giant centipede octopus, so this fight has to be tricker and more satisfying that one (How? I don’t know. I’m writer, not a game dev).

Once defeated, the Consul tries to self-destruct and take Gordon and Alyx with him. As the explosion goes off, time stops. The ending of HL2 happens in reverse. It is Gordon that’s frozen (emphasised by hands held rigid in the air or something), while Alyx keeps moving. The G-Man shows up and congratulates Alyx on her latest success, blah blah, and they disappear as he keeps rambling. Gordon is held in front of a frozen explosion for a few more seconds before purple Vortigaunts begin appearing and rescue Gordon. Fade to black, and credits roll.

[liquidink21]

Half-Life 4

I might have made this post before. I don’t think so, but if I have... whatever.

How would the Half-Life story progress after the Borealis is destroyed, Alyx is whisked away by the G-Man and Gordon taken by the Vortigaunts?

I don’t believe the world and characters built up during Half-Life 2 and its Episodes would just be abandoned. HL4 should be set in the same world, in the aftermath of the Combine Occupation, focusing on where Humanity goes next. Set perhaps another decade into the future, enough for the uprising to have gone global and destroyed the Combine, and for some reasonable rebuilding to have been done.

Gordon isn’t dumped here at the beginning the game. He’s been helping rebuild humanity with the Resistance. Since overthrowing the Combine humanity has been divided into a series of walled off city states across the world. Two (plot relevant) powers spring up to begin unifying humanity. The Foundation in Europe, borne from the former resistance; and the Earth Empire in North America, founded by metrocops that turned against the Combine. The plot of HL4 focuses on the conflict between these two powers.

I suppose there could be a less melodramatic name for the Earth Empire, but I’m not thinking of one right now. I’m think they take on a Roman Empire kind of rhetoric and symbolism in their propaganda.

Dealing with the Earth Empire gives a far less alien and more human antagonist than the previous games. With their futuristic technology scavenged from Combine and Aperture Science vaults, they are more alien than the HECU though. Thematically they should come across as a mix between between Civil Protection and the OP Black Ops.

Many aspects of the Empire would be drawn from beta concepts from both Half-Life games. They would be led by a charismatic man known as the Consul, and is creating new Synths based on humans. They would have the gothic feel of the early HL2 story. Vortigaunts are imprisoned and used as generators, as the Empire is based on the concept of human chauvinism in the aftermath of so much alien devastation. They intend to become an interdimensional power like the Combine or the Nihilanth, starting with the conquest of Xen.

This would put the 4 HL games in an alternating theme:

Sci-Fi Horror

Sci-Fi Dystopia

Sci-Fi Horror

Sci-Fi Dystopia

As usual, other enemies would also be around to boost enemy variety. The headcrab zombies are still prowling, having boosted their numbers during the uprising; the Antlion hives are continuing to spread, preventing human expansion outside the cities; and remaining Combine units sulk around the wasteland awaiting reinforcements that (hopefully) will never come. Also a few other stray Xen wildlife. Barnacles are a must.

Kicking off the plot is a sharp rise in tension between the Empire and the Foundation, after a series of mysterious attacks on Imperial installations on which the Empire blames the Foundation, and fighting has flared up. Gordon is drawn into this conflict, though I’m not sure if he should willingly suits up and teleport over, or if he’s forced into fighting through circumstance. His new suit is a Mark VI, built by Gina Cross (who is alive and serving the Foundation). The Mark VI can do some mobility mod shenanigans and has the gravity gun built into its hands.

Unlike my super long detailed plot for Half-Life 3, I don’t have a fun idea of what happens in HL4, but I have a few key positions. There is a battlefield level featuring fighting between the two factions, and also features Gina Cross and Colette Green in their own HEV suits. There should a point where you are stripped of weapons and made to enter an Imperial city in the same way as you first entered City 17. Maybe a Xen level or two. I think it’s important that the Consul is met and allowed to babble at you several times throughout the game.

At some stage you’re dumped down one of the Aperture Science Vaults that the Empire is raiding for technology. Down there you meet Cave Johnson crammed into an AI Box, like in that cut Portal 2 scene. Instead of killing him, Gordon plugs him into the HEV suit and he gets to join him on his adventures. Cave Johnson comments frequently on the situation, and gives some shocking reveals on Aperture Science being aware of the Combine well before the invasion, and trying to take their technology without triggering an invasion. Which Black Mesa managed anyway.

The Empire makes extensive use of Aperture Portal Devices, far more advanced than just the handheld version, to move around. They also bolster their military ranks with Lethal Military Androids and Manhacks. They also use Hard Light bridges and most of the other serious technology found within Aperture.

The attacks on the Empire that precipitate the plot are eventually revealed to be the work of Alyx Vance, unleashed upon the Empire by the G-Man. She is reunited with Gordon for the rest of the game once they meet, but is whisked away at the end.

As for what the actual climax is, I’m not entirely sure. They’d be an actual boss fight, at the very least. Preferably against something very big and robotic. What actually happens I haven’t thought. The Empire is defeated, or at least significantly set back. Is the Consul killed? Is there an Aperture AI uprising against the Empire? The Empire’s attempt to invade another universe allows the Combine to invade again? Cave Johnson should be involved somehow, otherwise there’d be less point him lugging around for half the game.

I think this is every single idea I’ve had for a fourth Half-Life. I hope somebody enjoys this!

[liquidink21]

Half-Life 3

So I’m going to write my own version of the next installment of the Half-Life series, because Epistle 3 was a disappointment, Valve’s probably not going to do it, and I don’t have much faith in Project Borealis. Even this probably won’t include everything I had ever wanted it to, and is probably poorly written, but whatever. SUPER long post under the cut.

Gordon finds himself on the stalker car of the razor train he and Alyx escaped from the Citadel on. Alyx is murmuring cryptically to herself. The stalker pods burst open, revealing not stalkers but zombies. They quickly seize Alyx, who doesn’t even defend herself as she’s mauled to death. Two zombies restrain Freeman, as a third stands in front of him, and removes its headcrab to reveal Eli Vance.

It’s just a dream. Gordon wakes up in a tent. Wind is howling outside. Alyx, alive and well, it pleased to see Gordon awake. She tells him she’s repaired the gravity gun. The storm is dying down, and they exit the tent. Outside is the wreckage of the helicopter they flew in on. Gordon tests the gravity gun on the fragments (this serves as a tutorial for players who haven’t played HL2). They’re interrupted by a hunter-chopper sweeping the area. Alyx finds Gordon a gun. They are accosted by scanners, now equipped with laser weapons (like in that leaked test map). They eventually lose them.

Alyx informs Gordon that they have to find Doctor Mossman, who they were communicating with before their helicopter crashed. She has sealed herself in an old research station, and it’s only a matter of time before the Combine breaks in to seize her. Gordon and Alyx trek across the ice, keeping to a series of gullies in the ice to try and avoid the Combine patrols alerted to their presence. They is a large Combine structure off to the distance.

Alyx and Gordon discover the research station, the same one they witnessed in Mossman’s transmission. Indeed, they enter the base through the very same breach the Combine made during that transmission. The Combine have taken the base, and must be fought through. There is a vault in the centre of the base, that the Combine are trying to breach. Gordon kills them just as they penetrate the vault, where they discover Mossman and her surviving rebel fighters.

A brief scene occurs between Alyx and Judith. Judith receives word of Eli’s death for the first time, distressing her. Alyx is cautiously sympathetic, but quickly maneuvers the conversation towards wanting a explanation for Judith’s collaboration with Doctor Breen. Judith insists that Eli sent her as a double agent to spy on Breen. Her rebel associates vouch for her, claiming that Eli himself confirmed this to them. Alyx’s faith in Judith is restored, and they make plans to find the Borealis.

Alyx asks what terrible power the Borealis has that her father was so worried about. Judith comments that they’re a bit spoiled for choice: teleportation, time travel, dimensional transcendence... she explains that the Borealis became a test bed for Aperture Science’s most outlandish technologies, and inadvertantly became a space-time dreadnought. If the Combine, or any other nefarious organisation, seizes the Borealis, nothing could possibly stop them.

Mossman begins leading them back through the arctic wastes, to an entrance in the rocks. She explains that it leads underneath the Combine’s research installation. The ice encrusted caves turn out to be infested with headcrabs and zombies. The zombies are curiously outfitted in body-armour in reasonable condition. Alyx speculates that the Combine purposefully infested the caves with captured zombies to guard them without wasting troops. Alyx notices that they’re consistently moving downwards, though Mossman advises them to trust her.

Moving through the ice caves, the ice begins shattering, and several advisors burst into the cave. They rip through the rebels and begin sucking their brains out. One moves onto Gordon... It turns out to be a hallucination. Alyx and Mossman question Gordon’s mental health, but don’t linger on the topic.

The rebels reach the end of the caves, at the bottom of an enormous crevasse, from there, they begin scaling a series of Combine build ramps and elevators (this is where this scene comes from). Combine troops try and stop them, but are defeated. Advisors floating overhead begin to restrain the rebels with telekinesis, but Mossman manages to kill one with a laser weapon (the same one from the leaked test map). The other Advisors flee. Mossman explains that she took the weapon from the Citadel before she and Eli escaped.

They find their way up to the top of the crevasse, which is within the Combine fortress. They discover they are too late: the Combine has already seized the Borealis, tethered it to the installation, and are beginning to load it with Combine troops and supplies. The fact that the Borealis is bigger on the inside becomes apparent from the bulk of materiel being loaded. Alyx thinks they’re preparing to invade somewhere, Mossman thinks they’re just fortifiying it to prevent the Resistance from taking it.

In addition to the materiel being loaded aboard the Borealis, the Combine installation is heavily guarded. The incoming resistance back-up will be torn to shreds unless Gordon can soften them up. The team finds a control room in the installation, and after killing off the Combine stationed there, Alyx uses it to get a message to Barney, who leads the reinforcements, and warns him of the Combine fortifications.

Mossman wants to sneak aboard the Borealis and see if they can turn any defences against the Combine. Alyx contrarily wants Gordon to take out their weapons depot to take out the Combine Garrison. They split up to cover both options.

Gordon fights his way down to the weapon’s depot. On the way, he is assaulted by more hallucinations: Alyx and Judith shot on the Borealis, Barney’s helicopter shot down, and Kleiner and Magnusson executed back in sector 17. If it wasn’t already, it should be obvious by now that the Advisors are causing the hallucinations. One attacks Gordon, and it becomes a cat and mouse chase throughout the level. Alyx and Mossman keep in touch over the radio, informing him of their progress. On his way, Mossman asks Gordon to sabotage the Combine tethering system, preventing them from disengaging the Borealis.Gordon does so.

Gordon reaches the weapons depot and sets up explosives to cause a chain reaction with the Combine munitions. It becomes a puzzle boss with the Advisor, which is killed when the explosives are detonated. The explosion successfully takes out many Combine troops and synths. A shipment of headcrab shells survive the explosion, but are triggered by the shockwave, unleashing the crabs upon the Combine.

Gordon is hit by another hallucination. He is brought into a black void like those the G-Man drags him into, but it’s the Advisors who have brought him here. They communicate with him through a hallucinated figure (different each playthrough. Usually Breen, but potentially any named character in the HL series, excluding the G-Man but including Cave Johnson). They don’t understand why humanity fights the Combine. They believe the offer of Combine membership to be a beneficial deal all around, and they offer Gordon a position as Earth’s Administrator.

Gordon is snapped out of the hallucination by Barney, who has arrived with the resistance reinforcements. He informs Gordon that they wanted more reinforcements, but makes a foreshadowy remark that what’s left of civil protection is harassing the evacuated citizens back home, so they couldn’t spare many fighter for this mission.

What they have are now besieging the installation, and Barney tasks Gordon with leading the push to take the Borealis from the Combine. Hallucinations plague Gordon as he partakes in the three way battle between resistance, Combine, and zombies. Gordon sees glimpses of HECU and Xenian grunts massacring scientists. Eventually he makes his way to the Borealis and resistance troops are able to board it.

Barney and a few rebels, including Vortigaunts, are pinned down by Hunters, and Gordon has to rescue him. Barney unfortunately destroys the tethers holding the Borealis in place, mistaking their purpose as nefarious. Mossman warns that the Combine are preparing to teleport the Borealis out of the Arctic, and urges Gordon and Barney board immediately. The Borealis flickers in and out of reality. Alyx is on the deck awaiting for them. She has a Aperture Science portal gun slung over her shoulder which she uses throughout the rest of the game. She justifies not giving it to Gordon since he already has the gravity gun. The rebels are able to board with Alyx’s help, but in the shock of the Borealis making its jump, Gordon, Barney, Alyx, and the Vortigaunts are thrown off.

They land in Xen. Alyx is mystified by its beauty, but Barney remembers this place as a hellscape and wants to leave. Mossman is able to reach them by the radio. The Borealis is also in Xen. The Combine still control the ship and have used its self-altering interior to seal off the resistance fighters. She urges Gordon to return before the Combine manages to clean them out. The Vortigaunts claim they can track The Mossman and the Borealis with her.

Xen at first is a bit of a nostalgia trip. Houndeyes and bullsquid are present, along with headcrabs and antlions. Maybe some new alien wildlife too, like something the headcrabs can turn into zombies in the absence of humans, or something. After a brief trek through the Xen island, the team discover a Combine outpost, only very recently set up and manned by transhuman units. Off in the distance they can see dropships moving materials and troops across Xen. Mossman explains that if the Combine take control of the borderworld, not only will they make great leaps in their conspicuously poor teleporter technology, but their ability to conquer new universes will increase tenfold.

As if on cue, the far away Borealis fires an enormous beam of energy, big enough for the team to see, that tears a portal (conspicuously resembling one of the Portal portals) and an enormous Combine ship pulls through. Comments from Alyx and Barney confirm that this ship is the same kind of ship the Combine used in the Seven Hour War. If it attacks Earth, nothing could stop it, but fortunately it appears to be focusing its conquest on Xen. It remains visible in the sky for the rest of the Xen levels. Since this was once home to the Vortigaunts, Alyx asks them if they know of anything there that could help them.

The Vortigaunt suggest if they discover what’s left of the Nihilanth’s factories, there might be enough of its army left to launch an attack on the Combine. They split the team up; one Vort takes Barney and Alyx to find teleportation facilities, while the other takes Gordon to find the Mines.

Xen continues to feature fighting the malevolent wildlife, but there is an increasing density of Combine troops, including new varieties of synth. Gordon has to contend with their lair of a Gonarch (either a standard, fast, or poison, randomly chosen every playthrough). Antlions become more frequent, and the Vort provides Gordon with bugbait that stays with him throughout the Xen levels. This helps him in ammo starved levels. As the levels go on, Gordon witnesses the Combine purging the Xen wildlife and setting up devices over Xen crystals. Meanwhile, Alyx keep giving Gordon updates on their progress. She and Barney have about as much trouble as Gordon.

Hallucinations continue plaguing Gordon, including being teleported into the Nihilanth’s chamber and killed. He in fact visits the Nihilanth’s chamber, ruined and disused, and the passing is uneventful. Eventually they reach the Mines. They have fallen into significant disrepair in the last twenty years, literally rotting thanks to their organic nature, though the Vortigaunt remains hopeful that there’s enough left to revive an army.

They are attacked by an Advisor, and this quickly becomes a boss battle. The Vortigaunt cannot harm it, and rushes to summon assistance. Gordon is left with a “hold the line” bossfight. The Advisor is still invulnerable, sporting a psionic shield. Instead, Gordon has to contend with hallucinations resembling Black Mesa Security teams, while the Advisor continues to question Gordon’s resistance and extol the virtues of the Combine. Both Vortigaunts arrive, in their empowered purple state, and slay the Advisor. Also, Barney and Alyx arrive to witness this.

Still glowing with the Vortessence, the Vortigaunts send vortal energies through the Mines. The structure is not revived, but several abandoned barrels burst open to reveal Xenian grunts, and even some Gargantuas. For a moment it looks like they’re hostile, but turn out to obey the Vortigaunts.

The Vortigaunts lead the team and the newly awakened army to the teleportation facilities Alyx and Barney managed to secure. It’s an outdoor location, and in the sky they can see numerous revived manta rays heading towards the Combine carrier. Xenian grunts and gargantuas are teleported over as an advanced party (the manta rays supplying the other side of the portals) before Gordon, Alyx and Barney make the jump themselves. They finds themselves in a breach of the carrier’s hull in the wake of a massacre.

Mossman advises that Freeman try to find the carrier’s core and attempt to overload it. He and Alyx join the Xen forces in their battle against the increasingly alien Combine forces (there are barely any transhuman troops present) towards where Mossman guides him using a Combine terminal she’s seized. One of the Xen islands cashes into the carrier, and unleashes antlions for Freeman to command.

There are hallucinations here as well. When Gordon enters the reactor core, he instead sees himself in the test chamber, pushing the sample into the anti-mass spectrometer while Advisors cheer him on in their haunting alien language. The hallucination fades into the real control room. It’s design is significantly different from the Citadel reactor, because we want an entirely new experience here, don’t we? There is also a real Advisor and another bossfight with it. It has to be killed by punching dark energy spheres into it with the gravity gun. Freeman is able to overload the core with Alyx’s directions and set it for a meltdown. As the pair leave, Xenian grunts seal off the reactor chamber to prevent the Combine from fixing it.

Alyx has discovered a quick route for Gordon to return to the Borealis. The Combine carrier operates an internal tram system that brings him to the hangar that the Borealis is being kept in. The carrier begins rumbling and a few power systems begin exploding. Mossman tells Gordon that he needs to disengage the tethering system so the Borealis can escape. The Combine were going to do it themselves, but were killed.

Mossman warns she managed to activate the Borealis’ defences; a compliment of mobile turrests and lethal military androids. They’ve fought the Combine aboard the Borealis, and have also begun leaving the ship to fight the Combine on the carrier, and unfortunately have been programmed to kill everything. None of the resistance fighters have been harmed, but the Aperture androids cause Gordon and Alyx severe pain as they disengage the tethers.

This time Gordon and Alyx are able to board the Borealis properly, sealing themselves within the relatively normal looking bridge as it jumps. Barney is already inside. The Borealis teleports away just as the Combine carrier explodes. Gordon and Alyx enter the extended interior, which has an architecture similar to the Portal test chambers. They have to fight through a few Combine and lethal military androids until they meet back up with Mossman and the others.

They are unsure what the Combine is planning next, so they have make a straight up assault on the control room, which Mossman has located through the ship’s computers. Gordon, Alyx, and Barney lead the resistance fighters through the ever altering maze, through battling Combine and android forces, until they manage to take the control room. They discover they’re located above the City 17 train station. It’s implied the Combine wanted to kill Gordon the moment he stepped off the train, before he was armed or armoured.

Mossman tries to bring the Borealis back to the Arctic, using the time travel device to not only leave the train station, but never be there at all. She succeeds, and arrives back at the Combine installation mere seconds after it left. Outside the battle between Resistance and Combine rages on, and the Combine are gaining the upper hand. They attempt to make a push for the Borealis, prompting Barney and the resistance fighters to exit the Borealis to fight them off. Mossman, with control over the ship’s geometry, is able to create an immediate exit for them.

Now that Mossman has safely landed the Borealis in the Arctic, the inevitable argument begins. Alyx wants the ship destroyed, as her father wanted. Moss argues that the power of the Borealis is enough to ensure humanity’s survival against the Combine onslaught, and indeed could even be used to prevent the Combine invasion in the first place. Alyx argues that the power cannot be controlled, and its continued existence is a risk of the Combine taking control.

The conversation is interrupted by the Borealis making a sudden jump. They realise that the Combine is in the engine room and is trying to directly control it from there. Instead, they begin jumping randomly across space and time. From the viewscreens, they witness the Black Mesa desert, the Moon, Xen, the Combine Overworld, a Race X cameo, among many more alien worlds. Gordon is sent to deal with the Combine. Mossman gives him her super-laser gun.

Despite control of the internal geometry, Mossman can’t give Gordon a short route to the engine room. The Borealis is melting into alternative versions of itself, which is causes significant changes to the internal layout. Mossman and Alyx somehow remain safe from ending up in a timeline where the Combine still control the control room. Gordon has to navigate the trippiest maze yet, backed by a squad of his own alternative selves, against a suddenly multiplied Combine force and a few evil Gordons. Hallucinations still abound: enemy forces occasionally transform into cowering scientists begging Gordon for mercy, before turning back into Combine trying to kill him.

When Gordon enters the engine room, the dimensional bleeding ceases. The Combine army is reduced, but he loses his fellow selves, and goes up alone against three Combine Advisors. He is armed with the laser gun, which can kill them, but they now have their psionic shields to be broken through. The ensuring boss fighting involves a lot of weaponised hallucinations that get worse every time an Advisor is killed. Eventually he cleans the engine room out. There are no more Combine on board. He returns to the control room, which is now just a short walk.

Alyx and Mossman have agreed to destroy the Borealis, as per Eli’s wishes. However, they disagree again on how to destroy it. Mossman sets the Borealis down back int eh Arctic so it may be dismantled. Alyx however, immediately contacts Doctor Magnusson, and asks for the contact code for the Combine Overworld she gave him back in HL2Ep2. Before Mossman or Gordon understand what is happening, Alyx lifts the Borealis into space, in a collision course for the Combine Overworld, which she believes will destroy it. Mossman argues that this is insanity, and Alyx pulls a gun her somehow thinking this disproves anything. She makes Mossman have Borealis shift about in and out of a reality and around in time again, to make sure the Combine doesn’t catch it. The engine is set on overload so it explodes when it impacts.

All of a sudden, the G-Man makes his presence known to them all. Alyx doesn’t recognise him. Mossman recognises him from Eli’s descriptions, and tries to berate him. He freezes Mossman in time. Ignoring Freeman, the G-Man congradulates Alyx on her dedication to her mission and for her ingenuity in accomplishing it. He offers her a job with her employers, and gives her the alternative of dying in the Borealis’ impact. She refuses to go with him, until he offers to take Gordon with them. As she enters his doorway, he slams it shut. Alone with Freeman, the G-Man apologises for deception, informs him that Gordon’s contract is at an end, and suggests that he considers Gordon too passive in the resistance’s decision making, before making a snide insinuation that Gordon was just Alyx’s dumb muscle. He leaves, leaving Gordon and Mossman to their fate.

Mossman, no longer frozen, informs Gordon that Aperture Science has an escape pod aboard, designed for a single jump piggybacking on the Borealis’s drive back to Earth. The pair race across the Borealis to find it. On the exterior of the ship, the overloading of the core has caused the Borealis’ larger interior to start bursting from its smaller exterior. The ship rips itself apart as they flee. Mossman reaches the escape pod and board it. Gordon almost does, but the rupturing of the ship and distortion of gravity knocks it loose. Mossman takes Gordon’s hand and tries to pull him aboard. Gordon realises he’s too heavy in will only pull Mossman back without escape, so he lets go. With no way to get back to him, Mossman saves herself.

Gordon has nowhere to go, and just wandered through what seems to be a path in the Borealis’s bursting structure (classic Half-Life railroaded environments!). He reaches the front of the ship, and witnesses the Combine Overworld. An enormous dyson sphere, which he is getting ever closer to.

The Vortigaunts, which were noticeably absent since they were last seen on Xen, return at that instance and rescue Freeman.

The End.

At the start of the game there is a gas-mask in the helicopter wreckage. If the player carries it throughout the game and throws it into the G-Man’s doorway, they get an after credits scene where Alyx gets dumped into the same Osprey as Adrian Shephard.