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==Appearances== ===''Half-Life'' series=== [[Image:Combine soldiers.png|thumb|right|Two Overwatch soldiers in ''Episode Two'', with a Hunter in the background]] According to the backstory presented during ''Half-Life 2'', the Combine appear on Earth after the death of the [[Nihilanth]], the [[Boss|boss character]] at the end of ''[[Half-Life]]''. The death of the Nihilanth, a powerful creature controlling the dimensional rip between [[Xen]] and the [[Black Mesa Research Facility]] on Earth, causes for the rip to worsen, resulting in "portal storms" which spread the hostile wildlife of Xen across Earth. The Combine manipulate this tear in the spacetime continuum, widening it to allow access to Earth from their dimension. When it is sufficiently wide, the Combine invade in force, and in the subsequent Seven Hour War quickly defeat the forces of Earth and destroy the United Nations Secretariat Building in New York City. Earth's surrender is negotiated by [[Wallace Breen]], who is then made the Combine administrator of Earth, and uses [[City 17]] as his base of operations.<ref name="BME">{{cite web|url=http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=HL2Walkthroughs.Detail&id=16&game=3|title=''Half-Life 2'' Walkthrough—Chapter 5: Black Mesa East|work=Planet Half-Life|publisher=[[IGN]]|accessdate=2008-05-26}}</ref> The Combine's first appearance in-game is in ''Half-Life 2'' as the game's primary antagonists. Through the early stages of the game, Combine Civil Protection units pursue Gordon Freeman through City 17 after he accidentally reveals his presence to Wallace Breen. Due to Freeman's actions in ''Half-Life'', Breen sees Freeman as a major threat.<ref>{{cite video game | title = [[Half-Life 2]] | developer = [[Valve Corporation]] | date = 2004| platform = [[Personal computer|PC]]| level = Water Hazard| language = English| quote='''Wallace Breen''': We now have direct confirmation of a disruptor in our midst, one who has acquired an almost messianic reputation in the minds of certain citizens. His figure is synomanous with the darkest urges of instinct, ignorance and decay; some of the worst excesses of the Black Mesa incident have been laid directly at his feet. And yet unsophisticated minds continue to embue him with romantic power, giving him such dangerous poetic labels as the one "free man", the "opener of the way".}}</ref> As Freeman escapes the city, Civil Protection units raid the resistance base of [[Black Mesa East]] and capture resistance leader [[Eli Vance]], who is transferred to holding facilities at [[Nova Prospekt]].<ref name="BME"/> Freeman and Vance's daughter [[Alyx Vance|Alyx]] fight into the facility to rescue him, but Eli Vance is teleported to the Combine Citadel by double agent [[Judith Mossman]]. However, the strike against Nova Prospekt is seen as the start of a revolution by the citizens of Earth, who take up arms against the Combine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=HL2Walkthroughs.Detail&id=33&game=3|title=''Half-Life 2'' Walkthrough—Chapter 10: Entanglement|work=Planet Half-Life|publisher=[[IGN]]|accessdate=2008-05-26}}</ref> In response, Combine Overwatch are deployed to City 17, and heavy street fighting takes place. Freeman manages to infiltrate the Citadel but is captured and taken to Breen. Mossman allows Freeman to break free of his captivity, and Breen flees to the Citadel's trans-dimensional teleporter, intent on escape. However, Freeman destroys the teleporter's reactor before Breen can escape, causing a large explosion that destroys the top of the Citadel. In ''[[Half-Life 2: Episode One|Episode One]]'', both the protagonists and antagonists of the series are attempting to adapt to the destruction of the top of the Citadel. The explosion causes the primary Citadel reactor to begin to meltdown, forcing Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance to journey back into the Citadel to temporarily stabilize it while the city's inhabitants are evacuated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=HL2Walkthroughs.Detail&id=1&game=3 |title=''Half-Life 2: Episode One'' Walkthrough—Chapter 1: Undue Alarm|work=Planet Half-Life|publisher=[[IGN]]|accessdate=2008-05-26}}</ref> The Combine, however, attempt to accelerate the meltdown to send a message to their native universe for reinforcements. After Alyx acquires an encrypted copy of the data to be sent, Overwatch forces desperately attempt to stop the pair from escaping the city, spurred on by Combine Advisors. As the pair escape on a train at the end of the game, the Citadel sends the message and detonates, destroying City 17.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=HL2Walkthroughs.Detail&id=5&game=3 |title=''Half-Life 2: Episode One'' Walkthrough—Chapter 5: Exit 17|work=Planet Half-Life|publisher=[[IGN]]|accessdate=2008-05-26}}</ref> ''[[Half-Life 2: Episode Two|Episode Two]]'' opens with Alyx and Freeman discovering that the Citadel's destruction has resulted in the formation of a super portal to the Combine dimension, which is slowly progressing to a stage where it can send overwhelming reinforcements.<ref>{{cite video game | title = [[Half-Life 2: Episode Two]] | developer = [[Valve Corporation]] | date = 2007| platform = [[Personal computer|PC]]| level = To The White Forest| language = English| quote='''Isaac Kleiner''': What you're seeing is the infancy of a superportal. If it retains full strength— / '''Eli Vance''': It will be the Seven Hour War all over again! Except this time we won't last seven minutes!}}</ref> They also discover that the data packet they retrieved from the Citadel contains codes that can be used to close the portal, and so traverse the countryside to deliver the packet to the resistance headquarters at [[White Forest]]. As they progress, it becomes evident that the Combine Advisors escaped the Citadel's destruction, and that remaining Combine forces are regrouping, albeit under occasional attacks by [[Vortigaunt]]s.<ref>{{cite video game | title = [[Half-Life 2: Episode Two]] | developer = [[Valve Corporation]] | date = 2007| platform = [[Personal computer|PC]]| level = Freeman Pontifex| language = English| quote='''Vortigaunt''': They carry ''Shu'ulathoi'': Advisors still in incubation pods. They gather and unite the scattered Combine forces.}}</ref> Aware of the resistance's plans to close the super portal, the Combine attack White Forest in force, but are repelled.<ref>{{cite video game | title = [[Half-Life 2: Episode Two]] | developer = [[Valve Corporation]] | date = 2007| platform = [[Personal computer|PC]]| level = Our Mutual Fiend| language = English| quote='''Resistance fighter''': We've counted a dozen Striders just north of us. Our job is to keep them from reaching the base to the south. If they get close enough for one good shot at the silo, the whole launch is a bust. And in case Striders aren't bad enough, recon indicates that they're being escorted by packs of Hunters.}}</ref> The super portal is destroyed after the resistance launch a satellite containing the appropriate data. However, in the game's closing scenes, two Advisors attack Freeman, Alyx and Eli Vance, and kill Eli before being driven off. ===Appearances in other media=== The use of sandbox applications like ''[[Garry's Mod]]'' have allowed for Combine [[non-player character]]s to be used in a variety of [[webcomic]]s and [[machinima]] productions. In one webcomic, ''Concerned'', the Combine are portrayed as a highly bureaucratic and often inept organization. One issue shows a Civil Protection briefing for attempting to capture the protagonist Gordon Frohman, in which officers are instructed to cluster around explosive barrels, seek cover on unstable structures and rappel down from bridges in front of fast moving vehicles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2005-10-07|title=Issue #62|work=[[Concerned|Concerned: The Half-Life and Death of Gordon Frohman]]|first=Christopher|last=Livingston|date=2005-10-07|accessdate=2008-09-19}}</ref> In another example, the machinima series ''Combine Nation'' follows Civil Protection officers in a similar style to police procedural documentaries. The officers perform their duties with various twists, such as the team's medical officer having an obsession with adhesive bandages and the legal consultant, an Overwatch soldier, favoring dramatic entries, such as throwing flashbangs, which often backfire on him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://litfusefilms.com/movies/combinenationepisode1/|title=''Combine Nation: Episode One''|publisher=Lit Fuse Films|accessdate=2008-09-19}}</ref> Other media portray the Combine with more serious overtones, such as one live-action video that parodies an interview with Tom Cruise discussing Scientology. The video, described by [[ActionTrip]] as "eerie, to say the least"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.actiontrip.com/rei/comments_news.phtml?id=090308_5|title=Tom Cruise Scientology Interview, Combine Style|publisher=[[ActionTrip]]|first=Ure|last=Paul|date=2008-09-03|accessdate=2008-10-03}}</ref> and by both [[Joystiq]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/03/the-combine-interview-puts-tom-cruise-in-new-light/|title=The Combine Interview puts Tom Cruise in new light|publisher=[[Joystiq]]|first=Justin|last=McElroy|date=2008-09-03|accessdate=2008-10-03}}</ref> and [[Kotaku]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kotaku.com/5044676/creepy-tom-cruise-interview-redone-as-creepy-half+life-2-interview|title=Creepy Tom Cruise Interview Redone As Creepy ''Half-Life 2'' Interview|publisher=[[Kotaku]]||first=Luke|last=Plunkett|date=2008-09-02|accessdate=2008-10-03}}</ref> as "creepy", instead presents an interview with a Civil Protection officer discussing the Combine's rule of Earth, adapting Cruise's words to fit the Combine theme. [[PC Gamer|''PC Gamer'' UK]] noted that "the suggestion, of course, is that Scientology's purpose or self-image in some way resembles that of the homogenenising intergalactic murdereous alien collective".<ref>{{cite journal|year=2008 |month=December |title=The Combine Tom Cruise |journal=[[PC Gamer]]|location=[[United Kingdom]]|publisher=[[Future plc]] |issue=194 |pages=p. 113}}</ref>
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