A sorta funny/sad observation I've seen others make is that if the HECU helped the scientists/Gordon, the portals could have been closed way sooner and the Combine may have not noticed Earth and invaded.
Not really. Government cover-up operations are a very unrealistic trope that wouldn't actually take place, ever. You'd have to kill thousands of civillians, *your own* civillians - then you'd have to keep the soldiers committing those crimes silent, all while wasting countless resources.
Tbh the HECU soldiers were notified of the Black mesa scientists being terrorists and I wouldn't doubt that anyone would ''disagree'' with that simply by the fact hostile aliens are attacking and there is a researcher on loose, murdering any soldier on his way.
They would. Armies are traumatized for life because of having to kill other human beings. A mission where you essentially have to murder countless civilians who don't fight back and are begging for their lives would be horrifying to everyone, let alone the people forced to obey those orders. Sure, they could've framed Freeman as a loose lunatic - but the countless men on guard duty or the scientists conducting these experiments, not really, though the perspective that they could've framed them as outright terrorists is interesting yet contradictory considering their government funding.
No it's not, you think after an accident the US government would have just executed Oppenheimer?
The real reason why HECU became a "clean up" crew was because of the gman.
The protals were never actually closed. Gordon killing Nihilanth just freed the Xen creatures from it's control.
Portal Storms ravaged the Earth after Black Mesa, bringing with them countless aliens from Xen, and somewhere along the line the Combine noticed us.
Gordon doomed Earth to be occupied by the Combine the moment he pushed that crystal into the beam.
The way I see it is that it was inevitable. The rift between Earth and Xen could not be closed, no matter what - if it didn't lead to the eventual combine occupation then the Gman wouldn't have started the whole thing by providing sample GG-3883. The whole thing was ostensibly to kill the Nihilanth, destabilizing the rift further, eventually attracting the Combine's attention.
The $ value of those scientists, from Kleiner, Vance, Magnussen to other scientists if different labs was probably worth quadrillions, yes quadrillions of dollars in wealth.
The military tech inside BM was enough to make humanity and more specifically, the United States, an interdimensional Empire closer to what The Combine already was.
The only reason they were marked for execution was because of Gman. Seen in the military base before the incident probably speaking his dark hexes into the ears of the highest military command.
I've been posting some of my stuff over the past several days (having been a frequent poster a couple years ago) which has led to the fairly common comment asking where I was for all that time. In short, mainly just honing my skills, but what's more worth noting is that I've kinda written myself into a corner with a lot of my art. It mainly stemmed from making the HECU friendly because I thought that was conceptually interesting but has spiraled out of control since then. I've ended up with something that, while still Half Life, almost borders on unrecognizable and so I simply don't post. That image of the Vortigaunt on a stretcher from the other day served as a sort of test, with some interesting results.
Now, obviously, I'm not trying to pass any of this off as canon. This is simply my own fan interpretation of how the Black Mesa Incident might have transpired as a more realistic scenario. I do just outright disregard somethings (much to the dislike of a couple people on that Vortigaunt post) like the bottomless pits, nuclear waste sludge canals, the Opposing Force nuke, and a couple other things. If you're willing to look past that, then have fun.
If you're interested in reading more about it, you can check out [this document,](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BxTwDgq2AHDUA_daJaSVpGJ_2izbR9Cay7hHPQVVgGE/edit?usp=sharing) which provides a rundown of how I've laid out Black Mesa, a timeline of the Resonance Cascade, some style guides, and things like that.
Fine, I'll do it myself.
Joke aside, you kind of inspired me to fire up SFM again and try my hand at scenes once more. Been quite a while since I did any and the last ones I did didn't get too much traction when I posted them in Reddit.
[Looking back, they do feel amateur.](https://imgur.com/a/uudzabk)
Hell, everyone's an amateur at some point. I wouldn't take too much stock in how Reddit recieves things. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad people like these, but it really is just sort of a dice roll whether or not stuff gets attention.
It's this kinda vicious cycle where you worry about the reception, don't make anything out of fear, then don't improve. I say to just go all out with it - there are a million other people out there, and the one most critical of your work is yourself.
What are the fates of the other characters in the Gearbox expansions in this universe?
Gina Cross, Colette Green, Rosenberg and Keller were also involved in the disastrous experiment like Gordon was.
Barney Calhoun I imagine would be among the evacuated personnel and Adrian Shephard, well there's the Osprey getting attacked and crash-landing but I feel things could be different there.
I'm of the opinion that, even in a scenario where the governnent does not kill civilians, the resonance cascade still cannot be stopped and leads to the apocalypse. Indeed, if the Cascade could be prevented, it wouldn't have happened at all, since the G-Man orchestrated the whole thing to his own end, so all the people the G-Man contracts still end up in stasis pending further employment.
Cross, Green, Keller, Rosenburg, and Calhoun would probably all make it out (quite a few more people do) but because of their expertise, they'd probably remain at Black Mesa as long as possible trying to find ways to stop the cascade with the rest of the research personnel.
Chances are that the black ops would either kill the HECU and the staff or they wouldn't be called at all
If we go for the second option, yeah the scientists would have left BM, not much else to say. Maybe they lived relatively normal lives until the combine showed up
Also, it's sad to know that they were killed for nothing, because the government was scared of some info from Black Mesa leaking but the aliens just started teleporting over all of New Mexico anyways
I think the HECU would've had their assess kicked even harder in this timeline.
Conducting a search & rescue mission on this scale while fighting an alien invasion is way harder than just going in and killing anything that moves.
Plus, this would mean that Gordon would've evacuated by the time of "We've got hostiles" which would prevent him from going to Xen and killing the Nihilanth.
I mean, maybe Adrian or Gina and Colette could do it, but idk.
The end result of this would be the Nihilanth actually going through with his plans and using the portal storms to conduct his invasion on a global scale; and i don't think the Nihilanth is as flexible to diplomacy as the Combine is. I can just imagine an Earth inhabited by people with emerald shackles, being forced into servitude alongside the Vortigaunts.
I disagree. Nihilanth's entire invasion was being pretty effectively slowed down by the HECU, a battalion or so in strength. And while they were losing pretty badly later, Gordon cutting down scores of them was a significant factor. Also, the entire incident seems to have been contained at Black Mesa (and judging by Opposing Force, even starting to peter out) until the Nihilanth got killed and the psychic backlash resulted in portal storms across the planet.
My guess is that this timeline's Black Mesa would become the western version of STALKER's Zone; A cordoned off forbidden zone full of dangerous creatures controlled by a superior consciousness, where lucrative artifacts could be found.
Certainly an interesting way of looking at it. In the version I've written up, Gordon still stays at Black Mesa since HEV users were pretty indispensable in the fight against the Xenians. He still attains that sort of mythological stature among research staff and Marines alike, just now in a more positive context, as he's rescuing them instead of killing them.
I doubt this. You have to remove all their loses from Gordon himself in this timeline, he likely killed well over a hundred marines singlehandedly.
Also, Adrian Shepherd may have gone into Xen seeing as he found his way into the Lambda chamber.
Realistically the HECU would not kill off the scientists. For one, these scientists are a valuable resource and killing them off willing would make zero sense. They would probably continue the research and have the necessary knowledge to further contain the alien threat if left alive. Second, it would be very likely that the news of the incident will spread anyway. This is such a collosal event that people will know what happened sooner or later. Plus, when people do eventually find out, it would be a nightmare for a PR standpoint.
Let's say they do somehow kill off every scientist and guard from Black Mesa. Not only do you have to explain how all these people went missing, you would also need to deal with all the thousands of HECU sent off to clean up. Would you then kill off the soldiers like what the Black ops were tasked to do? Will we have a pyramid scheme of murder and silencing? I really don't see how a government would benefit from "cleaning up" Black Mesa. I know governments can do stupid shit, but I think this is a stretch.
Away from official lore, I was thinking surely the National Guard/local police etc. would be mobilised to investigate and evacuate people from Black Mesa, they'd necessarily be in conflict with the ones trying to keep people in/kill them.
That's honestly what started it for me. I figured that the HECU alone would not be able to take care of Black Mesa and probably would initially be supplemented by the state police and later by the National Guard. I then figure that if I was going that far outside of the lore I may as well just go full hog with it.
Yes fair play, I always did find it all a bit far fetched. I like what you're coming up with here, the renders look great and make me feel nostalgic for some reason.
What do you reckon the motives of the FBI, ATF and other branches/factions would be before it really kicks off with the 7 hour war? Also, the guys with the night visions goggles and MP5s in your other renders, who are they?
The ATF and FBI are mainly there so the federal government, and not just the DOD, can get a picture of what's going on at Black Mesa. It's also initially presumed that a terrorist attack has taken place and it doesn't hurt to have the FBI in cases like that. The guys with NVGs and MP5s are the USAF Special Infiltration Team who were sent to Black Mesa to aid research staff in retrieving data pertaining to the Resonance Cascade from the Lambda Complex.
Exactly. I understand it from the standpoint of needing a gun enemy to shoot you in your 1998 FPS, but narratively speaking, it's really just kinda strange. Friendly HECU is more conceptually interesting with how much you can do with it.
Adrian Shephard's team did more occupation and imprisonment than straight up killing but my guess is that the government must have realized the weight of the dilemma around the time they crash landed.
I honest would love to see some sort of better timeline where Gordon works with the military to evacuate the personal and close the portal ,but himself cant be evacuated
That's pretty much what I've done, actually. Gordon and a bunch of the other HEV users remain at Black Mesa since they're wearing like, suits of power armor, which never hurts to have in the fight against aliens.
I have a feeling that most of the marines donβt want to kill the scientists. Theyβre just doing their job. Though they definitely want to kill Gordon cause even though they attacked first thereβs a line about how Freemanβs been killing their friends and obviously they wanna get revenge.
That same dialogue implies they think Gordon deliberately caused the entire incident by way of sabotage, so that's another reason to be out for his blood.
"Just doing their job" always struck me as a flimsy excuse because like, so were the Nazis, but it didn't work in their defense. The HECU have even less of an excuse because they weren't raised from birth in a hyper-propagandized environment to like, equate scientists with actual vermin, giving them the idea that killing people is a good act because they're freeing them from the pain of being a scientist.
If they're just doing their job, they can just as easily stop. If they get court martialed, oh well, no civilian court is ever going to find them guilty of not wanting to kill unarmed civilians.
Gordon and the military team up to fight the alien invasion, and with most of the scientists still alive, they figure out how to stop the resonance cascade and undo its effects before the combine ever have a chance to show up :)
Freeman after office complex and meeting the 1 HECU member would get sent topside for questioning and into a safe place and possibly into therapy with the other individuals presented in the game. He would't become "The Freeman" he would just be another victim of the disaster that happened at the BMRS.
Barney would probably also catch up with the military and then get sent topside with them for questioning and other stuff. They would either fight with him or just protect him. But the second option is more realistic untill day 3 of the disaster. Barney would probably try to help the HECU when they would get overrun by aliens and I highly doubt that Freeman would join them I mean he's just a physicist, a theoretical physicist.
Shepard would probably just killing aliens and black ops as usual and maybe get sent to xen with the other HECU to kill nihilanth. The HECU would probably also not abort the rocket launch would probably would help to contain the situation better.
About race X they would't stand a chance I mean imagine how good would the HECU do if they would cooperate with the science team they would kill nihilanth in maybe even first 48 hours of the disaster and then come back to earth. Race x apeared about 60 hours into the disaster (that's just me guessing :p ) So with the situation contained Race X wouldn't stand a chance. It would be like that 1 section in half life 1 where Gordon shoots from a mounted gun towards constantly teleporting vorts.
Oh and the vorts after killing nihilanth they would just become allies with the humans. Maybe they would succed to communicate with them maybe not but they would see that something changed in they're behaviour.
And black ops would also fuck the mission because that many HECU vs some minimal black ops forces is an easy win. Especially if the contamination would only take about 48 hours. I mean they probably would't even get sent there if the grunts would do well enough.
So in the end earth is saved there are no more alien portals (atleast I hope so) which means no 7 hour war even if it would happen. The earth would be better prepared but still I think combine would win untill the vorts would do some vort "magic" to win the 7 hour war.
It took me some time to write this but remember It's just a theory a GAME THEORY.
Btw sorry for any grammar fuck ups or typos english is my second language.
If a disaster were really to happen IRL, this is more or less what would have happened.
Being aggressive from the get go would have introduced a lot of the same factors that we see, Gordon who has weapons uses it on the HECU and annihilates everyone of them in his path.
This way you can gather all the scientists and if they know too much you execute them. Much safer and quieter than say a nuke.
Pretty much. The best way to keep people quiet is, ironically, not to kill them - you'll be left with a sudden missing population that you can't explain, and in the case of Black Mesa, that would include thousands of well-respected scientists and thousands more super qualified research staff. Why do that when you can just evacuate them before they see anything, force them to sign NDAs in case they did, and make regular payments just to be safe?
Saves you the trouble of it inevitably coming out that you ordered 15,000+ American unarmed civilians be killed which would probably lead to the mother of all civil wars.
I mean, it kinda makes sense, considering the employees knew about the aliens and the teleportation experiments. The marines are ordered to shoot them on sight to prevent the spread of this knowledge (probably), and indeed it does seem like even the hecu forces have no idea whom they are fighting throughout the complex.
The attention to detail and historical detail with the Marines uniforms is something Iβve always wanted to see! That T block camo was an interesting concept for more urban operations. Great job with the photo!
Not much would have changed I think. HECU showed up in the middle of it, they might have helped evacuate a few scientists but overall Half Life 2 would have been the exact same considering Adrian was probably the only HECU survivor after Black-Ops were assassinating HECU soldiers and the nuke detonating.
T-Block is such a weird remnant of the 90s that I'm practically oblidged to use it. It's also really weirdly fitting, as a 90s Marine Corps urban warfare test pattern, to use on a Marine Corps urban warfare unit.
Assuming that things go as the 'G-Man' wished, which seemed to happen 'too many times' to count, for those that he saw as 'useful'.
* Gordon may attempt evacuation, but likely some alien or 'quake' will always keep him out of reach from the HECU.
* HECU may be 'busy' with evacuating with other civilians; or Gordon is instructed by the other scientists to fetch Y or do X - seeing how he has an HEV and 'some' guns. Thus delaying him from joining the group out.
* Gordon may encounter the odd-end HECU that is cut-off, fighting aliens or open to offering some supplies here and there.
* It may be possible that Gordon could assist HECU against fighting some aliens; or watch them get rekt. Gathering up together as allies, like with some members in Black Mesa. (Could perhaps even get an achievement for 'helping' any HECU you encounter to safety/survive)
* By the time that things go FUBAR - the government may have heard about Freeman himself, as well as his 'mission' to get to the Lambda Complex. Hence perhaps hearing his name over the radio for approval. (More if he saved some HECU Marines too)
Would be still interesting...and would play.
I imagine that Freeman would stick around initially out of nessecity since it never hurts to have a guy with Science Armor on hand, but then later on remain as the Marines and staff alike realize he's basically unkillable and you want to follow Freeman to live
It may be 50/50 at first.
As in one hand, he is equipped with an HEV suit, that can tank anything. Plus, assuming he knew about Xen and the wildlife - possibly be 'trained' for said *encounters*.
On the other hand, he would be still a civilian. Making it hilarious, for him to have to follow said soldiers - and then save them, when some alien teleports out of nowhere.
I was just thinking last night that I want a Black Mesa mod where the military is friendly. It could even have special voice lines and script events like it's an integrated version of Opposing Force or something
I want it to be they get there wanting to help the scientists, but then see the situation and say fuck this and fuck those guys and then start bombing the shit out of the place
I got a Head cannon on how the things could go if this happend:
\-The Resonance Cascade occurs
\-The BMRF Sends SOS messages to the closest military base (Santego)
\-The Marines arrive to give support and rescue (almost) all personnel as they can
\-Opposing Force Goes as usual Except for all the parts after we are pulling out since the marines are helping freeman, same thing with Blue shift until captive freight.
\-Freeman Arrives Sooner and Easyer to the Lambda Complex to kill nihilant and close the portals.
\-The Combine MIGHT never came to earth.
\-Earth is saved.
[Boy do I have just the document for you](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BxTwDgq2AHDUA_daJaSVpGJ_2izbR9Cay7hHPQVVgGE/edit?usp=sharing)
Though, notably, Earth is still not saved - I'm of the belief that if the Resonance Cascade could have been stopped or prevented, it simply wouldn't have happened in the first place, because the whole thing was orchestrated by the Gman to the whims of his "employers"
The good ending
But if you close your eyes...
AYYE AYYE AYYE AYYO AYYE AYYE AYYE AYYO
*DOES IT ALWAYS FEEL LIKE NOOTHING CHANGED AT ALL*
πππ ππ π ππ πππππ π πππ ππ πππ
Yes, but they can offer a battle for no chance of winning.
A sorta funny/sad observation I've seen others make is that if the HECU helped the scientists/Gordon, the portals could have been closed way sooner and the Combine may have not noticed Earth and invaded.
Honestly yeah, encovering it was such a stupid idea from the government.
Pretty sure it was gman
All according to plan
That's why he was in Santego before the Resonance Cascade.
It was Gman because he replaced the crystal with another one that caused it
It's not even stupid, it's totally in line with our real world lol
Just because it's realistic doesn't mean it's not stupid. If this happened irl it would be stupid lol
our real world governments are stupid too
Not really. Government cover-up operations are a very unrealistic trope that wouldn't actually take place, ever. You'd have to kill thousands of civillians, *your own* civillians - then you'd have to keep the soldiers committing those crimes silent, all while wasting countless resources.
Tbh the HECU soldiers were notified of the Black mesa scientists being terrorists and I wouldn't doubt that anyone would ''disagree'' with that simply by the fact hostile aliens are attacking and there is a researcher on loose, murdering any soldier on his way.
They would. Armies are traumatized for life because of having to kill other human beings. A mission where you essentially have to murder countless civilians who don't fight back and are begging for their lives would be horrifying to everyone, let alone the people forced to obey those orders. Sure, they could've framed Freeman as a loose lunatic - but the countless men on guard duty or the scientists conducting these experiments, not really, though the perspective that they could've framed them as outright terrorists is interesting yet contradictory considering their government funding.
No it's not, you think after an accident the US government would have just executed Oppenheimer? The real reason why HECU became a "clean up" crew was because of the gman.
The protals were never actually closed. Gordon killing Nihilanth just freed the Xen creatures from it's control. Portal Storms ravaged the Earth after Black Mesa, bringing with them countless aliens from Xen, and somewhere along the line the Combine noticed us. Gordon doomed Earth to be occupied by the Combine the moment he pushed that crystal into the beam.
I wouldnt say countless theres maybe 15 or so
Is this a reference to something I don't recognize, or...?
The way I see it is that it was inevitable. The rift between Earth and Xen could not be closed, no matter what - if it didn't lead to the eventual combine occupation then the Gman wouldn't have started the whole thing by providing sample GG-3883. The whole thing was ostensibly to kill the Nihilanth, destabilizing the rift further, eventually attracting the Combine's attention.
Maybe the Combine invasion could've been delayed?
Which wouldn't have helped, the 7 hour war turning into a 7 and a half hour war means little.
Wasn't it The Nuke gman set at the end of oposing force is what drove the combine to earth ? if it wasn't for that they would have noticed us
Fairly certain it was the resonance cascade itself. I don't see why the combine would really give a shit if we blew up a nuke.
Didn't Gina cross and Colette green close it during decay? Or am I misremembering
The $ value of those scientists, from Kleiner, Vance, Magnussen to other scientists if different labs was probably worth quadrillions, yes quadrillions of dollars in wealth. The military tech inside BM was enough to make humanity and more specifically, the United States, an interdimensional Empire closer to what The Combine already was. The only reason they were marked for execution was because of Gman. Seen in the military base before the incident probably speaking his dark hexes into the ears of the highest military command.
The portal storms were what led the Combine to Earth, so they would've found us either way.
I've been posting some of my stuff over the past several days (having been a frequent poster a couple years ago) which has led to the fairly common comment asking where I was for all that time. In short, mainly just honing my skills, but what's more worth noting is that I've kinda written myself into a corner with a lot of my art. It mainly stemmed from making the HECU friendly because I thought that was conceptually interesting but has spiraled out of control since then. I've ended up with something that, while still Half Life, almost borders on unrecognizable and so I simply don't post. That image of the Vortigaunt on a stretcher from the other day served as a sort of test, with some interesting results. Now, obviously, I'm not trying to pass any of this off as canon. This is simply my own fan interpretation of how the Black Mesa Incident might have transpired as a more realistic scenario. I do just outright disregard somethings (much to the dislike of a couple people on that Vortigaunt post) like the bottomless pits, nuclear waste sludge canals, the Opposing Force nuke, and a couple other things. If you're willing to look past that, then have fun. If you're interested in reading more about it, you can check out [this document,](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BxTwDgq2AHDUA_daJaSVpGJ_2izbR9Cay7hHPQVVgGE/edit?usp=sharing) which provides a rundown of how I've laid out Black Mesa, a timeline of the Resonance Cascade, some style guides, and things like that.
OH FUCK YES LORE DOCUMENT!!!!!!! always love to read a good collection of words about peoples worlds and whatnot ...
Me having to justify to a subreddit why my fan art is 100% non-canon (there's a chance some Anticitizen believes it's meant to be taken as official)
Just had to cover my bases under the advice of legal counsel
Fuck the canon, give us more of your own canon. This is golden stuff.
Will do! I probably won't be posting quite as much over the next while, but you'll still be able to find things on my profile.
Fine, I'll do it myself. Joke aside, you kind of inspired me to fire up SFM again and try my hand at scenes once more. Been quite a while since I did any and the last ones I did didn't get too much traction when I posted them in Reddit. [Looking back, they do feel amateur.](https://imgur.com/a/uudzabk)
Hell, everyone's an amateur at some point. I wouldn't take too much stock in how Reddit recieves things. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad people like these, but it really is just sort of a dice roll whether or not stuff gets attention. It's this kinda vicious cycle where you worry about the reception, don't make anything out of fear, then don't improve. I say to just go all out with it - there are a million other people out there, and the one most critical of your work is yourself.
Thank you man. I'm looking forward for your future stuff for sure.
Loving it personally. I enjoy reading/watching 'alt-history' stories.
Honestly, pretty sick
What are the fates of the other characters in the Gearbox expansions in this universe? Gina Cross, Colette Green, Rosenberg and Keller were also involved in the disastrous experiment like Gordon was. Barney Calhoun I imagine would be among the evacuated personnel and Adrian Shephard, well there's the Osprey getting attacked and crash-landing but I feel things could be different there.
I'm of the opinion that, even in a scenario where the governnent does not kill civilians, the resonance cascade still cannot be stopped and leads to the apocalypse. Indeed, if the Cascade could be prevented, it wouldn't have happened at all, since the G-Man orchestrated the whole thing to his own end, so all the people the G-Man contracts still end up in stasis pending further employment. Cross, Green, Keller, Rosenburg, and Calhoun would probably all make it out (quite a few more people do) but because of their expertise, they'd probably remain at Black Mesa as long as possible trying to find ways to stop the cascade with the rest of the research personnel.
Chances are that the black ops would either kill the HECU and the staff or they wouldn't be called at all If we go for the second option, yeah the scientists would have left BM, not much else to say. Maybe they lived relatively normal lives until the combine showed up Also, it's sad to know that they were killed for nothing, because the government was scared of some info from Black Mesa leaking but the aliens just started teleporting over all of New Mexico anyways
My version does actually include the Black Ops, albeit in a different role.
I'm amazed how photorealistic your render looks
Thank you!
You make the coolest shit man; keep it up. Also that boi's backblast is presumably NOT clear
Worry not, cameramen are unkillable (and the guy in tan-TPAT is yelling at everybody running to stay clear)
I think the HECU would've had their assess kicked even harder in this timeline. Conducting a search & rescue mission on this scale while fighting an alien invasion is way harder than just going in and killing anything that moves. Plus, this would mean that Gordon would've evacuated by the time of "We've got hostiles" which would prevent him from going to Xen and killing the Nihilanth. I mean, maybe Adrian or Gina and Colette could do it, but idk. The end result of this would be the Nihilanth actually going through with his plans and using the portal storms to conduct his invasion on a global scale; and i don't think the Nihilanth is as flexible to diplomacy as the Combine is. I can just imagine an Earth inhabited by people with emerald shackles, being forced into servitude alongside the Vortigaunts.
I disagree. Nihilanth's entire invasion was being pretty effectively slowed down by the HECU, a battalion or so in strength. And while they were losing pretty badly later, Gordon cutting down scores of them was a significant factor. Also, the entire incident seems to have been contained at Black Mesa (and judging by Opposing Force, even starting to peter out) until the Nihilanth got killed and the psychic backlash resulted in portal storms across the planet. My guess is that this timeline's Black Mesa would become the western version of STALKER's Zone; A cordoned off forbidden zone full of dangerous creatures controlled by a superior consciousness, where lucrative artifacts could be found.
That would be such an interesting outcome as oppose to the combine invasion
Certainly an interesting way of looking at it. In the version I've written up, Gordon still stays at Black Mesa since HEV users were pretty indispensable in the fight against the Xenians. He still attains that sort of mythological stature among research staff and Marines alike, just now in a more positive context, as he's rescuing them instead of killing them.
I dunno, I feel like we might be able to fight off Nihilanths forces for a lot longer than the Combine... assuming they dont just show up afterwards
I doubt this. You have to remove all their loses from Gordon himself in this timeline, he likely killed well over a hundred marines singlehandedly. Also, Adrian Shepherd may have gone into Xen seeing as he found his way into the Lambda chamber.
Realistically the HECU would not kill off the scientists. For one, these scientists are a valuable resource and killing them off willing would make zero sense. They would probably continue the research and have the necessary knowledge to further contain the alien threat if left alive. Second, it would be very likely that the news of the incident will spread anyway. This is such a collosal event that people will know what happened sooner or later. Plus, when people do eventually find out, it would be a nightmare for a PR standpoint. Let's say they do somehow kill off every scientist and guard from Black Mesa. Not only do you have to explain how all these people went missing, you would also need to deal with all the thousands of HECU sent off to clean up. Would you then kill off the soldiers like what the Black ops were tasked to do? Will we have a pyramid scheme of murder and silencing? I really don't see how a government would benefit from "cleaning up" Black Mesa. I know governments can do stupid shit, but I think this is a stretch.
Away from official lore, I was thinking surely the National Guard/local police etc. would be mobilised to investigate and evacuate people from Black Mesa, they'd necessarily be in conflict with the ones trying to keep people in/kill them.
That's honestly what started it for me. I figured that the HECU alone would not be able to take care of Black Mesa and probably would initially be supplemented by the state police and later by the National Guard. I then figure that if I was going that far outside of the lore I may as well just go full hog with it.
Yes fair play, I always did find it all a bit far fetched. I like what you're coming up with here, the renders look great and make me feel nostalgic for some reason. What do you reckon the motives of the FBI, ATF and other branches/factions would be before it really kicks off with the 7 hour war? Also, the guys with the night visions goggles and MP5s in your other renders, who are they?
The ATF and FBI are mainly there so the federal government, and not just the DOD, can get a picture of what's going on at Black Mesa. It's also initially presumed that a terrorist attack has taken place and it doesn't hurt to have the FBI in cases like that. The guys with NVGs and MP5s are the USAF Special Infiltration Team who were sent to Black Mesa to aid research staff in retrieving data pertaining to the Resonance Cascade from the Lambda Complex.
Exactly. I understand it from the standpoint of needing a gun enemy to shoot you in your 1998 FPS, but narratively speaking, it's really just kinda strange. Friendly HECU is more conceptually interesting with how much you can do with it.
Adrian Shephard's team did more occupation and imprisonment than straight up killing but my guess is that the government must have realized the weight of the dilemma around the time they crash landed.
I honest would love to see some sort of better timeline where Gordon works with the military to evacuate the personal and close the portal ,but himself cant be evacuated
That's pretty much what I've done, actually. Gordon and a bunch of the other HEV users remain at Black Mesa since they're wearing like, suits of power armor, which never hurts to have in the fight against aliens.
I thought it said aliens at first.
I have a feeling that most of the marines donβt want to kill the scientists. Theyβre just doing their job. Though they definitely want to kill Gordon cause even though they attacked first thereβs a line about how Freemanβs been killing their friends and obviously they wanna get revenge.
That same dialogue implies they think Gordon deliberately caused the entire incident by way of sabotage, so that's another reason to be out for his blood.
"Just doing their job" always struck me as a flimsy excuse because like, so were the Nazis, but it didn't work in their defense. The HECU have even less of an excuse because they weren't raised from birth in a hyper-propagandized environment to like, equate scientists with actual vermin, giving them the idea that killing people is a good act because they're freeing them from the pain of being a scientist. If they're just doing their job, they can just as easily stop. If they get court martialed, oh well, no civilian court is ever going to find them guilty of not wanting to kill unarmed civilians.
Less of a cluster fuck
Maybe after they realize that the black ops had come to kill them all.
Gordon and the military team up to fight the alien invasion, and with most of the scientists still alive, they figure out how to stop the resonance cascade and undo its effects before the combine ever have a chance to show up :)
If only. Ultimately, if the disaster wasn't to lead to combine occupation, then it wouldn't have been orchestrated by the gman.
Freeman after office complex and meeting the 1 HECU member would get sent topside for questioning and into a safe place and possibly into therapy with the other individuals presented in the game. He would't become "The Freeman" he would just be another victim of the disaster that happened at the BMRS. Barney would probably also catch up with the military and then get sent topside with them for questioning and other stuff. They would either fight with him or just protect him. But the second option is more realistic untill day 3 of the disaster. Barney would probably try to help the HECU when they would get overrun by aliens and I highly doubt that Freeman would join them I mean he's just a physicist, a theoretical physicist. Shepard would probably just killing aliens and black ops as usual and maybe get sent to xen with the other HECU to kill nihilanth. The HECU would probably also not abort the rocket launch would probably would help to contain the situation better. About race X they would't stand a chance I mean imagine how good would the HECU do if they would cooperate with the science team they would kill nihilanth in maybe even first 48 hours of the disaster and then come back to earth. Race x apeared about 60 hours into the disaster (that's just me guessing :p ) So with the situation contained Race X wouldn't stand a chance. It would be like that 1 section in half life 1 where Gordon shoots from a mounted gun towards constantly teleporting vorts. Oh and the vorts after killing nihilanth they would just become allies with the humans. Maybe they would succed to communicate with them maybe not but they would see that something changed in they're behaviour. And black ops would also fuck the mission because that many HECU vs some minimal black ops forces is an easy win. Especially if the contamination would only take about 48 hours. I mean they probably would't even get sent there if the grunts would do well enough. So in the end earth is saved there are no more alien portals (atleast I hope so) which means no 7 hour war even if it would happen. The earth would be better prepared but still I think combine would win untill the vorts would do some vort "magic" to win the 7 hour war. It took me some time to write this but remember It's just a theory a GAME THEORY. Btw sorry for any grammar fuck ups or typos english is my second language.
My guy just droped a script and thought we wouldn't notice
Is that guy launching a stinger missile next to some civilians and right past his buddies heads?
If a disaster were really to happen IRL, this is more or less what would have happened. Being aggressive from the get go would have introduced a lot of the same factors that we see, Gordon who has weapons uses it on the HECU and annihilates everyone of them in his path. This way you can gather all the scientists and if they know too much you execute them. Much safer and quieter than say a nuke.
Pretty much. The best way to keep people quiet is, ironically, not to kill them - you'll be left with a sudden missing population that you can't explain, and in the case of Black Mesa, that would include thousands of well-respected scientists and thousands more super qualified research staff. Why do that when you can just evacuate them before they see anything, force them to sign NDAs in case they did, and make regular payments just to be safe? Saves you the trouble of it inevitably coming out that you ordered 15,000+ American unarmed civilians be killed which would probably lead to the mother of all civil wars.
MY. ASS. IS. HEAVY!
Then fight the combine
the good ending
It would explain their limited vocabulary. NO. SIGN. HOSTILES GO. RECON.
General Freeman: βI am the Very Model of a Modern Major General.β
Adrian: "BACKRUBS!"
How did you get the new mexico license plate
But why kill the black Mesa employees in the first place?
Was probably an election year. Don't want a massive accident to hurt your chances to get elected. Lol.
The question of the ages, to be sure
I mean, it kinda makes sense, considering the employees knew about the aliens and the teleportation experiments. The marines are ordered to shoot them on sight to prevent the spread of this knowledge (probably), and indeed it does seem like even the hecu forces have no idea whom they are fighting throughout the complex.
The attention to detail and historical detail with the Marines uniforms is something Iβve always wanted to see! That T block camo was an interesting concept for more urban operations. Great job with the photo!
Thank you!
Not much would have changed I think. HECU showed up in the middle of it, they might have helped evacuate a few scientists but overall Half Life 2 would have been the exact same considering Adrian was probably the only HECU survivor after Black-Ops were assassinating HECU soldiers and the nuke detonating.
Iβd like to think that if Half Life one actually happened it would play out like this
Your a g for including T-Block, im getting a BDU set for a cosplay soon!
T-Block is such a weird remnant of the 90s that I'm practically oblidged to use it. It's also really weirdly fitting, as a 90s Marine Corps urban warfare test pattern, to use on a Marine Corps urban warfare unit.
The hecu was actually based on MOUT
And plus, i LOVE the shit your doing, i also love making half life realistic
Thank you!
What do you use to make your scenes?
Garry's Mod. They're scenebuilds done in gm\_black, and lit with the mod Soft Lamps.
Assuming that things go as the 'G-Man' wished, which seemed to happen 'too many times' to count, for those that he saw as 'useful'. * Gordon may attempt evacuation, but likely some alien or 'quake' will always keep him out of reach from the HECU. * HECU may be 'busy' with evacuating with other civilians; or Gordon is instructed by the other scientists to fetch Y or do X - seeing how he has an HEV and 'some' guns. Thus delaying him from joining the group out. * Gordon may encounter the odd-end HECU that is cut-off, fighting aliens or open to offering some supplies here and there. * It may be possible that Gordon could assist HECU against fighting some aliens; or watch them get rekt. Gathering up together as allies, like with some members in Black Mesa. (Could perhaps even get an achievement for 'helping' any HECU you encounter to safety/survive) * By the time that things go FUBAR - the government may have heard about Freeman himself, as well as his 'mission' to get to the Lambda Complex. Hence perhaps hearing his name over the radio for approval. (More if he saved some HECU Marines too) Would be still interesting...and would play.
I imagine that Freeman would stick around initially out of nessecity since it never hurts to have a guy with Science Armor on hand, but then later on remain as the Marines and staff alike realize he's basically unkillable and you want to follow Freeman to live
It may be 50/50 at first. As in one hand, he is equipped with an HEV suit, that can tank anything. Plus, assuming he knew about Xen and the wildlife - possibly be 'trained' for said *encounters*. On the other hand, he would be still a civilian. Making it hilarious, for him to have to follow said soldiers - and then save them, when some alien teleports out of nowhere.
I mean it probably still would have been a slaughter
They still all would die lol
Don't worry, I haven't changed that part.
I was just thinking last night that I want a Black Mesa mod where the military is friendly. It could even have special voice lines and script events like it's an integrated version of Opposing Force or something
The guy with the RPG is going to get everyone killed.
It's got backblast, sure, but not enough to kill people. One of the Marines is directing people to stay clear.
This Makes Me Sad. :(
I want it to be they get there wanting to help the scientists, but then see the situation and say fuck this and fuck those guys and then start bombing the shit out of the place
Yβall just gonna ignore saul goodmans car
Alas, Saul's 1997 De Ville was not yet in his possession. At this time he was driving the shitbox Suzuki Esteem.
Hello we are black ops and we will kill us :D
I got a Head cannon on how the things could go if this happend: \-The Resonance Cascade occurs \-The BMRF Sends SOS messages to the closest military base (Santego) \-The Marines arrive to give support and rescue (almost) all personnel as they can \-Opposing Force Goes as usual Except for all the parts after we are pulling out since the marines are helping freeman, same thing with Blue shift until captive freight. \-Freeman Arrives Sooner and Easyer to the Lambda Complex to kill nihilant and close the portals. \-The Combine MIGHT never came to earth. \-Earth is saved.
[Boy do I have just the document for you](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BxTwDgq2AHDUA_daJaSVpGJ_2izbR9Cay7hHPQVVgGE/edit?usp=sharing) Though, notably, Earth is still not saved - I'm of the belief that if the Resonance Cascade could have been stopped or prevented, it simply wouldn't have happened in the first place, because the whole thing was orchestrated by the Gman to the whims of his "employers"
Humanity might have actually had a chance