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The entire Early Days lore, so far...
7 Hours - 2003
The incident at Black Mesa had devastated humanity all around the globe, one simple test sample was all it took to bring earth into turmoil, and people were looking for someone to hold accountable.Dr. Breen, administrator of Black Mesa, was soon put on trial and transported back to the United States to make sure the trial would set place on their soil.
Meanwhile, in New York City, civilians and military personnel were awaiting the arrival of the USS Iowa as a means of evacuation from the rapidly deteriorating conditions. It was a large, durable vessel capable of transporting hundreds of people at once. This was clearly the safest passage the civilians were going to get, or was it?
A current of unknown matter, soon known as a portal storm, ripped through the sky. No one quite know what was in store for them from this point on, but they would soon learn that hell was raining down on Earth, and humanity was about to be changed once again, for a somehow even worse prospect.
Many picked up guns to fight off never before seen, incoming alien lifeforms. It was the first hour of the seven hour war. Mortars shook the ground, smoke from gunpowder filled the air like smog, tripod-formed aliens of gigantic proportions stood tall in a skyline of skyscrapers, and blood was spilled.
One by one, the population of earth was dropping dramatically, not in hundreds or thousands, but verging on millions. The clock soon ticked the seventh hour of the invasion, and the surrender of humanity was announced by none other than Dr. Breen himself, whom had appointed himself as the human leader of the 'Combine' Regime.
6 Months later... - 2004
Just six months later, earth had transformed into a authoritarian dystopia. Men and women were assigned numbers, the children nowhere to be seen, and the mothers left searching for their children without hope. During this time, new concepts were developed, such as the 'Progenitor Arm', the main police force mostly consisting of former army soldiers, and the 'Urban Centers' were being erected by the combine. Large city areas to house a multitude of citizens, one of these being District 47.
The district was still in ruin, devastated by the 7 hour war. Reconstruction had to be done, and the newly shipped in citizens would have to painstakingly do so if they wanted even remotely acceptable living conditions. The hospital, the apartments, even the local bar all had to be repaired by hand. Some citizens however decided to take a break from the boring menial work in the city, and decided to explore the lesser seen areas. Some however, were scared away from leaving the city. Rumors had emerged of a 'Ratman' living in the sewage tunnels underneath the city. Who or what this individual was, were left unknown for the time being, but certain individuals were quick to explore the underground anyway, only to find themselves locked out by the need of a maintenance key. Others tried their chance at the local Quarantine Zone, risking their lives for thrill seeking.
Eventually, these tunnels were opened up and explored, exposing a underground system filled to the brim with zombies. One fateful day however, a resident of these tunnels was found- the rumored 'Ratman' turned out to be a elderly doctor, making a living through the Black Market by taking the organs of people who had previously died. This individual, known as Niko Dijkstra, was confronted by the locals, unhappy with him stealing one of their fallen men's bodies. The doctor however managed to talk himself out of a sticky situation with the promise of a proper burial, and bringing Black Market connections into District 47, something the locals willing to fight the new regime desperately needed. After some oddjobs such as clearing the tunnels of zombies by activating a strange prototype, Black Market routes were soon introduced into the city, and connections were built with a very small organization brewing in the background, known as 'Lambda'.
One fateful job provided by Niko and his colleagues Trey, a black market dealer, and 'Demolition', a hyped-up woman with a explosive fetish for all things related to destruction, would act as a sign of things to come, foreshadowing perhaps. The plan was simple, board a moving train sent by the combine and retrieve a bomb onboard to clear a area within the maintenance system.
Something was just not right about this train, it had strange technology on board, even more strange than the regular combine tech one would've been accustomed to at this point. No, it was labelled 'Black Mesa', the same facility that had caused this mess. Unfortunately for the crew onboard, the mission would go haywire as the infiltration dragged out too long, and the train was imminent to arrive at it's destination, a clear death sentence for the crew. When one of them went to stop the train however, all hell broke loose as the technology from Black Mesa went haywire...
After what seemed to have been a explosion, the operatives of this train heist soon awoke from being knocked out, only to be nearly shocked into a coma once again. They had left Earth, and transcended into a place they would soon know as Xen. The atmosphere was thick but breathable, the gravity was low, it was simply completely alien. Thankfully, one piece of this strange technology had transported with them, and after a very unreliable sequence of electricity bursts, the crew was warped back to Earth in one piece.
But this would not be the last time that the citizens of District 47 were to endure such a oddity, as soon again, in the dead of night, three men were entrapped into a cloud of cosmic fog that had sent them back to Xen, if only temporary. But, on their way back to earth, they were first teleported into the future, a wrecked city, possibly even the remains of D47. Their visit was cut short by another warp, a combat training simulation of sorts, from which they had to painstakingly fight their way out of. Little did they know it was foreshadowing for what was to come.
Oddity after oddity left the people astonished, surely this was simply a coincidence, leftovers from the 7 Hour War. But they would soon find themselves in bigger chaos than they ever could've imagined.
Eye of the Storm - 2004
The sirens of District 47 rang out to warn everyone of a encroaching portal storm after several warnings of cosmic energy days before, the people gathered in the clinic to take shelter, unaware of what they would soon witness as they left.
Not only were a group of people now transported to Xen, but the entirety of District 47 went along with them. The sky was a dark purple, shining crystals were scattered around the place, and hostile life was all over. Luckily for this rag-tag team of individuals in foreign territory, they were not alone. Soon, with the help of Niko Dijkstra and his contacts to a distant science team, they were able to devise a plan to get back to Earth. Using a prototype, fittingly from Black Mesa, they could activate crystals around the district to simulate yet another teleportation sequence similar to that of the portal storm. But first, they needed to repair it.
After two days of gathering supplies needed to repair the prototype, a 'Tau Cannon', it was time to start the plan. But not before their work gathering the parts sent them to a underground combine research facility. To their shock, they found information about what the combine had planned for humanity in the long run, promises of a 'Transhuman Arm', headcrab-filled mortars, and horribly disfigured people which once were their opposition to work as slaves for their in progress 'Citadel'. Shocked and appalled at this information, the squad decided to blow up the facility and any prototype samples of these projects before leaving.
The destruction of the facility did not go unnoticed by the remaining Combine forces in the area however- a helicopter and a squad of seemingly rogue officers were sent to dispatch the squad, but were unsuccessful... partially. The helicopter had managed to mortally wound Niko in its erratic shooting, the team was too late and the wounds ended up fatal for the doctor, leaving the squad alone to finish the task of getting back to earth. Fortunately for them, the devised plan had worked, and after a chaotic storm throughout the district, it came crashing back to Earth. But... something was not quite right.
Riders of the Storm - ????
The distant winds carried sand with them, carrying it throughout the District. It was evident, they were no longer in Central Europe.
After gathering their bearings of the dramatic three days, the squad was soon contacted again by the Black Market associate, Trey Young, to inform them that the surroundings of D47 were a desert wasteland filled with hostility. Within this dune laid a settlement however, properly known as Outpost Lakeside. They were to be sent down there, to assist with the repair of a helicopter to allow the inhabitants of this Outpost to fly on to their next destination, yet again a job that seemed simple on the surface only to evolve into a rabbit hole. They were greeted by the inhabitants of the Outpost after a long car ride, it was headed by a man known as 'Cecil', accompanied by a engineer, and a mechanic.
What was set out to be a simple hunt for parts was soon stopped by the creation of a Combine outpost nearby, seemingly overnight. And within, prisoners that needed rescuing. Bravely, the team from District 47 assaulted this outpost and managed to free the prisoners, some of them familiar faces they knew from their regular time in the city. They settled down for the day, only to make a shocking discovery. Within a discarded train cart partially buried in sand, they found a old computer and a mute metallic android built by Lambda known as 'John Doe' designed to guard the computer. This old computer held within a powerful AI known as 'Medusa', but in it's current vessel of a dusty early 90's PC, it lacked the processing power to calculate the current location and time. They would soon find a much more powerful computer to connect it to though.
Underneath the Outpost's bunker laid another, secret bunker containing all sorts of tech within. This revelation came as a surprise to 'Cecil', as his engineer and right hand man had warned him time and time again that underneath the bunker was a antlion cave instead, evidently a lie. The AI was connected to a powerful processing unit underground, but it needed time to install.
A day had passed, and the AI was ready, but whatever they were expecting, the squad from 47 was not ready for what they were about to be bombarded with. The year was no longer 2004, it was 2032, and even worse, they had never left Europe, Central Europe had been turned into a wasteland instead. Lambda has seemingly grown much more than what they know it for before, and the combine presence on earth seems to have been bravely thinned by the resistance on earth. Yet it was far from done with sharing new information- the bunker they were in was constructed by a mysterious organization known as the 'ARC', the same company the AI climbed to have been created by. This bunker was used to store extremely sensitive information, partaining encrypted information to a 'superweapon' lost in the middle of the arctic, a weapon that can disrupt entire universes, and a possible answer to the time-bending disaster the team had found itself in. Just as they gathered this information however, a loud BANG ripped through the shocked silence of the bunker.
'Cecil' had been killed, by none other than his engineer Larry. Just as the shooter was about to explain himself and potentially warn them about something, the violence continued as the Lambda built 'John Doe' returned fire, eliminating the threat. However, this was far from over. As the troop were saving the information to be decrypted on a datashard, the bunker was brought under assault by the Combine, who seeked the information for themselves. They fought tooth and nail, losing the android John as it sacrificed itself to destroy a menacing combine synth, before dispatching a helicopter out of the air with the tau cannon, but one last foe was waiting, a strider, the same things that brought terror to New York City.
It walzed through the desert, seemingly unable to be stopped as it headed to destroy the now repaired helicopter at Outpost Lakeside- when suddenly the crazed associate of Niko, 'Demolition', rode in with a rigged to blow jeep, giving her life to destroy the strider. And with that, the war in the wastes was over, and the remaining fighters flew back to District 47 with newly gathered information, information they soon handed over to Trey, who in turn handed it over to Niko's science team.
Vortex of the Storm - 2032?
A month and a half had passed since the brave residents of D47 had heard anything from the science team- however, after this well deserved rest, they finally got contacted. The science team wanted a face to face meeting, on their private island. Due to the high value of this datashard however, the surrounding shores started to experience reinforcements from the remnants of the Combine, who themselves were still on the lookout for this superweapon.
To get themselves a boat ride to this island, the 47'ers had to clear one obstacle to move on- a simple Combine outpost. Surely, this would go easy, but they were mistaken. They were not met by regular cops, or even synths or helicopters, but Transhuman Soldiers, a new enemy for them. After their stealthy approach failed, they were forced to retaliate, and they were quickly shown the power of these soldiers. The troop, despite outnumbering the three lonely soldiers, they had to retreat after defeating one of them, and taking down a gunship sent to them due to a alarm. Quickly, they ducked out of sight through some tunnels to reach the shore, and were taken to the science team's island.
They meet up with the trio of scientists to discuss the contents of the datashard. Unfortunately, they were unable to properly decrypt it due to a very secure algorithm blocking any equipment they had on hand. But, they know a solution- within a Combine 'depot' is a Lambda associate who has the means to fully decrypt it. This means of course, that the 47'ers would have to break in and save this Lambda official. Due to the dangerous nature of this job, the scientist trio now continue to work on a plan to break him out.
Further more, the scientist team explained a theory of why earth has reached its current state. Due to the properties of Xen being a 'borderworld', it harbors all timelines from every universe in harmony, but due to the sudden entrance and exit of D47's current timeline, it had been merged into a unholy union of time that mished and mashed all sorts of places and individuals into one distinct timeline.
This is where the story resides for now, as our valiant fighters patiently await directives on how to save this individual to solve the complex time-warping around the globe.
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