Journal Who are the Union fighting?

[ZeroPants]

(This is an In-Character Document)
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The Universal Union has enslaved earth, but for what purpose? They can spout off nonsense about improving our species as much as they want, but you know as much as I do that that is a lie.

Why do this to us? If there exists an endless number of dimensions, why keep expanding? You cannot conquer an infinite number of worlds, no matter how strong you are. So why enslave us? What purpose does the union have if not to use the people they subjugate as a weapon?

What enemy are they fighting? It would have to be one of equal or greater strength if they are still trying to expand and collect more resources. Or are the union fighting themselves over a lack of resources? Their technology must be powered by something, they could have conquered us purely for our resources, meaning they don’t have an issue with wiping us out at any time, as we might not be what they want.

There are two options, The Union is fighting a powerful enemy, and subjugate beings from other worlds to fight their battles for them, or they are struggling over a lack of resources to power their vast amounts of technology, and invade other worlds for their resources.

Both options are good, as if they are indeed fighting an enemy, we could somehow contact this enemy of the union we could work together as we have a common enemy.

If the union is struggling over a lack of resources this is also good, as the union seems to be burning through resources more than they are gaining them, forcing them to attack other worlds. But invading and maintaining these worlds would cost resources, so they are in a cycle of constant expansion, where they will eventually reach a point where they cannot maintain the worlds they take due to a lack of resources, meaning that the Union’s destruction is inevitable.

Tell me, do we wait for the Union to starve? Or do we find their enemy and join with them?

An enemy of my enemy is my friend.​

 

[Otis Laurey]

i think mainly for resources and better knowledge and tech advancments.

 

[Bodger]

Considering the actual name of the entity you call the Universal Union is The Combine or just Combine, then I think it's pretty obvious. They invade, conquer and expand their empire to eventually "combine" those enslaved and conquered into their society. Those who prove most useful are integrated quicker, or at least attempted to do so, and those with less use to their society are kept as slaves longer or as seen with vortigaunt vortessence harvesting as a resource.

They see themselves and their society as the ultimate good (Keep in mind they're from another dimension, their idea of good is different to ours) and so integrating and "combining" other societies and cultures into their own is their driving policy. They subjugate and integrate other species into their military because they need to expand and spread their society everywhere, they need the resources to expand their society, they enslave and subjugate people to bring them into their society.

TL;DR - The Combine expand and conquer to "Combine". Their society is the best and so everyone else must live in it. If they just wanted the resources without interest in integrating us they could easily wipe us out.

 

[Imperator RAD-X]

If you've heard of Marc Laidlaw's "Dimensional War" then that's basically the scale and why the Combine are so incredibly warlike. Everyone they encounter, anything they encounter, they are at war with and by decree must be assimilated. None else must exist past the top of the food chain. Race-X will be one of them, the Vorts were one of them, the Nihilanth was another. As can be seen, Half Life's universe is vast but our understanding currently is the depth of a puddle. Very deep in the multiverse, there will be a mirror image of the Combine that will effectively be on a toe-to-toe balance. But it's clear that with the appearance of the G-Man, the Combine are winning this dimensional war.

You might be wondering "well how does that help or what does the G-Man have to do with anything?"

If the Combine achieve their goals on getting local teleportation from humans on Earth, the cosmos is utterly, entirely, massively, undeniably, completely, buttfuckingly screwed. If they can get portal technology they have created like a harness and use that in combination with human equations and mathematical answers to that question - it's GG. They can go anywhere, do almost anything.

If the Combine lose that opportunity, they will never get it again and the tide will turn. Earth's a centrepoint for something like this, and to me that's a nice touch.

 

[ZeroPants]

Bear in mind this is an IC document, this is just the ideas of my character, not really me, I am just using what information the character would know to make theories

 

[RedHotGinger]

Perhaps the better question would be what are the union fighting? The answer is right before you, the creatures that attempted to slaughter our people and raze entire lands to the ground - bringing horrific infestation and blight with them. Of which, still desperately attempts to terraform our world to their own twisted desire form. I see no critical mention of these creatures however. Conveniently glossed over in order to throw stones at the first authority you see.

What you don't understand, of course, is that is the way of the 'old world.' We - those of us who have embraced the societal evolution of the Combine - see them for what they are. The conduit from which mankind will derive and has derived greater prospects, nearly infinite to those of the begotten ages before. I grew up as under the authority of military juntas that clawed and plucked the very essence of every village and hostel they could find. Food was a rarity, wanton destruction and the sound of fragmentation peppering the fields out south were weekly expectations. Safety was a translucent myth. By the time the Portal Storms occurred we had nothing and still lost it all. Every day was spent in a persistent fight just to survive.

You say they enslaved us, but all I see around me is unity. Three worlds now becoming one. Food is a commodity. I sleep well with the sounds of shells bouncing off of irrigated farms being a distant memory. The abusive parasitic governments of old are gone. The streets, though wounded, show signs of life once more. The endless hordes of our true enemies are kept at bay beyond high walls.

The ideas above are just the wounded coping mechanisms of stunted thinkers. There is no greater entity then the Combine. There is no shortages in the perfected society we have to look forwards to. There is no weakness, regardless of how much rebellious entities want there to be. They are no different than the guerilla fighters from my old home. Desperate, selfish and lost.

What are the union fighting?
No.
What are the union fighting for. The answer? Us.

- A loyalist, probably.
​

(No IC thread is complete without some hyper-loyalist ramblings.)

 

[Gazzpacho]

I'd rather develop my own race with my own powers, not forcefully advancing Humanity by genocides, creating human robots and basically destroying the human nature. The Combine conquers because they can, they don't think of anything they do. If they are superior than humans, they enslave the human race, if they are superior than vorts, they enslave all vorts from Xen.

Though, it hasn't been talked much about it, but Race-X isn't enslaved by the Combine, and that could be the possible enemy of the Combine itself. We don't know the actual power that race has, and believe me, in the whole universe, the Combine can't be the toughest, it's impossible.

 

[Gazzpacho]

Race-X will be one of them

That's the thing, we don't know, and there are very big chances it won't. I might actually do some research on Xen and Race-X armies if you guys want, since it was a period where I was interested in both

 

[Bodger]

I'd rather develop my own race with my own powers, not forcefully advancing Humanity by genocides, creating human robots and basically destroying the human nature. The Combine conquers because they can, they don't think of anything they do. If they are superior than humans, they enslave the human race, if they are superior than vorts, they enslave all vorts from Xen.

Though, it hasn't been talked much about it, but Race-X isn't enslaved by the Combine, and that could be the possible enemy of the Combine itself. We don't know the actual power that race has, and believe me, in the whole universe, the Combine can't be the toughest, it's impossible.

Your human way of thinking is that if you are superior, everyone else must die or be enslaved, while the combine's interdimensional alien way of thinking is that "we are superior so we will force everyone to be like us" through subjugation and then assimilation. The reasons that the combine don't wipe us out or make us all synthetic like the OTA is because they want to see if normal humans can assimilate peacefully. So most humans still alive (as far as we know) are enslaved like vorts and made to be subservient, attempting to make us docile

 

[Dark]

Your human way of thinking is that if you are superior, everyone else must die or be enslaved, while the combine's interdimensional alien way of thinking is that "we are superior so we will force everyone to be like us" through subjugation and then assimilation. The reasons that the combine don't wipe us out or make us all synthetic like the OTA is because they want to see if normal humans can assimilate peacefully. So most humans still alive (as far as we know) are enslaved like vorts and made to be subservient, attempting to make us docile

You just need to look at history to realize that this current method isn't effective at assimilating others. Therefore, a counter argument to your points would be tha the combine are too smart to fail so miserably at assimilating humans. But perhaps they just decided to use the methods of the already conquered races on humans and therefore are blind in their failure.

 

[Gazzpacho]

Your human way of thinking is that if you are superior, everyone else must die or be enslaved, while the combine's interdimensional alien way of thinking is that "we are superior so we will force everyone to be like us" through subjugation and then assimilation. The reasons that the combine don't wipe us out or make us all synthetic like the OTA is because they want to see if normal humans can assimilate peacefully. So most humans still alive (as far as we know) are enslaved like vorts and made to be subservient, attempting to make us docile

Personally, I don't want to be a slave to strangers. On Earth, my race and the animals from it are the most superior ones. I want to be me, not assimilate peacefully to another race, it's unnatural and Humans are gonna go extinct if they will become tools for the Combine.

 

[ZeroPants]

My question is this: Why does the union have a suppression field up if they wanted us to survive? Eventually, humans will become too old to reproduce, rendering us extinct

 

[Bodger]

My question is this: Why does the union have a suppression field up if they wanted us to survive? Eventually, humans will become too old to reproduce, rendering us extinct

They can make more humans from our DNA. The suppression field is so that the combine control the creation of new human or other life on earth