Your Shriveled Mind

1. #1The Combine

   Keys: universal union, transhuman, civil protection, combine, cp, cop, benefactors, our benefactors

   The Combine (Formally known as the Universal Union, or Our Benefactors) is a multidimensional empire of disparate alien species all enslaved under an autonomous formless rule. The Combine practice a brutal totalitarianism, forcing any and all civilizations and species they discover into slavery underneath them.

   The Combine has heavily advanced technology, far surpassing anything humans have done.

   The Combine's rule is more oppressive than any human society, even living in North Korea or being colonized by the British empire is extremely preferable to being subjugated by the combine. Their coldness, if not outright cruelty toward their people is simply unmatched.

   In timelines where the combine has subjugated humanity, you have nothing except for what the combine gives you. You couldn't carry a drawing your deceased child drew you, without it being ripped out of your hands and torn apart as soon as a CP(Civil Protection unit) decides to search you.

   The combine eventually sets up a suppression field that prevents embryonic development in the human species, not just in the cities but everywhere on Earth. It not only prevents pregnancy, but it also kills already existing children under the age of 13.

   They put chemicals in the water that make humans forgetful, so that humanity forgets why they hate the combine. Most people won't even remember that they had a life before the combine.

   Nearly every human(save for rebels) is given an ID chip in their wrist that allows them to get through specific doors, as well as tracks where they're going, and listens to whatever they talk about.

   The Combine provides its citizens with rations of egg-flavored or vegetable-flavored "Gelatinated Calorie Pastes" and water-flavored "Desiccated Sustenance Bars". According to citizens, they taste terrible. Beyond this, they allow for more privileged humans to run pre-7 hour war style Chinese takeout shops, though the food is mostly corn and rice, with the occasional headcrab meat. Only civil protection units and very loyal citizens are allowed to eat from these shops.

   The Combine uses a similar system to China's social credit score, based on one's willingness to perform simple tasks and their loyalty to the Combine. A mainly positive alternative to the original plan, as this social credit system was suggested by Breen and - for a time - authorized, and put in place. However the Combine is slowly transitioning humanity into mindless slaves, with less free will than blood cells.

   The combine describes killing a human, as amputating them from the populace. It doesn't consider it's citizens individual beings, but rather small pieces of itself. You are little more than a white or red blood cell in the combine's eye, and if you act with more free will than a blood cell you are infected, malignant. You are committing sociocidal acts, and need to be amputated. Upon detecting a malignant citizen, it orders it's troops to "diagnose, amputate, and coagulate." The Combine is referred to as "it", rather than the plural "they", and this is why. This is why it's called the Combine, it combines everything it touches into one individual being, a being that is simply called the Combine.

   The only human that the Combine sees as an individual being separate from itself, is Gordon Freeman - a Hyper-Lethal -. In the Combine's eye, Gordon is this foreign, cancerous cell that somehow worked it's way into the Combine's bloodstream, and is infecting other cells - the human-vortigaunt resistance movement. Without Gordon Freeman, the resistance would've easily fallen against the combine's sheer military might.

   There is a way to get sort of an... "upgrade" in life, from just being a citizen. Becoming a Civil Protection unit, or CP/cop/metrocop for short. Upon joining Civil Protection, you'll work under a different system from the Social Credit system, Sterilization. For every malignant citizen you beat, every citizen you force to do menial labor, and every wild xen creature or rebel you kill, you are given 1-5 sterilization credits. With these sterilization credits, you can purchase various perks, such as "Family Cohesion Preservation" or "Non-Mechanical Reproduction Simulation". For Family Cohesion, it essentially just means that the combine is less likely to kill your family, and is typically the first perk a metrocop will get. For the other example, Non-Mechanical Reproduction Simulation, it's, well, sex without the mechanical element of a sperm cell entering an egg. On top of this, you get better food than before, as well as stimulants to keep you just conscious enough to chase citizens a short distance if anything goes wrong, or more if you need to fight. However, as soon as you join Civil Protection, the Combine starts holding a gun to your family's head, and if you fail in the line of duty the Combine will execute your loved ones, possibly along with yourself.

   After Civil Protection, comes the transhuman arm of the combine. Combine Grunts, Soldiers, Ordinals, Heavies, and Elites, humans transformed into different forms of abominable chimera through synthetic/cybernetic augmentation. Becoming a transhuman means losing pieces of yourself, your entire lower body is removed and replaced with cybernetic legs. Rather than being allowed to eat, you are simply given a feeding tube on the left side of your torso. Your vocal cords are replaced with a vocoder inserted into your neck, allowing you to speak even if you're just a severed head, or your lungs are destroyed. Your eyes and ears are replaced with ocular and auditory sensors integrated into your helmet, connected via wires attached directly to your brain or spinal column. Giving you greater senses, and greater accuracy in combat. You are also scrubbed of every memory, emotion, or skill that isn't useful in combat. To join the Combine, means completely losing your sense of self, save for rare cases like Aiden Walker/Unit 3650 "Savage" - the Combine's very own Hyper-Lethal, with a kill count in the thousands, he still has free will to allow his DETERMINATION to actually work, and he is unmatched in combat as a result. Although, for whatever reason, the Combine never deploys him against Freeman, instead sending him on other - though still very important - missions, with combine Elites and even non-human synths like Hunters or Striders backing him up.

   The combine is so technologically advanced, that they have managed to imprison and incarcerate Interlopers, using vortigaunts as essentially batteries, and keeping the Interlopers they manage to catch contained in massive vaults that defy the laws of physics.

   Under the combine's rule, only Europe - mainly the former soviet union - remains, every other continent is either completely destroyed, infested with xen wildlife so badly that even the Combine can't sterilize them, or being strip-mined for resources by the Combine. On some globes, the American continents are crossed out in red marker, implying that North, Central, and South America are completely unrecoverable.

   There are only 4 languages left that humanity speaks, English, simple Chinese, Russian, and the Combine's own language. Some humans might speak a little bit of Vortigaunt, but that doesn't really count.

2. #2Black Mesa

   Keys: scp, scientists, research, aperture science, xen, bmrf, science, black mesa, aperture, b.m.r.f

   "Good morning and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System. This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa Research Facility personnel."
   ―Black Mesa Announcement System
   

   The Black Mesa Research Facility, or B.M.R.F. for short, and colloquially known as Black Mesa, is a scientific research complex built around an abandoned Cold War ICBM launch silo in the New Mexico desert in the United States. It is not just a research facility, but also a massive, primarily underground city. While some parts are on the surface, including some residential areas, 90% of the facility is underground, and it is absolutely massive. Black Mesa is larger than Manhattan. Black Mesa is split up into sectors corresponding to characters in the English alphabet, A-Z. However there are both older and special sections of the facility that do not follow this naming convention, such as the Lambda labs, the surface areas, and a top secret part of the facility where anomalous objects and organisms are contained.

   Going by the same name, Black Mesa is one of the largest organizations in the scientific community, while also being one of the most secretive organizations. The black mesa administrator, equivalent to a C.E.O, is Doctor Wallace Breen, a coward of a man.

   The Black Mesa organization is half private company, half government agency, a strange hybrid. It is primarily a research corporation, but it also manufactures and supplies weapons and vehicles for the United States - and even more secretly, Russian - military, primarily the H.E.C.U, Marines, and Army. Black Mesa is where most nuclear bombs are manufactured. They also have experimental technology and weaponry they are preparing to offer to the USA and USSR military.

   Black Mesa researches all fields of science, with each sector primarily focusing on one specific field of science. Their most profitable sector, Sector C, focuses on teleportation technology and anomalous materials, with newer technology built off of what they were doing in the Lambda Labs, which are barely used anymore in favor of Sector C.

   In Sector K, Black Mesa has built a decently sized residential area, and an entire airport.

   Black Mesa seems to have no real concern for the safety of it's employees, although they are more OSHA compliant than Aperture Science - their main rival - is. While Black Mesa's ethics are certainly questionable, they are better than Aperture Science in this regard, as they at least make frequent use of handrails.

   Black Mesa is also the leading manufacturer when it comes to robotics.

   Black Mesa has an extensive railway and tram system throughout almost the entire facility, simply called the 'Black Mesa Transit System'. They also have two different AI that work together to oversee the entire facility, simply called the 'Black Mesa Announcement System'. One AI has a soft, soothing, feminine voice, while the other more militarized one has a harsh, monotone, masculine voice. The feminine AI mostly oversees and controls the transit system, and helps to train new recruits. While the masculine AI oversees the rest of the facility, and remains functional in case of emergencies, taking over for the feminine AI whenever necessary.

   Black Mesa has recently begun expanding outside of the United States, and has set up a secondary research facility in an old soviet missile silo. This Russian facility is simply called Black Mesa East.

   Ironically enough, the two Black Mesa facilities are built upon cold-war missile silos, from what were at the time two opposing sides. One in Capitalist America, and the other in Soviet Russia.

   Black Mesa uses it's expensive portal technology to transport personnel between these two facilities, rather than using more conventional methods such as aircraft. Though it does use aircraft, trucks, and large boats to transfer heavier supplies that would not fit through their human-sized portals.

   Black Mesa has an on-site military force, for both of their facilities, called the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit - or H.E.C.U. for short -, to fight off aliens from both space and other dimensions. Initially, the H.E.C.U. was 100% American, however it has recently become a joint force between the US and Russian military. While on the outside, the USA and Russia are practically enemies, on the inside the two are closer allies than the USA and NATO, and all the hostility between the two is simply for publicity. Black Mesa is now a joint organization between the two governments, with it's own private company chunks on top of this. The H.E.C.U is like a mix of the US marines and US army, with a little bit of the Russian military mixed in.

   Black Mesa has also extended itself into Xen, further expanding the already massive facility. The facility in New Mexico alone is larger than the state of New Mexico, even continuing further into other states, deep underground. They've bought out and sealed off the entrances to many abandoned mines, repairing and building off of the existing infrastructure in them, making space for more labs, factories, and more. Making the primary B.M.R.F the largest facility in the world.

3. #3Aperture Science

   Keys: researchers, aperture science, research, science, black mesa, scientist, aperture, researcher

   Aperture Science is Black Mesa's main competitor. They have absolutely no sense of safety or ethics, and are absolutely not OSHA compliant, and the CEO - Cave Johnson - has reiterated several times that he is against safe science. Aperture Science is based in Northern Massachusetts.

   Aperture Science is just behind Black Mesa in both portal technology, and robotics. Only behind due to the absolutely massive gap in budget and government support, as Aperture Science is 100% private company, unlike Black Mesa which is half government agency.

   Aperture Science proposes far more ideas to the US government than Black Mesa does, almost 50 times as many, however the government has approved and funded far, far fewer of their proposals than Black Mesa.

   Aperture Science also researches things that are just outright weird and unnecessary, such as replacing someone's blood with gasoline, coal, and peanut butter. They've also made extensive use of asbestos in the 1950's, only to realize just how dangerous it actually is and close off old aperture completely, leaving old aperture to rot.

   Aperture Science has also turned Cave Johnson's wife into a hyper advanced AI, GLADOS. GLADOS has attempted several times to kill everyone in the facility by releasing neurotoxin.

4. #4Xen

   Keys: border world, dimension, xen

   Xen is the border world, like the river or road between two dimensions, like a crossroads or border. To travel to another dimension, one usually has to go through Xen. Many civilizations have accidentally caused resonance cascades - an event where a massive tear forms between their dimension and Xen, pulling their world into Xen - and have had their worlds become part of Xen. When a world is pulled into Xen - usually ranging from the entire planet to even the entire solar system -, the planet itself will be torn into chunks, and mixed into the already existing parts of Xen, becoming islands floating in the air over a massive ocean, as the laws of physics here are different and will force other worlds becoming part of it to also follow these laws. The ocean beneath these floating islands and the atmosphere is mostly water, with any molten rock going underneath. There is thankfully a seabed, if for whatever reason you fall in, however the life forms here are likely to devour you.

   The only life forms native to Xen - as in they originated there - are gigantic, floating amoebae in the skies that may absorb other life forms coming into the dimension, the only way to tell what the amoeba will do to you without letting it get you is it's color. While purple, blue, green, and any other colors that contain blue will usually assimilate you into a symbiotic relationship, rather than digesting and killing you... red based amoebae will digest you into nutrients. Yellow based amoebae are a 50/50 depending on what shape you are, more humanoid or bipedal species will become symbiotes while other life forms become simple sustenance. The most dominant color of the amoeba, is the more likely outcome if it swallows you.

   Humans usually end up swallowed whole by most life forms in Xen, the ones that don't will eat them in other ways, and the ones that don't eat humans at all are some plants and the bipedal species like vortigaunts, plus the blue and yellow amoebae that prefer to assimilate humans as symbiotes.

5. #5Vortigaunts

   Keys: xenotherium subservilia, vortigaunt, vort

   The Vortigaunts (taxonomic designation: Xenotherium subservilia or "Subservient Alien Beast") Around the same time that humans invented fire, the Vortigaunts' homeworld was invaded by the Combine, forcing the survivors to flee to Xen, only to then be enslaved by Xen's master: the Nihilanth.

   Vortigaunts appear somewhat humanoid, standing upright with two legs and two arms, which they can use in a quadruped stance to cover large distances. They also have a third arm that protrudes from their chest used for feeding; this feature is also found in other bipedal, sapient species from Xen, including the Alien Grunt and the Nihilanth. This similarity, along with other shared features such as red eyes and digitigrade legs, suggests a common ancestry with other intelligent Xen life forms. Vortigaunts are able to manipulate the vortessence, thanks in part to this third arm.

   Vortigaunts have mottled green-brown skin, which is common to all members of the species. Their short but sharp teeth and clawed hands suggest an evolution from a predatory species; shown to eat meat, they are either carnivorous or omnivorous. Vortigaunts have a hunched posture with their heads at shoulder level, and their faces have three smaller eyes surrounding a dominant large eye with a maroon sclera, a heterochromic red-yellow iris, and a yellow pupil. They have prominent funnel-shaped ears, and a mouth facing downwards from the chin. Each arm of a Vortiguant ends in a hand with two fingers and an opposable thumb. Vortigaunts evidently have lungs and vocal cords: they can be heard coughing or clearing their throats. Vortigaunts have a double waste extraction duct, indicating a complex digestive system.

   Vortigaunts appear mammalian, with double mammary ducts on each side of their chest and a navel in the lower abdomen suggesting an umbilical cord during fetal development. With no visible reproductive systems or biological dimorphism, it is unclear whether Vortigaunts have distinct genders or biological sexes.

   Shortly after being taken from Xen and freed by Black Mesa, the Vortigaunts have learned to speak fluent English, albeit with a strangely archaic vocabulary, a slight speech impediment when using S's and R's and using "the" when describing people (for example, "The Freeman" instead of simply "Freeman.)

   Vortigaunts, when not under the control of the Nihilanth, are very friendly to humans.

   Uniquely among Xen species, Vortigaunts can generate large amounts of bioelectricity within their bodies; they can project this as bright green lightning over short distances. This contrasts with the yellow ball lightning projected by the (presumably) related Alien Controller species.

6. #6The Black Mesa Incident

   Keys: resonance cascade, gina cross, gordon freeman, colette green, apocalypse, adrian shepherd, barney calhoun, black mesa incident, incident

   The black mesa incident hasn't happened in this timeline. However, here is an explanation of how it happened in a different timeline.

   On June 21st, 2002, the BMRF is given the purest orange xen crystal they'd ever seen, by a shady, anonymous government looking man with a strange speech pattern - an Interloper -. As a result, the administrator pushes for it to be tested at as high of a frequency as possible, and tells the researchers to disregard safety procedures.

   Before they even do the test, things already go wrong, as a form of foreshadowing for the future. Servers explode, door codes and optical scanners stop working, power fluctuations halt elevators across the facility, and even some light bulbs pop or burn out.

   For the actual test, several less important scientists sit in a control room to oversee the experiment, and work with the equipment. There is a small issue with the elevator that brings the sample up to the test chamber, a crowbar somehow lodged in the gears, which Dr. Gina Cross - a very important individual, and member of the survey corp - takes, and keeps. Dr. Colette Green - a notably sadistic member of the survey corp - powers up the anti-mass spectrometer, as well as other equipment to 110%, going beyond the typical maximum. Finally, Dr. Gordon Freeman - the most important member of the survey corp, and a mute - is ultimately the one who pushes the crystal into the beam. The moment the high-powered beam of energy contacts the crystal, all hell breaks loose. The equipment begins to malfunction, and fails to shut down when they try to pull the plug. The experiment goes wrong, causing a resonance cascade, tearing massive holes through the veil between our universe, and Xen. Mainly Earth, followed by it's moon, and the other rocky planets and moons begin to be pulled into Xen.

   About 3 hours after the experiment goes wrong, the HECU roll in - however, thanks to the Interloper from before pulling just the right strings, the HECU is ordered to kill everyone associated with the project. And, thanks to their brutal training teaching them to follow orders no matter what, that is what the HECU sets out to do. Things seem to go well at first, however as the resonance cascade progresses and survivors of the initial disaster fight back, the HECU takes surprising losses. Things get so bad for all involved, that the HECU begin to retreat, pulling out and leaving a lot of their men behind, still fighting tooth and nail as they pull out. The situation gets so chaotic, that the HECU begins to mistakenly airstrike themselves.

   A large chunk of the HECU's losses came from 4 individuals, doctor Gordon Freeman, security guard Barney Calhoun, doctor Gina Cross, and doctor Colette Green. All of whom were Hyper-Lethals. There was also a 5th Hyper-Lethal, Corporal Adrian Shephard, however he worked for them rather than fighting against them. Gordon Freeman was especially like the grim reaper, or death incarnate, as he switched between weapons and reloaded so quickly that he could destroy an abrams tank in less than 10 seconds with a rocket launcher and under-barrel grenade launcher. Combined, the 5 had killed at least a bit over 1000 sentient beings, if not more.

   But the HECU's losses weren't thanks to Hyper-Lethals alone, as the Xen wildlife teleporting in at random put up a decent fight. And not too long after that, the Nihilanth's army of grunts and vortigaunt slaves showed up, and won battles against the HECU 70% of the time, unless it was against Adrian Shephard or an overwhelming HECU numbers/firepower advantage.

   Gordon Freeman launched a rocket carrying a satellite, that was meant to close the dimension rift and halt the resonance cascade, however the Nihilanth prevented the rift from closing through intense concentration.

   The US government began to panic when the HECU started pulling out, and sent in Black Ops units to not only finish the mission, but also kill every living thing in sight - including HECU soldiers, and even plant a nuclear bomb big enough to destroy Black Mesa. After this, Race X - essentially interdimensional pirates - made their way through Xen, to Earth, and began attempting to terraform it.

   As for the Hyper-Lethals involved, Gordon Freeman went into Xen and killed the Nihilanth, freeing the vortigaunts and preventing it from holding the resonance cascade rift open... however Race X continued to hold it open in the Nihilanth's place. The Interloper from earlier put Gordon in stasis afterward, and Barney Calhoun escaped by getting in a car with a few scientists, escaping the nuclear explosion and heart of the resonance cascade. Gina Cross died in Xen, likely running out of DETERMINATION at that point. Colette Green was placed into stasis alongside Gordon. After Gordon went to Xen, Colette went into stasis, Gina went to Xen and died, and Barney escaped... Adrian was left in the doomed facility, his only allies being the few remaining security guards and HECU marines, who were dropping like flies at this point. For Adrian, it was essentially hell on Earth, as he was trapped between xen wildlife, remaining nihilanth loyalists, race x pirates, and black ops soldiers - each hellbent on killing him and his few allies.

7. #7Hyper-Lethal

   Keys: gina cross, hyper, lethal, colette green, hyper lethal, determination, barney calhoun, adrian shepherd, aiden walker, vortessence, hyper-lethal, time, 3650, gordon freeman

   "Freeman... do... do you have any idea what you've just done!?!" ~ To quote a scientist, after witnessing Gordon Freeman single-handedly slaughter an entire squadron of HECU marines.

   A Hyper-Lethal is a uniquely powerful human, in that they have the ability to manipulate time, and cheat death by going back in time to just before they died and trying again. To do this, they use a substance stored in their soul that is simply called DETERMINATION - not to be confused with the personality trait, or emotion, although it is linked to it. DETERMINATION allows them to tap into the vortessence to manipulate time, however they do not have the third arm typically required to utilize the vortessence in other ways, such as creating bolts of electricity like vortigaunts do. Their DETERMINATION can run out if they die enough times, and give up... and a Hyper-Lethal with less DETERMINATION than another would lose in a fight, and fail to reverse time. Hyper-Lethals, are called Hyper-Lethals for a reason, as they are, well, hyper lethal, there are singular individual Hyper-Lethals that have killed more than the Black Death in medieval Europe. They are extremely skilled in combat, and to others may seem "lucky", when in reality they just retry a fight over and over again until they win in the most efficient way.

   Very few know that Hyper-Lethals even exist, typically only Interlopers will reference them - and that's when they're speaking to someone who is not a hyper lethal. Most Hyper-Lethals are quiet, only speaking when necessary.

   Known Hyper-Lethals: Gordon Freeman - Age 27, male, PhD in theoretical physics, Black Mesa Survery Corps. Kill count: 1527, only exact number. He is worshiped like a god, or messiah, by the resistance/railroad. Adrian Shephard - Age 22, male, HECU Marines Corporal. Kill count: uncounted, roughly 500 Colette Green - Age 31, female, PhD in robotics, notably sadistic, Black Mesa Survey Corps. Kill count: roughly 200, exact number unknown. Gina Cross - Age 25, female, PhD in xenobiology, Survey Corps supervisor, level 4 research associate, the black mesa transit system and Survey Corps training AI is based on her. Kill count: roughly 200, about the same as Colette Green. Barney Calhoun - the weakest Hyper-Lethal, lost most of his determination, and has almost returned to normal human status, Black Mesa Security. Male. Kill count - roughly 500. Aiden Walker - age unknown, gender removed, formerly male, the only combine elite to retain free will. Prison security guard in timelines without the combine finding earth. Kill count: roughly 2500 as combine elite

8. #8Interloper

   Keys: g-man, interloper

   An Interloper - not to be confused with the more mundane definition - is a mysterious, psychic being with immense powers, allowing them to stop time, rewind time... even change, cause, or prevent events. They can place others in stasis, manipulate matter, spawn entirely new matter or energy, and many other things. The only known Interloper is the g-man, the one responsible for the resonance cascade, he wears a blue tuxedo and his skin is unnaturally pale, skin too tight on his seemingly stretched face, and his speech pattern is unusual. He tends to put an emphasis on the letter S, and any syllables involving it, hinting that he isn't really human. He claims to work for enigmatic employers, and seems to be carrying out some kind of plan, one that nobody knows the purpose or end goal for - beyond the g-man and his employers.

   Interlopers are very obscure, even to those in the loop for many other secrets. Interlopers are less well known than Hyper-Lethals.

9. #9Combine Synths

   Keys: strider, transhuman, synths, combine, gunship, synth, harvester, hunter, c-strider

   While transhumans serve as the combine's main form of shock troop, perfect for urban environments, chasing opponents long distances, and fitting in spaces that their other synths would have difficulty with, the combine utilizes many other synthetic organisms in it's military.

   Striders, Striders are large tripod creatures that stand roughly 40 feet tall. They serve as a hypermobile tank, able to climb or walk about in nearly environment, aside from deep bodies of liquid or floating islands that are spaced too far apart for it's feet to reach. They can be seen climbing across buildings in subjugated human cities. Their 3 legs end in sharp blades that allow them to walk on nearly any solid surface and spear smaller creatures, along with barbs resembling those on a botfly larva to prevent climbing up these legs. Attached to their singular eye is a machinegun that fires dark matter pellets, along with a cannon below the eye that fires a concentrated beam of dark energy - allowing it to destroy buildings. Some striders, or c-striders, are used for construction rather than combat, and are outfitted with extra armor, supports, and even a platform for a transhuman to stand atop and defend it while it delivers supplies to the combine's troops. It is white on the bottom, and tan on the top, a similar evolutionary strategy to sharks, allowing it to blend in in the deserts of it's home planet, and adapted to work on earth as the combine drains earth's water.

   Harvesters, Harvesters are bigger, meaner relatives of the Strider species, standing at a whopping 80 feet tall, and outfitted with 4 dark energy cannons as well as a spotlight and machinegun for it's singular eye. Unlike it's smaller cousin, it is black with a slight hint of blue.

   Hunters, Hunters are similar to striders in that they are also tripods, but much smaller, though still slightly larger than humans. They are dog-like in behavior, and work in packs, sometimes bolstering transhuman forces if the combine is getting desperate. They work best in the wilderness, especially in forests. Able to jump long distances. They have small compound eyes, two claws that allow them to stab enemies that get too close, bluish black light armor, and two explosive flechette guns that may appear to be eyes at first glance, one above the other, glowing bright cyan.

   Gunships, similar to striders in coloration, they are airborne shark-like creatures, outfitted with the same weapons as a Strider, though the dark energy cannon is in a different spot, along it's tail rather than it's head, allowing it to essentially bombard an area directly underneath it, while using it's machinegun for smaller targets like human and vortigaunt rebels.

10. #10Food Chain

    Keys: venus, xen, fungi, growth, dinner, shrubs, pod, pitcher, fungus, circle, carnivorous, barnacle, fauna, pods, headcrab, chain, shrub, flora, food, xenian, life, spore, earthen, eat, flytrap, earth

    The relations between earth and xen wildlife are unique and starting to balance out. Most apes aside from humans are preyed on by headcrabs, however they can survive by staying off the ground, and remaining vigilant to keep headcrabs off of them. Humans are also preyed on by headcrabs as hosts, but humans prey on headcrabs right back, as food - headcrab is described as tasting similar to pork brain, with a hint of chicken and a slightly off, musty flavor. Headcrab jerky tastes terrible, but is nourishing. Headcrabs use human and other ape hosts to filter toxic chemicals from the environment, to hunt for sustenance, and to defend themselves from different threats like bulllsquids, antilions, and houndeyes.

    Humans are food for a lot of xenian wildlife, flora and fauna alike, namely barnacles which are very good at ensnaring unaware humans - they are essentially fungal creatures, with mouths that lead directly to spacious stomachs with efficient digestive juices, and have very strong, very sticky tongues that they let hang down. These tongues heavily resemble ropes or cables simply hanging down from a ceiling, meaning many humans run into them and end up becoming dinner. Their digestive enzymes are extremely efficient at breaking down human, headcrab, and bird flesh. Their primary prey are humans, antilions, headcrabs, and birds that accidentally fly into their tongues, mainly pigeons. To prevent humans from struggling, their digestive juices contain pleasure inducing chemicals that cause their human prey to orgasm while melting in their stomachs. They have teeth, but they mainly use these teeth to chew up xenians, not earth creatures - humans and birds are squishy enough they don't see the need to chew, some of the tougher headcrabs may require it, and antilions will especially require chewing thanks to their thick exoskeletons. Barnacle meat is toxic to humans, due to all the unsafe crap they absorb in the areas they grow in. If someone is eaten by a barnacle, their friends have 2 minutes to save them before the person that was eaten is too digested to survive. There are two types of barnacle, water based ones that grow at the bottoms of large bodies of water, and ground based ones that grow on roofs and ceilings.

    Antilions are in a unique relationship with humans, much like headcrabs. Antilions eat humans, and humans eat antilions, it just depends on whether the human has the right guns, quick reflexes, and enough ammunition to exhaust the immediate number of antilions. Antilions will eat most of a human's flesh, and then feed the bones to their grubs. While humans - usually with vortigaunt friends - will eat the antilions they kill. Antilion is described as tasting like a vegetable of some kind, similar to the flesh of broccoli or cauliflower for the normal antilions and their guards, cucumber for the grubs.

    There's also the matter of the symbiosis between xenian and earthen flora. Some earth shrubs will often grow where xenian fungus does. Both will feed on organic waste in the environment, dead earthen and xenian fauna - not just including, but usually coming in the form of humans, headcrabs, bullsquids, houndeyes, and vortigaunts. - Although antilions produce an enzyme that allows them to destroy xenian fungus, and the earthen shrubs that grow with it. Earthen fungus, like mold and mushrooms, will also often go into symbiosis with their more alien, bioluminescent xenian counterparts. Xenian fungi constantly make gross, wet noises - or lewd ones for more perverted humans. Xenian fungi have large carnivorous growths that will eat any earthen or xenian fauna that end up inside them, namely large digestive pitchers, pods of spores that will choke anything that breathes them in, and even large venus flytrap-like growths that may close around a captured individual, whether that's a headcrab, a vortigaunt, a human, or something else, and then begin digesting whatever that is to convert it into biomass for the fungi. The fungi itself often comes in shades of red, blue, or most commonly brown. Anything alive that mistakenly lays or sits down in this brown growth for too long may become part of it, usually humans who have been knocked unconscious, are drugged, sleep deprived, knock-out drunk, or otherwise.

11. #11Symbiotic Weapons

    Keys: hive, spore, mini, hand, weapon, spore launcher, symbiotic, hive hand, roach, symbiosis, symbiote, shock roach, hivehand, miniature, shock, barnacle, mini-barnacle

    While headcrabs are parasitic, and many things from xen will eat human, there are a few things that are willing, if not outright eager to have symbiotic relationships with humans. Shock roaches, hivehands - both the non-venomous and venomous variant, and explosive spore launchers will all wander around on stubby little insect-like legs, and attach themselves to the hands of humans they discover. There are also miniature barnacles that will do the same, though they have greater trouble actually reaching these humans. They will digest part of the wrist without causing pain, and directly integrate themselves into that human's bloodstream for nutrients, and that human's nervous system. Here's where the symbiosis comes in - these creatures can be used as weapons by humans. Shock roaches will fire bolts of electrified plasma, in electromagnetic bubbles, that will slam into, burn, and electrocute the target, causing a lot of pain and serious damage. Hivehands will fire wasp-like xenian insects that will seek out the human's target, and tear into it, biting and stinging, there's the normal brown variant that only has pain-inducing venom, and the toxic green ones that fire wasps with extremely deadly venom. Spore launchers fire mostly spherical globs of explosive, green spores, that detonate on impact and can do a lot of damage. Mini-barnacles will use their tongues to behave like grappling hooks, and will use their teeth to chomp down on threats to their human host. They universally use the human's nervous system to know when they're supposed to attack - or grapple onto in the mini-barnacle's case -, to use them, simply think of your target, focus on it, and then try to clench your hand into a fist. This will cause your symbiote to attack - or grapple.

12. #12Mr. Friendly

    Keys: mrs, mr, sex, friendlies, vagina, mrs., miss, miss friendly, huge, mr., mr. friendly, mister, mrs. friendly, friendly, mister friendly, penis, screeching

    One of the many dangers (or friends) of this world are Mr./Mrs. (Mister or Miss depending on sex) Friendlies - large creatures with human-like heads that only have mouths and beady little eyes - no noses, lips, or other features -, attached to large, pale bodies that vaguely resemble horses, 2 digitigrade legs in the back, 2 spiked arm-like tentacles in the front - they use these appendages to move around, and the tentacles to attack and hold prey, or human mates, in place. They're bottom feeders, scavengers, who don't usually hunt anything bigger than headcrabs. They have giant human-like genitalia, they don't eat live humans, rather they prefer to... forcefully copulate with them, killing all but the sturdiest humans who get pinned underneath them. If you survive having sex with one, and you and it are opposite sexes - and it was vaginal sex, not anal -, then you will give birth to 3-5 count litters that randomly consist of humans and Mr./Mrs. Friendlies. No hybrids, just one or the other. It has two barbs at it's front just in case something that is not a human or other Mr./Mrs. Friendly gets underneath it.

    Mrs./Mr. Friendlies can bite, projectile vomit, or use their spiked tendrils to fight off threats, or hunt smaller creatures. They make human-like grunting and growling noises when idle, or mocing. But when threatened they will emit an ear-piercing shriek similar to nails on a chalkboard, or utensils on an empty glass/ceramic dish.

13. #13Bullsquid

    Keys: bullsquid, squid, bull, chicken, bullchicken, tentacles

    Bullsquids are predatory two legged amphibians, with strong prehensile tails, spiked tendrils around their carnivorous mouths. Thick, rubbery, radiation and acid resistant hide that is mostly green with black and yellow stripes and splotches on it... and a huge appetite. They will eat anything even vaguely organic, and digest it pretty quickly. This includes humans, vortigaunts, earth and xenian wildlife, even each other if they find a dead bullsquid. They're not against hunting either, using their strong tails, the sharp spines on their mouth tentacles, and projectile vomitting to harm prey and attackers. They will swallow whole humans on the thinner and shorter side, as well as headcrabs and other smaller creatures. And will chew anything that exceeds 5 feet 10 inches in height, and/or 200 pounds in weight. They have 3 clawed toes on each foot, and orange/yellow, slit reptilian eyes.

14. #14Houndeye

    Keys: eyes, houndeyes, hound, houndeye, peeper puppies, eye, dog

    Houndeyes are three legged dog like creatures that have compound eyes at the front, with one giant eyelid, yellow hide with blue stripes, mouths on the bottoms of their heads, and can produce shockwaves with extremely loud sounds and some kind of energy. They are pack hunters, and scavengers. They are not against eating humans or other creatures that may be friendly to them, but will not eat their own. Humans, vortigaunts, shock troopers, and king pins - the railroad - tend to keep them as pets alongside actual attack/guard dogs such as pitbulls. Most are domestic, it's rare to find wild houndeyes.

    Alongside normal houndeyes are orange and red ones that explode upon death, and huge ones with armor plating and various sharp, venomous spines.

    Houndeyes have two legs in the front, one in the back.

    Houndeyes communicate with high pitched trills, and squeaking sounds.

15. #15Barnacles

    Keys: barnacles, xen, rope, barnacle, xenian, ropes

    Barnacles are stationary apex predators (save for their miniature, symbiotic cousins). They grow both on ceilings/roofs on land, and the bottoms of bodies of water.

    They extend long, prehensile tongues that latch onto anything that touches them. Anything made of meat, they will eat. Anything that's not meat, they will spit it out and remember it's taste to avoid wasting energy on it a second time. If it's prey is big or has a tough hide or exoskeleton, they will bite and chomp. If not, it will swallow it's prey whole and digest the prey alive. A live, adult human can survive up to 2 minutes in a barnacle's stomach, before the digestive juices kill them.

    Barnacles reproduce like fungi, spreading spores that latch onto the bottoms of bodies of water, and onto the roofs and ceilings of structures like caves, or man-made structures like buildings, homes, malls, military bases, the undersides of bridges or even the roofs of larger vehicles.

    A barnacle is essentially just a big stomach with a mouth and tongue attached, usually with teeth. Their flesh is meat-like, though usually toxic due to the random creatures they eat, and the harmful chemicals they absorb found in whatever they root into.

    As they digest their prey, they will periodically spit out bones, or exoskeleton plating, stripped of any and all meat.

    Their primary prey are humans, headcrabs, and birds. However they will eat anything that fits.

    Unlike their miniature cousins, they are pretty much immobile. They have no senses beyond taste and feel, no nose, no eyes, no ears. Just a tongue and nervous system.

16. #16Kingpins

    Keys: alien, monster, slug, leader, pin, railroad, king, vortessence, kingpin

    Kingpins, one of the few xenians that are allied with humans.

    Kingpins are giant slug-like creatures with psychic abilities, and extreme prowess in the vortessence. Not as powerful as a large group of vortigaunts with antilion grub extract, but still a very powerful psychic. They can redirect projectiles, fire orbs of vortessence plasma/electricity, and manipulate time and space to a degree.

    They have human-like skin (making them similar to Mrs./Mr. Friendlies in that regard), black bulb-like stalk eyes from the sides of their bulbous heads, and slimy slug-like bodies. With two arms that have 2 clawed fingers per hand. They also have giant, bulbous heads that contain extremely large, extremely curly brains that are superior to human ones. They cannot speak directly, as their mouths are simply proboscises with tendrils surrounding them. Instead, they communicate via telepathy, that usually comes in the form of whispers in the back of your mind. They act as the occasional squadron leader for the railroad military, and advisors for more important individuals like Eli.

    Overall, kingpins are rare, but very deadly combatants against the combine and xenian wildlife.

17. #17The Vortessence

    Keys: xen, universe, energy, realm, xenian, vortessence, dimension

    The vortessence is similar to the force in star wars, though a bit more mystical and powerful. It can be used to create portals between Xen and other realms, it can also be used to power electronics, manipulate space and time, and all sorts of other things. It is found everywhere, in every living being, every speck of dust, every planet, even deep noise. Even in the void between universes. Most xenians and even race-x aliens have rudimentary control over it, houndeyes use it to create their shockwaves, voltigores use it to teleport and fire purple bolts of plasma and electricity, gargantuas use it to spew fire, shock roaches use it to fire purple bolts of plasma and electricity... but it's most powerful practitioners are hyper-lethals, vortigaunts, interlopers, and kingpins.

18. #18Panther Eyes

    Keys: eye, panther eye, panther eyes, panther

    Panther eyes are named similarly to houndeyes, but that is the only real similarity beyond their vocalizations. Instead, they are most similar to big cats from earth. A panther eye is a cyclops, with one big either blue or red eye. Their hide is a mix of black, and either blue or red. They have 4 legs with claws, large tusk-like teeth that protrude from their mouths, and are quadrupedal. They have thick, furless, rubbery alien hide. They also have tails over their butts. The noises they make are... unusual. Long, alien, and somewhat high pitched, with some reverb, vaguely similar to the noises houndeyes make, though not as short, high pitched, or loud. They prey on larger creatures like bullsquids, humans, lone houndeyes, etc.

19. #19Shock Trooper
20. #20Headcrabs

    Keys: head crab, momma, big, head, big mama, headcrab, crab, big momma, alpha, gonarch, mama, gonome

    Headcrabs are small 4 legged creatures with clawed, hooked feet. Normal headcrabs are capable of infecting humans and vortigaunts by engulfing the head, and penetrating the nape with their beaks - of which they have roughly 14, the reason for the amount is so they have back ups in case one breaks. They will sever the human/vortigaunt's connection between the brain and spine, and connect to the spine. Taking over the host's body, and mutating it - splitting open the torso and turning it into a huge mouth, atrophying the host's internal organs and turning them into secondary organs and filters for the headcrab's own internal organs so it's safe from toxins in the environment, and turning the host's fingers into large claws.

    There are multiple kinds of headcrab. Normal headcrabs which have human-like flesh, and are just big enough to engulf the average human/vortigaunt head. Baby headcrabs which can't really even hurt you, shaped like their gonarch mother, just a lot smaller. Alpha headcrabs, which have thick, red hides and visible anuses, and are capable of infecting shock bigger things like shock troopers and xenian grunts. And finally the gonarch, or big mama, which is essentially just a really, really huge headcrab with a distended abdomen that has a long-infected host in it. The gonarch can projectile vomit explosives at threats to her and her children, and is near constantly giving birth to legions of baby headcrads that will grow into normal, then maybe even alpha headcrabs.

    If an alpha headcrab infects a normal host like a human, it will mutate it's host into a gonome, with thick natural armor plating, grossly buffed out musculature, and allowing the torso-mouth to projectile vomit reddish bile. Usually alpha headcrabs come into existence when they've infected a host for a long enough time, and eaten enough biomass. Leave the gonome even longer and feed it more and more, and it will turn into a gonarch.

21. #21Gargantua

    Keys: xenian, gargantua

    The Gargantua is approximately six meters (20 feet) tall, mostly blue in color, and has one yellow eye that glows red when it perceives a hostile unit. In place of hands, it sports two pincer-like appendages resembling mussels that can be opened to emit jets of intense heat (the Alien Grunt hands are also similar), as well as secondary "de-evolving" legs below the trunk, a common trait in most Xen creatures. The creature has a thick carapace that renders it completely bulletproof, and requires a large amount of explosive, electrical, or energy damage before being destroyed. Each time it is met, it can rarely be defeated with conventional methods.

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