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CORE TIMELINE & EVENTS:
During only the second year of the twenty-first century, a clandestine research facility known as Black Mesa underwent a crucial test that would inevitably doom the planet and its occupants. Unfortunately for the employees of Black Mesa, the anti-mass spectrometry performed on the Xenian Crystal caused a Resonance Cascade event. Thousands of portal storms appeared within the facility, infesting it with alien wildlife. Unbeknownst to the science team, these portal storms were occurring all over the planet. The moment the crystal was inserted into the chamber, there was no going back.
The entirety of Earth had been engulfed with a never-ending wave of hostile alien creatures. Human civilisations across the globe were entirely unprepared to handle the catastrophe. Making matters worse, the Xen border world had begun reacting to its effects. This tearing of dimensions had caught the attention of a universal eldritch horror known as the ‘The Combine’, which prepares massive invasion forces for their subjugation of the Earth.
Humankind must face the horrors of the largest catastrophe since the dawn of civilisation. Within a coming darkness, only those who have chosen to band together will be fully able to comprehend the horrors of what's to come.
For a period of three long years, portal storms slowly manifested into enormous paranormal anomalies. They grew in strength every passing day as enigmatic energies were multiplying, manipulated through large, dimensional funnels. The occasional lightning storm and high winds are usually dismissed for recent other-worldly intervention that is disrupting the planet's atmosphere.
Most nations around the globe face a continuous onslaught of hostile species and fauna. Much of the world's population is utterly devastated due to the recent events. The death toll spiked to the hundreds of millions. The sheer magnitude the Resonance Cascade has made its global effect very clear.
Throughout the planet, conflicts erupt between nations. Alliances and relief efforts begin to collapse in full. Massive riots and political anarchy soon followed. Leeches manifesting throughout the ocean have devoured most fish species to critical endangerment within the Earth's oceans. The vast numbers of hostile alien creatures and entities decimate Earth's rich natural environment and habitats with no end in sight.
Famine, quarantines, war and disease ran rampant as emergency services stretched over the limit. Military forces were completely spent and governmental bodies could never hope to recover.
Weather patterns surge across every mainland as each portal storm increases size by triple their original scale. The eldritch horror has arrived. In mere hours, a catastrophic assault insinuated by the Combine occurs exactly as co-ordinated.
Military operations by global "superpowers" are being presumed annihilated by further endless enemy reinforcements. The United Nations government and its fully mobilised remnants of any military force are rallied through disorganised rout. Untold numbers of the living are displaced, while parts of the world have no knowledge the world has faced the apocalypse. Billions of lives are obliterated without remorse, or thought. Many world leaders are eliminated before they had a chance to address their citizens. Many nations formally surrender within either minutes or hours after the event.
Doctor Breen immediately commences a successful coup on the United Nations after successfully forcing all remaining military assets to stand down. The war ends just as soon as it begun with humankind subjugated. The Combine's power rapidly spreads in every direction. The suffering is still ongoing with no end in sight. Earth, our little blue marble, is now under the mercy of newly arrived Overlords from the direct abyss of another parralel dimension.
The First Uprising was a series of events correlating within the mainlands of Eastern Asia, and parts of Eastern Europe after the Seven Hour War. As the Combine manifested their power, consolidated remnants of Eastern-esque governing bodies infiltrated the occupation's administratum.
All came together from many backgrounds - mainly consisting of conscripted functionaries with hidden agendas, lustful and radical revolutionaries and disgruntled persons. Together they approached, and what was once a normal day within the new regime turned into the start of one of the bloodiest confrontations.
It was "The Old World's Last Gasp." The Combine, in the moment, knew that they were then under attack. The Confederation and the CCCP revealed themselves in full when a large contingent of forces overwhelmed City's Fourty-Five, Fifty-One and Fifty-Two.
Then "they" appeared in their thousands for the first time in a mighty blitz. Prototype forces released by the regime known as "transhuman soldiers" scoured the landscape as they emerged from the depths of hidden bunkers or heavily guarded facilities. Indeed as it was foretold, the "Last Gasp" was emitted. The fires were extinguished and the rebellion was swept away. Their holdouts cower in fear even in present day, or plot to reawaken a fiery wrath once again.
The administrators sat in their complexes, caught in their infinite mixtures of never-ending paperwork. Their dogma, their cruelty and their deviousness brought by the Combine keeps the rest in line, at least in the beginning. Not until the rebellion in the east quenched that idea. When the time arose, a very special call was made - a decision which would ultimately sign the fate of the old guard in charge. They were no longer reliant; no longer worthy and most importantly; they must be silenced.
As impractical as it sounds, the Terminal Protocol was initiated. The results will be forever catalogued in limbo. The select few were chosen to arrive exactly within the Summit of City Twenty Four - the suited men and women sat down, ready to discuss their next moves. But a terminal screen emitting reddened lights hanged down from the ceiling. The entity appeared on screen, all viewing rubbing their foreheads as if migraines were to begin, stopping as quickly as it arrived.
The conversation was very brief - they were chosen to lead. With many other terminals activating in order, it streamed live for every other administrator ill-fated to be chosen otherwise. One by one, they were emancipated from this reality. A Night of the Long Knives enacted. A new day of uncertainty follows.
The entity appeared on the screen. Congratulations was in order, they secured their positions and the screen shut down. Retracting to its original position, many left fearing if they were next if they were to fail, left as an example for others.
Eastern Europe suffered catastrophically. The farther east, the winter welcomed. The early two thousands saw much stagnation and unrelenting intrigue from a disgruntled population. As the Soviet Union fell, the Russian Federation arose. When the Black Mesa Incident occurred, hell broke its chains. Portal Storms appeared above, wrecking havoc across the region. The forecast changed, so they said, as every day grew with an icy cold venture.
But the Federation had a plan, one that thought they could save themselves from death - at the expense of all others. The Russians poured everything they could into their hideaway, with Moscow being slowly encased in hardened glass and steel. No expenditure, no exception. But the masses weren't pleased, only the Oligarchs were really safe.
A redness served to revive itself where it was thought all but gone. They left their dome behind and dwelled underneathe the crust they walked, somewhat safe from the horrors of what was to come. When the Seven Hours arrived, their little glass house was broken, and a trophy to the Combine who would then use it to serve their ends till its fall.
The United States retreated back to their fifteen states and its leftovers, but the population also had other plans and some would not leave their homes. They believed they could weather out the storm - the rest that migrated laughed... either they thought it was insanity or delusion. The truth was really out there, but not on the side that turned tail.
Vast overgrown lands, hybrid to Earth and Xen where both ecosystems would overgrow one another. The same can be said about human behaviour and civilisation - it can be reverted back to forms it once remembers in order to adapt and survive. That's exactly what the American Wastes may be, some rumour states. Survivors indeed travel, their desire to leave is never apparent and all that can be thought is what this world had to offer.
Somehow, even before or after the war, dust winds of alien sands brush aside their faces, with domesticated creatures not native to the world sleep by their side. Maybe they're all in this together, or maybe they have to rely on each other to survive. Eitherway, the settlements in the "Red Zone" somewhat prosper. Combine scouting parties and civil expeditions bring back some odd or even disturbing imagery. History does indeed repeat itself.
Armoured trucks roll out into an unforgiving desert, whether to another speck of a colony or holdout still surviving on bare essentials. But an eery quiet lingers when the squareoff begins. Just like old times.
Southern-Eastern Europe had seen a lot of change. City Seventeen looks safe enough, but what about the rest? It can't /all/ be canals, can it? Nobody could remember seeing the water that far out to sea. Where is the coast? Is it even a coastline?
Memory is a fickle thing when the Combine arises to site down a great industrial complex - abomination or not, it produces nearly amazing results. Logic however, dictates otherwise. The Combine were there when they first established their extraction operations digging deep into the marble they now possess. What could be described as towering structures emitting heavy, suffocating black fumes and toxic elements turn the atmosphere and ground into a grotesquely.
The pipeline really stretches across South-Eastern Europe, protected by very devious instruments in a highly aggressive wake. Large processing facilities churn out new weapons of war guarded closely by its sleepless sentinels. Out into the "ocean" the rigs attract the salt water into their cubicles, revealing nothing short of a vast emptiness. No fish, many leech carcasses or the common itchyosaur. Other creatures stalk one another at the bottom of a corpsed ocean floor.
Other machinations reach out towards a far larger complex. Containing secret, archaic technologies which are only understood by its own calculations and automations it openly seeps mineral and material into dreadful alien materials. Everyone knows what's out there, they just don't tend to dwell on such an afterthought.
Over a widened zone of a few dozen kilometers, a portal storm can have adverse affects on the terrain, sky, atmosphere and mass of a specific location. The mainlands of China, India and Japan saw their once populated urban cities reduced to a shadow of their former selves. The dragon was the first to fall into anarchy, while the sun had set on the islands for the presumed final time. The rest soon followed. When the Koreans, Japanese and Chinese scrambled - there were many mixed results, even after the war.
The Combine in their full couldn't reach Japan. Not at first. The storm above the islands was one of the most unstable, which saw transport through its correlating funnel as a nigh impossibility. Only after the war ended, months in advance the portal storm subsided - the Combine moving to secure a nation bleakly caught in complete uncertainty of the fate of the planet. Now, a loyal military stronghold for the invaders.
The storm above the Chinese mainland correlated to much destruction, seeing well over a billion lives decimated in quick fashion thanks to its unstable residue effect. Alien creatures were everywhere. It was never easy to get by. When Beijing was engulfed within Seven Hours, there was no resistance to be met. What remained soon fell into the hands of a lurking threat that would appear to strike from hiding, sealing its fate for practical eternity.
The early two thousand's saw much instability, but effectively in occurrence from the Black Mesa Incident, the world held its breath. The Iraq War was called off, the troops returned home and was forgotten in order to focus on the pressing threat. When the cascade reached the Middle East, their security forces tried to pin down the quelling the alien infestation. Such an abominable failure.
For years they did suffer in such a precarious situation. There was great aspirations for stability and unity as time grew, then came the arrival of the Combine. Much was remained stable enough, the Combine solidfiying their presence there.
After the events of the Eastern Rebellion and "The Culling", everything fell into the sand, Never to return in endless religious and ethnic strife. However, two stable environments remain, ironically containing some of the most stable cities in the world despite the odds. There was no room for celebration as the rest of such a continental display of sheer anarchy follows elsewhere. In those lands, it seems empty - but the village elders all have something in common where the Combine cannot reach them.
At least the emirates are somewhat safe and the Egyptians can breathe a bit of fresh air. But despite their comfort zone, they are surrounded - whether human or alien they will attempt to break the peace.
Africa was barely stable even before the incident. Stuck in the middle of the ongoing Second Congo War when oncoming Xenian lifeforms completely fragmented anything that resembled unity or stability in this region. The final stroke was when the Combine arrived and burned whatever was left of civilization in this region. Madness Prevailed.
The Combine never established any cities here apart from a single base of operations in South Africa and left the rest of the continent to burn. Antlions roam free, a persistent haven for the creatures evidently increasing their sizable hives on a daily basis. What remained a paradise is somewhat taken for granted by the antlion. The coastlines are covered with bunkers, where the Combine attempts to stall the swarm. Thumpers litter the area keeping the fearful critters at a bay.
There will be a time though when the creatures aren't all terrified by a loud thumping of the ground... and for when that day arrives, nobody can tell for sure.
Southern Africa is the only place worth saving, even if it is a speck dot of interest for the Combine's objectives here.
The amazon was always a cruel environment to be. Millions upon millions of creatures live within, all eyeing their next prey ready to be devoured. The tribesmen who have yet to be discovered dwell within, unaware of what is to arrive. And the cartels, where they secretly arm within the dense jungles of pressured heat.
When the Portal Storms arrived, one opened straight above the rainforest itself, twisting and deforming it in ways that man cannot properly describe. A xenoforming at its finest. However, when the first terrestrials ventured, they were unlike the others. Buglike, bio-organic and feral. They fought with the cartels, the tribes and the military. Their nests grow like a creep every passing day. It is said the "Demônios da selva", called by the natives, dwell where the portal storm lies.
The Combine's arrival virtually made the region uninhabitable, or so they believe. One city exists here within former Brazil. While members of the "Union" society make their escape - a worse fate awaits them if they dwell too deep. Whether captured by the cartels, devoured by the 'X' or hunted by the tribes - their second thoughts turn them back.
It is rumored that there is a complex within that "brews excellent coffee", the smell is strong from it. But that remains a mystery.
Western & Central Europe appear to not only be within the crosshairs of an inferno of social unrest, but it also houses some of the most loyal subjects in the Combine's inner holdings. The continent is covered in a vast outland, containing zones of devoured emptiness parallel to that of South East Europe and green plains. An interesting mix, one where individuals of many backgrounds arise from with many thoughtful ideas what could be out there.
During the war, it was argued that most of Europe was spared the destruction from the Combine, but mercilessness had shown to be a more defined answer to a long anticipated question. Much of the history the nations of old preserved dearly was ultimately destroyed. They were twisted, even turned into physical properties no longer resembling their former selves. Much like the rest of the world under, the Combine's grasp took a very sharp turn with Europe.
Multiple capital cities have somewhat been spared the damage done within the dreaded Seven Hour War. The further west, the lesser the scale of bombardment. While smaller portal storms existed within the West, the damage over the timescale of three years made their number and size non-exemptions. Europe is but a fracture or a shadow of its former self.
Here, brave men and women venture out in the open in search of their past. Others try to uncover some hidden secrets the world now desires to keep till the presumed end of time itself. Nobody can tell for certainty. Besides this, nobody has really dared "properly" to try.