combine structure (incomplete 20 may 15)

THE COMBINE FORCES ON EARTH – SOME WORDS ON 'PERSONALITY' AND THE WORLD

The Combine as portrayed in HL2 are quite unlike any other enemy force in gaming. Originally devised as a more human, Orwellian police state, Earth under Combine rule has taken on a unique identity with a distinctly otherworldly feel. This goes hand-in-hand with a sense of despair and neglect brought about by the clearly decrepit world the Combine preside over.

In stark contrast to its first iteration, the Combine empire on Earth has become an almost wholly automated network of prefabricated machines, working to subjugate and consume humanity, to bring it into this fold. To assist in this process, the computer-controlled military wing commands an army of synthetic war machines, cybernetically- and mechanically-augmented alien life. This is the end goal for humanity, as well; in the meantime, those who have not been turned into 'transhuman' soldiers either languish in the present or form a militia intended to control the masses who reside in the isolated and walled-off cities.

The Combine take a largely reactive and hands-off approach to governance, unlike the original concepts. Threats are dealt with only as they make themselves evident, and by and large the citizens are left to their own devices. The law is a loose set of rules enforced (often erratically) at the end of a stun baton; as the advanced Combine technological marvels have rendered traditional labour all but obsolete, most citizens have nothing to do but merely exist.

The monotony of this, and the dull threat of random violence day in and day out, has left the overwhelming majority of the human population rotting in a state of pastlessness and futurelessness. Rumours of food and water being drugged with amnesia-inducing chemicals are rife, but realistically this would be a mere formality following the aforementioned. With nothing to reminisce about and no future to look forward to, apathy and feelings of anomie are the order of the day. Most citizens are compliant simply because they have no will to resist, and the Combine provide the basics they need to continue from day to day.

Due to the overwhelming military and industrial superiority of the Combine forces, resistance by force of arms is futile and unpopular. Instead, smuggling of supplies into the city and particularly damaged or at-risk citizens out of it is the order of the day, along with propaganda efforts to counter the (largely irrelevant) ideology spread by Wallace Breen and to rouse the lethargic citizens into doing something, anything, useful. Meanwhile, humanity's best and brightest work tirelessly on trying to uncover ways of undermining Combine rule via scientific endeavours.

In the event of major, overt resistance, the usual Combine response is both swift and incredibly violent. Favoured methods include shelling offending districts with headcrab canisters to cleanse it of human life, flooding sewers and other such hideouts with manhacks, and the use of mobile walls to kettle offenders into manageable chunks to be dealt with more handily. Should open uprising spread across an entire city, these walls provide the Combine with a means of breaking cohesion before things really even get off the ground.

DOCTOR WALLACE BREEN

After taking on the role of humanity's intermediary with the Combine during the Seven Hour War – and then promptly surrendering in order to try and avoid total destruction – the former administrator of the Black Mesa Research Facility now dwells in what passes for a penthouse suite in the city's Citadel. Breen lives alone, and doesn't receive visitors; it's not clear what (if any) social contact he is able to have, either with humans or the species who represent the Combine, but it is likely to be minimal, leaving Breen alone with his thoughts and access to what remains of the plundered treasures of human art and literature.

While Breen appears to hold an important position, he is in reality nothing more than a figurehead. Control of the Combine empire on Earth is handled entirely by Dispatch, with no input from Breen. Ultimately, the only real influence Breen enjoys is an audience with the offworld overlords, though just how much clout he is able to wield in matters of the planet's governance is unclear. Breen himself seems aware of this to some degree, and yet on the other hand he also seems to revel in his imagined power, becoming giddy with it at times.

Ultimately, the sole purpose Wallace Breen serves for the Combine is to provide a relatable, human face to their empire, in order to elicit cooperation from the citizens. For his part Breen does this quite well, offering a tender, fatherly image to comfort the masses and intellectual points to try and win over what remains of the intelligentsia.

While Breen's ideological rationalisations may seem convincing and genuine at first, more astute citizens may well notice the lingering doubt in his voice; his speeches and ideals are as much a tool to justify his own actions to himself as they are to justify them to the citizens. Breen is a deeply conflicted, complex character, and a much more interesting one than the original iteration's cut-and-dried nefarious overlord, the Consul.

DISPATCH

'Dispatch' is the enormously powerful supercomputer at the heart of Combine control on Earth. Able to think for itself without input or oversight, Dispatch is arguably a fully-fledged artificial intelligence, albeit one with a rather limited scope; it exists purely to control the functions of Combine facilities across the planet, as well as personnel and synths. Beyond this vast but ultimately rather limited field, it has no capacity or interest to 'think'.

Dispatch has a seemingly limitless potential for rapid, simultaneous calculations, and regularly processes intelligence from several sources at once into a set of orders for specific units, then issues them all simultaneously with no noticeable lag or delay. The computer's characteristically disjointed, sterile speech belies its capabilities.

SCANNERS

The basic surveillance unit of the Combine authorities, Scanners are autonomous flying sensor platforms directed by Dispatch and deployed from the Citadel itself. These roughly football-sized drones are gifted with a basic form of artificial intelligence; they are nowhere near as advanced as Dispatch, but they are capable of 'understanding' their surroundings to a limited capacity.

Brand-new scanners are 'inexperienced'; without a concrete knowledge of what is normal and what is not, they behave rather like young human children. As a scanner learns to distinguish its normal environment from objects of interest, it will spend less time curiously chasing crows or observing its own reflection in bodies of water and will instead begin to discriminate against unfamiliar human faces or patterns of behaviour.

Scanners have a degree of self-awareness usually found in animals of moderate intellect, a feature which is perhaps not as noticeable in the cold, calculating nature of Dispatch. They will respond to new or unexpected stimuli even if it interferes with their directives, and will sometimes even appear to try and amuse themselves. They are highly vocal, but it is not clear whether this is a form of communication or if it is, who it is directed at.

For these reasons, scanners will become very interested in new arrivals to their area of operations, often snapping photographs of them as soon as they step off of a relocation train. Photographs are not observed by actual humans – in fact, humans have nothing to do with the scanners' control or intelligence – but are rather fed back into the massive database at the heart of the Combine Dispatch system.

Once a face has been archived, it enters the pool of 'known stimuli', and from that point scanners will generally ignore the person in question unless they are flagged as a person of interest or are engaging in unfamiliar behaviour, such as climbing gutters, crawling about on rooftops, wearing non-standard clothes, carrying unidentified items or contraband, or similar. For similar reasons, scanners may notice blatant manipulation of the environment, but will be unable to tell makeshift camouflaging and repairs to a structure apart from the actual built environment around it.

Thanks to the scanners' nature, it is not particularly difficult to go unnoticed even in a heavily surveilled area, so long as one's face is not flagged and one does not act out from what a regular citizen would be expected to do. Scanners will also ignore low miscounts, unless they are substantially lower than seems reasonable; they simply perform a headcount rather than a detailed analysis of who is where, and low miscounts are allowed for to account for attrition. However, a high miscount – even if only by a handful – will immediately flag the district for Dispatch attention, necessitating place-trades if outlanders wish to re-enter the city overtly.

MANHACKS

Much simpler than scanners, manhacks do not perform surveillance duties or identify persons of interest. In fact, they can scarcely even tell where they're going; the only real 'thinking' a manhack does is to constantly compare its current surroundings with reference points that Dispatch feeds it, and correct as necessary. This also extends to targets, making manhacks a poor choice for surgical strikes and in fact basically useless for anything other than flushing out an enclosed area wholesale (without having to worry about the eventual clean-up associated with headcrab shelling).

“Manhack arcades” do not fit with the retail HL2 atmosphere, and should not be considered canon in the final game. However, they do fit quite well with the much older, pre-leak setting, which is more reminiscent of an American or Central European setting with noir overtones and a more 1984-like Combine administration. The notion of citizens unwittingly controlling Manhacks which are killing their fellow humans is much more edgy and obtuse than the more subtle, nuanced malevolence of the final game's Combine.

CIVIL PROTECTION

"CP/Metrocops are humans at the first level--basically unaltered volunteers. From here, if you are hardcore, you must volunteer for modification in order to become a soldier, so advancing in rank requires surrendering even more humanity.  This stuff was certainly thought through in advance; sometimes we just make things up though.

“They are the lowest form of human security organized and run by the Combine. Ones who show aptitude may be promoted to soldiers. Ones who don't are probably treated like damaged equipment by management; if it's more expensive to repair them than they're worth, they are probably just discarded. Their buddies might try to save them, I guess--but the ones who don't bother will get promoted faster, and the ones who show weakness are probably going to wash out pretty quickly.”

“Metrocops are the first step--originally I wanted to be able to transmit conversations between bored metrocops. They are still just human volunteers. Combine Soldiers are a step beyond that, and submit to certain processes that remove autonomy and weaponize certain other aspects of humanity unrelated to freewill. So you won't hear them cracking jokes or disobeying orders.” - Marc Laidlaw, Valve Software

The basic enforcement arm of the Combine, Civil Protection are ubiquitous throughout the city but never venture beyond it. They are simply humans who have entered the employ of the Combine, either willingly or through coercion, and are rewarded for instilling fear and pain in their fellow man. Although many units may have a softer side or may even be aiding the resistance covertly, the prime motivator for violence tends to be boredom and contempt for the 'weak' citizens, dehumanised in the eyes of the Civil Protection units.

Civil Protection operate in informal teams of two to six officers, with three or four being a median squad size. They are not a part of fixed squads, and do not hold strict ranks; rather, a team is assembled prior to deployment, assigned a Dispatch callsign, and then a team leader role is assigned based on seniority. CP teams do not coordinate with each other as a general rule, but rather answer directly to Dispatch, which interprets messages and modifies the orders of other teams as necessary.

This arrangement makes the Civil Protection a rather slow and ungainly force, as two or three teams may be operating in the same area with no real communication between them. Dispatch has general strategic control; team leaders communicate with Dispatch and make tactical decisions which the computer cannot process due to lack of information. While the team leader is the only member of the squad to speak to the computer directly, all squad members receive incoming orders, removing any need for the team leader to relay these to their colleagues.

While on duty, a team will generally mill around their assigned patrol area or often simply lounge about until the end of their shift or a situation develops. Most units are not particularly professional, tending to be rather slovenly, leaning against walls or sitting atop APCs. Units may engage in private conversations over their team's short-ranged communications equipment, or antagonise passing citizens. The primary reason citizens should find Civil Protection units intimidating is their unpredictability rather than any threat of Nova Prospekt; there are few things more dangerous than a bored CP.

A team sticks together, generally being assigned an area to patrol and then spreading out as needed. At no time is a team spread over an area of more than a hundred metres, and similarly, they are to remain within direct line of sight of at least one other unit in their team at all times to avoid mugging or hostage incidents.

Each team remains active for the duration of its shift, minus preparation and debriefing time. These shifts may last three or six hours, based on current demand for units and other variables processed by Dispatch. During this shift units are expected not to remove their masks outside of approved marshalling points, smoke, eat or drink, or use public conveniences. However, these restrictions are often disregarded in practice; Dispatch can only tell where its units are, not what precisely it is that they are doing. Units in higher-traffic areas or operating in conjunction with other assets (such as large numbers of scanners or Airwatch oversight) will usually behave in a more professional fashion.

The compliance of Civil Protection units is awarded by slightly better rations, better accommodation, and even rewards like 'non-mechanical reproduction simulation'; off-duty units are usually quartered in different districts than the regular citizenry in order to avoid fraternisation or reprisals. Weapons and equipment are stored in armouries when off-duty, and daily routine is rather akin to barracks life, with a system of mob rule comparable to dedovshchina keeping the less-adapted units in line.

Problem citizens are snatched by units and either dragged aside for a secluded beating or are hustled into the nearest APC, to be driven to a nearby outpost for interrogation. Public executions are heavily frowned upon, and snatches are made as subtly and as quickly as possible. While it is inevitable other citizens may witness acts of violence or snatches, these actions are performed in such a way as to minimise impact or attraction of interest.

CP outposts are typically repurposed office buildings or residential blocks, or the administrative and maintenance areas of old public buildings such as railway stations; they are not intended to serve as longterm detention facilities, but rather temporary holding places for citizens that are to be interrogated and/or sent to Nova Prospekt. These outposts also contain communications equipment and armouries, and provide units with somewhere to use basic amenities away from the citizenry, somewhere to collate intelligence, and a rallying place for larger operations.

OVERWATCH

The Overwatch is the military arm of the Combine, operating from the Citadel and a staging point just beyond the inner wall known as the Nexus. This used to be some kind of government building or museum before the war, and now serves as a convenient marshalling area and armoury for the ground forces within the city, a stepping-off point for major operations. It should be noted, however, that the Nexus is not a prison facility and has only rudimentary holding cells. This reflects the arrangement also used by Civil Protection.

Rarely seen within the city itself, Overwatch soldiers are only called in if there is a major uprising that Civil Protection can't handle, or if an important area becomes totally infested by Xen wildlife (including headcrabs and their victims). Synth units such as Striders can be seen moving through major thoroughfares at times to reinforce Combine dominance, but are only actually deployed in combat within the city in the direst of circumstances.

In the outlands, Overwatch occasionally mounts standing patrols around the edges of the city's Apron and will deploy surgical strike teams as needed; however, the Combine largely follow a policy of live and let live when it comes to outlanders, seeing little reason to expend energy in neutralising something that is not really a threat to them. This is also partly the result of the automated nature of the Combine's assets on Earth; Dispatch tends to be reactive rather than proactive when it comes to threats, and so it is unlikely to respond to the formation of outlander camps unless they begin actively firing on passing Airwatch or Overwatch patrols. Overwatch raids outside of the city make much heavier use of the smaller “Hunter” synths, which can occasionally be seen working in conjunction with the larger Striders for major operations.

Unlike Civil Protection, Overwatch soldiers are transhumanised. During surgery at Nova Prospekt, these troops have had their bodies extensively augmented, slightly improving strength and endurance, dulling response to pain, largely limiting capacity for independent thought, and removing now-redundant organs.

Although they are not mindless automatons, Overwatch soldiers display little initiative and seem incapable of free or idle thought. Even their capacity for cruelty seems to have been dulled somewhat, as it takes a back seat to efficient delivery of death; when compared to an average pre-war human soldier, Overwatch fight harder for longer, and although they do feel pain and have a vestigial self-preservation instinct, they can often fight through after being badly wounded. While Overwatch may occasionally interrogate prisoners themselves, it is quite rare, as they generally sent in to purge an area entirely rather than gather intelligence.

The senses of an Overwatch soldier have all been slightly improved upon by the Combine, increasing their hearing range (both in terms of distance and frequency) somewhat and improving the resolution of their eyesight to allow them to better distinguish objects at a distance. However, Overwatch troops do not have thermal vision, and their masks feature only a very rudimentary image intensification night vision system. One noteworthy oversight in the 'design' of the Overwatch soldier's equipment is the loss of both smell and touch – their mask filters most particulates out of the air, dulling or removing their ability to smell, while their total lack of exposed skin while in uniform makes it impossible to feel the texture of objects or the ambient temperature and humidity.

Transhuman troops do not have off-duty time in the same way Civil Protection units do. With their digestive tract being truncated to a simple feeding/waste port system, 'off-duty' Overwatch units are hooked up to a nourishment device that feeds and repairs the body while the mind is subject to virtual-reality training. Overwatch units never truly sleep in the traditional sense.

AIRWATCH

In addition to scanners, Airwatch operates a mix of airborne synths as well as a type of conventional aircraft. Synths operated include dropships and gunships, created from a blend of chitinous creatures and Combine mechanical and electrical technology. Like all other synths, these display vestigial animalistic behaviours including various vocalisations and a clearly inquisitive nature. Just how much original behaviour remains is unknown and difficult to judge with such alien lifeforms, as is the degree to which their capabilities have been enhanced by the Combine compared to their natural state.

Airwatch also operate the so-called “Hunter Chopper”, a Combine take on the concept of a helicopter gunship. Able to fit into spaces synths can't and operated by transhuman soldiers, these helicopters are most typically found in or around the cities where they are more convenient than the gunship synths. They are also capable of delivering air-dropped mines and pack a sophisticated array of sensors, making them idea for patrolling the outskirts of the city and known hotspots for anticitizen activity. One further advantage of using these helicopters to patrol the airspace over the city is the relative familiarity of such a vehicle, as opposed to the clearly exotic synth counterpart. This familiarity provides a slight degree of reassurance to citizens.