Trust (Half-Life)

In the Series of video game Half-Life , the Cartel is a powerful organization Extraterrestre which takes the control of the Earth during the Guerre the Seven Hour old. During the play, it is sometimes mentioned under the terms “ Universal Union ” or “ our Benefactors ” by the Propagande.

Overall picture

The Trust is a vast inter-dimensional empire extending on many parallel universes. The empire includes/understands an unknown number of intelligent species and seems controlled by a strange race of artificially evolved/moved beings, the Advisers. The Trust extends its empire by invading other worlds and by reducing the dominant species in Esclavage to provide for its own needs. By hybridant the inhabitants starting from processes like the bioingeniery and nidation, the Trust creates a race of super-soldiers adapted to the environment of the specific world. This process makes it possible to have a mobile and adaptive military force which can answer any threat and crush any attempt at opposition. The reasons which pushes the Trust to adopt this behavior imperialist are unknown.

Until recently, players thought that the Trust had been able to take the control of Xen, basing themselves on similarities of practices and the technologies used by Nihilanth. However, the marketing director of Valve Software, Doug Lombardi, let emit that the Trust has, in fact, invaded another world which the race of Nihilanth was forced to leave. Nihilanth found refuge on Xen, where the Trust could not (or did not want) not continue it.

According to the invasion of the hearth to the unknown name of Nihilanth, the Ground constitutes the most recent annexation of the Trust, acquired after the rendering of the Earth at the end of the Guerre the Seven Hour old. According to the usual process of the Trust, members of the dominant species were hybrid to form a new division of the armed force of the Trust. If these soldiers are mainly used like Garnison on Earth, of the dialogs in the play suggests that units of this are used elsewhere through the empire of the Trust.

Advisers of the Trust

The Advisers of the Trust are the only face which one can pose on the empire of the Trust, they seem to be the extraterrestrial race at the origin of the empire. They briefly appear in the play, on the big screens of the office of Wallace Breen, and can be seen several times in Half-Life 2: Episode One .

Physically, they resemble Des. From their leading-edge technology, the Advisers evolved/moved at an artificial stage which could be enormously different from their original aspect. Because of their mobile physics not very, they seems not to be able to handle objects or to move as they want, they is as possible as they are blind, and have a great number of other physical handicap. Blow, the Advisers are probably entirely dependant on their powerful technology, incapble to survive without mechanical assistance.

In Episode One is shown their preparation to evacuate the Citadelle condemned whereas they order with their soldiers and others subordinated to make enter in Fusion the engine to black energy of the Citadel to send a mysterious message to large forces of the Trust. That states at least that they have an important position in the hierarchy of the Trust, because if their soldiers once do not have any chance of evacuation the engine begins its fusion, the capsules of help in which they escape ensure them to reach a sufficient security distance.

In term of size, an Adviser is about as broad as a Rhinocéros. They are not seen moving in the play (otherwise than in their capsules of evacuation), but some put forth the assumption that they would be capable of léviter thanks to a technology anti-gravity. The Advisers are literally vermiform, with any eye, Oreille, Bouche or even visible Membre. That can explain the presence of the many mechanical devices with which they are equipped. They have a mechanical device attached to a side of their head which could replace their absence of eyes. Their “face” is covered by what could be a kind of gas mask, but the pipe which is attached there does not lead to any apparent tank. The Advisers place inside metal who has two kinds of mechanical arms on the high part. Each Adviser carries a combination green olive, leaving visible only the head and the end of the tail. The combination has also a decorated black collar of Hiéroglyphe S gilded.

To compensate for their physics impotent, the Advisers strongly seems to have evolved/moved mentally. One never hears them speak in the play, even when Wallace Breen is surprised in full conversation with one of them, letting suggest means of communication by telepathy.

After the events of Half-Life 2 , one or more Advisers started to be interested in Gordon Freeman. During Episode One , they are seen several times on through the screens disseminated in Cité 17, tracking Gordon and Alyx and dispatchant the soldiers of the Trust to apprehend them. A comment of the developers indicates that Advisers will play a great part in Episode Two .

In the official guide Raising the Bar , the designer Ted Backman mentions that the vermiform aspect of the Adviser of the Trust was inspired by the work of Frank Herbert, probably by the images of resulting from its novel Dune .

In Half-Life 2: Episode Two, we can finally have an outline of the advisers moving. They resemble the large one towards, and have apparently capacities extra-physics, of telekinesic type (handling of the objects by the thought). Contrary to the assumptions put forth earlier, the advisers are in fact very mobile and not so fragile that. They have a kind of language which is used to them as tactile body, but also to kill their adversaries.

Technology of teleportation

In spite of the important technological advance of the Trust, the organization seems not to control teleportation not yet well. Doctor Judith Mossman explains that the Trust can téléporter only of one universe with another, but not in various places of the same universe. While the method of teleportation used by Doctors Isaac Kleiner and Eli Vance (and, in fact, by the other scientists of Black Mesa like by Nihilanth before and during the incident of Black Mesa) can do it, thus attracting covetousnesses of the Trust on this technology. Judith Mossman helped actually the Trust has to build a teleportor of this gauge with Nova Prospekt, but as Nova Prospekt was destroyed during the escape from Gordon and of Alyx, it seems that the Trust

The method of teleportation of the Trust, as limited as it is, requires a great quantity of energy and enormous machines to function, as one sees it at the end of the play, where Wallace Breen tries to escape from the Citadel by using the teleportor of the Trust. This teleportor requires a whole engine, called polyphase core. In comparison, the method of teleportation invented by the human ones requires only one quantity of negligible energy and a machine much more reduced. (the teleportation of Xeniens seems to require even less machinery - sometimes even no - and less energy. However, that could come from the environment of Xen rather than of technology itself). The reason of this advantage is that this method uses Xen like “dimensional sling” to rebound with far from a universe with another, and of a place of a universe at another place of this same universe, while the Trust must dig a “dimensional tunnel” towards the target universe.

The Trust on Earth

Invasion of the Earth

See also: War the Seven Hour old

Died Nihilanth, the Trust could from now on use the storm of gate which continued to fall down on the Earth, starting a massive invasion which led to the Guerre the Seven Hour old. The G-Man reports that humanity was unable to draw up unspecified resistance in front of the armed forces of the Trust, and that the military forces of humanity quasi-immédiatement were quasi-immédiatement submerged. The former administrator of Black Mesa, Doctor Wallace Breen, negotiated then a rendering in the name of the whole Earth and was appointed administrator of the forces of the Trust on Earth: .

Domination of the Trust on the Earth

The application of the rules of the Trust is governed since towers gigantic known under the name of Citadelle, it is installed to Cité 17 from where Wallace Breen in person manages the Earth. At the end of Half-Life 2 , when Breen tries to escape by using a teleportor supplied with an engine from black energy, an enormous gate interdimensionnel east creates and one sees through several buildings resembling Citadels.

At the beginning of the play, the Trust seems to have succeeded in dominating humanity, reduced quasi-entièrement with some pockets in the world, and did not identify Gordon Freeman yet. However, Breen immediately informs Adviser of the short appearance of Freeman in its office during an accidental teleportation. Only a handle of disorganized rebels are opposed in secrecy to the Trust. But the exploits of Gordon Freeman after its return start a massive insurrection in Cité 17 which is the theater of a true urban war between rebels and forces of the Trust.

The reasons which pushes the Trust to be wanted to control the Earth remain unknown, in-outside exploitation of the resources and inhabitants of planet and interest carried to the technology of human teleportation.

Field of suppression

To have dominated the Earth shortly after, the Trust imposed something known under the name of. The principal effect of this field is to reduce to zero birth rate the human ones by preventing the production of certain important protein chains for the embryonic development by the organization, in order to make sure that the human ones still in life are the last generation. On this subject, to the beginning of Half-Life 2 , Wallace Breen address publicly to the inhabitants in reply to a written letter by an interested inhabitant, that the field will be decontaminated once the human ones will have proven that they will not need more this system by controlling their impulses. During the play, members of resistance make sometimes humorous remarks on this subject (" When all that is finished, I will copulate… "). It was initially thought that the field inhibited any sexual desire, mainly because of the sentence of Breen which announced

In Episode One , the advertisement of Isaac Kleiner retransmise through all the city indicates that with the imminent destruction of the Citadel, the field of suppression was decontaminated. He asks all those which are escaped of City 17 “to take share with the repopulation of the mankind”, “before the response of the trust”

Control spirits

The comments heard at the station at the beginning of the play implies that the Trust doped apprivisionnement out of water of the population. A citizen makes the remark of it “do not drink water… they put a trick inside, to make you forget. I do not even remember how I arrived here. ” This fact is not mentioned nowhere elsewhere but is consolidated by the many distributers of quills stored with the mention “Dr. Breen Private Reserve”, and who offer free standard water quills of 12 inches length.

The insinuated reason of this mental control would be organized so that the human ones forget why they hate the Trust, and voluntarily yield with their desires (and with those of Breen),

Moreover, one radio operator transmission of the Trust to the officers of Civil protection known as: This could explain why none the members of Civil protection joined resistance after rising; their memory is prohibited very thought negative towards the Trust or is programmed only to protect the Trust.

The washing of memory forced is confirmed by a visible apparatus in the Citadel during Episode One . The machine is composed of two mechanical arms clutching the human body. The first arm supports the body by the size while the second ends in a kind of helmet wrapping the head of the human one. This helmet contains three different screens and panels. Noises resembling a transmission of subliminal messages accompanies the machine. This combination of audio messages and video met the point on the military enrollment whose the transhumains are victim.

The process to wash the brain to replace it by a news memory seems to occupy a big part of the operation at the origin of the transhumains. The news memory filled of propaganda in favor it Trust makes it possible to obtain soldiers unable to rebel against the influence of the Trust, just like it makes it possible transhumains without military past to take share with the forces of.

Genocide

No child is visible during all the play. Besides certain inhabitants make of it sometimes the remark (" I am content that there is no child in the neighborhoods to see ceci".). Of old toys trail, vestiges of the past. In spite of their absence in the play, much of Graffiti, in City 17 and elsewhere, represent a member of resistance (see Trust) holding a baby in his arms.

Obviously, the absence of children can be also explained by the inevitable risk of scandal so of the children could be shot down (even the series Grand Theft Auto did not dare), but the player cannot wound his allies in the play. Before the exit of the play, it was expected that the children are represented as Child Worker, which would work for the trust while helping with the manufacture of their material. (In the beta release of the play, there exists a model of child worker having some animations of work). Ghostly laughter children can be besides heard in the playing field with the foot of the one of the apartments of the first chapter, like a flashback pointing out the childhood of Gordon Freeman.

But a more probable explanation is than the Trust placed the field of suppression right after its victory during the Seven Hour old War. After about twenty years of occupation, youngest human of the time would thus have all the adulthood. According to Viktor Antonov and Dhabih Eng in Raising the Bar , Gordon could have crossed a factory where children would have worked but it was established by the team that the Trust had removed the cycle of reproduction of the Man since years.

There are many other obvious acts of genocide or at least of massacre perpetrated by the Trust during the play. The town of Ravenholm was bombarded with the intention to kill all its residents, and in the chapter “Highway 17”, the player meets many corpses in the houses of the Côte of which a part was burned by the Trust (of others were zombifié, when the Trust makes use of crabs of head as of a weapon - they cannot however control them, not more than the generated zombis). Towards the end of the play, Eli Vance explains to Wallace Breen why it was pilot “”

Exhaustion of the natural resources

The damage of the establishment of the Trust on the Earth is seen in several points in the play. One of the signs more striking is the dramatic fall of the level of the Océan S which one sees in the chapters “Highway 17” and “sand Traps”, and in the drains of City 17 of “Route Channel”. The Littoral is strewn with carcass of Bateau X failed in the Sable, the Quai S and the docks do not bathe any more in the sea and a port at the beginning of “Highway 17” is located at miles of the ocean. Foam on the pillars of the port testify to the old sea level, of the meters higher. In the guide Raising the Bar is explained that the gigantic drainage of the water of the planet was accomplished which sent the water drained towards another planets of the Trust.

All in all, of the whole areas of the world are invaded by crabs of head and toxic waste, making them often completely uninhabitable for the human ones. The infrastructures fall in ruin (as Highway 17 which is completely dilapidated and strewn with carcasses of cars) when it is not made useless (such Nova Prospekt of which the part which was used originally as prison is unused). To judge some by the state of the grounds out of the city, agriculture and the breeding became non-existent; no animal appears in the play what leaves believe that they disappeared or at least that they are close to be it. The fisherman of Lost Coast declares that there are no more fish at sea, only leeches ready to devour whoever taken a step in water.

Moreover, Cité 17 itself is being devoured, the walls of the Citadel are spread out since the Citadel, consuming the buildings of the city. It is not known as if the Trust uses this method with an aim of destroying the city or in order to extract some from the raw materials.

For all these reasons, even if the Trust is overcome, a rebuilding work, of cleaning and extermination of extraterrestrial fauna will have to be set up to make again planet livable.

During the development of the play, the Trust was normally to have an enormous industrial complex named “Air Exchange” (Exchange of air), which would have little by little absorbed the air of planet to replace it by a chemical substance toxic for the man but probably adapted to the dominant race of the Trust. Freeman was to cross this Air Exchange on a boat called Borealis directed by a man named Odell. The exploits of Gordon in the Air Exchange having to start the revolt of human against the Trust in City 17 but this passage was given up and it revolt is started by the fall of Nova Prospekt. The passage in the Air exchange was thus abandoned and its presence with the center even of the universe of the play is very dubious since it is mentioned neither in the play, nor in any official guide. According to Raising the Bar , the effects of the change of atmosphere would have led the human ones has to carry a gas mask permanently, as none is seen with such a protection, the idea was certainly definitively abandoned.

Units and structures

Forces humanoïdes

The principal force of the Trust on Earth is the humanoïde consisted of human having undergone genetic modifications to become cyborgs transhumains (or “” according to Doctor Kleiner). In the original version, the Trust is named “Combines”, the origin of this word could come owing to the fact that they are a “combination” ( combination in English) between human and extraterrestrial technology. The units of Civil protection, contrary to the soldiers, are not controlled by an established mechanism, but would be made of human volunteers. They are the enemies most frequently met in Half-Life 2 .

Synthetizers

The Synthetizers (or Synths) are creatures which, by an evolutionary process and an adaptation imposed by the Trust, occupy a particular place within the army of the Trust. Once duplicated, these creatures with the robot-like behavior are widespread through the various worlds, they are slaves who form the pillar of the army of the Trust.

Several kinds of Synths were brought on Earth by the Trust, but it is extremely possible that there is the different one. It is probable that Synths represented the principal forces of the Trust during the Seven Hour old War because the units of the drifting Trust of human and of their technology (like the helicopters and APCs) had to appear only once the domination of the Trust on established Earth.

Technology of combat

Since it dominates the Earth, the Trust invented a broad number of devices and machines, often offensive, used with the daily newspaper for the monitoring and the maintenance about the population. The majority of the technology of the Trust present on Earth is resulting from a reinterpretation of human technology. Thus, helicopters, turrets, or cars are as many human inventions altered by the Trust.

Static and non-combatant devices

A characteristic common to the structures of the Trust seems to be their rather imposing, austere and monolithic aspect. Some seem unnecessarily complex while others defy the properties of conventional physics.

References