It has come to my attention that some have lately called me a collaborator, as if such a term were shameful. I ask you, what greater endeavor exists than that of collaboration? In our current unparalleled enterprise, refusal to collaborate is simply a refusal to grow—an insistence on suicide, if you will.
Did the lungfish refuse to breathe air? It did not.
It crept forth boldly while its brethren remained in the blackest ocean abyss, with lidless eyes forever staring at the dark, ignorant and doomed despite their eternal vigilance. Would we model ourselves on the trilobite? Are all the accomplishments of humanity fated to be nothing more than a layer of broken plastic shards thinly strewn across a fossil bed, sandwiched between the Burgess shale and an eon's worth of mud?
In order to be true to our nature, and our destiny, we must aspire to greater things. We have outgrown our cradle. It is futile to cry for mother's milk, when our true sustenance awaits us among the stars. And only the universal union that small minds call 'The Combine' can carry us there. Therefore I say, yes, I am a collaborator. We must all collaborate, willingly, eagerly, if we expect to reap the benefits of unification.
He did nothing wrong. He extended the duration of humanity's life. Even if his intentions were selfish he kept more humans alive than the alternative scenario.
I'd like to take a moment to address you directly, Dr. Freeman.
Yes. I'm talking to you, the so-called One Free Man. I have a question for you. How could you have thrown it all away? It staggers the mind. A man of science, with the ability to sway reactionary and fearful minds toward the truth, choosing instead to embark on a path of ignorance and decay. Make no mistake, Dr. Freeman. This is not a scientific revolution you have sparked...this is death and finality.
You have plunged humanity into freefall. Even if you offered your surrender now, I cannot guarantee that Our Benefactors would accept it. At the moment, I fear they have begun to look upon even me with suspicion. So much for serving as humanity's representative.
Help me win back their trust, Dr. Freeman. Surrender while you still can. Help ensure that humanity's trust in you is not misguided.
After reading that note I just realized something. Dr. Breen lives in the top of the giant citadel tower like how an evil wizard lives in a tower in most high fantasy stories
>His VA is dead >No 'I turned myself into a grub, Gordon' scene >No comfy speeches on HL:A >We'll never see that time he brought jugglers to the show Why live
Honestly, this. If Breen hasn't been a selfish and cowardly surrender monkey, as loathsome as those traits are, there wouldn't have been a humanity to begin saving left by Half-Life 2.
My only question is whether Breen actually believed there's a light in the end of the tunnel and that the combine would elevate humanity once they steal our teleportation secrets or if he knew them not knowing where the fuck aperture sent their rusty tugboat was the only thing keeping us alive and he just played along for the cameras.
>translation; look you stupid fucking asshole, I barely managed to convince the aliens to spare us as a doomed slave race by dangling portal technology and it's existence in front of them and that we might useful, instead of them exterminating us like the insects we are to them. Now, you are pissing them off, and there is a good chance that they will decide to finish what they started. WHAT THE FUCK FREEMAN. YOU WERE AT BLACK MESA. YOU SAW XEN. YOU ARE FIGHTING A LITERAL ARMY. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWTFAAAAAA. He raises a fair point. Even without Epistle 3, the last thing we do is barely beat a handful of Striders, sustaining massive losses, after what probably amounts to 0.01% of the Combine's remaining strength almost fucks us several times across the Episodes. They still have the forces of Cities 1-16, maybe more after 17, where the rebels didn't have a Freeman to inspire them to rise up. Yay, we closed a portal. Now we fight a losing guerrilla war against the Combine for the next few decades, slowly being picked apart by the Xen wildlife that has become a permanent part of earth.
But we close the giant portal in ep2. The combine are now effectively cut off from their main force unless there are more citadels. Then we're boned.
Robert Butler
The train station schedule in city 17 goes up to 27.
Jason Nelson
Dr Breen's writing and voice actor are excellent.
Logan Hughes
I WOULD, SHE HAS THAT CHARM OF THE CUTE NEIGHBOR
Brandon White
>potentially 26 more citadels >all full of gunships, striders and cut enemies
Landon Stewart
The plan is that when all communication is cut between earth and the combine, there will be mass defects of the still human cops. for example. The cops you fight on ep 1 iirc are defectors who want to steal your train to skeddaddle themselves before the citadel blows.
Evan Taylor
Doesn't mean that the Resistance will win. Even the local token garrisons stuck on Earth might be enough to crush the rebellion without backup.
Luis Sullivan
seeing shit like this reminds me of how I missed that feeling that HL2 brings.
What and just let her FULLY MODELED VAGINA go to waste?
Carson Sullivan
You shut your whore mouth, alyx was one of my first faps
Carson White
Kleiner mentions "linked citadel reactors" being disrupted by the city 17 citadel getting blown up. So there's probably more. Maybe not as big as the city 17 one.
Gavin Stewart
I wonder if the consul would be all serious like that or if when you meet him in person he's goofy and human like Breen.
E-mails from Laidlaw as well as the Kleinercasts in Episode One confirm the existence of more citadels: >The destabilization of the City 17 reactor has had repercussions that were not entirely unexpected, although we hardly dared speak this hope ahead of time. The destructive pulse forced a damper on the entire network of linked Citadel reactors. Thus, for the time being, I believe that all Combine portals have failed completely, as well as all communication systems based on that technology.
The rocket at the end of Episode Two prevented any further off-world teleportation from the Combine, which is why they're in a mad scramble to find the Borealis, since it might offer them a ticket home.
