Forum:Nuclear weapons and HL2

Forums: Index > Nuclear weapons and HL2

Well....If we consider that Black Mesa incident happened around 1998-early 2000's in Half-Life universe when we have more then 15 000 nukes on active duty aroud the world before Seven Hour War. Why United Nations did not used the arsenal to level the Combine after they showed up?

The general assumption is that Combine Citadels are capable of withstanding a nuclear blast. True, that's to say nothing of a coordinated nuclear attack with several weapons detonating at once, but remember that the Citadels appeared in the centers of each city, which would have made governments extremely reluctant to hit them with nukes for fear of collateral damage. One also has to wonder whether any government would've been capable of organizing such a strike in such a short time, considering the Portal Storms had already been wreaking havoc on Earth's armed forces for some time. --MattyDienhoff 11:10, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

About the possibility - well it is not the assumption that nuclear silos are built to be extremely durable (about to withstand a close nuclear strike and then launch its own missile). White Forest Lauch Facility was intact, for example. Mmm...so the Resistance theoretically could have nukes?

No, the Combine destroyed every single Earth military vehicle, weapon, missile, military base, and every person with military training. Everything from Nuclear warheads, to Battleships, to Army Medics was obliterated. --Carnosaur

i was US army and we did have access to nuclear weapons it was around 45 thousand and trained to fight after a blast or several blasts my theory is that as the war progressed the militarys of the world with nukes started calling in tactical strikes and then fought under the protection of the NBC kits and fought as best they could before balistic strikes wiped them as well as any combine forces out and the world had no more military forces left i think this would explain all the toxic waste in the water. --Derekproxy

I'm pretty sure there aren't even that many nuclear weapons on Earth, let alone in the U.S.'s possesion. 72.43.122.127 10:02, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

In Half-Life 2: Episode One, Kleiner: "As we learned to our dismay, the incident at Black Mesa gave our enemies [Combine] an opening which they were able to force wider as they poured through in greater and greater numbers". You seem to be overestimating the ability of Earth militaries to resist technologically superior aliens from thousands of planets across several universes, even if human commanders were effective enough to bring it down to simple attrition, they would have been out-numbered. The portal storms also 'raged across the entire planet', presumably the Combine could have come through anywhere at anytime, including behind defensive lines and in the middle of cities — while some politicians and commanders might happily nuke their own citizens to stem the invasion, eventually there won't be enough nukes left; or all the cities will have been destroyed — either way, we lose. Since we know the war only lasted 7 hours, and most nukes have to be deployed by plane rather than ICBM, they wouldn't have been all that effective in any case — I imagine only one gunship would be needed to take down a bomber aircraft, especially with its warp cannon, and it remains to be seen whether Striders could survive the shockwave, it can probably survive both the EMP and radiation.
As a side note, nukes only have about a 15km blast radius IIRC, the Citadel's self destruct was way more powerful as a comparison of scale. 60.240.3.70 06:52, 11 August 2008 (UTC) that depends on delivery system and wether it's air burst or ground burst if it was detonated on the ground the damage would be less then if it was deliver by air then detonated plus many tactical nukes are dial up yeilds.

Firstly, the portal storms raged on Earth before the Combine even arrived, which would have weakened the standing Earth armies considerably. Secondly, it wouldn't have been Combine vs. Earth; it would have been Combine vs. China, US, Russia etc. I imagine the portal storms only intensified humanities' prediliction for in-fighting, and given the speed of the assault there would never have been a unified response. Thirdly: guys, the war was OVER in seven hours. I imagine the Combine attacked from multiple dimensional gateways, and we know that their weaponry was vastly superior. Breen negotiated a surrender after the seven hours, and that was it. There wasn't any time to deploy nukes, except perhaps in panic. Coming Second 02:43, 12 August 2008 (UTC) white forest actually looks like a version of this missile site in the countryside that we were gaurding as it was dismanteled ,also not all bases were destroyed infact it might be that the world militaries built more under gound bunkers before the 7 hour war. but if the marines detonated one after meeting Xen forces then nukes might have been made more available to miliatry units as for the negotiation with breen and the UN photo i think it was staged breen most likely sold out his own race for his sick taste in power. (i hope i didn't scare you off or iritate you)

Hmm....

I'm not sure that Seven hours is enough tim to get good intel on enemy positions, prime the Nukes, and then fire them. Also, their might just be some hidden nukes that the Resistance could get. Pair the nuke up with the Dark Energy reactor, and we got Hiroshima on crack in City 13.7!!

"Frog blast the vent core"--Commander Xillian 23:42, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

it takes a mere 5 minutes launch a nuclear end game and what was the state of the readiness the military was acting on after the storms began?

Hu. Didn't know that. Well then, why the heck didn't we go atomic on the combine? I mean, we can assume that the Portal storms interfered with communication, correct? Reliable Intel wouldn't be readily available, correct? So we can assume, to keep collateral dammage down, they didn't fire. "Frog blast the vent core!"--Commander Xillian 18:16, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Don't forget, the combine had communications with several humans (we know that Magnusson and Breen certainly had been in contact with them before the black mesa incident). If they have communicationson earth, who's to saythat they couldn't have the information to make their own tactical strikes on nuclear bunkers? Considering their overwhelming numbers and far advanced technology, it wouldn't be difficult for them to disable the various nuclear weapons, or at least a large proportion of them, before there was a chance to do anything about it. After all, you need a target for those weapons, and there's no way you could get a definite target other than another missile silo, making any attempts to use them inane. On top of this, it's entirely possible that they have someform of anti-missile defence system. There really isn't enough information on the combines actual strength, or the events of the 7 hour war, to make fair judgement on the subject.Dylan Bobson 12:56, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

well if you take all the speculation into account whats to say that the UN didn't become a world nation and keep nuclear weapons mounted on satellites and drop them from orbit the second the combine started capturing cities while the governments had set up safe underground complexs where the elite and political officals hid in for the war before being forced out under Breen's comforting words its over sign this and survive in New York City or have a fleet of B2s with w83 tipped missiles at high altitude away from the cities and that a system for detecting the portal storms was able to keep the planes a step ahead of the storm?

Please, remember to sign your posts, so I know who I'm talking to. Anyway, I'm not quite sure what speculation you mean, but fundamentally I think you're forgetting the volume of combine troops and the lack of knowledge of their arrival. Fundamentally speaking, the combine could have wiped out all the worlds general leadership before anyone knew that they were there. Also, what system would there be to detect these portal storms, considering that they hadn't existed untill at most a few hours prior to this? And, furthermore, considering the combines use of orbital, dark energy based weapons, I very much doubt a few satellites and planes are going to bother them much.Dylan Bobson 11:15, 30 January 2009 (UTC) the Citadels can with stand direct nuclear strikes is speculation how or where people were living is speculation and the form of government are speculation as well as the worlds miliatry status the only thing I say "proves" lossly the use of nuclear weapons is all the radioactive water ways near city 17 plus in a screen shot of the first HL2 in Gi magazine they saw an ohio class boomer sub with its launch doors open it however wasn't in the game in the end but still every ohio class has at least 2 nuclear missiles on board and if those sub launched a missile then nukes were used but hitting a target is a whole other story Derekproxy i'm not popular with a certain high up user.

Sorry, I don't see where anyone said about the citadel being able to take a direct nuclear strike, correct me if I'm wrong. But I also don't see that it matters. The citadel probably wasn't there untill the war ended, after which point there would be no-one around capable of nuking it. As to where people were, we can only make presumptions about the state of earths military, and the positioning of its' populace, but don't forget that the portal storms had been raging for several years prior to this, so any assumptions made have to suggest that earths military was hardly in the best of working order. Radioactive waste does not prove the use of nuclear weapons; There are other ways it could have gotten there, again it is a position where all either side of the argument can offer is speculation, however I would suggest that earth is not only used to draw resources for the combine, but also as a dump for the stuff they can't use. Im not aware of the picture you're refering to, I don't suppose you can give me a link to it can you? It would be easier to judge if I could see what you were talking about.Dylan Bobson 13:06, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Go to Gameinformer magazines site and dig around becuase i'm using a magazine that i kept for the article. I love the HL series almost as much as fear. but yes this is a major piece of conjecture as the earth could've been mad max for all we know damn those developers and their plot gaps thinking a damned newspaper clipping with 7 hour war ends in combine victory.

I'll start digging for it. Of course, this can be answered in other ways. Possibly, these nuclear weapons were fired at orbital combine weaponry, thus showing no effect on the earth. Alternatively, it may be some alternative weaponry aboard one of these subs, designed to have a smaller effect for closer combat; Not knowing the design specifics, I'll have to leave the details on that to you. Furthermore, if the combine could collect the correct data, they could effectively course a sub to dump its' weapons remotely, or target the sites that they choose. Only speculation, I'll admit, but we know that the combine had planned this attack for some time prior to the actual 7 hour war, so these speculations seem far more likely.86.29.234.68 17:17, 1 February 2009 (UTC) Sorry, that last one was me. I keep forgetting to sign in recently.Dylan Bobson 15:02, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

guys it wasnt just the combine, all of xen + race x had the military occupied (they would have overrun them anyway (if black mesa is neything to go by)aswell soo..+ the combine would have been the more 'alien' combine because they hadn't adapted to earth yet..

^ me again aha =D... + teh combien span sh*t loads of worlds, so all wed end up with is alot of dead humans, a ruined world and just heaps of combine sending wave after wave of troops .. 0.o - plsu again, it was WORLDWIDE, not one country goin 'alright lets nuke this city and its done with. anyways at least sum would tele into the underground bases e.g the ones @ black mesa did .. one more thing, the US, the worlds greatest superpower, took how long to respond to 9/11..how they gunna cope with EVERYTHING bein destroyed/conquerd (and not all of the militarys personel are adrian shepard =P)... o.0 -HL1 FTW!! =D

• Gags at the combination of spelling and purest evil*

Sorry, I know I shouldn't complain, but I'm a born grammar nazi, and the insane spelling drives me insane! Right, lets work through your point systematically. Please don't forget to sign your comments with the infamous [~]X4. True, earths military would be stuck fighting an awful lot of additional alien beings, but it wouldn't only be earth fighting them; They are known to fight amongst themselves, and they would undoubtedly be fighting the combine. The various loyalties of xenian species is also debatable. I'd put forward the theory that perhaps the vortigaunts had already joined forces with mankind in an attempt to clear earths' craziness out and get everyone back to where they belong. This also means that other alien races could possibly have switched sides. Dare I suggest, alien grunts seem to be without masters now. But fundamentally, earth is in chaos. There is nowhere obvious to use nuclear weaponry. As to the combines adaptation to earth, again, I'm going to point out that the combine are known to have been plotting the invasion of earth for some time, undoubtedly they have enough adaptability and ingenuity (man, lets hit every buzzword we can with this one) to work out tactics for earth. Um, dammit, I have a lesson to go to right now, I'll finish this when I get back, okay?Dylan Bobson 14:07, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Took me longer to get back than I'd have liked; Had to walk 5 miles home because people are too lazy to give me lifts today, and by the time I got back, I had tea to sort out, and was in desperate need of a shower. Anyway, back on topic... Humanity could last longer against the combine than you may think; Don't forget their teleportation technology is limited. Wave after wave of combine coming, but at a trickle. The response to 9/11 is a poor example, its apples and oranges. 9/11 did not require a fast response in the way that the combine invasion would; By the time the trade towers had been hit, it was too late to do anything about it. Not something you could say about the combine invasion.Dylan Bobson 21:47, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

My theory is that there were simply no large combine bases to use nukes on (they could just keep teleporting in) and by the time that the citadel(s) had been delivered humanity had been too severely crippled to use them anymore (or had already surrended).--Eateroftheflame 22:24, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

" There was an illusion of safety, for a time. And then the Citadels appeared. It happened in a split second., all over the world. A chunk would disappear from the center of a city, to be replaced by one of these...headquarters for the Combine. Invasion Central. "

― Eli Vance, Raising the Bar : Page 142