Seven Hour War

	Warning! This article has yet to be cleaned up to a higher standard of quality, per our Cleanup Project. It may contain factual errors and nonsense, as well as spelling, grammar and structure issues, or simply structure problems. Reader's discretion is advised until fixing is done.
	You can help clean up this page by correcting spelling and grammar, removing factual errors and rewriting sections to ensure they are clear and concise, and moving some elements when appropriate. Please notify the administrators before removing this template.

Seven Hour War Beginning: Days after the Black Mesa Incident End: Seven hours after it began Location: Earth Outcome: Decisive Combine victory; total capitulation of all Earth's governments and Combine Occupation of Earth, total enslavement of humanity Combatants United Nations The Combine Commanders Human leaders Combine Advisors Strength Human militaries Combine forces Casualties Massive human death toll Unknown

"Dr. Breen... He's the Administrator of this whole vile business now. He ended the Seven Hour War by managing Earth's surrender. The Combine rewarded him with power."

― Eli Vance

The Seven Hour War was a brief but decisive confrontation between the Combine and the governments of Earth, ultimately leading to a large human death toll and the Combine occupation of the entire planet.

Overview

The war itself is never discussed directly in Half-Life 2, but it is mentioned briefly by Eli Vance in Black Mesa East. Looking at a small corkboard featuring several annotated newspaper cutouts and images, including a photo of a visibly damaged United Nations Secretariat Building in New York City, causes him to reminisce over the events during the war. In Episode Two, Eli later states that if the superportal matures, "it'll be the Seven Hour War all over again... except this time we won't last seven minutes!".

Very little is known about the war except that it began within a matter of days after the Black Mesa Incident while Portal Storms raged across the Earth. These disturbances spread Xen life forms across the world, causing populations to move into cities for protection. Attracted to Earth by the dimensional rift caused by the Black Mesa Incident, the Combine, a vast alien empire, launched an invasive force that overpowered the planet by using the now conquered Xen - a crossroads of different dimensions - and its portal storms on earth, catching the human population by surprise and defeating all of its armed forces in only seven hours.

During the seven hours, various militaries banded with the UN Peacekeeping force. Volunteer militias also sprung up to fight against the Combine and the Xen invasions. As the Combine arrived, professionals noted that the two alien groups were more focused on fighting each other than conquering humanity.

It was after this that Dr. Wallace Breen, former Black Mesa Research Facility administrator, negotiated a surrender, leading to a subservient and meager existence for Earth's remaining human population under the oppressor and "saving" the survivors at the cost of their freedom. Breen was appointed administrator of Earth but remained under the control of the Combine. According to newspaper clippings seen in Half-Life: Alyx, Breen notified the UN that he had established communications with the Combine, and was given carte blanche to negotiate peace at all costs. This resulted in an unconditional surrender from the UN on behalf of all nations and peoples. Breen received widespread criticism, with several professionals accusing him of betraying humankind and noting that the treaty established humanity as vassals. In one of his first public appearances, Breen acknowledged his detractors and stated that he took the only possible course of action.

Half-Life 2 begins an undisclosed number of years after the war after the rule of the Combine has been firmly established. There is, however, some evidence from the Half-Life 2: Episode One official website indicating that Half-Life 2 takes place nearly two decades after the Black Mesa incident. Such a time frame is logically consistent with the aging of the series' characters between Half-Life and Half-Life 2. It also explains why there are no children in the game, the Combine having set up a reproductive suppression field a short time after the war to prevent any further reproduction for approximately twenty years until the events of Episode One, the suppression field being disabled after the damage the Citadel had sustained.

Behind the scenes

The name of the conflict is a reference to the Six-Day War, which occurred between June 5 and 10, 1967 in the Middle East and resulted in heavy casualties of Arab forces and a decisive victory of Israel.

The exact manner in which the Combine forces invaded and conquered Earth during the war has not been revealed, but Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar had described a concept where Citadels were to be teleported directly to Earth. Once they had landed inside human cities, they began deploying Combine armies from within:

"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 an instant later by one of these... headquarters for the Combine. Invasion Central."

― Eli in The Slideshow Briefing

This notion has since been negated by Half-Life: Alyx where a whiteboard illustration shows the tracking of progress of the Citadel's construction. Thus, the Citadels were likely unimportant to the initial invasion and only serve to strengthen their hold on a given area.

Gallery

• 

  The Times' front page following Earth's surrender.

• 

  Fan-cleaned up version of the front page photo.

• 

  The Terminal discusses Breen's negotiations and ongoing Portal Storms.

• 

  Alyx's marked globe following the Combine's rule as seen in her hideout.