Black Ops

"I just wanna deliver the package and get out of here."

- Male Assassin

The Black Ops, sometimes hyphenated to Black-Ops and sometimes referred to as Black Operations, are a commando group of trained government assassins briefly seen in Half-Life and later expanded upon and featured in Half-Life: Opposing Force. Soon after the HECU, they invade the Black Mesa Research Facility to conceal any evidence of the Resonance Cascade.

While it is stated that the HECU and the Black Ops are officially known to enter the facility in the event of an emergency and work with the Security Force as "a dangerous and very efficient clean-up crew" (although some employees consider it a rumor ), they are shown to work independently, killing all living things inside the base, whether they be Black Mesa employees, HECU soldiers, or Xen lifeforms, and eventually destroying Black Mesa itself altogether through use of a nuclear weapon.

They are divided into two groups: the Female and Male Black Ops, also known as Female and Male Assassins.

Half-Life
The Black Ops first appear in Half-Life during the chapter Apprehension, and later make one more appearance during the chapter Lambda Core. Only Female Black Ops are seen by Gordon Freeman in the game.

Female Black Ops are strikingly nimble and agile, able to sprint faster than any other enemy and can jump to extreme heights. They wear a black jump suit and use night vision goggles that include a headset with microphone, although none are ever heard speaking. They are armed with a silenced Glock 17 and grenades. At close range, they use an array of kicks to fight the player. When playing under the hardest difficulty level, Female Black Ops also have a cloaking device, which they use to become invisible during combat, only revealing themselves when moving.

The distinction between the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit and the Black Ops was not made at first in the original Half-Life. Although the two groups never encountered one another in the game, Female Assassins were coded to fight on the same side as the Marines. Many players assumed this meant they were working with the military since assassins had no backstory, and as such, many fan-made maps included them fighting alongside each other. It was not until the release of Opposing Force that more insight regarding the Black Ops was revealed.

Half-Life: Opposing Force


Black Ops are featured much more prominently in Opposing Force. The reason for their presence at Black Mesa is also explained, something that was never made clear in the original game. Opposing Force explains that, after the initial failure of the HECU's clean-up operation, the Black Ops are sent to cover up the whole incident by destroying the entire facility. To do this, they intend to set off a thermonuclear device within the complex. Adrian Shephard locates the bomb the Black Ops deliver in a parking garage and is able to disarm it, but shortly thereafter it is seen being reactivated by the G-Man. The flash of a nuclear explosion is later witnessed in the epilogue, indicating the successful detonation of this bomb.

During gameplay, Black Ops are shown to have utter contempt for the HECU soldiers, considering them incompetent and inept. One assassin angrily remarks to another, "Why do we always have to clean up a mess the grunts can't handle?". The Black Ops are openly hostile towards Marines, killing any who have not yet escaped as part of their mission. While the HECU are aware that the Black Ops group exists, they are utterly confused by their arrival and wonder if they are there to assist. However, the Black Ops soon start killing all of the non-Black Ops personnel they can find. HECU radio traffic shows that the Marines are at first totally taken by surprise, much like how the HECU initially overwhelms the Black Mesa personnel. Further evidence of their viciousness can be seen after discovering a Marine engineer who, after being brutally beaten and interrogated, is simply left for dead, trapped in a garage.

Along with the Female Black Ops, Opposing Force introduced the group's male variant. Male Black Ops wear black combat gear and ski masks that only expose their eyes. Some are seen wearing night vision goggles. Although not visible, they apparently have a communicator in their ear which they are seen listening to whenever they eliminate a target.

They are equipped with the same SMG with grenade attachment that the HECU use, but some male Black Ops have a M40A1 Sniper Rifle. They utilize equipment and vehicles, such as the M35 Cargo Truck, the AH-64 Apache, and the V-22 Osprey similar to the HECU, but black in color.

Black Ops soldiers can run much faster than the Marines, and up close, they use martial arts kicks and punches as melee attacks. They also have a little more health. Also, unlike their Marine counterparts, Black Ops operate in total silence when in combat, refusing to even yell in pain when injured.

Half-Life: Decay
In Decay, the Black Ops assassins are only featured in the bonus chapter, Xen Attacks. In it they battle against the players' two Vortigaunt characters, R-4913 and X-8973, in the underground parking lot originally featured at the end of Opposing Force, under Sector E's largest Ordinance Facility.

Behind the scenes



 * The female Black Ops were originally to be armed with crossbows. The quivers used to hold the crossbow bolts are still featured in the model, attached to the belt.


 * The early female Black Ops model features yellow goggles, turned red in the retail model.


 * As seen in the Opposing Force model files, the male Black Ops were originally to use flash grenades.


 * Early concept art for Quiver features special CIA units, one of which is a female. The original Black Ops likely stem from it.


 * The highly exaggerated bounce of the female Black Ops breasts when she walked held to much amusement by fans. This was removed in Opposing Force and in the PlayStation 2 console port of the original game.


 * The Half-Life 2 successor from the female Black Op is the cut Combine Assassin.


 * Originally, the CIA was to send four types of units to Black Mesa that were cut or simplified in the final version. These include the two Black Ops classes kept for the Half-Life series: the original female assassin, dubbed "Light Attack / CIA Soldier", which the final product kept much of the classes ability with a new clothing, and the original male assassin, dubbed "Special Weapons / CIA Assassin", cut from Half-Life and later reused in Opposing Force, without most of his abilities such as to combat the player in water and throwing knives. The two classes that remained cut were the "Special Attack / CIA Psionic Soldier", a small man who was to use a "mind gun" linked to his oversized brain and possess psionic abilities similar to the Kingpin and a high level of intelligence, and the "Special Unit, aka The Butcher / CIA Soldier", who was to have powerful dual chainsaws apparently extending his arms.

Trivia



 * In some instances, if a Female Assassin is killed in the back while running, her nightvision goggles flip up, revealing blue (in Half-Life) or brown (in Opposing Force) eyes, and she will pull her legs together and lie dead on her right side.


 * The Female Assassin model featured in Opposing Force has brown eyes, while they are blue in that of Half-Life. It also does not have grenades attached to its belt. The textures are also of lower resolution and slightly different, such as a different, darker grey for the Glock's silencer. Its overall build is also thinner.


 * In the DLC expansion "The Secret Armory of General Knoxx" for Gearbox Software's 2009 video game Borderlands, enemies named "Lance Assassins" look and behave in a way very similar to the female Black Ops. This may have been influenced by Gearbox's work on the Half-Life expansions.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Opposing Force
 * Half-Life: Decay
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar