Borealis

"Destroy that ship! Whatever it takes!"

- Eli Vance

The Borealis is an Aperture Science research vessel introduced in Half-Life 2: Episode Two. According to Isaac Kleiner, Aperture was working on a promising project, but in their rush to beat Black Mesa for funding, they neglected ordinary safety rules and the ship simply disappeared with parts of her drydock, which earned her an almost legendary stature. It is assumed that the Borealis contained an immensely powerful and dangerous secret.

Half-Life 2: Episode One
Many years after the Combine invasion of Earth, Judith Mossman, Resistance operative, finds the Borealis in an Arctic location. She is attacked by Combine forces soon after, and is only able to send an incomplete transmission of her discovery to White Forest. This is intercepted by the Combine, and in turn stolen back by Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance from the Citadel Core during their flight from City 17.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two
After safely reaching White Forest, Alyx and Gordon deliver the data to the Resistance, which reveals that Mossman was cunning enough to encrypt Borealis photographs, coordinates, blueprints and hailing frequencies within her message. Once Eli Vance and Isaac Kleiner have decoded these and realize the full significance of the transmission, a rift opens between the two Resistance leaders. Kleiner believes the technology the Borealis contains could be used by the Resistance against the Combine; Eli, haunted by memories of the Black Mesa Incident and not wanting a second Seven Hour War, believes that the Borealis has to be destroyed at all costs.

It is not clear whether the Combine know of the Borealis, and consequently if they themselves have some interest in the ship's contents. Given the attack upon Mossman's forces, the interception of her message and the death of Eli Vance, it seems very likely.

While the nature of the secret hidden within the Borealis is unknown, one of the blueprints indicates the presence of at least a Material Emancipation Grill and an Unstationary Scaffold within the ship.

Mossman's message goes as follows:

Portal 2


In Portal 2, the Borealis' drydock can be found in the 1970s section of Test Shaft 09, near the offices where Chell finds GLaDOS in the bird's nest. The drydock is obviously empty, save for several life preservers bearing the ship's name scattered on the floor.

Half-Life 2: Episode Three


The Borealis is expected to appear in Episode Three. The first revealed concept art features a ship, with the word "B-EALIS" on it, the O and R being covered by Combine technology. It is stuck in ice, and Advisors float through the canyon, suggesting that the Combine will have already discovered the ship when Gordon reaches it.

Behind the scenes

 * The icebreaker Borealis was originally to appear in Half-Life 2, as the Hyperborea, then the Borealis. In Marc Laidlaw's first pass at the game's script, Freeman was to start the game by boarding the ship, bound for City 17. Later in the game's development, she was to appear between two other cut chapters, the Air Exchange and Kraken Base, before being eventually cut with the whole part set between the Depot and the City 17 street battles.


 * The ship appears to be based on existing research icebreakers, the USCGC Polar Sea, the USCGC Polar Star (both sister ships) or the USCGC Healy (which is bigger and more recent than the former), all United States Coast Guard vessels, homeported in Seattle, Washington. One of them (it is unknown which one exactly) was visited by Valve when docked in Seattle; several members of the ship crew being Half-Life fans, they were glad to grant them access to their ship to do their research.


 * The name "Borealis" is likely associated with the term "aurora borealis", the northern polar lights only visible in the Northern Hemisphere. "Borealis" comes from "Boreas", a wind god in the Greek mythology. "Hyperborea", the early name for the ship, was the name of the land of the Hyperboreans, a mythical people who lived far to the north of Thrace. "Hyperborea" means "beyond the Boreas", thus beyond the land of the wind god Boreas. "Aurora Borealis" is also the name of a European research icebreaker being constructed.


 * The images hidden in Mossman's message are located in the Episode Two texture files, in the folders "effects" and "Props".


 * One of these images shows two of the unknown scientists of Kleiner's Black Mesa main team photography, a bearded man and the only woman, posing in front of the Borealis. This could emphasize the rivalry between Aperture Science and Black Mesa, since these two scientists might be connected to both companies.


 * Other images include three blueprints of the Borealis. The original images are not blueprints for any of the United States Coast Guard research icebreakers mentioned above but those of a naval warship, the USS Newport News, a United States Navy heavy cruiser launched after World War II. They also feature tables, taken from other blueprints. The images also feature a QSL card, originally for the USCGC Polar Star.


 * The Borealis seen on the screen at White Forest can be found within the map " " and accessed with the "noclip" console code.




 * One Portal 2 Achievement/Trophy named "Ship Overboard", with the description "Discover the missing experiment", requires Chell to find the Borealis' drydock.

Trivia

 * The Borealis' teleportation shares many similarities to the urban legend of the Philadelphia Experiment in which the warship USS Eldridge was rumored to have been rendered invisible by experimental technology. In some versions of the story, the ship had accidentally teleported from its dry dock to a U.S. naval base over 200 miles away. In the most radical versions of the story, the ship achieved accidental time travel.


 * It is notable that the word "GLaDOS" is printed on the blueprints for the Borealis in the area where the person responsible for approving blueprints in a corporation (usually the owner) would sign.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two
 * Portal 2