Hazardous Environment Combat Unit

"I just overheard a secure access transmission: soldiers have arrived and they're coming to rescue us!"

- Black Mesa Scientist

The Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, often abbreviated as HECU, is a United States Marine Corps special forces unit featured prominently in Half-Life and its expansions.

Overview
"I've killed twelve dumb ass scientists and not one of them fought back... This sucks."

- HECU Marine

The soldiers of the HECU are specially trained to deal with a variety of indoor combat situations, particularly involving a dangerous environment and unconventional enemies. Members of HECU are trained by drill instructors Dwight T. Barnes and Sharpe, and train at bases guarded and staffed by members of the Military Police. The Marines are often referred to as "grunts" by fans of the game, and also as such by Black Ops operators in the game.

They are featured in Half-Life, and its expansion packs, Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay.

Half-Life
"I didn't sign on for this shit. Monsters sure, but civilians? Who ordered this operation, anyway?"

- HECU Marine

Following the catastrophic Resonance Cascade at the Black Mesa Research Facility, bizarre aliens from Xen teleport into the complex and begin attacking personnel. The Hazardous Environment Combat Unit is dispatched to the facility to fight the aliens and regain control of Black Mesa. Unknown to the surviving personnel at Black Mesa, though, the Marines have also been ordered to eliminate Black Mesa's civilian personnel to ensure that the incident is covered up. The HECU rapidly takes over the surface areas of Black Mesa using their V-22 Ospreys to drop in men and then dispatchs forces into the interior to eliminate the aliens, Black Mesa Security Force, and bring important members of the Science Team up to the surface for brutal interrogation. Many soldiers disagreed with their orders.

The HECU's initial foray into Black Mesa was highly successful. The Marines quickly gained an advantage over the confused and frightened survivors and aliens and established a substantial presence within the facility. Black Mesa's civilian personnel failed to put up any notable resistance, as many personnel mistakenly believed that the Marines were there to rescue them, and those who tried to defend the facility against the HECU were hopelessly outgunned and overwhelmingly outnumbered, having already been weakened by the Xen creatures. The HECU soon took control of Black Mesa's central command areas and issued orders over the public address system for the facility's remaining personnel to cooperate and submit to interrogation. The troops began fortifying key surface areas with sandbags, mounted machine guns, and fixed artillery. Although there were few of them, there were also some snipers, one of which shot at and fatally wounded a security guard.

The tide soon turned against the HECU, though, as the Xen aliens continued teleporting into Black Mesa in overwhelming numbers. Surviving facility personnel lent their help to Dr. Gordon Freeman, who was able to sneak and fight his way across the facility despite all the HECU's defenses. Freeman quickly became a priority target of the troops. Their anger toward him was exemplified by several sets of graffiti seen in the "On A Rail" chapter of the game, which read "YORE DEAD FREEMAN" [sic], "SURRENDER FREEMEN" [sic], "DIE, FREEMEN" [sic], the latter of which is accompanied by 1 or 2 tripmines. Also in the same chapter two Marines can be heard talking about Freeman and their proposed revenge for killing so many of their friends, ignoring the irony of what they themselves had been doing. The full conversation is as follows:

As the battle raged on, the Xen aliens began to gain the advantage and the HECU, which was sustaining appalling casualties, was evacuated as aerial bombardments tore into the facility. The evacuation was woefully incomplete, however, leaving many Marines behind in the facility (in blatant violation of the policy never to leave another Marine behind) in the unenviable position of being caught amongst the forces of the Black Ops, the Xen aliens, and the newly-arrived Race X creatures.
 * "So, who is this guy, Freeman?"
 * "They say he was at Ground Zero."
 * "Science Team? You think he was responsible, sabotage, maybe?"
 * "Yeah, maybe. But one thing for sure is he's been killing my buddies."
 * "Oh yeah, he'll pay. He will definitely pay."

Still, the HECU was aware of this happening to some degree, as a soldier was able to send one last radio transmission to any stragglers underground.

"FORGET ABOUT FREEMAN! We are cutting our losses and pulling out! Anyone left down there now is on his own! Repeat, If you weren't already, you're in a..."

Half-Life: Uplink
During Gordon Freeman's run to the satellite array and the later return trip, Gordon makes his way through a HECU camp in the shipping yards which consists of multiple weapon emplacements, troops in towers, a command tent, and a pit dug for burning aliens.

Half-Life: Opposing Force
"Government cover-ups were not in my job description!"

- HECU soldier

In the original Half-Life game, the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit was simply referred to as "the military" or "soldiers". In the expansion Opposing Force, the protagonist, Corporal Adrian Shephard, is one of those men, and during the opening titles that display his personal info, his training is listed as "USMC Special Forces" and his current assignment is listed as the "Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, Santego Military Base, Arizona". Many new models are included, notably two precise classes: the Engineer, assigned to cut open sealed doors using a blowtorch, and the Medic.

Opposing Force takes place several hours after the initial resonance cascade. The player's character, Adrian Shephard, is knocked unconscious when his Osprey transport is shot down by Xen forces, and wakes up several hours later in the Black Mesa Infirmary. Shephard regains consciousness just in time to witness the HECU begin to pull out all of its troops. However, he is prevented from leaving when the mysterious G-Man seals him in the facility. Shephard is forced to continue deeper into Black Mesa, where he encounters and takes charge of the remnants of HECU who have also been left behind during the evacuation. Shephard and his men find themselves combating not only the aliens from Xen, but also the newly arrived "Race X" aliens and a group of government Black Ops assassins who have recently been dispatched to the facility, who appear to have orders to eliminate any remaining HECU Marines as well as to destroy Black Mesa with a nuclear device.

The Hazardous Environment Combat Unit also appears to have access to more advanced military technology than their regular counterparts, as the Marines wear Powered Combat Vests (PCVs).

Furthermore, in both games, the troops are deployed in Osprey aircraft, which at the time of the game's production, had not yet gone beyond Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) and low-rate production with the United States Marine Corps.



Murphy's Combat Laws
These laws are included in the Opposing Force instruction manual, written as a soldier's handbook. They mock the infamous Murphy's law concept.

Weapons and equipment
The Hazardous Environment Combat Unit troops, while utilizing a variety of equipment and firearms, are all equipped similarly. Each Marine is equipped with an urban camouflage battle dress uniform and a Powered Combat Vest and can be equipped with a PASGT helmet and, depending on his specialization, blowtorch or medical supplies.

Weaponry
The weapons utilized by the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit are based on several currently available weapons:

Sidearms


 * Glock 17
 * M9 Beretta
 * Desert Eagle with laser sight. The ammunition is indicated in the game as .357 Magnum, but the magazine capacity is the same as the .50 caliber - 7 rounds.

Primary Weapons

Sub-Machine Guns/Assault Rifles


 * MP5 with attached M303 grenade launchers.
 * M4 Carbine with attached M203 grenade launchers.

Sniper Rifles


 * M40A1 Sniper Rifle

Shotguns


 * SPAS-12 Shotgun

Light Machine Guns


 * M249 Squad Automatic Weapon

Explosive weaponry


 * Laser-guided missile launcher


 * Laser Tripmines


 * Mk 2 Grenade

Fixed Weapons/Heavy Artillery


 * M198 Howitzer
 * M2 Browning Machine Gun
 * Autonomous Sentry Turrets
 * M202A1 FLASH

Vehicles



 * AH-64 Apache attack helicopter
 * V-22 Osprey VSTOL aircraft
 * M1A1 Abrams main battle tank
 * M2A3 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle
 * F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole fighter
 * M35 cargo truck

Tactics
The HECU use several techniques over the course of Half-Life, ranging from setting traps and turrets to use of heavy vehicles and air strikes. The standard infantry tactics include using numbers to pin down the player and then advancing, and occasionally tossing grenades to either kill the player or force him to come out of hiding. They also use heavily fortified mounted turrets on several occasions. Being as they like to shoot until the player retreats, and then advance, strategically placing trip mines behind and then retreating is a good way to take them down. If the HECU are occupied with fighting other forces (such as Xen aliens), then taking the time to place a Satchel Charge will be a benefit once they draw their attention to the player. The HECU are prone to use of vehicles to kill or distract the player in later levels, and it is often best to take out the infantry first in order to be able to focus all attention on the vehicle. It is worth noting that in some levels the HECU will place snipers, which can be deadly if the player is caught off guard or in the open area. The HECU are also prone to laying trip mines and turrets in unsuspecting places, so the player should be wary of both these. Using the shotgun and SMG on HECU troops is very helpful, as they use these weapons and drop valuable ammo.

Technology
The HECU's technology is mostly based on conventional and unconventional military practices such as vehicle support, artillery support, fortification and traps in the Half-Life expansions.

PCV
The Powered Combat Vest is a type of body armor used by the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit to protect Marines during combat situations. The PCV features night vision goggles, a gieger counter to detect radioactive waste, biological substances, and acid. The PCV has the ability to take power from HEV Suit bateries, HEV Chargers, and commercial, Ohms Power Chargers. The PCV can take enough fire in one setting, that it has been known to take a full Shotgun Blast and lose only a 10% charge.

Tactical Map
Utilized by HECU forces and Gordon, the Tactical Map role is to coordinate air strikes against targets. It makes its first and only appearance at the end of the chapter Surface Tension where it is used by Gordon to destroy a Gargantua and what hinder his progress. The operation of the Tactical Map is quite simple as to move the crosshair by moving two switches and the start button which would launch air strikes on the specified area.

Welding Torch
The Welding Torch is a gas torch used by the Engineer class of the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit to cut through steel blast doors that are locked and unaccessible. The torch appears to be a Gas torch connected to a fuel tube going up a fuel and an oxygen tank on the engineers back. Engineers have been known to light Torches using their cigars.

Radio
The Radio is a communication that allows insight on the battlefield and status on squads or installations/bases. Commonly seen in Black Mesa recently after the H.E.C.U.s arrival they were commonly in base camps or near installations. They are used by HECU personnel, Gordon, Adrian and Barney.

Behind the scenes

 * Originally, some HECU soldiers were to be smoking. It was cut but brought back in Opposing Force. The non-HD black beret model still features a cigar, however.


 * Originally, the HECU was to feature a powerful minigun-wielding soldier, smoking a cigar. He was nicknamed "Human Sargeant" [sic]; this soldier appears however in ''Half-Life: Point of View" mod. His face was reused as one of the four original HECU soldier models.


 * This minigun-wielding sergent can be seen in action in the Half-Life mod Point of View.


 * Early concept art for the Half-Life chapter Surface Tension, suggests that a large HECU camp was considered at some point.


 * Originally, the HECU was also to operate a F-117 Nighthawk.


 * In Half-Life: Day One, there are only Caucasian soldiers. In addition, they do not use the shotgun.


 * Chuck Jones designed the original models, while Stephen Bahl designed the new classes (Medic, Engineer) and variations for Opposing Force, as well as all the HD models. For Opposing Force, Gearbox's purpose was to improve upon what Valve had created with new versions/classes, since the game was being with soldiers.


 * The HECU was also apparently to operate robots as soldiers:


 * An unnamed two-legged robot with a single red eye can be seen in early screenshots. It is however unknown if this robot was to be a part of the HECU forces. It is almost identical to the Zentraedi Tactical Battle Pod from the TV series Robotech, which may be the reason why it was cut. It is also a possible inspiration for the Hunter.


 * Another humanoid green robot model can be found in the Half-Life SDK. A bronze-colored version was reused for Half-Life Deathmatch and replaced the human grunts in the censored German version of the game. An earlier, different version can be seen a early Half-Life screenshot.

Trivia

 * HECU snipers are not NPCs but actual brush entities like the M1A1 Abrams and the M2A3 Bradley.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life: Day One
 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Uplink
 * Half-Life: Opposing Force
 * Half-Life: Blue Shift
 * Half-Life: Decay
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar