User blog:Big McLargeHuge/The Half-Life world of Full Life Consequences

Half Life: Full Life Consequences, the quadrilogy of Half Life novellas which follow the Freeman family tree, presents a post-Combine world with stark differences.

Part 1

Overall, it seems that Combine rule has been reduced to collective forces controlling only metropolitan areas, as the first story shows that John Freeman is working as a scientist in an office. Not only does the Combine not have any influence, but industry, infastructure, and even internet communications have returned to the populace.

Gordon Freeman is still a prominate figure, preferring to live in hostile areas, where Xen creatures and Headcrab Zombies are still a threat. Gordon has internet communications, as he is able to send a message to John for his help.

One of the few odd nitpicks is why John keeps clothes and a motorcycle on the office roof, but this is easly looked over. It is unknown how tall the building is, or if John is ramping off the roof, and onto a hill nearby, as it would be dangerous to do such stunts with an improvised or salvaged motorcycle. But this does show that John is fearless, and will stop at nothing to help his brother where he was.

Though Johns living area is quite clear of danger, he quickly comes across one or two headcrab zombies. It seems to be either a zombine, or perhaps a metrocopzombie. Just like how the zombine and regualr zombie are able to string a few fragmented sentences together, John is able to have a short conversation with the headcrabofficer. This seems to be mostly for John's own entertainment, seeing that he didn't really have to talk, he could have just kept driving, or ran them over.

John then continues his quest to help his brother where he is. He notes that the countrysides are nice, with colorful imagry with the plants, birds and the sun, symbolizing the freedom from oppression.

Eventually John reaches Ravenholm. This is another interesting writing chioce, seeing that Ravenholm has surely destroyed, if not extremely irradiated from the Citadel collapse. There could be a few explainations to this:
 * 1) This is an alternate timeline story, where the Citadel was not destroyed, at least in the fashion presented in Episode 1.
 * 2) This is Ravenholm that was far enough away not to be obliterated and/or irradiated (to a certain degree) from the Citadel collapse.
 * 3) Another town is called Ravenholm (It is called Ravenholdm at one point, and not mentioned again, so it is difficult to discern which one is correct) that happens to have the same infestation as Gregori's Ravenholm.
 * 4) This town was named in honor of those who were lost at Ravenholm, and happen to fall under the same fate; The Combine discovering it and shelling it with headcrab canisters.

Opposed to the countrysides, Ravenholm is dark and bloody, symbolizing the death and destruction that has occured there.

John quickly discovered Gordons location (leading to the Famous Error, Gorden Freeman, which many fans have dubbed as "The Third Brother"), where he is fighting one of the games bosses. It is unclear what he is fighting, but his email does say that he is fighting "aliens and monsters", so he is most likely fighting a Antlion Guard, or another ferocious Xen creature. He could be fighting a Hunter, seeing that they are what the Combine use for large open areas outside of cities, but the Hunter does have eyes, which is what John targets when he shoots the creature.

John arrives in time to assist Gordon in the final blow against the creature. The two hardly have time to celebrate, or even catch up with each other, as John looks up in the sky and sees another danger, to which Gordon tells John to save himself. John flees, but looks back to see Gorndon get stepped on by the creature, and vows revenge for Gordon.

This creature is most likely a Strider, being carried by a Dropship. The Strider is the only entity that uses its feet against its targets. The Dropship explains how it came from the sky. The Strider also does not have a face or eyes like the last boss. The Strider theory is expanded in the Second book, "What Has Tobe Done".

Part 2