Combine Gunship



First Seen: Half-Life 2, Chapter One - Point Insertion
 * Health total: 3 (Easy) 5 (Normal) 7 (Hard) RPG hits. Grenade/Pulse Rifle orb hits do half the damage of RPG hits. Generator orb hits in the Citadel do a little less than twice.
 * Weapon damage: Pulse Turret (3)
 * Entity:  (only stays in one spot if spawned during play)

A powerful, autonomous aircraft that combines aspects of an airplane and a helicopter with Synth technology, the gunship is the Combine's most versatile combat aircraft. Gunships are used to attack enemies not normally accessible to ground forces, or in remote locations where air power would be more convenient. They are also sometimes used in a support role, called into specific trouble spots. Apparently, in urban settings or when protecting highly important facilities (such as the Citadel dark fusion reactor or Nova Prospekt) the gunship are deployed in pairs, in what appears to be a buddy system, in which one protects the other. However, when deployed to oversee vast spaces, such as the coast, they are apparently deployed only one unit at a time.

Gunships are powered by an array of different jet engines, visible on their belly, and maneuver using a rear helicopter-like rotor with dragonfly wing-blades. Dragonfly-like compound eyes are positioned directly behind the gunship's pulse gun, and it is likely that they aim the weapon. The chassis itself has one large exposed compound eye on each side, which it might use to "see" or detect enemies under normal conditions. It should be noted that the aforementioned "dragonfly" eyes can be viewed in the Half-Life 2 Model Viewer as being able to extend downwards and sweep left and right, probably to maximize its chances of finding a target. Although lacking the hunter-chopper's explosive mines and intelligent pilots, the gunship surpasses the hunter-chopper in maneuverability and accuracy with its pulse turret.

Like most Combine Synths and vehicles, the gunship is invulnerable to small arms fire and can only be damaged by heavy weapons like rocket-propelled grenades. Because of this weakness to explosives, gunships will give any incoming explosives, such as rockets, a priority over enemies, and will attempt to shoot them down. If there is more than one gunship, they will all attempt to shoot down an incoming explosive in order to protect each other.

Gunships are also equipped with a "belly cannon" which releases a matter disintegration blast, similar to that of the suppression device, directly beneath the gunship. This attack is never used during the single player mission, nor Episode One, but additional gunships spawned by players have been witnessed using such an attack. Analysis of the single player missions that were released in an uncompiled format reveals that the gunships were deliberately set not to use this weapon. It is interesting to note that this form of attack is also used by Xen's Manta Rays in the original Half-Life, mainly witnessed at the beginning of Opposing Force, in which a group of Manta Rays destroy military aircraft. However, this is most probably just a coincidence, as it was confirmed by Marc Laidlaw that the Combine was not present on Xen during the events of Half-Life.