Race X

The Race X is a mysterious alien race appearing in the Black Mesa Research Facility late in the Black Mesa Incident, a few hours before Gordon Freeman teleports to Xen, serving as one of the main antagonists of Opposing Force.

Overview


The Race X consists of several alien creatures, ranging from average to large. They use their own weapons, such as the Shock Roach and the Spore Launcher, as well as natural defenses, such as toxic spits or claws. They also appear to have mastered teleportation technology, as they teleport around Black Mesa like the Xen aliens, and have installed at least one Xen crystal-powered teleportation device on Xen during the later stages of the Black Mesa Incident to serve as a relay between Earth and their world to bring Sprites on Earth, hinting they already had some knowledge of Xen prior to the events. However they were not particularly well adapted to the borderworld, hence their apparent lack of presence there. Of note is that Race X and Xen portals present a striking difference in color: while Xen portals are green-colored, the Race X's are purple-colored, suggesting other ways of functioning.

The Race X was discovered by chance by the Black Mesa scientists, when they opened a rift to another dimension than that of Xen during their portal technology experiments, which lays "somewhere beyond" Xen. Not knowing where this dimension was, the name "X" was used by Black Mesa to define the unknown. Furthermore, it is possible that Black Mesa opened further rifts to other unknown dimensions.

As the result of this dimension differences, Race X creatures act independently from the Xen units, hence their hostility towards them, did not come to Earth through Xen, and did not take part to the conflict between the Combine and Nihilanth's forces. The Resonance Cascade probably affected portals linked to their world, allowing them to spread in the facility in great numbers, and apparently also on Xen. They might also have used the Gene Worm portal, which probably was the main portal to the Race X homeworld in Black Mesa.

When they reach Earth, the smaller troops start killing any living being scattered around Black Mesa to make way to the Gene Worm. It is to start what the Race X has in store for Earth, i.e. assimilating its natural resources, regardless of the ongoing conflict, which is stopped by Shephard when he defeats the Gene Worm. Afterwards, it is likely that the rift to their dimension is sealed off by Black Mesa's destruction (the facility being their only access point to Earth), preventing them to spread across Earth by using at their advantage the assets provided by the Xen invasion. That would canonically justify their absence in subsequent games.

Some of the Race X creatures are studied in Black Mesa's Sector E Biodome Complex. A huge Sprite-powered portal used by the Gene Worm is also present in Black Mesa (installed there by Black Mesa or the Race X itself at some point), and the corporation is apparently aware of a possible threat, as they have installed two laser guns on each side of the portal. Not all Black Mesa scientists are aware of their existence, as suggested when a scientist attacked by a Shock Trooper calls out that he has "never seen that species before".

Known entities



 * Gene Worm
 * Pit Drone
 * Pit Worm
 * Shock Trooper
 * Sprite
 * Voltigore

Behind the scenes
Created by Gearbox, the Race X only appears in Opposing Force; therefore very little is known about them, as they do not appear nor are mentioned in any other game of the series.

Some explanation and clarifications about the Race X and their place in the Half-Life universe was given by series' writer Marc Laidlaw; it can be found in the Marc Laidlaw Vault on the HalfLife2.net Forums. There he states that Race X is purely a Gearbox creation that does not figure at all in his thinking about the Half-Life universe (although his level of input into its creation, if any, is unknown). He furthers adds that the Gearbox team wanted to come up with a set of creatures that would create gameplay they knew how to make, and that they could have been making an original title or an add-on for any other franchise, and plugged Race X into it - the reason being that they had gameplay they wanted to explore and needed the freedom of their own race of critters to conduct those experiments with. He also suggests that if Gearbox had kept making games set in the Half-Life universe, more about the Race X would have been revealed.

Race X's creator Stephen Bahl gave further information about the Race X's creation, nature and purpose when asked on Facebook. Bahl states that the team wanted to add some new creature variety without messing with what Valve had already established, hence the creation of another rift to another dimension, allowing the coming to Earth of creatures unrelated to Nihilanth's issues with its race and the Combine, and not interfering with Marc Laidlaw's original plot. To the team, "it made sense that a rift to a dimension other than Xen could have opened up to let other creatures in". These answers can also be found in the Marc Laidlaw Vault on the HalfLife2.net Forums.

Trivia

 * Assimilating Earth's natural resources is also what the Combine does in the Half-Life 2 story arc.
 * On Xen in Blue Shift, Chumtoads are seen teleporting out of their "lair" with purple portals, the same color of that of the Race X. However their shape is different, making it unlikely that the Chumtoad was retconned by Gearbox as part of the Race X.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life: Opposing Force