Covenant vs. Combine

[ChosenOne54]

A very interesting match I thought of, pitting Half-Life against Halo. This battle pits the Covenant, from Halo, against the Combine empire from Half-Life 2 and the episodes. I know that there are a lot of unknowns regarding the full strength of the Combine, but we have seen some quite impressive tech in Half-Life 2 and I was wondering how this would play out.

The match starts with the Combine opening a superportal directly onto High Charity, around the beginning of Halo 2, and beginning a full scale invasion (teleporting Citadels and all).

What happens?

[keen320]

Do we even know if the Combine have space travel? With inter-dimensional portals, they may see no reason to expand into space, and thus have not developed the necessary technology. If they haven't, they can't win, if all else fails, the covenant can glass the planet, although they would obviously be quite reluctant to resort to that.

The question then would be, do they need too? It would be a Pyrrhic victory, indeed.

Combine soldiers might be similar in effectiveness to UNSC marines, although it would be interesting to know the effects an energy orb would have on an Elite (I'm guessing at least as effective to the shield as a plasma pistol charged shot, possible instant death). Combine gunships might do well against most troops, but a covenant plasma turret would probably make short work of them. A strider's warp cannon would probably result in instant destruction to almost anything, but it's a bit slow on delivery, and striders would make obvious targets in open warfare. Hunters would likely be fairly effective, though perhaps too vulnerable to plasma grenades.

I'm curious about what would result from headcrabs attacking covenant soldiers.

However, the units encountered in Half Life 2 are essentially a garrison force, not the combine's full strength. The combine used much more and probably better troops to take the earth the first time. However, we know very little about this army.

http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Crab_Synth
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Mortar_Synth

Also some cut content may provide clues, although it's probably not canon.
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Sacktick
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Unidentified_cut_Synth

[ChosenOne54]

Do we even know if the Combine have space travel? With inter-dimensional portals, they may see no reason to expand into space, and thus have not developed the necessary technology. If they haven't, they can't win, if all else fails, the covenant can glass the planet, although they would obviously be quite reluctant to resort to that.

No, we have no idea whether or not the Combine have space travel, though it's possible that their portal technology could make up for this. I've seen people discuss that, in theory, the Combine may actually be able to open portals onto Covenant ships, kind of negating the whole orbital advantage, but that would require pinpoint-accurate portaling. Of course, instantly teleporting hundreds of Citadels all over a planet and invading en masse seems to be a far more efficient way of subjugating a planet, though they are vulnerable to orbital bombardment.

Just wondering, but if all of the Covenant's planets were captured, would the Covenant still be able to survive in space alone? They must need to re-supply and re-fuel at some point.

Combine ground forces are pretty fearsome anyhow. I could talk all about pulse-turret fire cutting zombies in half, Hunter-Chopper-mounted cannons shredding APCs in seconds, Strider cannons making 20ft diameter holes in solid concrete etc. etc. That, and the Covenant Banshee looks pretty much pathetic next to the Combine gunship.

This quotes offers some nice insight:

2. Combine pulse weaponry can, as observed several times during the games, cut people in half. (usually observed around sentry turrets with zombie bodies cut in half with no blast marks from grenades nearby) Combine pulse cannons, such as the ones mounted on the Hunter-Choppers, can literally disassemble main battle tanks within seconds, as seen with Combine APCs, which have greater RPG resistance than Abrams MBTs and still virtually disappear under the barrage of that thing. That's the Combine equivalent of stationary machineguns and autocannons, with the autoguns being even more powerful. They're hardly weak, or insufficient to kill Covenant forces for that matter.

(as an entirely amusing and irrelevant sidenote, H-L beta apparently had the MG mounted on a dropship's troop pod blow up a Merkava with like a second of firing. That, however, obviously did not make it into the actual game, at least not so far, just like Combine troops with optic camo and heavy powered armour did not)

3. Calling dropships "hideously vulnerable to RPG fire" when they are outright immune to them in the game is perplexing at best. Their cargo pods can be destroyed... with some three or five RPGs, I don't quite remember and can't be bothered to check, but that hardly supports that line of argument. Combine Gunships are as tough as main battle tanks and can shoot down incoming missile fire, Banshee looks sad by comparison.

4. Main Combine forces are obviously not the Overwatch soldiers that we see in HL2, and going at least by what we have seen of Nihilanth's own troop factory, they might very well be quite a bit more powerful; we know that the Combine has at least some Vortigaunts under its boot, for instance, and those can get ridiculous, tearing thick metal doors apart and trivially punching through concrete - without wounding themselves, apparently.

[StarSword]

Just wondering, but if all of the Covenant's planets were captured, would the Covenant still be able to survive in space alone? They must need to re-supply and re-fuel at some point.

Well, they do have slipspace-capable stations like High Charity. Depending on the timeframe (as in, is this supposed to be before or after Halo 2?), said station was entirely powered by a Forerunner dreadnought for decades, if not centuries.

I'm not sure if they manufacture food aboard High Charity (the games don't offer much insight into the Covenant's everyday life), but it wouldn't stretch the imagination too much to imagine hydroponics gardens aboard.

[ChosenOne54]

But remember, this match-up starts with the Combine opening a superportal directly onto High Charity, and beginning a full-scale invasion. And we know, when superportals are open, a lot of crazy shit can happen, like mass teleportation of Citadels and troops. Losing High Charity would be a pretty big blow for the Covies.

[StarSword]

But remember, this match-up starts with the Combine opening a superportal directly onto High Charity, and beginning a full-scale invasion. And we know, when superportals are open, a lot of crazy shit can happen, like mass teleportation of Citadels and troops. Losing High Charity would be a pretty big blow for the Covies.

I actually missed that part.

But I doubt High Charity is their only such battlestation.

[ChosenOne54]

True, but it is one of their most important, and their greatest religious center, and I believe it also holds the high council of Prophets of whatever it is. Which means if it falls, it's kinda bad for the Covenant.

[Rabid]

What are the final objectives of the Combine here?

My personal interpretation of the Combine is that they are some sort of posthuman postalien multi-species conglomerate only interested in gathering wealth by strip-mining planets and integrating conquered species' technologies and genetic materials for whatever purpose of their own : not inherently omnicidal villains on their own, just terribly ruthless and terminally uncaring about the collateral damages generated from their own operations.

True, but it is one of their most important, and their greatest religious center, and I believe it also holds the high council of Prophets of whatever it is. Which means if it falls, it's kinda bad for the Covenant.

So, the question here is :

Can the Combine successfully achieve those objectives during the "boarding" of High Charity :

- Elimination of all the Prophets aboard the station.
- Destruction of High Charity.


There are several problems :

- The Combine has to gather intelligence to know where and how to strike to achieve its objective. Does the Covenants are aware of the Combine, or is this situation a "first contact" situation on the part of the Covenants ? If it's the later, how does the Combine manage to infiltrate the Covenants to gather intelligence with minimal chances to be detected ?
-Has the Combine weapons powerful enough to destroy Covenant starships ? I don't know the calcs, but don't the external shields of a Covenant cruiser or whatever pretty much ignore kiloton-level explosions ? Fucking shields, how do they work ?


Maybe the Combine would have the best chances of success by opening simultaneously several tiny portal to High Charity and send cloaked Suicide Commandos install nuclear/conventional/dark-energy based demolition charges in strategic points (engines, shield generators, artificial gravity generators, life support, etc...), plus some really big bombs around the hull (50+ megatons). The operation would have to be highly prepared and coordinated to take less than 5-10 minutes (asspulled number), in order to avoid the prophets fleeing High Charity before it explode or one of the Suicide Commandos were able to take them of with a tactical nuke or something (High Charity is freaking huge !)

[ChosenOne54]

To clear things up:
-Both sides have basic knowledge of each other, and know that they are in a war. This is actually a bit unfair for the Covenant, since they have no way of reaching the Combine's home dimension until the Combine first strike, but it's the only way this debate would really work.
-Both sides act as they normally would.
-The Combine generally use Citadels as their bases, which are essentially massive towers, several kilometres long, capable of rapidly deploying possibly thousands or more troops and synths. They get these into place by teleporting them directly onto the enemy's planet/base and swarming their enemy.
-Halo's shields and weapons, from what we have seen, are actually sub-kiloton