The
Combine, abbreviated as
CMB, and referred to in propaganda as
"Our Benefactors", is an immense and powerful inter-dimensional organization. Comprised of both allied and enslaved species, the Combine's collective goal is dominate and absorb the Multiverse into its inter-dimensional Empire, the
Universal Union.The Combine are the main antagonist of
Half-Life 2.
The Combine Empire sprawls across multiple parallel universes, and includes an unknown number of sentient species. Details of the Combine's leadership and administrative structure remain unknown. On Earth, aliens called the
Advisors are responsible for facilitating all communication and interaction with the Human race.
The Combine manipulates species through a variety of means, including bioengineering and artificial implantation. The products of the Combine's re-engineering process are known as "
synths", bio-mechanical organisms that serve a variety of functions within the empire. The Combine also uses their technology to create armies of super-soldiers, uniquely adapted to the particular environments of the conquered worlds. This process results in a highly mobile and adaptive military force which is able to respond to any threat and crush any opposition.
Vocal stress is placed on the first syllable. The name is pronounced
COM-bine, as in
Combineharvester, as opposed to the verb form
com-BINE, as in "to join together or unite." Dr. Breen refers to the
Combine Soldiers and
Civil Protection as "The Transhuman Arm of the Combine Overwatch" in
Nova Prospekt, verifying that "Combine" is an accepted name of the empire, even by the empire itself.
It is unknown how many worlds the Combine has under its control; it is known that in addition to
Earth, the Combine invaded the home-world of the
Nihilanth's species. The defeated Nihilanth escaped the onslaught and sought refuge in
Xen. It brought with it members of a number of enslaved or allied species, including the
Vortigaunts.
Subsequent to the invasion of Nihilanth's unnamed home-world, Earth became the Combine's most recently known annexation. Following the
Black Mesa Incident; it was acquired following Earth's surrender at the end of the
Seven Hour War. Following the standard Combine process, members of Earth's dominant species were modified to form a new arm of the Combine military. In addition to forming the bulk of the Combine garrison on Earth, in-game dialogue suggests that units of the Transhuman arm of
Overwatch are also deployed across the Combine Empire in a "permanent off-world assignment". Assignment on other worlds is considered a horrible fate for Overwatch soldiers unfortunate enough to be stuck with it and is often used as a punishment. Equally dire is the threat of "permanent off-world relocation". Judging by dialogue from Breen, many of the territories under control by the Combine are nigh-uninhabitable by humans without special life support systems.
Despite the highly advanced technical capabilities of the Combine, they appear to have a relatively limited grasp of
teleportationtechnology.
Dr. Mossman explains that while the Combine can teleport from one universe to another, they do not know how to teleport between different locations in the same universe. The teleportation method developed by
Black Mesa enables same-universe translocation, and as a result the Combine is eager to obtain information on their teleportation technology. Dr. Mossman actually helps the Combine build a teleporter with such capabilities in
Nova Prospekt, but it is destroyed during
Alyx and
Gordon's escape.
The Combine's method of teleportation appears to be highly inefficient compared to Black Mesa's equivalent; a large amount of power and massive pieces of machinery are required to perform teleportation, as seen at the end of
Half-Life 2, where
Dr. Breenattempts to escape from the Citadel using a Combine teleporter. This teleporter requires a
dark fusion reactor to power it, while the teleporters designed by humans require relatively small amounts of power and very little machinery in comparison. Xen teleporters appear to require almost no machinery or energy of any kind.
While the physics of teleportation are poorly explained, it is known that Xenian teleporters use Xen as a "dimensional slingshot," bouncing off of one universe to another and from one location in a certain universe to another in the same universe. Combine teleporters cannot do this, instead having to "tunnel" through dimensions to the target universe.
The Combine themselves are definitely very powerful. Any force that can take out the combined forces of humanity in 7 hours is incredibly powerful in of their own right, but we have reason to believe that such a force was only a SMALL detachment of their whole forces, what might as well be called a raiding party. We can infer this based on the fact that the Combine are multi-dimensional, and have done this a thousand times over.
Furthermore, a logistical breakdown is only something that'd come with massive size. Any sort of entity that has to govern itself will begin suffering from logistic problems when it grows to such enormous sizes. This only supports the fact that the Combine have spanned across entire dimensions, such as when they invaded Xen.
However to really gauge their power you need to look at the two realities here. That is, what we know canon wise, and what we know based off Marc Laidlaws little "Epistle 3" which is an unofficial-official ending to the Half Life series.
Starting with Epistle 3, it is clear that the Combine have utilized entire Dyson Spheres (massive power harvesting stations that surround suns), and that their expanse is far beyond anything humans can comprehend. They are made out to be Eldritch God level in the fact that even things such as a Dyson Sphere are but mere footsteps in the entirety of their forces, and that in the end, they are the dominant force in all of the Universe and beyond.
In the canon, we know that the Combine at least are able to hop between dimensions, and that they have taken countless worlds, while advancing in tech that humans just cannot understand, as said by Dr. Breen.
So, to find the result, we can take a look at the KARDASHEV scale, which was a theoretical scale to determine where we are now as a civilization, and what is possible. We, as humans, are about to reach what could be considered Type 1, which is being able to utilize ALL of our planets resources. Type 2 would have us expanding out to other planets, and utilizing the Dyson Sphere that Gordon happened upon in Epistle 3. But, as we have heard in both depictions of the Combine (Epistle and Canon), Dyson Spheres might just be a small fragment of the entire Combine, and they HAVE spanned across dimensions.
Type 3 is where things start getting crazy, where a Civilization begins utilizing an entire Galaxy (such as the Milky Way) for energy. This is more along the Combine's level, but we can go even farther, because the Combine have spanned across Dimensions.
Type 4 is probably where the Combine are at, or at least half way to this point. This sees a Civilization harnessing not one, but MULTIPLE galaxies, able to harness entire Universes. Now of course, the definition of Universe is definitely fickle in context. If it includes dimensions, then this is where the Combine are, or at least aspiring too. They would be a Type 3, and moving up towards a Type 4 as they expand. However, if you were to consider a dimension as BEING a Universe in of itself, then they would be well beyond Type 4, and moving up towards Type 5, where a civilization controls multiple different Universes.
The problem with the Combine, as stated, is their lack of teleportation. This could be because they either just haven't needed to develop in this area, or the reality of the Half Life world is that Teleportation is something very hard to do and humans just so happened to expand into it somehow. The KARDASHEV scale doesn't encompass technologies however, only how much energy and expansion a civilization has expanded.
So yes, the Combine are VERY powerful, and are probably up there as one of the leaders of the multiverse, if there are any others. Humanity must have just gotten lucky in finding local teleportation like the Combine have.
