Unknown location

"You called, my Lord?"

"Sachiel has gone missing. He was never known for his punctuality, yet his current absence is beyond my expectations."

"You have need of him?"

"He has his uses."

"What do you wish of me, then?"

"Find him and drag him back here. By force, if necessary. Leliel will provide transportation. Now go."

"Your will be done, Lord Sammael."


Geofront, AEL Headquarters
October 11, 2041
1743 hours

"I thought you might need to get a feel for our day-to-day operations, seeing as you will be present for a while. Speaking of which, did your superiors mention how long the observation period will last?" – Yui asked as she made her way down a corridor, a pair of technicians headed in the opposite direction making way for her with a small bow of respect.

"Nope." – Shephard answered from behind her, passing by the techs with a nod. – "Did they tell you?"

"No."

"Thought so. I mean, you're a civvie; they ain't going to tell you anything if they don't have to. No offense." – he added, catching up to her.

"None taken." – she replied without turning around. – "In any case, we have a routine sync test scheduled for the Evangelions. That is what we're here to observe."

"Which is?"

"You can think of it as maintenance. For the pilot, that is."

"Okay..." – he said slowly after a pause. – "I have no idea what that means."

"Did you read the material I sent you?"

Shephard made an 'oops' expression at that. – "...kinda."

The meaning behind his tone was obvious... and Yui didn't fail to notice, if her glare back at him was of any indication.

"Hey, I'm not a scientist! Most of it flew right over my head."

Yui sighed. – "Did you at least read the part about the neural interface?"

"Yeah, I remember that one."

"The primary factor at piloting an Evangelion isn't prior experience itself; simply being trained doesn't help without being able to put that training to use. What matters the most is the sync ratio: it's a measure of how attuned the pilot is to the Evangelion. The higher it is, the faster the response times – but at the same time, the higher the sensory feedback."

"You're starting to lose me there, doc."

"Evangelions, like humans, are capable of feeling pain if their organic tissue is damaged." – she explained patiently. – "If a pilot is synchronized at the time of the injury, he or she will feel that pain too, proportionally to the sync ratio."

"So... if one of these things get shot..." – Shephard began.

"The pilot will feel being shot, yes." – Yui finished. – "There's no actual danger to the pilot; it is just a sensation."

"Is it really necessary?"

"We don't really have a choice; disconnecting somatosensory feedback would, for example, deaden feeling in the hands to the point the pilot wouldn't feel how strong the Evangelion's grip is and might end up accidentally crushing whatever is in its hand at the time." – She passed through the door into a room with a set of large windows at the far end, behind a wall of consoles currently tended to by a small army of technicians. – "Besides, it might actually be beneficial."

"How could feeling phantom pain possibly be beneficial?" – Shephard pointed out skeptically.

"Self-preservation instinct. It would both make the pilot fight harder and motivate him or her to avoid being hit in the first place, thereby indirectly reducing maintenance costs. At the point feedback would pose any actual threat, the pilot would have other things to worry about." – She turned to the crew and gave out orders in Japanese.

While she was busy, Shephard glanced out of the window. The room behind was significantly larger than the one he was currently in, although most of it was taken up by a number of... he couldn't really tell; slots for something. That theory was supported by the fact that two of the slots currently housed a large cylinder each, stenciled 00 and 01. Both were held in a diagonal position, albeit the one bearing 00 had a large piece of its top removed and held apart from the main hull by a set of four actuator arms connecting the two.

Once he heard the commotion behind him settling down, he turned to Yui. – "Is it normal for the crew to speak like that?" – he asked, referring to the technicians' choice of language.

"The majority of employees working at this facility are Japanese; it's only natural they would be using their native language." – Yui replied. – "You don't speak it, I presume?"

"Wasn't part of the requirements for enlisting."

That answer was one she didn't expect. – "There are language requirements in the military?"

The man shrugged, dropping himself into an empty seat in front of an unmanned terminal. – "Only for commissioned officers. Fluent in English, at least passable in either Russian or Chinese. I had to learn Russian when they promoted me to second lieutenant." – he admitted, secretly amused at the clear surprise on her face.

"Why not Chinese?"

"No way in hell I'd be able to pronounce that level of moonspeak, doc." – he quipped, leaning back as far as his seat would allow. – "No offense."

"None taken."

"My mother-in-law was Japanese, though, so my wife knew the language herself. But it's not like she can translate for me, considering that she's been dead for quite a while now."

"I know."

"Let me guess: you looked up my file."

Yui just smiled. – "What kind of scientist would I be if I didn't do my research?"

"Point taken." – Shephard stretched himself with a sigh. – "But enough about me; am I right in assuming these Evangelions have weapons other than stomping their victims into the ground?"

"Correct." – Yui tapped something on her tablet and the holographic display of the terminal Shephard was sitting at suddenly turned on, slightly startling him as a three-dimensional image of an Evangelion materialized barely a meter from his face. – "We've decided to use the same approach as contemporary battleframe designs by utilizing hand-held weaponry instead of integrated, giving greater tactical flexibility. Of course, part of that decision arose from the fact that, due to the Evangelions' very nature, there is little to no internal space for weaponry or ammunition. Even the power source has to be carried externally. The only integrated weapons as of now are a pair of MK225 autocannons, located in the clavicle armor." – Two spots were highlighted on the hologram's upper chest. – "In the final mass-production version, we intend to relocate these to the head for easier use."

"Why did you put them into the chest for these ones, then?"

"To test for balance and mechanical reliability first. We wanted to finalize the weapon before completing the final helmet design, in order to ensure there is enough space for it and its ammunition."

"Gun first, chassis later?" – he guessed.

"Yes." – Piece by piece, the armor of the holographic Evangelion separated and flew away from the main body to reveal a featureless humanoid body beneath. Only the helmet stayed on. – "The same is true for the Evangelion as well: the armor is built around the body, not the body being forced into the armor."

"How much does it restrict movement? The armor, I mean."

"Based on our previous observations and pilot debriefing, next to none. With that said, the armor does have a built-in feature to lock all joints and turn rigid. Makes transportation of the Evangelion while offline easier." – Armored once more, the hologram rotated to a vertical position and got encased into a skeletal structure not unlike a stretcher.

"You guys thought of everything, huh?" – Shephard murmured.

"Maybe, maybe not. In any case, handheld weaponry will account for most of an Evangelion's equipment."

"What kind of weapons are we talking about? Because I seriously hope you have something better than a sword."

Yui gave the man a 'really?' look. – "Colonel, this isn't a toy robot from a Saturday morning cartoon, this is a military weapon. Of course it is designed for ranged combat."

"Good."

"Of course, not all of the Evangelion's non-weapon equipment can be swapped in the field. That is why we had to draft some preliminary loadout packages as well."

His eyebrows immediately shot up. – "You aren't even finished with this and you're already thinking about variants?"

"Not the kind of variants you are thinking of. In the final mass-production design, the entire external makeup of the Evangelion, everything outside the organic body, will be modular and can be replaced with no modification to the internals. Think of it as how fighter aircraft can be outfitted with equipment like ECM pods or external fuel tanks to make it able to carry out different mission profiles. The aircraft's frame and body isn't changed, only supplemented by external addons."

Shephard casually waved her off. – "I'm not navy, but I get it. What kind of loadouts are we talking about?"

The hologram turned to the side and wheeled apparatuses appeared on its calves. – "The Class-B High Mobility Type was used as the comparison baseline while designing the others. It mounts standard-issue armor of alternating layers of composite alloys and electric reactive armor, giving a fairly heavy degree of protection without seriously compromising mobility. We also managed to upscale and mount a pair of storm rollers on the legs, although I do not recommend using them in an urban environment." – The apparatuses rotated around the Evangelion's heels into a rollerskate-like position. Several close-ups from multiple angles appeared next to it, one of them revealing a dual ring of spikes running down the circumference of each wheel. – "We had to add these in order to achieve the traction necessary to move the Evangelion's mass, but it will seriously damage the terrain. Even reinforced concrete will be pulverized if this rolls over it, much less ordinary pavement." – The hologram then highlighted the Evangelion's shoulders, with a cross-section appearing next to it. Another highlight, this time in the upper part of the cross-section, was accompanied by the image of a blade with rocket boosters and a retracting cable on the rear. – "A pair of shoulder-mounted storage racks carry one combat knife and one assault harpoon each. We considered an additional pair of assault harpoons on the forearms as well, but decided against it due to possible interference with weapon handling."

Shephard just nodded. Storm rollers and assault harpoons were both familiar technologies to him, as Durandal battleframes have been using both. They were the very reason why it was considered a successful design: storm rollers allowed it to move at speeds more akin to a sports car on the highway (although with considerably worse handling, of course) – fast enough to make it considerably more difficult to target its legs, the very weakness why pre-Impact militaries and analysts dismissed the giant robot as a practical battlefield weapon in the first place. Even its predecessor, the Mk-II Gugnir, was forced to rely on the terrain for protecting its legs by crouching behind the skyline in the legged analogue of a tank's hull-down position. Then again, the Gugnir was basically just an assault gun on digitigrade legs, designed for all-terrain artillery support, whereas the Durandal was an infantry-fighting vehicle to the core, designed for street-to-street urban combat. It wasn't just their role that differentiated them, but their size as well: the five-meter Durandal was about thigh-height to a Gugnir, thanks to its aneutronic second-generation deuterium/helium-3 fusion reactor requiring much less radiation shielding than a Gugnir's first-generation deuterium/tritium one. Of course, it also meant that the Confederate military was dependent on offworld helium-3 mines – like the ones on the Moon – if they wanted to run their newest toys.

Though Shephard had a feeling an Evangelion wouldn't be able to use its assault harpoons as an impromptu grappling hook for scaling buildings. A Durandal was barely heavier than the average car, so it was light enough... but an Evangelion looked more like something with the weight of a frigate. – "What about the others?"

The hologram changed, this time into an Evangelion clad in bulky armor and a large shield. – "Class-C Area Defense Type. Mounts extra armor and a hand-carried reactive armor shield, plus the shoulder racks were redesigned as well: the assault harpoons have been stripped out and replaced with ammunition storage for a top-mounted autocannon for anti-air, anti-missile and anti-artillery point defense. We considered integrating a powered exoskeleton to compensate for the armor's weight, but it would've been too expensive."

"You mean even more expensive than it already is." – the man snarked.

Yui ignored that remark. – "Next." – The hologram changed again, this time into a bulky, mechanical contraption with two massive pillar-like vertical protrusions from its back. Shephard almost didn't spot the Evangelion's head, jutting out of a hole in the thing's chest. – "The powered exoskeleton design was eventually recycled into the Class-F Heavy Fire Support Type. It is, for all intents and purposes, an Evangelion-piloted powered armor designed for bringing to bear the maximum amount of firepower possible. Of course, hand-carried weaponry is all but impossible at this scale, so we fell back to integrating the weaponry into the exoskeleton itself."

"Big ones?" – he asked with barely concealed glee.

"Three rotary autocannons per arm, fourteen-barrel missile launchers on the shoulders and a pair of back-mounted heavy railguns."

A long silence followed after that listing.

"...wow. You guys don't screw around." – Shephard remarked finally.

"Unfortunately, the extreme weight of this loadout severely affects mobility; even with a quartet of storm rollers on each feet," – The hologram shifted to highlight all eight, attached to a pair of massive feet. – "it is barely capable of keeping up with another Evangelion that is walking at a normal pace."

"Can this thing walk under its own power?"

Yui nodded. – "Yes, although very slowly. We also have a loadout focused in the opposite direction: the Class-A Flight Type."

The man's eyebrows promptly shot up to his hairline.

"These things can fly?!"

Yui made a 'not quite' gesture and turned the hologram into a lightly-built Evangelion with a massive backpack. – "It's more like a jumpjet attachment, consisting of two thruster packs with four engines each." – The hologram highlighted the backpack and produced a close-up of the two vertical packs. Then panels on the sides of the packs opened and a quartet of thrusters emerged from inside. – "No new development here; these are frigate-grade thrust-vectored plasmajet engines directly derived from the ones currently in use by the navy. I won't bore you with the technical details, which I believe would be quite uninteresting to you. Due to weight and lack of aerodynamics, however, a flying Evangelion wouldn't be anywhere near conventional aircraft in terms of speed or maneuverability. Even to achieve flight in the first place, the armor has to be partially removed."

"Hm. Win some, lose some, I guess. What about spaceflight?"

Yui made an exasperated sigh. – "Colonel, this is a land-based weapon system we're talking about. If anyone pulls that insanity off, I'll buy a drink for him."

The corner of Shephard's mouth curled upwards. – "Do I hear a challenge there?"

"Hear whatever you want, my opinion is unchanged." – She shook her head. – "Honestly... Evangelions in space..."

"I take it you haven't watched Robotech when you were a kid, then?"

One row to the front, Hyuga's head perked up. – "You mean Macross? That series is ancient."

"Hey, I grew up on that stuff!" – Shephard replied with a hint of indignation before turning back to Yui. – "Anyway, giant robots can work in space."

"Not to mention that Gundam already worked out the hows on it with AMBAC." – Hyuga added.

Shephard slowly looked back at him, wearing a blank expression. – "Am-what?"

"Active Mass Balance Auto-Control. Basically, limbs can be used as counterweights to turn around in zero gravity without expending fuel. It works on the same physical principles as the attitude-control reaction wheels used in spacecraft."

"...ah. Sounds nifty."

"Those are fictional television shows; this is real life." – Yui interrupted impatiently. – "There's a difference."

"Ma'am, that's what they said about battleframes and FTL travel too." – Hyuga pointed out. – "Impractical and impossible, respectively; tell that to the people who routinely use them every day."

"Anyway." – Shephard interjected. – "Got any more toys?"

Yui silently rolled her eyes and tapped her tablet again, turning the hologram back into its initial state, minus storm rollers and with different shoulder equipment. – "Class-G Marksman Type, functionally identical to the Class-B but drops the storm rollers and assault harpoons, as well as replaces the off-hand shoulder rack with a rifle mount. The other rack is outfitted with an advanced targeting system that contains a separate sensor suite and fire control computer."

"All you need is a ghillie suit and you'd have the world's biggest sniper there, I think." – Shephard remarked. – "Key word: biggest."

"Quite so. Unfortunately, we cannot manufacture wearable camouflage for an Evangelion at this time... not for the lack of trying, mind you."

Shephard stretched himself again. –"You tried, then?" – he asked.

The hologram shifted again but aside from the shoulders going back to normal, no other change was apparent. – "Class-E Electronic Warfare Type. Aside from mounting state-of-the-art ECM, ECCM, as well as special armor treated with a radar-absorbent coating, we also experimented with holographic adaptive camouflage. Unfortunately, we do not have experts in our ranks, so the results have been less than satisfactory. I'm afraid this loadout won't be ready for deployment before the mass-production model Evangelions roll out."

"Not surprising. I hear the navy's been experimenting with this a few years ago and they couldn't make it work either, despite having experts."

"Yes, that is where we got the inspiration from."

"I heard about that too." – Hyuga spoke up, turning around in his seat again. – "They gave up because they realized that even if they cloak, stealth-coat and heat-insulate a ship, gravimetrics can still see it just fine. Nobody could figure out how to trick that."

"Thank you, mister Hyuga." – Yui turned back to Shephard; Hyuga, having gotten the message from her impatient tone, went back to his own work. – "Still, an electronic warfare suite and radar stealth does have its uses, so this loadout could be used by officers until we finish the camouflage."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, actually." – he pointed out. – "I mean, any competent soldier would target the officer first – and if I see one guy hanging back and trying to make a deliberate effort to stay under the radar, I'd shoot him first. I mean, there's got to be a reason he's doing that."

"Would you put the officer to the front, then?" – Yui asked.

"No. I'd make it so that it's impossible to tell who's the officer. The enemy is already gonna be gunning for him as it is, so giving him mission-critical equipment means it's going to hurt the team even more if he gets incapacitated. Besides, ordering people around will give him enough work as it is, no need to burden him even more by having him also do other stuff."

"I see. Thank you for your input." – And Yui meant that. She recognized that she was a scientist, not a tactician; designing equipment and figuring out the optimal use for them were two different things.

"What else should I know? Weaknesses or such?"

"Actually, we encountered problems with finding an optimal power supply. Currently, sixteen hours is the maximum operational time we can give you, though we worked out a way to refuel on the field. Otherwise, weapons of mass destruction are the fastest way to destroy an Evangelion. Even then, their immune system is capable of defeating every known mutation of every microbe on Earth, while chemical weapons have to eat through the armor first."

"That still leaves nukes."

"Presuming you find a general insane enough to waste nuclear weapons on a single Eva, that is." – muttered Hyuga, not turning around this time to avoid antagonizing his boss with his interruptions any further.

"Believe me, there are more of them than you'd think." – Shephard deadpanned before turning back to Yui. – "You know what? I'll be honest: you guys are nothing like what I expected. Biotech company, my ass; if even half of what you told me is true, you've basically built some unholy fusion between Godzilla and Iron Man! I can see why some people call you the second Black Mesa."

"Whatever they may call us, I can assure you that we have no intention of ending up like that." – she replied dryly.

Shephard snorted. – "Yeah, I'm pretty sure all the science guys working for BM said that too."

"Unlike them, however, our work isn't theoretical." – Yui argued. – "We don't work merely for the benefit of science, but for the betterment of humanity as well."

"By building these doomwalkers? You'll excuse me if I say I kinda can't see how this would benefit humanity."

"Colonel, I'm not foolish enough to think there won't be any more wars in our time. Recent history taught us better than to be naive like that." – She turned towards the observation window. – "If God doesn't want to give us a better future, we'll just have to build it ourselves. That is what artificial evolution is all about: instead of waiting for random variables, we force the change ourselves. I'm not playing God here; it's more like 'doing what should be God's job'."

"Do you believe in God?" – Shephard posed the question.

"My daughter does, but I don't share her beliefs; science and theism don't mix well."

Nothing more was said between them, the silence only being interrupted by Yui's sporadic orders to the crew – which left Shephard's mind free to wander.

'She's right. If there is a God, how could He let Black Mesa happen? He probably thought 'fuck it, these idiots don't deserve my time, let them kill each other for all I care'.' He shook his head at that thought. 'If that's the case, I can kinda understand where the guy would be coming from. Black Mesa... what a clusterfuck. I dunno who ordered the nuke – maybe the president, maybe the secretary of defense; whoever it was, I hope he got his ass fried well-done by whatever happened to the US.'

Information about other parts of the world was scarce during the Combine occupation – but after gaining their freedom, humanity was quite a bit surprised to learn that the entirety of North and Central America, as well as a sizable chunk of the Eastern Pacific, dropped right off the map. Not destroyed or plundered by the invaders, just... gone, covered by a permanent portal storm the likes of which was never seen before or since. Portal storms have been a semi-regular occurrence for decades now, materializing for no apparent reason and marching across the countryside, wreaking havoc on a level akin to a large tornado... except tornadoes don't spew exotic radiation and cause random time dilation in their immediate surroundings, nor are their destructive effects focused around a brutal barrage of lightning strikes and freak gravitational anomalies powerful enough to pulverize concrete and rip fissures into the ground.

They did have one think in common with tornadoes, however: the short warning time before one struck. It was eventually discovered that the formation of a portal storm left its distinctive signature in the Earth's magnetic field, allowing precision equipment to forecast one several hours prior to its manifestation. Lots of lives have been saved by the Confederate government's decision to permanently reopen the old Vostok research station in Antarctica and take advantage of its proximity to the Earth's southern magnetic pole by equipping it with the most sensitive magnetometers ever built to forecast portal storms.

It was likely that a similar facility would've been build in Northern Canada, near the northern magnetic pole... were it not for the Eye of Xen, as the gigantic vortex came to be called. For there was no doubt that it was a leftover from Second Impact, as its center perfectly overlapped with the former location of Black Mesa. What was going on inside was a complete mystery: no satellite could see past the shroud and all probes attempting to penetrate the outer boundary were buffeted by supersonic winds before being ripped apart by tidal forces, no matter whether they approached on the ground, underground, on the sea, underwater, in the air, or even reentering the atmosphere from above. All that could be seen from was a massive, ominous cloud wall, rotating several times faster hurricanes were physically capable of, crowned by a permanent aurora above. And at night, the entire vortex pulsed in an eerie blue light, green lightning cascading along the wall so rapidly that it looked as if the cloud was vibrating. During solar flares, the Eye's electrical activity intensified so much that it temporarily yanked the planet's magnetic field out of alignment and covered half the planet in aurorae.

Most of the anomalous activity dropped in frequency during the Occupation, only to rapidly return barely a few months into the Great Revolution. Some scientists believed that the Combine Citadels somehow stabilized local spacetime, as evidenced by the rise in activity levels corresponding to their deactivation; how exactly did they do that, on the other hand, was anyone's guess. It was unlikely a solution could be found any time soon, so efforts were concentrated around building storm shelters instead, which also doubled as civil defense shelters.

After a few minutes of watching the technicians in obvious boredom, Shephard quietly got up and rounded the terminal he was formerly sitting at. – "Your name's Hyuga, right?"

"Uh... y-yes, sir." – Hyuga answered, slightly startled from having been addressed so suddenly.

"First, can the 'sir'; I work for a living. Second, you seem like someone who has an ear to the ground. Care for a drink after your shift's over?"


Same time

"You can't be serious!"

"I am."

"Why would Hikari like that stooge?" – Asuka demanded as she walked out of the kitchen, head and left shoulder pinching the phone to her ear while her hands were occupied by a pair of bottles. – "He's, like, a hundred years too early to be boyfriend material!"

"I can't really say." – Mari quipped on the other side of the line. – "They're not childhood friends or anything; he lived in Osaka until a few years ago. Think it's love at first sight?"

Asuka sighed, setting down the bottles on her nightstand. – "More like love at first punch. Slap. Whatever."

The other girl chuckled. – "You might be right on that. Soooo... what do you think about Kaworu-kun?"

"Must we talk about that prick too?" – the blond grumbled, dropping onto her bed with a frustrated scowl.

She could practically hear the cat-like smile from the other side of the phone. – "What's the matter, ohime-san? Sensitive topic?"

"I don't like that guy, okay? He can thank my dad I haven't tossed him off the balcony yesterday."

"What did he do to piss you off that much?"

"He called me flat."

A long silence came from the phone. – "...that's it?"

"Do I look like flat to you?" – Before Mari could answer, Asuka immediately corrected herself. – "Wait, don't answer that. Wrong person to ask."

"Well, you aren't exactly a porn queen, you know."

Asuka scowled. – "Thanks for the vote of confidence. But anyway, there's nothing wrong with my breasts! They're perfectly average and that freak calls them flat? Did he grew up with his face stuffed between your tits, or what?!"

"If that happened, I would know of it." – After a short pause, the other girl added – "Not that I wouldn't enjoy it..." – in a clearly seductive tone.

Asuka's jaw hung wide open at that. – "...tell me you're kidding."

"I am."

"Seriously, what the hell is his problem?" – Asuka continued, partly to busy herself with something other than the disturbingly kinky mental image the other girl just gave her. – "And since when are you on a first-name basis with that creep?"

"Well, what should I call him? The Great And Powerful Nagisa-sama? He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" – Mari quipped in jest.

Asuka was literally half a second away from spitting out that she read those books too when she was a child, but ultimately decided against it. – "Whatever. Just don't tell me you've got a thing for him."

"I don't. But he's got quite the fan group."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard about that too. I really have no idea what the hell they all see in him."

"He doesn't seem to care, though. The only girl I ever saw him talk to was Ikari."

Asuka raised a puzzled eyebrow. – "The blue-haired chick? What's her deal, anyway?"

"I dunno, but she's got knives."

Asuka sat up, reaching for one of the bottles she brought into her room. – "Knives?"

"Knives."

Silence.

"Knives." – Asuka repeated, just to make absolutely sure she heard it correctly.

"Yup."

Seemed like she did. – "...so she's a weirdo."

"Nya, something like that. Anyway, Kaworu-kun's been here for barely a few weeks and he's already in cahoots with the daughter of the biggest corporate CEO in town? I call shenanigans."

Asuka sipped from her drink. – "Think he's a gold digger?"

"Well, I don't know. He seems like a nice guy."

The blond scoffed at that. – "Haven't you heard? Nice guys finish last."


Chapter rewrite complete on 15/07/16.

For those not familiar with Half-Life canon, Shephard was a 22 years old corporal in the USMC at the time of Second Impact. Since details are sketchy on him, I did some research into Marine recruitment and training procedures; my headcanon is that he went through MCRD San Diego and Camp Pendleton for boot camp and infantry training, respectively, before getting his final posting. That final posting was the (nonexistent in real life) Santego Military Base Hazardous Environment Combat Unit he ended up at it canon. Again, for those not familiar with HL canon, HECU was the military cleanup & cover-up detail sent to Second Impact's ground zero; Shep's transport was shot down before he could receive his orders to treat all Black Mesa personnel as witnesses and terminate them on sight. The one superior officer he met during the whole incident didn't give him any orders either and bugged out a few minutes later on the last transport outbound from the facility. Fanon consensus is that while Shephard should've been able to deduce his orders by watching his fellow soldiers, he simply chose not to act on them.

Anti-artillery CIWS is an existing real-life technology, dating all the way back to 2000 when the US and Israel jointly developed a laser-based prototype (THEL) that successfully intercepted Katyusha rockets and artillery shells mid-flight. Development of this particular example was later discontinued due to budget issues and the entire gear's impractically large size. In late 2014, the US Navy successfully field-tested a laser weapon prototype built by defense contractor Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc; this particular example is accurate enough to destroy RPG rounds, even though it's little more than six industrial-grade, solid-state welding lasers strapped together.