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The Seven Hour War was a brief but decisive confrontation between the Combine and the governments of the Earth that occurred in 2012 Golmar (1350 NE), ultimately leading to a large human death toll and the Combine occupation of the entire planet. It has also been said that this invasion is the main start of the First Multiverse War. This war is one of the more well-known war in the 'Hour Wars' that was coined after the First war to describe the Combines brutally short wars.
After the war ended, local militias and other resistance groups sprung up to combat the Combine's garrison force while the Combine Empire began their conquest of the Golmar Universe.
History[]
The Invasion[]
As the Portal Storms between Xen and the Earth raged across the planet, spreading Xen life forms across the surface caused the planet's populace to move into cities for protection. By the time of the Combine invasion, most governments on Golmar Earth were weakened by the Portal Storms and the arrival of Xen flora and fauna, which crippled governmental efforts.
Attracted to planet by the dimensional rift caused by the Black Mesa Incident six years prior, the Combine, a vast interdimensional empire, launched an invasive force that overpowered the planet by using the now conquered Xen, a crossroads of different dimensions and its Portal Storms on Golmar Earth. They caught the human population by surprise and defeated all of its armed forces, such as they were, in only seven hours.
The Combine used a combination of superior technology and numbers to overwhelm the Human force, using the Portal Storms as a means of transporting their forces all around the Earth at the same time.
Golmar Earth Soldiers fighting against the combines during the 7 Hour War
According to a statement in a newspaper, "Government's abilities to protect their citizens had been stretched to the breaking point by the time the more coordinated Combine force arrived." This statement suggested that the Combine had sent a smaller force ahead of the main army to soften Earth's defenses.
From the same article, the United Nations Secretariat Building in New York was reported to have been heavily damaged from projectiles from space during the war, suggesting that the Combine may have used orbital bombardments across the majority of the planet's surface, targeting mainly upon human settlements.
Surrender[]
Aftermath of the 7 Hour War
During the war, the former Black Mesa administrator, Dr. Wallace Breen had discovered a way through unknown means to communicate with the Combine directly. The United Nations then authorized Breen to negotiate peace with the Combine known as the Shu'ulathoi directly by any means necessary. Breen managed to negotiate peace by "saving" the remainder of humanity at the cost of their freedom. The Combine agreed to these conditions and gave Breen the position of "Interim Administrator", a position that served little more than a political puppet ruler. This "negotiation" which could be considered little more than a plea for mercy ultimately marked the end of the Seven Hour War.
Aftermath[]
In the aftermath of the conflict, the remaining humans that survived were gathered into reorganized city centers, with the world outside of such areas filled with wildlife native to other worlds. This made the exteriors of cities and the regions beyond dangerous if not downright deadly to not only human life but also to the rest of this universe's Earth's natural fauna. The rest of the planet was reduced to inhospitable wastelands.
Facilities like Nova Prospekt were opened within the remnants of the remaining man-made infrastructure- their goals being to modify humans, erase their memories, and assimilate them into the Combine's workforce and military.
The Combine also began to exploit the resources of Golmar Earth water, nd Sandtraps, where piers sit barren on the once watery shorelines where Golmar Earth's oceans had once occupied. The Citadel the Combine constructed on the surface served as the only node to one of their main imperial worlds and Golmar Earth before they establish conquest and occupation across most of the Golmar Universe, as the portal storms were no longer furious on the planet, and they could no longer use Xen as a connection.
The Combine, since gaining dominance of the planet, has imposed a "Suppression Field," which serves to inhibit human reproduction. Comments made at the train station during Gordon Freeman's arrival suggest that the Combine has been drugging the populace through their water supply, putting "something in the water to make you forget",
The G-Man makes a brief reference to the war, telling Gordon Freeman that "all the effort in the world would have gone to waste..." This line is generally understood to be a direct reference to the war, the establishment of Dr. Breen's terror state, and the reasons for Freeman's stasis. Despite Freeman's triumph at Black Mesa, it was theorized that there was nothing that he or the entire human race could have done to save their Earth from the superior forces of the Combine empire immediately.
Nearly two decades after the Black Mesa incident. Such a time frame is logically consistent with the slow aging of the their reality. This time frame explains how Eli Vance's child, Alyx Vance, has matured to an adult since the war, where she was still an infant at the time.
The reason for why there are no children on Golmar Earth, the Combine had set up a reproductive suppression field for all of the remaining humans a short time after the war, preventing any further reproduction for approximately twenty years until the Uprising. However, the suppression field was disabled due to the damage the Citadel had taken thanks to Freeman's actions. With the suppression field down, Dr. Kleiner bluntly told everyone on a broadcast in City 17 to "Go out there and mate."