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This is the face of resistance. The broken shell of a human repurposed into something useful. This is what happens when the rules are not followed and humanity forgets its place. Yes, our benefactors offer a range of corrective measures for insubordination, but compliance is also rewarded.
Rebellion is not limited to simply disparaging the Combine or acting against its interests. On this tour, we'll explore the many forms it takes and the consequences that follow in this world at this time with what is offered. We have to ask, is it worth it?
The streets and apartment blocks of City 17 are shrouded in unease, paranoia, and fear. After 20 years of occupation under the Combine regime, all of this has become normalized. What else can the population do but accept it? Anything else invites severe consequences. The cold, broken stare of a citizen, the power trip of a civil protection unit, and the echo of a firing squad in the distance are all normal here. There are no rights, no children, no choice, no freedom. Despite what many say about the controlled settlements across the wasteland, all of this is by design, built to manufacture safety and security from the horrors outside these walls. Why would anyone want to go beyond them?
For the ordinary citizen who accepts this fate, compliance comes at a cost, but resistance demands far more. For those who accept it, this is their life. But there are those who reject it. It can begin with an anonymous tip, a report that a citizen has been seen somewhere they should not be, or nothing more than a gut feeling. Then comes the bang on the door as the civil protection units launch a raid to bring in a suspect flagged for anti-civil activity.
It is here in interrogation rooms like this that a suspect is questioned and their fate is decided. These blood stains make one thing clear: what happens in these rooms is brutal. But for those with nothing to hide, the pain is only temporary and they are released back into the city. For those flagged for resistance activity, however, this is only the beginning. The Combine search relentlessly for anyone connected to the resistance, a hidden network of humans and vortigaunts united by a single goal: disrupting the regime's operations.
To be sent to Nova Prospekt is widely viewed as a death sentence. But I would go further. It is a fate worse than death. Suspected citizens are sealed inside prisoner pods, loaded onto razor trains, and transported to the depot of this Combine stronghold. From there, each pod is assigned its place within the prison until its occupant is questioned further. This former prison has become something sinister. Human and Vortigaunt prisoners wait in silence for their turn. And what makes it worse is that many already know the horrendous fate that awaits them: Stalkerification.
To become a stalker is a punishment the Combine reserves for the most defiant of humanity. These creatures, believe it or not, were once human. I suppose they still are biologically, but now they are little more than living machinery. So, how does one actually become this?
The process is every bit as barbaric as it looks. The hands and lower legs are amputated, then replaced with metallic limbs designed for one purpose: to interface with Combine terminals and the machinery with absolute precision. Efficiency is all the Combine care about. They take a human body and keep adapting it, stripping away anything unnecessary until it functions better as a tool than it ever did as a person. Even the face is not spared. A metal plate is bolted over it. And behind that shell, where the eyes used to be, high-powered welding lasers are implanted. Tiny pin holes allow the beams to fire on command, turning the stalker into something that cuts, welds, and operates machinery.