To make this all a bit more accessable to those not familiar with the Half Life verse:
Earth has been conquered by an evil inter-galactic empire known as the
Combine. They're often reffered to in propaganda as the Universal Union or, by their human colaborators, "Our benefactors".
Earth was conquered by the Combine in the Seven Hour War, during which Earth's military was completely wiped out and
humanity was enslaved.
The city is policed by the
Civil Protection, which is made up of humans who are working alongside the Combine in return for various privilages.
The military wing of the Combine is known as the Combine Overwatch. The Overwatch is made up of
humans that have been mechanicaly altered to become supersoldiers. They're reffered to as the "transhuman arm" of the Overwatch. There are other non-human forces assisting them in the form of
Synths.
The city itself is ruled (probably by a human puppet) from a
Citadel, and is heavily patrolled and controled by Civil Protection.
Barricades are set up at almost every crossroad or junction. Every building door is fitted with special locking devices that control who can enter, and such locks can explode violently to destroy the door, allowing Combine forces to rapidly storm any suspected rebel hideouts.
What the human slaves do is heavily controled, and constantly monitored by floating
Scanners. Even what they eat is controlled, as the entire populace is fed purely from special ration dispensers found in public places. Civilians are often brutaly assaulted by CP or Overwatch forces for little reason. The people are constantly assaulted by an unending stream of propaganda from large holographic screens that are scattered everywhere throughout the city, and the only TV channel is that propaganda network.
Of course, as bad as all that is, the last thing you want to do is actualy leave the cities. You see, the Combine brought various alien fauna with them. Various areas are infested with
Headcrabs,
Bullsquids,
Barnacles,
Gargantuas,
Houndeyes and
Snarks. The seas are overrun with voracious
Leeches that make going more than a few metres offshore a very unpleasant method of suicide. Additionaly, it seems that various lakes and rivers may contain
Ichtyosaurs.
Sandy areas have been completely overrun by
Antlions.
Naturaly, a
Resistance movement has grown in each city. However, their bases are frequently raided and are sometimes infiltrated by Combine colaborators.
There is another sapient alien race that has been brought to Earth as Combine slaves known as the
Vortigaunts, many of whom are working for or are sympathetic to the Resistance.
And so concludes the condensed version of the state of the world in the Half-Life verse.
