[Combine] 0003 – Taking Stock

As the convoy drove towards Moscow, I took stock of what we had.

In one crate, we had half a dozen Manhacks and City Scanners. Each Manhack could be piloted and used as standard equipment for any soldier or Civil Protection, with a Manhack being most suited for unarmed and unarmored combatants, with the two spinning blades that rotated in opposite directions over one another while resting on a gyroscopic center. The two blades provided lift for the Manhacks, and the gyroscope kept them stable and upright. A small camera on the machine directed its blades toward a target, and the blades were durable enough to bounce off targets or thicker material than the blades could cut, making them bounce and spin in tight corridors. A city scanner, on the other hand, had no offensive capacity; instead, it would be used as a reconnaissance drone equipped with a camera and flash that could blind or disorient targets while alerting nearby personnel of the object it had in its sights.

We also had a crate full of both rifle and handgun ammunition for the Soldiers and Civil Protection Personnel, who were equipped with Assault Rifles, Revolvers, and 9mm pistols. However, the Soldiers were more heavily armed than the Civil Protection Personnel. Speaking of the units under my command, each Soldier was worth four or five of the Civil Protection and was far more experienced and genetically engineered for combat. At the same time, the Civil Protection was far less lethal and more focused on civil police, Law, and Order. The Civil Protection could be used for combat, but that would not be its primary purpose or main use.

As for why the units were so cheap in the Company's catalog? It was because they were all clones with limited lifespans; the Civil Protection would live for at most five years, while the Soldiers would likely begin failing by the end of two years. The same applies to the Combine Technology Package, as I only received five of the smaller technologies available to the Combine.

Mainly, their First-Aid Gel Technology, which costs fifty points. Combine with Soldier Surgery Technology for a whopping one hundred points, and finally, for another one hundred points, I received the schematics of a rather large and inefficient Fusion Reactor that was roughly the size of a building but capable of providing the energy needs of an entire city. The only reason it cost so little was that the Fusion Reactor was rather shoddily designed, meaning it would require constant upkeep and have to replace several critical parts yearly.

Then there were the two things that didn't originate from the Combine: a Matter Reconfigurer and Radiation Scrubbers. The Matter Reconfigurer was a machine in the shape of a vending machine that could essentially take in materials and reshape them into something else, lead into gold, diamonds into coal, and so on. It was this very tool that I planned for my success. The Radiation Scrubbers, on the other hand, while designed for collecting radioactive clouds, would also work effectively in scrubbing the surrounding atmosphere of radiation. This means that if placed around the perimeter of a building or compound, the interior would be completely radiation-free.

Then there was myself. My Spartan III physiology put me into the realm of superhuman in every conceivable way. My bones were as close to being unbreakable as possible, my muscles far more compact than what should be possible, granting me extraordinary strength that would allow me to put the world’s strongest men to shame by leagues.

While I did not have the Mjolnir Armor the Spartans were known for, I was still effective beyond most measures. I could lift a car as easily as I did a push-up, and could crush a man’s skull with a clench of my fist if I so desired, and the training implanted into my mind made me even more lethal than I was already. I would be unstoppable in CQC even without a weapon, but with one? I believed I could take on the worst this world had to offer with little effort, and with minimal damage in the end.

I’d especially be unstoppable against the locals of this world. I could move faster than a human could react and strike without force to kill in single strikes, and could endure far more than anything the humans of this world could. Even unarmed, I could probably, by myself, take over one of the independent stations unarmed and unarmored.

Not to mention the wide range of subjects the training encompassed. Such as Guerrilla Warfare, Assassination, Demolition, Stealth, Espionage, and Infiltration, as well as anything a Special Operations (Spec Ops) unit would need or could need for their job. I was as effective in a desert as I was in the ocean.

The Modified Combine Armor that I wore was similar to the base Soldier’s only fit to my size, more durable, more advanced, and featured a multi-function helmet with a radio transmitter and receiver, night vision, heat vision, camera, an optic zoom, highlight and targeting system, and a few more gadgets that would make me a menace on the battlefield, not to mention the radiation scrubbing filter of the Helmet/gas mask I wore, lead shielding on my armor to protect me even in radiation hot spots, and ceramic plating that could endure any military grade firearms the locals use on this world.

The only downside was that my already heavy mass nearly doubled in weight, with everything weighing almost a thousand pounds in total.

The gun, too, was upsized to fit my current size, but was just the standard Combine Assault Rifle, just heavier due to its larger size.

As for the vehicles in the convoy, they were all modified to function better for this world, each with plows to push aside cars and debris in our way, tow hooks to pull cargo or other vehicles, solar panels to allow for passive fuel generation, lead lining to provide resistance to radiation, and thicker glass windows and windshields to protect the occupants of the vehicles in combat.

Everything was thought out, and I was prepared for most scenarios, anticipating several that were almost guaranteed to happen. I knew that this would be a bumpy ride until we got our footing, and it would only get worse once we got to Moscow itself. Ultimately, some of my units were designed and intended to be expendable.