Hello, I feel that the Resistance is a faction within the Half Life 2 universe that was greatly neglected within this community. In the past I've written an essay of sorts called "On Resistance" but for my rebellion against the Taco n Banana staff my posts have been purged likely four times over and at one point in time my name was always highlighted in bold and red whenever mentioned. So naturally, I feel like something I've made, something worthwhile and productive has been taken away from our holy vessel of the interwebs and I intend to replace it.
I guess at this point you might be waiting for some grizzled Marine gunnery sergeant to ask "So you want to join the resistance, eh?" before spitting a wad of tobacco; well that isn't at all the image I'm here to portray. Rather, lets imagine the civilian population for what they are: a bunch of malnourished poor bastards. So take these poor bastards and give them incentive, give them brief incomes of genuine nutrition and there you have it. You have just rebelled against the Combine. This is the truest beginning of a proper resistance movement opposed to the Universal Union. Let's get into why.
The Combine and You
Let's get something straight as a board here, the Combine would very much like you alive but very much like you obediently malnourished and weak. This guarantees that apathy, depression, anxiety and lethargy may be set on you and not leave you until you are properly nourished. What you eat determines how well your brain works, if I actually ate more and well I'd probably be at my full peak of intelligence. In fact, you can see how the American government and corporations happily condone the awful results of constantly consuming artificially processed foods; it dumbs the freest people in the world down enough to where they are complacent being slowly enslaved. These forms of sustenance keep you in line, so the first and most important thing for any Resistance member to do is to find out how to produce nutritional food or substitutes. This is the unexplained duty of those Outlanders because they need to eat too and the CA isn't there to help out and the CCA isn't there to dole out rations. They're on their own, so how the hell do they eat?
They find stuff, but that isn't enough to feed even a dozen, so the two options you have are to hunt and grow. How do you grow? Alright well lets say you find a potato plant as my character had. That's the point where you pick it out of the ground carefully and bring it back to camp to show to someone who knows plants. Eventually someone will assume that role and give you some jibber jabber about how to extract the seeds and there you have it, food ready to grow. Even so, the chopped roots of large plants when washed are a source of nutrition. The bird over your head poses the potential to provide you with protein. The water that flows through the river isn't tampered with, get a bucket of it and boil it to purify it and with these little bits you have the sustainable crop, the last resort, the meat and something to wash it down with all of which share a similarity which sets them as staples to the average resistance member's diet: they're not made by the Combine but rather the Earth, which takes us to the next subject.
The Earth and You
In Half Life 1 you find yourself fighting these hideous monsters that are from other dimensions and planets. What should be known to be significant about them is that they too once fought for their planet. Your planet is your home, its been invaded, you can't go to Florida and get shitfaced with the boys before rowing to Cuba and getting thrown in a brig by the Coast Guard anymore. You can't walk down the street to the movie theater, you can't sit in your own home and play video games. This is a new world, Earth, and it is no longer in the rightful hands of its creatures which sustain it and its ecosystem. There's nothing more immoral. So why, if you're eating good food and drinking good water would you
not care about your entire homeplanet being utterly thrown off the course of its wars, norms and customs to be idle and serve something not of this Earth? There's few excuses.
If you're joining the Resistance, please don't make it out because the Combine killed your family. We've seen enough predictable back stories, all of which include a dead relative, independently honed skills, an 'omgawsum' Mr. Badass persona and some weapon said person chanced by. I would encourage rather the most logical of incentives to fight the Combine which is that they
they fucking took over Earth thus putting an end to everything and I mean everything you know and love. A borderline healthy person would have enough chutzpah to grab a club and wait for some unaware low-ranking unit to check his apartment so he could get one good revenge shot before he's put out of his misery. We are not fighting for any other reason than Earth, everything on it, and everything it used to be before they drain the seas, capture the livestock, burn the forests and lobotomize the human race into soulless soldiers and workers.
Rank and Authority
Many would like to say that if you have a gun, you've got rank and right now as of 7/9/2012 that is how it is. Needless to say, that's utterly counter-productive and dangerously asinine. If I see someone with a weapon I don't think of safety, but danger because I don't know this person and neither do I have reason to trust some unhealthy bastard in a wasteland without food. I could be dinner.
So what really has to be asked is how do we form ranks without making things too official? Simple, keep it fucking simple folks. If you're starting a group of fighters keep it to the basic Private, Corporal and Sergeant. To an seven-to-nine man organization it would make most sense that there would be one Sergeant, one or two Corporals and a handful of privates. This is because if you make your ranks too high simply for the sake of having a fancy badass title in front of your name you divide your ranks so much that they neither make sense and sooner or later collapse in on themselves because on guys a Lieutenant thinking he's an officer and thus hot shit and the same for a General while these Privates wonder just how the fuck they advanced in rank so fast. Perhaps after a few of this groups merge together, then a Lieutenant and eventually Captain would indeed be necessary but only after you form a full platoon which is to American standards forty fighting individuals.
But must we look at our resistance fighters as authorities? I wouldn't like to think so in the respect that they are to rule or command with impunity. Why fight an oppressive state under the self-serving authority of an oppressive combatant? But is there truly enough people and intellectuality on the Outlands server to institute an acting government body? Most would say no, and sadly I consider agreeing. However, there is definitely a proper alternative within the Agora. The Agora is where in Greek society, free citizens would come together to trade, assemble for political change or discuss such and it served a military rally point. This is where anything could happen in the hands of the refugees and rebels.
To Shoot or Not To Shoot
Combat's the trickiest shit you can get your hands on in the Resistance because the greatest question is undoubtedly
"Will this be worth it?" and that's to imply that if you plan on shooting something you'd better have a good reason. Killing a Civil Protection unit will not bring us any closer to freedom, it will not put a single dent in the fender. May give you a gun to grab and run off with but aside from that you're pretty much putting yourself out there to be permanently killed.
So lets say there's a CWU guy making a delivery, that would be worth a shot or two. Maybe a sweep is about to be done and you have amongst you enough numbers to go against two or three or four CPs with a properly set ambush. But lets not forget that cover and concealment are some of the most impertinent and required objects of any resistance attack. You are not as properly armored as your opponent but you have the ability to immediately walk into a crowd and blend. This is known as insurgency. Not only should you have your comrades with you but you should have reservists in both the Outlands and the City, people who are trusted with weapons who may not have them but would fight alongside you once they received one.
Reservists and combatants differ simply by the fact that reservists would be the sort of people that knew more about the place they're fighting in than the person who showed up for the fight. An attack on Precint 1 would beg for five combatants and ten reservists and similar to that ratio in less dangerous Precints.
Now the make up of your firing positions is
absolutely fucking extremely important and don't forget it because if you are standing next to someone else who's firing at the same area you are, you will both be killed a hell of a lot faster than what would be convenient to the mission at hand. I've devised a simple list for you to read, know and read again.
Roven's Rules of Combat- Do not pick a firing position with only one entrance and exit: if you hear those boots coming you're a cornered rat and though a cornered rat fights it usually fights to its death.
- Only engage an opposing force when three armed Resistance members are on and ready to go
- Always form a shape for your firing positions and never start a combat operation without full radio contact. Without communication between distances you cannot work as an effective team.
- Never come too close together, the only reason why you would ever need to be close to one another is to talk and thats what your radio is for.
- Do nothing without first notifying your comrades, knowing is half the battle (-GI Joe)
If you have the ability, it would be best for your survival to block stairwells and doorways with glass bottles so if there is indeed an oncoming force of Civil Protection you have an improvised alarm system and precious more seconds to figure out how to move and move fast.
Networking
Networking is absolutely mandatory and it must be done with great caution. In this year 2016 the Combine has not completely turned to utter indifferent destruction, there are still a very few good hearts within their ranks, resisting the grasping hand of both brainwashing and apathetic oppression and cruelty. Therefore there are loyalists who have some incentive to actually like the Combine, who else feeds them? But if you possess sound judgment and subtlety you very well could be the reason why the Resistance grows because without a network and a network that expands it cannot grow and it cannot communicate and with such the Resistance is rendered blind and greatly ineffective.
I warn you again against going up to someone and saying "So do you hate the Combine?" because they can already figure out what your next brilliant words will be. Much less "Wanna join the Resistance?", just don't do it please. Instead follow people, monitor them, do so discreetly but do it regardless. With time and patience you will begin to know people better this way and you can then determine whether or not they are worth having within our network. The structure of which is between radio frequencies and couriers.
Analyze, Deduct, Induct
To effectively pose any threat to the Universal Union's regime you must be logical and it is a true mandatory must. Analyze your situations very carefully and do so while trying to determine what you could do to undermine the Combine's efforts against us. Trains deliver goods and stalkers, what if the rails were destroyed? Then you would have goods and stalkers if you could pry the bitch open or wait for the response team given you had the firepower and numbers.
Perhaps you see that there's a speech being given by a City Administrator soon and you feel like ignoring my rules of combat to get one good morale boost out of that one's death. There are things that can be done other than going out and starting a full scale battle because the fact is a deathmatch will bring no progress, but a goal will bring the possibility of a full scale battle and if the goal is reached there will be a positive result that benefits the Resistance and Humanity.
Elitism and Ostracizing Fellow Humans
This is not Taco n Banana, so lets not paint it that way now or in the future or ever. We're better than that. So when someone wants to RP with you but they're new, or have little to offer in means of firepower and items please, give them something to do. Interact with them, don't ignore them. How would you like to be ignored because you weren't important enough apparently to go around with another sixteen year old playing who just happens to have a virtual pistol. You'd probably feel like thinking that kids a douchebag and you know of servers where you at least won't be utterly ignored.
Now imagine if you were in a post-apocalyptic situation where aliens have taken over the fucking planet and you need to say something to some guy, ask a question or communicate with him at all and he simply won't even acknowledge your existence. I'd eventually punch that son of a bitch in the face to remind him that he too is made up of the same water and chemical composition as myself and that he likely has a smaller cock than me anyways.
As you can see it brings us no closer together behaving like we're somehow better; and there's nothing more dangerous to the Resistance than someone who tries to act knowledgeable but knows little. The Resistance being made of loosely bonded people though, close together and united in purpose with solidarity towards one another, is the greatest form it could exist in and I demand and encourage it to exist exactly that way.
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