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Shephard killed the Gene Worm, the leader of Race X, ending their invasion. Left to survive at the increasingly dangerous facility, Shephard discovered the Black Ops, mysterious government assassins sent to finish the HECU's task, and Race X, another race of aliens competing with those of Xen for domination of Earth. Shephard was prevented from leaving by the G-Man, who was still interested in Shephard's potential. Regaining consciousness hours later, Shephard formed an uneasy alliance with the Black Mesa's scientists and made his way across the facility, having received a message that the HECU was evacuating. However, Shephard's aircraft was shot down before this order could be delivered, leaving him unaware of the HECU's purpose. The HECU was deployed to Black Mesa and ordered to eliminate the invading aliens along with any Black Mesa personnel to keep the incident a secret.
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The G-Man used his influence to have Shephard transferred to an advanced training program, after which he was inducted into the Marine Corps' Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, or HECU, a special forces group created to deal with extraterrestrial incidents, although this purpose was unknown to the Marines.Īt the Black Mesa Research Facility, teleportation experiments caused a Resonance Cascade, a cataclysm that opened up a rift between Earth and Xen, an alien world. As a young Marine caught up in an alien war beyond his comprehension, Shephard's ability to adapt and survive impressed even interdimensional beings.Īs a twenty-two-year-old corporal at Santego Military Base in Arizona, Shephard caught the attention of the G-Man, a mysterious interdimensional bureaucrat posing as a human. Corporal Adrian Shephard is a minor character in Valve Software's Half-Life series and the main protagonist of the expansion pack, Half-Life: Opposing Force.
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