A Dangerous & Very Efficient Clean-up Crew | The HECU | FULL Half-Life Lore

The HECU (Hazardous Environment Combat Unit) are an iconic part of the Half-Life series. As Dr. Gordon Freeman ventured the halls of Black Mesa on his mission to stop the Resonance Cascade, these marines were sent in to clean up the situation. Even if their orders went against the morals of this Opposing Force.

Who hired the HECU? Was the Black Mesa Incident planned and how did the HECU spawn the creation of Hunt Down The Freeman? In this video, I explore the lore and story behind the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit in the Half-Life series.

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:52 Early Years & Basic Training
06:41 The Secret Plot & Lead Up to The Black Mesa Incident
10:16 Early Hours of The Black Mesa Incident
15:14 The Fall of the HECU & Black Mesa
20:49 Legacy
22:25 Closing Thoughts

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Standard Sources
Game Manuals
Half-Life Series Playthrough Research
Portal Series Playthrough Research
Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
Half-Life: Alyx Playthrough
Portal/ Half-Life Fandom
Old Valve Forums
Marc Laidlaw's Twitter
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Reddit AMA (w/ HL: Alyx Developers)
Portal 2
Aperture Desk Job

AUDIO USED
Half-Life 2: OST: Escape Array
Black Mesa OST: Catalyst
Half-Life 2 OST: Lab Practicum
Black Mesa OST: Xen
Half-Life 2 OST: Triage At Dawn

#HalfLife #Lore #HECU

[Skyrionn]

What did you think of the HECU when you fought/ played as them?

[irishgerman]

“I killed 12 dumbass scientists and not one of them fought back! This sucks!” For some reason that one line always gets me 😂

[thespacemarine]

Ah yes, the clean up crew SO GOOD they needed another clean up crew *for* the clean up crew.

[Drakey_Fenix]

19:39 "Adrian was different to his comrades, he wanted to help as many people as possible survive this incident." This is a misconception, while it is true that the power goes into the players hand in how you want to deal with the situation, the lore reason is different. Adrian simply did what he thought was right. He didn't know what he was doing at Black Mesa due to his helicopter crashing before he could be given the orders about cleaning up the facility.

[somedudethatripsplanetinha]

*_MURPHYS COMBAT LAWS_*
1: You are not a superman
2: If it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid
3: Don't look conspicuous-it draws fire
4: When in doubt, empty your magazine
5: Don't share a foxhole with anyone braver than you are
6: Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder
7: If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush
8: No plan survives the first contact intact
9: All 5 second grenade fuses burn down in 3
10: Try to look unimportant because the bad guys may be low on ammo
11: If you are forward of your position, artillery will fall short
12: The enemy diversion you are ignoring is the main attack
13: The important things are always simple
14: The simple things are always hard
15: The easy way is always mined
16: If you are short of everything except for enemies, you are in combat
17: When you have secured the area, don't forget to tell the enemy
18: Incoming fire has right of way
19: Friendly fire isn't
20: If the enemy is in range-SO ARE YOU!
21: No combat ready unit has ever passed inspection
22: Things that need to be together to work, usually can't be shipped together
23: Radios will fail as soon as you need fire support desperately
24: Anything you do can get you shot-including doing nothing
25: Tracers work both ways
26: The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire
27: Make it tough for the enemy to get in and you can't get out
28: If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will have more than your fair share of objectives to take
29: When both sides are convinced they will lose, they are both right
30: Professional soldiers are predictable, but the world is full of amateurs

[UnrelatedAntonym]

I wonder if the HECU were to cooperate with the Black Mesa personnel, if they could have gone through and killed Nihilanth quick enough, maybe even minimizing the chances of the Combine finding Earth.

[timothytimothy]

Oh my god... This implies that the HECU operators who left black Mesa got executed upon arriving at their FOBs, imagine thinking you had survive the nightmare only to be interrogated and executed

[samuelantoniocastillomeza]

HECU had it the hardest since they became sitting ducks for every faction within Black Mesa. The hunters that became the hunted way too quickly. And congratulations for the 100 k subs!

[Arkhestra]

As a marine myself, reminder that the HECU were literally probably 18-21 year olds who just got the call after a weekend of barracks parties and watching 90's tv shows together

[gamingmoth]

I feel like the Black Mesa incident could have possibly played out differently if the HECU weren’t ordered to “Silence Survivors” and instead were ordered to Rescue Survivors (or at the very least just direct them to safety). They probably could’ve kept a better level of control over the situation if they didn’t have to fight against the Zen creatures AND Doctor Freeman. Of course, the game wouldn’t be as fun if that was the case, but I’m just looking at it from a lore perspective.

[ShyBiiteVT]

I feel at this point, we need another game featuring Adrian Shepard. It's clear his story isn't done with.

[jester]

There was mention in Half Life 2 about a faction called the "Conscripts" that were part of the Combine, essentially these guys were ex military forces from all around the world and were the lowest form of soldier the Combine had access to, even below Civil Protection.
These guys while part of the combine, eventually started to rebel against them as they were put to service against their will, ultimately aiding the resistance.
Sadly they were cut from Half Life 2 as a unit, but i believe they still exist in lore.
Probably where most of these HECU fellas found themselves after the war.

[aiiden]

Man's always doing the best hl lore, keep it up !

[RobiePAX]

14:31 I feel like this part is a plot hole in respect to Adrian. Why Black Mesa security did not attack Adrian on sight hours into the game?

HECU were killing everyone who is not them. Adrian didn't receive his orders so initially for all he knows his orders could be to fight back the invasion and keep personnel safe for questioning.

What doesn't make sense is that even few hours later Barney's and Otis' still don't shoot Adrian on sight. They even help him like when Barney opens locked door for him after Adrian disarmed the nuke.

By that time survivors saw HECU attacks, camera footage, bodies found shot dead by automatic weapons near military equipment. Even Gordon gets warned by personnel that HECU are hostile. I don't think I would open a secure door for a guy that will probably murder me right now as his buddies did with my colleagues.

[danielasbjrnsson]

So basically there were five factions trying to kill each other: Black Mesa personnel, HECUs, Black Ops, Xen aliens and Race X.

And then G-Man just nuked the place.

[XanderNiles]

It's crazy on how the HECU as a faction didn't carry over to Half-Life 2 but if I recall correctly, the remaining members died in the 7 Hours War or something like that.

Anyways, gratz on reaching that amount of subs.

[LavenderMike]

I always loved the messages written by the HECU on the walls of BM with obvious spelling mistakes.

I have a video idea btw. How about the Black Mesa employees? I'd love to see one on the security guards.

[brothers_of_nod]

There were times I particularly enjoyed killing HECU members, then playing as them through Adrian, even still seeing some brutality, you can't help but form connection and care about the unit, likely helped that by that point, all Shepherd and his men really wanted to get out of that nightmare and survive, the same goal we view through Gorden's eyes for most of the base game.

[memorydancer]

The fact that the H.E.C.U exists in the first place already points out the possibility of events (but not on the same scale), such as the Black Mesa incident, to have already happened before on the Half Life Universe.

[josephmontanaro]

My theory on why they were sent in is that whatever party wanted the resonance cascade and subsequent combine invasion to be successful (either on their behalf or to set the half life 2 rebellion and subsequent events in the half life 3 script in motion as a means to destroy the combine as a whole or whatever their goal was) involved them taking one of the premear units that could have helped turn the tide against the early portal storm incursions, thus preserving and allowing them to possibly train regular infantry units to better fight the non conventional battles to preserve human assets to better fight back in the 7 hour war or even somehow having the HECU itself play a critical role in stopping the invasion, I'd honestly love to see a "What if" mod where the nuke is deployed sooner and more HECU personel are able to escape black Mesa and then help route the combine in a critical battle followed up by them launching some kind of one way ticket Doolittle raid style attack on the combine homeworld, destroy the overmind and not only prevent the conquest of earth but indirectly liberate other subjugated species by destabilizing the combines portal networks assumed hub as well as decapitate their leadership similar to when earth's detachment of combine units were cut off at the end of the second game and during the DLC expansions, would be an intresting peek into an alternate 7 hour war and really show how their gear and training compared to more conventional marine and even army/national guard units, possibly even have some extra side missions focused on HECU "combat advisors" dispatched to NATO and even non NATO formations at other battles both during the 7 day war and the earlier portal storm bushfire conflicts against xen wildlife and some intresting new factions such as the reminents of the vortaguant people before the combine subjugated them in the original time line (perhaps they see the timeliness divergence and are fighting to keep their newfound freedom they would loose to the combine or even humanity if it was not subjugated), race X rougue elements lead by scattered warlords, hostile human factions (perhaps some kind if cult that is trying to rally behind the portal storms as a form of end of days, alternant timeline Breen and possibly rogue elements of the UN trying to side with the combine, a rogue state like North Korea trying to take advantage of the crisis for political goals and even just the simple rabble of civilian looters in small groups taking advantage of the social breakdown to anti government militias (perhaps ones even sided with alternate reality black Mesa survivors)blaming the crisis on the government, could have both a really compelling story campaign as well as some really fun one off missions that would both enrich the lore of this mod and give you some unique environments, enemies and gameplay elements to explore