The Alternative Half-Life 2 - Projekt Kaskade

Projekt Kaskade

The Official Story

Created by Sörét and other contributors listed in the credits.

Civilian Edition - The Official Story - Universal Failure - The Preemptive Invasion - die Atombombe - Zar' khajiir Heer

www.projektkaskade.com

Foreword

Projekt Kaskade’s development started on the 1st of February, 2012 with the help of an old friend of mine called Stevo_1066, our initial ideas consisted of far-fetched concepts and fantasies that we thought could lead us to somewhere, which truth to be told, it did. Ever since the first viable option appearing on our radar we seized the chance and proceeded developing the project further and further, progressing from a mess of ideas to organized events and information that allowed us to proceed and create a new roleplay theme that we call as Projekt Kaskade today. Of course this wasn’t as nice as it is right now, I personally had to go on a long way with it just to achieve the best possible result. We had ideas, concepts, we had it, did it, tried it. Some of course didn’t work as we expected it, not everyone who I worked was willing to put all of their time into it, even Stevo himself left shortly after kickstarting the idea and allowed me to continue on, knowing that I will attempt to finish it at all costs, which was very true.

I spent over one and a half year developing this very theme, day and night, endless amounts of talk with roleplayers, people from my community, administration and of course that circlejerk we had that consisted of a couple friends of mine from TnB.

I can say that without the people I worked with before, I couldn’t of achieve what I have here right now.

Projekt Kaskade was developed in the sense that everyone on Garry’s Mod deserves a unique roleplay theme, a brand new perspective and an alternative to the ever aging roleplay theme called, Half-Life 2 Roleplay.

Projekt Kaskade is a new perspective that allows others to peek into a new realm of alternative Half-Life as a brand new continuation of the saga. This roleplay theme here allows us to continue on forward, ditch our problems and bias towards Half-Life 2, essentially allowing us to immerse ourselves into a brand new world with almost limitless possibilities that are available for us.

As the creator of Projekt Kaskade, I put all my heart into the story, gave it all the love and caring, the secrets, the science, the right amount of oppression and invasion to justify everything from Episode 2 to this very point right here.

All I ask from you is to open your eyes and think of it as a new world that waits you to explore it.

Official vs Shortened

Projekt Kaskade might be a one of a kind, difficult story to understand, what I know can be very challenging, therefore there are two versions available for the player to read, the first version is this containing all the information what Half-Life 2 ever had available for the player, the other is the shortened version that you can use as an IC tool to get your character started seeking Venice and from there on you can explore the world around you and find out the truth that lies behind the story. It needs a bit of reading, but trust me, it is worth it.

Summary (Major Spoilers)

Projekt Kaskade as of in this version tells you about the story of a desperate attempt by the Combine to alter time by interfering in the past just to be able to prevent Gordon Freeman from ever existing. They sent back two teams in time to attempt a blindly coordinate plan that relies on two teams, one going back to the Combine Home World to convince them to invade earlier in time while the other back to Nazi Germany to develop a nuclear device that hides within a portal device that will start off the Resonance Cascade and with that trigger the Portal Storms much more earlier in time allowing the Combine to invade the planet earlier.

But due to the limited amount of resources available to the Combine they decided that only one city will be taken over, which was Venice.

The Combine decided that it is more useful for them to hide behind a curtain and take part in this proxy war to take over the planet by using the blood thirsty and power hungry German Empire as their choice of weapon, that will allow them to eventually in 2010 re-occupy the planet just as it happened in Half-Life 2.

Projekt Kaskade plays in 1951 in the Union Occupied City of Venice that is currently being policed by the Third Reich’s Nazi Regime because the Combine wasn’t able to uphold law and order in the city after the transitional period.

You, the player will go to Venice, for whatever reason you may seem fit, to live your life, safe, away from harm and the dangers of war that are soon to come looming right after you.

DEVELOPMENT SKETCH OF PROJEKTKASKADE.COM
This development sketch or “script” is created by Sörét and other contributors listed in the credits.

This is like the laws of physics in another dimension or world, they don't exist in yours.
If you step in here, then you must forget about what you know from your before life, because this will teach you a brand new story, a brand new perspective.

This is the Official Story, the story that no one will ever tell you, the story that no one wants you to know, the lies, the conspiracy and the hatred,

This is where your story starts....

1. In 1939, the Third Reich started its first Nuclear energy research project, aiming to develop a completely new energy resource. As the research went on, the destructive power of this new technology was quickly discovered, and research's focus was quickly altered onto creating a bomb using this new energy source and how would it be possible to make it even more deadly. German scientists started colliding particles at near light speed (Like in today's CERN project...) and trying to collapse high speed, high density particles in pursuit of the creation of a weapon of mass destruction. As a result of these experiments, they started a chain reaction, much like an atomic bomb would have worked, but instead of the expected reaction, it caused a net flux of matter instead of consuming the particles, setting in motion the reactions which would eventually cause a large scale portal storm. On that fatal night, 27th of February, 1942 the whole complex was destroyed, leaving hundreds dead and injured and starting a Resonance Cascade.

2. The destruction of the research plant in the following days didn't go unnoticed by the local authorities in the area. Strange lights and new, alien creatures were sighted in the area due to the opening of the first portals in the mountain areas. These portals grew into a massive scale portal storm later on. The Allies noticed this incident when they were running covert operations in the area, they notified Allied High Command of this happening immediately.

3. The first signs of the resonance cascade were seen in the rift of outer space. A large scale portal storm started raging high in the atmosphere right above Central Europe, causing a strange "Northern Lights" effect in the skies as the portal storm's electromagnetic radiation entered the earth's atmosphere, causing a visible effect in the daylight and at night time. The first appearance of this strange phenomenon was seen within a month after the destruction of the plant. It caused panic and confusion in the areas the effect could be seen, especially in areas where the "Northern Lights" hadn't been seen before.

4. The sudden sightings of the Northern Lights caused panic and confusion in Central Europe, and across the globe as the effect spread to a global scale. Auroras were visible at both day and night. The people stared up the sky and watched the beautiful sightings, but not all were amazed by nature's beauty. Many were more afraid, scared... Predictions of a coming apocalypse were shouted in the streets by Apocalypse Priests and Mysticists, but were they right? Indeed, there really was an apocalypse looming, but they didn't know that it wouldn't swoop down over them, it would slowly digest them... Even without this knowledge, there was rioting on the streets and soldiers began retreating off battlefields. The police attempted to restore order but with little success, they had to wait.

5. Scientists had started to investigate how this would be possible, under considerable pressure from their governments, yet they failed to find answers for the cause of this disaster. Announcements were made to the public that these 'storms' were not dangerous. Several scientists were arrested for attempting to purposely inciting panic, revealing their apocalyptic theories to the public. While the governments and their scientists remained cautious, their duty for the good of the countries were to prevent any more public panic.

6. With both the governments and their leading scientists providing 'evidence' of the non-threatening nature of the 'storms', the public began to trust their governments and life began to return to normal and the war continued. While this was happening, people kept an eye on the ever growing 'storms' happening in the skies above their countries, which were growing in size and intensity, yet scientists continued to insist there was no cause for concern and it is just a possible natural phenomenon what the sun is causing.

7. With chaos taking hold on Earth, the effects of the Portal storms had just started to appear in the outer world of Xen, where the Vortigaunts were being enslaved by the Combine. The Combine were using the Vortigaunts as lab rats and toys for building new super kinetic weapons and soldiers. Many of their cruel experiments were quite a success. The Vortigaunts were ready to try to escape, to make yet another break away. Most wanted to make a run for it, to try to escape to a place where the Combine couldn’t come after them anymore, but the Vortigaunts generally believed this was impossible. On that fateful day, smaller scale portals started opening up in Xen as an effect of the expanding storm on Earth and when the storm reached a significant scale those portals become visible and the Vortigaunts eventually realised they would be able to be used for teleportation, as they witnessed other species using them to this end.

8. The border world of Xen wasn’t just inhabited by the Vortigaunts. It was home to millions of other Xenian species, who had lived there long before Vortigaunts on the world. When the portals opened up and expanded to a major scale, these creatures were suddenly driven to advance into these portals, and though it is not known whether they were driven by their instincts, or following their mates or packs, they started migrating as never before. These creatures were of hugely varied types, biped and non-biped creatures, like the Antlions, Headcrabs, Bullsquids, biomechanical or biological, they used this chance to escape and leave Xen. This reaction didn’t go unnoticed by the Vortigaunts, they saw that other life forms were able to escape using the portals, so the Vortigaunts immediately started using these portals with their fellow brethren, following the other Xen creatures to escape from their captivity from what the Combine had forced upon them. Before they stepped into the portals, their destination was the unknown. Indeed, they may have been going straight to their deaths, but the only thing that mattered for them was to escape the harsh rule of the Combine.

9. The Combine too noticed the appearance of the portals on Xen. They noticed the disappearance of many of the species, especially the Vortigaunts, and quickly surmised that they were using the portals to escape. They responded immediately, sending hundreds of gate jumper troops and spaceships into the portals after them, but what they found on the other side was totally unexpected. Upon arriving on Earth, the Combine were astonished by their discovery of a brand new planet, full of intelligent life forms, new species and huge amounts of natural resources. By the time they arrived, Xenian creatures were already destroying local populations and causing chaos across the planet. These forces immediately returned to stationary orbit and sent messages back to the home world about their findings, waiting for their Overlords to reply with orders.

10. The first signs of the Xenian invasion were in central Europe, where antlions and headcrabs caused chaos on the battlefields. Due to the fact that many soldiers were "Necrotized" with different side effects, the Allies and the Axis quickly found new enemies on the battlefield, in the form of the walking dead, antlions and other xenite species. As on the portal storm continued to grow, the Necrotics and the Xenians started to spread over the whole of Europe and Asia, and when the portal storm grew to its peak size, the invasion spread to the Americas, causing huge disruption and devastation there. The governments of the world started trying to fight back by shifting the population from rural and indefensible territories to metropolis areas where they could build walls to defend their citizens from the infestation.

11. The civilian population reacted quickly to this sudden threat. As soon as the alien species started invading their landscape, they had to flee towards more densely populated areas, believing, quite correctly, that these areas were more defensible and not fully infested by the invading xenian animals and other species. Normal citizens were forced to pick up arms and defend their new, overcrowded homes; forced to build makeshift defences and put up walls and barbed wire to stop the extraterrestrial invasion from spreading while new creatures were spawning around the world. The chaos was still ongoing and no one was sure they would survive another day.

12. The war was halted because of the sudden outbreak, massive landscapes were completely abandoned, and nature and the Xenians are taking them over. Entire villages, smaller towns and farms are now occupied by Necrotics, Antlions and other Xenian creatures. Armies were forced to retreat back to their population centres because the residents weren't capable of handling the outbreak. Owing to the circumstances, both sides were forced to make an unwanted peace treaty. Since the Xenian invasion was at large even in the Americas, the US Government requested multiple generals to return immediately to US soil to organize the defence of refugee population centres and larger cities in the US. In order to handle the outbreak, the US formed regulated militias, meaning they didn't require all their forces from Europe to retreat back to the US. They believed this would give them the ability to defend other European cities that were also being used safe areas for those fleeing from the Xenians. Later on, it became apparent that the militias would not be enough and around half of the US Military group had to retreat back to the US because forces there were being overwhelmed. The Soviet Union's situation was far worse, the invasion was so dense in their territorial area that they had to completely retreat from the eastern front back towards Moscow and St. Petersburg. Because of the severity of the outbreak, they wouldn't be able to control the situation for months to come. The Germans had much better luck, because they were already retreating from the Allies' advance. This meant they were able to fortify their positions. The war didn't advance at all the upcoming years because everyone was busy to solve their own issues, therefore an imaginary peace treaty was set in place.

13. Due to the rapid invasion of the Xenians, financial markets around the world had collapsed, and the Reichsmark's value fell sharply as a result of the war, since there was trade embargoes, huge inflation, massive wartime debts and markets weren't open for trading. Indeed, the value fell so much, most currency exchange businesses wouldn't trade with the public. For the Germans, trade was impossible with their allies in the Axis and other neutral countries due to roadblocks, partisan activities and raiding of convoys and trains. Outlawed cities formed in completely annihilated zones where there was no a government or leader. These areas quickly become a wasteland, a population zone for refugees or outlaw strongholds. Poverty in the cities, however, remained excessively high. Most of the people still used these currencies as normal, not caring about the inflation, with businesses digging into stock reserves and being given government assistance. Life continued without major disturbances, for now.

14. Hundreds, if not thousands of prisoners had become bodies for the Xenians, notably in the cold Siberian forced labor camps and concentration camps set up by the Nazis. Weak humans were the main target of the Xenians to feed on or to Zombify. Most of them became zombies, or their bodies couldn't hold on any longer and just died. The effect was even greater in the concentration camps where most of the prisoners were held, since they were completely weak, and left without strength. As a result, the infestation had grown rapidly in these areas from where these zombies started expanding from, creating major threat for those living around, making even them flee towards population centers. Those who were leading these camps, the government officials, were the only survivors of the camps, since they had already escaped through secret tunnels and networks.

15. Citizens who arrived in cities were forced to live on the streets, in makeshift camps and building basements. These refugees mostly ended up getting conscripted and joining the effort to defend the city and constructing buildings. Living conditions, sanitation and other health care issues started to grow as the cities struggled to house the refugees. Cities were communicating with fast moving trains with each other, transporting troops, other equipment and humanitarian aid. It was nearly impossible to manage the massive waves of refugees for years to come.

16. As the Vortigaunts had appeared on Earth, they started flocking around a German City called Dresden. When they have arrived, they were greeted with hostility, mainly because the city had already been swarmed by Xenian creatures and therefore the inhabitants were forced to defend themselves. The Vortigaunts created a large vacuum burst effect around the City, obliterating most of the city as a response. In the City there were no eye witlessness of this, therefore the Germans later on believed that this was done by the Combine, as they believed only the Combine had the technology to level an entire city. Later on the Americans claimed this was their work, in order to scare the Axis into believing they had developed real weapons of mass destruction, but this was met with disbelief.

17. The Union Home World ordered an immediate incursion of Earth. An explorational task force was set up and sent over the gaping portal holes towards Earth. The task force there set up a Union forward base near the largest flux energy exposure and a great many Vortigaunts were located here. Here they begun to collect data, survey and complete other tasks about the planet, its resources and population. Their research was quick, and they found great potential in Earth's resource deposits, resources like water, noble gases, rare earth metals and many other types of minerals. The explorational task force reported back to the Union regarding what they had found, giving full details on the planet's status, and resources. The Union, having learned this new information, deployed a larger scale force to deploy survey drones and set up structures and defences within Central Europe, in order to create the first foothold on the planet for the Combine.

18. Luftwaffe forces had spotted massive flying spaceships entering Earth's atmosphere, seeing them crash down onto the ground and then deploy off different structures and units onto the ground. Their planes had circled around these structures for minutes taking aerial images and footage of these strange structures, units and machines. It was their first experience with this type of technology, seeing lasers cutting through trees, prospecting and drilling the ground for minerals using vast machinery. These forces immediately reported back to the Luftwaffe High Command, from there the details of the aerial reconnaissance were quickly intercepted by their generals, who started combining the information from the Dresden Incident, coming to a conclusion that this was the force that had destroyed their precious city, therefore they started to make secret meetings with other generals to discuss these matters. A short time went on and the generals were amazed by the technology used by the Combine, and they quickly decided that they would send out a team of diplomats and other generals to get in contact with the Combine.

19. Ranking German Military officials gathered for the meeting, and most of them are pretty much sold on the idea of having this new force on their side; they were currently losing the war, and having such powerful force on your side could change the tide. Since so many Military leaders were somewhat secretly pissed at Hitler, they begin to speak openly about it with their peers on the meeting. They decide to use their Fuhrer as a bargaining chip in the war, and offer to eliminate him in exchange for an alliance with the Universal Union. Because there can't be two leaders calling the shots of course, this would cause conflict of interests, this is why Hitler had to be terminated. With him out of the way, there would be no more military blunders. No more mistakes. Germany for the Germans! ...as they say. So this way they thought, Germany and their controlled territories were once again under Military rule by their Ranking Military Officials, but of course under the advisement and orders of the Combine. But the Union had a different plan in their minds, upon the negotiations started with the Union Commanders and Advisors present at the meeting had threatened the Generals with an Ultimatum to surrender to the Universal Union and submit their military governance over to them. Due to the Germans under the implication that the Combine blew up Dresden, they didn't need the much time and effort to figure out that they had to accept this demand from the Union in order to ensure Germany's partial freedom from such takeover. Due to the Combine fully enjoying the governing rule over the Germans this way, they had chosen to work behind the scenes and use the German forces to start taking over Earth, this way they could maintain resources on other areas rather than using them on Earth, and with this they can come off more effectively in the upcoming occupational efforts. Due to the generals agreeing to this, they warned Hitler that he is not in direct command anymore, and that the Universal Union is now in control of the German military and that they must submit to their military might, or they would be whipped away from existence if they would resist. As Hitler had managed to get more information about this occurrence, he quickly noticed the exploit-ability in this case on submitting to the Combine's might and capturing the whole Europe with their help, but Hitler didn't know that the Combine weren't supplying anything for them at the present time at all. Hitler was implying that they would be able to continue their research and experimentations, and with the received support he would have the chance to plot against the Union as they would support them in conquering Europe, so later on when they have a superior army he would just turn it against them, while Hitler wasn't aware that some of his Generals were secretly plotting behind him, and had already decided to support the Universal Union in a full utmost way. This way the Union had reached to a position to continue their operations without creating attention to themselves, while supporting the German soldiers in the war ongoing. The Union had a stationary fleet in outer space just off earth, holding as they continued with their earth based operations.

20. The Portal Storms brought multiple different alien species to Earth. These species soon started to reproduce very, very quickly and due to the Earth's living conditions, they were able to live for a long time. Not only this, but millions of new alien species, some resembling the Xenites, some not, were created. Earth now gives home to more than one million type of alien species in addition to the native species. The number continued to grow, pushing off native species to extinction as the Xenians invaded their habitats.

21. In 1946 the Allies managed to capture a key border area next to Switzerland, being in possession of this area gave the US and the UK access to Switzerland's diplomatic cables, the surrounding territory around Switzerland was occupied by the Germans and Italian forces because of this their outside reach was very limited. The Nazis didn't allow most of Switzerland's diplomats to exit nor enter their territory, nor to leave towards an outside territory. But now that this divide was breached, the allies managed to restore contact and diplomatic relations with the Swiss nation.

22. Years later, after the Combine took control over the German generals, they demanded the immediate handover of Venice to their control. This demand met no resistance at all from the generals. For the Combine, Venice was a perfect strategic position to establish a foothold for their operations on Earth and allowed them to begin experimentation. Venice was very easy to defend and surrounded by water. The only route in or out of the city was a single railway bridge, which the Combine had total control over and could easily blockade. After the handover was made, the Union immediately started deploying a limited quantity of soldiers into Venice and its surrounding.

23. As the Combine started deploying troops, the general population of Venice was evacuated. In the middle of the night everyone was told they must leave, residents of the city were physically forced to leave the city immediately. The local authorities claimed an Allied invasion was at hand and everyone must leave to prevent any possible casualties. As expected, everyone followed the authority's orders and the City was evacuated right into Mestre in about seven hours. Everyone took whatever belongings they could hold on to and then they were forced to board boats or military transports and evacuate the city. Shortly after the city was evacuated, the Combine forces took over. The German military sealed off the only entrance to the city. By the next day, the Combine had taken complete control of Venice, just as they had wanted.

24. Within days massive constructions had started in the city. Military outposts were built, defences were strengthened, anti-air batteries were deployed with other type of defences on the coastline. All of these defences were placed in strategically important positions to make Venice able to withstand any possible attack that could threaten the city’s infrastructure, its residents or military assets. The construction works lasted for more than a year and in that time, no humans were allowed to enter Venice. All the secrecy added to the mystery of the events surrounding Venice, since no one attacked the city, as the Authorities had warned, but instead new buildings were being constructed. Around the end, close to the re-opening of the city, most of the construction had finished and the City was ready, the only major building work left to finish was the construction of the Combine Citadel. Indeed, the massive structure was only just starting to be built, the huge base of Citadel had just been constructed.

25. Since nearly all the construction in the city was finished, it was ready to be reopened to its former residents. Even though they were allowed back into the city, most of those who were forced to move on did not return; many had sought refuge elsewhere or perished. As residents returned to what had been theirs, they noticed a lot of changes, whole districts of Venice had been changed or sealed off from public access. Some buildings were missing, torn down or replaced. The mixture of old and new technology started raising many questions. As most of the old population of Venice hadn't returned, there were few logistical problems regarding housing displaced residents who lost their homes, but many were distraught they had lost everything and found it uncomfortable that they had to use someone else's home. Even so, in many ways, life was returning to normal.

26. After the official reopening of Venice, hundreds of thousands of people were allowed back into the city, but at that point it started becoming more than a simple city, it was a very nicely obfuscated concentration zone that was built up by the Combine. The construction of the Citadel was just starting, massive construction and building. Just half a day passed on and the residents of the city found out that they are no longer residents of the Kingdom of Italy, which in fact was already occupied by the Reich, but their city, Venice, now fully part of the Universal Union's own independent territorial integrity and sovereignty. They didn't have rights, they only lived there, they had houses, but they had no rights to move anywhere else. The bridge and waterfront areas were controlled by warships and boats, no one was allowed to leave who entered, mostly only traders and supply caravans that entered Venice's market districts. Citizens of the old Venice were forced to abide by the rules of a new government, and a new system, they weren't citizens of that state, but mere refugees and "residents". Who ever wanted to be respected by the so called "system" had to become a naturalized citizen, who have better benefits than the rest.

27. Just a day had to pass after the first arrivals to Venice and the Universal Union immediately declared it’s “independence”. From who unknown (probably from Italy), but they were from now on a fully independent state on planet Earth. Those who decided to return had four possible choices waiting for them, either they accept Germany’s invitation to become a citizen of the Greater German Reich or go over the process of naturalization towards the Universal Union, which latter could took months to process even if going after with the application process. Those who didn’t decide or didn’t want to participate in neither of them only had two option, to remain stateless permanent residents of Venice or permanently retain their Italian Citizenship.

28. During the first two days, Venice was controlled by Wehrmacht forces that were requested to handle the transportation of residents back into Venice. After the official handover was done the policing was taken over by the Overwatch, as these forces started to deploy the population reacted hysterically like there is some doomsday ongoing. They were scared, these never before seen creatures had creeped the living hell out of them. Making strange sounds, littering around strange substances and harassing the population, everyone was afraid to leave their homes in the second day of the second transitional period. The Union had to decide and pulled their forces out of the city back to their headquarters and other establishments, because the population was being driven into chaos and confusion. Because of this they have decided to immediately request assistance from the Reich, in their "request" they demanded immediate support from reserve forces stationary in Germany to deploy into their own territory to maintain the city's defensive stance, the generals meanwhile responded onto this by selecting out the Schutzstaffel for the job.

29. Upon the demand from the Universal Union, the Reich quickly responded by deploying the Schutzstaffel into Venice. The Union demanded the best, and the Generals got them the best. The Schutzstaffel is the elite organization made out of paramilitary soldiers, whom are directly commanded by Heinrich Himmler. The deployment had simple goals, such as: Stabilizing the unstable Italian population in Venice, maintaining security measures from foreign invasions, protecting the city's border premises with its military might. But, we can't really say that they had any intention to do those, instead they mainly focused on keeping the population in order, spreading Nazism, and generally causing issues for the Union. Secretly, Hitler had his hands in counter-ordering Union commands for the SS, making them to spy for him instead of keeping the city stable. It was important to maintain his might over them, since they were dependent on Hitler's word, as his people trusted him.

30. Work unions were formed, allowing civilians to contribute to the war effort, or just to have a living from where they could afford to purchase food for themselves. The Union were distributing food packages from time to time, called "Rations", these packages contained a water can, food supplies like a small dinner, some sweets and Union Issued Currency. The Union Issued Currency, aka UIC was very valuable at this time, it was because everyone had the chance to turn it into Reichsmark, or other currencies of their choice, being the wealthiest gave people much influence over whoever they wanted. People had the chance to go out into the market, buy their own daily fruits and vegetables or meat, trading like there was no war going on. Factories were functioning, producing weapons, equipment, tanks, heavy weapons, planes, manufacturing quality had increased, and of course high paying jobs. Allowing these to go on, while Schutzstaffel prevented uprising, keeping the population better under control with the local authorities that were already present in Venice, with this they made the citizen's lives better and less stressful... for some.

31. Under this period the Combine were still at large in the other worlds, but not all of the Vortigaunts had fled to Earth, most of them were still back in Xen. Because of this, there were large efforts still ongoing to capture them, this was still the priority. The Combine wanted to find new ways around the problem of low unit numbers while their forces were focused elsewhere, and because of this the initial concepts of Transhumanized soldiers were created, but the actual research started only two years after the initial planning.

32. Weeks after the official reopening of Venice the news quickly started spreading about the new "independent" neutral nation that resides in the middle of Axis controlled territory. This of course created interest from most countries, even the United States, whom attempted to reach out towards this new government but without luck. Only after a few week, restrictions were released from the Swiss nation and about one month later, the US Congress had agreed on sending high-level diplomats to Switzerland and from there onto Venice with the purpose to gain diplomatic ties with the new government, later on this turned out to be a successful campaign. Chartered planes were usually independent from this area, any plane right now could of leave the "Zone", since most Wehrmacht units were allocated elsewhere in larger population centers or on isolated defense lines, rest of the place was filled with Xenians, no one wanted to be here at this point of time.

33. When the US Diplomats arrived in Venice they were quickly greeted by the Union's civil "servants", they were implying that someone was already expecting them, which turned out to be true. Official diplomatic talks had started between the two "countries", which turned out quite successful. Diplomatic relations were established between the Universal Union and the United States, in a rather strange way. When the United States asked the Union to establish a consulate in Washington they were suddenly denied and were told that they allow them to have a consulate in Venice and all diplomacy relations will be held over that office, there were other questions at the same time regarding their allegiance with the Reich, but the Union said they are "independent", while they have a rather hostile connection with them, but this was enough for them to accept the Union's terms, so the diplomats agreed and accepted the offer. As time went on relations were rather warm and friendly, but nevertheless, the Union didn't plan on keeping it that warm for so long. The diplomats that were present at the meeting quickly made assumptions that the Union had some sort of a treaty with the Reich, while they are being clearly "occupied" to some extent, forcefully nor by friendly means. The United States had previously thought that the Union is completely independent and doesn't have any sort of military alliance or alignment towards the Third Reich due to their completely different diplomatic relations and society set up, however they were wrong, and diplomatic cables proven that the Union is connected with the Reich in some ways that is not known for the United States just yet.

34. When the meeting was being held, diplomats from the United States made some really odd and strange findings on their trip in Venice. The Union wanted to hide their technological superiority from them but that lead to nowhere and these advances were accidentally revealed or were unintentionally displayed in the most unwanted spot under the time of the tour. It was shameful, but it come with unexpected interest from the United States. Embarrassing questions were made, but none were answered, but they knew there was more to it than what meets the eye. Somewhat even now, this strange atmosphere and very mystical presence of the Union made the US more and more curious asking themselves the questions of "Who are they?"; "What are they doing here for real?"; "How did they just turn up here?"; "How come the Reich didn't destroy them yet?".... "Are they....aliens...?" Lot of questions, but no answers, as usual. It was terrifying for a first few thoughts, thinking that the Union didn't come from Earth, it constantly concerned Roosevelt, everything that was discussed during the meeting, and after it was kept "Top Secret" on their terms, fearing that it could affect their national security. But nonetheless, the US wanted to maintain a neutral stance with them.

35. Not only the United States and other nations gained interest, many corporations around the globe wanted to invest into the new possibilities. Most of the manufacture and trade infrastructure in the city was broken, or non-operational because the Combine shut them down, and because of this corporation's thought it would be a good idea to immediately grab on this chance and deploy their own interest in these “gold mines”. It was easy to start a business, they only needed a permit from the Union to start a business or to establish a factory or something similar. Most of the trade was handled via Air Cargo, or Air Drops towards Switzerland, where they sold their products or shipped it over to whatever their destination was. The Reich didn’t interfere with any of the Union’s dealings, but the public uproar was loud enough about this to reach out. The Union Issued Currency, aka UIC have proven to be a very strong new type of currency, even stronger than the US dollar. The trade influx of the currency was set so high that the Union decided to immediately halt trading in their own currency and switch onto the Reichsmark, quickly the foreign use of their currency became illegal in their terms. Due to this change, the Reichsmark was traded all the time, it’s value started to dramatically drop, just as the Union expected it to do so, the inflation of the DRM came quickly, right after it managed to step out from its recession, it fall back again shortly.

36. However, Venice did not remain an isolated state for long; as The World’s governments and largest corporations set their sights on the city, so did the people. Citizens from across the globe began making the move to Venice, with the majority of these people pouring in from North America and various countries in Western Europe. These distinguished emigrants left their homelands for multitudes of reasons. The perceived business opportunities Venice had to offer, employment, escape from the ever present danger of Xenians roaming multiple countries, and yet, many came for a different reason. Many came simply to start a new life, to escape the shackles and restraints their previous country had entrapped them in. With the personal objectives of all the new inhabitants of Venice so wildly diverse, only one thing is constant: The city is filled with a monolith of diverse opinions and perceptions.

37. At a slow pace, after a really long period of time the Second World War slowly started to resume. The war in reality had never really stopped, nor had any ceasefire was negotiated, but when the time came, everything restarted. Wehrmacht forces started pushing towards France and Poland, starting to take back the areas that once belong to the Reich. The Wehrmacht was using Blitzkrieg tactics on their advance towards France, there was no resistance on rural areas mostly the dead horror of the Xenian invasion, major resistances were only possible to find around the massive Cities, since at that time cities were already being fortified and fully defended from the infesting creatures, this way the Wehrmacht had to use Luftwaffe and Artillery forces to bombard the city to force them to surrender. Territories were quickly acquired again and added back to the Empire, the allies weren't able to hold much onto these positions much longer because they were being overpowered by the Germans who were partially supported by the Combine. With the new technology at hand, that included equipment for better tactical awareness, bombarding, anti-tank and anti-air technology. Even with these resources in hand, the Germans were having a hard time understanding how they actually worked, as not all of them were trained on the field how to use them. Because of this, when it came to fighting over population centers, it turned into trench fighting and a slow paced siege.

38. The war was turning out odd with the infestation at hand, due to the heavy losses on each side, and all around, these Xenians started using almost dead or injured soldiers as their home body, to alter them into a zombie stage, from where they had the ability to attack other humans and creep the battlefields with this method. Due to the confusion on some battlefield, these events lead to major catastrophes even for both sides, because at some point they were not fully prepared for zombies in both side's clothing starting to turn against them and making them flee from the battlefield. Fighting in a location that was often infested by necrotics made the thought of a fighting chance a horrible nightmare for every soldier, being scared of the possibility that they wouldn't die, but become a zombie.

39. Due to massive demand for space because of the Xenian invasion, population centers had to start expanding further to increase capacity. The demand was so high that no one cared about where the house will be or how it will look like, so they started pulling up more and more buildings, sometimes onto two buildings or just on top of another one. Constructions kept going on for years, eventually creating large metropolized cities. Poverty and hygienic standards were still low and the streets very heavily polluted with trash, viruses and bacteria were leftovers from the pre- and mid-metropolization era.

40. The small colony of islands, the perfect spot for an alien race to establish a staging area for their invasive master plan... The first noted appearance of Venice was before the 10th century B.C., it had multiple names and many faces, but right now what is left of it? Well most of the city is still intact, the Union is controlling the islands, and the connection bridge between Italy and Venice, and some defensive positions around the island. Most of the infrastructure and buildings are still intact, the war didn't really reach these parts yet, and since this area was pretty much isolated, and was hard to get out. It was the perfect choice for the Combine to take over, and establish a foothold for their influence. The city holds about a quarter million soul, and some other "unwanted" Xenian creatures, most modernized Combine structures are visible in the city, starting from broadcast screens to loudspeakers, improvised defensive structures and military outposts for the Overwatch, Union propaganda can be seen all around the city. Life in the city goes on its usual way, as far as we can call it usual... Mixed nationals, POW's, foreigners, traders, Germans and Italians live their lives as usual, most not aware of what is developing in the background, everyone lives on hunger rations or stamps, lucky for the ones who are able to get recruited for work in the factory on daily basis and have a proper income to buy food and goods from the market. The average persons living style was trying to "survive".

41. Hitler was never fond of the Universal Union, not even right after the secret capitalization happened towards them, he didn't like any of it, but he was forced and outraged because his most trusted generals had submitted to the Combine's demands and immediately started cooperating with them out of fear of destruction. Hitler started planning a grand takeover of the Third Reich from the Combine right after they managed to capture most of Europe again... well that was the plan. Hitler had the popular support of the German people, and the Combine knew this, taking Hitler out of the picture would of destabilize the situation further, and since people supported him, it was good for the Union as far as he cooperated with their demands. Hitler started to collect supporters in high and lower levels of society, and his words found him supporters, he gained so much support, but he still had to start convincing his Generals. Hitler wanted power, technology and complete control, the Union's current technology was rather the candy bar that Hitler wanted to conquer for himself to dominate the war. Hitler, had evaded the judgment so far.

42. Suddenly, Hitler's plans of overthrowing the Combine hit a massive brick wall. One of the Generals, loyal to the Union, had managed to acquire information about Hitler's plans, of what he managed to send over to the Union, even at this point Hitler made several attempts to intercept the message from being sent, but with no avail. The Union finally managed to receive information about what was Hitler plotting, but there came the golden question: "What are we supposed to do with him??" There were no answers for this question, just more questions... The Union couldn't remove Hitler from power, nor assassinate him, that would cause bigger problems than they currently had. Instead, the Union figured they would instead, humiliate Hitler, and weaken his political power, rather than completely remove them. So, the Union started its own little campaign, pushing Hitler into the dirty, making fun of his illness and setting him up as someone "inferior" towards the Aryan race. This was rather successful, Hitler lost many of his followers, and lost a lot of respect in the eyes of his people. Well, for some people this was the end of the matter, but not for Hitler.

43. The Union started its resource siphoning planning for the resources to be taken off-world, which was due to the large requirement of the home world and other worlds they controlled, the deployed survey teams were forced to start operations immediately around Venice's industrial area, massive transport ships were visible at day transporting off water and other materials that were extracted from the ground. Later on this extraction will lead to a massive water shortage in the city. Due to the Combine didn't wanted the civilian population to drink the normal water, they secretly poisoned the local water supplies, making people sick and poisoned this way, forcing them to buy their own water supplies that they sold in vending machines across the city, of course these drink products were of course poisoned the same way with certain psycho reactive substances. The Union constructed its first Air Exchange on an island near Venice to start changing the climate of the planet.

44. The Universal Union created its first multi-purpose station 20 kilometers away from Venice in an isolated area. None of the humans knew what it was for. Its purpose was undisclosed to everyone, even the Reich's Generals. Likewise, the technology contained within the plant was beyond human comprehension. Most of the population knew about the station's existence, yet no one knew what resides inside of it. A large area around the station was highly guarded, with few humans allowed anywhere near the site. The high security measures raised many questions, but none were answered. Combine sources referred to the plant as the “Mayak Research” Institution, but there was no other information or explanation available about the plant, it remained shrouded in mystery.

45. Political tensions were becoming bigger due to the Union's active policy towards accepting in foreign citizens into their own territory and holding an honorary consulate with the United States. Due to these issues, tensions started to increase between the political parties in Germany and they were accusing the Universal Union as to be acting as traitors against the Third Reich's political and military interests. They were demanding the Reich chancellor to immediately declare war against the Universal Union and order the stationary forces in Venice to occupy immediately the city. Of course, this declaration of war completely angered the Universal Union's Commanders and Advisors. This was not going to happen any time soon, because the Reich’s Generals were actively opposing this, the political members of the Bundestag managed to force out an immediate travel and trade ban on Venice, with this only blockading out-bound trade, civilian flights and ship routes, some of these were already blocked further isolating Venice and those residing inside the City.

46. Since Hitler was shackled by his own chosen Generals and humiliated by the Combine. Hitler was craving for revenge. Since it had happened, he never stopped thinking about how to regain his lost influence, and began plotting again to rally up his men against the Combine and his own party. Over time, he managed to come up with a new strategy on promoting his ideology and gaining more public support in Germany, most of the help came from his fanatic followers in the Schutzstaffel that aided him under the Second World War. The close cooperation of the SS was important, Hitler couldn't just actively oversee his party's efforts therefore he used the SS to do it for him instead. The outcome was very promising for Hitler, new propaganda was being posted around cities praising the chancellor and the "Aryan" race, he promised a wide range of changes and a swifter victory for the Reich. This sudden change in political demagogy managed to rally up supporters to stand back on Hitler's side. Hitler, once again, had the largest support in the Reich all over again.

47. At the point after the transitional status, the Schutzstaffel become a prominent faction in Venice. The SS actually fought out complete acknowledgment from the population that they are actually controlling the city, therefore the UU has no right over saying anything regarding how the City and its defenses are being organized, with this. They actually become one of the largest and possibly more dominant organization in Venice that had military power in its hand, not considering the Union's Overwatch. Of course, this come at a certain price, ethnicities were harassed, arrested and humiliated, some were just abducted and never returned, rumors were spreading that the SS is using cremators to kill people, these were little vans that had a burning chamber inside. The population was slightly afraid, but they were convinced that the Union would actually protect them from the means of harm that the SS could mean for them.

48. After half a year of aggressive Schutzstaffel governance and continuous oppression, the Union decided to put an end to their operations and vacate their forces out of the premises of Venice. But if they got rid of them, who was going to replace them? There came in the idea of having their own “police” force that was capable of handling the exact same situations as the Schutzstaffel, but with a more “civilized” logical side. The problem with the SS was currently Hitler, not the man himself, but his influence, most of the SS officers and commanders were still influenced by him and this caused a massive stir in the internal structure of the faction that renders its forces ignorant towards the orders that were given before the deployment into Venice. The Schutzstaffel in the past six months were abusing the system, influencing newly settled residents with their own propaganda, abusing and humiliating foreigners and rendering trade and commercial businesses ineffective with their sabotage. It was not a big secret that the SS wanted to take complete control over Venice and force the Union out, and this is what concerned the Union the most. Having a somewhat “allied” force around that you requested to defend you, but instead of the expected outcome was the complete reverse or side effect of it appears on the surface then you know you did something really bad there, and you must do something about it, and that is what the Union did. The solution to this was very simple, they had to create their own “socio-stabilization” specified police division that maintains security of Metropolitan One and is made entirely out of Humans, but there was a problem... Venice didn’t reside much residents whom had skills in “policing”, and because of this they had to train their own people. These events lead to the pursuit of establishing the Union Metroplex Authority in Metropolitan One that will aid the Union in removing the SS.

49. Venice's society is mixed, foreign nationals, multiculturalism and religion is all over Venice. It is inevitable that there are certain groups of people that will attempt to discriminate certain ethnicities. There are tensions, yes, there will always be tensions. Someone will always have different views then the others, no one can be perfect, and you can't just force everyone to live together in peace. Venice overall is modest and accommodates a wide range and mix of people of race, religion and ethnicity. Never the less, it is still crawling with Germans and heaps foreigners who we know nothing about. It is still very difficult for certain people to accept the massive amount of Jewish believers in the city, and this creates further anti-semitism that shows its self on a daily basis in the life of the city.

50. The Universal Union started its own little biological experimentation program on its own people, of course all of this behind the scenes, without the knowledge of anyone, random disappearances were noticed, some people were dragged away from their homes with force, foreigners or native people, they were randomly chosen and they vanished forever. Behind the curtains, the Universal Union was fine-tuning its biotronic engineering towards augmentations with humans, further sophisticating their technology to manipulate the human body and create super soldiers out of normal everyday people. It was not really ethical that they were doing this, but what can we expect from an alien superpower? Special Schutzstaffel units were created, augmented, fully robotic, command abiding half non-humans, same as on with the Overwatch Soldiers. Sometimes, it wasn't just about turning them into soldiers, or war fighters, fate had the most terrible solution for them... Stalkerification.

51. In the following year in 1951, corporations started to hard exploit the built up financial structure of Venice, seeking fortune in trading with illegal goods by smuggling them over “jumper” countries, the accommodation price of certain luxurious products skyrocketed since the Xenian invasion back in 1944, and since then it was a hard job to keep track on trade with the Middle East and Asia. It wasn’t just corporations that dealt with illegal businesses, but black market organizations were working too on gaining profits out of this most undesirable situation that was happening currently on Earth, it didn’t matter what the product was the only that mattered was to gain profit, even if it cost human lives. But of course, it wasn’t just about illegal goods, everything else was traded, like such inventory as: precious materials, resources, food, luxury items, mechanical parts, automated equipment or machinery, armament, jewelry, hallucinogenic drugs and humans. Later on these so called “stimulants” quickly become a key element in war fighting, just like as legally acquirable substances like painkillers or steroids, these had their own little “miracles”, for first these drugs were “abused” by soldiers out on the front lines, and later it broke into the consumer sector debuting as recreational inventory. These items at start weren’t confiscated by any authorities, not at all, it was easily spread between sellers and market dealers, even pharmacies legally were able to acquire these substances not knowing the dangerous long term side effects of them. Some of these drugs had very long lasting positive effects than negative effects, because of this these items become quickly favored by the everyday folks out there living in Venice, for easing the pain, the depression or possibly the misery. It wasn’t just the drugs that started to spread, counterfeiting was at large, replicated inventory, equipment and even money hit the market that started to anger the Combine.

1951, Venezia

This part is empty, because this is where your story comes in place, your story, your beginning. The place where you going to start your new life, whatever may be your character’s goals or desires, for whatever reason they came here into Venice,
Only you can determine what lies ahead.

Be it good or bad, it is not up to us to decide, you will walk your own path, and determine how the events of life will change the tide of the story onto your side.

Dare to be bold, because destiny awaits you!

Created By:
Soret

Grammatical corrections by (done under supervision):
MaCKaN, Boilrig, Dicidius, Felix

A big thanks for my friends and these people for helping:
Stevo_1066, Eatdamuffin, 3limn8r, MaCKaN, Norzone, Communist, Mr. Jocken, deejay, (A secret donor), Afromana, Sir_Setzer, AlexX, Felix, Titan, Ves, Scorpia11, Optimus Christ, Wookie, ****facemcgee(**Blls), Harry, JosephNader, Dicidius, Suicide Bomber, D-Lo(Chris Carter), CaptainCookie, Sam, Griggs, Arctic, Krisrules, Uragan, Rawd, Boilrig

Very Special Thanks To:
Stevo_1066 - for helping me get started and giving me the initial idea of mixing history with fiction and that I should create Projekt Kaskade.

Ean Holt - for creating the best graphical presentation and setting up the main art theme for the community. I haven’t heard from you in a while Ean, please try contacting me again!

Arctic - who convinced me that the continent America and Nikola Tesla shouldn’t be integral part of my story.

Eatdamuffin - for showing me, how important Projekt Kaskade is.

If you feel your name was left out by accident, please contact me on steam.

All rights reserved for Projekt Kaskade.
Copyright for the Alternative World War Two Concept/Idea for Sörét.
Copyright for Half-Life© 2 and the Combine Claw, Valve Corporation.

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If interested in donating and forwarding the project, please donate to the following addresses here, if paranoid about the codes message me on steam.

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Projekt Kaskade is not affiliated, associated with or endorsed by Valve Corporation, Google Inc., Evernote, vBulletin, Microsoft Corporation or Taco n’ Banana by any means.

The creator of this fictional story does not condone the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany and their Allies during World War II, the creative story does not represent the political, social and historical views of the author and it is neither a statement that falsifies reality that claims that the Holocaust and the collective extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, the mentally ill or impaired did not happen.

2017.12.24. Projekt Kaskade Steemit Edition