Chapter 5: The Monologue, part 3

Cave Johnson's 1970's office: Your typical CEO office. "Caroline, I found this book entitled 'A Condensed History of the Combine' on my desk yesterday and opened it to a random section on my lunch break. Fascinating science fiction if you ask me. Says this alien race formerly known as the Xurt used to fight wars among themselves until a council of advisors suggested that they combine their clans and focus their conquests on other planets. The author claims to be one of those advisors; says that he advocated for peace instead but was banished to the planet Xen."

"I don't believe that this is actually real for the following simple reason: If the Combine existed, we would have either found out about them or been conquered by them by now. Therefore, I think this is a work of fiction that someone in our company is trying to promote; perhaps it is a relative or a friend's book that he or she tweaked to make it seem more realistic to me. Well, that's it for my lunch break, got to get back to science…"

Gordon headed back up the elevator. The G-Man was waiting for him at the same spot as before.

"In the 60's, I worked as an undercover agent for the CIA. One of my assignments was to investigate the disappearance of astronauts at Aperture. I was the "scientist" who transposed the values in Chamber #5. Before I was killed by the mystery creature, I was transported into the vortessential dimension by my current employer, who was the advisor exiled to Xen. He had discovered the power of Xen crystals and used them to stay in the vortessential dimension. He saw my usefulness to him in his cause and decided to employ me. In exchange for Xen crystals and Antlion extract, I would aid him in recruiting creatures across time and space who could thwart the Combine's plans."