been thinking about the aliens again
+ some bonus rambling about them for those who care
links to their refs/some background: [bex] [zee]
The two of them primarily reside in the coastal vort base south of nova prospect, but are known to travel as far as the mines for antlion research purposes.Â
Bex ended up there after they were freed from the combine in city 17, with wishes of establishing a population of domesticated Antlions; where do you go when you have an all encompassing homesickness for your little farm on another planet in another dimension? Where the Antlions are!Â
They’ve been hard at work and have a small herd of docile Antlions to show for it– however, they have yet to get them to present hiving behavior meaning domestication isn’t complete yet. Over the years, they have taken in other critters: Ry the headcrab, Luume the Reviver, and Garth the Bullsquid. Bex found Ry while researching in the mines and the Headcrab wouldn’t leave them alone, but showed no signs of aggression; while not de-beaked, she doesn’t do anything but sleep. Luume on the other hand was discovered after a handful of cases involving missing food around base popped up– leading to an investigation (they thought it was a rogue antlion calf) which revealed the perpetrator to be a Reviver (an extremely rare critter in rural areas like theirs). Garth just kinda showed up one day; although he proved himself to be quite useful by helping Bex round up a few escaped Antlions.
With all that aside, they enjoy what they have on earth but it doesn’t completely fix the crippling sorrow of being ripped from their home all those years ago when the Nihilanth showed up. Unfortunately with all the portals to the borderworld sealed, connection to their homeworld was severed; they know the only way back is through Xen, but with that impossible, they’ve since given up dreams of home. The only good thing on Xen was the Vortessence could still tether them to home, but with that gone, their memories have started to blur and fade.
The icing on the cake is that during their rescue from the combine in C17, they sustained an injury weakening their Vortal Cords, and therefore their connection to the other Vorts– the last thing left of their home. This final straw turned them into the antlion obsessed hermit they are now– finding comfort in their critters and growing herd.
Now to Zee. Who in someway or another ended up at the Vort camp. After the rescas, the Race-X forces had no reason to stay on Earth– they had what they came for (human samples for “research” purposes). Race-X acted as opportunists, not an actual faction in the battle. Having been injured after a run-in with a member of the HECU, Zee was unable to leave with the rest of its fellow soldiers. It was left to die on alone on Earth. It managed to make it out of Black Mesa– though just barely– and survived on its own for quite some time. Humans were oftentimes scared of Zee, not to mention it has an incredibly hard time communicating (its mandibles don’t allow for human speech). So, Zee thought maybe Vorts would be a better bet. Although it quickly discovers Vortiguese is still quite hard to speak (just not as hard as English, which it still hasn’t learned). Not to mention Vorts and their weird hive-mind shit.Â
When Zee meets Bex however, Zee feels like the two of them are on a similar playing field: Bex being partially separated from their hivemind, and Zee being the only of its species stuck on earth. Zee began subconsciously sticking near Bex, and when Bex realized how hard it was for it to attempt speaking Vort/English, they took up learning Zee’s language. It started as a collection of gestures and eventually morphed into the two of them being able to converse. Even now, when out scavenging or whatever, Zee handles the confrontation and Bex handles the communication.Â
Unlike Bex, Zee didn’t take being alone quite as hard, seeing as shock troopers were soldiers to each other, instead of familial. That's not to say Zee found being completely and utterly alone perfectly okay. It definitely misses the sturdy social structure on their home planet and actually being able to communicate with other living things. The only thing it has left of its old life being its companion shock roach which it was able to hold onto through the insanity of the rescas and Combine.
All things considered though, it doesn’t really feel a longing for its homeworld; once it felt the gene worm was gone, it knew there was no going back for it and it copes with that.
So in attempts for the same militant role, it has taken up the role of Bex’s personal guard– not like they need it but it’s nice.
Besides that, the only thing Zee would really consider itself an outsider to, would be the rebellion movement. Not to say it doesn’t hate the Combine, but since Race-X was completely uninvolved in Xen and the 7 Hour War, it feels weird being among others who have all come together after being directly fucked over by the Combine, and not relating. Despite looking at the lambda and not feeling connected to it, it wears the symbol as a fuck you to the Combine (also to not get shot on sight since its appearance tends to scare people).
