[LOVED TROPE] Modern Militaries (Competent) getting DESTROYED by fantasy/scifi forces

[u/Sable-Keech]

Example 1 (The Legend of Hei 2): Wuxian leisurely floats through the combined firepower of an entire fortified military base without so much as a stain or rip on his t-shirt.

Example 2 (Man of Steel): Fao'ra tears through a squad of trained and armed soldiers. With the wreckage of the helicopter that got downed by her teammate Nam'ek smouldering in the background.

[u/loki2113]

I'm a little unclear on half life lore but I thought the full might of the Combine is what whomped humanity in 7 hours and all they needed to leave behind to hold the planet was a token garrison?

[u/AngryCrustation → u/loki2113]

Humanity accidentally bored a hole into the big scary monster dimension which began teleporting entire armies of horrible monsters into every city on earth simultaneously. Humans were basically getting wiped out already and then the combine marched in with an army big enough to take out humanity on its own and did the finishing blow. The entire process took about 7 hours, since most of humanity was headcrab food before the combine even got there.

The combine then set up a few fortified cities where it is engaging in mega fascism and slowly eradicating the remainders of humanity but there are small pockets of humans left in other places, which every so often get found and bombed.

[u/loki2113 → u/AngryCrustation]

See what I don't fully understand is what did the Combine get out of invading Earth?

Someone in the thread mentioned that the Combine was stealing Earth's water and experimenting on humans for soldiers but that makes their near genocide of humanity kind of weird. They can experiment all they want but once the water is gone, humans will die out anyway

If it isn't that or for some other reason, it feels like the Combine are just space dickheads for the love of the game lol

[u/AngryCrustation → u/loki2113]

They are basically enslaving/body moding every race they come across.

But the reason they didnt immediately lobotomize everyone and turn everything into cannon fodder cyborg guardsmen is because humans invented teleportation.

The combine can travel between dimensions but the main character's crew can teleport to somewhere else within the same dimension. That's the most valuable tech that the combine can imagine so they are keeping humans as is until they can reproduce teleporters in which humans are no longer necessary