Portal Technology

== Portal Technology ==
=== Portal Conduit ===
A Portal Conduit is an event in space-time that can be used as an anchor for teleportation. Portal Conduits come in many forms, but are usually artificial. Some Conduits are two-way, while many are one-way, as dedicated transceivers or receivers.
====Artificial Conduits====
An Artificial Portal Conduit counts as anything that was built for the purpose of being a Teleportation Device, Hub, or Gateway. Not all Artificial Conduits can create portals, but almost all can be used an end-point.
===== Lambda Teleporter =====
The Lambda Dimensional Portal Device was a room-sized teleporter capable of transporting matter from one universe to the next, however, the most it had ever achieved was teleportation to and from the Xen Borderworld.
The Lambda Teleporter was used by Gordon Freeman when he travelled to the Xen Borderworld to defeat the Nihilanth, and to end the invasion of Earth. 
This teleporter was capable of creating two-way portals to and from Xen, this was because the Xen Borderworld was a Portal Conduit of it's own.
===== Lambda Complex =====
The Lambda Complex was full of teleporters, however, these used an earlier method than the advanced Xen Relay. Instead of using the Xen Borderworld as a through-hole slingshot, Black Mesa Research personnel had to manually adjust a ''focal point'' within Xen, this was extremely inefficient as you would have to travel to Xen with the larger Dimensional Portal, and then align the manual relay, each time. 
The focal point works like a mirror in dimensional terms, it avoids the need of a powered third conduit, or a receiver point, known as Point-B. This made the early method quite powerful compared to later platform-based teleporters as it allowed it's operators to choose any location within the given sub-dimensional space, mind, an increased energy output may be required for long-distance jumps.
Of course, the advanced Xen Relay does not require power either, but this method of sub-dimensional teleportation had not been discovered or tested until Dr. Kleiner had perfected it in his hidden, City 17 laboratory.
===== Kleiner's Teleporter =====
Kleiner's Teleporter was a teleportation platform optimized for sub-dimensional travel via the Xen Relay, using the Calabai-Yau model. This teleporter was designed to transport matter to other teleportation platforms, however, after a malfunction in the advanced start-up process, (due to a certain disruptive pet headcrab), the Xen Relay had placed one of it's user's in random different locations in and around City 17, before landing him just outside Kleiner's lab.
=====Combine Portal Generators=====
Combine Portal Generators are powered by Dark Fusion Reactors, usually all contained within Combine Citadels, a common forward-operating-base prefabrication used by the Combine.
======Portal Slingshot======
The Combine were incapable of dedicated sub-dimensional teleportation prior to the first invasion of Earth, unlike the human race, that is, teleporting from point A-to-B within any given universe, however, there was a way of getting around this, if there were multiple portal conduits, i.e. Citadels within a given universe, a slingshot could be set-up for a technical sub-dimensional teleport, but this was incredibly power-intensive, even more intensive than running a routine interdimensional portal between two dimensions, as a third Citadel had to act as a slingshot point, within a nearby parallel universe.
Not only did this third Citadel have to hold a gateway for Point A, but another, for Point B. The reason the Combine did not perform two consecutive portal hops is because of the extensive cooldown after a portal has been generated. If this were the method, it would take a matter of days, instead of a course of hours that you can achieve with the energy-intensive slingshot.
Of course, a sub-dimensional teleport was only possible between already existing portal conduits, this means that the Combine could not, in any way, open a Portal to somewhere that does not have a Conduit.
======Transmission Portal======
Combine Portals came in different sizes, from the most basic were for transmissions, which did not allow the travel of mass, but packets of data for communication. They looked very similar to a regular Portal, however, it was quite tiny in size, only meters in diameter. Sustained use of Transmissions required both a stable Portal Reactor and a Core Reactor within the Citadel.
======Regular Portal======
On the intermediary stage, were regular Combine Portals. This was used by the Combine during the Seven Hour War, and by Breen in his escape attempt from Gordon Freeman, it was not particularly huge and was many times smaller than a Superportal. Moments before the destruction of the Citadel, a Regular portal was torn open to send a Transmission, because the Portal Emitter's dedicated Dark Fusion Reactor had been destroyed, it then utilized the raw, unstable power of the failing main reactor, this may have been the cause for the Dark Energy Flare.
======Superportal======
Superportals required incredible amounts of power to reach maturity, and gave off a distinct blue glow. They looked almost identical to a Dark Energy Portal Storm, with the rotating clouds, however, a visible 'portal' in the middle would emerge, allowing massive matter to pass through the gap.
Superportals were seen briefly during the Seven Hour War, as Combine starships had passed through, it is to say that something as powerful as the Combine Overworld could produce a stable Superportal, hence why it was seen during the conflict, through the portal lens.
The Combine tried opening a Superportal to retaliate against the Resistance, but Dr. Arne Magnusson's rocket had proved successful in neutralizing the storm.
====== Sub-dimensional Teleporter ======
The Combine were incapable of sub-dimensional teleportation until the advancement of Mossman's Depot Teleporter at Nova Prospekt. Moments before the destruction of the City 17 Citadel, the Combine had used the main, failing Dark Fusion Reactor to send out an emergency transmission to the Combine Overworld, this included the blueprints for Mossman's teleporter.Unlike Kleiner's teleporter, Mossman had diverted development towards a different model based on string-based technology, which was slower and less efficient than Kleiner's Calabai-Yau model. This string-based technology incorporates advanced understanding of string-theory, which the Combine use for their Interdimensional Portals.
Mossman had the possibility of perfecting and tuning the string-based model by assisting with the Dark Energy Equations, however, in an effort to slow the Combine down, she skipped on these calculations. The Combine have still not perfected these Dark Energy Equations, but have designed newer models of platform-based teleporters.
There is a risk of a slow teleport, similar to what happened to Gordon and Alyx during their escape from Nova Prospekt. Since the first pivotal invasion of Earth, the future of the Combine was forever changed with their achievement of sub-dimensional teleportation.
===== The Destruction of the City 17 Citadel =====
An unstable Dark Fusion Reactor was capable of producing the basis for a Superportal, as when the Citadel was purposefully destroyed by the Dark Energy Flare, a singularity of almost limitless energy was created at the base of the destroyed Citadel. Ironically, the Reactor that destroyed City 17 was one of the only thing to survive and continue to follow it's function to fuel the growing portal.
If Magnusson's rocket did not neutralize the Dark Energy Portal Storm at the end of the Battle for White Forest, the Combine would have opened a two-way Superportal to Earth, the subsequent full-force of the Combine would've decimated the Resistance in a matter of minutes.
====Natural Conduits====
A Resonance Cascade can happen when an object's set resonance is excited past it's 'resonance threshold'. The Resonance threshold on every day matter is very high, and therefor, it is nearly impossible to cause a Resonance Cascade.
=====The Black Mesa Incident=====
Crystal sample 'GG-3883' was planted in place for testing, the unstable crystal had a rather low resonance threshold, compared to other samples. The Anti-Mass Spectrometer was almost running at full-power, with this input and the low threshold, it is no wonder sample GG-3883 was a perfect choice for the G-Man.
The Resonance Cascade was a Portal Conduit event, for both benefit of the Nihilanth and the Combine. While the Combine had no Citadels within our universe prior to the Seven Hour War, the Resonance Cascade was incredibly sufficient, not only allowing the Combine to detect humanity's planet Earth, but appear above it and within the atmosphere via Combine Portals.
===== The Xen Borderworld =====
The Borderworld of Xen is a Portal Conduit within itself, this is how the Resistance were able to achieve sub-dimensional teleportation via a slingshot, called the xen relay.
Xen exists somewhere as an oasis within the Void (the space between parallel universes.) It's entire mass acts as a strong Portal Conduit, both the air, the ground and surrounding vacuum are an intense ground for a strong link.
The Nihilanth had mastered portal technology, as he had a deep understanding of his own abilities. After settling down in Xen, the Nihilanth had built quite a few teleporters within the island-space, these teleporters used Xen itself as a slingshot conduit, an extremely effective method of teleportation.
=== Portal Model Diagrams ===
==== Manual Relay Model ====
A Manual Relay Teleporter, such as the early sub-dimensional teleporters at Black Mesa, functioned via the utilization of a Slingshot Realm, this alternate dimension would serve as a location to construct and operate the manual relay, this system is called the Focal Point.
In order to perform a successful Manual Relay Teleport, you must first have a Point A transmitter, or a Start-Point, from the Start-Point, you must then configure the Manual Relay for a set destination, this may require an operator to travel to the focal point to configure the Point B destination. The further the destination is from Point A, the more computationally and energy-intensive the operation will become, this process is a linear falloff and is caused by the portal bridge being stretched, with the need of more energy to keep it open.
==== Calabai-Yau Model (Kleiner Model) ====
The Calabai-Yau Model was a Xen Relay-specific teleportation method for platform-based models which required the use of the Xen Borderworld as a passive, Natural Portal Conduit, this was also called an Active Slingshot Realm, as an active slingshot dimension was capable of acting as the entire Third-Point, this allowed efficient sub-dimensional teleportation. This was the model Kleiner and Eli used to travel in-between each other's laboratories. A reminder that this specific method was not attuned for platform-less teleports, and required a secondary, Point B for an efficient and safe teleport. 
However, in the case of Kleiner's teleporter, it had suffered a malfunction which had caused an episode of platform-less teleportation, similar to the Manual Relay Model, except, instead of a malfunction in the Focal Point, it was a malfunction in the Calabai-Yau tunnels that bridged Point A & Point B via the Xen Relay.
==== The Combine's Quasi-Sub-Dimensional Method ====
The Combine had mainly utilized their Inter-Dimensional Teleporters for their namesake, however, an expensive, quasi-sub-dimensional method had emerged from where Combine Forces could travel between two Citadels, Point A to Point B, via a Third-Point in a neighbouring, Slingshot Realm.
Point A, Point B & Third-Point Citadel would converge their configuration for the expensive operation, where once they were in-sync for the slingshot, the Third-Point would come online and play the intermediary figure within the String-based pipeline of Combine teleportation technology. This was extremely resource-intensive for the Third-Point Citadel as it was having to maintain an opening with two different Point channels, that was, with both Point A & B. This was, of course, the Combine's only method of sub-dimensional teleportation until Mossman's dedicated sub-dimensional design.
Category:Technology