Adrian Shephard

Adrian Shephard is the main protagonist of Half-Life: Opposing Force.
He is one of the hundreds of prepared soldiers sent to the Black Mesa Research Facility to eliminate the Xen invaders and stop the black mesa catasthrope. Shephard, however, is not aware of his mission to silence the personnel, especially a scientist named Gordon Freeman, as part of a classified mission since his squad leader dies before revealing this. Soon Shephard finds himself separated from his unit and ends up fighting solely for his life, aided by fellow Marines scattered around the facility and Black Mesa employees.
==Biography ==
===Opposing Force===
Shephard, 22 years old at the time, was to reach Black Mesa aboard a V-22 Osprey designated Goose 7. With him were other Marines such as Tower and Jackson. When the nearby Osprey, Goose 3, and his are attacked by Alien Aircrafts, it crashes in Black Mesa, killing most of the passengers, including the commander before Goose 7 is briefed on their mission. Shephard finds himself almost unconscious whitnessing the battlefield before fully fainting, after a while wakes up on a room underground where he notices the black mesa staff has helped him and other HECU soldiers recover from the wounds, still unaware of the actual objective he must then make his way through Black Mesa to be evacuated. When he arrives at the extraction point however, the G-Man prevents him from catching the last Osprey shutting the gate, forcing Shephard to leave the facility by other means and going through parts of the facilities not seen in the original Half-Life. Eventually, a greater plot on black mesa is revealed as Shephard opens the way around. the whole squad notices they were sent as a bait by the governments and are now a target from the BLACK OPS which look forward to neutralize everyone, even the HECU. their plan is to detonate the area and it's surroundings with a nuclear device to leave no proofs of what happened in the facility, unfortunately for them Shephard and what's left of the forces manage to stop the bomb and save black mesa. at least until G-MAN reactivates later on. with the black ops plan frustrated Shephard decides to keep advancing and stop the rising threat of the RACE-X INVASORS (Enemies of the xen visitors). Once more decimates hundreds of living beings to reach the source of the problem, a portal where a giant gene worm resides. this colossal entity and the corporal have a fierce final battle where Shephard exits victorious. not long after the confrontation, G-MAN shows up and reveals his true intentions. he intends to erase Shephard from the events of Black Mesa and relocates him to an unknown area. It isn't exact what happened after but Shephard was never thawed from this state unlike Freeman after the 7 hour war events.
Unlike the other Marines, Shephard works with the increasingly distrustful scientists and guards in order to make it out of Black Mesa alive. This is due to the fact that he never received the orders to kill them, as his Osprey was shot down before his commander could inform the squad of their mission. However, he has seen several hints to this. When he first wakes up, the security guard who opens the door for him tells the Corporal that he heard rumors about the marines not being here to rescue them (he probably felt in debt with the staff team for saving his life and might have decided to forget his mission to focus on escaping). Later, a surviving scientist informs him that he isn't sure what is worse to encounter, the military assigned to silence all witnesses or the invading aliens. Later still, Shephard sees a scientist who begs him for mercy. It should be noted that not all scientists were killed on sight, as there is at least one scientist being held prisoner at the site of the evacuation. Shephard and Freeman do cross paths during the game, but at that point Shephard is merely an observer to Gordon's travel to Xen - they never fight against each other at any moment. It should be noted that while Shephard reaches lambda core the same time freeman does and witnesses the later one transportation to Xen, he has the option to follow him through the teleporter before it collapses. However, upon doing so Shephard will find himself teleported several meters away from Gordon, before falling through space. Doing so will produce the message "Evaluation terminated: Subject attempted to create a temporal paradox." and end the game (it actually allows Shephard to enter Freeman's timeline, that is, the original Half-Life, thus the paradox. This also occurs if Adrian attempts to kill Freeman).
The G-Man appears to take an interest in Shephard's movements, even before the Black Mesa Incident occurs: as early as three months prior, Shephard spots him in his training base. At one point, Shephard finds himself trapped in a collapsing room, with toxic waste quickly filling the room; the G-Man observes him until the very last moment, when he opens the locked door to allow him in to safety. However, despite this act of mercy, he directly sabotages Shephard's attempt to leave the doomed facility by closing a hangar door to an HECU evacuation site, thereby preventing any chance to escape. Later, Shephard deactivates the thermonuclear warhead brought in by the Black Ops to destroy Black Mesa, but the G-Man reactivates it. In the end, the G-Man reveals that he has successfully argued for Shephard's life, detaining him in some unknown void. He expresses a degree of respect for Shephard's abilities, even praising him for having abilities to "adapt and survive against all odds" which the G-Man states "rather reminds me of myself."
==Heroic Deeds==
*Deactivated the black ops nuclear bomb, saving hundreds of lives temporally.
*Defeated the race X almost with no help. forcing them back to their world.
==Trivia==
*A planned spin-off Half-Life game titled Half-Life 2: Episode Four (or Return to Ravenholm) would have seen Shephard return as the protagonist. This game was scrapped by Valve in 2006 despite being deep in development. Valve's CEO Gabe Newell has been open to Adrian's return, although no further information has come to light if they intend to reintroduce him to the series.
*Due to Shephard never being reintroduced to an official Half-Life title, several attempts have been made by modders in fan content to continue his story.
Category:Video Game Heroes
Category:Science Fiction Heroes
Category:Male
Category:Military
Category:Fighters
Category:Leaders
Category:Friend of a Villain
Category:Anti-Heroes
Category:Mute
Category:Successful
Category:One-Man Army
Category:Brutes
Category:Extremists
Category:Mysterious
Category:False Antagonist
Category:Genius
Category:Lethal
Category:Inconclusive
Category:Karma Houdini
Category:Chaotic Good
Category:Presumed Deceased
Category:The Hero
Category:Vengeful
Category:Redeemed Villains
Category:Monster Slayers
Category:Rescuers
Category:Determinators
Category:Pawn of the Villain
Category:Merciful
Category:War Heroes