 The story features characters with names similar to "Half-Life" characters, such as "Gertie Fremont" for Gordon Freeman.Substituting the characters with their "Half-Life" counterparts, the story sees Freeman and his allies travel to the Arctic to board the "Borealis," a ship that travels erratically through time and space, where they "confront myriad versions" of themselves.They rig the ship to travel to the heart of the Combine empire and self-destruct, but the explosion is not sufficient to destroy the Combine's Dyson Sphere.