About
Barney Calhoun, an undecided two-year major from Martinson College, was employed as a mid-level security officer at the Black Mesa Research Facility, with Level 3 security clearance. He was friends with Gordon Freeman and Isaac Kleiner, who were also employees of Black Mesa, as long with other security guards.During the Black Mesa Incident, Barney managed to escape the facility and head underground until many years later; after the Portal Storms, the Seven Hour War and the subsequent Combine take over, Barney became a Resistance leader and worked undercover as a Civil Protection officer to gain information on the Combine. He later lead several of the pushes during the City 17 uprising, teaming up with Gordon Freeman for the final push on the Citadel.
On one memorable occasion, Barney was assisting with Kleiner's teleport experiments where Kleiner attempted to transport a cat as a test experiment and something traumatizing happened to it. Barney claims to have persistent nightmares about the cat and even mistakes a distant Strider roar as a meow late in Half-Life 2.
At the beginning of Blue Shift, the player may notice strange material in Barney's locker: books titled The Truth About Aliens and Government Conspiracies that show that Barney may be paranoid, or at least something of a conspiracy theorist. This could also be foreshadowing, since the game centers on aliens and government conspiracies. Also seen in Calhoun's locker is a picture of a young woman, which suggests, along with the fact that the Blue Shift manual says "Buy flowers for Lauren," that Calhoun had, before the Combine takeover, a wife or girlfriend.
During the rebellion in City 17, Barney came to be the impromptu "field commander" of the Resistance forces and led the push towards the Citadel in order to rescue Eli Vance. He was pinned down by snipers when he met up with Gordon again and together they led a team of citizens into the Overwatch Nexus to disable the Suppression Device. Barney used his Civil Protection status to unlock several barriers Gordon would normally not be able to pass. After Gordon set off towards the Citadel again, Barney continued to oversee the later stages of the assault on the Overwatch Nexus. Until encountering Dog and following him to Gordon's location. Barney was last seen at the foot of the Citadel telling Gordon that "if you see Doctor Breen, tell him I said "Fu-- you"!
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*he stares for a moment, briefly wondering about what he'd said before. Perhaps just a new recruit...*
...Carry on.
RRRRAAAAAGGHHH!
>__>
*DOES NOT APPRECIATE ANYBODY TRYING TO PULL HIS SPARKLING'S HEAD APART.*