Tigris

Tigris in her mechanical exo-suit, which was vero.

Tigris 'Meatripper' Africorius IX 3009 was a Combine-manufactured cyborg war machine, partially deceased Englishman, and war hero of the Massacre of the Congo River Basin.

Origin

In 170 BB, in the midst of the bloody First Great META War, a group of Combine Overwatch land troops were engaged in a fierce skirmish against a battalion of human forces in a small cape on the southern tip of Africa. The Captain of these vessels was ill-prepared for war; Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy, to be precise. He and his men had nearly returned from a grueling circumnavigation of Earth 2; the men were wary and, in many cases, dead.

The Combine Overwatch gained the upperhand against Captain Cook when a Combine Gunship exploded out from the sand, eviscerating the tired and battered navy and killing most of the remaining soldiers. In fact, the hard tack was even destroyed.

Captain Cook was taken captive and his remaining troops fashioned into the hideous monsters known as Stalkers; but Captain Cook was spared this fate. Something far worse was to happen to him.

Bioweapon

The Combine NCRI science team had recently began studying the various fauna and flora of Africa's rainforests and prairies; ferocious beasts like Elephants and Lions, they wagered, would make formidable bioweapons against the humans. but in order to ensure humans were truly unable to fend against these beasts, the Combine had conducted tests. These tests involved dropping dozens of starving, carnivorous mammals, including prairie dogs, Hippopotomi, Lions, Bears, and, of course, Tigers, onto various human settlements. The Combine discovered, much to their pleasure, that the humans were practically defenseless against these animals when unarmed.

This data was delivered to the science team's Lieutenant director, a microscopic individual by the name of Zevelyn Bacterium. Bacterium observed the massacre and brutal killings of innocent human populations, but noticed one glaring flaw in the Combine's plan.

"The humans always protect their leaders. Their gross system of wage slavery makes them bend to their masters; makes them worship them as idols. These animals do not understand such complexities; they hunt indiscriminantly; they see only the product before them and not the arbitrary social divide contrived by the brainrotten humans. They protect their rulers and masters to their dying breath; all the while, the masters get away, and sacrifice their subjugated over, and over, and over again. We must train these animals to hunt for the pigs at the top of the food chain; to cut the snake's head off before it begins to spread."

And so, Combine scientists immediately began work modifying a Tiger specimen, born and bred in captivity. They codenamed it 'Project Tigris', and the female tiger was pumped full of human and mosquito blood, for some unknown reason. Captain Cook was euthanized and his stem cells were implanted in Tigris' brain, granting her a conscience. She immediately saw herself and screamed. But the horrors were not over yet.

Tigris was affixed with a permanent, durasteel exoskeleton, the likes of which the highest-ranking Combine officers wore. She was made to stand upright, although her animal limbs tore and stretched unnaturally in this form. She was in constant agony; and never slept. But she would fulfill her purpose. Her first mission was assigned; 'cleanse' the Congo River Basin of humans.

The Massacre in the Congo

Late one night, the Combine launched a stunning offensive against the innocent native peoples of the Congo. Vast swaths of Overwatch Soldiers were deployed into the region with high-tech weapons and armor. Tigris led the charge, pumped up on painkillers and with a plasma gun implanted into her right hand. She told her men her gun was jammed and didn't attack any of the humans. The Combine, ignoring this, ambushed a peaceful village of forest dwellers, expecting an easy victory. And for a while, they succeeded. Humans were mercilessly gunned down and room was made for a new Combine Stalker Labor Facility. Those humans who survived the slaughter were intended to become 'employed' at said facility, as was Combine Custom.

But halfway through the battle, Tigris dissapeared. The higher-ranking Combine Officers noticed this, and did their best to pick up the slack; but found themselves soon being picked off one by one in the dark village. They huddled together, holding their weapons out in front of them, but panicked as an ethereal blue glow appeared overhead. The tree cover was... dissapearing?

Gorilla Warfare

The first soldier never saw the 60-foot branch coming as it impaled his chest. Niether did the others. Tigris returned triumphantly, wielding a modified Combine Manhack as a sword, with an army of the forest's Gorillas at her side.

"kys!" Tigris called, and the gorillas began to mercillesly tear apart the combine troops, smashing them into pulps. When the sun rose overhead, the Combine army was deceased, reduced to a mess of bloody, blackened bits and pieces. Tigris and the Gorillas stood triumphantly over the town, helping the remaining civilians to their feet and doing their best to de-stalkerify those who had been afflicted.

Tigris and the Gorrilas raided the Combine's munitions, and discovered a high-tech Gigashield, intended for protection of their Stalker Facility. But Tigris knew a better use for it.

She stepped to the center of the village, knee-deep in mud, and placed the shield terminal in the center of the river. It was low on battery; but she had an idea.

She inhaled, took one last look at the forest, and jammed her cyborg arm into the side of the terminal. A brilliant blast exploded out of it; splashing water out in every direction and kicking up a dusty mist. When it settled, Tigris was gone, and all that remained was her Exoskeleton, permanently affixed to the side of the terminal, powering an impenetrable shield over the Congo River Basin. This created a microcosmic Ecosystem; one which would endure until the end of the Earth, thriving and luscious, with all the food one could ever need or want inside of it. Many tried to penetrate it, both from inside and out, but found the shield utterly and completely unbreakable. In fact, even after Earth's destruction, it endured, a bluish spherical forcefield floating through space with a forested chunk of land in the center of it. This place became known as 'Tigoria', and was a utopia in its own right, and Tigris was finally at peace, becoming the Spirit Protector of this land.