It did not start as a war. Before the invasion, before the chaos, before anyone was building colonies on Xen, there was a team. Scientists at Black Mesa stumbled onto teleportation technology and discovered the alien world of Xen on the other side. The Xen Exploration Team — XET — was formed to study it, and for a while the work went well. Then the team grew overconfident and pushed too close to the alien border. When the invasion came, the XET members were killed in the chaos. Bill Freeman, a former XET member who survived and became a Xen colonist, lived to tell the story. This is his account.