What is the OTA?

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The Overwatch Transhuman Arm is the primary division utilized by the Combine as the general military ground force. Overwatch Soldiers are the basic transhuman infantry units of the Combine Overwatch, composing the backbone of the Combine's military presence on Earth. In contrast to Civil Protection, whose duties are to enforce order within suppressed population centres, the Overwatch soldiers are tasked with more hazardous actions, such as raiding anti-citizen strongholds, hostage situations and necrotic and exogen outbreaks. 

 

​When Overwatch forces are deployed, they prefer to employ assault tactics to take their opponents by surprise and overpower them. In indoor urban environments, a favored tactic is to destroy the doors to a room using the Combine door lock's self destruct function to create a smokescreen of flying wood and splinters, then catch their opponents in a crossfire from all sides before they regain their senses.

 

Standard Overwatch Soldiers, like other soldier variants, wear standard-issue blue and grey camouflage body armor over their mid-sections with heavy kevlar-padding on their arms, thighs, and groin. Several insignias can be found on their arm pads, signifying their position in the Combine regime. Perhaps the most advanced piece of equipment found on Overwatch Soldiers are their helmets, which cover the head entirely and are equipped with air filters and radios.

 

Overwatch Soldiers are equipped with MP7s, shotguns, OICW Rifles or AR2 Pulse Rifles, as well as military grade grenades.

Using these standard-issue weapons, Overwatch Soldiers typically work in squads of five to eight, each squad having at least one soldier armed with a shotgun and another armed with a pulse rifle.