Alyx: Oh, man, Russ! Don’t jinx me!
Alyx hears a fight between antlions and Combine soldiers above her as she proceeds up through a large ventilation shaft. She finds a crane that manages wooden barriers and a large metal pipe, maneuvering them to clear her way, and climbs up to the surface. The antlions are gone, so she must fight through the Combine soldiers to enter the tower that is projecting the force field. She fights her way up the tower, eventually reaching the controls. She attempts to extend the bridge to the vault, but instead deactivates the beam holding it up, causing it to crash into the city.
She awakens after the crash and climbs down into the wreckage, trying to find a way in. She finds some Combine soldiers near an apparently-dead Strider and an elevator back up. Russell says the Strider is clearly dead, causing Alyx to complain that he's jinxed her. And sure enough, after Alyx reactivates the elevator, the Strider awakens, shooting at her as she again chides Russell for jinxing her. She rides the elevator up and flees through the shattered wreckage of buildings, intermittently fighting off Combine soldiers and running from the Strider. She finds a stationary, shielded grenade launcher and uses it to destroy the Strider.
An opening appears in the Vault, above her, and a green tractor beam from it floats debris upward. Alyx steps into the beam; all her weapons and equipment are taken away from her as she enters the Vault. Just before she enters, her father apparently discovers what is in the Vault, and tries to warn her off, but Alyx loses contact with them, and it's too late to turn back.
This Chapter contains examples of:
- Genre Savvy: Russell says the Strider is dead; Alyx says that he's obviously jinxed her. When it awakens, he readily agrees.
- Grenade Launcher: A large one on the back of a crashed Combine vehicle is the weapon Alyx can use to take out the Strider.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Alyx thinks she's killed Gordon Freeman when the Vault drops to the ground.
- Oh, Crap!: Eli, just as Alyx is going into the vault, as he discovers who's really inside.
- Tempting Fate: Lampshaded. Alyx sees the "dead" strider, causing Russell to comment how terrible it would be if it were alive. Alyx calls it a textbook jinxing when it wakes up.
- Time-Limit Boss: If you don't kill the Strider fast enough, it fires its gauss cannon, which kills Alyx.
- Tractor Beam: Two of them.
- The one holding up the Vault, which Alyx accidentally turns off.
- At the end, a green one from the bottom of the Vault, which draws Alyx in.
- Tripod Terror: The Strider. Gigantic tripod alien with a rapid-fire gun, invulnerable to everything Alyx can carry.
