Russell: Well, it is spores from another dimension. So, probably...extremely. But, a rare opportunity to examine alien flora up close!
Alyx enters the Northern Star Hotel, which is infested with Xen wildlife of all kinds. A new creature, which Alyx dubs a 'lightning dog', shorts out the power to the elevator, forcing her to rewire it. She climbs up through the building, running into more lightning dogs and bloaters (an explosive growth on the walls) amid the usual barnacles, headcrabs, and zombies. Alyx is forced to turn off the power to get through a Combine force field. In the basement, Alyx finds a Combine submachinegun (seemingly an early precursor to the Pulse Rifle of Half-Life 2), which helps as she has to fight her way back in the darkness through a large number of poison headcrabs. Once she reached the power substation, she destroys its connection to the Vault, liberating the Vortigaunt within, who had been used as the power source.
The Vortigaunt thanks her, and says that he and more of his kind will liberate the rest of the Vortigaunts held at the other substations, while Alyx should continue on towards the Vault itself. Returning to the courtyard in front of the hotel, Alyx is attacked by a large squad of Combine soldiers as she proceeds forward. In the nearby apartment buildings, Alyx encounters her first tripmines, finding that she can disarm them with her multi-tool or shoot them to force them to explode. Combine soldiers in the apartment building attempt to trick her into coming into the open, turning off their voice scramblers and calling to her by name while pretending to be fellow Resistance members. As Alyx exits the apartment building, Eli contacts her over the radio, having made it back to Russell's lab safely.
This Chapter contains examples of:
- Alien Kudzu: The Xen mold is much stronger in this area, leading to questions about whether Alyx should be breathing in the spores at all.
- Blackout Basement: Alyx needs to turn off the power through the building to get through a force field, making her go through several darkened floors filled with poison headcrabs.
- Blatant Item Placement: The submachine gun is placed on a large box that blocks the doorway to the power switch.
- Festering Fungus: See Alien Kudzu, above.
- Hell Hotel: The Northern Star is thoroughly invaded by Xen monsters of all sorts. Many of its staircases are broken, and the elevators are mostly nonfunctional, requiring Alyx to work her way to the top the hard way.
