The game starts some time after the Resonance Cascade had gone down at the Black Mesa Research Facility. Adrian Shephard and his fellow HECU comrades are seen in their V-22 Osprey flying towards the Black Mesa landing zone, but their plane is suddenly attacked by an Alien Aircraft; resulting in a crash landing. Shephard manages to survive, but falls in-and-out of consciousness due to injury. He manages to witness several battles going on between his fellow HECU survivors and the aliens of Xen before eventually falling completely unconscious.
This Chapter contains examples of:
- Call-Back: For a brief moment, the V-22 Osprey that Adrian is flying on towards Black Mesa can be seen passing by the cliffside that Gordon traversed in "Surface Tension."
- Downer Beginning: Shephard and his team are shot down, ambushed, and wiped out by the Xen Invaders in a matter of minutes upon making it into Black Mesa airspace, with Shephard himself being the only confirmed survivor.
- Scenic-Tour Level: During Shephard's deployment to Black Mesa, the Osprey he's flying in shows several sections of the Black Mesa desert surrounding the facility, including the one Freeman would later traverse.
