Alyx: Have you heard any Combine chatter about Dad escaping?
Russell: No, nothing. It’s all about sending reinforcements into the Quarantine Zone.
Alyx: On the plus side, that means Dad is still on his way back to you. We’d have heard if they recaptured Eli Vance.
Russell: And, on the down side...
Alyx: Getting to the Vault isn't going to get any easier.
Russell: No, nothing. It’s all about sending reinforcements into the Quarantine Zone.
Alyx: On the plus side, that means Dad is still on his way back to you. We’d have heard if they recaptured Eli Vance.
Russell: And, on the down side...
Alyx: Getting to the Vault isn't going to get any easier.
Alyx ponders the Vortigaunt's words, "look to the the northern star", as she proceeds through tunnels and a subway station, getting her first look at the Vault through an office window. Realizing the Vault is hovering in midair, Alyx and Russell agree that their best chance of infiltrating it is to destroy the power junctions holding it up. Alyx obtains grenades for the first time, and shortly after meets her first Combine Charger, a heavily-armed soldier with a shotgun and a force shield. She exits the subway and sees the first power junction on the roof of the Northern Star Hotel, explaining the Vortigaunt's instruction. The front doors are sealed, but she is able to climb in to the building through a window.
This Chapter contains examples of:
- Blatant Item Placement: The first grenades are found just before a hallway with several hard-to-shoot barnacles, giving the player an opportunity to test them out.
- Comically Missing the Point: Russell tells Alyx he's proud of her, though he still has to point out that if she had actually grabbed Eli's hand, it would have crushed the sensors in the gravity gloves. But it would be both totally understandable and worth it in that case, with another such worthy case being extremely unlikely. Alyx promises to take good care of the gloves.
- New Weapon Target Range: After finding the grenades, the player finds (along with several caches of grenades):
- A hallway with barnacles.
- A railing over a room full of zombies.
- More barnacles.
- A duct that the player must toss a grenade into to open a door.
- An enemy with a shield that will block gunfire.
- Schmuck Bait: There is an optional toner puzzle (adjusting the wires in the walls with Alyx's multitool) that is deliberately designed to teach players not to just blindly activate each junction in order, as doing so will sound an alarm and bring another soldier to investigate. The puzzle's purpose is to encourage observation of what the power lines are connected to.
