Good news, I got the garden gnome to White Forest! It was a long and difficult trek, and I got catapulted off the map numerous times, but I made it.

But with that taken care of, we can get back to Black Mesa, with the chapter,

"But we just missed the last flight out of here."

(Mortar above ground)

"I sure hope you brought some backup, poindexter, 'cuz we're gonna need it."

Forget About Freeman!

This chapter is pretty short compared to its surrounding chapters (I mean, I was able to get it all into one part, as opposed to "Surface Tension"'s six parts), but it serves a very important purpose- this, as the above radio transmission indicates, is where the marines really start to get beaten. Every instance where you come across marines and aliens in the same area, the marines lose. This is where they decide "alright, it's time to pull out and blow the whole thing up, losses be damned."

It's when they decide to nuke the place.

They don't do that for a while yet, of course, but they're pulling out now. They're retreating, and "anyone left down there now is on his own-" they're abandoning their own men. They can't even save their own men.

But that's none of Gordon's concern, not now. He's got to get to the Lambda Labs.

Very quickly here, we come across these pod things hanging from the ceiling, and, well, I think our new security guard buddy sums it up rather eloquently:

Nicely put.

They're snark nests, in case you were wondering. Touch it, and a bunch of snarks pop out to try to eat you. I find the best way to deal with them is tossing a satchel charge between them and you, then backing up and shooting the nest to get them to come out, then triggering the charge when they get close. It should take most of them out with relative ease.

You'll also come to a crossroads, and if you take the lefthand path, it dead ends. There are supplies down there, of course, but you have to fight a few bee-shooting alien grunts to get them, and they can catch you by surprise, so I don't know, might not be worth it to you. I really just like going down there for the extra dialogue:

There's also, up on a ledge where that bounce pad launches you, this dead marine:

And I went back and reloaded my save and came here again just to see if he spawned in and coincidentally landed like that, or if that was actually just the way he was, and he's just like that, apparently. Personally, I find death poses like this ridiculous.

But going to the right instead of the left, and hey!

Another Lambda Complex door! Gettin' close now!

But it's closed, so we gotta find another way in, through a sewer drain pipe, and...

"But thanks anyway."

This is really just because you're afraid of ladders isn't it?

Once you're at the bottom of the ladder, though, you can hear him mutter,

No, you can't have it. I need my crowbar. It's, like, my trademark weapon, the symbol of my strength, or something like that. I can't just go giving it away!

You gotta wonder why he wanted it, though. He had a gun, so it wasn't as if he wasn't armed, and besides, if I weren't armed and I were him, I'd ask for one of Gordon's many guns, not the crowbar. Maybe he wanted to try to pry open a door or something somewhere?

But oh well, he's not getting it now, either way. Gordon is stuck down in the sewers and he's taking his crowbar with him.

AUGH SHARK IN THE SEWERS SHARK IN THE SEWERS

This guy always catches me by surprise. The water is really murky, so you can never see him until he's almost in your face!

He's in a pretty small pool, though, so it's not difficult to hightail it to the other side of you don't want to deal with him. There are, however, some batteries in the pool with him, so if you can take care of him and your suit is in need of a bit of charge, there's that.

Ah, yes, your classic "needlessly huge cog turning for no apparent reason that will crush you between the wall and its teeth if you're not fast enough" section. Seriously, it's turning perpendicular to the water flow! What's its purpose in being here!

Also, that guard talking about swimming through leeches here was a reference to the original game. This was the second of the two locations in which those annoying little leech worms I was talking about back in "Power Up" were swimming around, and it made getting through the giant, pointless gear really difficult, because you'd get stuck on one of them while under the cog and get pushed into the wall.

But coming up on the other side of the sewers,

HEY, YOU GUYS WERE SUPPOSED TO FORGET ABOUT ME

(You also get to see a neat little bit of the visual distortion you get on taking damage. I've been meaning to point this out for a while, but I could never time the screenshots right. And then I got one by total accident!)

Really, though, the marines were just told to forget about Freeman, and that anyone still in the facility was on his own, now. So why are they still attacking him? You'd think they'd be more preoccupied with trying to get out of the facility. Heck, seems like we almost have a common interest, making it out of this alive, so why don't we work together?

But no,

They even pull out another tank to try to kill Gordon.

This entire fight also takes place outdoors (obviously) and I'd like to point out two things about that. One, look at how amazing the sky looks!

And two, during this entire time, there are jets and alien manta rays flying around in the sky above you, presumably fighting it out. I tried to get some screenshots of them, but it was hard, just because of how fast they were going lol

These are the best ones I could get. And I honestly think that this is such a neat detail, because again, it reminds you that there's so much more going on than just what you see.

Back indoors, one of the first things we come across is,

A couple of marines just getting wrecked by a handful of snarks. How come they don't do that much damage when I throw them?

And going through another Lambda-marked door,

A big lovely toxic waste spill! What a great introduction to the Lambda Complex.

You also find another marines vs. aliens battle, and for once the tank isn't pointed at Gordon! The aliens will even take it out for you, too.

See that turret, there? Well, if I remember correctly, in Half-Life, that was actually an alien turret, not an HECU turret, and it was the only one you ever saw- they didn't even reappear in Xen. Which I guess makes sense then why it was cut in Black Mesa.

But just a little farther down the hall, and

Here we are, an elevator into the Lambda Complex, at last!

And that's it for "Forget About Freeman!"

Next up, the final earthbound chapter- and current final chapter of the game, until the Xen chapters are out- "Lambda Core!"