Chapter 3: DUTY CALLS

Chapter 3 - "DUTY CALLS" (part 2) - Sluggo The second half of this chapter is set down in the sewage canals of Black Mesa. Your path to escape is blocked by a waste crushing system, but if you take some time, you can find your way around -- or through -- it. Finding The Canal As you continue, a few Vortigaunts will spawn in. Kill them and find the ladder marked B-03 in the back of the area. At the bottom of the ladder, you'll find a room with a small opening in the far right corner, leading to the anterior drainage canal. A catwalk overlooking the drainage canal heads both left and right. You've got a lot of work to do here, but to start, go right and enter through the door. Canal Right Jump to the ladder and climb up to the catwalk, where you'll find a valve release wheel. Turn the wheel. Note that throughout this section, the sewage is just as safe (or dangerous, I guess) as water, so don't be paranoid about falling in -- there's usually a ladder leading out of each section. As you continue, you'll find steam blocking your way. Go down the ladder and you'll find another valve. Turn it. (ever notice how many "valves" and "gears" appear in Half-Life add-ons? ;) Before coming back up, continue to the end of the lower pathway. You'll find a dead scientist, a shotgun, and a sign pointing upward to a ladder and an exit, but the ladder is out of your reach. Take the shotgun and go back up -- the steam should be stopped. Continue past the formerly broken steam pipe and you'll arrive at a control room. Flip the switch (the light should turn green) and look out the window. Watch as a ramp lowers across the way, bringing a box marked EXPLOSIVE -- and a few Vortigaunts -- with it. You can shoot the aliens from afar, but you won't be able to blow up the box, which is just as well -- you'll need it later. Head back the way you came and backtrack to the anterior drainage room where you started. Canal Left Now take the path to the left of the main catwalk. Climb the ladder and you'll be overlooking a large sewage room, with an instrument panel on the far side. Jump down into the sewage. The third grate is open -- swim through and find yet another valve, this one marked FLOW CONTROL. Turning it will raise the sewage level, and allow you to climb out via the barrels and exit through the far door. Go through the door and kill the Vortigaunts that appear. As you start to walk out across the catwalk, another Vortigaunt will spawn in midair, crashing through the catwalk and taking out a huge section of it. Jump down to the large pipe on the left and then down further to the next walkway. As you continue, you'll see a fellow security guard struggling with two zombie-like creatures before meeting an untimely end. Work your way around, kill the zombies and move on. Move into the flooded area and kill the bullsquid you find there. When you go left, you'll eventually find some shotgun shells and an elevator lift. At the other end of that tunnel is a generator switch. Flip that switch and return to the elevator lift. You'll arrive to find the slanted lift area you were overlooking a few minutes ago with the explosive box. You couldn't blow up the box from afar...but you can push it into the canal... The explosive box will eventually reach the waste crushing area, blowing up the large gear on the left and making the area safe to travel through. Drop down into the sewage and swim through. You'll now be above the area where you got your shotgun -- simply grab the ladder and climb up. As you climb up, note the group at the top of the grating. It appears the military has arrived...and they don't seem to have much love for facility security... Next: Chapter 4: Captive Freight