Dr Magnusson stands in the corridor next to one of the many metal hatch-like doors throughout the base waiting for Gordon to
catch up. As he punches in the keypad combination to open it he explains to Gordon, "Freeman, Striders are coming. A single one of those damn things could shoot down our rocket. We don't dare launch until all Striders are destroyed."
He walks through into a corridor running parallel to the adjoining one. The area behind a wire metal gate has been repurposed into storage room and workspace where among the crates and shelves a number of men are tinkering with several oblong metallic objects.
On a white board attached to a wall in the immediate area there is among partially erased markings and a supposedly relevant set of equations has been drawn in a rather simplistic style a plan involving 1) Grabbing the ball object, 2) Aiming it and launching it at 3) a larger stick figure Strider, at which point presumably a gun is involved (It's not a very detailed depiction).
"Now, you've proved yourself capable, and the staff seem to respect you. Therefore..." He walks over to a glass-fronted case displaying one of the objects that, with closer examination, as well as being about the size of a pumpkin is encircled with two rows of short spikes and horizontal blue-lit bars that blink in no particular sequence. "I'm putting defense of White Forest, and this ingenious new weapon of mine, in your hands."