Black Mesa Research Facility



The Black Mesa Research Facility is the headquarters of the company Black Mesa and the primary setting for Half-Life and its three expansions, Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay. The base is a decommissioned ICBM launch silo in the New Mexico desert that has been turned into a scientific research complex.

Research and facilities
The Black Mesa facility is built over several decommissioned missile silo complexes constructed during the 1950s, which have been converted into a vast civilian institute for the research of every conceivable scientific discipline. Black Mesa undertakes its various scientific researches in the facility. The facility also serves as a base for decommissioning nuclear weapons.

The opening sequences of Half-Life and its expansions (Blue Shift and Opposing Force) reveal much about the facility. Apart from hinting at the enormous size of Black Mesa, it is revealed that the facility is very high-security, as each employee is required to undergo a series of rigorous security checks as they travel around the complex. Black Mesa is dominated by a bewildering number of laboratories, test areas, and administration offices. These, along with cavernous storage facilities, take up most of the underground areas of the complex. Despite being located in the middle of a desert, the underground and indoor sectors of Black Mesa are maintained at 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) at all times, enabled by Black Mesa's sprawling network of ventilation ducts.



As employees are required to live in the complex itself, Black Mesa contains many personnel facilities, including laundromats, recreation and sports areas such as lounges, basketball courts, swimming pools, a video rental outlet (as seen in Blue Shift), fast food outlets, food courts, cafeterias, and at least one bar serving alcoholic beverages. The facility is well-populated by vending machines and rest areas for the employees of the facility. As Dr. Eli Vance reveals in Half-Life 2 that his wife and daughter lived in Black Mesa with him, it can be inferred that employees' families reside in the dormitory complexes as well. The complex may also have its own newspaper, The Mesa Times, although this may be an outside publication. The Blue Shift manual reveals further details about the facility. Barney Calhoun's duty rotation is printed in French, suggesting that the facility recruits international personnel. Included in Calhoun's papers are several pages describing bizarre animals, claiming that the facility houses strange specimens from across the globe (they are, in fact, creatures from Xen). A point of interest is that the same pages describe how, in the event of an emergency, security officers are required to co-operate with military personnel from the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, suggesting that Black Mesa has experienced problems with escaped specimens in the past. Possibly to deal with potential escaped specimens, or perhaps as a leftover from the facility's days as a military missile complex, Black Mesa contains many automated machine-gun turrets, which, when activated, will emerge from armored cupolas and fire upon any moving object in their line of sight.



Size
The physical range of the facility is, from an in-game perspective, nothing short of massive, large enough that the surface area is divided into seven lettered sectors and upwards of nine numbered areas. Most of the facility is located underground, where vast concrete-lined caverns and old ICBM silos are linked by a network of electric trams. Black Mesa is apparently self-sufficient, housing its own ventilation, plumbing, sewage, and power generation systems including a hydroelectric dam and multiple types of electrical generators and reactors, some nuclear in design. The facility is filled with all kinds of laboratories and testing areas, most of which contain very high-tech equipment. The complex also features multi-story car parks (complete with Black Mesa four-wheel drive SUVs), arsenals of nuclear and conventional weapons, a local electric rail materials transport network (seen in "Black Mesa Inbound"), laboratories housing the latest equipment for every conceivable high-tech scientific discipline (including a powerful anti-mass spectrometer), and even its own rocket launch site. Black Mesa is kept supplied by a freight rail link to the rest of New Mexico. It can be inferred that the facility is relatively old considering that some areas are described by in-game characters as "old" or "abandoned." Several areas of the complex are badly run-down despite the obvious fact that they are still in use. The surface areas of Black Mesa feature more modern construction.

"The Black Mesa Incident"


The events of the Black Mesa Incident are triggered by a seemingly routine experiment carried out by the Anomalous Materials team in Sector C, Test Chamber C-33/a. When research associate Gordon Freeman pushes a crystalline specimen of xenium into the beam of an over-charged anti-mass spectrometer, the experiment triggers a resonance cascade, which causes severe structural damage to the entire facility and severs communications with the outside world, and within much of the facility itself. At the same time, the resonance cascade causes dimensional seams to rip open, forcibly teleporting intelligent creatures and wildlife from the border world Xen into the Black Mesa facility. The confused creatures begin attacking the facility's personnel, causing chaos as Black Mesa's inhabitants hide or try to flee the facility by any means available. Soon after the resonance cascade, soldiers from the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (HECU) appear in Black Mesa, under orders to cover up the incident by killing the Xenians and silencing the facility's civilian personnel. Whilst the soldiers are at first successful, their advantages are gradually lost as they come under incessant attack by increasing numbers of Xen lifeforms, the Black Mesa Security Force, and Gordon Freeman. Helped by Black Mesa's surviving personnel and protected by his HEV suit, Freeman is able to fight his way across the facility, killing many members of the HECU and destroying a large amount of military hardware, including tanks, helicopters, automated sentry guns, and several dozen laser tripmines. As the Xen creatures gain ground in the facility and inflict increasing casualties on the military, the HECU begins a hasty and incomplete evacuation, removing the bulk of the HECU as highly-trained Black Ops appear, who begin executing abandoned HECU survivors and the few surviving members of Black Mesa's personnel. The Black Ops, though, sustain heavy casualties from the newly-arrived Race X creatures, and ultimately evacuate the facility. Throughout the earlier stages of the incident, several members of Black Mesa's science team, operating out of the relatively undamaged Lambda Complex, attempt to close the dimensional rifts between Black Mesa and Xen by launching a geo-stationary satellite into orbit. Ultimately, Dr. Freeman reaches the fortified Lambda Complex and, after bringing Black Mesa's nuclear reactor online, is teleported to Xen.



The Black Mesa facility itself is badly damaged during the resonance cascade and the resulting Xen invasion, and sustains severe damage during the military occupation. Although the ultimate fate of Black Mesa is unknown, it appears that most of the facility is destroyed by a nuclear device planted deep in the facility by the Black Ops at the end of Half-Life: Opposing Force.

Whilst most of Black Mesa's personnel are killed in the facility itself, several members of the science team and security force survived the incident and escaped. Dr. Gordon Freeman is teleported to Xen by the Lambda team and does not return to Black Mesa, instead being employed by the mysterious G-Man and put into stasis. Dr. Wallace Breen, the facility's Administrator, escapes by unknown means. Dr. Isaac Kleiner, a member of the Lambda team, is able to escape as well as Dr. Eli Vance, a high-ranking member of both the Anomalous Materials team and the Lambda team, carrying with him his young daughter Alyx. Security officer Barney Calhoun escapes with Dr. Rosenberg, a high-ranking scientist related to the original teleportation project, and two other scientists (Walter Bennett and Simmons) in a Black Mesa SUV relatively early in the Incident after teleporting outside of Black Mesa using an old prototype teleporter. Corporal Adrian Shephard, a soldier in the HECU, defeats a large Race X alien and is subsequently allowed to live, but also detained for the sake of secrecy, by the G-Man. In Half-Life 2: Episode Two it is revealed that another member of the Anomalous Materials team also manages to escape the facility, Dr. Magnusson. It remains yet unknown if any other personnel escaped Black Mesa, or if any of the more heavily built or underground areas survived the atomic blast.

It is unclear whether or not the actions of the Lambda team, in particular their launching of the satellite, actually helped to close the dimensional rifts. After the launch of the satellite they theorise that forces on the other side of the portals are keeping them open.

Key Locations
Black Mesa contains a vast and complicated array of laboratories, storage areas, personnel facilities, and abandoned areas. The various facilities in Black Mesa are loosely grouped into seven Sectors:

Sector A Training Facility
Encountered in all four of the Half-Life 1 games, Sector A contains the separate Hazard Courses used for training HEV personnel (as seen in Half-Life) and security officers (as seen in Blue Shift). Demonstrations are provided by trained instructors or pre-recorded holographic assistants, whilst participants are constantly monitored by observing scientists. The two known Hazard Courses are built over old, disused industrial sectors of the facility, and are each divided into an obstacle course and target range. This facility can also be accessed in the Opposing Force expansion pack by activating the alt-fire on the Displacer in the map the weapon is found in.

Sector A also contains a Satellite Communications Centre, housing a large satellite uplink dish. This facility is used in Decay when Colette Green and Gina Cross help Dr. Rosenberg to contact the military.

A schedule in the Blue Shift manual also places the Area 4 Personnel Dormitories in this sector.

Sector B Coolant Reserve
The Coolant Reserve (formerly the Section A-17 Prototype Laboratories) stores the industrial coolant used to maintain Black Mesa's thousands of computers and machines. It is first seen by Barney Calhoun when he escapes from Sector C.

The section was originally the site of the (now decommissioned) Displacement Field Laboratory seen in Blue Shift, where Black Mesa's first teleportation experiments took place. It is powered by the Auxiliary Generator Facility. The surface level of Sector B is now a Train Yard that is used to ship freight in and out of the facility over the New Mexico Railroad Line. The sector also contains the Area 2 Administration Offices.

Sector C Test Labs and Control Facilities
Sector C is notable primarily for housing the Anomalous Materials Laboratories that were Dr. Freeman's workplace. This area contains the anti-mass spectrometer (Test Lab C-33/a), which was the initial source of the Black Mesa Incident and the starting point of the Half-Life series.

In addition the Anomalous Materials Laboratories, the sector also contains the High-Energy Particle Laboratories and Supercooled Laser Laboratory.

Sector C is patrolled by guards from the Area 3 Security Facilities The facility is adjacent to the High-Energy Particle Labs, and encompasses a central lobby, personnel facilities, video surveillance, and an armoury. The sector also contains the Level 3 Dormitories, which feature a Library and an Aquatic Centre with a large pool. This is the area where Gordon Freeman lived while working at Black Mesa. His dormitory (Dorm 309) can be explored in Decay, and indicates that the average dormitory room is furnished with a bed, entertainment centre (with television) and a small bathroom with shower.

Sector D Administration
Seen early in Half-Life, Sector D is mainly a large underground complex of Administration Offices where the bureaucratic aspects of Black Mesa's upkeep take place, along with some limited research.

The Administration Offices are built beneath the surface's High Security Storage Facility, a large semi-subterranean warehouse made of interlocking Storage Areas. The lower levels of Sector D contain the Silo D Experimental Propulsion Laboratories where rocket engines are tested in one of Black Mesa's many decommissioned missile silos.

Sector E Biodome Complex
The Biodome Complex, a relatively new area of the facility (still under construction at the time of the Black Mesa Incident, as seen in Opposing Force), contains a series of Specimen Observation Areas, where captured Xen aliens are kept and observed in artificial recreations of their natural habitats. Alongside these enclosures are Specimen Containment Rooms where the aliens are studied in closer detail. The lowest underground levels of Sector E contain the Hydrofauna Studies Laboratory where aquatic aliens are kept in older decommissioned areas that have been flooded and converted into makeshift tanks. The sector also contains the Advanced Biological Research Lab seen in Half-Life, a smaller facility where the aliens are tested on and dissected by an automated robotic Surgical Unit, in ways that are likely unethical.

The second level of the lab is used as an experimental weapon research lab, testing dangerous weapons such as the Tau Cannon and a large High-Powered Laser. The other surface areas of Sector E form an Ordinance Storage Facility where vast amounts of munitions and explosives are stored, ranging from small arms to crates of dynamite, even including some nuclear weapons, one of which was stolen by the Black Ops. A room of boxes and two nuclear warheads was cluttered with tripmines by the H.E.C.U. in order to slow Gordon's progress. An area of this facility, Storage Unit 04 (also known as the Level 4 Storage Unit) becomes infested Race X aliens and Black Ops, while a practically abandoned industrial area with giant fan vents below that contains an alien portal that, when powered by hundreds of Sprites, brings in a creature known as the "Gene Worm" towards the end of Opposing Force.

The surface of Sector E contains the bulk of Black Mesa's still-functional military facilities, including at least three Helicopter Hangars, a Topside Armory and a Topside Barracks. The nearby Silo E High Altitude Launch Center, a silo converted into a fully-functional satellite delivery rocket lauchpad. was used by the Lambda Team, with the help of Gordon Freeman, to launch the satellite that later helped repair the resonance cascade in Decay and was essential in closing the superportal in Episode Two.

Finally, Sector E is the location of Black Mesa's various Waste Processing facilities, including the Biological Waste Processing Plant seen in Half-Life and Waste Processing Area 3, seen in both Half-Life and Opposing Force.

These various facilities a linked together, and to the rest of the base, by the (largely decommissioned) Sector E Materials Transport system, a network of dilapidated trams extending deep beneath the facility from Sector E Track Control.

Sector F Lambda Complex
The heavily fortified Lambda Reactor Complex is the site of Black Mesa's top secret teleportation labs. The reactor is a huge device consisting of the Lambda Reactor Main Coolant System, and the cylindrical Lambda Reactor Core. The core of the reactor consists of four levels (Levels A-D) that fuel an extremely powerful teleportation portal on Level A, where survey Teams are equipped and sent to Xen.

The Gamma Laboratories in Sector F were built later, as a means of capturing Xen specimens without risking casualties. These labs use a Prototype Displacement Beacon, which generates strong displacement fields and opens miniature dimensional rifts between Earth and Xen, for the safe and easy collection of alien life. It was used by Dr. Richard Keller in Half-Life: Decay to stop the effects of the resonance cascade and produce a "resonance reversal."

Sector F is linked to the rest of the base via the Secured Access Lambda Sector Transport and the Central Complex, which contains Black Mesa's Central Command and Communication Centers and a Mechanized Infantry Repair Bay.



Sector G Hydro Electric
Located at the lowest points of the Black Mesa Research Facility, Sector G channels power from Black Mesa's rivers and underground Drainage Canal system. Its most prominent feature is the Topside Hydro Plant that consists of a large hydroelectric dam-which resembles Hoover Dam-that cuts through the center of Sector E. The dam is heavily damaged by military bombardment and alien moss during Opposing Force.

Additional/Unspecified Areas
The following areas are either not linked to a specific sector, or their specific sector is currently unknown.


 * East Personnel Entrance-Only one spot of which is shown, directly in front of Area 8 Topside Dormitories, though there should be more of this area elsewhere.


 * Area 7 Recreational Facilities - Whilst not seen in the game, a map of Black Mesa's tram routes in Blue Shift mentions Area 7. As Black Mesa's employees are required to live in the facility itself, it can be assumed that Area 7 contains comforts and diversions such as sporting areas, cafeterias, and other personnel facilities.


 * Area 8 Topside Dormitories - One of the many topside dormitories on the surface of Black Mesa, featuring a basketball court and a small train platform. Barney Calhoun lived in one of the Area 8 dorms, which resemble portable houses.


 * Area 9 Transit Hub - The Area 9 Transit Hub acts as one of the many transit security checkpoints throughout the Black Mesa Research Facility. Trams that pass through the Area 9 Transit Hub can be rerouted to both the Sector E, B, and C transit lines.


 * Black Mesa Air-Traffic Control - This building is adjacent a large airstrip, and is used to monitor and direct activity in the airspace above Black Mesa. Special clearance codes must be entered at this building before any rocket launch can take place in other areas.


 * Infirmary - At the beginning of Opposing Force, Adrian Shephard wakes up in a damaged Black Mesa infirmary, which appears to still be under the control of Black Mesa personnel, who are caring for wounded soldiers and studying zombies under the protection of security officers. The infirmary is equipped with CAT and MRI scanners, which are still functional. Some areas of the infirmary, though, have been abandoned due to parasitic infestation, and have been blocked off with furniture and hospital beds. There are laser-based experiments taking place in this building. It can be assumed that the Infirmary could be located within Sector C, as the route away from that location ends near areas from the "Black Mesa Inbound" chapter from the original game.


 * Level 1 Main Facility Entrance - Never physically seen within any of the Half-Life games, the Level 1 Main Facility Entrance heavily implies that it used as a central entrance checkpoint for all the facility personnel. The facility was only seen written on a transit map near the Sector G Main Access Lift, in Half-Life: Blue Shift.

Behind the scenes
The series writer, Marc Laidlaw, coined the name "Black Mesa Research Facility". The book Raising the Bar shows the other names Laidlaw came up with during his brainstorming. They include "Black Butte", "Sand Basin", "Diablo Mesa", "Mesa Diablo", "Diablo Plains", or "Fertile Plains". Laidlaw states that he is glad he chose "Black Mesa" over "Black Butte".