Sector C Test Labs

"They're waiting for you Gordon, in the Test Chamber."

- Black Mesa scientist

Sector C Test Labs is one of the seven main sectors of the Black Mesa Research Facility. This Sector is notable primarily for housing the Anomalous Materials Laboratories, Gordon Freeman's workplace. This area also contains the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, the initial source of the Black Mesa Incident and what can be called the true starting point of the Half-Life series. The Anti-Mass Spectrometer runs across the three main levels of Sector C, from deep underground to the surface.

Overview
Sector C spreads on three main levels, each giving access to a part of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer.

Highest Sector C section
Partially on the surface, this unnamed area is located above the Development section of the Anomalous Materials Lab, and contains the room located above the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, containing its dampening fields, as well as numerous labs and offices and the dampening locks used to control the dampening fields. The area is accessed from a lobby with a glass roof where the sky, a ramp culminating to the top and Apaches passing by can be seen, and is apparently connected to the rest of Sector C by an elevator. The lobby contains a security guard welcome desk, as well as an American flag and the same world map seen in Test Labs and Control Facilities. The area has a view to the Black Mesa Transit System, but it cannot be accessed from there. Storage Area 3 can be seen from the other side of the track. There Colette Green and Gina Cross come with Richard Keller to reset the dampening fields.

Test Labs and Control Facilities
The first level features a lobby connected to the Black Mesa Transit System, with hanged on the wall a world map and the words "Black Mesa Research Facility" above, a security guard welcome desk, a map of the Sector, and a computer terminal sometimes used by scientists to receive data. On the day of the Black Mesa Incident, Gordon Freeman enters Sector C from there. There he learns that a system crash has occurred earlier at around 08:30.

Anomalous Materials Lab - Research
The first level also features several small labs. There the G-Man is seen discussing with a scientist in one of them.

Personnel Facilities
On the same level can also be found lockers (including Freeman's), HEV Suit consoles, toilets, a cafeteria where a meal can be destroyed in a microwave oven, and a guarded access to Sector B.

Anomalous Materials Lab - Development
That section, located on the lower level and accessed from the first level through an elevator, features a covered laser running along a corridor, and other features such as the Anti-Mass Spectrometer.

Ionization Chambers
In that room can be found two the Ionization Chambers.

Control Room
The upper Anti-Mass Spectrometer Control Room controls the actions made inside Test Lab C-33/a and has a direct view into it.

Plasma Cells
In that room can be found three devices containing Plasma Cells.

Test Lab Access
The Test Lab Access consists of a smaller elevator giving access to a third lower level, where Test Lab C-33/a is located.

Test Lab C-33/a
Test Lab C-33/a houses the Anti-Mass Spectrometer and is reached from the Test Lab Access elevator after several corridors. Sealed with a blast door, two Retinal Scanners must be operated to open it.

Anomalous Materials Operation Center
This area of the Anomalous Materials, likely connected to the Black Mesa Transit System as well, is located below the Development section of the Anomalous Materials Lab.

Registration Scan
The Registration Scan booth is used by Gina Cross and Colette Green to re-register themselves in the security database after the system crash has occurred earlier. To proceed, an elevator must be taken. It is located in a large shaft where two other elevators are seen working, one of them being used by the G-Man, in his only appearance in Decay. These elevators probably link the three main Sector C levels together.

Data Chamber
That small room mostly houses computer servers and is monitored by a single scientist.

Control Room
The lower Anti-Mass Spectrometer Control Room controls the actions made under Test Lab C-33/a, and the sample deliveries. It is supervised by Richard Keller.

Area 3 Medium Security Facilities and High-Energy Particle Labs
Sector C is patrolled by security guards from the Area 3 Medium Security Facilities located in a section of Sector C featuring both security and scientific areas. Located right beside the Level 3 Dormitories, this is where Barney Calhoun starts his duty in Blue Shift.

The upper level of that area is connected to the Black Mesa Transit System on two sides. The first side is the access point for security guards, the other is for scientists. When arriving, a security guard can go to the High-Energy Particle Labs, then go on to the other Black Mesa Transit System connection, and take a tram to Sector G, or reach the Sector by going through the maintenance areas. One ca also access a small lounge with vending machines, located above the central lobby.

The central lobby with its security guard welcome desk is located on the lower level, and this is where security guards have to report when showing up. That level also include the Personnel Facilities for the security guards, including lockers, showers and toilets.

A part of the upper level can only be accessed through the lower level, with an elevator. There are located the Armory where security guards can practice in the shooting range, and the Video Surveillance room, where one can peer into the Armory, see Gordon Freeman on his way to put on his HEV Suit, and Gina Cross delivering the crystal sample under Test Lab C-33/a.

As seen at the very start of Half-Life, that section of Sector C is very far from the Test Labs, as Gordon travels several kilometers from the Level 3 Dormitories before reaching his destination. This could either mean that Sector C is very large, or that this merely consist of an oversight by the Gearbox team.

Other
The Supercooled Laser Laboratory mentioned by the Black Mesa Announcement System in the Anomalous Materials Lab is probably in Sector C as well.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life: Day One
 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Blue Shift
 * Half-Life: Decay
 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar