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. Anomalous Materials 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
Apart from separate sections located along the Sector C Line, the main area of 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 during the Decay chapter Resonance.

Test Labs and Control Facilities
The first level features a lobby connected to Sector C Line of the Black Mesa Transit System, with hung 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, in the Half-Life chapter Anomalous Materials. There he learns that a system crash has occurred earlier at around 08:30.

As seen in the Security Shift Schedule given to Barney Calhoun, himself and another security guard started their Blue (from 09:00 to 22:00) and Indigo (from 21:00 to 10:00) Shift there on May 15, 200-.

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. Furthermore, the light in one of the labs can be turned off; it will always be turned on again by one of the scientists present there.

Personnel Facilities
On the same level can also be found lockers (including Freeman's), HEV Suit consoles, restrooms, 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 this room can be found two Ionization Chambers. After the Resonance Cascade, one of them is broken and a Headcrab teleports.

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 this room can be found three devices containing Plasma Cells, one of them glowing red. After the Resonance Cascade, the red and the middle one are broken, and Headcrabs teleport in the middle and third ones.

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. It is covered during the Decay chapter Dual Access.

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
This small room mostly houses computer servers, 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.

Level 3 Dormitories
Located right beside the Area 3 Medium Security Facilities on Sector C Line, this area features personnel dormitories. This is where Gordon Freeman is accommodated, and where Gina Cross and Colette Green travel to find a security guard having access to the codes to lift the air traffic lockdown during the Decay chapter Domestic Violence.

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 and connected to the Sector C Line and Red Line of the Black Mesa Transit System, this is where Barney Calhoun starts his duty during the Blue Shift chapter Insecurity.

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 can 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.

Sector C Line
Sector C is connected to the Blue Line of the Black Mesa Transit System. Its inner line, the Sector C Line, is a medium-security line. From Area 9 Security Checkpoint, it serves Level 3 Dormitories, Area 3 Medium Security Facilities, and Test Labs, and continues to an unknown destination. Gordon Freeman and Barney Calhoun take it to reach their respective workplaces on the day of the Black Mesa Incident, Barney from Area 9 Security Checkpoint during the Blue Shift chapter Living Quarters Outbound, Gordon from Level 3 Dormitories during the Half-Life chapter Black Mesa Inbound. Before the Test Labs stop, the line passes beside another, leading to the Level A of Sector E Subsurface Transport, and taken by Adrian Shephard after leaving the Infirmary during the Opposing Force chapter Welcome to Black Mesa.

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

Behind the scenes
The test chamber disaster sequence at the beginning of Half-Life was built by John Guthrie and Kelly Bailey in a weekend, during which they worked for 48 hours straight. After going home at the end of the weekend and coming back in the offices on Monday, "still in a zombielike state", Guthrie and Bailey were glad to see that the rest of the team loved the sequence after playing through it.

List of appearances

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