Black Mesa Research Facility

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Black Mesa Research Facility is a building that features in Half-Life.

Contents

History

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 scientific disciplines.

What came later to be known as "The Black Mesa Incident" was triggered by an experiment into teleportation. As part of the Anomalous Materials team in Sector C of the facility, research associate Gordon Freeman introduced a crystalline specimen into the projected beam of an over-charged anti-mass spectrometer in test-chamber C-33/a. This caused a catastrophic resonance cascade, leading to widespread and severe structural damage to the room and eventually the entire facility. Communications with the outside world were cut off. These were side-effects caused by the resonance cascade tearing dimensional holes between Earth and Xen, a border-world. Intelligent creatures and wildlife were forcibly and randomly shifted into the Black Mesa facility, and ultimately the surrounding area. The confused creatures began attacking the facility's personnel, causing chaos. Black Mesa's inhabitants attempted to hide or flee the facility by any means available. Some, particularly security personnel, tried to fend off their assailants.

Soon after the resonance cascade occurred, the decision was made that specialized soldiers from the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (HECU) would be ordered to contain the violent situation, by destroying all evidence of the accident. These orders included the termination of all Xenian aliens and facility civilian personnel alike. No witnesses were to be left alive. While the soldiers were at first successful, their hold over the facility was lost as they were subject to incessant attack by increasing numbers of Xen lifeforms, as well as the Black Mesa Security Force and surviving personnel, including, against all odds, Gordon Freeman. Freeman was aided by Black Mesa's surviving personnel and protected by his Hazardous Environment Suit, and was able to fight his way across the facility, encountering and killing many members of the HECU and Xen lifeforms. He also destroyed great amounts of military hardware, worsening the situation for the HECU forces. As the Xen creatures gained ground and inflicted casualties on the small, specialized military, the HECU abandoned containment in favour of a hasty and incomplete evacuation. Other soldiers, referred to as Black Ops, were inserted with the objective of planting a nuclear weapon to level the facility. Highly-trained, they executed the remaining survivors of HECU and Black Mesa Personnel. Many of these operatives were killed by Gordon Freeman and others, including Corporal Adrian Shephard, an HECU soldier who was trapped in the facility but still survived a great deal of fighting. The majority of these Black Ops were ultimately killed by the newly-arrived Race X creatures. Having planted their weapon, the Black Ops evacuated the facility.

Throughout the earlier stages of the incident, several members of Black Mesa's science team, operating out of the remote and therefore relatively undamaged Lambda Complex, attempted to close the dimensional rifts between Black Mesa and Xen by launching a geo-stationary satellite into orbit. Dr. Freeman made contact with the fortified Lambda Complex and, after bringing Black Mesa's nuclear reactor online, was teleported to Xen.

It remained 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 it was theorised that forces on the other side of the portals kept them open. The atomic blast that levelled Black Mesa did not stop the alien activity, and this led to a period known as The Portal Storms, where much of the Earth was ravaged by Xen lifeforms, and ultimately the discovery by The Combine.

Overview

Much of the work undertaken at the facility involves fairly practical scientific research, such as radiation, rocketry, theoretical physics, lasers, experimental propulsion, hydraulics, robotics, hydroelectricity, genetics, applied mathematics and a very wide spectrum of theoretical research into chemistry and all manner of physics research. The facility also serves as a base for decommissioning nuclear weapons. In addition to this legitimate research, several secret projects are also carried out at Black Mesa, which are deliberately left vague, an aspect praised for its suspense.[3] A large amount of classified research is carried out, including the development of high-tech weapons and defense systems, research into extra-dimensional travel, teleportation, and the study of Xen (an extradimensional domain). During the tram ride that opens Half-Life, an announcement on the public address system states that the facility is seeking employees with backgrounds in theoretical physics, biotechnology, and various other high-tech scientific disciplines. It also notes that jobs in low-clearance security and materials handling are available. Black Mesa, as the same announcement states, is an equal opportunity employer.

It was revealed that the facility is very secure, as each employee is required to undergo a series of rigorous security checks as they travel around the complex. Black Mesa is dominated by laboratories, test areas, and administration offices. These, along with 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 network of ventilation ducts. The physical range of the facility from an in-game perspective is large enough that the complex is divided into seven lettered sectors and upwards of nine numbered areas. Most of the facility is located underground, where concrete-lined caverns and decommissioned 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. 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, 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.

As employees are required to live in the complex itself, Black Mesa contains personnel facilities including laundromats, recreation and sports areas such as lounges, basketball courts, swimming pools, restaurants, a video rental outlet (as seen in Blue Shift), fast food outlets, food courts, cafeterias, and at least one bar serving alcoholic beverages. As Dr. Eli Vance reveals in Half-Life 2, his wife also worked in the facility and their baby daughter, Alyx, lived there with them, so it can be inferred that employees' family members are allowed to reside in the dormitory complexes as well in certain cases. The complex may also have its own newspaper, The Mesa Times, although this may be an outside publication.

The Black Mesa Research Facility is populated by two main groups of civilian employees: science personnel and security personnel, along with various other inhabitants including administrative personnel, service personnel and occasionally the employees' families (as stated by Dr. Eli Vance in Half-Life 2). The base also keeps a small military presence. All facility personnel wear identity badges, and the automated tram announcement at the beginning of Half-Life reminds staff that they must display their badges at all times, as well as that "regular radiation and biohazard screenings are a requirement of continued employment in the Black Mesa Research Facility. Missing a scheduled urinalysis or radiation check-up is grounds for immediate termination." The following are the main types of personnel employed in the facility.

Security personnel are the main component of Black Mesa's support personnel force. At times they assist players, and other times fire on them for their own reasons, usually due to being shot at by the player.[4] Each guard is granted a different security clearance specific to his duty, with an average clearance of Level 3. The security guard uniform consists of a blue shirt, black tie, dark blue pants, black combat boots, equipment belt, armor vest and helmet. The standard sidearm issued to security staff is the GLOCK 17 pistol in Half-Life; the Glock 18 in Blue Shift; or the Beretta, with the High Definition Pack installed, but it seems that Franchi SPAS-12 shotguns, .357 Colt Python revolvers, Desert Eagle pistols and fragmentation grenades are also available to them. Otis, the obese security guard in Opposing Force, carries a Desert Eagle pistol.

  • Security Officer : The vast majority of guards work as security officers, tasked with protecting secured areas and information, reporting breaches of authority to their administrative sponsor and helping with general maintenance tasks. In rare cases, security officers will be tasked with capturing escaped research specimens.
  • Section Manager : The role of section manager is effectively a desk job that consists of directing security officers and assigning tasks.
  • Instructor : Security officers will often take on additional work instructing new recruits in the Sector A Training Facility. According to the PlayStation 2 game manual, the name of one instructor is "Miller", although Barney Calhoun is also named as a potential substitute for Otis's training.

Science Personnel (a.k.a. the Science Team), recruited largely from academic backgrounds, are the overwhelming majority of Black Mesa's population. Each scientist is granted a different security clearance specific to his duty, with an average clearance of Level 5. Like other employees, scientists have an assigned uniform, consisting of a blue shirt, white labcoat, red striped tie and white (or beige) slacks. Some scientists are trained in the use of the MP5 (Or the M4A1 with the High-Definition pack) submachine gun as part of HEV suit training, but those in research and development have little or no knowledge of combat.

  • Research and Development : The largest portion of the scientists are assigned to research and development positions, where they conduct experiments and create new technologies. The research conducted ranges in focus from particle physics to biological study to space travel. Most research and development scientists have a limited knowledge of first aid, and can heal some wounds. Dr. Isaac Kleiner and Dr. Eli Vance were prominent research and development scientists.
  • Research Associate : Research Associates work alongside research and development scientists, but with a lower status in the employment hierarchy. They are usually required to conduct the more mundane or less desirable portions of a given experiment. Dr. Gordon Freeman and Dr. Colette Green were notable research associates.
  • Hazardous Environment Supervisor : Supervisors act in a similar role to research associates in that they assist in experiments, but they are primarily concerned with maintaining a safe work environment. Dr. Gina Cross worked in this position.
  • Instructor : Scientists will often take on additional work training employees and conducting simulations in the Sector A Training Facility.

Survey Team - Survey teams were organized soon after the first teleportation labs were constructed in Black Mesa. Their assignment is the most dangerous, as they are tasked with entering Xen to collect samples and conduct experiments. Because of the danger, survey team members are highly trained in the use of the HEV suit and a variety of weapons.

Administrative personnel included:

  • Administration Personnel : Serving the Office of the Administrator, administration personnel handle the bureaucracy for the facility, including recruiting civilians and assigning personnel.
  • Service Personnel : Service Personnel are rarely seen in the Half-Life games, but can sometimes be spotted driving forklifts. They are also tasked with some more complicated maintenance tasks, such as repairing turrets. From a distance, they appear to be wearing green overalls and yellow helmets. In the beta for the game, they were to be as frequently seen as security personnel, however, they were cut from the final game.

The duty rotation of Barney Calhoun (the protagonist in Blue Shift) is printed in French, suggesting that the facility has a recruitment process with international scope. Included in Calhoun's papers are several pages describing exotic 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. Black Mesa contains many automated machine-gun turrets disguised as large fire sprinkler heads, which, when activated, will emerge from armoured cupolas and fire upon any moving object in their line of sight.

It is revealed in Portal and in Half-Life 2: Episode Two that Black Mesa is in direct competition with Aperture Science, Inc., as evidenced by PowerPoint-like presentations in meeting facilities, visible in the latter half of the game, and by a passing mention in the song playing over the credits, "Still Alive". This rivalry is largely related to the fact that both organizations were striving to produce portal technology for the United States Department of Defense. The presentation also gives some extra insight into Black Mesa, such as its USDoD contracts and freedom from the Government Performance and Results Act.

Black Mesa's motto, as seen in the Blue Shift manual, is: Working to build a better tomorrow for all mankind.

Inhabitants

  • Gordon Freeman :

Notes

Appearances

  • Half-Life:

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