Black Mesa was an American research corporation situated primarily in its immense underground
facility of the same name.
The organization was involved in the study of nearly every scientific field including
radiobiology, rocketry, theoretical physics, biotechnology, robotics, genetics and many
others.
Black Mesa conducted both pure research and applied science, with many different experiments
and developments occurring on-site in a labyrinth of testing chambers and laboratories.
In addition to these projects, Black Mesa also carried out several secret developments
involving classified technologies and high-tech defense projects.
Many of these activities were kept deliberately vague and the Black Mesa Research Facility
was concealed from both the public and elements of the United States government, operating
under the guise of a nuclear waste repository.
To maintain this level of secrecy, the facility was completely self-sufficient with its own
ventilation, central heating, sanitation, water services and power generation systems
including a hydroelectric dam and nuclear reactors.
Black Mesa employees were required to live within the complex itself and the facility
contained many dormitories and personnel facilities.
The complex even had its own newspaper, the Mesa Times which provided information about
events both within and outside of the facility.
At some point in the early 21st century, Black Mesa made a profound leap in the study of
extra-dimensional travel and discovered a strange alien borderworld known as Xen.
Acting as a sort of nexus or waystation between dimensions, Black Mesa sent numerous teams
to Xen gathering samples of seemingly native crystals for study back on Earth.
Also collected were the various species of animal and plant life that had arrived on
Xen through their own unknown means.
The experimentation with portal technology and the discovery of Xen propelled Black Mesa
far ahead of its nearest competitors but also drew the attention of outside influences.
At the behest of one such influence, Black Mesa administrator Wallace Breen demanded
that a specific crystal from Xen be used during testing, ignoring several safety procedures.
The experiment ended in a cataclysmic failure and a Resonance Cascade formed inside Black
Mesa creating an aggressive and unstable connection to Xen.
With the complex overrun by hostile Xen species, the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit was
deployed to eradicate this non-native life and execute any surviving witnesses.
As the situation deteriorated further and hope of recovering the research facility was
abandoned, a nuclear device was detonated to ensure the facility’s complete destruction.
Whether because of the atomic blast or through some other means, the direct link to Xen was
cut although unpredictable portal storms would occur across the Earth for at least the next
two decades.
The destruction of the Black Mesa Research Facility proved to be the end of the Black
Mesa Corporation as a whole and the organization would cease to exist within the following
few months.
Just one of many ...unforeseen consequences created by the Resonance Cascade.
The Templin Institute investigates nations, organizations, and factions from alternate
worlds and realities.
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