Pandora’s Box | 1991 - 2001

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and revolution of the subjugated nations under its control, the world had turned to the United States as the now sole superpower on the planet, looking to it for leadership in these uncertain times. Though for all the uncertainty in the world, there was a great undercurrent of excitement and anticipation for the future. But with this new development, America shifted into the role of the global police: patrolling the oceans of Earth and fighting in foreign conflicts to mop up the countless dictatorships it had a hand in setting up in the first place. As a result of this, funding for the two leading science companies that had helped win the Cold War were beginning to see the cost of the United States victory. Aperture Science (known to the public as Arbeit Communications) had already tarnished its public reputation due to multiple scandals regarding their unethical and unsafe business practices. The government contracts that sustained them seemed to vanish overnight, and the entire facility had filed for bankruptcy around 1997. The entire facility seemed to go dark after that, though both government agents were concerned by the fact that many of the head researchers for Aperture similarly dropped off the face of the Earth.

Black Mesa was still kicking though. While the funding that fueled the innovation at Black Mesa was cut by nearly half, a series of shrewd decisions by the Doctor Wallace Breen allowed operations to continue, albeit scaled down and with many budget cutbacks in staffing and other utilities. The true saving grace that kept Black Mesa afloat was a sudden influx of a new benefactor to help push forward new scientific research, specifically in the fields of extra-dimensional travel and localized teleportation. As the years passed, they had begun to recoup their losses and made new leaps and bounds in these fields, successfully opening portals into new dimensions and harvesting exotic materials from them. But on that fateful day, sometime in 2001? The whole world was alerted to the actions of Black Mesa, the consequences that their research brought with them.