Mason Renzler

Chief Mason Renzler, Resistance fighter, head of the Black Mesa East security team.


Pre-Invasion Files:

The year Mason Renzler turned eighteen, he got a job as a security guard at the Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico. He was adept at using firearms, and was excellent with assault rifles.

His primary posting while employed at the Facility was in the Anomalous Materials Lab, where he was under the direction of Sebastian Wolfe, who became a close friend of his. He told the young man many stories of his own endeavors in science, and of some of his colleagues on various projects, such as resonance reactors and powered exosuits.

Mason helped Kleiner and Wolfe escape during the Invasion, but once they were on the surface they were separated. Armed only with his SCAR assault rifle, Renzler disappeared under the cover of night, into the desert hills of the New Mexican landscape alone.

Post-Invasion Files:

As the first Union ship touched down in the plains behind him, Renzler moved north, where he found refuge on the mesas of the Chaco Culture National Park, where he could see the fire spilling out of the facility. Soon the other Union Warships were flying overhead, on their way to unknown destinations. He found a small cave near the top of the plateau and settled in for the night.

The next morning, Renzler felt the ground shake, as if to a drum. He grabbed his rifle and crept to the entrance of his cave, looking outward. In the wide plains and canyons below was an alien army, composed of what he would later know as Synths, and Vortigaunts encased in battle armor. Above, the Warship appeared, keeping pace with the columns of troops on the surface. The vessel's shadow passed over Renzler's cave, and he ducked back inside and hid.

Mason waited for days in the cave, living off emergency rations and listening to his shortwave radio. As he heard about how the Union was capturing, processing, and relocating people into Cities. One by one his radio contacts dropped into silence. He had already formed a plan, however.

The next morning, Renzler listened as the last of the Union army marched through the canyon below. When they had finally passed, he secretly exited his hiding place and made his way back to Black Mesa. The facility had been almost effectively destroyed during the invasion, but he found certain key equipment still in tact. Under the direction of Doctor Wolfe via radio, Renzler found the prototype Mark VI Hazardous Environment Suit, and donned it to press farther into the facility. He was able to gather some of the equipment key to Kliener, Ivanenko and Wolfe's research and take it with him to City 17 via a small refugee raft that escaped the North American continent to Europe.

After returning the equipment to Doctor Wolfe's Black Mesa East Facility, he became the base's chief of security, and thanks to the Mark VI suit is able to keep the Combine search teams at bay.