by mgb519 » Sun Dec 30, 2012 1:33 pm
In 2124, a lab-created supervirus was released that resulted in the death of two-thirds of the earth's population due to the high population density. As humanity began to rebuild, they looked to space, where there was theoretically infinite room to expand. A scientist, John Bradley, discovered a form of wormhole-based, FTL travel which he called Interspace Projection Travel, as it seemed to involve ships moving in space between space itself, although he personally admitted that not even he was entirely sure how it worked. He was funded by Philip Hart, who would day become one of the most important populations of all time. Whatever the case, this led to the creation of city-stations in outer space, massive structures which housed tens of millions of people apiece, and roughly a third of the earth's surviving population. The first of these was Hope Station, launched in 2171. Morgan Station was the second, funded by a businessman who sought to leave his mark on history but eventually slipped into obscurity, unlike the station. Hart-Bradley was the third, a testament to the partnership that had made everything possible. Philip Hart would go on to become a leader who unified the stations into a single society, a feat which would not be repeated by his successors to the position of high director. John Bradley eventually withdrew from society to Earth, where he turned to the simple pursuit of knowledge.
In 2287, a private organization which called itself the Society for New Humanity sought to further human evolution. They hoped to achieve this goal by altering the supervirus which had once killed so many people. The Burnout Virus, as it was called, was named because it caused the victim's body to become overactive, until the strain became so great that their body was unable to take it anymore and shut down. They theorized that by halting the virus, they could create humans who had superior intelligence and reasoning capability. They first came up with the notion after discovering a text written by John Bradley, who they came to suspect had been a victim of the virus but developed an immunity to it, leaving him with the superior intelligence they sought. They subsequently abducted more than a hundred different children of varying ages from six all the way to sixteen, and began injecting them with altered forms of the virus which they hoped would act as a mutagen. Tragically, all but fourteen of these children succumbed to the virus, all of them under the age of eight. They were then observed for years at a research facility in the Arctic Circle (the Aurora Center), and after five years they launched an escape which resulted in the death of most of the researchers and staff at this facility.
The children escaped into the world and invented new names to live under, only to find a disunited society both on Earth and way off on the stations, corrupt and politically stagnant. The stations were practically city states, and many services from medicine all the way to the justice system had been privatized in some way or other. One of them, going by the name of Richard Carver, wasn't satisfied to leave one nightmare only to live with another. He bounced his plan around the group, to prepare a hostile takeover of the government so he could create a powerful central body through which he could personally root out corruption and right all the wrongs he saw. But another, William Tanner, was gifted with an unmatched ability to predict and analyze, almost to the point of telling the future. He saw that the revolution Richard sought would result in countless deaths, something he felt was a price too steep. Most of the other children sought to live in peace, living as normal people amidst the many stations. Richard began creating various pawns which he would use to enact his plan, while Wiliam set countermeasures in place, eventually working his way into the position of High Director. He hoped that he could also enact peaceful change from that position, though he knew it would take time to manipulate the self-centered politicians who were already there. He knew that too much pressure would cost him his position, and he couldn't have that.
The most central countermeasure was the formation of the Crimson Eclipse Program, an initiative so secret that most of the politicians were told only the name. It centered around the creation of men and women who were infused with an improved form of the mutagen once used on him, designed to be so safe that it could not be held responsible for the death of any patients. Then he let those patients grow up without knowing. It was in order to keep the program secret, or so he said; it worked, even. But the true reason he let them grow up normally was the guilt complex he developed. But one day, he would have them rounded up and turned into soldiers who would protect the lives and wellbeing of the people who lived on the stations.
Crazy enough?
Tzan wrote:Semaj Nagirrac wrote:Well, I took some land without checking if it was owned by a faction or not. I'm not going to be banned, am I? I can destroy everything if need be.
That's what
Hitler said,
in 1938.