Aeternitas Project
A terrible science project that ran from 2014 to 2022 when the
Lunar Liberation Front was disbanded upon the creation of the Lunar World Government. It's main goal was to create super soldiers to fight the European Space Agency and achieve independence from the Earth. To reach that objective, the Aeternitas Project used various mutagen that would warp its test subjects genes beyond repair.
Grown adults, children, all were fair game when it came to the pursuit of liberty. In time their gross medical misconduct came to light and the project was shut down.
Structure
The Head Scientist led the Project and answered to the leader of the Lunar Liberation Front (LLC). For the entire run of the project, this role was held by the founder of the Project, Solène Daucourt.
Culture
The LLC needed better soldiers to fight against the European Space Agency (ESA) in order to get their freedom. Thus did the Aeternitas Project come to be in order to genetically engineer those soldiers. No methods were to be brushed aside in order to reach that goal. No matter how inhumane it seemed, it was for the greater good.
Public Agenda
Seeing how the Aeternitas Project was kept secret and under tight lid, no one in the general public knew of it. In fact, even the normal members of the LLC weren't aware of its existence.
History
The European Space Agency announced that it would undertake some of its biggest project in the year 1997. They wanted to colonize the moon and the space between the Earth and its only natural sattelite. Space stations, underground colonies, mass drivers, the ESA poured many ressources into this project and needed a large workforce in space to bring it to fruition. For a long while, there was a steady flow of people from the Earth taking shuttles that would lead them to the skies. After all, the ESA promised that they would be the first to colonize space, to reach the final frontier, to be pioneers in the human race's evolution.
Of course, that was all a PR stunt in order to get the required number of workers to further their goals. In time, the people of space realized that the living conditions were abysmal. The pay was horrible, the hours long, the dangers constant and the protective gear nonexistent. It didn't take long for a group of revolutionaries to assemble and plot to overthrow the ESA in order to free the Moon and the Orbital O'Neill Colonies. The group that was formed was called the Lunar Liberation Front, and could soon count about 40% of the workers of Luna in its ranks.
Amongst them was a Theoretical Geneticist named Solène Daucourt. As a higher up herself, she realized the problem they were facing. Whilst the ESA had almost infinite ressources and support from military factions on Earth, they had close to nothing. They needed to find a way to make their voices heard, to become a big enough threat that the ESA, the World, wouldn't be able to deny them their freedom. Dr Daucourt brought forth a simple solution, to genetically engineer super soldiers to fight against their enemies. Whilst a few among the LLC upper counsel were fervently against the project, an impressive 90% voted in favour of it.
As the labs were being prepared, Dr Daucourt and her fellow scientists got to recruiting willing participant who would receive gene altering compounds that would, hopefully, become their saviours. Though they had some volunteers, they weren't nearly enough for what they had in mind. In the end, they offered monetary compensation to the subjects and families, which got them to their quotas. The first experiments started in 2014 with the first generation of Augmented Humans.
That first Generation was a complete and utter failure. The scientist were too eager, to generous with the dosages. Most of the test subjects indeed received the intended alteration. They were much stronger than the average human, had quicker reflexes and had enhanced stamina (see also
Genetically Augmented Pilot, for more details). Sadly, the transformation also brought its lot of mental and physical disorders. Some of the subjects had life-threatening seizures, multiple times a day, whilst enduring numbing pain, cripling hallucinations, paranoia and insomnia. It didn't take long for the last subject to perish in mid 2015 and for the project to be put on hold for an unknown amount of time. Dr Daucourt went back to the drawing board to determine where to go from there.
In late 2015, they had most of the project figured out for Generation 2 and got to recruiting some more willing test subjects. The testing for Gen 2 properly begun in 2016 and had much better results. They had resorted to two methods in order to keep the patients comfortable with the seizures, a batch that would receive medication to control the disorders and another that would be leucotomized as soon as they would present the first symptoms. They kept the same dosage for the compounds, refusing to lower it at this point of the project. The medication proved somewhat effective, though the concentration of gene altering compounds was too high for it to be effective. Those that were leucotomized showed great promise, though their personnality and higher thinking were severely damaged in the process.
The test subjects were kept in the facility until mid 2022 when Dr Daucourt decided it would be best to perform vivisections on the remaining patients before starting with Generation 3. She believed that they neeeded to disect them in order to see the extent of the damage the compounds had on their bodies, so they could lower the dosage enough that they could resort to the usage of medication, instead of lobotomizing them. The procedure begun in late August 2022, and by late September, about ¾ of the subjects had been vivisected multiple times and then euthanized.
Disbandment
On the 29th of September 2022, the revolt on O'Neill 2 happened and the ESA was successfully pushed away from Lunar Space. The Fourth Corporate War had created a climate where there were more workers than security guards on the colonies, about 40:1. This was the perfecct time for a revolution. Taking control of the colonies, both in space and on the Moon, the workers took control of the many artillery weapons that had been constructed there. With the destruction of certain corporate owned orbital weapons, as well as major facilities and buildings owned by the ESA on Earth, the corporations removed themselves from Lunar Space. Not the mention the fact that Japan and the United States eagerly welcomed a new government in space, and pushed for the Highriders independence. After all, better to side right away with an orbital group that is not the ESA.
A proper government was put in place in the weeks to come and, in time, the Aeternitas Project was found out. At the time, the leaders of Luna weren't sure what they should do with the 9 remaining Gen 2 test subjects that had been scheduled for euthanasia in the next week, after many rounds of vivisection. They decided that the project should live on. They entrusted the project to the new Lunarian Army so they could continue researching whilst making sure the future subjects would be treated well. The new project was called the GAP Project (or Genetically Augmented Pilot Project) and promised to refrain from vivisections, leucotomy and other forms of inhumane testing.
The Gen 2 subjects weren't released for they were deemed unable to return to society, and instead were put in the GAP Project where they would be tested on anew.
As for Dr Daucourt, it is unknown if she is part of the GAP Project or if she has been sentenced for her horrid experiments.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
New Men for a New Dawn
2014 - 2022
Type
Illicit, Other
Alternative Names
The Asylum
Successor Organization
Leader
Ruling Organization
Location
