Human Psionics

Sarina's brow furroughed as her eyes focused on pencil resting peacefully on the table. Sweat began to glisten on her forehead as she groaned with strain. Nothing.
"What would your parents think?" boomed a tinny voice through the room's sound system. The examiners were behind the floor-to-ceiling mirror opposite Sarina, no doubt, watching her every move. "I'm sure your sister would have succeeded by now."
The pencil didn't lift from the table. It shot from the wooden surface directly into the reflective surface and exploded in a shower of splinters and graphite.
Sarina still stood bent over the table, gripping its edge and panting.
"Good. Resentment and hatred can facilitate these efforts."

While humans are not naturally psionic, attempts to create psychic humans date back to antiquity. These attempts largely failed untli the capture first Ceteri. Study of the extradimensional entities by Solarian and Thurian scientists ultimately led both nations to develop competing psionics programs with their own unique approaches.

History

Humanity's first confirmed encounter with undisputedly psychic powers occurred during the Procyon Incident. Until this time, psionics was relegated to myth, folklore, and psuedoscience, but with that discovery, the prenyxian factions of humanity began to take the possibility of training psychic powers seriously. Much of this early research into psionics was lost, however, during the War for Existence.
Since then, various organizations have tried to awaken psychic powers in humans through various means - stress situations, drugs, electroshock, etc. - but none of these worked. It was not until the Thurian Podarok Projekt that humans were able to show any signs of powers. This was the precursor to the Vinyatky Program (see below).
Meanwhile, the Solarian Empire took a different approach in Operation Pygmalion, which led to the Haphaestus Project, and then Talos Project.
Whiel both sides have demonstrated tremendous progress, neither has been able to match the degree of psionic potency demonstrated by Ceteri or the kind of mental intranet that comrpises the Uri Hive.

The Vinyatky Program

For more information, see the Vinyatky Program
Successor to the Podarok Projekt, the Vinyatky Program is a Thurian attempt to produce psinoic human spies. They use prolonged exposure to Hyperspace to germinate psychic powers within test subjects. Their primary focus is on developing telepathic and clairvoyant powers to augment their extensive spy network's capabilities.
The Thurians' ultimate goal is to create individuals who can remotely view any part of the galaxy and manipulate the thoughts and minds of others directly. This would allow them to make puppets of foreign leaders, anticipate enemy actions - both within the Federation and without -, and potentially cripple their adversaries.
While neither the Podarok Projekt nor the Vinyatky Program are officially recognized, the Solarians have become aware of its existence - a fact that the Thurians know and chafe at.

Project Talos

For more information, see Project Talos
While the Thurians have been successfully working with psionics longer than the Solarians, the Solarian Empire has made larger strides. Like the Thurians, the Solarian efforts, both old and current, are not acknowledged, though the Solarians have done a better job of keeping the details of their work from their adversaries.
The current efforts of Project Talos trace their roots back to Operation Pygmalion, which successfully recovered and studied humans captured by the Ceteri and modified to exhibit psionic powers. These were studied and reverse engineered to determine how the Empire might create their own psionic warriors.
This was followed up by the Haphaestus Project, which developed the means of incorporating Ceteri tissue into humans for the purpose of instilling them with the powers of extradimensional entities. Once successful, the project was ended and Project Talos started.
Finally, Project Talos was created to begin the largescale development and training of psionic warriors. This program continues today and has shown remarkable successes in creating covert psionic soldiers capable of psychokinetics, telepathic communication, and enhanced senses and body control.

Table of Contents

General Information

Current Programs

Talos Project
Vinyatky Program

Past Programs

Podarok Projekt
Operation Pygmalion
Haphaestus Project

Factions

Solarian Empire
Thurian Federation

Psionics

Human Psionics