Post by NPC: Male on Jan 17, 2010 18:14:07 GMT -5
Scribbling notes on this clipboard, a researcher observed the peculiar organism inside a ten-feet tall, three-feet wide glass tube made of resistant plastic polymers and glass that was virtually immune to chemical reactions. Inside, a humanoid organism twitches as it tube connections were being pumped with nutrients and steroids in an attempt to test theories previously thought impossible. The researcher, deeply passionate about his work, smiled thinly, showing pride in his research while maintaining that cool professional facade of a scientist.
Skimming over his notes one more time, the researcher turned when his colleague said that the specimen was taking the therapy well, promising the success of thousands more still waiting to be treated in order to live and breath air. They have created a synthetic humans, beings without parents and borne not by a mother's womb but by cold, hard glass. Of course, these were not the first to be created, synthetic beings have been around in Gradia for decades, but this generation promises a future to a population with declining birth rates.
Gradia, advance and powerful, was slowly fading away in history because of its people inability to reproduce. Lack of fertility was not due to a natural tragedy though but wholly brought by the citizens' choices. Women refuse to have children for one reason or another, usually in favor of their intellectual growth. Marriages were nonexistent because couples opt to remain partners without binds. Though this trend have allowed the civilization to intellectually and technologically flourish, it became a noose threatening to suffocate the mighty country.
The researcher and his colleagues were out to change that. Though he had succeeded in creating babies with synthetic DNA, very few couples were willing to raise a child so the researcher decided to create synthetic adults, programmed to have the basic capabilities of living on their own and, with training and education, they would be fully functioning workers in society. He was only a few more steps away from accomplishing such a herculean task of making artificial men, a dream he set out to solve decades before. Now, if his children could only survive these last doses of steroids and hormones, they can be taken out of their artificial wombs and finally breath Gradian air.
To the researcher, the steady hum of machines was comforting and the steady beeping of his creations' hearts shown on a holographic monitor as waves and pulses were, to him, akin to music of an orchestra composed of the perfect union between man and machine. It was a future he offers for his country and it was a future he will give. Only the terrifying gasp of his colleague caused panic in the researcher's heart.
"Doctor, come quickly!" A young scientist, whose task was to monitor the synthetic men's brainwaves, urgently called. The specimens were gaining consciousness without any trace of logical thought. The researcher hurriedly came and looking at the holographic screen, his features, though perfectly preserved by advance technology to be that of a man in his early thirties, showed his true age, a man nearing the twilight of his lifespan if he lived anywhere else outside of Gradia. He looked up from the screen and saw the nearest specimen's finger twitch. More bewildered than afraid, the researcher watched on as the other specimens, lining a laboratory the size of a museum lobby in perfect rows, also made movements.
The researcher furrowed his thick eyebrows, these organisms were not expected to react this way. He ordered the steroid feed to stop and another scientist complied in a fashion only a well-trained professional could ever hope to display. The sound of machinery being shut down was like a long steady exhale, a descending sound that finally hushes completely as the back-lit lights of the control panel dimmed. The scientists froze, feeling for any changes, good or bad, that would happen. All eyes were on that first specimen that moved.
The organisms continued to twitch. It was not only their fingers moving now but also their fully formed adult legs. Some kicked and stomped against the glass casing even though their eyes were closed. Others punched the walls of their tubes, fighting imaginary foes, while asleep.
Gritting his teeth, the researcher started barking orders; infuse the tube fluid with skin-diffusing tranquilizers, inject the specimens with sedatives, and do everything to keep them from hurting themselves. He dedicated his life into creating these specimens and he was not going to tolerate its destruction because of an incorrect dose of chemicals but his creations kept on moving more and more as the minutes ticked by.
"Doctor, we must shut life support down immediately!" One of his colleagues urged but the researcher was not to be swayed. He told them that the specimens must be kept alive at any cost. Unable to come up with a reason against the idea and sharing the desire to fulfill the experiment, they continued on.
The chemical battle between the scientists and the synthetic people dragged for an hour. More sedatives were used, more tranquilizers but still the movements continued to be violent. It was five minutes into the first hour that one of the specimens broke through its glass cage. Though they should be unable to breathe, let alone stand, according to the scientist's expertise, the synthetic organism was able to stand erect and as it did, the muscles on its torso convulsed; those on its arms contracted at random intervals. The researcher looked on as his creation opened it eyes for the first time. Eyes that were created to be normal human brown glittered synthetic blue as light bounced off its cornea.
Stunned and amazed, the researcher gaped, unable to believe what he was seeing yet, at the same time, joy filtered through the disbelief and filled him with a sense of accomplishment, of joy. Unsure, he approached the creature, reaching out to it with a shaking hand. The creature was unresponsive and only stared at its creator. The other scientists only looked on until another crash was heard, then another and another. One by one the specimens, with their superior modified strength, broke out of their shells and stumbled down onto the laboratory floor. One by one they stood and opened their ghastly blue eyes. Horror crept onto the scientists' faces. Mist, vapor from the tube fluids that evaporated, covered everyone in the room up to their waists. The specimens crept forward, their steps uneven due to unused muscles, while the scientists stepped back. The researcher, still fascinated with the first one to emerge, drew close, whispering in utter amazement. He called out to the creature but it never responded.
Instead, it growled.
Taken back, the researcher stepped back but his suddenly gesture prompted something instinctual in a creature without the ability to use logic. The creature pounced but it did so awkwardly that it missed the researcher and instead of capturing what could be its first meal, the creature merely shoved the researcher against one of the tables littered with documents. This one display of aggression made every scientist panic and due to their sudden movement, their creations reacted like predators waiting to pounce. One by one the scientists were caught by synthetic humans they themselves created to be faster, stronger, and just as smart as born people. Their screams echoed through the laboratory but it was shut so tightly that no one outside could have possibly heard them. The researcher, struggling to push himself off the ground, watched and listened as his colleagues were eaten alive under the mist. In an attempt to save himself and someone else who could still be alive, the researcher crawled slowly under the mist knowing at the creatures might already be stalking him. But her persevered and was able to press the emergency button under his desk before he was dragged into the thick mist and disappeared, leaving only a terrifying scream.
~~~~~~~~~~~
On air 0800 hours.
Prints will be dispersed in technologically deficient nations at 1000 hours.
Chancellor ready to speak. 3, 2, 1...
{radio fuzz}
"I am the Chancellor of Gradia, Jonathan Dreedle, and I am on air today to seek help from every one of the nations that shares this continent. Gradia is being plague with synthetic beings, created by a faulty experiment not even a week ago. These creatures are resistant to bullets and have a regeneration rate that is unseen in this world. My country's police and military personnel are failing to hold them at bay due to their ability to infect human beings. Like a virus, they inject their genetic material into everything they bite into and within twenty four hours the victim will lose his or her memory and gain supernatural strength. After forty eight hours, the victim is most likely one of the creatures. These freaks of nature can be killed and we need your help."
~~~
Note from Chief Administrator: This is a site-wide event. Assume that news about this event will be spread world wide in DD:E. Everything related to this even shall be posted within the Gradia category alone unless specified by an admin. Players are allowed to create their own side story to this main plot as they please as long as it coincides with the main plot. PM Tyr if you have any questions.
You may post in this thread the reactions of your characters when they receive the news and what their decisions will be. Will they help or not? The news will be spread through television (if you are in Gradia and Evnae), radio, and print (if you are in the other nations).
Skimming over his notes one more time, the researcher turned when his colleague said that the specimen was taking the therapy well, promising the success of thousands more still waiting to be treated in order to live and breath air. They have created a synthetic humans, beings without parents and borne not by a mother's womb but by cold, hard glass. Of course, these were not the first to be created, synthetic beings have been around in Gradia for decades, but this generation promises a future to a population with declining birth rates.
Gradia, advance and powerful, was slowly fading away in history because of its people inability to reproduce. Lack of fertility was not due to a natural tragedy though but wholly brought by the citizens' choices. Women refuse to have children for one reason or another, usually in favor of their intellectual growth. Marriages were nonexistent because couples opt to remain partners without binds. Though this trend have allowed the civilization to intellectually and technologically flourish, it became a noose threatening to suffocate the mighty country.
The researcher and his colleagues were out to change that. Though he had succeeded in creating babies with synthetic DNA, very few couples were willing to raise a child so the researcher decided to create synthetic adults, programmed to have the basic capabilities of living on their own and, with training and education, they would be fully functioning workers in society. He was only a few more steps away from accomplishing such a herculean task of making artificial men, a dream he set out to solve decades before. Now, if his children could only survive these last doses of steroids and hormones, they can be taken out of their artificial wombs and finally breath Gradian air.
To the researcher, the steady hum of machines was comforting and the steady beeping of his creations' hearts shown on a holographic monitor as waves and pulses were, to him, akin to music of an orchestra composed of the perfect union between man and machine. It was a future he offers for his country and it was a future he will give. Only the terrifying gasp of his colleague caused panic in the researcher's heart.
"Doctor, come quickly!" A young scientist, whose task was to monitor the synthetic men's brainwaves, urgently called. The specimens were gaining consciousness without any trace of logical thought. The researcher hurriedly came and looking at the holographic screen, his features, though perfectly preserved by advance technology to be that of a man in his early thirties, showed his true age, a man nearing the twilight of his lifespan if he lived anywhere else outside of Gradia. He looked up from the screen and saw the nearest specimen's finger twitch. More bewildered than afraid, the researcher watched on as the other specimens, lining a laboratory the size of a museum lobby in perfect rows, also made movements.
The researcher furrowed his thick eyebrows, these organisms were not expected to react this way. He ordered the steroid feed to stop and another scientist complied in a fashion only a well-trained professional could ever hope to display. The sound of machinery being shut down was like a long steady exhale, a descending sound that finally hushes completely as the back-lit lights of the control panel dimmed. The scientists froze, feeling for any changes, good or bad, that would happen. All eyes were on that first specimen that moved.
The organisms continued to twitch. It was not only their fingers moving now but also their fully formed adult legs. Some kicked and stomped against the glass casing even though their eyes were closed. Others punched the walls of their tubes, fighting imaginary foes, while asleep.
Gritting his teeth, the researcher started barking orders; infuse the tube fluid with skin-diffusing tranquilizers, inject the specimens with sedatives, and do everything to keep them from hurting themselves. He dedicated his life into creating these specimens and he was not going to tolerate its destruction because of an incorrect dose of chemicals but his creations kept on moving more and more as the minutes ticked by.
"Doctor, we must shut life support down immediately!" One of his colleagues urged but the researcher was not to be swayed. He told them that the specimens must be kept alive at any cost. Unable to come up with a reason against the idea and sharing the desire to fulfill the experiment, they continued on.
The chemical battle between the scientists and the synthetic people dragged for an hour. More sedatives were used, more tranquilizers but still the movements continued to be violent. It was five minutes into the first hour that one of the specimens broke through its glass cage. Though they should be unable to breathe, let alone stand, according to the scientist's expertise, the synthetic organism was able to stand erect and as it did, the muscles on its torso convulsed; those on its arms contracted at random intervals. The researcher looked on as his creation opened it eyes for the first time. Eyes that were created to be normal human brown glittered synthetic blue as light bounced off its cornea.
Stunned and amazed, the researcher gaped, unable to believe what he was seeing yet, at the same time, joy filtered through the disbelief and filled him with a sense of accomplishment, of joy. Unsure, he approached the creature, reaching out to it with a shaking hand. The creature was unresponsive and only stared at its creator. The other scientists only looked on until another crash was heard, then another and another. One by one the specimens, with their superior modified strength, broke out of their shells and stumbled down onto the laboratory floor. One by one they stood and opened their ghastly blue eyes. Horror crept onto the scientists' faces. Mist, vapor from the tube fluids that evaporated, covered everyone in the room up to their waists. The specimens crept forward, their steps uneven due to unused muscles, while the scientists stepped back. The researcher, still fascinated with the first one to emerge, drew close, whispering in utter amazement. He called out to the creature but it never responded.
Instead, it growled.
Taken back, the researcher stepped back but his suddenly gesture prompted something instinctual in a creature without the ability to use logic. The creature pounced but it did so awkwardly that it missed the researcher and instead of capturing what could be its first meal, the creature merely shoved the researcher against one of the tables littered with documents. This one display of aggression made every scientist panic and due to their sudden movement, their creations reacted like predators waiting to pounce. One by one the scientists were caught by synthetic humans they themselves created to be faster, stronger, and just as smart as born people. Their screams echoed through the laboratory but it was shut so tightly that no one outside could have possibly heard them. The researcher, struggling to push himself off the ground, watched and listened as his colleagues were eaten alive under the mist. In an attempt to save himself and someone else who could still be alive, the researcher crawled slowly under the mist knowing at the creatures might already be stalking him. But her persevered and was able to press the emergency button under his desk before he was dragged into the thick mist and disappeared, leaving only a terrifying scream.
~~~~~~~~~~~
On air 0800 hours.
Prints will be dispersed in technologically deficient nations at 1000 hours.
Chancellor ready to speak. 3, 2, 1...
{radio fuzz}
"I am the Chancellor of Gradia, Jonathan Dreedle, and I am on air today to seek help from every one of the nations that shares this continent. Gradia is being plague with synthetic beings, created by a faulty experiment not even a week ago. These creatures are resistant to bullets and have a regeneration rate that is unseen in this world. My country's police and military personnel are failing to hold them at bay due to their ability to infect human beings. Like a virus, they inject their genetic material into everything they bite into and within twenty four hours the victim will lose his or her memory and gain supernatural strength. After forty eight hours, the victim is most likely one of the creatures. These freaks of nature can be killed and we need your help."
~~~
Note from Chief Administrator: This is a site-wide event. Assume that news about this event will be spread world wide in DD:E. Everything related to this even shall be posted within the Gradia category alone unless specified by an admin. Players are allowed to create their own side story to this main plot as they please as long as it coincides with the main plot. PM Tyr if you have any questions.
You may post in this thread the reactions of your characters when they receive the news and what their decisions will be. Will they help or not? The news will be spread through television (if you are in Gradia and Evnae), radio, and print (if you are in the other nations).