“Sometimes when people are under stress, they hate to think, and it’s the time when they most need to think.”
-President William J. Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America

Earth had been on the brink of an environmental crisis that humanity had chosen to ignore. Governments across the Globe were aware of its true magnitude, but many did not act on the information. Our own pride and overconfidence blind us to the signals and information leaked from the Government; our increasing desire to consume blind us to reason when the Government slowly recognized the magnitude of the environmental crisis. By the time the world’s leading nations took steps to counter the crisis, it was already too late.

In 1993, after years of global abuse, the ozone layer tore itself apart. Suddenly exposed to dangerous levels of the sun’s high frequency ultraviolet light, even walking to the mailbox to get the mail became a life-threatening course of action. The resulting chaos proved too much for our already underfunded Health Services to handle, and in just three months after the collapse of the ozone layer cellular degeneration, a disease caused by prolonged overexposure to the sun’s ultraviolet light, became the world’s number one cause of death. Across the globe, people became afraid to leave their homes during daytime and the world as knew it slowly came to a halt.

Faced with a complete standstill of public life across the globe, Governments started to stimulate a continue of normal life during nightfall. In many of the world’s leading nations however, the time it took to switch the populace to night life was too short. Aside from massive power outages, Wall Street came crashing down in July 1993 and dragged other major stock markets down in its fall. Afraid, angry or just out for personal gain, the general populace started rioting and the Governments, suddenly confronted with mass rioting across the globe, imposed large-scale Martial Law in an attempt to keep the world population under control. It was in that month the United States Government approached the BioGen Corporation, the world’s leading manufacturer of pharmaceutical supplies.

Coming together in meetings not recorded on paper, representatives of both the United States Government and the BioGen Corporation agreed to a deal. The United States Government, secretly funding the BioGen Corporation with death-row prisoners and an undisclosed monetary investment, ordered BioGen to commence Project: Ra, named after the ancient Egyptian God of the Sun. Project: Ra, a desperate attempt by the Clinton administration to put an end to the rioting, was aimed at finding a cure for the cellular degeneration; the disease which already claimed a significant amount of the world population.

September 1993 became a significant foothold in world history as the month in which the Clinton administration came to a fall. With casualties on both civilian and Military sides ranging into the hundreds after months of mass rioting, President William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton stepped down as 42nd President of the United States, hoping his resignation would mark the end of what was the bloodiest, most violent –and definitely shortest- administration in the history of the United States. His guess was a good one though. Without a person against which to direct their fear, anger and frustration, the majority of the rioters displaced and the remainder, which fell into looting, were soon displaced by the United States Military.

Public order in the United States, although fragile, slowly returned with the election of President Gregory James Foltrigg, who became the 43rd President of the United States and would remain so until 2001, serving two full periods in office. Under the Foltrigg administration a wrecked America slowly rebuilt itself, its citizens now starting to accept the shift to night life. Meanwhile, partly thanks to the chaos that held Washington D.C in its grip for half 1993, the agreement with the BioGen Corporation escaped the attention of the Foltrigg administration and while the United States rebuilt itself BioGen continued Project: Ra with funds and prisoners supplied by an unknowing Foltrigg administration.

In 1997, four years after the start of Project: Ra, the BioGen researchers made a breakthrough which led to the completion of the project several years ahead of schedule. Having broken every ethical- and morale code ever applied to medical science in the four years of research, the scientists could now present a cure which was able to halt the gangrene-like process of cellular degeneration. The “Ra vaccine” was born. President Gregory Foltrigg was far from happy when suddenly confronted by the pharmaceutical company though. Although the Ra vaccine would be able to save billions of lives across the globe, the price the Foltrigg administration had –without knowing- paid for the vaccine was not favorable for the coming elections. Ordered to destroy all evidence and test subject and to keep their mouths shut, the Foltrigg administration reluctantly accepted the vaccine and went to distribute it throughout the United States and –for a price- the rest of the globe.

By the end of 1998 the total year profit of the Ra vaccine greatly beat the total year profit of Saudi Arabia’s crude oil and, because of both the vaccine that saved the American population and the enormous economical boost its sales gave the treasury, President Gregory J. Foltrigg was re-elected for another term in office. Storms were gathering in the form of the BioGen Corporation though. Disgruntled over their treatment and being denied a share in the profits, the BioGen Board of Directors decided to secretly violate the Presidential Order.

Early 1999 the BioGen Research Facility in Southeast California was cleaned out. Data about Project: Ra were secretly transported to the Research Facility in Maine and the surviving prisoners, used as test subjects for the last four years, followed the data by various different means until the complete California Facility was relocated to Maine and Project Isis, named after the Egyptian God Mother, began. Project: Isis, based on the results of Project: Ra, was meant to stimulate controlled growth of cells destroyed by cellular degeneration; going directly against the wishes of President Foltrigg.

While the BioGen Corporation was conducting their crimes, the United States of America were rapidly rebuilding. Although venturing outside during daytime was still completely out of the question, the United States Government was able to use the massive profits of the Ra vaccine to shift America’s focus on clean energy and the environment. Major oil companies like BP plc were bought out by the Government and, stimulated by the Foltrigg administration, turned their focus on electric cars instead. Massive power plants across the States were repurposed for use with solar generators or downright dismantled to make room for massive parks of wind turbines. Under the Foltrigg administration a new America emerged from its ashes. The new American dream.

Foltrigg’s American dream was –unknown to the general population- rudely disturbed in April 2004, when Project: Isis became fruitful. With the election of President Jonathan Cavenaugh in 2001, the BioGen board of directors weren’t afraid to come forward with the Isis vaccine but before they did, the success had to be celebrated in the lights of the massive profits they were now destined to make for themselves. While the Board of Directors was celebrating however, things went wrong in the Maine Research Facility.

The surviving prisoners of the Ra and Isis projects, who had been treated like dirt for six years straight, broke free. Much to the horror of the guards, who found out by trial and error, the Isis vaccine hadn’t only regenerated the destroyed cells of the prisoners but also carried a side-effect. Now possessing near superhuman agility, the prisoners were able to survive falls that would’ve killed normal humans and gun wounds inflicted on them by the guards didn’t stop them but instead slowly healed right before their eyes. Several of the prisoners, as shown on later surveillance footage, were shown to be in the possession of increased physical strength and overall, the only thing that seemed to be effective at stopping them was the lethal way; direct headshots. Nevertheless, the prisoners ravaged the Research Facility, slaughtered on-site staff and scattered out into the open.

When the news reached the BioGen Board of Directors panic ensued. Not only had they violated a direct Presidential Order, but they also broke the only rule attached to such an action; they screwed up. Fearing repercussions from President Cavenaugh, the Board of Directors ordered the incident covered up and the start of tracking down the prisoners, now codenamed Isis, in the hope to eliminate them all before anyone would find out what happened. Hunting down the Isis proved to be hard though, as the BioGen Corporation discovered soon after the start of their manhunt. The entire Maine Research Facility was ravaged and the only people knowing the exact number of Isis housed in the facility were slaughtered during the escape. For two years, the Corporation desperately attempted to track down and eliminate the escaped Isis, but they already scattered all over the globe and without any leads, the Board of Directors had no other choice than to notify the President Jonathan Cavenaugh about what happened.

President Jonathan Bourne had heard of BioGen’s crimes during Project: Ra, and if it hadn’t been the entire Board of Directors showing up at the White House he would’ve sent their representative away again. However, this collection of suits showing up on his doorstep could only mean a set number of things and with the biggest possible dislike he had them brought to his office. What they had to tell him didn’t fit into the set number of things he had expected. After having seen the surveillance footage of the Maine Research Facility their story, as unlikely as it sound to him, began to sound like a nightmare and the fact the United States Government was involved in the entire disaster didn’t stem him any more content with the BioGen Corporation. Nevertheless, their resources had been insufficient to solve the problem and if it would ever reach the ears of the public, only almighty powers knew what would happen then.

After a number of secret backroom meetings with select Congressmen, Ministers and members of the Armed Forces only one solution remained and in September 2006 the Agency was born.

Beyond Good and Evil started.

The Agency; an organization so secret there is no paper evidence of their existence, only a select number of people within the highest echelons of the United States Government know of their existence. Allowed to impersonate other US Government Agencies and in the possession of both an unlimited budget and a license to kill, their sole task is to bring down the Isis threat no matter what the cost. Lead by the enigmatic Director Jonathan Ballantyne, they only work with the best the world has to offer in their impossible task to protect the world population from an unseen threat.

The website and forums for Beyond Good and Evil are found here: http://guilds.sb254.com/beyondgoodandevil/

0 Authors

There has not been any news in this roleplay.