Even through the thick, double paned glass of the window that looked out over the Dallas cityscape, Tom could feel the intense Texas heat radiating down on his neck from behind. How he wished he had chosen to go with the classic executive chair when he was picking out furniture for his office. The tall leather back would have protected him from the warm sunlight. Instead, partially due to the Fountain Place tower’s air conditioning in the middle of a retrofitting upgrade, the thirty-two year-old was forced to sit uncomfortably and sweat in a minimalist drafting chair, hunched over the angled drawing table that served as his preferred desk.

Despite the adverse temperature, Dr. Thomas Virgil continued with his work. With steady hands, he penciled a line along the flat edge of a ruler to complete the overlay of one of the many walls that made up the interior of an ancient, complex temple in what used to be the territory of the ancient Achaemenid Empire. Over the last few years, Tom had been overseeing multiple dig site projects in Western Asia, unearthing long-forgotten secrets of a nation that overshadowed even the famous Roman Empire. His due diligence throughout the beginning of his ripening career as a cultural anthropologist – who mainly enjoyed the gritty fieldwork of archaeology – was finally coming to fruition.

Since attaining his Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, Tom had been solely focused on highlighting the more sublime cross-overs of lost cultures and schools of thought; emphasizing the evolution of both human governance and religion. He had travelled the world in search of similar paradigms and recognizable symbols that linked one culture to a potential predecessor. Most of this work was already done by anthropologists that had long walked this road before him, but Dr. Virgil’s main focus was on the paradoxical root of human society; the ever elusive beginning of it all. Certainly a daunting task, even for the wisest philosopher.

A knock at the door to his office disturbed his amateur architectural work and the doctor flicked his light-blue eyes up to see a man wearing a charcoal black suit with a satin-grey tie standing in the threshold of the door. A faint sparkle announced the presence of a pin presented neatly on his left jacket lapel. Virgil wasn’t able to make it out clearly, however. The stranger’s knuckles rested gently on the metallic frame and he wore a casual smirk that suggested he had found the person he appeared to be seeking.

“Yes? Can I help you?” Tom asked, slightly lowering his pencil out of curiosity.

A younger man’s voice called out from behind and Virgil could hear the clomping soles of his secretary marching over from his desk outside. The face of a youthful college graduate peeked around from behind the stranger and he exclaimed, “Doctor V., I’m so sorry; he wouldn’t listen to me!”

“That’s quite alright, Zen,” Tom insisted. “Is there something we can do for you, sir?”

The man lowered his hand and slid it easily inside the pocket of his trousers, lifting the bottom of his jacket in folds. Stepping further into Tom’s office, the stranger introduced himself, saying, “I apologize for interrupting your work, Doctor Virgil. My name is Clarence Gates. I’m a headhunter for-”

The man needn’t continue. Now that Mr. Gates was further inside, Tom could make out the lapel pin. The “A” logo of the renowned private corporation was unmistakable, with the curving center bar that represented a gradual approach to that highest point of a curve that the company’s very name preaches.

“-Apex Corp,” Tom said, finishing the man’s sentence.

“Quite right,” Mr. Gates enthusiastically replied. “Do you have a minute to talk, sir?”

“I’m afraid I’m not interested.”

The man seemed taken off guard for a moment before reinforcing his smile and asking, “I’m sorry?”

“You said you’re a headhunter,” Virgil reminded him. “Apex is the world’s leading technological research organization that has surpassed even the most notable international firms of its kind; mostly due in part to your selective recruiting of intellectual and creative prodigies from around the world. Even CERN can’t hold a candle to what Apex is capable of. Now, you’re here for either one of two reasons; either Apex is suddenly interested in Mesopotamian archaeology and would like to hire my team, or you’ve mistakenly come to think that I am a possessor of prodigal talent. The latter is most certainly untrue, as I won’t discredit Apex’s ability to correctly research someone’s background for even a second, given their vast wealth of information resources, and I’m hardly interesting enough to hire; which leaves us with the former – an offer that I must respectfully decline.”

The gentleman seemed unfazed by Tom’s water-downed description of his employers. “You read me like a brochure,” he said. “But you’re wrong on both counts.”

There was a momentary pause between the two men before Tom set down his pencil and ruler and called out, “Zen! Can I get two cups of coffee?” Standing up from his seat, Tom ran a hand through his wealth of wavy, brown hair and walked over to the center of the large office, where he gestured for Mr. Gates to take a seat on one of the black leather sofas.

“Alright,” the doctor said, “I suppose I can spare a few minutes of my time.”

“A few minutes is all I need.” Gates unbuttoned his jacket and sat down across from Virgil, leaning forward with his elbows supported on his knees. “First, if you don’t believe yourself to be someone ‘interesting enough’ for us to hire, then you’re sorely mistaken. Apex doesn’t exclusively look for prodigies; we look for all kinds of people. Experienced or inexperienced, rough or refined, supporters of corporations or not…”

“Like I said, you people are well-informed.”

Zen came back into the office and set down two mugs of freshly poured, warm coffee left black and several packets of sugar and powdered creamer between them. The young man then quietly returned to his clerical duties.

Tearing open one of the sugar packets and dumping the contents over the drink, Gates said, “Yes, I’m keenly aware of your anti-corporate sentiments, doc. During your college years, you had co-sponsored an occupy movement against Seris Enterprises for launching an unquestionably distasteful fashion line of ancient Egyptian clothing that mocked a longtime, academically respected culture.”

“That’s only one of the two reasons,” Tom said, stirring the creamer he had placed in his own coffee. “The other, and more important one, was that Seris’ CEO was fully aware that her company was engaging in illicit overseas labor practices and did nothing to correct that issue. Seris’ ‘Ancient Egypt’ brand line was unarguably a direct product of those practices.”

The two of them shared another moment of silence as they simultaneously sipped their beverages. Mr. Gates was the first to finish his gulp and speak. “Your distrust of major companies like us is absolutely warranted, doctor; but I’m not here to argue free market theory with you. As I said, and as you reminded me, I’m a headhunter; and we are interested in Mesopotamian archaeology; or rather… a team of archaeologists that specializes in Mesopotamian cultures.”

“I must admit that I find that to be somewhat strange, Mr. Gates. As a company that throws caution to the wind with technological innovation and, what you people have taken to calling, ‘self-controlled human evolution’; studying the past doesn’t seem like something that would fit in Apex’s portfolio.”

Gates took another, longer sip of his coffee before returning the mug to the table between them. With a sly smile that made Tom raise a brow, the man said in codified language, “We actually won’t be studying the past; but rather, the present. Another present, anyway.” Reaching a hand inside his inner jacket pocket, Gate’s revealed a grey business card with a black Apex “A” logo embellished on the front. He placed the card on the coffee table and slid it across the way toward Tom. “Give him a call if you’re interested in learning about the details. I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss this further.”

Confused, Tom opened his mouth to speak, but Gates was already up on his feet and moving toward the door to his office. “Thanks for your time, doc,” he said in a nonchalant tone, buttoning his jacket as he walked. “I’m sure I’ll see you again in the very near future.”

Virgil remained where he was on his sofa after the man disappeared, with a baffled expression on his face. A second later, Zen poked his head inside the office with a quizzical look and simply asked, “Sir? What was all that about?”

Tom leaned forward and slid the mysterious business card closer before flipping it up and taking it in his hand. The front side only bore the Apex logo, with a popping embellishment pushed through the stiff paper. He flipped the card around in his fingers and saw a single telephone number, followed by a two letter abbreviation beneath it.

i.e.

“Id est?” Tom asked aloud. “No… those are initials.”

Zen was now walking fully into the office and made his way toward the mugs on the coffee table to begin retrieving them. “Initials, sir?” he inquired, still curious as to what was going on.

“The initials of Time Magazine’s ‘2021 Person of the Year’,” Tom answered. “Apex’s founder and CEO…”

Medical science has always been a trademark of the Evenway family. It came as no surprise when Isaac decided he wanted to attend medical school, well before he set foot in high school for the first time. Another token of the Evenway genealogy is their fascination with making the impossible quite possible. This can be traced back to Isaac's great-great grandfather, Dr. Thomas D. Evenway, a nationally renowned psychologist that made incredible strides in the field of psychoanalytical theory in the late 1930s. In essence, Isaac had quite a legacy to live up to. And he did.

Two years after he and his wife, Juniper, had their first and only child, Noah, Juniper had been diagnosed with an acute lymphatic cancer. Frantic to hang onto her, Evenway used his fortune to pay for any and every treatment that could possibly save Juniper's life; even going so far as to fly in the best cancer experts from around the world on his own dime. However, even though money wasn't an issue, time was, and Juniper had run out of it. On a cold February morning in 2008, Juniper Evenway passed away in her sleep.

Enraged, Isaac demanded answers from every one of the experts he had assigned to his wife. The responses were all the same: cancer research just hadn't progressed enough for them to fully comprehend the disease. After personally researching the why behind it all, Evenway's conclusion was straight-forward: politics and bureaucracy. The field of medicine had been riddled with landmines of regulations, policies, restrictions, and special interests. Adopting a cynical attitude toward government interference in scientific disciplines, Isaac started up his own biomedical research firm: Apex.

Five years later, after the gates to Safe Haven opened, Apex officially transferred their headquarters to the new city-state and was immediately freed of all government interference. Dr. Evenway, having firmly secured one of the three seats of the triumvirate, molded his own district in the city to be a sanctuary for the world's best and brightest; a small metropolis of tech companies, medical firms, science institutes, and engineering corporations. Today, the companies of the Evenway district have managed to achieve in half a decade what the best of their rivals in the United States have been unable to do in more than two; and Apex Corp is at the helm of innovation.


Ask anyone what he's like and everyone will say the same word at least once in their answer, "ambitious". Like the Evenways that came before him, Isaac rolls high and plays for keeps. Every possibility becomes opportunity, which then becomes an entire research division with practically limitless funding and support. Constantly seeing the best possible outcomes with every endeavor, Isaac is blessed with an incredible talent for optimism; which, in turn, creates several ethical blind spots. Often, Dr. Evenway rarely takes a second look into the morality of most of his corporation's more questionable programs. One case was the development of a serum that targeted human sexuality at the epigenetic level, seeking to actually change a person's orientation. The project was shut down in its infancy, but only after Isaac found out that the serum had been tested on his own son, Noah.

Apex Biomedical was founded in 2008 when a younger Dr. Isaac Evenway noticed the rampant pollution of politics in the world of science (most notably in areas of medical advancement). After the death of his wife later that same year due to cancer, Isaac made it Apex’s sole mission to develop an ultimate cure for the disease. While his efforts inevitably proved futile, his firm did make incredible strides in the field and unleashed a renaissance in the biomedical discipline. Half a decade later, when the gates to Safe Haven – the corporate-run city-state on the border of Maine and Quebec – opened up, Apex dropped “Biomedical” from its name and became a full corporation with ties to all different fields of scientific research.

Today, in 2026, Apex lives up to its very name, pushing humanity to a new era of technological advancement and comfort. In order to protect its many endeavors and highly classified research secrets, it has had to employ its own armed militia, the Apex Security Forces (ASF). This highly trained private army consists mostly of former military veterans from both U.S. and Canadian armed forces.

Apex has always been at the center of attention for media reports concerning the tech world. In 2018, the company was investigated by the Corporate Tasks Initiative, a U.S.-run intelligence program aimed at preventing white collar crime, industrial espionage, and other illicit business practices. The suspicion: development of a self-aware artificial intelligence; which had been banned on an international level following a binding U.N. resolution. CTI investigators could uncover no evidence of such a project; however, even after their withdrawal from the company's headquarters, the agency is keeping a close eye on Evenway's projects.

Later that same year, in partnership with another tech company that had recently opened up a new Safe Haven firm, Apex made an extraordinary breakthrough in nanotechnology. Together, both companies are looking into possible bio-medical applications ranging from reparative therapy to human augmentation.

By 2012, Apex's resources and assets had become valuable enough for rival companies to resort to industrial espionage. More than a hundred system network hacking attempts were made later that year by an unknown organization seeking out any kind of company secret that the hackers could get their hands on. Luckily, Apex's network was safe-guarded enough to thwart every attempt, but Evenway became increasingly concerned about the company's physical security as well, seeing the hacking attempts as merely the first rain drops of a coming storm. As a start, Apex sought out experienced contract security specialists with civil police or military history. To further ensure security within these ranks, the corporation only accepted applicants with clean and outstanding service records, opting for persons that had been awarded accommodations for prior performance over average nobodies. Finally, Isaac's fears of the inevitable came true when an Apex warehouse outside of Detroit was attacked by an extremist "pro-life" organization. Improvised explosive devices crafted to resemble pipe bombs resulted in twenty innocent lives lost and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to assets. The security posted at the warehouse was too thin to defend against the attackers and was overwhelmed.

In response, Evenway sought to bolster his security's ranks by recruiting hundreds more, all with different backgrounds and, again, exemplary service records. Six months after the warehouse attack, Apex's security was large enough to be considered a privately funded militia. Thus, Evenway finally referred to them as the "Apex Security Forces" at an official press conference. With headlines about the corporation's new "PMC" attracting the attention of seasoned veterans all over North America, the ASF saw yet another surge in troop numbers.

In 2014, the ASF were able to prove their worth when the same domestic terrorist organization attacked another isolated company-owned facility. Knowing what they were up against, the attackers came armed with more than just pipe bombs; bringing along semi-automatic firearms. However, while their explosives did initially cause havoc on the property, their ammunition was no match for the ASF's high-grade, Apex-developed body armor. They were also out-gunned by new state-of-the-art weapon systems that had also been designed by their employers. Prior training, greater numbers than before, and advanced technology gave the ASF a much-needed edge. Their success shocked both the media (which had been highly critical of Evenway's armed "militia") and the U.S. government. Instead of pressure from the Department of Homeland Security to scale back Apex's newly founded power, though, Evenway was lauded by offers from the DoD and DHS for contracts in the military industrial complex. Everything ended up being a win-win.

Today, the ASF continues to safe-guard Apex's properties and resources, which includes the company's most vital asset: their manpower. Apex employees are considered more valuable than the technology and results they produce. Threatening someone that works for the corporation usually results in the aggressor looking down the barrel of a gun or being face-planted into the pavement and detained with handcuffs (and that's when the ASF are having a good day).



With the launch of the Odysseus Program, a new model and purpose for the ASF was needed in order to maintain security beyond the Polyphemus gate and protect the adventuring explorers. Their role as security specialists on Earth isn't enough to take on Zamin; therefore, Commissioner Stone (the current highest ranking commanding officer of the ASF) suggested to Evenway that he allow her to organize an "expeditionary division" equipped with the technology, provisions, and training necessary to last in a potentially hostile, alien environment. To prepare, the selected candidates were put through rigorous training exercises that mirrored the pre-deployment training of modern militaries around the globe; modeling most of their organization off of the U.S. Army and Air Force expeditionary structure.

Outfitting the division with rugged, durable equipment became the Military R&D Department's (Section 10) highest priority for more than a year. Upgraded and retrofitted humvees, MRAPs, and MACVs rolled off the line with darkened color schemes and the Apex/ASF logos. Weapons were redesigned with multi-climate protection in mind, and hundreds of deployable power, living, and storage units were produced.

Commander Johnathan Titus was designated as the lead commanding officer of the officially dubbed Odysseus 1st Expeditionary Division.


A-Sec - Spoken or written shorthand for Apex Security Forces (it rolls off the tongue easier)
ASF - Apex Security Forces
Specialist - Members are called "specialists" because the ASF specialize in one very important concept: security. They are not contractors, soldiers, or mercenaries.
Officer - Not to be confused with the classification of ranks, when patrolling the streets of Safe Haven's Evenway District and acting as a police force, the ASF are considered "officers" (in a law enforcement capacity).
MRAP - Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (specially armored troop transport vehicle, mounted with Apex-designed remote turret gun)
MACV - Medium Armored Combat Vehicle (mounted with Apex-designed remote turret gun)


Unlike most known military ranking systems, ASF specialists are not split into officer and enlisted branches. Rather, specialists may advance to hold an officer rank once they have proven their ability to lead and maintain a collected mind under pressure. Further, many confuse members that are not officers as "enlisted", attempting to equate them to established military rank and file. However, this is not the case. The ASF operates with their own rank structure; so, those that might otherwise be considered "enlisted" are, quite simply, whatever rank they hold. An ASF sergeant is not "enlisted", he/she is a sergeant. With that said, the rank structure is as follows, from lowest to highest (also numbered by matching pay-grade)...

Private
Corporal
Corporal First-Class
--------------Non-Commissioned Officer Tier--------------
Sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Master Sergeant
--------------Commissioned Officer Tier--------------
Ensign
2nd Lieutenant
1st Lieutenant
Captain
Commander
Commissioner ... (reserved for the highest commanding officer of the ASF; answers directly to Dr. Evenway)