(There's TL;DR section below if you're lazy to read... but you should)
The Story So Far
***Ark Ghost Archives Accessed***
TL;DR
This RP is set in an alternate earth with a similar history to ours, except technology is little more advanced. Project Genesis created a breed of superhumans designed to survive extinction events and rebuild society after they've occurred. Project Lazarus sought out legends and historical figures with the intention of "reviving" them a la Jurassic Park - believing that superhumans have existed before in our history and they're not myth or exaggerations.
Our characters are these superhumans, or regular humans with specific skillsets recruited for the cause. Nobody knows of our existence except a handful of people. We might not even know ourselves.
The rest of the story is a work in progress and very much dependent on the players (that means you). I haven't put down most of the backstory or lore because I'm still fleshing it out, but that's why this is under the Interest Check section.
So... anyone interested?
The Story So Far
***Ark Ghost Archives Accessed***
Doctor Blackburn
Ark Research Audio Log 1
6 May 1989 07:00PM
Hi... Is this thing recording? Oh, I guess it is.
After decades of hard work, research and bypassing international laws, we've finally caught a break. We've finally managed to set up the Ark. It helps that we're funded by a few government owned shell companies, I guess. The whole basis of our work is of immense value to them, even if they don't want to admit it to the public. In Genesis, after God sent the flood to cleanse the world, He made a promise to Noah that never again would he send such a flood to wipe out the entire planet again.
I don't think He ever accounted for the fact that we might do it to ourselves. Well, maybe He did, but that's whole free will argument, right? God will just sit by and let us destroy ourselves if that's the path we insist on? Anyway, it's why we built this place - and named it after Noah's ark. World War II, the Cold War, nuclear deterrents and all that - humanity has become way too adept at destruction. What if we create our own extinction event? What if one day all those warheads are no longer deterrents and someone does push that red button? Will we ever manage to survive a nuclear winter, or a meteor on a collision course, or the next Ice Age?
This Ark isn't just going to be a bunker of a chosen few meant to survive, no, this is where we're placing the hope of humanity. It's everything out of every fantasy or science fiction novel ever written and we are look for a way to make it real. We're planning for every eventuality and producing countermeasures - aliens, zombies, the Second Coming... well, maybe the last one is a little out of our reach but someone here is going to try.
I'm here to oversee Project Genesis - and create the next Noah. Well, metaphorically, anyway.
Doctor Blackburn
Ark Research Audio Log 2
Project Genesis
18 May 1989 08:50PM
The Ark is amazing. Well, I knew it would be when I first started working here, but I never thought it would be quite like this. The whole place is effectively a country on its own - we've got an independent supply of food, water, oxygen and electricity. The whole facility stretches across an entire city and is virtually undetectable. We don't want to draw any attention to ourselves, and we certainly don't want uninvited guests wandering in.
It's been almost two weeks since I started recording my work on Project Genesis. I must admit, when I started theorising with my colleagues about how we might go about self-directed evolution, it was mostly a dream. It mostly still is - no scientist with an ounce of common sense will tell you we can take God's place and just create a new life out of nothing. No, we're working with the base code this world was programmed with and we can't change that, but we can try to improve on the design or accelerate the growth of it. Do you know how much potential remains unlocked in our genetic material? If we can just find a way to unlock it...
Here lies the main problem with Project Genesis - you can't just 'hack' someone's DNA and give them new physical traits and give them superpowers, no matter what the comics say. No, when I said we were creating the next Noah, I meant it - the next incarnation of humanity with superhuman abilities that can survive nuclear winters, Ice Ages, ecological collapses. A simple search on the Internet and you can find many amazing stories of humans surviving impossible odds or doing incredible feats when threatened or fighting to survive. Imagine a whole race of individuals who can survive days in subzero temperatures, or fight lions off barehanded.
Unfortunately, this is where I fear the government's involvement in funding the Ark... A race of human beings who can survive extinction events is also an army of super-soldiers. My entire team is in agreement on this - we will do our best to ensure that the children born of Project Genesis will reflect the best of humanity. We've had less than 100 years of peace in recorded human history... I hope Project Genesis will be a step in prolonging that period.
Doctor Blackburn
Ark Research Audio Log 3
Project Lazarus
5 June 1989 07:00PM
Well, I am now placed in charge of a second project - Lazarus. Well, it falls pretty much in line with Genesis, and I have to credit Dr. Eva Core for her insight. She posited that perhaps the key to our future lies in our history. Stories and legends of famous warriors, or the existence of demigods and witches. What if these legends of Hercules, King Arthur, Merlin, of Oracles in Greece... what if they really existed or really managed to do the wonders they did? It would mean the goal of Project Genesis has already become reality - and all we really need to do is figure out how these characters of legend came to be?
The possibilities are endless - it would mean that superpowers could become a real thing in the future of humankind. Project Lazarus has been approved and has begun its work - locating possible descendants, burial sites, artifacts - anything that would give us the information we need... and if results are promising... if we are lucky and crazy enough to try... bring legends back to life. This is likely to be my last log in a long time. I suspect we will be kept quite busy for months.
Doctor Blackburn
Ark Research Audio Log 4
10 August 1990 07:00PM
Project Genesis is a reality. We have successfully created the first life of humanity's next generation. We're naming her Sarah. It may be a little presumptuous of us considering she's just a bundle of cells at this point, but we're hopeful. Project Lazarus bore fruit. To think that centuries, millenia of human history would be lighting our way forward...
Enhanced intelligence and physical abilities, hyper-regenerative abilities, increased endurance and tolerance for extreme conditions... Sarah is likely never going to fall sick, or get cancer, and any injuries she might suffer is likely to heal in days at most... well, at least if they aren't immediately fatal. We're hopefully not going to test her that far. I suppose those tests are going to have to wait - she's just a fetus right now and it'll be years before we can even observe any of these traits or even gain a glimpse of her ability.
We're already discussing how we'll proceed if Sarah does manage to fully develop. She has nature on her side, but she needs to be nurtured. I'm thinking of bringing her home with me, and I will raise her like my own daughter. The rest of my team agree that any child born of Project Genesis should be given a home and allowed to have a childhood. Some of them have even volunteered to adopt the next few children. We might be getting ahead of ourselves here, but we'll have to figure this out anyway. There's no way a handful of us could raise every single successful Genesis birth. We will have to get in touch with agencies, or find some way to get these children to loving homes.
Project Lazarus is still finding a way to resurrect, for lack of a better term, the genetic samples of legends we've found. We'll likely have to go the way of Genesis and raise them from infancy... but we are hopeful.
Doctor Blackburn
Ark Research Audio Log 5
30 October 1990
I've been a fool. How could I have been so blind? We discovered that the Ark servers were discreetly saving and uploading our files to a separate location. It seems the government agencies funding us have also been keeping tabs. I've moved all my research material onto a ghost server within the archives... but anything that's already been leaked will remain that way...
I'm not stupid either - they know about Sarah and they most likely have plans for her. I need to make sure she remains safe. We have other Genesis children in gestation, but they only know about Sarah so far - hopefully. My team and I are already looking at moving Project Genesis off the Ark... or at the very least, keeping our children safe.
Thank God for small mercies, our success with Lazarus came after we discovered the leak. We can protect Lazarus from them too. We want to find a way to ensure humanity survives an extinction event, not breed super-soldiers capable of creating them.
Doctor Blackburn
Final Audio Log
Date and Time Unknown
They got Sarah.
We've sent the other children away. Some of my team have gone off the grid. They're either out of the country with a baby in tow or looking for a family to raise them without alerting them. Project Lazarus has been declared a failure officially, but the babies from that project are on their way out of the government's reach too.
If only I didn't lose Sarah.
But I will find her.
Doctor Blackburn
Ark Audio Log
1 January 2000
It's been ten years.
I'm back at the Ark. It's fallen into disrepair and gathered an inch of dust... but we built this place to survive the end of the world. I return here with one purpose... to finish what I started. The world didn't end last night, but science has caught up to where the Ark was ten years ago - genetic research, human cloning, weapons research... I came back here to make sure whatever we discovered or created here remains buried.
I also returned to make sure the Ark never goes offline. I'm uploading an AI into the server known as Alice. She will be maintaining the Ark, ensuring its facilities keep running. Repair drones will be created for maintenance. Internet and news traffic will be monitored in an attempt to locate all the children of Projects Genesis and Lazarus. Alice will prioritise the location and contact of Sarah Blackburn.
She is where it begins and where it ends.
Sarah... if you're listening to this, then it means Alice found you. It also means you've seen every file and heard every audio log regarding Genesis and Lazarus. Now you know the truth... and you can finish what I started. Find your brothers and sisters. A storm is gathering, and all of you will be right at the center of it. I may never see you again but just as I hoped the Ark would be humanity's future, I pray it will become yours.
Sarah Blackburn
Ark Audio Log
7 June 2014
My name is Sarah Blackburn.
You might have heard of me from the news. Two months ago, I was simply one of those ghost agents the conspiracy nuts rant about. I was told from a young age that I was the future of humanity... I was being trained to protect the world from terrorists and evil men. Then I found the Ark.
Or it would be more accurate to say the Ark found me. Well, I did the logical thing anyone does when they found out they've been lied to... I confronted the people I work for with the truth and now, the world knows me as a serial killer and I'm being hunted.
If you're hearing this message... it means you've been invited. Or recruited. You may have never heard of me, or we've worked together before and you're the only one from my old life I trust with this. Regardless, there's a storm coming, and we're the only ones who can stop it.
TL;DR
This RP is set in an alternate earth with a similar history to ours, except technology is little more advanced. Project Genesis created a breed of superhumans designed to survive extinction events and rebuild society after they've occurred. Project Lazarus sought out legends and historical figures with the intention of "reviving" them a la Jurassic Park - believing that superhumans have existed before in our history and they're not myth or exaggerations.
Our characters are these superhumans, or regular humans with specific skillsets recruited for the cause. Nobody knows of our existence except a handful of people. We might not even know ourselves.
The rest of the story is a work in progress and very much dependent on the players (that means you). I haven't put down most of the backstory or lore because I'm still fleshing it out, but that's why this is under the Interest Check section.
So... anyone interested?
