"You wanted to speak with me, sir?" Miranda asked. She stood attentive, the artificial glow of the holograpic display surrounding her staining her appearance blue.
"Yes, I did," the Illusive man said, taking a pull on his cigarette. "Tell me, Miranda, what do you know about Project Hercules?"
Miranda's brow furrowed, and she frowned. "I'm sorry, but that doesn't ring a bell. Is it one of ours?"
"No. Truth be told, I would be surprised if you did know about it. Project Hercules is an Alliance initiative. It was a supersoldier project that was so top secret that it didn't even have a level of secrecy formally attached to it. No matter how much clearance you had, it wasn't enough to gain access from the outside. You were either involved, or you weren't. It operated on a strictly need-to-know basis."
Miranda raised her eyebrows, intreigued. "Supersoldier projects have been done before. Most either produce nothing, or have middling results that are put into the mainstream Alliance package, like the gene therapy developed by the Midway Project. What makes Hercules so special? What exactly did this project involve itself with?"
"The mission statement was to create a real, genuine one-man army. They were aiming for something above and beyond the normal soldier, or even elite commandos. They wanted to create individuals who were totally self-sufficient on the battlefield, a single soldier that could do the job of entire platoons and regiments. They wanted to create a soldier that could walk into a battlefield with nothing and win, single-handedly. A single soldier with all the skills, stopping power, and battlefield presence of a hundred men."
"That hardly sounds possible, or even plausible. It sounds more like a fairy tale than a realistic goal. Why would they attempt something like that?"
The Illusive man blew out a stream of smoke, and put out his cigarette. "Because they had something they felt would allow them to succeed. A technology that had been acquired. And before you ask, no, I'm not sure as to the nature of this technology or where it came from, merely that they had it, and that they believed it could be used in such a manner."
"How did they go about it? What exactly were they doing?"
"The project first singled out individuals who met certain strict criteria. These candidates were all selected from a pool of military personnel. Because the Alliance does mandatory gene therapy to all of it's recruits, they have complete genetic records on file for everyone who has enlisted. They selected servicewomen and the wives of servicemen who were expecting, and using the military funded health-plans, filtered their unborn children for certain genetic markers and criteria. Those pregnant women who had children that passed were then flagged to be exposed to Element Zero in various arranged accidents, and have their children undergo various prenatal retroviral gene therapies under the guise of standard checkup injections. The end result was a small pool of genetically ideal children from military backgrounds with a high probability of biotic talent. After that, the project shifted gears, and focused on the children themselves. They were psychologically profiled, and many were rejected based on just that criteria alone. Those that passed and enlisted were closlely monitered, and circumstances were engineered to have them shifted from different posts and fields, from engineering and armor division to reconnisance, special operations, and fighting on the front lines. All of this, just to find the individuals who excelled at everything, and thus could, by the project's definitions, serve as a 'one man army.'"
"That's all very interesting, but you used the past-tense to describe the project. Since I haven't heard of any human superheros flying around saving the galaxy, then they must have failed."
"Project Hercules was deemed a failure by those that initiated it, yes."
"Don't tell me you want me to help restart it as a Cerberus project? I'm already tied up chasing one pipe dream. I just don't have the time, or the resources, to take on that sort of-"
The Illusive man raised his hand, interrupting her. "I'm not asking you to restart the Hercules Project, Miranda. In fact, I'm not going to ask you to take on any more projects than what you already have."
Miranda didn't say anything, but the unspoken question was clear. With a gesture of his hand, three holographic documents sprang into existence in front of Miranda.
"According to data that was recently recovered by a deep-cover Cerberus operative, there were four subjects for Project Hercules that made it into the final stages, having passed all other qualifying criteria. The first, Lieutenant Commander Carl Simms, was severely crippled by a Batarian IED in the Skyllian Verge, and has retired from the military to live with his wife and two sons on Earth. The second, Corporal Marcus Anthony, has led a distinguished but unremarkable career in the Valkerie 82nd Armored Division. And the third, Corporal Richard Jenkins, was confirmed KIA in the Eden Prime incident."
"With such severe losses and no real payoff, I can see why they would have scrapped the project. But that's only three. Who-?" She stopped, and slowly her eyes widened as she realized exactly the Illusive Man had called her.
"It's him."
The Illusive Man's artificial irises glinted as he pressed a button on his chair. "I've quadrupled the budget of the Lazarus Project. I trust I do not have to explain why. Furthermore, your orders have changed. Lazarus's mind must remain exactly as it was, and I still want biosynthetics wherever possible. However, Lazarus is to be outfitted with integrated neural laces. The Blacklight and Final Element cells have been consolidated into the Artemis cell, and have been given the task of creating a streamlined package that includes ocular synthetic processors, an ablation armor system, and a tactical cloak generator. Artemis will file it's reports with you, and you will need to coordinate your efforts to ensure that the neural lacings are compatible with the system suite they are developing, and that the musculature micro-fiber and ossium reinforcements are up to par."
Priding herself on her professionalism, Miranda maintained her demenor, though on the inside her mind was racing a thousand miles an hour. "I see. Is there anything else?"
"Yes. The Final Element cell was able to successfully reverse-engineer it's principle artifact. You will continue stimulating Lazarus's latent biotic nodes in preperation for the wetware installation, but you won't be using the L5ns. Instead, you will be using the L6s. Artemis will send you the details on the necessary wetware specs."
"Yes, I did," the Illusive man said, taking a pull on his cigarette. "Tell me, Miranda, what do you know about Project Hercules?"
Miranda's brow furrowed, and she frowned. "I'm sorry, but that doesn't ring a bell. Is it one of ours?"
"No. Truth be told, I would be surprised if you did know about it. Project Hercules is an Alliance initiative. It was a supersoldier project that was so top secret that it didn't even have a level of secrecy formally attached to it. No matter how much clearance you had, it wasn't enough to gain access from the outside. You were either involved, or you weren't. It operated on a strictly need-to-know basis."
Miranda raised her eyebrows, intreigued. "Supersoldier projects have been done before. Most either produce nothing, or have middling results that are put into the mainstream Alliance package, like the gene therapy developed by the Midway Project. What makes Hercules so special? What exactly did this project involve itself with?"
"The mission statement was to create a real, genuine one-man army. They were aiming for something above and beyond the normal soldier, or even elite commandos. They wanted to create individuals who were totally self-sufficient on the battlefield, a single soldier that could do the job of entire platoons and regiments. They wanted to create a soldier that could walk into a battlefield with nothing and win, single-handedly. A single soldier with all the skills, stopping power, and battlefield presence of a hundred men."
"That hardly sounds possible, or even plausible. It sounds more like a fairy tale than a realistic goal. Why would they attempt something like that?"
The Illusive man blew out a stream of smoke, and put out his cigarette. "Because they had something they felt would allow them to succeed. A technology that had been acquired. And before you ask, no, I'm not sure as to the nature of this technology or where it came from, merely that they had it, and that they believed it could be used in such a manner."
"How did they go about it? What exactly were they doing?"
"The project first singled out individuals who met certain strict criteria. These candidates were all selected from a pool of military personnel. Because the Alliance does mandatory gene therapy to all of it's recruits, they have complete genetic records on file for everyone who has enlisted. They selected servicewomen and the wives of servicemen who were expecting, and using the military funded health-plans, filtered their unborn children for certain genetic markers and criteria. Those pregnant women who had children that passed were then flagged to be exposed to Element Zero in various arranged accidents, and have their children undergo various prenatal retroviral gene therapies under the guise of standard checkup injections. The end result was a small pool of genetically ideal children from military backgrounds with a high probability of biotic talent. After that, the project shifted gears, and focused on the children themselves. They were psychologically profiled, and many were rejected based on just that criteria alone. Those that passed and enlisted were closlely monitered, and circumstances were engineered to have them shifted from different posts and fields, from engineering and armor division to reconnisance, special operations, and fighting on the front lines. All of this, just to find the individuals who excelled at everything, and thus could, by the project's definitions, serve as a 'one man army.'"
"That's all very interesting, but you used the past-tense to describe the project. Since I haven't heard of any human superheros flying around saving the galaxy, then they must have failed."
"Project Hercules was deemed a failure by those that initiated it, yes."
"Don't tell me you want me to help restart it as a Cerberus project? I'm already tied up chasing one pipe dream. I just don't have the time, or the resources, to take on that sort of-"
The Illusive man raised his hand, interrupting her. "I'm not asking you to restart the Hercules Project, Miranda. In fact, I'm not going to ask you to take on any more projects than what you already have."
Miranda didn't say anything, but the unspoken question was clear. With a gesture of his hand, three holographic documents sprang into existence in front of Miranda.
"According to data that was recently recovered by a deep-cover Cerberus operative, there were four subjects for Project Hercules that made it into the final stages, having passed all other qualifying criteria. The first, Lieutenant Commander Carl Simms, was severely crippled by a Batarian IED in the Skyllian Verge, and has retired from the military to live with his wife and two sons on Earth. The second, Corporal Marcus Anthony, has led a distinguished but unremarkable career in the Valkerie 82nd Armored Division. And the third, Corporal Richard Jenkins, was confirmed KIA in the Eden Prime incident."
"With such severe losses and no real payoff, I can see why they would have scrapped the project. But that's only three. Who-?" She stopped, and slowly her eyes widened as she realized exactly the Illusive Man had called her.
"It's him."
The Illusive Man's artificial irises glinted as he pressed a button on his chair. "I've quadrupled the budget of the Lazarus Project. I trust I do not have to explain why. Furthermore, your orders have changed. Lazarus's mind must remain exactly as it was, and I still want biosynthetics wherever possible. However, Lazarus is to be outfitted with integrated neural laces. The Blacklight and Final Element cells have been consolidated into the Artemis cell, and have been given the task of creating a streamlined package that includes ocular synthetic processors, an ablation armor system, and a tactical cloak generator. Artemis will file it's reports with you, and you will need to coordinate your efforts to ensure that the neural lacings are compatible with the system suite they are developing, and that the musculature micro-fiber and ossium reinforcements are up to par."
Priding herself on her professionalism, Miranda maintained her demenor, though on the inside her mind was racing a thousand miles an hour. "I see. Is there anything else?"
"Yes. The Final Element cell was able to successfully reverse-engineer it's principle artifact. You will continue stimulating Lazarus's latent biotic nodes in preperation for the wetware installation, but you won't be using the L5ns. Instead, you will be using the L6s. Artemis will send you the details on the necessary wetware specs."
