Project 13 Book One: From The Shadows

Chapter 1: A Brief History

Circa 2019

A few years ago, America elected the worst president in history. Tensions rose  as he tore apart everything that it stood for. Freedom- overrated, Equality- Nah: White males rule. Safety- Fear is better, Safe Harbor- why should we take in people other countries didn’t want?Nations already on the verge of conflict were pushed over the edge, especially after the re-election of the tyrant-president. World War III is the term given to the conflict that arose. Mexicans fought Americans and Radical Muslims caused organized terrorist attacks across the globe leading to an outright battle against terror, pulling the nations they lived in into the strife. America offended many of the great powers leading to battle over silly things. Then the nukes came.

Circa 2021

After three long years of fighting the radical Muslims, the nations chose to initiate protocol Alpha in attempt to destroy the forces battling them, initiating the nuclear warfare. Missiles hit all around the globe killing billions. Only about a billion people remain scattered across the globe.

Circa 2035

Nuclear fallout causes birth defects and radiation poisoning kills even more. Earth’s population dwindles to less than 10 million. Those that remain band together to create a floating structure that uses energy found in the earth’s atmosphere to keep itself in the air. The first floating city is born. As more people are brought to help 6 more follow suit. The 7 cities become a dreamy refuge from the disasters of earth. Hydroponic gardens, synthetic meats, and artificial production of various products allow normal life to thrive. Atmospheric domes are established to aid in pressure maintenance, weather is controlled for and life is a dream.

Circa 2050

A government has extensively established itself. It rules in an oligarchic fashion. An elite class is selected from to create a council that “Serves the people”. But unlike their seemingly innocent promises, the hidden meaning is that it “Serves the elite”. This government soon takes a turn for the worse and begins to limit the freedoms of the poor and people who are not amongst the elite families. In fear of rebellion, a program is established to keep them complacently in control. The Government created a competition for people to make the best defense mechanism for the nation.
Three brothers stepped up to the challenge, each with his own idea of the ultimate defense. The oldest, thought that a group of elite, highly trained and well outfitted warriors would be the best defense. The middle one thought it would be better to have robots that didn’t falter and couldn’t be swayed. The youngest, who was a very skilled geneticist, thought that the best defense would be to create a group of genetically modified persons that were essentially  made to be the ultimate weapons. Hence, Project 13 was born.
The youngest worked day and night for over 3 years until he had made a genetic modification that was successfully created and implanted, allowing the human it was placed in to function as a normal person after removal from life sustaining machinery. That was the first mutant. He did not survive long as his genes had a kill switch at 3 or so years that cut off his life, or so they think. This success led to the creation of the genomes for the rest of the thirteen though. The youngest had found something interesting; only certain people had a genetic code that his sequences could be inserted into. These persons came from specific regions of the old world that had been bombed early on in the war. This early nuclear weaponry had an odd effect on the survivor’s genome that made them more resilient to damage than others. It also possessed  the holding points of the genetic code that the creator wanted to insert. Hence the combination of his genetic strains and those from the nuclear blasts created the thirteen as practically indestructible.
He carried out these tests in a government facility located in a small sky base supposedly thousands of miles from the sky cities. These test tube creations were enhanced to grow from zygote to fetus to infant to child to adult size in a matter of months. A hard- regimented system trained them for all kinds of battle and strife. The subjects were tested against all kinds of threats from nuclear bombs to poison to being beaten to the point any normal human would die. However, every time they came back stronger than before. All seems to be managed sufficiently until one of them dies of uncertain circumstances. The facility shuts down unexpectedly, but the rumors still circulate  about the fabled Project 13.