Lexicon:Genomic Resequencing
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My continuing exploration of Marshall Bradwell's documents has not proved to be very enlightening. By that, I mean that it has raised more questions than it has answered.
He seems to have theorized that a NecroTech humanitarian aid project somehow went awry and caused the Outbreak that has swept Malton. He believes that Project Sunrise, a NecroTech attempt to "bring a new dawn to the Dark Continent" (from a NT memo) went awry.
His notes attempt to explain the technical side to the best of his ability, but it is still far beyond my comprehension. What I was able to understand indicates that NecroTech was attempting to modify human genes in order to slow the human metabolism. The changes would reduce the amount of food and water a person needed to uptake for survival. The goal was to reduce the infrastructure demands in the third world by lessening demand for imported foodstuffs. NecroTechnicians also noted the side effect of decelerated aging. His notes indicate that project was successful in initial studies, but to be applied on anything approaching a large scale, the genetic manipulation would have to take place in the womb.
However, a solution was proposed. It is known that retrovirii have the ability to use a cell to carry out reproduction through modification of the host DNA. It was proposed that a virus be developed that would "infect" all cells in the body and make the desired changes. The initial group of volunteers responded well to the therapy. However, to reduce the cost of distribution, it was decided that the disease needed to be aerosolized, and it was at this point that the virus was combined with H5N1 strain of the avian flu. The resulting product was called Agent 50.
However, according to a NecroTech memo that Bradwell found, the Agent 50 strain of the virus mutated during trials and began to act in a manner not predicted by the researchers. His notes record that the paper trail dried up, except for a scribbled mention that the fast acting Agent 51 could provide a pseudo-cure for Agent 50.
Blake Arnold
- Darth Sensitive 23:46, 3 May 2006 (BST)
- References: Agent 51, Marshall Bradwell, Necrotech, Project Sunrise
