#evolution project

Citadel 54 “Titor Jaraba”, you have been summoned to Castrum Solus by order of Tribune Lysander sas Theius. This subpoena is mandatory and your presence is expected at the Castrum foregrounds no later than three days from this summons issue date.

If you cannot commit to this summons, a military escort will insure that you do.

Regards,

Castrum Solus Relations Third Legion; second cohort

@thetitor ]

[Interested? Here’s the rest!]

I have personally reviewed each proposal you included within your letter. While each is beneficial to the unit in question, the correction of these failures, as you named them, will neutralize the unit from its original purpose of being a critical component of the Evolution Project. For your education, I have included a brief description of Model #0271′s purpose.

Previous failures to upgrade unit #0271 to a combat subject have lead it to be what it is today, and in an attempt to scrap it, we discovered the adaptive nanites implanted into him along with his fluid genetic code allow us to mold it into a perfect catalyst for the crux of the Evolution Project’s goals. Included within Model #0271 is an Allagan-derived node that regulates aetheric flow into a body coded “CHIMER-I” [Cybrid Host Integration and Manager of Evolution Regulation - Intelligence] model. The atrophy you see is a failsafe to keep the unit from abusing its own features and overwhelming its systems with growths and cancers that cannot be mended with surgery due to the reactive nanite swarm utilized within it. Even with current failsafes, mutations have formed on the unit. These mutations come from the nanite swarm harvested from unit #0230, a failed and now inactive disposal unit of the Colossus Project, from a partial incompatibility. Its design is meant to observe, learn rapidly, and reproduce beneficial mutations, benefiting the unit overall as a blend of two very different technologies.

Why I have elected to cross two units in a single being brings me to the purpose of the Evolution Project, which is the creation of higher mechanical advancements, prosthetic, and tissue development through the combination of traits found in foreign populations. Their genetic study has brought us great advancements in medical treatments for our nation’s own citizens. By the creation of a living project chimera, we have proven the compatibility of particular cores within a single body. This compatibility will theoretically be used to revive broken soldiers and improve new ones for the Empire’s purposes.

You have a great many ideas, yet I must decline their use in my subject #0271, for it could greatly destabilize what I have worked so hard to balance. A single misstep from your project could cause a genetic unraveling and result in a cascade that kills this unit. If you remove the failsafe that results in atrophy, you will be left with a tumor-ridden pile of flesh incompatible with life.

If you wish to further your ideas, submit a resume to Castrum Solus officials and we will review your worth. This subject no longer belongs to the Colossus Project or its development team. If you or your team continue to tamper with it without official request forms being filed with our team, I will inform you now that the subject contains remote access controls to its termination protocols that we are more than content to utilize, Citadel 54.

Tribunus Lysander sas Theius Head of Research and Development Of Evolution Magitek Prostheses Third Legion; Second Cohort

When a group of Imperial Shadows sneaked onto an unmarked ship, the stage had already been set for disaster. The Tribune, Lysander sas Theius, had been recently injured by an unknown woman. Gunshot through the head, and through his innovations, his support from mutants he had made, he survived. He survived enough to board the ship intending to deliver cargo back to Solus, organize private transport, and transfer one of his prized units to an unknown officer. The other remained at Solus waiting for his return.

I didn't get there in time.

The cargo ship crashed in the rolling fields below the Sea of Clouds, in the rocky plateau that tore the transport ship to shreds on its spines. The skeleton crew that had traveled with the ship, if they weren't murdered, now lay across the field in no better shape than the ship. Body parts and blood scattered over the stone and the fallen.

They had bound him, frozen him to the ship, and held him down until the last moment. The impact shattered the ice. Being near to the cockpit, the nose of the ship crushed inward, and everything behind it.

Among all the wreckage pushed out a bloody hand, thin yet elegant, duskwight skin, to grip the nearest object. The hand slapped metal with a bloody splat, smearing when the fingers closed. Another hand followed, but could not get the wreckage free. Trembling, the hand opened up and pointed a finger skyward, turning the wrist over. Water flooded the crashed belly of the ship and pushed the machines up and away. They tumbled aside with loud bangs and sparking electronics. Unit 305 gasped for clean air in the smoke, coughing up a blue-tinted blood from crushed ribs. He set his head down to try and process all that happened. He remained that way only for 15 minutes, but it felt like he slipped into a sleep. He stirred with another cough.

His water remained spilled out of two devices in his back, near his shoulders. One of the turbines sounded damaged. The fan blade of a propeller had broken off and become lodged. It hindered that side from managing the water flow with the precision he was used to. They flowed out a viscous water that rested around him like broken wings.

"Father", he grunted to get himself pushed up. His right arm crumbled. Broken. He hit the paneling with a sharp pain electrocuting him. In his frustration, he drew his other hand across the air and summoned up a blade of wind to carve the broken appendage off. He reached over and tossed it aside while the bleeding stub began to bubble with water. He got himself to his feet after that and staggered. His missing arm would take a moment to rebuild, giving him enough time to take in the sight.

Fire. Carnage. Smoke. Sparks. The sky had dulled against the gray. It left a unit who had seen war awestruck. It was then that he realized, if he was here, Theius had to be under the same paneling. Theius had taken one of 305's crystals and kept it on his person for emergencies. If the crystal became wet, the unit could use it to travel. Thankfully, someone had attempted to drown the man while the crystal sat in the pocket of his mouth. It meant the subject had teleported inside of the man, and if he stood now free, that meant the frozen body had...

"Father! Father!" the elezen screamed. He turned to dig down and throw metal aside using the one good arm and one water pillar that held its form. He was finding pieces of other soldiers. There was blood and soot making a black paste over everything. He threw pieces aside until he found a familiar body, shattered into three major chunks. The upper body with one arm still attached, a fissure severing the other from the flank, and the final a broken line across the back. Purple fluids drenched the area. The subject had barely reformed his arm and he was trying to check vitals in the broken body. The bloody fingers found nothing. "I", he whispered. "No this can't- ... help!" He stood up and shouted into the wreckage. "Did anyone survive!? Anyone! I need a medic! I can't heal! I can't heal!" he screamed with no answer. He hesitantly ran away from the site trying to find anyone, but no one made it but him. His eye scanned everything, and found nothing. He didn't make it far from the body, turning back to be at the body's side. "This can't be. You haven't fixed me yet! You have to fix me!! I need to heal you!"

He held a shaking hand over the corpse. If he cast any magic, it would drain the aether left from the body rather than add to it. His healing energy never flowed in the right direction. He could only take into himself, as a disposal, and kill. His instincts to clean the gore up were stronger than anything else right now save for his want to fix this body. "Please, move. Get up. Do anything. Signal", he begged. "Please."

There was no answer.

305 turned over his hand to look at it in silent question of why it couldn't heal. He hated his hands in that moment. Their image swirled when tears welled up in the way of his vision. He failed. That's all he could think. He failed to save the Tribune. He failed to be fixed. He could only destroy. The elezen placed that hand now on the shoulder of the body so he could dip his head low and sob as loudly as this now private ground zero would permit.

He wept. He wept for a long time. All the work needing to be yet done, all of the intentions, lost. His pooling tears made only a small few drops next to the leviathan of water that spilled out of his augmented back. It gave him something to stare at for the time being, watching them mix with blood and dirt from the Tribune's robes. "Is this all I can do for you?" he asked. He reached down to turn the body over to see the face, just so he could see how mangled the Shadows had made it, fuel for his vengeance. He also wished to harvest any cores of brethren the Tribune had used on himself. It was turning the man over that shocked him.

Freshly implanted with stitches still in place was a false eye where the man had lost his own to a bullet. The design caught 305's attention because of its familiarity. Gently, a finger lifted Theius' lid to see it better. Black, glossy glass with a still reactive shutter of a mechanical device. The artificial pupil expanded and analyzed the elezen reflected in its surface. Without thinking, all 305 could utter on a hush was, "My other eye." He came to a moment later when he realized what he said. He touched at his own false eye as a reaction. "What am I saying", he mouthed.

He jolted.

"A-.. A data node! It's the same model! Father! Father, answer me!" he rushed to say speaking to the eye now. "I'm here! I need orders! What do I do!?" Though, he got no answer. The node reacted and continued to read visuals, but nothing more. 305 leaned back trying to think. His eyes darted back and forth while his mind raced. What could he do now? "There's nothing I can do. I'm just an executioner, Father", he whined. He would stare for a long time. His wandering eyes found no answer.

His brow furrowed after a moment and his eyes settled on the mechanical eye again. The Evolution Project was all about this man's vision of combining elements from units, creatures, humans, anything. 305 looked now at his commander wearing an eye made for units, sending signals like one. He reached forward to pick up the top half of the corpse and flip it onto its back. The spine made it difficult, but enough force turned the body over. The subject looked at his commander and spoke, "I have to believe your theory will work." He reared back a hand to pierce the socket and retrieve the false eye from the body's skull. His slender hand pushed flesh out of the way to pry out the eye. "I have to believe you are in here. I can save you, if you are", he said getting more determined, and more fearful. The moment the eye left the socket, the water that spilled all over lifted off the ground in a span. The blades of wind organized themselves into rows of deadly beauty. The side with the broken turbine shuddered and faltered occasionally as the water tried to maintain its crystalline clear state.

Most of all, the elezen seemed beyond hurt with what he was considering, but given what he was intending to do, he hated himself for event thinking it, but it could work. It could work. With the false eye gripped in hand, the water he commanded carefully collected the mangled flesh. There was another node yet to collect from the body, but the elezen would find it sooner or later, because he intended to go through every part when he disposed of the body. Not discarding it, no. Doing the one job Father promised to take from him, taking the aether from the fallen into one’s self and using it, the cannibal unit ate. 305 rarely, if ever, consumed using his mouth. He always allowed his water to cleanly dissolve the bodies out of sight and deliver the aether to him. In the privacy of this open field among the rocks and sky, he knelt down with the blanket of water to canopy over them both, and he took the flesh that remained of his commander. The subjects of the Colossus Project believed disposals were foul things, grim reapers, and symbols of death. However, there was an equally strong belief that to be eaten by one was to continue living within them. They were death and the governors of souls.

It’s not over, Father. You have too much to do. I promise to mend you. I swear on it!

After feeding on the entirety of the remains, the bloody handed and red-mouthed subject opened his mouth one more time, shark-like, jagged teeth accepting the false eye he gripped the entire time. Without doing more than setting the device on his tongue with extreme care...

He swallowed.

Figure 1: technician sketches of modifications made to unit #0271.

Beginning from the head, unit #0271 has developed multiple, keratinous growths around his eye and ear which are benign but have spread significantly over the course of testing. A successful implantation of specialized glands were fitted below the tongue, resulting in a saliva with a pH of 1, by grafting stomach parietal cells and additional, sulfur-producing cells xenotransplanted from chimera tissues. Because of the low pH, further implantation and specialization of the teeth followed due to the bone wearing away rapidly. #0271’s teeth fall out frequently. Do not be alarmed to find a few on the cell floor come morning. With the use of reptoid tissues, each tooth socket has been upgraded to produce a constant flow of dental growth with cyclic pauses to create rings and layers within the tooth. Each tooth contains three to four true teeth within the crown. As the acid wears away the top crown, the tooth below is permitted more space to spread and grow, and so forth. When the crown has become brittle, it disconnects from the gum line and falls free, revealing a fresh tooth below. The procedure used to create this effect resulted in expressed hyperdontia of both jaws. Please ensure that this unit maintains a high intake of mineral supplementation so that bone production is not hindered.

Moving down the body, #0271 has been fitted with the core of the same number by replacing the true heart with the new aetheric pump #0271 is designed to be. On board ceruleum is not required with this unit thanks to this core, which draws in energy as its flow-rate increases. When the unit becomes stressed or taxed, aether flows in to supply the subject with the requirements needed to survive the situation at hand. A rapid flow often results in new growth and aetheric exposure mutations. This is the only disposal unit forbidden from having any aetheric supplementation. Absorption is poor. What is not taken in will be wasted regardless.

#0271 has a gastric basin along with others in its class, and no major modifications have been made here beyond the standard. Please see to the guide for disposal anatomy for details on this alteration. All energy intake must be strictly controlled in this unit.

The left arm has been fitted with a standard model arm blade, while the right hand bares our new innovation in prosthetic tendons. For the left, the model of arm blade chosen is the common scythe model with an extendable reach and grip. For the right hand, each tendon on the posterior side of the palm has been removed and replaced with a metal sheath that houses a line hooked to chemical storage that help the unit produce venom, toxins, and other chemicals ingested and saved. These toxic materials exude at each fingertip just below the nail. Utilize extreme caution.

As a side, you may notice a shifting below the flesh on the back of this unit. This is normal. Below the skin, a vestigial appendage developed as a side effect to multiple testing with a classified chemical. This chemical resulted in the multiple skin mutations you see covering the unit’s body. The two bone-type mutations that occurred with use of this chemical was an extension of the coccyx and formation of minor upper limbs that remain webbed into the skin upon growth. These appear as wings when the unit has been fed enough energy, but their size fails to meet any standard worth usefulness, but surgical removal did not seem necessary. It was believed such a removal would cause undue stress to the unit, and result in more rapid, uncontrolled mutations.

Finally, due to severe mutations at the most distal portions of the legs, several toes required amputation. The mutations have since stabilized. The skin has become hard and extremely stiff around the majority of the remaining toes, so this unit often elects to wrap its feet in cloth when walking around. These make-shift talons are sharpened by the unit electively. Please clip or file down excessively sharp nails to prevent injury to handlers.

This unit functions regardless of location, so see to it that it is kept within its holding chamber at all times and monitored at feeding times. Excessive cruelty has been seen with this subject, so handle with care. If at any time the documented weight of this unit exceeds the threshold, notify staff and see that the meals are held and only hydration is given under it stabilizes. Remove all stimuli and stressors. Below will list the discovered stages to date in this unit regarding this growth, and how to best handle it.

Stage one: This is the common stage you’ll find this subject in. It is a thin, boney build where many of the mutations are at their most dormant. The unit is not very strong in this stage and suffers afflictions from its own poisons. It will eat and sleep as some of its only functions for this stage.

Stage two: This occurs when any amount of true stress has been applied to the unit and resulted in its core pacing at a higher rate. A subtle yet rapid development of bone and muscle occurs to fill out the gaunt figure and prepare the unit for an average battle. It is equivalent to a common combat unit in this stage.

Stage three: Continued stress results in an abundance of new muscle tissue and extensions of bone that create increased stature and durability. This stage is marked from the previous one due to the protrusions of the vestigial upper limbs behind the scapulae. When they erupt, the unit has moved into the next stage. Skin is prone to tearing from growth and the subject will display higher than average drive from hunger to sustain its new form.

Stage four: High levels of stress and stimuli are required to obtain this mode. The vestigial wings finally erupt and the coccyx elongates into a thin tail. The original tail root forms the head of a small barb on the tip of the tail. Due to extreme, sudden development of tissues, multiple tears at joints and across larger muscle systems will occur in this stage and be healed by the unit’s own factors. Development continues so long as there is a purpose to do so, or there is a severe enough injury in the unit to permit it. The toxins in the subject’s body are extremely potent by this stage.

Stage five: The most recently discovered stage marked by extension of the tail and an increase in height above twenty fulms. The tail marks maturity when a venomous pouch at the tip becomes engorged. This feature is derived from use of chimerae tissues which the unit was permitted to feast on at the time of this stage’s development. Unit #0271’s innate ability to pick up traits of what it is exposed to appears to work genetically, too, and so multiple feedings were allowed of wild-type and contained specimens to refine this stage. Ensure that if this stage is ever reached outside of the lab that no unwanted specimens are taken by the unit. Energy requirements in this level are so high that the unit is prone to eating anything, including staff, to satisfy. Ceruleum compounds are strictly forbidden.

Stages beyond this are near impossible to promote due to cost and energy restrictions for the Project. Extreme measures were taken in an attempt to reach a sixth stage. However, no advance was made. Documentations of further expressed hyperdontia and overproduction of venom within the tail pouch were reported, but these changes were not enough to justify classification of a new stage. Further research is required.

(Scrawled in quill ink is a small note below)