"Well...I guess I don't have much of anything to lose. I don't have any memories dating back more than a couple of months; I know virtually nothing about who I am other than my own name, how I came to be and why."
-"Omega" Arrik Felsen to Aizu Tsukihime
Project Dragonchild was a genetic engineering program done in secret by a group that later became the Belkan Waldreich with the intent of creating cloned supersoldiers. The only gene template known for this top secret project was the late fighter pilot Erik Felsen, and from him, two clones were created, both named Arrik Felsen, and with the designations "Alpha" and "Omega". Alpha did as intended and joined the Belkan Waldreich, while Omega was left in stasis until Osean Special Forces recovered him. The two would later become bitter enemies, and both came to want to kill each other.
Overview[]
The total extent of Project Dragonchild is unknown, but it is known from both Alpha and Omega that they succeeded in giving a normally ordinary clone incredible, superhuman abilities including the following:
- Greatly enhanced sensory ability
- Extremely high pain threshold.
- Enhanced immune system.
- Reaction Time increased by 300%.
- Intelligence increased by 200% (based on IQ testing of Alpha).
- Extremely high G-tolerance (can withstand up to 20 Gs without blacking out, eliminating the need of a G-suit in aerial combat).
- Short-term memory improved by 200%.
- Vastly improved stamina.
- Altered muscle tissue giving greater strength for the same mass, but uses more energy. Increased stamina more than compensates for this.
The only drawback to this is that the minds of these clones are extremely unstable and resulted in them developing distinctive mental and personal traits. This manifested itself differently for Alpha and Omega.
Also, due to their enhanced nervous system, the drawback to that is EXTREME SUSCEPTIBILITY TO ELECTRIC SHOCK.
Unexpected Results[]
Alpha and Omega were both created not to feel emotions, or question their orders, but of course, the human mind isn't so simple as to be controllable by computer. Although Alpha for the most part became what he was intended to be (what we would call a homicidal psychopath) due to trauma sustained during the Corporate War, Omega's development took an unexpected turn after a few weeks into the Dragonchild War.
Omega was able to develop a far different personality from Alpha; he was very introverted, unlike his template or Alpha, and was quiet compared to most pilots (though at first he was extremely cold and forboding, almost mechanically so). He was very much aware of himself and the nature of his existence, and in fact he seemed ashamed by the fact that he was a clone, an "abomination" as he put it once. He also developed a much more durable mind that is capable of adapting to virtually anything, but most surprising of all, he seemed to develop a very strong bond with his squadmates, particularly Aizu Tsukihime, and may perhaps see her as more than just another comrade. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, but evidence that is already known makes it highly probable.
Revival[]
In 2048, Project Dragonchild was secretly resumed on order of the new Belkan government, with the hopes of creating less modified clone soldiers that although would have less capability than either Alpha or Omega (both of whom have been considered superior to over three hundred normal soldiers in terms of combat effectiveness on the ground alone), they would be far more cost effective, as fifty of them could be grown and trained for the cost to train Alpha.
The first of these was created from the mind of a seventeen-year-old girl of the Waldreich Youth: A girl only known as of yet as either "Jane" or "Harpie". When Alpha was informed of the revival, he seemed genuinely happy; most attributed this to him not being 'alone' per say, but the truth was that this meant that he could implement his true plans sooner than he had thought; within a year if prepared properly. In secret, he also provided genetic samples of each pilot in the Wywyrm Air Command Squadron as templates for new soldiers and was later able to obtain genetic samples from the members of the Saber Team (except Omega). What he intended to do with these clones was unknown at the time.
As later hinted at by Dylan Foulke, the grandson of Larry "Solo-Wing Pixy" Foulke and the future number six pilot in the revived Razgriz Air Command Squadron, that Alpha intended to use Project Dragonchild to create a personal army to implement his plans; it was at first believed that he intended to revive Ouroboros, which was only half true. His true intent was something much darker and more malevolent; using this army along with the Belkan Waldreich's military might (including the radically new Raumflotte space fleet), he would systematically exterminate the majority of the world's population in what he would later call "the next step in human evolution", as he believed himself and others like him to be better than the rest of the human race and that it was nothing more than evolutionary natural selection.
Of course, by the time his plans were revealed, it was almost too late to stop him.
(Continuing later)