Red Virus, The WIP

The Red Virus is a contingency developed by Richard Lemming at the behest of Bruce Vanlouen. Richard Lemming’s work in genetic engineering consistently rivaled the capabilities of Vanlouen Industries, which not only frustrated Bruce, but made him grow concerned for his own safety if there should be an accident. Bruce urged Richard to implement a protocol designed to destroy all of his creations in the event that they revolted or grew out of control. Of particular concern was Lemming’s so-called “boys,” which were beings of frightening power and sophistication. Bruce believed Rich’s control of his creations to be tenuous at best, and some kind of event to be imminent.

The Red Virus was created as a way to completely eradicate all of Rich’s genetic monstrosities in one fell swoop. It is a designer pathogen which targets deliberately placed DNA markers in all of Rich’s creations. Its name likely comes from the resulting “Red Goo” which is the result of the virus’ work on a victim, reducing their biomass to a bloody jelly and then self destructing.

Richard was wary of creating such a pathogen and deploying it in the wild. A virus’ rate of reproduction, even if it was carefully designed, could potentially lead to mutations. Richard was concerned from the onset of The Red Virus project that it could spread to the general population, converting the entire planet into a puddle of red slime.

On June 16th, at 1:24PM, the Red Virus was deployed by a reluctant Richard Lemming in order to stop the rampant reproduction of his most recent batch of “dig-dig boys,” which were overwhelming Bruce Vanlouen’s mercenary army and automated defenses. As per protocol, upon activation of the system, samples of the Red Virus were deployed into the atmosphere from all of VanLouen Industries global network of black sites and properties. The Red Virus reached global saturation in a matter of hours and successfully converted all of Richard’s creations into red slime.

Richard’s concern for his friends and family may have betrayed a hidden secondary contingency within the Red Virus Protocol. His instructions informed exposed persons to bury themselves deep underground and wait. Considering that a great deal of Richard’s creations are in fact worms, this may mean that a large number of organisms weathered the Red Virus’ deployment.

There is also evidence to suggest that a number of Richard’s most intelligent creatures have gone to lengths to escape their master and have their genetic code rewritten to remove his markers from their DNA. Richard is currently tracking one individual, thought to be an Alpha Boy from approximately three years ago, who escaped during the battle of the cave. This individual renamed himself Tom Condor and left the planet in search of technology advanced enough to liberate himself from Richard forever. Tom Condor is currently leading a rebellion on Lahjax Prime.