Project Frog-Man

Many of the SPBs in the campaign came about because of one or more Federal Government programs researching this or that. The earliest , and probably most successful, was the Frog-Man project initiated by the Defence Department in 1941 to produce amphibious super-soldiers to combat the Japanese in New Guinea and the Pacific.

The Frog-Man project produced 1 success and 19 corpses from 20 volunteers. The success came from the very first experiment, the conditions of which were never properly understood or reproduced, and in late 1943 the program was shut down. The single success, later revealed to the patriotic Australian public as Frog-Man (The Unknown Soldier) fought the Japanese together with the much-loved Digger and the less well-known Wandjina (an aboriginal soldier). All three survived the war, though Wandjina died not long afterwards.

Project Green

In 1971 the Defence Department, again interested in producing amphibious super-soldiers (though this time with police actions in mind) and with confidence in their advances since WW2, created Project Green to build on the work of the Frog-Man project. A newly employed scientist, Dr. Adler Buckthorn, was given charge of the project. He had been selected for his combination of brilliance, ruthlessness and disregard for ethics. 5 years of work resulted in a genetically engineered foetus, which was carried to term in the womb of a volunteer. In a terrifying birth, the inhuman-appearing infant fatally injured its birth-mother, demonstrating that it had superhuman abilities. The medical staff called it "the Horror" and the name stuck. All hopes that the subject could be brought up as a loyal, intelligent trained killer failed as the years passed, and in 1984 the child was sent to an institution. As soon as Gibson's Hole was completed, Horror was transferred there. The project was suspended, only to be re-activated in 1986 after a change in government.

From 20 volunteers the new Project Green produced 2 successes, 11 corpses, and 7 invalids, most of them severely deranged, in 1987. The successes, Salty and Seawolf, were affected while adults. They were subjected to prolonged testing, but they became aware of less than altruistic ideals on the part of members of the management team, and left the program under a cloud the same year.

At about the same time, a scientist involved in research not directly related to Project Green acquired some of the experimental data and subjected several unwilling subjects to unsanctioned experiments. This was orchestrated by Buckthorn, who was interested in an additional line of experimentation for which he could not get approval. There was an accident, which killed all of the subjects but one, and also killed the scientist. The survivor did become an SPB, and called herself Raptor, but fearing government anger because of the accident she went into hiding. Buckthorn appropriated the data and erased any trace of his own involvement.

The combination of these failures, and the advent of new possibilities with the defense contracts awarded to Inst(Inc) and the new Pandora project, caused Project Green to be finally cancelled.

Project Pandora

Project Pandora was the brainchild of Dr. Henry Bentley, a brilliant theoretician. He conceived plans for self-aware combat robots, able to physically outperform human soldiers, with unwavering loyalty, and smart enough to cope with novel situations. However, he was not directly in charge of the project, which was established in 1986 by the Defence Department. In 2 years the project produced its first prototype of the combat robot, which was conceived as an assassin. The robot was a success in early trials, but went rogue and vanished before its loyalty programming had been instituted.

A year later, in 1989, the project produced a second prototype. A more general soldier configuration was trialled successfully, but once again the robot went rogue and vanished. Apparently it had become aware of the changes to its AI system which were being contemplated, and acted out of a sense of self-preservation. The Defence Minister was furious, but Dr. Bentley viewed these pitfalls as learning experiences, even successes in a sense; for the robots had sensed danger to themselves and avoided it, despite the tight military security.

The project still had a third prototype, which had been assembled at the same time as the second, primarily to test a new AI of an alien type which had been acquired by ASIS. The AI performed at a standard above that of the currently available models, and the robot was put into field tests. It was deprived of any information regarding loyalty programming, but went rogue anyway. Dr. Bentley later theorised that it had deduced such changes from first principles. Following this third failure, the project was suspended, despite Dr. Bentley's claims that great steps had been made.

Following the effective change of government in 1990, Melissa Clark advised that the project had great potential, and it was reactivated in 1992. Dr. Bentley deliberately created minds which were unable to conceive of individual freedom, and linked them to minds which though able to conceive it were unable to choose it. In 1995 the Bentley 4/5 robots were trialed and hailed a great success. They were then deployed with the army in an anti-SPB role, particularly in defending sensitive locations and in reponse teams in and around Sydney.

In 1996 the government acquired samples of mega-damage weapons and armour. These were placed under intense study, and in 1998 were successfully duplicated. Naturally, the Bentleys were among the first items to take advantage of these improvements. A new marque (the Bentley 6) had been undergoing field testing, but with the new technology it was decided to scrap the 6 and promote the still-theoretical 7 into the prototype stage. It was very successful, and was deployed operationally in 1999.

In 2008, the original Bentley prototype (#1) murdered 4 out of 6 of the original Pandora project team. Its motivation is unclear.

In 1974 Inst(Inc), a US company owned (through other holdings) by Doc Feral, opened its first Australian premises. The good Doctor had long been interested in the genetic variation caused by Australia's geographic isolation, and had decided that some genetic experiments should take place on-site. Almost immediately experiments began with genetic material from both Australian and non-Australian species.

Naturally many creatures were in this manner bred. Few indeed survived to maturity, however, being either tested to destruction or considered failures in one way or another. However, among those which were permitted to grow to adulthood were two groups of four animals, one each under the supervision of Doctors Juan Hoveida and Brian McCoy.

In early 1989 Dr. McCoy's test subjects, having long feigned slightly subhuman intelligence and docile natures, successfully escaped their Turramurra facility, badly injuring seven security guards, and stealing a large quantity of company equipment. They evaded attempts by private security (provided by InterTech, another one of Doc Feral's holdings) to recapture them, and six months later broke back into the Turramurra facility and freed the Hoveida test subjects.

Together the 8 mutant animals swore to revenge themselves on their jailers, and on all those who abused animals. Calling themselves the Animal Liberation Front (or ALF), they began to wage a war of terrorism aimed at scientists involved in animal experimentation. Over the next seven years they killed dozens, pulled publicity stunts which provoked several security crackdowns, and were instrumental in bringing about Inst(Inc)'s next generation of work: cybernetically enhanced genetically engineered security bioforms. They recruited only a few mutant animals, vigilantes and radical environmentalists to their network.

Inst(Inc)'s first success was the cyberdog. Gene-tailored only slightly, and truly subhuman in intelligence, they nonetheless were smarter than regular bloodhounds and could handle firearms. Cybernetic enhancement of their senses made them hard to avoid, and they were an instant winner with Government and corporate security concerns.

Their next move was the tiamat, an all-out gene-tailored snake with heavy cybernetic modification. The tiamats, like the Hoveida and McCoy subjects before them, were smart enough to avoid acting too smart. However, they enjoyed their roles enough that they elected to remain tools of the company in their roles as soldiers and assassins. The regular instances of employee deaths around tiamats were written off as accidents or not worth jeopardising the program for. Unlike the cyberdogs they were too expensive to produce in numbers.

It's worth noting that in 1996 half of the original ALF members were captured in a combined Army-law enforcement-Inst(Inc) operation, and incarcerated in Gibson's Hole. Two died and two remained free.

In 1994 Inst(Inc) entered into a Defence department contract to run the Beast-Men project. Defence wanted cheap, fast-produced, effective soldiers. Animal mutants would be expendable. They wanted several different kinds to do different jobs. Inst(Inc) accepted and did their usual brilliant job. From their new Moreau Institute in the outback, they spliced genes and plotted loyalty programs. They produced an array of genotypes, to fit into two basic streams: Defense troops and Offense troops. Defense troops were native animal descendants, equipped to survive in Australia and to operate with excellence in its various terrains. Offense troops were fast-breeding, tenacious, and had an artificial tribal culture which kept them vicious and loyal.

When the Climate Weapon impacted in 2008 the Institute was in the last stages of testing for its first generation of Beast-Men. The animals, who had once again deceived their creators in establishing a resistance movement, took advantage of the loss of electronics caused by an EMP bomb to penetrate security and slaughter the research staff. The animals then retired into the wilderness and did a superb job of surviving.

The Metahuman Registration Act

One of the first pieces of legislation to be rammed through by the government under the control of Darkness. It requires any person with "metahuman powers" to attend a Metahuman Registration office (found in all capital cities), submit to testing and questioning, and to carry an identification card which cleared showed they were a metahuman.

The purpose of this legislation was to cement Darkness' control over the country, by identifying all those who might one day be able to oppose them. Registered SPBs could have their powers listed and possible counter-defences prepared, and their addresses, relatives, and associates could be listed and, if necessary, threatened. Ostensibly, the purpose of the legislation was to facilitate the arrest of criminal SPBs, who all to often could run rings around the police. It was popular enough that, despite the brief opposition (soon quietly dealt with) of some members of parliament and the media, it passed quickly into law.

Those who did not register following the amnesty period could be subject to fines of up to $5,000 and up to three months jail. In practice, some police officers offered offenders the chance to go and register immediately, to avoid being charged.

Registration offices were constructed in each city. Security was provided by the police at first, then the army after a few weeks. Most of those who registered were unable to conceal much, if anything, from the interview and testing staff at these offices. The information was collated and passed to ASIO. Darkness used the data to identify possible recruits, as well.

In 1998 replacement identity cards were issued to all registered metahumans. These were "smart" cards, which could not only be read by a police ID scanner but which could be detected and individually located in any metropolitan area, or by scanners on special aircraft, to a range of 50 km.

By this time the government was also issuing personal ID cards, called Australia cards, to every adult citizen. In 2002 these were also replaced by smartcards: and at that point it became possible for the government to determine the current location of almost anyone in the country.

Gibson's Hole

Following the general advent of SPB's after WW2, the government was in a bit of a quandary as to means of incarcerating criminal SPBs. A few (too few) could simply be held in regular cells, or in solitary. Others were capable of killing other inmates or guards unless kept in restraints, which was a violation of their civil rights, or of simply punching a hole in the prison wall and leaving.

Initially an "SPB block" was formed in Parramatta Jail in Sydney. Frequently rebuilt as a result of damage or to accommodate a new, different SPB, it essentially utilised round-the-clock surveillance and armed guards to deter escape attempts or violence. It was not very successful, and in 1971 one wing of the jail was rebuilt as MaxSec, specially to hold SPBs. In 1989 most of the wing was demolished in a battle between vigilante heroes and escaping criminal SPBs.

At that time the Minister for Justice ordered construction of a new kind of prison, seen previously only in the US, to hold only SPBs. It was called Gibson's Hole (initially by mistake; it was located not in the Gibson desert but the Victoria desert of South Australia; later it was retained to mislead would-be escapees and attackers), was to be constructed entirely underground, would incorporate various new technologies, and security would be provided by the Army.

As soon as it was ready, all SPBs held elsewhere were transferred there. The prison served another purpose: to quantify and measure the powers and vulnerabilities of the inmates, to aid the government in future battles.

Following the effective takeover of the government by Darkness in 1992, Gibson's Hole became the scene for more nefarious events. The layout did not permit the inmates to meet, though they could communicate by videophone, when permitted. Newly installed VR technology permitted a scientific team to manipulate an inmate's experience, to the point where inmates could be convinced they'd escaped, or other more bizarre scenarios. This was at first an aid to the research process, but was later used for brainwashing. In addition, a new scientific effort was set up: to utilise the genetic material of the inmates to produce clones.

About the time this was successful (1994) the scientists also perfected a method of accelerated growth, permitting cloned fetuses to become mature bodies in a matter of says. Within 2 years, the scientists had successfully adapted the mental-transfer device used in some robots to copying personalities and records; from this point, a person could be effectively copied. With some inmates, this was done, permitting an inmate to become a covert government agent while still remaining incarcerated. Clones were put to various uses, such as black operations, or held in suspended animation against need to defend sensitive government installations.

In 1996 government forces captured individuals equipped with mega-damage weapons and equipment. One particularly deadly individual remained at large, and made several attempts to rescue his companions from the prison, almost succeeding on one occasion, and managing to avoid capture every time. Following that last and most fearsome attack, a review of operations at Gibson's Hole was made and a $100 million upgrade embarked upon.

Hours before the impact of the Climate Weapon in 2008, Gibson's Hole was unexpectedly assaulted by a large group of SPBs. They penetrated the prison, freeing all of the inmates. Most escaped, but some stayed to kill the prison staff. What happened following the impact of the Climate Weapon is unclear.

Secret Teleport System

In 1995, rogue SPB's began to be dogged by a new ability of government forces: they were teleporting to the scene of crimes within minutes of the alarm being raised. For years, vigilantes and criminals believed that the government had built or stolen a teleportation machine, and many attempts were made to steal it or destroy it. None were successful.

A year earlier, a minor criminal called the Banisher had been arrested by an SPB federal agent named Hazard. The Banisher was not violent, and had committed a string of jewelry store robberies, but had successfully evaded arrest for some time by teleporting arresting officers elsewhere - usually into the harbour, a rubbish dump, or sewage farm. Hazard ambushed him, arrested him, and sent him to Gibson's Hole.

Secretly, the Banisher became a vital government asset. He was cloned many times, his clones addicted to heroin, and strapped before a view screen and a window showing a large chamber. The Banisher teleported those who entered the chamber to the scene displayed on the viewscreen, and was kept happily high. This, then, was the secret of the government's teleport system.

Teleport nodes, each equipped with a Banisher clone, were installed at every major government facility. Each node was equipped with a self-destruct device to prevent its capture or analysis by enemies. The system was not revealed until vigilante SPB's penetrated the system in the chaotic last days before the impact of the Climate Weapon.

Australia is a developed nation which at various times has been at the forefront of technology and which produces exceptional scientific minds. Despite this, their relatively low population kept their scientific efforts from having the scale to open a gap ahead of those of more populous countries such as the US.

In the late 1980's Australia's security agencies successfully identified and recruited a number of individuals with psionic powers. One of these, code-named Torrent, expressed the power of telemechanics. In the course of her work she revealed that she could understand the functions of a weapon of alien technology which had been acquired, down to the level of the circuitry, and proceeded to draw a schematic. From that moment on, Torrent was loaned to the CSIRO, where she (and later others like her) worked on identifying and reproducing items of alien technology. They applied themselves to such items as adamantium, force fields, plasma generators, anti-laser aerosols, chameleon armour, holography, artificial intelligence, vibro-weapons, EMP generators, and robotics.

In 1990 the government made a secret treaty to exchange information and materials with the outlawed organisation Techno-Fear, which produced much of the advanced technology the CSIRO had been attempting to identify. Immediate returns were acquired, but it was in 1996 that the real returns began. Acquired items of mega-damage technology were shared with Techno-Fear, and together with data on their use and manufacture great leaps forward were seen. Before the end of the decade, both TF and the government were mass-producing mega-damage equipment.

Most influential of all was Dr. Jacob Young. A brilliant young scientist specialising in robotics, he became a vigilante in the mid-90's when he realised that his employer, Optimax Ltd., were planning to use his new robot design to promote the increasingly fascist aims of the government. At some point in the next few years, he somehow gained a unique understanding of mega-damage technology, and was then captured by government forces, who incarcerated him in Gibson's Hole.

Dr. Young was cloned and brainwashed many times. Each clone was unaware of its real status, and worked on some aspect of the CSIRO's research effort, including energy weapons, force fields, mega-damage armour, robotics, etc. As time passed, however, almost every clone became aware of the true situation. Invariably they attempted to contact other clones and to escape, and many of them succeeded. Despite this, the government profited by their work.

There are 7 intelligence agencies in Australia in the real world. Only two of these concern us, however, and these are: ASIO (the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, who perform a domestic counter-espionage and intelligence-gathering role) and ASIS (the Australian Security Intelligence Service), who perform foreign espionage and intelligence-gathering. In addition, in 1983 the government created the DIA (Department of Internal Affairs) to gather intelligence on domestic SPB activities.

ASIO is only concerned in activites involving espionage and the activities of foreign nationals. Their agents (use N&SS OCCs), equipped with only laser sidearms and sophisticated communications and surveillance gear, indulge in intelligence-gathering operations only. When they acquire evidence of criminal activity, that evidence is normally passed along to either the appropriate state police force, the Federal police, or the DIA for action.

ASIS is only concerned with espionage activities overseas. They regularly must deal with SPBs who provide security for intelligence targets, however, and they sometimes recover items of unknown technology which they turn over to the CSIRO. Like ASIO, use N&SS OCCs for their agents. For the same reasons as ASIO they use minimal equipment, preferring to depend on not being detected, and on deceit when detected.

The DIA began as an intelligence agency. However, the director, Melissa Clark, decided that it should be equivalent to the American S.C.R.E.T. as well, and in secret built an operations department run by Colonel Christine Markowitz on loan from the SAS. At first the department was staffed with ex-intelligence, ex-army and ex-police types, with only standard energy weapons and small arms. Markowitz obtained the current state of the art Australian power armour, the Optimax Aggressor Mk.1 (then undergoing tests for the army), roughly equivalent to the American EX-7 Equaliser power armour.

Clark's idea was to capture vigilante and criminal SPBs and present them with a choice: become a DIA agent or go to jail. In some cases, where particularly desirable individuals were concerned, evidence was manufactured to weight their decision. In other cases, SPBs were killed out of hand without being offered the choice. Markowitz disliked these methods of operation but did as she was told.

Within 5 years the operations department had expanded into four squads of ten operatives, of whom half were full-conversion cyborgs and half recruited SPBs. The intelligence arm had grown at a similar rate and was beginning to take bites out of major secret organisations such as George, the Foot, Darkness and Techno-Fear. The ops staff had discarded the Aggressor Mk.1 armour for the Mk.2, and were considering the new Mk.3. Their borgs and powered suits ported heavy Havoc assault rifles.

Mastermind, the leader of Darkness, decided with great foresight that his plan to control the world would never cross the first hurdle of controlling Australia if the DIA continued as they were. They had to go. However, he was unaware that most of the DIA's operatives were coerced into joining, and had little loyalty for their employer. If he had, he might have settled for getting the DIA disbanded.

Instead he ran an operation to draw almost all of the DIA's SPBs to an auditorium at a hotel in Cairns, QLD. Not long before, he had obtained a small nuclear device, using kidnapped scientists, one of his secret bases, and stolen weapons-grade plutonium from one of the reactors at the Lucas Heights Nuclear Facility outside Sydney. The device was detonated with the force of 10,000 tonnes of TNT, killing almost all of the DIA members present along with 25,000 innocent people. Nearly all of the DIA survivors worked for days digging injured civilians out of the rubble.

The nation was shocked. In the silence that followed, Mastermind made several government and media personages aware of the indiscretions committed by the DIA, and implied that they might be indirectly responsible for this calamity. The anger was collossal, the result swift and unjust: the DIA was disbanded, its employees imprisoned or left unemployed. Many went into hiding. Strangely, most of its equipment, and all of its carefully gathered information, could not be found. It seemed that those who had known the secret locations of these items had died in the explosion. Of the top four executives,

Col. Markowitz was broken in rank, reprimanded, and given a new posting; Dr. Buckthorn, head of research, vanished (he found refuge with Techno-Fear, who put his skills to work); the head of administration apparently committed suicide (he was murdered to avoid fingering Clark); and Melissa Clark, who pleaded that she'd been kept in the dark by her miscreant inferiors, and pulled every string she could reach, was given a suspended sentence. Within 3 months Clark was an adviser to the PM, and within a year she was again one of the most powerful people in the country.

A year after that, she discovered who was really running the country... and became his adviser instead.

It should be noted that with the demise of the DIA, the job of handling super-villains fell to police, vigilantes, and the army. The army took on the S.C.R.E.T. role, maintaining a fast-response group in each capital city comprising highly-trained troops equipped with power armour, light armoured vehicles, and helicopters. Surprisingly, Lt. Col. Markowitz was handed the Sydney command, which she executed with her usual high efficiency, personally commanding a platoon of crack SAS troops. In 1994 the Army units were bolstered by the deployment of Bentley 4/5 robots. From this point the robots

handled most direct contacts, with the army in a support role.

Darkness, once it had control of the government, created a new covert-operations agency called Black Bag. It was staffed primarily with Darkness SPBs, but new recruits were drawn from the operations departments of other intelligence agencies and from the SAS. Black Bag was not used for response or intelligence gathering, but for raids, usually overseas, to accomplish secret government goals (including the annexation of New Zealand and Indonesia).

Australian Law Enforcement

Law enforcement in Australia is normally the business of the police forces of each state. They are by and large identical. The organised crime and SPB threat caused them to upgrade their equipment in the early 90's, from .38 revolver sidearms and occasional flak jackets, to regular-issue semi-automatic pistols, hard armour vests, and helmets. Their tactical response teams use large-calibre sniper rifles, submachine guns, and semi- automatic shotguns, or sometimes laser rifles.

The Federal police also deal with organised crime, drug importation, fraud and computer crime, on a national basis. They liaise with other police forces overseas and gather intelligence. They often oversee police operations where a multi-state task force is involved. They are not uniformed and are equipped similarly to the state police, although their communications and computer networks are better secured.

In 1997 the police forces of Australia began deploying the Optimax Police Backup robot. Heavily armoured, highly visible, it was intended to provide fire support in seiges and encounters with SPBs. Suffering from poor judgement, it was never intended to operate without supervision. It became a familiar sight on Australian streets; even the criminals were never very afraid of it. It was armed only with non-lethal weapons.