RPGnet:Icarus
"The future of humanity as a species is in our hands."
Project: Icarus was founded to creating biological super weapons that could repulse the Nazis. After the Roswell Incident, they shifted focus dramatically to creating an evolved humanity that would be capable of repulsing alien invaders. Now the organization has a new purpose in suppressing Metamen and using their abilities to further their own cladestine agenda.
Project: Icarus was once a government project that had a purpose in the world. Now, it has become corrupted by the power it wields and the monsters at its head. Project: Icarus has almost no oversight from the government and conducts all of its missions in near-total secrecy. It is symbolic of all the worst elements of government and the organization is only likely to become more powerful as time passes.
History and Organization: Project: Icarus is the brain child of Colonel James Moriarty the Third. Based on captured on Nazi documents and evidence collected from various freak shows, they determined that certain people in the world possessed super human abilities that could put to United States use. After the victory of the Allies, the Project was expanded drastically by the defection of former Bio-Blitzkrieg operatives. Some of these individuals were genuine war criminals but were allowed to continue their research in the interests of national security.
The Roswell crash landing was what truly changed Project: Icarus from a typical government research project to the rogue agency that it currently is. Generals and Politicians, terrified by the possibility of alien invasion, devoted vast amounts of black budget funding to Project: Icarus. They were allowed to conduct experiments on criminals, the homeless, as minorities as part of their efforts to produce super human weapons for the United States. In secret, Project: Icarus conducted large scale secret tests on isolated communities that often resulted in cancer or other adverse side effects. This is the secret of the United States' unusual population of Metamen.
The last President of the United States to know about Project: Icarus' true activities was Richard Nixon. The discovery of their monstrous experiments was a primary motivating factor in Jack Washington Junior's rebellion. Unfortunately, the overthrow of President Nixon merely resulted in their going underground. The current administration only knows that Project: Icarus is a think tank devoted to Metaman research and also tied to a black operations team that conducts missions for the C.I.A.
Project: Icarus' current heads are devoted to their goal of creating super human soldiers that can be used to repulse threats to United States interests. They also support 'genetic cleansing' of all Metamen that have 'useless' mutations. Project: Icarus privately conducts the kidnapping and murder of Metamen that are uninterested in voluntarily working for the government. Some are dissected for scientific research while others are brainwashed into becoming soulless killing machines. They recruit their own guards and soldiers from the most bigoted soldiers in the United States military. They are not above recruiting foreigners for their projects either.
Project: Icarus is divided into three branches; Control, Research, and Execution. All three work in tandem and in absolute secrecy.
Control is the shadowy group of financiers, officers, politicians that keep Project: Icarus running. They have ties to P.H.A.N.T.O.M and numerous Metaman hate groups throughout the world. While they believe they are working for American interests, they are not above 'farming out' their findings and operatives to those willing to pay for them.
Research conducts the grizzly experiments that are Project: Icarus' focus. Their research is devoted to bestowing super powers, enhancing super powers, and suppressing super powers. Ironically, most of their victims are regular humans as they are needed to test their results on. Execution is the operations branch of Project: Icarus. It employs a mixture of brainwashed Metamen, cyborgs, and super criminals that have been given amnesty for their aid.
Headquarters: Project: Icarus has no centralized facilities. They have numerous research laboratories spread throughout the United States, however. Recently, they have begun many of their most gruesome experiments abroad in countries where regulation is far looser. Project: Icarus is pathologically allergic to oversight and has even begun training their own private mercenary force to avoid scrutiny from the United States military.
Oddly, Project: Icarus is more concerned about other villainous groups than they are about super heroes. While the Tomorrow Society exists to expose it to the public, the Gene Nation and House of Serpents both simply kill any members of the organization that fall into their hands.
