Editing TerraMcGillis:cellular-cyborg (section)

==Second Generation Children==
After the first generation matured and were either pressed into service as Lancers (if able) or left to chart their own futures, the Hawthorn Initiative compiled the decades of data it had gathered during their maturation. A checklist of factors supposedly resulting in successful candidates was created and used during the creation of the second...

Unbeknownst to their parents, the newer children would share none of their DNA. Instead, the genetic templates of successful lancers would be used wholesale and/or combined with other successes to create "batches" of identical clones - whose data would be further used to refine the process when they too came of age. The child's hive colony would then be used to "sculpt" the children during development to ensure a "family resemblance" - drawing on the look of both parents and their grandparents during this process.

The reason for this were several. While points of similarity between the genetic profiles of successful candidates could be analysed, and their commonalities identified genetics alone don't make a lancer. With genetic factors controlled for, the second generation would provide data on the 'nurture' aspect of lancer creation. The plan is to analyse the upbringing of all candidates (monitored through their hive and regular check-ins), and cross-reference them with successful candidates from the first generation. Prey to this information, the third generation will likely suffer a far more controlled upbringing...