Aperture Science

Aperture Science's logo

### Affiliation

Armed Response Coalition, United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, House of Light, Maverick Hunters

## Description

Aperture Science is a private military corporation and science innovation laboratory with the main mission of defending the United States, and the rest of Earth, from any human or supernatural threats. It is the headquarters of many operatives who work to protect humanity. It has long-standing rivalries with many other large science corporations, including the Union Aerospace Corporation and Black Mesa. They are one of the 'big six' military-industrial corporations in America, however they are one of the few military corporations to not be involved in World War 3. With the acquisition of NERV, Aperture is the only corporation with fully functional Evangelion units. They are also the leading corporation in artificial intelligence, only gaining the upper hand on Union Aerospace when VEGA mysteriously went missing.

Misato Katsuragi is the CEO of the company. Misraaksskel is the chief security officer and general of the Aperture Mobile Task Force. GLaDOS is the current chief science manager and formerly the CEO. Doktor Wilhem Voieht is the head of the engineering department, focusing primarily on cybernetics. Reverb is the current chief intelligence officer. The corporation has many branches throughout America, and a location in Arctic Circle.

## History

### Early History

In 1943, Cave Johnson founded Aperture Fixtures, a company dedicated to developing shower curtains. After its success, Johnson purchased an abandoned salt mine outside of the city of Greenfield. Over the next decade, he turned the mine into a massive science facility and retitled the company Aperture Science. He hired world-famous scientists, athletes, war heroes, and astronauts to create and test experimental technology. Their success continued until the 1980's, when rival company Black Mesa was founded and competed with Aperture for the title of America's top science corporation. Aperture, getting desperate, started hiring homeless people as test subjects, since they were unable to obtain famous figures.

Around this time, Aperture made great developments in portable wormhole technology and artificial intelligence. Their most notable test of wormhole technology was the Borealis. The Borealis was an arctic research ship with a wormhole drive installed within it. The ship, however, was mistakenly teleported out of the facility, where it was later discovered stuck in the ice shelves of the Arctic Circle.

In the early 90's, Aperture continued to fall into disrepair. All employees were required to fill out mandatory service hours as test subjects, since the company could not afford them otherwise. At the same time, research faculty was being replaced by artificial intelligence, which the company was still excelling with.

Around this time, Cave Johnson, who was still the CEO of the company, became deathly ill after inhaling moon rock dust. Not wanting to be held back by his illness, he commissioned his scientists to research the technology in order to transfer his brain into a computer. However, he would not be able to see the project through as he died soon after. His last wish was for his secretary, Caroline, to inherit the company and be placed into the computer.

In the late 1990's, Aperture bought out Arbeit Communications, a Canadian radiocommunication company, although its facilities were mostly abandoned.

### GLaDOS' Leadership

Caroline was placed into the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, otherwise known as GLaDOS. GLaDOS displayed signs of aggression and violence towards the human staff, and any attempts to subdue this were met with failure. This led to GLaDOS filling the facility with a deadly neurotoxin, killing all active personnel except for the test subjects and Dr. Doug Rattman, who escaped by hiding in the walls.

In 2009, Aperture Science gained full ownership over Arbeit Communication's assets and locations after it went bankrupt and officially dissolved.

Despite all of this, Aperture continued operating as a fully operational corporation. In 2021, Aperture made a deal with Japan to fund and assist in managing a new organization formed with the intention of protecting Earth from kaiju threats. This new organization was named GEHIRN. Many scientists who were working with Aperture were transferred to GEHIRN, including Dr. Katsuragi, in order to develop secret projects. A few years after this, Evangelion Unit 00 and Unit 01 were completed and put in storage for later use.

In 2027, in the aftermath of the Shadow Moses incident, Aperture assisted in the cleanup of the disaster and helped the United States government cover up classified information from the incident. At the same time, they recovered the body of Frank Jaegar. Frank was rebuilt using cybernetic enhancements and was successfully resurrected. Instead of allowing him freedom, GLaDOS had other plans for Frank, who was now known as Gray Fox. She placed him in advanced military training simulations with the intention of starting a military branch in the future to combat the demonic threat, should it have returned.

### Aperture's Fall

Seeing that Aperture was on the verge of bankruptcy and expecting it to collapse soon, GLaDOS reinstated Arbeit Communications in order to quietly transfer research assets so that they would not have to be lost in the bankruptcy process.

Later that year, Chell, a test subject, was awakened from stasis within the facility. She was put through the enrichment center before her scheduled execution via incineration. She was able to escape the execution by sabotaging GLaDOS, which also freed Frank Jaegar. Frank was able to gain his freedom, however Chell was not so lucky as she was unable to escape. Chell was placed in suspended animation deep within the facility.

In late 2035, Chell awoke from suspended animation and found the entire Aperture facility abandoned and wrecked. With the "help" of Aperture personality sphere and test subject caretaker Wheatley, Chell tried to escape the facility once again. In the process, however, GLaDOS was reawakened. After being forced through another round of tests, Chell was able to escape into the walls of Aperture and form a plan with Wheatley to overthrow GLaDOS and take an elevator to the surface. Their plan was successful, however Wheatley betrayed GLaDOS and Chell, the former being stuck inside of a potato. The two of them were thrown down the elevator shaft into the long-abandoned depths of the facility. After Chell made her way through the old facility, discovering the company's past, she reconvened with GLaDOS, who had also discovered her own past. The two of them worked together to stop Wheatley by launching him into space. After all of this, GLaDOS sent Chell to the surface to let her survive on her own.

Over the next two months, GLaDOS spent her time reconstructing the facility.

### Aperture's Reformation

In early 2036, the Slayer and Master Chief discovered a branch facility outside of Greenfield, where they found a dormant portal that led to the primary facility, which was sealed off from the outside world. Upon discovering Aperture, which had been unofficially dissolved in 2029, the Slayer installed GLaDOS into his Praetor Suit as a replacement for VEGA, who he had returned to Urdak. Aperture was officially reformed as a private military corporation and housed several operatives such as the Slayer, Master Chief, Inosuke Hashibira, Soundwave, and Veriks.

At some point, the Slayer retrieved an automap sphere from a flesh wizard in Westwood, which the Seraphim followed him into Aperture to assist them in deciphering the location within the sphere, which turned out being the Icon of Sin's Stronghold. GLaDOS then formed a plan to infiltrate the stronghold, which failed after Vice fought off the strike team. Soundwave, who was sent to the Antarctica in response to an energy anomaly, encountered Major Misato Katsuragi of NERV, who was on a routine inspection of their installation there. The source of the anomaly was a being called ADAM, who was awoken by disturbances from the installation. Aperture deployed their newly designed Mecha-Godzilla to subdue ADAM. Once ADAM was defeated, they transported a sample of his body to an Aperture sub-lab. After this encounter, Katsuragi worked as a representative of NERV within Aperture. Using the piece of ADAM they recovered, Aperture and NERV joined forces to resume work on Dr. Katsuragi's old project, the Evangelion Mecha-Godzilla.

A week after the ADAM incident, the Order of Wrath, led by Vice, infiltrated the Aperture facility. The combat personnel on hand at the time only consisted of Master Chief and Soundwave. During the fight, Soundwave, who had a pseudo-romantic relationship with GLaDOS at the time, was heavily damaged by Vice. Shortly after, the demons retreated, leaving the facility slightly damaged.

A few days later, Davoth revealed himself to Aperture's operatives and engaged in combat within GLaDOS' chambers. After the Slayer was knocked unconscious and taken captive by Vice, the demons retreated back to the Stronghold, where the Slayer was later killed.

Soon after the deaths of two important operatives, Major Katsuragi's contract with NERV ended, and she officially joined Aperture as the Chief Advisor, second to GLaDOS. At the same time, the Seraphim inscribed an anti-argent sigil within the facility to prevent non-human demons from using portals to enter.

Some time later, Veriks found Cyrus Walker in Olympia, who joins Aperture as a part-time contractor. Cyrus handed over his high-powered experimental Union Aerospace NRG Cannon, which Aperture reverse-engineered and used the technology from it.

At some point during the month of April, armed soldiers broke into the Aperture Science Facility and used a portal to extract Evangelion Unit 00 out of the facility.

After the bombing of the Arasaka Tower in Night City, the android warrior Zero got a tip to join forces with Aperture. He considered it and ultimately ended up being recruited into Aperture soon after. During this time, Soundwave had been repairing himself after being heavily damaged by Vice, and made his return to Aperture, resuming his role as chief of intelligence.

At the final mission of the joint campaign between the United States military and Union Aerospace, Aperture Science deployed all of their remaining operatives and Mecha-Godzilla to the Icon of Sin's Stronghold to assist the joint forces. During this fight, Inosuke was badly wounded in a failed attempt to revive the Slayer, which eventually led to the ultimate failure of the mission. After this loss, Inosuke decided to part ways with Aperture.

A few weeks later, the Aperture installation in Baronsbar became the target for a demonic attack. The demons were intercepted by a group of Eliksni fighters under the lead of Misraaksskel, Kell of Light. Misraaksskel, known simply as Mithrax, caught the attention of GLaDOS, who recruited him to the team and offered him an engineering position. Mithrax brought his group of Eliksni into Aperture with him, who all became employed by the company in various roles. Around the same time, a triple Kaiju event threatened Tokyo-3, Japan, which prompted the resurfacing of Evangelion Unit 00 from the unknown group that had repossessed it. After the event, Aperture regained control of Unit 00.

Zero eventually rebuilt his allies from the Maverick Hunters, who then set up their headquarters within Aperture. Soundwave and Zero became hostile towards each other over time. Zero, with built up resentment, used a new loadout specifically for destroying Cybertronians in order to fight Soundwave in Night City. After Zero nearly destroyed Soundwave again, he decided to part ways with Aperture to avoid punishment and confrontation. Along with Zero, the Maverick Hunters left Aperture and moved their headquarters to Night City.

### The Angel Crisis

In early August, Major Katsuragi was requested to assist NERV (formerly known as GEHIRN) because of an attack by a supernatural creature known as an Angel. Katsuragi traveled to Tokyo-3 to take up a position as Commander at NERV. Throughout the first half of the Angel Crisis, Aperture funded NERV to allow them to keep the Evangelion Units operational. A few days after Sachiel's attack, the 5th Angel, Ramiel, appeared and engaged in combat with the Evangelions. During the fight, Aperture deployed Mecha Godzilla, which received severe damages from the engagement. Around this time, Aperture contracted Ghost and Ryoji Kaji to investigate the previous theft of Evangelion Unit 00.

Sometime after the 5th Angel's attack, Zero encountered Jack, also known as Raiden, in Night City. After a small fight between the two, Raiden was told the truth about the Insurgency, a group he was hunting. Zero told him to seek out Aperture and join their team. Raiden agreed and was accepted into Aperture's force.

A demon incursion in Ashfield West caught the attention of Aperture operatives Soundwave and Master Chief. At the site of the incursion, a member of the United States' Brotherhood of Steel by the name of Ulysses assisted them in defeated Akamai the Martyr and his team of Marauders. Being impressed by his performance, Master Chief and Soundwave recruited him onto the Aperture force. Around the same time, Katsuki Bakugo, a hero from Japan's Hero Academy, was assigned to work with Aperture, forming their unofficially named 'B-Team'.

Not long after Ulysses joined the force, he stole valuable information from their communications center regarding a secret project being worked on by the newly founded Union Aerospace Armed Forces. Soon after, he assaulted GLaDOS and made an escape. It was later discovered that Ulysses was actually a demon by the name of Axys who killed a member of the Brotherhood of Steel and assumed his identity. This information leak led the UAAF to be suspicious of Aperture, prompting them to send Akira to investigate the incident. Upon his arrival, Akira was met with hostility from Soundwave, who threatened to violently assault him. This was reported directly to UAAF CEO William Vanguard, which led to a bitter rivalry between the two companies.

At the start of World War 3, Raiden was assigned to Kuwait, where the fighting starting, under the notion that he was simply assisting U.S. forces hold their ground. In actuality, Raiden's mission was to assist Solid Snake, who was widely recognized as a war criminal, in uncovering the truth of HYDRA's operations in the area in regards to the war. Aside from this covert mission, Aperture remained distant from the war, instead focusing their resources towards defending against demonic threats and funding NERV during the Angel Crisis.

Sometime later during the Angel Crisis, Aperture had assisted NERV on reconstructing Mecha-Godzilla into Evangelion Anti-Unit G, which was based directly on the work of the late Dr. Katsuragi. Misato, his daughter, was assigned to be its pilot. Around the same time, Kaji discovered evidence that Gendo Ikari, the Commander of NERV at the time, was likely the suspect who organized the theft of Evangelion Unit 00. GLaDOS and Ritsuko Akagi, chief science officer at NERV, began forming a plan to remove Ikari and his assistant, Fuyutsuki, and place Akagi in charge of the company.

Near the end of 2036, Aperture officially founded a military subsidiary company by the name of the Aperture Mobile Task Force (AMTF). At its beginning, the AMTF consisted of several units, including Cataclysm Unit. Many of these units were composed of conscripted Eliksni soldiers. At the same time, agents Ghost and Kaji were suspected of espionage against NERV's command, leading to them capturing Fuyutsuki and faking their deaths to evade capture themselves. They interrogated Fuyutsuki, learning from him that Ikari was in league with a previously-thought defunct company SEELE, both of which were behind the theft of Evangelion Unit 00. Fuyutsuki also revealed to them Ikari's plan to trigger a Third Impact within Tokyo-3 to unify all of humanity into one mass. Ghost, trying to stop this from happening, attempted to make his way back to the NERV headquarters underneath Tokyo-3. However, he was too late, as the Japan Strategic Self Defense Force (JSSDF) had begun a siege on the headquarters under orders of SEELE. After the engagement, Shinji Ikari, Gendo's son and pilot of Unit 01, triggered the Third Impact. Misato piloted Anti-Unit G towards Unit 01 to remind him that there are others in the world who care about him and wish to live their own lives. The Third Impact was cut short, having left Tokyo-3 in ruins and resulted in the death of Gendo Ikari and the board of SEELE administrators.

During the takeover of NERV, SEELE had ordered America's Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (HECU) to infiltrate and eliminate leadership of Aperture and the Union Aerospace Corporation, which had been primarily funding NERV throughout the later half of the Angel Crisis. The AMTF successfully defended the facility against the HECU, however the engagement distracted them from intercepting the JSSDF at NERV, leading to its takeover. After the Third Impact was stopped, the AMTF was deployed to recapture NERV from the JSSDF, who had been securing the facility. Once the facility was under Aperture control, Ritsuko Akagi was placed in charge of the company as Fuyutsuki, who would have been second in the chain of command otherwise, was imprisoned for crimes against humanity. Akagi then made an agreement with Aperture to let NERV be subsumed into the company, preventing Union Aerospace from competing for Evangelion technology. The NERV command center was moved into the Aperture Science Facility while the headquarters was being repaired in Tokyo-3.

### Post-Angel Crisis & Katsuragi's Leadership

Near the end of the Angel Crisis, an organization known as the Institute had shown hostilities with Aperture in competing for territory near the Mojave desert fallout zone. Although the AMTF had been effective in defending branch facilities, such as the Aperture Baronsbar Facility, synth assassins led by the Institute infiltrated Aperture's central facility. While there, they installed a software virus into GLaDOS' system, deleting all of her subroutine data and memory, effectively killing her. After this attack, Misato Katsuragi, being the second in command, rose to CEO of the company. Instead of revealing the truth of GLaDOS' assassination, she told the public that GLaDOS had malfunctioned from a system crash and lost all data. Shortly after this, Akira, who had been looking for ways to undermine Aperture in the public eye, held a private interview with Katsuragi regarding GLaDOS' death. In the interview, she revealed the true nature of the assassination to Akira, who had been secretly wearing a wire and transmitting all of this information back to the UAAF headquarters. The information was then leaked to the internet and made national news headlines, putting Aperture's competency into questioning. In response to this, Soundwave, enraged by GLaDOS' death and with a great resentment towards the UAC and UAAF, threatened to strike the UAAF's headquarters, to which Katsuragi objected. Soundwave was close to going AWOL and causing a catastrophe, however Katsuragi enacted countermeasure protocols designed when Zero had been in conflict with him, which disarmed him. He was excommunicated from the facility by Katsuragi, who shortly replaced his position as chief intelligence officer with the E.M.M.I. android that apprehended him named Reverb.

Soon after the end of the Angel Crisis, a man by the name of Higgs led a terrorist attack on Greenfield. His strange abilities caught Aperture's attention, and they searched for someone who knew more about them. They came across Jacob Odyssey, a porter, who knew about Higgs' goals. This led to the creation of the Phantasm Unit of the AMTF, which specialized in dealing with Higgs and his BT creatures, which were nigh invincible against most conventional weaponry.

After this series of shortcomings, Katsuragi was put under a lot of pressure due to the high expectations of Aperture as a company. Critics believed that she would be the reason for the company's inevitable downfall. Ghost, having befriended Katsuragi during the Angel Crisis, stepped in and officially received a position at Aperture to support Katsuragi until she could get things under control again.

Sometime later, the NERV command center was relocated back to the rebuilt headquarters in Tokyo-3.