Sieker Solution

A Sieker syringe

**Sieker Solution** is a drug formula used by elements of Albion's military and government institutions to promote aggression, strength, reflexes, sensory awareness, and pain tolerance. It produces a powerful physiological response for a duration of thirty to sixty minutes, after which a normal user experiences a "crash", as their body's resources will have been depleted. It is treated as a booster of last resort, for use when soldiers are in shock or require an immediate burst of power. Sieker turns the user's eyes bright yellow, an effect which eventually becomes permanent if they use it for long enough.

Sieker solution is applied intravenously, greatly increasing the bioavailability of its various constituents and decreasing the time-to-onset to fifteen seconds. Sieker syringes have multiple chambers which can be injected separately or altogether, allowing the user to tailor the effects of the injection(s). Some Sieker constituents are more effective when applied to different regions of the body, so the central complex can be broken apart and each needle can be applied individually.

Long term users of Sieker accompany it by maintaining a regimen of **Redeker's Cocktail**, a set of pharmaceuticals and hormonal mimetics which act to improve the body's ability to tolerate Sieker. Redeker has weaker performance enhancing effects and is not useful in the short term, requiring weeks or months for the user to observe improvements in their physical abilities. Redeker's Cocktail is usually applied with the assistance of medical personnel or with an automated delivery system which interfaces with embedded synthetic channels in the user's body. Persistent usage of Redeker can allow the user to circumvent the usual crashing effect following the cessation of Sieker.

## Effects

### Sieker Solution

Sharp increases in strength, speed, cognition, reflexes, reaction times, awareness, alertness, pain tolerance. Increased heart rate, stroke volume, breathing rate, oxygen delivery, energy consumption, metabolism, resistance to sedation/unconsciousness. Sieker users who don't subscribe to a Redeker programme are capable of breaking their own bones with overexertion. As a demonstration of strength, healthy users are able to kill and incavate the skulls and abdominal cavities of normal humans with unarmed strikes.

**Side Effects:** Greatly increased blood pressure, widening of the bronchioles, hyperventilation, tachycardia, loss of muscle coordination, uncontrollable aggression, heightened sensitivity to lights and sound, strained vision, anxiety, tactile hallucinations. Overdose symptoms: paranoia, insomnia, emotional instability, psychosis, mania, panic, stroke, coma, death.

### Redeker's Cocktail

Decreased susceptibility to exhaustion, higher RBC counts, greater nervous conductance strength and speed, heightened metabolism, increased density of bones, rapid production of blood cells, slightly faster healing in the event of an injury.

**Side Effects:** Extraordinary energy consumption, overproduction of connective tissue leading to transient stiffness or excessive flexibility (depending on other factors) following injury, twitching and tremoring, inappropriate excitability. Potential for virion mutation, resulting in unintended gene expression or immune exhaustion.

## Components

### Sieker Solution

* **Adrenergic Base:** Sieker's most basic element is an adrenergic agonist, typically a combination of ephedrine and adrenaline, also known as epinephrine. Ephedrine has a high affinity for both alpha and beta adrenergic receptors, triggering bronchodilation, increased venous return, a heightened heartrate, dilating the irises, and partially mobilising the body's stores of fast-acting energy storage, such as glycogen granules in the muscles and liver. Adrenaline has similar effects, while also triggering vasodilation within the muscles. All of these effects serve to increase the body's access to oxygen and bloodborne nutrients. Exercise is usually limited by pulmonary factors.
* **Vasopressors:** Sieker contains vasopressors to induce a tightening of the body's arteries, increasing arterial pressure and venous return, thereby elevating the volume of each cardiac stroke. The most common vasopressor used in Sieker is dopamine, though this may be supplemented with dobutamine in order to avoid tachycardia.
* **Nootropics:** Dextroamphetamine and phenethylamine (preferred for its low risk of physiological dependency) are extremely potent central nervous stimulants, increasing alertness and counteracting the effects of sedatives and shock. They also raise the 'core temperature limit' of the human body, unlocking muscular potential that would otherwise be limited by nervous reflex. The user's awareness of their surroundings is heightened, as is the speed of thought and reaction.
* **Calcium ATPase Stimulants:** Istaroxime directly stimulates muscular Ca2+ ATPase, greatly shortening the exhaustion phase of muscular contraction and improving not only muscle recovery but also muscle efficiency and strength of contraction. It has especially notable effects in the heart, where it increases heartbeat volume and resists exhaustion.
* **Reuptake Inhibitors:** Iometopane (RTI-55) and the AY 24614 variant of the Tandamine series prevent reuptake at neurotransmitter junctions of dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine, maintaining a high volume of signal transduction and preventing attenuation of dopaminergic and adrenergic signalling, promoting wakefulness and increasing the strength of Sieker's adrenergic effects on the body. Mood heightening is often observed alongside the application of Iometopane.
* **Oxygen Carriers:** Perfluorocarbon based haemoglobin substitutes are contained in Sieker solution. Modified with a hydrophilic organic head, the normally water-insoluble perfluorocarbons are capable of dissolving in the blood, where they are able to increase the blood's oxygen carrying load by 40-50 times based on purity and volume of dose. In practice, the number ends up being much lower, but Sieker itself is a competent blood replacement and greatly increases pulmonary output, allowing the body to take in greater amounts of oxygen.
* **Anticholinergic Drugs:** Atropine and other anti muscarinic and anti nicotinic receptors prevent parasympathetic innervation of somatic tissues, thereby preventing the body from 'reining in' the effects of Sieker.
* **General Metabolites and Electrolytes:** Sieker contains 15% dextrose hydrous. Additionally, it contains several hundred micrograms (separately) of sodium lactate, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium phosphate, and calcium gluconate.

### Redeker's Cocktail - Pharmacological

* **Creatine:** Creatine acts as an ATP buffer, permitting rapid regeneration of energy through anaerobic pathways when initial stores (blood glucose and degraded glycogen) are exhausted. Application of creatine over a number of weeks promotes resistance to exhaustion.
* **Blood Cell Stimulants:** Erythropoietin encourages the production of RBCs and an increase in blood volume and maximal blood oxygen load.

### Redeker's Cocktail - Genetic

* **Nervous:** Redeker contains retroviral virions which are applied to specific organs and tissues to induce changes in local gene expression. To avoid taxing the body's immune system, these virions have been modified to evade immune detection and to have relatively stable genomes, preventing malignant mutation from occurring. All virulence factors have also been removed. As a result, the body eventually identifies and eradicates infections, forcing the retroviral solution to be reapplied. Redeker virions target nerve plexuses and sympathetic ganglia, instigating the synthesis of neurotransmitters, additional storage vesicles, encouraging myelination, and reinforcing existing dendritic and axonal connections, resulting in an increased speed of signal transmission, more robust innervation of the muscles, and an increased resistance to neurotransmitter depletion.
* **Metabolic:** Redeker encourages the storage of energy in the form of glycogen (which is less dense but more easily mobilised than fats and protein), and also upregulates the formation of enzymes key to the ketogenic, lipolytic, and glycolytic pathways. It heightens blood glucose levels via the release of thyroid hormone and glucagon, and promotes angiogenesis. Overall, it increases the availability of short-term energy stores and reinforces existing vasculature, allowing the body to operate at maximum exertion for longer, at the cost of long-term (>2 days) endurance and general energy consumption.
* **Musculoskeletal:** Redeker increases calcium intake within the small intestine and calcium retention via the excretory system. It encourages the expression of genes responsible for heightening bone density, and reverses the differentiation of red marrow into yellow marrow, increasing the body's production rate of RBCs and immune cells. Parathyroid hormone induces release of calcium from the bones, offset by calcium supplements and bone build-up. This keeps blood calcium levels high, allowing the formation of woven bone to take place more quickly and improving calcium availability to the muscles. Minor but persistent adrenergic stimulants such as clenbuterol are also included, generally increasing the user's capacity for exercise and therefore muscle gain. Anabolic steroids are included in Redeker near the onset of treatment to ensure the rapid acquisition of muscle mass to the desired level.
* **Immunological:** Redeker users have heightened macrophage counts and elevated fibroblast and osteoblast activity. In the event of an injury, woven bone is produced more rapidly than in a normal individual, as is scar tissue.

## Trivia

* Sieker Solution is based on the comic book trope established by Batman's "Venom", an addictive, harmful, but extremely potent strength enhancing drug which grants the user superhuman physical abilities.
* Notable users of Sieker and Redeker are Evelyn S. Retherford, Violet Addaway, Albionite Reavers, and Caitlin Wandmarcher.