Beta Programs

**Beta Programs** refer to any illegal project to exploit viral reprogramming of the human genome to create superhumans, with the intention to create an army of super-soldier-spies. The United States government concealed the existence of these programs from the American public for years before a shocking cyber-attack finally exposed all the Beta Projects for the whole world to see, provoking simultaneous horror, outrage and awe from the international community.

## History

Nobody knows exactly how the Beta Programs began. According to one anonymous source, the Beta Programs were the result of a laboratory accident at Fort Dettrick. A military doctor examined the five dead scientists after a viral accident and found a way to modify the human genome to create super-soldier-assassins.

## Known projects

### Operation Treadstone

Operation Treadstone was the most notorious of the Beta projects, due to it being responsible for the creation of Jason Bourne and Adam Hayes. This program recruited mainly US men and women (though according to one unverified source, at least one foreigner, a Russian named Leonid Danilovich Arkadin, was also recruited into the program, but went rogue much like Jason Bourne did). Formed in direct response to the Congressional Act, which banned the U.S. from partaking in any assassinations, as sometimes assassination is considered necessary to keep the United States safe.

### Operation Blackbriar

Operation Blackbriar was the successor to Treadstone. Allegedly, it was a joint Department of Defense-Communications program, but according to other sources, it was more intended for defensive than offensive purposes. However, it was discovered that Blackbriar had absolutely brutal interrogation techniques, much like Treadstone, so much so that when it reached the attention of the US public, many condemned it as a domestic terrorist organization.

### Operation LARX

*Main article: Project LARX*

Operation LARX was referred to as "Treadstone without the inconsistencies, Outcome without the emotional noise." In a bold deviation from Treadstone and Blackbriar, agents in LARX were subjected to mind control and brainwashing so that they would display little to no emotions whatsoever. They also felt no pain (The minuscule amount of pain they did feel was suppressed thanks to the brainwashing). This made them nearly unstoppable killers, much to the amazement of Rodney Batt, who saw firsthand what the LARX operatives were capable of during a mass shooting at George Washington Carver University.

### Operation Reaper

Operation Reaper came to be known as the most "sadistic" of the Beta Programs. It was considered directly the opposite of LARX. Rather than suppress emotion, Reaper operatives were taught to "weaponize rage" to transform them into "near-feral killers" in the field. Reaper members were subjected to mandatory viewings of violent movies, TV shows and video games as a way to "work one one's rage", before releasing their subjects "into the wild" as part of their "initiation program." The agents were considered to have "passed" if they violently killed a predetermined "target". If they failed to kill their predetermined target, they were subjected to further conditioning.

Methuselah Locke was one of the first agents in this program, having been transferred to Reaper from Treadstone. He not only passed all his tests-he *excelled* in all of them, much to the amazement and (to a certain extent) horror of his handlers.

Unfortunately, Methuselah Locke, like Jason Bourne and Adam Hayes before him, went rogue after someone managed to "sabotage" (break) his programming and lead him to realize what Reaper had turned him into. Naturally, the reemergence of his moral conscience led to him going rogue shortly before the Beta Programs were exposed to the public.

## Known operatives

* Jason Bourne/Cain (Defected)
* Adam Hayes (Defected)
* LARX-1
* LARX-2 (Defected)
* Timon Nowak (KIA)
* Maurice Bernstein (KIA)
* Methuselah Locke (Defected)