Zone Fifty

> **Grizwald:** Ya ever heard of ***Zone Fifty***?
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> **Michelle:** They were, like, a black ops group right? Did shady shit for the government.
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> **Grizwald:** That's them. They shut down... oh, about a hunnerd years ago after some of their projects started leakin'. They put outta bunch of false leads, fake documents about UFOs and genetically modifyin' yetis, weather control and beams that could turn people gay. There was so much rubbish that it was hard to tell what was real, and what was jus' Zone Fifty blowin' smoke. Buuut... clone science, genetic engineerin', all that started really bumpin' in the twenty years or so after Zone Fifty disappeared. So it weren't all nonsense, all the good stuff just got bought up on the black market. Secret auctions and tha like... y'know, among them rich types.
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> (Michelle and Grizwald, from Have a beer)
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## The End of Zone Fifty

The story begins over a century after the end of Zone Fifty.

Zone Fifty was a 'black ops group' that was funded by the government and comprised of multiple departments that covered a whole host of research and experiments into science and technology, beyond what the current state of science/technology is at. They shut down over 100 years prior to the start of the story, apparently just as some of their projects started leaking.

Their technology has proven to stand the test of time, with Zone Fifty relics from a century ago still in working condition, and while modern technology (like bio printers) has improved upon some of the technology Zone Fifty started the blueprints of, there are still mysteries that Zone Fifty has kept under wraps that modern technology cannot even fathom.

## Research projects

Their research (known by Jane Doe and her party, so far) included exploration on Mars, experiments with the blood found on Mars, advanced robotics and artificial intelligence, bio-printers, Edison, containing Lasker and dimensional/portal/rift technology.

### Blood on Mars

Zone Fifty had a bunker on Mars with a research team on it dedicated to taking samples from the planet through mining operations, and passing them through to other departments in Z50 for study. As they did, **blood** was discovered on some of the rock samples.

The blood looked like human blood under a microscope, but only because it was pretending to be. It was discovered that the blood had strange properties beyond its camouflage ability - if two people had the blood in them, but one had more than the other, the one with more blood could *control* the other person with their mind. Because it looked like regular blood, there was an actual possibility to explore for mass mind control, potentially using hospitals as recruiting stations.

Because only a small quantity of blood was discovered, however, technology was developed to engineer fake copies of the alien blood. (This technology would eventually become bio printers.)

The original owner of the Mars blood has been dead for centuries; what Z50 found on Mars was barely a figment of a corpse of a fallen alien corpse. There is not enough 'mind' in the blood to control itself, so to speak, but there is enough in it to get 'riled up' when pitted against a 'fake'.

The blood is Mars is a direct result of a battle between Jane's mother and another of her kind. Jane's mom tore the other one apart, flinging their pieces across the galaxy in the process. Jane's mom's red said: "Their struggle concluded over the fourth planet from your sun."

It is worth noting that this particular alien kind is extremely hostile, to put it lightly, against one another. If they know one of their kind exists elsewhere in the cosmos, they are driven by an intense hatred for the other and will not rest until they are destroyed, and they fight at any encounter. It is possible that, since Save The Queen is a bio printed copy based on this Mars blood, there may in fact be a similar reaction from those with StQ in their system that is the driving force behind their unending desire to see Jane dead.

There are not many of this particular alien kind left. Jane's mother thought that she might, in fact, have been the last.

### The Lasker Report

Harold Lasker was one of the first people Z50 conducted experiments with, involving the blood found on Mars. They injected him with the raw alien blood first, undiluted, before they tried putting bio printed - i.e. fake - blood in him.

The instant they did, the real blood reacted and Lasker 'died' before coming back to life - as a monster. He stretched out thin with organs bursting out of his body, strangled people with his nervous system and crushed them with tumours. It would seem Lasker had a red that he was able to tap into in order to draw endless amounts of flesh, and Lasker grew absolutely humongous.

Unable to kill him or any of the other failed experiments from this project properly, Z50 found ways to cut up and contain the different parts of Lasker, some of which have been discovered in Bunker C under cryostasis. It is speculated there are more parts of Lasker that have been detained in different ways by Z50, scattered in different places.

The horrifying result of this experiment resulted in the whole project with the blood on Mars getting cancelled, as Z50 no longer wanted the risk of real alien blood mixing with bio printed blood under any circumstance.

## Structured in secrecy

Zone Fifty had so many layers of secrecy within their departments, workers in one department were not aware of what was happening in another. The head of Zone Fifty was a secret to even people who were involved within Zone Fifty's departments. Jury , who was built by Zone Fifty, does not even know his name, and has never seen him.

> "That's how secretive Zone Fifty was. The left hand never knew what the right hand was doing. I was kept in a small facility as part of a project to finish designing... well, me. They let me talk to staff from other departments only when necessary for our project, or for one of theirs. Zone Fifty's hierarchy, structure, where its real base of operations was located... all mysteries to me. It wouldn't surprise me if I did know, at some point or another. I know for a fact that some of my data was altered or deleted before Zone Fifty shut down."
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> (Jury, on Zone Fifty's internal structure, from Call Jury )
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Unfortunately, with the group in charge of the Zone Fifty program unable to really know what any groups were doing and the Director, later found out to be a member of the Thale family, having access and power of the entirety of Zone Fifty along with poor management and safety decisions/practices lead to the entire project collapsing.

## Relations to the protagonist

The protagonist's father originally worked for Zone Fifty. He was a radar tower controller, sending signals into outer space in an attempt to contact aliens. He was eventually visited by the very curious would-be-mother of Jane. See Jane Doe for more information.