Operation Man of Steel

**Operation Man of Steel**was a collaborative project that began sometime in the summer of 2019. Conceived in 2018, it had three purposes: to enhance soldiers with a weaponized variant of the saliva used by a new species of animal, cybernetic augmentations that could make soldiers stronger in combat and last longer in the battlefield, and to create combat robots to supplement those soldiers. The project was the brainchild of Apex Corporation CEO Patrick Ramsey, who collaborated with U.S. Department of Defense director Scott G. Rivera.

Unfortunately, a series of international incidents, attempts at sabotage, and a terrorist attack on New Year's Day, 2020, led to the project being permanently terminated, fearing that the cybernetic technology could potentially fall into the hands of known enemies of the United States of America. Despite these events, however, Apex Corporation still sells cybernetic prostheses to handicapped civilians.

## History

### Conception

In 2016, a new species of parasitic crab was discovered, which had a mysterious bacteria in its saliva that enhanced the physical abilities of any host the crab attached itself to. Apex Corporation's CEO Patrick Ramsey, and the head of the US Department of Defense, Scott Rivera, took notice of this and both of them conceived of a way to weaponize the saliva of the crab to create better soldiers. With this intention in mind, Operation Man of Steel was officially activated in late spring of 2017.

### First test subjects

The first few test subjects for Operation Man of Steel were a former US Army Ranger turned Central Intelligence Agency operative, codenamed "Trojan", a US Army officer named Scott E. Pease, a former US Marine named Erica W. Volk, a US Marine named Kenneth J. Mayer, Mason Davidson, a college student who happened to be in the ROTC program, Claudia M. Poulson, a US Army combat medic, a US Army Ranger named Bobby M. Lippincott, and US Marine Susan T. Lynch. All of these soldiers-except Mason-suffered injuries during tours of duty overseas that could have ended their military careers, and Man of Steel was intended to give these soldiers their lives back.

The soldiers were all implanted with cybernetic limbs, in addition to having two of their chromosomes altered in order to grant them a variety of physical enhancements, such as enhanced recovery from physical injuries, increased physical performance, pain suppression, enhanced intelligence, etc. With these new enhancements, the soldiers not only got their lives back, but fought better as well. CIA asset Trojan in particular, became a "one-woman wrecking crew" with her enhancements, able to survive prolong melee fights against enemies and shrugging off injuries that would put a normal person out of action.

### Combat robots

In addition to augmenting and enhancing soldiers, Operation Man of Steel saw Apex Corporation creating combat robots that would support soldiers in the field. One of their prototypes was the **Apex MK.I Razorback**, a combat robot made of nanomachines that was highly advanced for its time; it could mimic complex human emotions nearly perfectly (it wasn't programmed to laugh like a normal human, though it could smile) and understand foreign languages without a translator. Most importantly, the Razorback's nanofibers could create "drones" by splitting itself into two separate units if a limb were ever severed. The nanofibers could also cause the robot to regenerate lost limbs. The exact mechanics of how this works is currently unknown.

### Termination

After the New Year's terrorist plot was foiled, the US government shut down Operation Man of Steel, citing "high maintanance costs". Worried that the assets would go public and become whistleblowers, Colonel Dale Norris of the United States Army ordered everyone associated with the program killed, including Scott Rivera and Apex Corporation's CEO Patrick Ramsey. However, his mission ultimately failed when Norris himself was killed by Trojan before he could assassinate Ronald Munson. All documents regarding Operation Man of Steel were classified and locked away.

## Known staff members

### Heads

* Scott G. Rivera, head of the US Department of Defense
* Patrick Ramsey, CEO of Apex Corporation
* Colonel Dale Norris (deceased)

### Assets

* "Trojan"
* Scott E. Pease/Warhorse
* Kenneth J. Mayer/Devil Dog
* Mason Davidson
* Erica W. Volk/Death Eyes
* Claudia M. Poulson/Stalker
* Bobby M. Lippincott/Vickers
* Susan T. Lynch/Cottontail