Calibre/Calibre Lore
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Contents |
Project Persephone
An old MESCOP plan, Project Persephone was an attempt to ensure the availability of MESCOP-like assets, and, failing that, threats for MESCOP to pursue. Persephone involved sterilising unknowing agents after obtaining a sample of their reproductive DNA - sperm and egg samples - and keeping that information on ice until predictive models indicated downwards trends in breeding and metahuman creation. The Persephone device would then distribute a fertilised sample of metahuman DNA with best-as-could-be-constructed models of future behaviour to donor surrogate parents. The whole process was very black box - locating these children would be very difficult without the Demeter Protocol, a system that was incomplete when MESCOP shut down.
But Persephone rumbled on. It's uncertain how much of an impact it's had on past or future entries - but it's known that the officer in charge of Project Persephone, Jaime Pruitt was recently murdered in the Etoile. Information obtained from him - possibly from his murderer, Ruhelos - indicates that Ruhelos himself may have a Persephone-born son, and that he might not be the only unknowing father from the MESCOP era.
Operation Pressurize
In June 2009, Longbow made a direct and deliberate attempt to re-establish predominance in the Nerva Archipelago. They've done this by upping patrols, producing more and more conspicuous policing activity and generally being shiny, showy, and only marginally helpful. While this has been good, to some extent, for the people of Nerva, the further incursion has earned the ire amongst the Arachnos agents who view the Nerva Archipelago as outside of Longbow's legal juridstiction.
As a result, Arachnos terrorists are making attacks - minor and major - against Paragon soil. Using Operation Pressurize as a catalyst, there is therefore a quantity of powerful prototyped Arachnos tech being field-tested in Paragon, often on unsuspecting citizens and supers. Calibre therefore seeks to scoop up as much of it as they can and potentially develop countermeasures that will be brought to bear in more pertinent conflicts.
Subradian Incident
The Subradian incident occurred early 2009, or in game terms, the nebulous 'some months ago.' The Rikti were pursuing ways to create a Rikti-Nictus fusion, a kind of pet energy parasite with shapeshifting capacity that they could use to expand their operations on Earth. The Subradian incident was known to both Arachnos and Calibre, and this incident led to Julietta and Romeo Salvatore being sent to target the Rikti's idealised host for the parasite, known as Mi'Tre. Mi'Tre was assassinated by Julietta, but not before his energy parasite had successfully rebonded to Romeo, who had been sent to steal it.
This assassination and extraction was performed under covering fire from other Calibre operatives - Martel, Saxon, Swivel and Automatic Joy were amongst the agents involved. Operative Wing was their infiltrator, giving Calibre the location of the Rikti experimentation. During this incident, Operative Wing was lost in fusion with a Nictus called Eclipse, and Operative Romeo Salvatore was forced into deep cover. It was also through this incident that Martel received her Kheldian symbiote Halo, and the young hero known as Dale Riverson was first brought to Calibre's attention.
The incident has a sore spot to many operatives - Saxon in particular lost two dear friends that day, as Romeo had served as his support on many missions, and he had rescued Wing more than a few times as well. It was after this event that Saxon took to extremely long shifts and excessive extra duty while refusing downtime except when necessary.
'History'
While investigating the remains of the Subradian Incident, Geography found evidence, however intangible, that an individual had somehow involved themselves in the plan of the Ritki, but that this plan had been put in motion well before the Rikti had even first invaded Earth. Without further information to operate along, he referred to this entity as 'History' and figured it best to gather more information before he pursued further.
At this point, it seems that there may be an individual involved whose capacity for predicting the future nears on the impossible, and who may or may not be manipulating events to give others the impression of time travel. Without any other clues to go on at this point, Calibre are organising for Vanguard to make an aggressive push into Rikti territory, probing to see if there are more clues about this strange entity.
Genuine Fakes
A number of high-tech fakes of low-tech firearms have been finding their way from Etoile smuggling ports to US secondary sellers. At this point, this plot thread is relatively undeveloped, with no clear directive for who is or isn't responsible - some contact has been made with Etoile sources and gun experts to see if they're aware of what's transpiring.
