Genesis RPG: Story

In September 2000, an unscrupulous American businessman, Michael Hurrey, visited a Japanese biological research lab and somehow managed to leave with an experimental virus. Originally intended as a form of biological warfare, the virus had turned out far more different than any of the scientists on Project Genesis ever imagined, and the project was immediately shelved, until the upstart American managed to procure a sample and steal away with it. Knowing nothing of the virus which he’d stolen, other than it’s codename, Hurrey determined that it would be best to test it’s effects on others before attempting to sell it as planned. Making his way to a small South African village outside of Tambacounda, Senegal, Hurrey and his small group of employees sent up a small camp 5 miles away, donned biohazard suits, and released the virus into the water of the village.

Within 48 hours, the small village of less than 30 members had been reduced to 3. Of those 3, two were horribly deformed, one now with the ears and trunk of an elephant, the other having been reduced in size in weight to little more than a skeleton, with clammy gray skin and a permanent grinning rictus. The third, a young adolescent female, seemed completely unaffected at all, and after waiting and observing for over a week, Hurrey kidnapped her unto his helicopter, taking her back to New York for further testing. What he never knew, could never test for, was whether or not the young woman carried the virus. The day after landing in New York, Michael Hurrey was dead, and everyone he and his staff had encountered was infected.

Within 3 months, the entire United States, most of South Africa, and portions of Europe, Canada, and Latin America were infected. In less than 7 months, the virus was reported to be in every country in the world. By the time a year had passed, every person on the planet had been infected with the virus, resulting in the loss of almost 80% of the world’s population.

It’s been almost 10 years since the Genesis virus was first released on the world. Today, almost 75% of the remaining population of the planet is a carrier of mutated DNA as a result of the virus, either in a dominant or recessive form. Those who have the Genesis gene in the dominant form, referred to as Chimerates, have powers or mutations beyond normal human capabilities.

History is not what it should have been these past ten years. Shortly after the virus hit, before the time of President Robert Halloway and the Great Rebuild, the US was torn apart by riots. With so much of the country torn apart by grief, survivors trying to determine who and what was left, and newly mutated people trying to figure out what they now are and what they could do, fighting broke out in every major US city, as well as several smaller ones, damaging much needed buildings and shrinking the population even further. Some businesses still functioned, those that had enough survivors to keep it up and running. Television broadcasts still ran intermittently, reruns of popular shows to remind everyone that not everything was gone. Electricity still worked, as did natural gas, cable, and all other 24/7 businesses. George W. Bush was newly elected, but had not yet been sworn in when the virus killed him, along with current president Bill Clinton, leaving the country in the hands of vice president elect Dick Cheney for a solid two months, until he succumbed from a heart attack brought about when his electrical-based powers caused his ICD to cease functioning.

It wasn’t until May 2002, when Halloway first came to the notice of the nation, that the US started back on the road to what it what was. He started a movement to remind people of the fact that they are Americans first and foremost, moving across the country, he was able to leave a wake of peace behind. In a manner of months, he became the most famous person in the new age, and quickly gained the respect of the nation. Ending up in Washington D.C., he went to what was left of Congress and spoke to them about rebuilding the nation, and they listened. He started the Great Rebuild, organizing people to get major businesses going, traveling again from state to state, in an official capacity this time, to get people working as a community this time. By the end of 2003, the nation was once again a nation of peace, with everyone working together to produce food and other products, to educate the children, and to rebuild the government. Robert Halloway was elected the first new president after the Genesis virus and is now in his second term.

Blamed by much of the world for the release of the Genesis virus, the United States and it’s citizens are hated and reviled. Where the US once had to patrol it’s borders for those trying to illegal enter the country, now the borders are patrolled by Mexico and Canada respectively, trying to keep American citizens in the country. Terrorist groups habitually attack cities in the US on a small scale, and the rest of the world turns a blind eye, as aid to the US is habitually denied. Dependent on what resources could only be found and used by the remaining citizens with the knowledge to utilize it in the US, many things once taken for granted by American citizens, such as oil, coffee, and a large part of it’s consumer items that were made in China or Taiwan are now in limited supply. The auto industry has pretty much closed down, due to an over abundance of vehicles in the country, but the amount of jobless and homeless now equal to about 0.01% of the population. There are plenty of empty houses, unowned vehicles, and jobs to fill due to the large amount of deaths in the country.