"Let me guess...and I'm going to go with irony here...they kept it secret 'in order to save lives'."
"Correct. Also, they deployed it in order to kill people."
Project Description[]
Project Laz'R'Us was a UNS project that brought all of the UNS's soldier boost, life extension and other blood-nanny research under one roof. While it started as an R&D project, almost none of its work was released to the general public or even to the rest of the UNS, and instead the project morphed into a black-ops agency extremely willing to use illegal violence to further its aims. The project was the bane of Tagon's Toughs for years, due to the way the Toughs continually stumbled onto its secrets or targets, although for most of that span the Toughs had no idea what they were dealing with.
Project Laz'R'Us research eventually included high-grade soldier boosts (including the ability to transform the user into a highly modified super-soldier), immunity to conventional mindrip, extreme longevity treatments, resurrection from mortal wounds, and recovery from brain damage. One particularly sinister application, Redhack, allowed unsuspecting people to be turned into 'sleepers' who could later be remotely mind-wiped and transformed into agents.
History[]
Todd Lazcowicz, the Toughs' original doctor, was a fugitive former researcher for the project. The tech he absconded with, which he built into a cryokit, allowed him to give his fellow Toughs illegal (but conventional) soldier boosts and use the 'kit as a regeneration tank.
Kevyn Andreyasn was given a Laz'R'Us knockoff treatment by the Fleetmind, without his knowledge, just before the hunt for Shufgar. This allowed him to survive several mortal wounds over the course of the mission, and eventually save his team using the super-soldier mode. After the mission, the transformation was reversed and the treatment removed.
General Xinchub and Admiral Emm were both Project Laz'R'Us agents. Xinchub worked to prevent Laz'R'Us's life-extension suite from being distributed, as it was far too easy to weaponize, and later defected and turned over his knowledge of the project's work to the Fleetmind. Emm acted as as an enforcer for the project, and attempted to intercept and kill Xinchub when he defected. She also used Redhack in various illegal operations, such as the horrific invasion of Oisri, turning people in sensitive positions into copies of her pet special-forces agent Kowalski.
Aftermath[]
Project Laz'R'Us was effectively destroyed when the Neoafans, possibly as a front for the Fleetmind, released a secure and deweaponized version of the life-extension tech. Shortly afterward, following revelations from the Fleetmind and Tagon's Toughs, the project was officially declared a rogue agency and dismantled.
Legacy[]
- Reo-Ran Nanites: The deweaponized version of the life-extension would continue to be used by many, including Toughs: many of their key personal would be restored.
- Laz Rating : With publicly released version of the treatment, a Rating system was named after the project and late researcher, Todd Lazcowicz. The rating showed how much degree of "dead" a person has experienced, and what treatment to recovery was needed.
Renegade UNS Faction's Known Fleet[]
- UNS Tunguska (Destroyed)
- UNS Morokweng (Destroyed)
- UNS Fiscal Singularity
- Unfinished battleplate (confiscated and rebuilt into Jumpstar Prime)