The Hart Records: OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION OF THE ██████ OUTBREAK TRANSCRIBED FROM THE JOURNALS OF ROWAN W. HART [1 of 3]

Starting in the early 1990s a joint coalition of national powers (including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia) began work on a highly classified program for the purpose of countering the growing threat of biological weapon and chemical attacks on the UN and its members. The project was codenamed [EXPUNGED] and sent to the ██████ Testing Facility in █████████, Germany.

Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the program completed the mandatory prerequisites and operational testing objectives, and was moved to Camp █████ in ███████, Japan; there it was militarized for use only in the event of biological acts of terrorism. But the project faced a contracting budget and lack of relevant operations, and over the course of nine (9) years the program was progressively scaled down and eventually shut down in favor of ███████ ████████, an American-based program that shared many similarities with Project [EXPUNGED].

It was rumored through an unconfirmed leak years later that ███████ ████████ was involved in the illegal biological manipulation of human subjects and the development of various forms of CBRN weapons and weapons of mass destruction, but these speculations were quickly discredited. It was suggested that after the leak, ███████ ████████ required an entirely new level of classification to be created specifically for it and all surrounding intelligence to ensure the information was safe from future incident.

It was shortly after ███████ ████████ entered this shroud of protection that the attacks that it had been formed to protect against occurred on American soil. These attacks came to be known as the Bushwood North Strikes—reportedly named after the branch terrorist organization that claimed credit for them. The attacks devastated the eastern seaboard of the United States and almost collapsed the entire country. New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, North Carolina and Georgia were all subject to a series of attacks ranging from the release of several lethal disease (including antibiotic-resistant strains of Variola major, Yersinia pestis, Escherichia coli, and Clostridium botulinum) to gas attacks (including VX, Sarin, Mustard Gas, and Phosgene). The climax of the attacks came in the form of several highly explosive, non-nuclear bombs detonated in the remaining major cities along the East Coast, killing millions.

In response to these attacks a special operations task force known officially as ███████—and nicknamed GATE—was created to combat this threat. It was believed that GATE received personnel who had previously been test subjects for ███████ ████████, and it was believed that ███████ ████████ was to be declassified and publicized. The rumor has never been officially confirmed and no information surrounding ███████ ████████ has even been released.

After ten (10) years of operations GATE succeeded in eliminating the remaining Bushwood North terrorists in and around western Asia and resolved the fighting on America’s home territory. But this success meant that GATE was no longer needed to ensure the United States’ survival, and as such the United States Government declared the GATE Program no longer necessary and officially removed the program from the federal budget. With its funding cut, the GATE task force was shut down months later, and it was believed by most that the threat of biological attacks had been removed from the world for years to come.

Then on 12 September, 20██ the ████████ █████ laboratory based in ███████, Arizona attempted to send an emergency report to the CDC warning of the accidental release of an experimental pathogen that they had recently been developing. However, these reports failed to reach their destination, and the laboratory went dark eight (8) hours later. Due to the isolated nature of the lab, relative lack of hazardous or lethal materials stored there, and the still-recovering nature of America’s HHS and CDC, the loss of contact went largely unnoticed until the 15th of November, when the CDC received a hastily-written letter warning of an imminent danger that the anonymous sender did not identify.