Operation: Black Light

05 June 2005

Operation: Black Light was an airsoft scenario put on by Team Blackjack and Georgia Airsoft.  It was held at the Georgia Airsoft field located in Athens Georgia.  The background for the scenario was a bit different than most airsoft milsim scenarios.  The scenario is centered around Project Lazarus.

Project Lazarus

Project Lazarus is the cover name for a research and development effort being done by the Geneticom Corporation.  This project is being hosted at the Geneticom Corporation research and development facility that is located under the southern end of Isla Thorntonia.  This small island was purchased years ago by the corporation and technically is located just outside United States territorial water.

Project Lazarus involves illegal genetic engineering experimentation on volunteer humans.  Lot-436a is an engineered virus that Project Lazarus revolves around.  This virus, when introduced into a human host has some amazing effects.  Within moments of exposure the subject already has the virus coursing through their system.  During these moments, known as the “initial flash infection” the subject will experience severe pain and convulsions while the virus begins re-writing the subjects genetic code.  After the infection is complete the subject now has greater stamina and endurance than before.  So much so in fact that they no longer require sleep.  The most impressive effect however is the hyper-metabolic healing rate that the subject acquires.  Severe wounds heal in moments.  Allowing the subject to even recover from what would normally be a fatal wound for anyone else.

The original virus would last approximately 48 hours in the subject before the immune system would drive the virus into dormancy, thus nullifying the effects and requiring a new injection of the virus to activate it once again for another 48 hour period.

Then the Lot-436a virus mutated.  The subject’s immune systems could no longer drive the virus into dormancy and the effects appeared to become permanent.  As time passed, the Lazarus Soldiers” as they were dubbed by the researchers, began to become much more aggressive and much less reasonable.  Before long the subjects became completely psychotic.  They displayed aggression and rage towards any others that were not infected with the Lot-436a virus.  The virus also became extremely contagious through the touch of an infected subject.  This was discovered when several of the researchers were “changed” by infected subjects.

It was decided that the contingency emergency plan would be enacted and that Lot-436b would be injected into the subjects.  Lot-436b is supposed to be a counter-virus to Lot-436a.  It is supposed to drive the virus into dormancy if a subject’s immune system could not do it on its own.  The decision came too late however.  The Lazarus Soldiers rebelled, escaped and gained access to one of the security force weapons lockers.  The Lazarus Soldiers, then armed with a variety of assault rifles and other military grade weaponry, began a murderous rampage, killing or changing all those who were not infected with Lot-436a.

The researchers then enabled the facility’s emergency containment/self destruct system in hopes of destroying the Lazarus Soldiers and the virus before they could escape to the surface.  Again, the decision to enable the system came too late as many of the soldiers had already escaped to the surface through one of the ventilation shafts.  Some of the researchers also escaped to the surface but were quickly found and either killed or changed by the Lazarus Soldiers.  The facility was sealed and destroyed with many of the researchers and some of the Lazarus Soldiers still inside.

One of the researchers got a distress signal out before he was killed however.  His message was received by the U.S. military.  Concerned about the type of research going on within the facility on the island and not having a complete picture of the current situation, the U.S. government deployed a small special forces team to rescue the surviving researcher who sent the message and to investigate the situation further and report back their findings.  Operation: Black Light.

The Geneticom Corporation became very concerned about the incident that occurred on the small island but became even more concerned when they realized that a radio message made it off the island.  Their government contacts confirmed that a special forces team was being covertly deployed to the island despite the fact that the island was not within the territorial waters of the United States.  They quickly decided to deploy their own mercenary security force to the island to “clean up” the situation.  They were to use their own supply of Lot-436b to try and bring the Lazarus Soldiers back to normal and then evacuate them off of the island.  They were also to eliminate anyone else on the island that did not belong there.  Once their first two tasks were complete they were to detonate a chemical weapon on the northern end of the island so that the prevailing winds would carry the chemical agent across the entire area, destroying all life completely and contaminating the entire island.  This would make an investigation into the corporation’s illegal research on the island nearly impossible and definitely delay such an investigation for a very long time.  Geneticom Corp, in the mean time would be able to relocate Project Lazarus elsewhere and continue their research and development of the virus.

The secondary objective of the Geneticom Corporation deploying the mercenary security force was to measure the combat effectiveness of the Lazarus Soldiers against them.  This objective was not known to the mercenaries however.

Geneticom Corporation will stop at nothing to avoid further attention being drawn to this situation and to eliminate anyone who may bring any further unwanted attention to the island and what was going on there.

Operational Details

Joint Special Operations Team: Sapphire

The Joint Special Operations Team, Codename: Sapphire, infiltrated the island through a small, abandoned coastal village that was evacuated when the Geneticom Corporation purchased the island.  They promptly cleared the town during their search for Dr. Vinorsk, reporting a minor contact with hostiles.  As they moved across the northern end of the island they reported engagements with personnel that seemed to shrug off any damage that the team dealt out to them using small arms.  Soon thereafter, panicked communications came in from the team stating that they were surrounded and needed immediate evacuation fro the area of operations.  Their communications dropped off in mid-transmission.  The team is currently listed as MIA.

Geneticom Corporation Mercenary Security Force: Alpha-2

The Geneticom Corporation deployed a security force formed of a small group of mercenaries, codenamed; Alpha-2.  The team's standing orders was to utilize the supply of Lot-436b that they were provided to revert the Lazarus Soldiers to normal and evacuate them from the island.  They were also responsible for eliminating anyone else that was still alive on the island to cover any evidence of the research being done at the facility.  This included eliminating the Special Operations team on the island.  The team was inserted via helicopter near the entrance to the underground facility.  Shortly after the insertion the commander of Alpha-2 reported contact with a group of Lazarus Soldiers.  The last communication from Alpha-2 was from the commander, stating that he was the last of his team left and the Lazarus Soldiers were closing in on his position.  No further communications with Alpha-2 has been possible.

It appears the Isla Thorntonia, while officially being owned by the Geneticom Corporation is currently occupied and controlled by the Lazarus Soldiers...