Eternal
The Eternal Program is the latest in the Empire’s schemes to maintain their tenuous grip on power. It was set in motion about thirty years ago, and the concept is to create a group of completely loyal super soldiers. The premise is simple, take babies and turn them into killers from the crib. This sounds like a relatively easy task, given the resources of the Empire and its obsession with control, however it has so far met with little success.
First of all simple brainwashing and training isn’t enough, or at least not enough for whatever the end goals are. There is also some physical alteration involved through a bizarre mixture of magic and science (one of the few times advancements in the field are actually made and applied) so far this has only resulted in a lot of dead babies. In fact the first attempts were actually on pregnant women, but this usually just killed the mother along with the unborn fetus.
The ones that have actually managed to make it through to toddlerhood, usually don’t survive the further alteration processes, or in some cases they don’t pass the “tests” that are administered. Failure of these tests results in a lot of dead toddlers.
If the subject can actually make it past toddlerhood, then the real training begins. This involves basic combat skills and the beginnings of psychological preparation. It is very harsh even for a subject that has already been conditioned for this situation. So far nobody has made it past the age of eight.
Despite the repeated failures, the Empire is insistent on continuing with this project until it produces more successful results. The resources that have been spent so far would have been better spent on more traditional forms of control, security and conquest. One can only surmise that this is probably an order from the Emperor himself, though why it is so important, nobody can say.
Perhaps your “class” will be the first ones to succeed where so many of your predecessors have proven…unfit.
First of all simple brainwashing and training isn’t enough, or at least not enough for whatever the end goals are. There is also some physical alteration involved through a bizarre mixture of magic and science (one of the few times advancements in the field are actually made and applied) so far this has only resulted in a lot of dead babies. In fact the first attempts were actually on pregnant women, but this usually just killed the mother along with the unborn fetus.
The ones that have actually managed to make it through to toddlerhood, usually don’t survive the further alteration processes, or in some cases they don’t pass the “tests” that are administered. Failure of these tests results in a lot of dead toddlers.
If the subject can actually make it past toddlerhood, then the real training begins. This involves basic combat skills and the beginnings of psychological preparation. It is very harsh even for a subject that has already been conditioned for this situation. So far nobody has made it past the age of eight.
Despite the repeated failures, the Empire is insistent on continuing with this project until it produces more successful results. The resources that have been spent so far would have been better spent on more traditional forms of control, security and conquest. One can only surmise that this is probably an order from the Emperor himself, though why it is so important, nobody can say.
Perhaps your “class” will be the first ones to succeed where so many of your predecessors have proven…unfit.