Document 9: Kaleb Caeppel’s audio journal – Transcript

This document is a transcript of Caleb Kaeppel’s audio journal found within the laboratory where he worked. The following recordings were found on his person upon police investigation. His corpse was then used as a benchmark for all future incidents. The facility is situated in the southeast of the Strzelecki desert. Designed to be as large as possible while having minimal environmental impact, the facility extends 35 levels underground, with the three levels above ground serving as cargo bays and administration. Most staff live onsite for most of the week. The owner and higher staff are permanent residents.

9/5 16:00;

Facility A, Strzelecki Desert

The discourse of the scientific community has gotten out of hand. They rant and rave about my research, calling me a crackpot and detesting me for trying to play god. They claim to be saving me from myself. Do they not see the potential good this technology can do? Embracing the CRISPRR-CAS9 technology was hard for the world, but they embraced it nonetheless. I am making the next step from genome editing – genome creation.

12/5 22:00

My research is beginning to bear fruit. Printing genetic material and creating life from it is far harder than anyone could guess. Using E. coli samples as a basis, Multicellular modification has become a reality. In layman’s terms, Evolution in a test tube. The secondary primordial soup experiment trying to make blank cell structures for the created DNA. Progress is slow and funding is running short. The CSIRO jumped ship yesterday and have officially declared me a crackpot. Now cost is a permanent issue in any future research and profitable secondary projects are now a necessity.

15/5 07:00

Revenue streams have now been established. Facility D in central Melbourne now runs a CRISPRR medical lab researching cancer treatment methods and research on telomere regeneration in humans. The company now makes money up and above the cost of the main project. The primordial ooze experiment has been artificially sped up and is now proceeding in a timely manner. Synthetic multicellular life is now within my reach. Now the next phase can be outlined in more detail. The meeting to update the plan outline for phase 3 is scheduled for tomorrow and morale is high. After the meeting, we’re gonna bust out the slabs of VB we’ve been saving and celebrate our success.

16/5 02:00

The meeting is over and the boys are absolutely smashed. I had two, but did not go overboard. Phase 3 has been planned out in detail and is ready to begin. Usually, getting smashed on a Wednesday night is a bad idea but I let it slide because of all the hard work we’ve put in. The lab hands have started to resign one by one because they have ethical concerns, but the NDA’s should keep them quiet. The press would go nuts for some of the stuff in this facility. Work is scheduled to resume on May 21st where stage 3 will commence.

23/5 22:00

Progress is being made faster than anticipated and the project is ahead of schedule. Morale is still high across the board and result are being made.

30/5 04:00

The team continues to crunch, out of sheer excitement, even though it is unnecessary. Our 27th attempt at keeping a synthetic multicellular organism alive long-term (more than 100 hours) was successful, though it suffered from division and energy production problems. These issues are being fixed in the genetic coding; the issue is not in the creation process.

9/6 02:20

Attempts to make Simple vertebrates have started but are very slow. Synthetic isopods are the most advanced currently living creature the synthesizing process can produce. Our efforts have moved onto large, single celled organisms similar in structure to a Xenophyophore on land. A side effect of the process is a decrease in ATP production. A workaround using chlamydia genes is being implemented to allow for its projected size. The main body remains soft as to not be crushed under its own weight.

18/6 14:27

Parasitism is the patch. The creature sucks ATP out of a target and leaves them to either build back up, or die. These creatures are spherical with a diameter of 300mm. Each possesses several bone-like appendages several centimetres long arranged in a circle in its underside. One of the researchers who is a big Nintendo fan started jokingly calling them “Metroids” after the famous game franchise and the name has stuck. Stage 3 was officially rechristened “The Metroid Phase” On a personal note, I went and replayed the remake of Metroid 2 on my old 3DS and the resemblance is uncanny.

30/6 17:22

The Metroids are far more difficult to handle than we first anticipated. They have gained an unprecedented level of intelligence and have stared latching onto the lab hands during feeding and handling for experimentation. Injuries have skyrocketed and all Metroids are now handled with a padded environment suit lined with graphene to prevent puncturing. Production has ground to a halt, because the existing samples are getting hard to handle. A limit of 200 samples has been implemented to allow for a large sample size while keeping safety concerns to a minimum.

12/7 15:38

Safety concerns have managed to get beyond the facility. WorkSafe came in for an inspection. I told them, that we had intergovernmental contracts and didn’t fall under their jurisdiction. The inspector still wouldn’t leave until after a thorough tour of the facility. Records have been altered to keep the beaurecrats happy and the real records are in save deposit boxes at the lowest level of the facility. The Australian army and the US special forces have both offered defence contract using the Metroids as attack dogs and covert assassins for politically delicate situations. Word around the break room is, the Metroids are involved in a planned mass cull of north Korean leaders in an attempt to stabilize the region. Now the side projects are purely for publicity and keeping the public face looking good. The government contracts are good but that may be a sign.

28/7 23:41

Several of the Metroids have broken free and are now roaming the lower labs unchecked. Levels B 10-17 have been locked down and all staff evacuated. They are more aggressive than ever before and actively attack any handlers sent to control them. This will make any future testing difficult for the lab hands. A new human-free testing lab is now under construction in the west wing of levels B19-23. Administration has been cut down to minimal staff. Loose lips sink ships.

11/8 17:28

A representative from the American army came down to inspect the facility. The human-free testing wing has now become operational and is producing results. The Yankees are pleased; the diggers on the other hand aren’t so keen on the Metroids. They were presented the Metroids as a side offer to the main contract of rail-coil-hybrid guns. The government declared the Metroids a biological weapon and decided against a second contract.

1/9 11:29

The American Metroid batch has broken out of containment. Their predisposition to aggression has not been so far targetable and they display aggression to any but their own kind. Furthermore, exposure to other bacteria outside their sealed environment have given them some traits that were not originally intended. They now appear to have a second stage of their life cycle and are now able to breed with each other, even though this was not designed to be possible. Sharing mitochondria with natural bacteria have given them their newfound abilities. The first recorded human death from a Metroid was documented yesterday. They now can grow up to a meter in diameter and specifically target humans. They won’t eat any other animals provided to them.

19/9 03:28

They broke out of the reinforcement we put in place. They are attacking staff and orders are to shoot on sight. The infantry railguns developed for the Australian army are being tested on escaped Metroids. No staff member is to be alone at all times, extra cameras have been installed and semi-sentient patrol drones are equipped to take down Metroids in the more dangerous lower levels.

23/9 23:47

They can’t be stopped. Containment has failed. All surviving personnel were evacuated. I know I can reach them. My children can be reasoned with. They exist to serve. I exist to command. They exist to obey.