To: General Julian Argos Date: 16-05-13

From: Senior Administrative Officer Sebastian Davies.

Subject: The Jaro Incident-Cause, Events and Aftermath
I have done as you requested Sir. I compiled all of the evidence I could find and have
produced a report that is as accurate as possible. For continuity’s sake I have used
some artistic licence and made educated guesses as to events that occurred away from
witnesses.

The Jaro Affair began with the death of Lt. Samuel James Roman. Lieutenant
Roman was involved in a classified research project entitled Kinetic Labour
Manufacture, or KiLaMan, nicknamed Jaro. The specifics of the project have
remained a secret, but it has been revealed that KiLaMan was essentially the
development of Organo-Bionic Prosthetics for use in both industry and the
Military. Those involved in Jaro were relatively successful, designing and
producing robotic body parts to both replace and improve natural limbs. The
Jarons, as those involved with the project were called, used rather creative
molecular biology to connect the prosthetics to the subject’s central nervous
system, allowing them full control of the device. However, the lead Jarons
were deceived by the officers who commissioned KiLaMan. The laboratory
was destroyed in an explosion, but not before the information and technology
was stolen, by Lt. Roman. Roman attempted to use the prosthetics to replace
several of his organs, as he had been diagnosed with Tetrachlorozyclide
poisoning, from his extended contact with early Jaro technology. Theoretically
if Roman had been able to replace enough of his body with the Jaro
prosthetics, his DNA would have been strengthened by the unique radiation
from the devices, making him virtually immortal. Unfortunately for him, the
Lieutenant was too eager, there had yet to be any tests on how the internal
and genetic prosthetics could affect the body. After the surgical insertion of
the Jaro devices, Roman was indeed a lot stronger and more healthy, but
strange things began to happen in Roman’s body, most notably the
Lieutenant lost control of his body. Eventually, Roman’s heart stopped, but
his body kept going. The radiation transformed more and more of the
Lieutenant’s body into organo-robotic cells. His body was able to continue
functioning of its own accord. Eventually, the synapses in Roman’s brain
were transformed into perhaps the most complicated and powerful
supercomputer on the face of the planet. The combination of the human
desire for power and the computer’s irrefutable logic created a dangerous
product. The creature formerly known as Roman desired control of the world,
and it realised that with the access humans had to technology, along with
their amazing ingenuity, would make them a serious threat to its power.
Roman released a neovirus into cyberspace, causing a worldwide electronic
meltdown. Lights went out, planes, trains, and automobiles all crashed,
everyone lost access to most, if not all of their money and thousands of people
died. If that was not bad enough, the neovirus caused every radio station,
every satellite, every device that could send a signal though air, sent out a
pulse of radiation. This pulse caused millions more to die instantly, not to
mention reshaping the landscape of the earth, killing millions more. Jaro-
Roman had essentially achieved its goal, wiping humanity, and the threat it
represented off the face of the planet. Small groups of humanity still survive
throughout the world, mostly those in wide open areas or well protected
military or scientific bases. We have had to make do with using very little
technology. Typewriters instead of computers, carrier pigeons instead of
emails, etc. Luckily there are a number of underground bases built for post-
apocalyptic survival. I suppose that the fear the public had of 2012 was useful
after all, not to mention warranted. Who knew that the Mayans could predict
that a robot-human hybrid could cause the apocalypse? The Japanese, maybe,
but the Mayans? I am getting off topic. The few engineers belonging to our
pocket of surviving humanity, Codename Darwin, have been working on a
series of tunnels to connect underground bases, allowing movement and
messages between other societies. There are currently six working steam
engines and three mostly functioning internal combustion engines, and one
that functions using methane gas from a gas pocket deep below us, mostly
working on pumping in filtered air from above ground and pumping out
contaminated or polluted air from underground, but also for powering the
few lights we are using to help our vegetation grow. We are still able to
survive on food brought in from above, along with water from underground
rivers, but our hydroponic gardens and greenhouses look promising, so we
should soon be able to become self-sufficient. Our military-style chain of
command appears to be working, however once our mini-society has become
more stable, we will certainly need to become more democratic. We have
made contact with five other surviving groups of humans, and have managed
to integrate them into our larger group. A few of our top surviving scientists
are working to see if there is any possible way for us to reverse the bionic
transformation of Lt. Roman, or to simply kill him. They are also looking at
ways to remove the radiation from the surface, making it impossible to stay
above for more than a few hours before becoming infected. We are incredibly
lucky to have had so many doctors surviving, to help with the radiation
infected and other sick or injured persons. Overall, we seem to be doing very
well, considering the circumstances.

End of Report