Project New Hope

"Niles Samson -- the scientist who ran [New Hope] -- was using the children of Imulsion-poisoned miners for experiments."

—Sgt. Marcus Fenix about Project New Hope.

A Sire, formerly a child of an Imulsion miner suffering from Rustlung.

Project New Hope was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the COG Department of Health intended to develop treatments for Rustlung, caused by Imulsion exposure. It operated within the New Hope Research Facility during the mid-Pendulum Wars until it was halted by Chairman Monroe. The project initially studied the children of Imulsion miners to determine the cause and effects of Imulsion-poisoning. The program eventually engaged in illegal activities such as the imprisonment, unethical experimentation, and torture of children. Under the direct supervision of geneticist Dr. Niles Samson, the scientists utilized Imulsion's mutagenic properties for transgenic experiments. With the DNA of animals from the Hollow, the children were transformed into unstable and feral chimeras called Sires. Samson's goal was to improve the human race at the genetic level. He also saw military potential in the Sires to act as enhanced soldiers and cannon fodder in the COG Army against the Union of Independent Republics (UIR) to end the Pendulum Wars.

New Hope was first brought to public attention after the creation of the Sires, as numerous attacks and moral objects of staff members resulted in resignations and leaks to the press. Private Sid Redburn, a guard at New Hope, was the whistleblower by contacting Chairman Monroe through Colonel Tolman. The facility was shut-down and all involved were indicted. However, the New Hope staff and key subjects were relocated by a fringe political group to a hidden laboratory in Mount Kadar. Samson's work on the Sires led to the eventual creation of the Locust. Most files on New Hope were destroyed. Remaining files were heavily classified and only shared with the Chairmen of the COG with the sole duty of keeping the facility quarantined. Additional files were hidden by Redburn inside an abandoned outpost in Winlock, Vasgar. Unauthorized knowledge of New Hope outside of the Coalition High Command was met with assassination.

Project New Hope was partially declassified during the Locust War by Chairman Richard Prescott. Several files were shared with scientists on Azura to help understand Lambency based on Samson's research. In 14 A.E., during Operation: Hollow Storm, Prescott ordered Delta-One to investigate the facility and locate intel on the Locust stronghold and Queen Myrrah, who was once a subject at the facility. After Delta-One uncovered files revealing the relocation of Project New Hope to Mount Kadar, the COG initiated the siege of Nexus. After the Locust War ended, the COG was reformed by First Minister Anya Stroud. Files on Project New Hope were reclassified, though more accessible within the government. Additional security was placed in the Kadar Valley and New Hope, including security walls and DeeBees, to protect the facility. In 42 A.E., Cpl. Kait Diaz, granddaughter of Myrrah, traced her origins back to New Hope during the Swarm Invasion when the Locust had evolved into the Swarm. Diaz and Cpl. Delmont Walker uncovered the files on Project New Hope before the facility was later destroyed by a self-destruct sequence triggered by a flock of Swarm Leeches.

Background

The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) rose to economic and political power following the discovery of the Lightmass Process during the Golden Age, as it allowed for Imulsion to be refined as a usable and nearly limitless fuel source on an energy-strapped Sera. The majority of natural Imulsion reserves were found in nations under the COG. Nations without natural Imulsion reserves formed the Union of Independent Republics (UIR) and waged war against the COG for occupation of Imulsion in the Pendulum Wars.

During the mining of Imulsion, miners became afflicted with a fatal respiratory condition called Rustlung. The condition also caused birth defects and mutations in their children. Fearing ramifications of producing and distributing a toxic fuel source, the COG's Department of Health under the Monroe Administration initiated Project New Hope to study Imulsion's effects on the human body to discover treatment. The COG opened the New Hope Research Facility hidden in the Kadar Valley of Tyrus to house the children of Imulsion miners to study them for treatment.

Experiments

The project headed by renowned geneticist Doctor Niles Samson, acting as Director of New Hope. Samson began his experiments by accelerating the progression of Imulsion poisoning via injecting the children with daily doses of concentrated Imulsion. Many children perished from the experiments as the increased Imulsion exposure caused their Rustlung to metastasize. Samson concluded that Imulsion led to immediate cell stress and degradation. However, he also discovered that it occasionally led to point mutations that could potentially be beneficial.

One of the subjects with beneficial traits was Myrrah. Doctor Torres discovered she displayed no detectable cellular degradation despite being exposed to lethal Imulsion levels, and instead displayed positive cellular regeneration when exposed. Declared genetically immune to Rustlung and traditional ill-effects caused by Imulsion, Samson attempted to replicate the results in the other children, but ultimately failed. With Imulsion's mutagenic properties, Samson proposed genetic engineering as the answer to resolving Rustlung and began transgenic experiments.

Theorizing that indigenous creatures of the Hollow, such as the Riftworms, were genetically immune to Imulsion due to their habitat; Samson mutated the children with the DNA of Hollow animals. The first subject, Ukkon, was mutated by the foreign DNA and developed beneficial traits similar to Myrrah's, including regenerative healing. However, his Rustlung remained untreated and his physical appearance transformed, resembling the creatures of the Hollow.

Samson turned his attention on developing the human species rather than curing them, believing his work had military potential to end the Pendulum Wars. These experiments resulted in the children transforming into feral and mindless chimeras called Sires. Samson was ultimately unable to replicate Myrrah's Imulsion immunity and declared her a medical anomaly. Torres then discovered that Myrrah's beneficial response to Imulsion exposure expanded, as her immune system became more resistant to disease and her body's aging process was decelerated to 50% the rate of a normal child.

Revelation

Due to the highly aggressive nature of the Sires and repeated attacks on staff members, employees of New Hope resigned and leaked information to the press. Disturbed by his role in the unethical treatment and witness to the experimentation, New Hope guard Private Sid Redburn wrote to a family friend Colonel Tolman to alert Chairman Monroe about the work being done by Samson at New Hope. The letter was intercepted by New Hope security. Samson ordered the termination of Redburn. Before leaving New Hope, Redburn managed to steal files on Samsons's work and Ukkon. Redburn first hid copies of the files in an abandoned outpost in Winlock, Vasgar (a neutral country during the Pendulum Wars) before reporting to Tolman. Inquires into the Department of Health led the COG to discover the unethical experimentation at New Hope. The New Hope facility was exposed for its crimes and officially shut down by Chairman Monroe. All involved were indicted and ordered to report to the House of Sovereigns for judgment on 13 Bloom of that year.

Notable People

Documented Experimenters

• Niles Samson
• Doug Sato
• Sven
• Torres
• Van Neil
• Stephanie Zimmer

Documented Subjects

• AX-331-2
• Myrrah
• RK-619-4
• Ruth
• Ukkon

Aftermath

Before the trial of the New Hope employees, a fringe political syndicate within the COG messaged Samson and expressed their desire to see his work continue without impeding ethics as they believed the Sires could lead to both a cure for Rustlung and an end to the Pendulum Wars by creating enhanced soldiers against the UIR. The group invited Samson and his remaining loyal staff to a laboratory hidden in the underground caverns of Mount Kadar, to which he accepted. Before departure, a majority of the Sires were left in stasis at New Hope, guarded by a semi-sentient security system based on Samson's personality. Unable to obtain authorization from Chairman Monroe to use vehicles to transport the subjects - Samson, the remaining loyal scientists, several dozen Sires under sedation, and Myrrah walked through the Kadar Valley during the night in the snow to avoid capture. The New Hope scientists and subjects were successful in relocating to the Mount Kadar Laboratory. In the following years, Samson combined Myrrah's embryonic stem cells with Sire DNA to create the Locust Horde. The Locust subjects, led by Myrrah, revolted and created their own civilization in the Hollow. The Locust would later emerge on the surface and wage a genocidal war against the human race in order to colonize the surface and escape the Lambent epidemic in the Hollow.

The COG was unable to locate Samson, his staff, and the subjects that fled New Hope. With Samson's security systems in place, the COG was unable to enter the facility. Chairman Monroe destroyed most of the files relating to New Hope. The files remaining were classified and only to be shared with Chairmen of the COG, with their sole purpose to keep the New Hope facility quarantined. During the Locust War, Chairman Richard Prescott declassified several files. Most of them were to the scientists at Azura so they could use Samson's Imulsion research to resolve the Lambent Pandemic. In 2nd Frost, 14 A.E., Prescott declassified New Hope for Delta-One's recon mission during Operation: Hollow Storm so the COG could invade Nexus and end the Locust War. After the COG reorganized in 18 A.E., First Minister Anya Stroud followed the example of classifying New Hope, and sent extra security in the form of DeeBees to quarantine the facility, although records on New Hope were slightly more accessible. Despite this, the public still had no knowledge of New Hope and the origins of the Locust Horde.

Appearances

• The Rise of RAAM
• Gears Tactics
• The Slab (Mentioned only)
• Gears of War 2 (First appearance)
• Jacinto's Remnant (Mentioned only)
• Coalition's End (Mentioned only)
• Bloodlines (Mentioned only)
• Gears 5

Behind the scenes

• Project New Hope greatly resembles the human radiation experiments that occurred in the United States following World War II, in which thousands of people were unwittingly experimented on to determine the effects of ionizing radiation and radioactive contamination. Among those experimented on were children. Methods included injecting patients with plutonium and other radioactive chemicals, feeding them radioactive food, inserting radium rods into their noses, and giving them oral doses under guise of it being medicine.