- "One of my best geneticists. He fled with little Reyna because he no longer believed in our work."
- —Dr. Niles Samson about Dr. Torres.
Doctor Torres was a Tyran geneticist and co-creator of the Locust. Renowned for his work in genetic research, Torres was invited to develop a cure for Rustlung at the New Hope Research Facility by treating the children of Imulsion miners afflicted with the disease. Under the supervision of Dr. Niles Samson, Torres discovered one of his patients, Myrrah, exhibited a genetic immunity to Imulsion. Myrrah became the focus of their studies in order to treat the other children. When their attempts to replicate Myrrah's immunity failed, the scientists mutated the patients with the DNA of indigenous creatures from the Hollow, transforming them into Sires.
The unethical experiments at New Hope led to Chairman Monroe shutting down the facility. A fringe political group relocated them to an underground lab in Mount Kadar. There, Torres and Samson combined Myrrah's embryonic stem cells with Sire DNA to create the Locust Horde. Torres later entered a romantic relationship with Myrrah and conceived a human child together named Reyna. Torres became disillusioned with their research, becoming concerned for his infant daughter's well-being, and fled the facility with Reyna. Samson, unable to recapture the two, lied to Myrrah that they had died in the escape attempt - causing Myrrah to lead the Locust to slaughter the scientists.
Since escaping the facility, Torres raised Reyna on the lam and avoided the COG at all costs. Later in life, Reyna would describe him to her daughter, Kait Diaz, as "bad". He taught Reyna how to fight, survive, and distrust the COG. After the first year of the Locust War, in which the Locust he helped create emerged to destroy humanity and colonize the surface of Sera, Torres and Reyna took shelter in an abandoned UIR laboratory in Zenic, Vasgar. It was later invaded by Ukkon, a former patient of his at New Hope that became the resident scientist for the Locust. Ukkon murdered Torres in front of Reyna and captured her. She was liberated and rescued by her future husband, Gabriel Diaz, and killed Ukkon in retribution.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Most of Torres' early life is unknown, other than the fact that he studied genetics and became an accomplished geneticist.
Pendulum Wars[]
New Hope Research Facility[]
- "Dr. Torres has just informed me that [Myrrah]'s T cells appear to be particularly responsive. He believes her body is now aging at a pace roughly half that of a normal girl."
- —Dr. Niles Samson on Dr. Torres' discovery of Myrrah's genetic abilities.
During the Pendulum Wars, it was discovered by the Coalition of Ordered Governments that overexposure to Imulsion caused a fatal condition in humans known as Rustlung. Fearing the political and economic ramifications of producing a toxic chemical as a fuel source, the Department of Health opened the New Hope Research Facility to house, study, and treat the children of Imulsion miners who were both afflicted with Rustlung in order to discover a cure. Renowned scientist, Doctor Niles Samson, was made Director of the facility project. Dr. Torres was then recruited to join the efforts in curing Rustlung at New Hope. Initially, the research at New Hope began with injecting children with doses of concentrated Imulsion and studying its effects.
Dr. Niles Samson discovered that while Imulsion caused cell degradation, it could also cause point mutations that Dr. Samson considered beneficial for genetically engineering. During their research, Dr. Torres discovered one of the children, Myrrah, exhibited no side-effects of Rustlung. Upon closer examination, Dr. Torres found that Myrrah had a complete genetic immunity to Imulsion. Exposure to Imulsion instead acted as beneficial to Myrrah's body. Her T-cells appeared to be particularly responsive. Dr. Torres believed her body was aging at a pace roughly half that of a normal girl. Dr. Torres brought Myrrah to the attention of Dr. Niles Samson, who then isolated Myrrah and treated with more care and fondness than the others.
Dr. Torres and Dr. Samson attempted to replicate her genetic immunity in the other children, but were all deemed failures. It was then considered that since Imulsion could alter genetics, it would be possible to design genetic immunity through transgenics. As they believed certain indigenous creatures from the Hollow also had a genetic immunity to Imulsion, the scientists inserted the DNA of the Hollow creatures into a child named Ukkon. Ukkon became physically deformed, but ultimately gained the ability of accelerated healing - making Ukkon physically immortal. Dr. Samson saw this not just as progress towards a cure in Rustlung, but as an evolutionary potential in humans. However, Ukkon became increasingly sadistic and coniving. The facility developed a fail-safe known as Cytostatic Gas to block Ukkon's healing abilities if he became out of control.
Believing his work also had military potential to end the Pendulum Wars, Dr. Samson and Dr. Torres began to transform the other children to possibly develop enhanced soldiers. However, the children lost their mental capacities and became genetically unstable, distempered, sterile, and aggressive chimeras that Dr. Samson tagged as the Sires. The Sires routinely attacked the staff members, prompting mass resignations and information leaks of unethical experiments to the public. Chairman Monroe personally ordered the facility shutdown in response and indicted all involved, including Torres and Samson. However, a fringe political party within the Monroe Administration believed in Samson's work, and wished to use it end the Pendulum Wars.
Mount Kadar Laboratory[]
- "[Reyna] was born here, and taken from us by her spineless father. Thus causing young Myrrah's unfortunate rebellion."
- —Dr. Niles Samson about Dr. Torres's betrayal.
Building an underground facility in Mount Kadar, the scientists of New Hope and their work were invited by the fringe political group to be relocated and to continue their work in peace. Dr. Samson, Dr. Torres, and other remaining loyal staff members journeyed to the Mount Kadar facility on foot during the night in the snow. Myrrah, Ukkon, and several dozen Sires were also relocated to the facility. Once at the Mount Kadar laboratory, Dr. Niles Samson was able to continue with his work. Attempting to hybridize their work, Dr. Samson and Dr. Torres used embryonic stem cells of the Sires to create a new species. However, all the subjects prematurely died as they were severely deformed.
Myrrah and Ukkon were then groomed by the scientists to continue their work as protégés, with Myrrah becoming a personal colleague to Dr. Samson and Dr. Torres. Once Myrrah matured into puberty, Dr. Samson and Dr. Torres combined Myrrah's embryonic stem cells with Sire DNA. They were finally successful in creating the first hybrid, the Matriarch. This specimen was able to reproduce, and successfully created a new species of the Locust Horde. It was then discovered that a psychomagnetic link, known as the Hivemind, was established through Myrrah's stem cells. The Hivemind connected all of the Locust to a collective consciousness, with Myrrah able to control them. Through the Matriarch, Myrrah was then able to amplify her powers.
Dr. Torres then developed a containment module to sedate the Matriarch and enhance Myrrah's control over the Locust. It was found that Myrrah's presence promoted the Locust to intellectually learn and grow. Sometime after, Dr. Torres and Myrrah began a sexual relationship. Their copulation resulted in Myrrah giving birth their human daughter, Reyna. Myrrah became a devout mother to Reyna, while Dr. Torres became uncomfortable with the experiments being done to Reyna, as it was discovered that Reyna had inherited her mother's genetic attributes. Concerned with Reyna's future, Dr. Torres became disillusioned with their work and escaped the facility with Reyna. Dr. Samson was unable to recapture Torres or Reyna, and thus lied to Myrrah that they had died during the escape attempt in order to keep Myrrah from wanting to leave the facility.
Raising Reyna on the Lam[]
- "My father and I were always moving. Always... hiding."
"Hiding? From what?"
"Honestly? You. The COG, I mean. I was taught never to trust them." - —Reyna explaining to Gabriel Diaz her childhood.
It is unknown where exactly Torres took Reyna. An enemy of the state, Torres raised Reyna on the lam. Torres and Reyna were constantly moving and hiding from authorities. As Reyna grew, Torres taught her how to hide, fight, survive, and to distrust the COG. In her childhood, Torres gifted her with Myrrah's amulet as she always lamented about never knowing her. According to Reyna later in life, Torres' parenting skills were less to be desired. Despite caring for each other, Reyna referred to Torres as a "bad man." The two continued to live together and were able to witness the end of the Pendulum Wars.
Locust War[]
Surviving in Vasgar[]
- "We were living in some old lab. My father's a scientist."
- —Reyna Torres.
Six weeks after the end of the Pendulum Wars, Torres witnessed the extent of his wrongdoings as the Locust Horde he once experimented on emerged in every major city on Sera to slaughter all of humanity. He and Reyna survived the initial attacks. Torres continued to live by constantly moving and hiding from both the COG and the Locust. Nearly a year after Emergence Day, Dr. Torres and Reyna resided in Zenic, Vasgar. They had found an abandoned Union of Independent Republics laboratory where they could be safe. He and Reyna lived there for a short while, until shortly after the Hammer of Dawn Strikes.
Death[]
- "A few weeks ago, I went out for supplies. When I came back... [Ukkon] was there. Setting up shop. I don't know why he didn't just kill me. But what he did to my father? That'll stay with me until the day I die."
- —Reyna Torres about her father's death by Ukkon.
While Reyna had left the UIR lab to look for supplies, the Locust scientist Ukkon found the lab and captured all the humans, including Reyna and Torres. Before he began to transform the facility into his own lab, Ukkon personally killed Torres in front of Reyna in a manner that would haunt her.
Legacy[]
Dr. Torres, both in his scientific endeavors and interactions with Myrrah, made him one of the few people personally responsible for the near-destruction of mankind - from the creation of the Locust Horde and Swarm, to the root of Myrrah's misanthropy, and the eventual cause for the Locust Horde to invade the surface of Sera.
Personality Traits[]
Torres was defined by his ambition and ingenuity. He was recruited to join New Hope's efforts in curing Rustlung, as he clearly made a name for himself as a well-known expert in genetic research. Dr. Niles Samson, the most renowned geneticist in Tyrus, referred to Torres as one of his best geneticists. Despite his admiration, Samson also held some skepticism towards Torres, believing him to be impractical or unrealistic at times. However imaginative, Torres continually produced results.
Despite his ambition, he slowly become wary of the work he was assisting with. These objections didn't arise until the focus of their studies were aimed at his own daughter, Reyna. While comfortable experimenting on other people's children, he was concerned about the life his daughter would have within the laboratory, as her inherited genetics from Myrrah were of a great interest to the scientists. Disillusioned with the work he was doing, he fled with Reyna. Samson would later refer to Torres as "spineless" - and could also be seen as a hypocrite.
After fleeing the lab, Torres became a heavily paranoid man. He raised Reyna on the run and taught her to distrust the COG as he did. While little is known about the particular relationship Torres had with his daughter, an adult Reyna would later reveal to her daughter, Kait, that he was bad. He may have been abusive to Reyna or too overbearing and strict in order to protect her from the COG. Their nomadic lifestyle could have also affected Reyna's perception of her father, as she was denied a traditional childhood.
Torres also displayed some predatory traits as he had sexual relations with Myrrah. He was a grown adult and Myrrah was a young child when they first met. Having a hand in raising her, he also groomed her to accept his advances. She was an adult when their sexual relationship began, but it was objectively inappropriate and unethical that the morally-absent Niles Samson took issue with Torres and his designs on Myrrah, but reluctantly allowed their physical relationship in order to produce a traditional child for teratogenic studies.
Documents[]
Patient Analysis: RK-619-4
RK-619-4's final transformation occurred roughly eighteen hours before death. Quite disappointing, as the subject's cells had initially benefited from Imulsion exposure nearly as much as Subject EV-184-9's.
It is time to face a hard truth. EV-184-9's response to Imulsion exposure may be entirely anomalous. And Dr. Torres has just informed me that EV-184-9's T cells appear to be particularly responsive. He believes her body is now aging at a pace roughly half that of a normal girl.
Dr. Niles Samson
Subject Analysis: UL-119-2
UL-119-2 remains our most physically dominant and remarkable specimen, surviving longer than any hybrid developed with embryonic stem cells. I remain baffled as to why this is so.
The bond she seemed to have developed with EV-184-9 continues to intrigue me. All at once, this mighty, matriarchal beast can be calmed into quiescence by no more than a glance!
Dr. Torres has developed a containment module for UL-119-2. He believes that by suspending her in cryptochromic fluid, the pyschomagnetic bond she and EV-184-9 appear to share could be amplified. I am skeptical but willing to entertain his flight of theoretical fancy.
Dr. Niles Samson
Subject Analysis: TE-872-3
I tolerated Dr. Torres' unseemly designs upon EV-184-9 mainly due to my hope that their dalliance could produce a child. And now it has: TE-872-3.
Let me dispense with these chilly medical appellations, as Myrrah has proved my colleague and collaborator in every sense.
Her selfless cooperation has brought me much joy, but not nearly as much as this: Myrrah's daughter has inherited her unique genomic constellation. What this means I do not yet know, but it proves that what I have created here is, astonishingly, inheritable.
All throughout our facility dote upon Reyna already. Only Dr. Torres seems ambivalent. I suspect he is jealous of the attention his special child is receiving.
Dr. Niles Samson
Behind the Scenes[]
- Given his involvement in the creation of the Locust Horde, his relationship with Myrrah, and fathering Reyna - it could be argued that Torres was the "king" of the Locust Horde.
Appearances[]
- Gears Tactics (Mentioned only)
- Gears 5 (First mentioned)