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REPORT COMPILATION:
- - A VANGUARD: HELM REPORT COMPILATION STAMPED '17-ALPHA'
HELM ANALYSIS: Abstract
- - Compilation Authorized by Dark Watcher
- - Scientific Consultation by Steven Sheridan, AKA 'Doctor Science'
This report details information found at the ruins of a safe house managed by The Malta Group discovered in the ruins of Galaxy City. In particular, the following report describes one operative – a Gunslinger designated ‘Ursa Major 117’ – and their extensive genetic modifications.
HELM ANALYSIS: Compilation Purpose and Overview
During a Longbow sweep of the Galaxy City Exclusion Zone’s Nebula District, an abandoned Malta safehouse were found, the base of a Tactical Operations Group codenamed GARM. HELM Analysis Division believe that this was an observation post, intended to safely monitor new 'Capes' as they were introduced to the various administrative organs of the FBSA, and away from more heavily trafficked areas like Peregrine Island. Along with other items, the following reports were discovered, stored in a secure and hardened hard drive. These reports concern one of the operatives – a Gunslinger designated Ursa Major-117.
Gunslinger Ursa Major-117: A Brief Synopsis
Aleksey Nikolayev Rumyantsev was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in [DATE REDACTED] to Aleksandr and Ludmilla. Upon reaching the age of 18, he was evaluated by Saint Petersburg conscription office and was recommended for the Russian Border Service. After further testing for 'potential', he was transferred to the Moscow Border Institute of the FSB. Records from that point are sketchy, though it is believed that he graduated from the MBI's 5 year training regimen. It is interesting to note that MBI's training regimen was apparently altered for Aleksey to incorporate dual-wielding heavy pistols and SYSTEMA martial arts. Records then show him as transferred to the Special Operations Center in Kubinka-2, serving in the Special Operations Forces. There are indications that he was involved in the Elbrus mountains SOF exercises in April, 2013. Aleksey then disappeared from all official records, and HELM Analysis believes it was during this period that he was drafted into Operation Red Star, Russia's super-soldier program. He was not seen again until his family vehicle was destroyed while crossing Saint Petersburg's Krotlin Island in an apparent assassination attempt. Unfortunately, his mother, father and brother were all killed. At this point, a Malta Group TacOps strike team breached Russian airspace, landed a VTOL flyer by the wreckage, and managed to save Aleksey in a lightning-fast operation. The flyer escaped Russian airspace using highly-advanced stealth capabilities that allowed them to elude tracking by the Russian military.
HELM Analysis Division still believes this attempt was in connection with Russia's Operation Red Star super soldier program, though the Russian FSB continue to deny involvement in the crime, and even deny that Aleksey Rumyantsev was ever assigned to a SPETSNAZ SOC unit. Though some believe this to be an indicator that the subject was, in fact, an escapee from Operation Red Star, there are also factors which have cast doubt on this belief (detailed in separate reports).
After this event, Aleksey again drops out of sight, until he was spotted boarding an Arachnos flyer in the Galaxy City ruins. His activities in the Rogue Isles have been marked [CLASSIFIED], though his sudden surrender to Vanguard forces in the White Plains District's Rikti War Zone was a surprise. What he discussed with Lady Grey is also marked [CLASSIFIED], but HELM Analysis received a treasure trove of confidential information concerning Arachnos, the Family, a new supervillain team and the Malta Group not long afterward. Aleksey was then released to the FBSA's GIFT division, where he received a new 'Cape name' of MARKUS MAGNUM and provisional American citizenship.
It can be assumed that Aleksey negotiated a 'supervised release' with Vanguard and the Department of Justice. Interestingly, he was assigned temporary housing with Praetorian refugees in Bricktown, though he has since moved into Kings Row, and has since become romantically involved. Longbow continues to agitate for Aleksey's arrest and prosecution for crimes he allegedly committed against their organization while in Arachnos' employ.
This report compilation focuses on the topic of how the Markus Magnum’s abilities were significantly augmented by extremely advanced genetic manipulation and resequencing.
- NOTE 1: The Operation Red Star super soldier program will be made available in a separate report.
- NOTE 2: The individual has been positively identified as Aleksey Nikolayev Rumyansev.
- NOTE 3: The ConspiracyLinks/Kholat Sakyl video dump analysis will be made available in separate reports.
- NOTE 4: Known and theorized connections between Rumyantsev and the superhero known as 'Blue Spectrum' will be made available in separate reports.
- NOTE 5: The possibility that Rumyantsev was a 'sleeper agent' for [REDACTED], despite his 'official record' above, will be made available in separate reports [REQUIRING OMEGA-LEVEL CLEARANCE].
HELM ANALYSIS: Malta Group Interests
It is important to note that Malta Group’s standard operational procedure relies on superior training and technology in its’ Operatives, rather than actual ‘superpowers’ – however, there are known ‘Supers’ who work for the organization, and Ursa Major-117 was apparently one of them.
A heavily armed Malta TacOps team breaching Russian airspace to save one person from an assassination attempt raises more questions than this report is prepared to answer. Was Malta forewarned? And by whom? And for what purpose? There is some indication from the gathered data that these reports were surreptitiously gathered by Tac Ops Commander [NAME REDACTED] and sent to a secure online drop box based out of a rotating series of Eastern European virtual machines and ‘burner’ servers. Why was he keeping backup records? That is not yet clear. HELM Analysis believe that the Malta Group Directors had taken a keen interest in Ursa Major-117’s mutations, far more so than long-term Augmented operators like Moment and their shapeshifting abilities.
This heightened interest in Ursa Major-117’s genetic modifications, particularly the ‘Superparticle X’ monomolecular particle has led some in HELM Analysis to postulate a theory that the Malta Directors wished to reverse-engineer the Superparticle, possibly speaking to a plan of creating a ‘super serum’ which could then be controlled by the Malta Group exclusively and given to its’ operatives to grant a temporary boost in abilities, though these adaptions would be temporary and not nearly as successful as exhibited by Gunslinger Ursa Major-117. Long term goals might have included a version of this serum that would have created stable, permanent alterations to a subject’s genome, allowing for super-powered abilities to manifest.
However, Malta Group has prided itself on its' independence of 'chemical solutions', and failures such as Superadyne which require repeated injestion with significant and detrimental side-effects are cautionary tales in and of themselves. Both Paragon City and the Rogue Isles are littered with the shattered remnants similar programs; the aforementioned Superadyne addicted Trolls, the Infected, the Lost, and so on. However, there have been recent successes in the field of augmented biosciences, as recent testing with the Freedom Corps series of Superpower-granting Serums have shown. This theory is not as outlandish as one might believe, though there are issues that have hampered reverse-engineering efforts (as detailed below).