Dead on Arrival
And in your darkest hour, I hold secret's flame
You can watch the world devoured in its pain.
And in your darkest hour, I hold secret's flame
You can watch the world devoured in its pain.
0100 Hours
Cotton & Hayward Pharmaceuticals Testing Facility
Outskirts of Porton, Breotonia
Cotton & Hayward Pharmaceuticals had been bought by the Shaw Corporation in 1899. Until earlier in the year it had been the largest biotech and pharmaceuticals company owned by the Shaw-Fujikawa Group. With the recent acquisition of Optican Medical Technologies the conglomerate had decided to centralize all of its medical holdings under one banner. Within a matter of weeks paperwork would be filed to end the existence of Cotton & Hayward, as well as a dozen other companies, and transfer the properties and assets into the name of Optican. Cotton and Hayward had been founded in the late 19th century by two doctors and researchers and spent most of its early existence manufacturing medical substances. After the takeover by the Shaw Corporation and with a sudden influx of funding from its new parent, Cotton and Hayward began vigorously researching new medicines. It became relatively successful but its largest profits came from Breotish and foreign governments. In the years leading up to and during the Great War Cotton and Hayward made what would today amount to tens of billion of pounds by developing, manufacturing, and selling state of the art chemical weaponry.
While that history is largely forgotten and Cotton and Hayward is seen by the public as a normal pharmaceuticals developer governments and entities in the know were aware that it still could be sought after for state of the art and (if necessary) tailor made chemical, biological, and viral weaponry. One government with such knowledge had contacted the Shaw-Fujikawa Group and made known their interest in the purchase of a very special weapon. The megacorporation was only too happy comply, for a price. Tobias Shaw himself was present to conduct the deal, if things went well now it would hopeful ensure many more contracts from the customer.
For matters of secrecy the meeting was being conducted early in the morning with minimal personnel present. Just enough for a quality demonstration of the product. The research facility was out of the way and not one of the newer ones, as a matter of fact it had been built in the twenties. Massive test spheres, long dormant, filled the warehouse like room. Tobias Shaw and a handful of assistants and scientists stood in the center of the room along with their customers. They stood not on concrete but on glass, below them was a room filled with about thirty people, vagrants and homeless people mainly picked up from any of the hundreds of soup kitchens and homeless shelter owned and operated by the corporation's charitable arm. Tonight would probably be the only night they contributed anything to society. Shaw waited until he was sure their guests were ready to observe the demonstration.