I have been informed that the format of my research leaves something to be desired, and that I should try to quote less and share my own thoughts more. It’s not a requirement though, and this is my personal research, so I’ll continue as I please. I find it more efficient to link to the source data directly, and prevent the duplication of existing data within our Archives.

One of my recent research interests has been the genetic makeup of the descendants of Minerva’s Founders. One of Glaucus’ recent genomic studies revealed an interesting marker in those of Japanese descent. Some (but not all) of the descendants have several unarchived genes in their DNA suggesting an incredibly potent viral event occurred in their ancestry. It was most likely fairly recent, within the last 300 years or so, and isolated to a small subset of the Japanese population, because only about 1/10th of those of Japanese ancestry in Minerva share this marker, which I was able to trace back to a single Japanese Founder. His medical file reported a history of undiagnosable family illness and early death, which he described as a “wasting disease” and a “weak composition.” I assigned a stochastic search daemon to scour the historical Archives, and discovered an intriguing possible cause for the presence of these viral genes.

A quote, to set the scene:

I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb… It is an awful responsibility which has come to us… We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes.

—President Harry S Truman, August 9, 1945

I will not go into detail here on the background of World War Two. Interested parties may search the Archives themselves. Suffice it to say that the United States of America felt that it needed to force Japan to surrender by a show of force, lest they have to invade. The USA had two major options for intimidating weapons at the time, although only one is well known to most historians. While the Manhattan Project had developed functional atomic bombs with enormous explosive capabilities, another classified project had successful created powerful and deadly biological weapons. The following imaged records were badly worn, but I was able to transcribe them:

July 28th, 1945.

Today we delivered our first successful weapon to the Army. It’s been a trying 2 years, especially the last couple of months. We worked straight through the summer to finish. Apparently President Truman wants to make a big public test of our capabilities to intimidate the Japs, so they’re going to deploy our weapon at the Dugway Proving Ground on August 10th and show them what they’re up against.

August 1st, 1945

Just got a message from George Merck. Apparently the test is cancelled. He told me that we’d done our nation a great service, but that we shouldn’t worry about the project anymore. It’s all a little suspicious.

August 5th, 1945

Merck showed up at the laboratory today, looking very worried. He asked a lot of awkward questions about the project and what we theorized its effects on humans would be. When we tried to figure out why he was asking if the project was cancelled, he just demanded to know how much it could ‘hypothetically’ spread. When I told him what our findings showed, he got pale and left, muttering about something about Manhattan and “covering our tracks.” All very suspicious, but what can I do?

August 10th, 1945

Merck finally came clean. Apparently our agent worked too well, and had to be cleaned up; atomically. The idiots. We told them clearly what it could do. Why didn’t they listen?

– Excerpts from Ira L. Baldwin’s personal diary. 

The name Baldwin appears frequently in the notes of those Minerva Founders who were involved in Project Wormwood. He was spoken of with high regard for his pioneering research into enhancing traits of bacteria and viruses for their “offensive capabilities.” My subroutine found a potential causal linkage suggested by these excerpts between the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the genetic oddity found in the Japanese Founder. My conjecture is that the biological weapon Baldwin spoke of was released in either Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki in the days before the dropping of the atomic bombs.

Historical analysis of the background data shows there were bombings at Nagasaki that were deemed “noneffective.”

On August 1, 1945, however, a number of conventional high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city. A few hit in the shipyards and dock areas in the southwest portion of the city, several hit the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, and six bombs landed at the Nagasaki Medical School and Hospital, with three direct hits on buildings there. While the damage from these bombs was relatively small, it created considerable concern in Nagasaki and many people—principally school children—were evacuated to rural areas for safety.

- Excerpt from Chapter 7 of the pre-Collapse Avalon Project: The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Nine days later, sufficient time for an infection to manifest, an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki after a change of plans due to “weather” at the officially planned target of Kokura. Note the selection of target zone defined in the next excerpt:

The Fat Man weapon, containing a core of about 6.4 kilograms (14 lb) of plutonium, was dropped over the city’s industrial valley. It exploded 43 seconds later at 469 metres (1,539 ft) above the ground halfway between the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works in the south and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works (Torpedo Works) in the north.

- Excerpt from Glaucus Archives of the internet encyclopedia "Wikipedia." Itself a summary of even earlier research that I have extensively correlated.

Current hypothesis has a 74% suggested veracity by my subroutine and suggests that the biological weapon delivered in the “noneffective” bombings of the Steel and Arms Works must have been so horrible that the USA felt it necessary to hide their atrocity by detonating atomic bombs over the city. Further research may show what I expect to be a connection between this early weapon and the biologicals behind the Plague of Fire.

No wonder Baldwin left the Biological Warfare Laboratories immediately after the war ended. I never cease to be amazed at the irony that the very same people of intelligence, science, and passion that were so misused by the governments of the 21st century came to found Minerva, the organization that preserves the peace and security of the 22nd century.