Begun: (as OVERLOAD) 1955; (as MINDPHASER) 1989
Headquarters: Facility-12, Montana
Project Type: Biological Warfare
Commanding Officer: Maj. Phillip Hayes, INSCOM PsychWar
The early days of the MKULTRA mind-control experiments were fraught with problems, one of which was the so-called Mosovic Development. The incident was a disastrous one, yet Majestic-12, displaying early on their talents at turning a setback into an advantage, managed to use it as a springboard for the development of a hostile viral agent.
In 1953, a Harvard law professor named Gregory Mosovic was recruited into the MKULTRA program. Mosovic and the other test subjects were subjected to a near-endless series of exposure to electromagnetic radiation and experimental drugs. In 1954, though, Mosovic fell ill. On March 17, 1954, less than a month after he was first diagnosed as depressive, Mosovic died. His head had exploded.
The doctors were completely baffled by this development, and there wasn't enough of Mosovic left for a thorough autopsy. Unbeknownst to the Majestic-12 doctors at the time (and, in fact, still unknown to them today), prior to his recruitment into the MKULTRA experiments, Mosovic had been parasitized by an Insect from Shaggai while on a trip to England. When the experiments into "synthetic telepathy" opened Mosovic's mind to other people's thoughts, the Shaggai's pre-existing telepathic link was flooded with information and thoughts from both Mosovic and other people.
Majestic-12 utilized this potential disaster as an advantage, however. By 1955, MKULTRA scientists exploited the Mosovic Development and developed a bacteriological weapon code-named OVERLOAD. The agent was extremely primitive and had only a 37.6% fatality rate.
By 1989, further research on OVERLOAD, by this time classified under ARC DREAM, was being conducted at Facility-12. The newly-acquired genetic resources of The Cookbook allowed for vast improvements on the viral agent, and a new strain known as MINDPHASER was created. The virus has a 95.6% fatality rate, and those few that survive are rendered permanently mad.
The effects of the MINDPHASER virus become more and more pronounced with increased length of infection. On the first day, nothing more than an inaudible yet nonetheless heard buzzing sound is noticed. By the second day, the victim receives a powerful migraine (-20% to all skill rolls) which lasts one hour and will notice the development of a psychic power. The migraine length increases by one hour and one psychic power is developed per day until the ninth, when the victim receives one last psychic power and the migraines are eight hours in length. At this time, he/she must also make a SAN check or lose 1D4/1D10 points.
The SAN check must be repeated the next day, when the migraines are nine hours in length. By the eleventh day, the migraines last ten hours, and the victim must match (CON+POW) vs. number of days of infection check. This roll must be repeated on all subsequent days, but the roll is made at -10% per day after the eleventh. If at any time this roll is failed, the victim's head explodes.
The virus is also spread through telepathic contact. Any time a telepath contacts a victim of MINDPHASER or vice versa, there is an 88% chance that the virus is transmitted.
All samples of OVERLOAD were supposedly destroyed by Majestic-12 in 1974. However, it is possible that some may still exist in the MAJIC Bioweapons Stockpile at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. If OVERLOAD still exists, modify the effects as follows: the migraine (2nd day) is relatively weak and modifies skill rolls only by -10%; and the death check (11th day) is not modified on subsequent days.