Genoq Corporation

Overview

Started as a bioengineering company which specialized in the creation of complex polymers and biomedicines, the Genoq Corporation built itself a reputation across the world as a provider of top-notch genetically engineered curatives. While it operated for a time as a reputable and successful pharmaceutical company, two separate yet equally important developments led it to transition away from medicine and into black market biological weapons sales. The first was the overwhelming successes of the medical field as a whole, which had nearly eradicated all known diseases by the early 21st century, thus making biomedicical companies like Genoq less profitable. The second development was a UN ban on biological and atomic weapons after the Russo-Kazakhi War, which had the effect of dramatically increasing the financial incentives for those who could reliably provide such weapons. Faced with a business model which was rapidly becoming obsolete, Genoq used its significant expertise in the bioengineering field to seamlessly transition into bioweapons research, maintaining their medical work only as a façade which helped to redirect suspicion. The company's gambit payed off handsomely, and before long Genoq was as profitable as ever thanks entirely to its focus on the creation and sale of bioweapons.

Because of the illicit nature of its dealings, the corporate culture of Genoq was one of secrecy and strict control. It was run, according to one employee, in much the same fashion as the large criminal organizations of the previous century, such as the Mafia or the Yakuza. Those who questioned the company's actions or direction often simply went missing, never to be heard from again. Outside of the company's upper echelons, very few at Genoq were given concrete details about its weapons development program, and this was no doubt a preventative measure taken to curtail any information leaks, which would have been disastrous for the company. With the business facing such dire repercussion should the public gain wind of its activities, mistakes amongst Genoq's corporate elite carried with them draconian consequences. Mishaps were handled with such severity, in fact, that in the midst of Genoq's Singapore security breach, the site's administrator seemed to fear the deadly Neogens rampaging the building less so than he dreaded "a bullet in the back of the head" from those who might deem him to be the one responsible for the catastrophe.

The Singapore Incident (D/Generation)

Genoq's final undoing and the end to its underground research came in 2021 after a catastrophic event at one of its biolabs based in Singapore. The research division there was headed by Jean-Paul Derrida, a scientist who at the time of the event had been testing a prototype weapon named D/Generation, a construct with the ability to bend reality. Genoq intended to sell it as a bio-assassin, but even with restraints in place, the being they created proved too much to control. Its consciousness was able to essentially overrun the entire building, causing security systems to malfunction and setting free the numerous bioweapons housed in its lab. Motivated solely by self-preservation, Genoq authorized an airstrike against the building, which would kill all those trapped inside, but would also leave the company's covert research undiscovered. Genoq's attempt at a cover-up was foiled by an unlikely individual, however: a solitary courier. Having been lured to the building under false pretenses by D/Generation, the courier scaled the Genoq offices in order to deliver a package, in the process learning much about the company's true nature. In the end, he was not only able to stop Genoq's deadliest Neogen before it escaped, but was also able to leave the building in time to inform Singapore authorities of the company's intent to murder its employees in order to protect itself. The incoming aircraft were destroyed before they could attack the building, and shortly thereafter the ugliness of Genoq's inner workings was made public.