XE037
XE037, better known as the Blob, is the substance that forms the bulk of XEDRA investigations.
The existence of substances known as "XE037d" and "XE037b" are purported to be elaborate hoaxes. The source of these fabricated claims is a well-informed ham radio operator who goes by the handle "Soyweiser." The motivation is unknown and of real concern; the fictitious rumors were consistent with and informed by highly classified information. The operator is thought to be or have contact with an insider who: a) has a superior degree of access to sensitive classified information, and b) determined to distribute sophisticated disinformation.
Being the main cause of the creation of the zombies and other mutations in animals and insects, the Blob is one of the main antagonists in Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.
Lab Notes
Termination of a subject which was never a part of S37ZBE has confirmed my fears. XE037 has contaminated most, if not all of the laboratory. We're in communication with XEDRA-12 over their own outbreak, and both labs have been quarantined. While they backtrace the leak, we will start research into a process to destroy XE037 within the human body.
XE037 revivification has reached critical levels, which are rapidly overwhelming the available military and regional police assets' ability to stop. Every team in the field has encountered hostile specimens, and several are no longer responding to communications. Dr. Savage has proposed a strategic redeployment to the underground complex known as the VAULT, and continuing production of PE062 there.
A backtrace didn't find any evidence of a protocol breach. We're getting reports from other XEDRA facilities now. Contamination isn't 100%, but it's widespread. The non-quarantined facilities are sending people out to check the surrounding areas for signs of XE037 escaping the lab. We're running some experiments on XE037 to see how it could have broken containment.
We exposed the XE037 colonized mice to an assortment of mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds today. High dose radiation was interesting: too much still killed the mice, but a sub-fatal dose caused rapid mutation, incredibly rapid. It turned yellow, grew to the size of a cat, and started shooting lightning bolts everywhere. About a minute later it died, but that was a hell of a lightshow in the meantime.
A post-mortem on the rat involved in the electrocution incident has revealed several changes to its internal anatomy centered around its connection with the monitoring device, and large buildups of XE037 were detected around the connection point. There is a belief several other rat subjects experienced changes overnight as well. This hypothesis is supported by an inventory check after the incident that found almost twenty rats had gone missing from their cages.
Despite a wide variety of treatments, we have been completely unsuccessful in removing XE037 from human subjects. Every individual displayed revivification post termination. Interestingly, XE037 seems to be completely inert prior to termination.
PE062, our "cure" for XE037 contamination, has neared perfection. Sadly, the production of PE062 is a costly and time-consuming process. What is more, the substance shows no effect on postmortem subjects whatsoever; a substance which renders XE037 inert after it has activated would be immensely useful in the case of an outbreak.
The labs have failed to produce any workable ideas for how to eradicate XE037 even in a small scale, let alone population wide. We have no choice but to bring this to the brass. The implications are concerning, to say the least.
An emergency meeting was held today to discuss the possible implications of widespread XE037 contamination. It was agreed that neutralization must be instated immediately to prevent a catastrophic event. We'll give the labs a short window to try to find a solution before we report it to the brass; after all, they'll want answers, not just problems.
"We've continued tracking XE037 contamination since detecting it in the environment, with each silo conducting parallel research. Keeping it to silos has limited panic at least. XE037 seems to have continued spreading, but doesn't appear to be replicating beyond a very low base level. No revivification has been reported. Perhaps there just isn't enough of it to cause problems.",
It seems to have gone as we'd hoped it would. XE037 levels have plateaued in the environment, across all the testing sites. It's just a trace alien contaminant in our world now, I guess. I don't see any way this could cause long term problems.
Our hope that XE037 contamination was self-limiting was pure optimism. We're detecting significant jumps in human populations now, including among our own personnel. God, it's in me, even as I write this I have to acknowledge the fact. We haven't got a choice but to engage maximum prejudice. We're meeting with the military tomorrow to desilo the facilities and begin a full scale war on XE037.
Our cloning department has failed to produce results. In vats containing stem cell treatments, XE037, and control vats, the subjects simply disintegrated. This suggests that XE037, while compatible with subprime lifeforms, shows only destructive effects on prime plane lifeforms.
We have created a new department to investigate the effects of XE037 on the human body, specifically to examine the revivification effect observed on two prior occasions. Sadly, our human subject pool is dwindling due to the short lifespan of subjects in this program. More will be acquired soon.
Testing XE037 on mouse and cat subjects does not appear to display the same revivifying effect, oddly enough. Acquiring non-human subjects, sadly, is a long and costly process, and research into this area is lacking. We'll send for some monkeys.
Contamination tracking teams have confirmed the worst: XE037 is in the environment. At this point we can't contain it, we'll have to try to find an eradication protocol. We don't have long before we'll have to tell the brass about this.
The primary factor in determining revivification of mammalian subjects seems to be the amount of XE037 within the body at time of expiration. Smaller mammals such as lab rats do not obtain this critical amount of XE037 before going dormant. Larger canine subjects, however, do.
Whatever XE037 is, or is not, it's contagious, but it seems to only have an interest in biomatter, and a much higher affinity to biomatter from planes at the X locus along the theta axis. A new team is being formed and siloed out to research it in more detail.",
They've authorized experimentation with this stuff. I can't really believe it, honestly. We have no idea what XE037 even is, let alone how it causes mutations, but here we are playing God with them. It's exciting, for sure. We'll make advances that we couldn't have dreamt of a few years ago, certainly, but I'm reminded of certain other times scientists have been allowed to plow ahead with our wildest concepts without concern for the ethical ramifications like this. I'd best keep my concerns to myself.
Our efforts to characterize exactly how the mutagens work have met with no success. The working theory is that XE037 is somehow able to imprint with the phenotypic end product of an entire gene sequence, and reimpose that effect on a target, starting at a microcellular level and rapidly spreading to tissue, organ, and organ systems. Still, there is little to no evidence of tampering at the genetic level. We can't determine what is enforcing the changes, but it must be supplanting the genetic machinery directly.