Reap what you sow. Change or die. 
- —Reapersrc
The Reaper Initiative was an American military program designed to creating a series of weaponized, superhuman clones based on the High known as Reapers.
History
The Reaper Initiative was commissioned by General William Somerset as a replacement to and deterrent against General Zebulon McCandless's Number of the Beast Program - which had kept imprisoned superhuman beings since World War II to be trained to fight Armageddon - in fear of the possibilities that its prisoners would turn against the U.S. government if released.[1] Later on, however, the Initiative would also focus on targeting other superhumans they deemed as hostile such as the Authority who previously took over America for a brief time.[2]
The Initiative's origins dates back after the superhero John Cumberland, the High, gruesomely died from colliding into Skywatch force-field - the Storm Door - although he survived albeit as a liquefied mass of his former self; his remains were collected by the American government in which they used his genetic material along with Dr. Jacob Krigstein's unorthodox research to clone super-soldiers under the Krigstein Initiative. However, the initial experiments were fatally unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created a whole partheno-genetic division devoted entirely on Cumberland under the Reaper Initiative.[2]
Clones of Cumberland were subject to having independent thought-inhibitor implants jammed into their brainstems to ensure that they were kept in line and under control, as the clones demonstrated a gestalt complex as children; tending to think and act in collusion like a hive-mind. Furthermore, the clones were purposely designed to explode similar to the potential of a nuclear missile to ensure mutual assured destruction, in which they came with a fail-safe clock and literally being encased and delivered by ballistic missiles. These clones were stored in multiple missile silos throughout parts of the United States.[2]
The Reapers were activated after the NOTB Program was compromised when Cumberland was interfaced into the program. Upon arriving at the NOTB bunker in Nevada, the prisoners were teleported away by the Authority into the Bleed, forcing the clones to travel into the sub-reality where their minds were compromised. Because of this, the Reapers became out of control and were intent on eliminating all of Earth's post-humans and causing worldwide catastrophe as a result. Ultimately, the majority of the surviving Reapers encircled Earth's orbit and detonated - as their expiration had ended - causing a combined massive explosion which knocked Earth from its orbit, creating environmental disasters and nuclear fallout which nearly wiped out all of Earth's human population, and turned the planet into a post-Armageddon wasteland.[1]
Paraphernalia
Transportation: The Reapers were delivered by intercontinental range missiles.
Trivia
- The Reapers' "reap what you sow" line is a proverb that says future consequences are inevitably shaped by present actions. "Change or die" is a reference to the "Change or Die" story in StormWatch #48-#50.
See Also
- 14 Appearances of Reaper Initiative
- Images that include Reaper Initiative
- Organization Gallery: Reaper Initiative
Links
- None.