The symbol of Project Origin.
- "I've tried to forget. I've tried so hard to forget."
- —Chuck Habegger commenting on the disturbing nature of Project Origin.
Project Origin was a top secret experiment "born" out of the struggle the US military was having in Vietnam: communications between soldiers and command were too slow. To solve this, Origin was created. It used an extremely powerful psionic as a breeder to create potential psychic commanders.
Founding[]
Harlan Wade started the project when his daughter Alma, a psionic of incredible power, became too difficult to control. In her desperation to halt the experimentation being forced upon her by Armacham Technology Corporation, she had begun to psychically attack ATC scientists, causing them to suffer mood swings, hallucinations, and horrific nightmares. Containment was recommended for the child, and Project Origin was put together, with the ultimate goal of using extracted DNA from Alma, creating psychic prototypes to be used for military purposes.
At first, the plan was to simply create the first prototypes of the project from her DNA, but Harlan was not convinced that psychic abilities were entirely genetic, and thus the project was changed: Alma would be impregnated with the genetically-engineered prototypes, created from Alma's DNA and samples from several members of the team, including Harlan. She was to be kept in an induced coma for the rest of the project, and would be forced to give birth to two prototypes during artificially-induced labor. The project was carried out in secret in an underground military facility, located in the auburn district's Rammelmeier Industrial Compound, which Armacham Technology Corporation purchased from the government in the 1950s. This would ensure that the project could be kept going without fear of interference.
Use and aftermath[]
Alma Wade, the core of Project Origin.
Alma Wade was merely 7 years old when she was put into an induced coma as part of Project Origin, and it would be another 7 years before the now 14-year-old teenager was removed to impregnate her with the first of the prototypes. Alma was 15 when the first prototype was born. She was in a drug induced coma during labor, but awoke and began to scream "No!" as her first son was taken away by her father, who declared that "You will be a God among men", before ordering that Alma be returned to the Vault.
The Point Man was initially deemed a failure, and a year later, Alma was impregnated with the project's second prototype, giving birth when she was 16. Ten years after that, Alma synchronized her mind with her youngest son's, triggering what Origin researchers dubbed a "Synchronicity Event". During this, her 10-year-old son "freaked out" and killed seven people. Following this incident, Origin was shut down and the Origin facility sealed. Alma's life support was removed, and she died six days later.
Twenty years later, Genevieve Aristide, president of Armacham Technology Corporation, tried to re-purpose the Origin facility, sending teams down to assess suitability. Radio contact was lost with the first team, and a second team was sent in. After the second team disappeared as well, Aristide was forced to admit that she had accidentally awakened Alma, and the facility was resealed. Soon after, Alma was able to make contact with her youngest son again and trigger a second Synchronicity Event, which causes the crisis that the F.E.A.R. team is called in to put down in F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon.
The Origin facility, along with the entire Auburn District, was destroyed when the Point Man damages the facility's reactor cells, setting off an explosion at the end of F.E.A.R., thus leading Genevieve Aristide to tell the mysterious Senator that the first prototype was a complete success.
Legacy[]
The destruction of Fairport, caused by the oldest of the Origin prototypes.
Project Origin acted as a catalyst for the events of the entire F.E.A.R. series, causing a wide ranging chain of events that eventually led to the destruction of the entire city of Fairport. The rage created in Alma by the severe mistreatment suffered at the hands of her father and Armacham caused her spirit to live on beyond the death of her physical body, allowing her to wipe out all of Armacham's headquarters, killing hundreds of people in the process. To stop her killing spree, her eldest son, the Point Man, kills his younger brother and blows up the Origin Facility, destroying a good portion of the city.
The subsequent release of Alma from the facility further causes ruin to Fairport, after labor pains from a third pregnancy allow an alternate reality to begin taking over the entire city.
Alma's eldest son acts as the protagonist of both F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 3, as well as the non-canon F.E.A.R. Extraction Point. He is responsible for destroying the Origin facility, and he later chooses to continue to put everyone around him at risk by choosing to allow Alma's third child to live. The second son, Paxton Fettel, takes control of an army of cloned super soldiers, which he uses to kill hundreds of people in his quest to find his mother and free her, before himself becoming a powerful ghost.