CLEA ORGANISATION DATA FILE
Organisation Classification:
- Rogue Science Group
Organisation Leader(s):
Organisation Activities:
- Manipulating human genes to turn them into Alphas
Organisation Weakness(s):
- Many of Zorn’s experiments require specific biological “samples” or rare Earth elements which require he works with third party sources. If those sources are blocked then he cannot work.
Known Assets:
Notes/History
ZATO is the reference used by CLEA when referring to the entire operation controlled by the alien Zorn. Sometimes when an individual does not have an actual organisation it is necessary to “create” one in order to cover intelligence about group activities as well as the individual.
The name ZATO came about as something of an office joke. Agents often considered that Zorn created Alphas almost like a mail order service and came up with the idea that if he owned a company he might call it Zorn’s Alphas to Order and the name stuck.
Though Zorn is wholly responsible for conducting experiments in modifying humans turning them into Alphas or creating clones he is a reclusive individual who rarely leaves his lab and gets others to work with third parties.His first creations which were called Snare and Banshee by CLEA. Banshee had the means to disable humans via its scream whilst Snare was able to hold onto a victim and teleport.
Barely human in shape for a long time it was thought the pair were either animal hybrids of species Beta. Only later would they discover they were creations of Zorn and there were more than just two since he was cloning great numbers of them.
The next of Zorn’s creations to become noticed was the Broker, whose sole purpose was to act as an intermediator, making the deals on his master’s behalf. When the activities of the Broker first came to light, CLEA agents they tried to capture the him. On each occasion he turned to dust. Later on he would show up in another location. Scientists thought the Broker was an Alpha like “Mist” who could turn into a gaseous substance and reform at will. Later it was discovered that the Broker is an artificial construct that looks and appears human in order to carry out negotiations but if threatened could terminate itself. At the same time it can telepathically send information to clones of itself so if one of them is lost another can take its place almost immediately with no loss of data.
For quite some time it was assumed that the Broker’s boss was unknown and simply assumed to be another criminal by the very fact that he created Alphas for organised crime groups. However Reuvant would eventually discover who controlled the Broker and learn that Zorn was not a true criminal but an individual simply trying to speed up the work of the Eopua, turning humans into Alphas for the good of the galaxy. Trying to speed up a process that was meant to evolve meant it would require many experiments to create a foolproof way of producing a genetic modification that would work on all humans regardless of age or race.
Seeing how humans often treated their own kind and how much fear they showed towards things they did not understand Zorn felt he could not work through official channels. He considered they might want to experiment on him or incarcerate him or even get him to work for them on specialist projects, all of which would detract him from his mission.
This was a problem as many compounds he needed were rare and controlled by militaries and governments around the world . However he noticed that criminals since they seemed to be able to get their hands on anything. Though giving criminals weapons in the form of Alpha’s is messing with the balance of power on Earth, Zorn feels the ends justify the means.
Since the Broker and Zorn’s human victims are moved to and from the lab via one of the Snares which can teleport over great distances, locating Zorn’s base of operations is very difficult. Not only is his ship believed to be able to cloak and remain hidden but it is also believed to frequently change location.
However even this has not proved sufficient to some of the more determined vigilantes and groups such as Citadel. At first he tried to protect himself by keeping some of his Alpha creations but then decided to add an extra level of security by creating genetically engineered creatures that CLEA refers to as “Zato Soldiers”.
Though similar to Snare and Banshee none of the creatures seem to have an special abilities other than the fact they are hard to kill and extremely dangerous, so dangerous that Zorn has to use protective collars on them to stop them from attacking him or his allies. It is thought that human DNA has been used in their construction since there are male and female forms yet there is no discernable difference in terms of capabilities. If his base is located Zorn will often leave a group of soldiers behind whilst making his escape leaving heroes to deal with them.
