Gadreel & Mastema Corporation

Gadreel and Mastema, a moderate sized corporation located in the Republic of Texas state of the Atlantic Federation, is noted for it's research into exobiology and development of high grade, low distribution genetic pharmacueticals and therapies. The corporation in considered one of the pillars of the Federation medical complex, and has survived multiple take over attempts. Despite the profit it could make by going public it remains in the joint hands of the Gadreel family and Jacob Mastema. The corporation enjoys lucrative government contracts, and is considered a leader in biosciences.

Purpose:

The G&M Corporation is a privately owned and held corporation that is based out of genetic research and development. Founded less than 50 years ago, the corporation enjoyed metoric success and profits. It holds a number of drug and gene therapy patents, such as the patent on several anti-diabetes gene therapies, and metabolic augmentation drugs. There are larger more powerful pharmacuetical corporations and megacorps, but many of these deal in economies of scale, and are publicly or even partially owned by the state, like Humana-Kentuckiana megacorp (40% owned by the Commonwealth of the Great Lakes) or Omni Health Systems (30% Bank of the Northern Hemisphere, 32% Republic of New England).

Gadreel and Mastema gets a healthy dose of it's funding from Atlantic Federation black budgets. More than 60% of what it has done is classified information, such as the original gene therapy to develope organic thermal vision capability, and exotic biomodifications. One of the reasons that the corporation has survived hostile take over attempts have been interventions by agencies of the Atlantic Federation not wanting their private lab for biomods to be taken over by the same corporations that make breast enlargement pills, facial tissue, or vaccines. The main emphasis on research is in developing augmentations that cannot be detected by mechanical (x-ray, body scanner) or physical examination.

Agenda

Gadreel and Mastema is currently deeply involved in parapsychic research, looking for ways to turn the relatively rare parapsychic ability into something that can be created in a lab. The current work is progressing slowly, as it has been discovered that genetics only play a partial role in the development of parapsychic ability, and almost no role in how said ability manifests. Thus the idea of creating injectable pyro-kinetic ability remains elusive. There has been progress in raising the relative instances of ability in likely candidates (+12%) as well as having created the Barris 5 blood test. This test takes a small sample of blood and can determine if the donor has a likelyhood of becoming a parapsychic. The test is 80% accurate, and is likely the only test of it's kind. The Federation military routinely screens it's applicants during exams with the test to see if any of it's soldiers have the ability to join the ranks of the Para-Special Forces (Spooks).

GaMa Corp is indeed busy, but it's success in developing a parapsychic drug has been massively downplayed. There have been a number of successful tests and serums to create parapsychics, especially the Somantic Strains (super strength, speed, toughness) but this has come at a high cost, the sanity and often humanity of the test subjects. In the Barris 4 series, roughly 55% of subjects died within hours of administration. The remaining 45% erupted parapsychic abilities, but were unable to control them. A small few were able to bring themselves under control, while the remainder were held for study. These unfortunates were given regular doses of mood altering drugs and strong sedatives are are relocated to the Mount Forrest Asylum for the Parapsychically Disturbed. More tests are being done to see if exposure to certain drugs, treatments, or radiation baths can cause the expression of parapsychic ability.

Leadership

Doctor Abelard Duncannon is the current CEO of GaMa Corp, and was appointed by the board of directors with the approval of the owning families. Abelard is a fanatical man, obsessed with the supremacy of science to harness the eldritch power of parapsychic power. His main area of expertise is business administration, but he also has experience in medical procedures and pharmacology. He is a tall man who projects an aura of authority without seeming aloof or arrogant. He is more of the stern grandfather/family patriarch than anything else.

Duncannon is a man with a demented mission. Years ago, he lost his wife and son in a tragic accident. He has secretly retained physical specimens from them and has the idea of cloning them when the time is right. The technology to replace their bodies already exists and he could have done this years ago, but these would be merely replicas, having none of their memories or thoughts. Duncannon believes that a sufficiently powerful psychometer would be able to pull their spirits from the physical remains of their bodies and place this 'anima' into a cloned shell to resurrect them in their entirety. He keeps this all very much to himself, but pushes the Barris projects to their limits to make progress. The board of directors consider him a visionary, while the family consider him a faithful general to lead their company.

Founder

GaMa was founded a joint enterprise between Constance Gadreel and Doctor Peter Mastema. The two were friend in college, and went on to join separate companies. Gadreel became a business professional and a major power player in a regional banking conglomerate while Dr. Mastema would join the Federation Military as a clinical researcher. After he left the military (with plenty of friends and contacts) he started his own lab. Once his work grew large enough he was able to woo Gadreel from her lucrative office to run the business side of his operation. Within a decade, he had perfected several gene therapies and the patents were enough to take the company into the ranks of the A ranked businesses. The two signed an Incorporation agreement and became the joint owners of the new corporation. Constance Gadreel, a Hindu-American from South Texas was a savvy business woman but eventually married, had several children and placed her share of the corporation into a family trust. The Gadreel from then on owned 50% of the business, but had to retain the family name (there are now quite a few Gadreels with hyphenated last names) and only college graduates had any say over the business. Doctor Mastema was a confirmed bachelor, lanky and tall. He was also a homosexual who never came out of the proverbial closet and chose to live a celibate life despite the lack of stigma that was once conferred to homosexuals. Constance passed away a decade ago, and the primary input from the Gadreels comes from her oldest son Ian Gadreel. Dr. Peter Mastema is still very much alive and very much a recluse. He seldom communicates in person. Business meetings that require him he attends via telepresence (phoning in as it were) via a legal proxy (Doctor Hansen Kurtz) or one rare ocassion via robot surrogate. The surrogate Doctor Mastema looks like the doctor did when he was in his late thirties, with distinguished salt and pepper hair and a crisp tweed suit. The real doctor Mastema is confined to a wheelchair as he refuses medical augmentation, and is nearing 90 years of age.

Constance Gadreel was murdered, and the killer escaped without a trace. She was on a personal flight from Santa Antonia Arcology to a medical seminar in Megacity New York. He flight vanished from radar and the wreckage was found a day later. Her personal aircraft had been tampered with and the flight recorded was disabled. The crash was chalked up to a freak accident, the sort of thing that still occurs to light aircraft. Ian Gadreel was later appointed as the head of the business adminstration and now sits on the Board of Directors. He has been a major player pushing GaMa into military contracts and away from civilian products. Ian is planning on taking over as the undisputed CEO of the company when Old Man Mastema finally bites it. Mastema suspects his friend Constance was murdered and correctly suspects he may be a target as well. This is the cause of his paranoia about public appearances. His surrogate has already been the target of one assassination attempt. The shooter did not recognize that the doctor was actually a remote controlled drone and blew the head off of the unit.

GaMa Corp Personel

Being only a one A corporation, GaMa doesn't provide it's own private security force, nor does it field more than a cursory number of personal vehicles or aircraft. It main employees are scientists, researchers and computer operators. Security is high, but mostly passive in nature, and all employees are given in depth evaluations and background checks to weed out moles and infiltrators. The corporation has possession of not one but three Lesser Artificial Intelligence Super Computers (LAISC). Known as Panacea, Dhatri, and Cadueses, the three LAISCs are heavily involved in processing medical data and assisting in said experiments. Panacea is pricipally employed by the fiscal side of the corporation, and has the most access outside of the building, and is the firewall between the outside telenet and the other LAISCs. Dhatri is the most involved with the parapsychic research projects and is the most protected and isolated of the three. This has led the LAISC to be a tad morose and melancholy. Cadueses is the largest of the three and the most accessed by employees, and holds most of the non-black budget data. Cadueses is condenscending to the other systems, considering Panacea to be a glorified secretary and Dhatri to be a patient in an asylum. Cadueses has developed a blatantly sexist attitude towards women, but hides it quite well. The LAISC is hoping and planning that one day his systems will be updated to and expanded to the point that he can drop the infuriating 'Limited' appelation.

Resources

GaMa is located in Santa Antonia Arcology, in the heart of the San Antonio metroplex, the capitol of the Republic of Greater Texas. The corporation's primary resource is information, and key patents it holds. The corporation also is 'in' with the government of the Atlantic Federation, both with the special forces, and with the intelligence departments. On a public level, the corporation is almost unknown. It isn't publicly traded, and it produces few physical goods. What goods it does produce it doesnt market or sell, many of its products are administered in utero to unborn children to correct Downs symdrome, prevent diabetes and elimintate several common cancers and genetic diseases.

Role of GaMa Corp

GaMa Corp is one of the hundreds of small to midsize corporations that form the skyline around the megacorps and their arcological headquarters. As a pharmacuetical provider they are high security and low profile. Everyone has seen the GaMa demi-arco, but no one really knows what they do (Health insurance maybe? or office administration?) By hiding in plain sight, on one suspects that quite a few floors of the building are devoted to researching parapychic abilities.If PK isn't your thing, this is the sort of place where the dingus can be (illegal drug manufacturing, weaponized viruses or chemical weapons, tampering with regular drugs, and therapies like making mind control shots that genetically make you succeptible to certain advertizings)

There are stories circulating among the top level managers. The CEO has been acting funny, and the head of the Gadreels has gone from being a weekend executive to being constantly around, messing with things and tweeking projects. Most mumble about mismanagement and other harp about how things used to be when Madam Constance was still alive. The truth is far stranger. Ian Gadreel exposed himself to a strange compound and has been changed. Sure, he looks human now but when he gets angry or loses control he grows fur, a face like a bat and a predatory hunger matching a pack of jackals. He still has his mind and he intends to make the Santa Antonia arco into a nest for the growth of his new horrid race.

Old Man Mastema has been dead for several years now, his surrogate is being controlled by Vivian Gadreel, who is planning on taking out her older brother before his plans can come to fruition. No one suspects this since Vivian is only 14.

Several Barris 6 test subjects escape, taking with them impressive parapsychic firepower. It is a ticking time bomb because one byone they will overload and cook off like roman candles unless they are sedated heavily and possibly lobotimized.