Alpha-Order

"The Alpha-Order program has produced beings whose psionic abilities far exceed what their creators can control or even detect."
-- Narrative observation, Booklet 043

The Alpha-Order (German: Alpha-Order, also referred to as Alpha-Ordnung) is the code name for a classified genetic engineering program operated by the Kaiser Corporation on the prison planet Sarym. Directed by Max von Valdec and supervised on-site by station commander Hermano Lotz, the program's purpose is the creation of Super-Drivers -- artificially bred human clones possessing immense psionic powers -- designed to serve as living weapons under corporate control.

The Alpha-Order represents the central paradox of Valdec's regime: having developed Kaiser Force to eliminate humanity's dependence on Drivers, the Kaiser Corporation then bred its own Drivers -- more powerful and more dangerous than any natural-born psionic -- to project the very force it sought to make obsolete.

The term "Alpha-Order" carries a dual meaning within the saga. In its primary sense, it designates the super-Driver breeding program itself. In a secondary, broader sense, it functions as a high-priority directive classification within the Gray Guards and the Council of Corporations -- a supreme command from the highest authority (see Dual Usage below).

Overview

Purpose and Methods

The Alpha-Order program exploits Sarym's unique psionic environment to breed genetically enhanced human clones with artificially amplified PSI abilities. The program combines multiple technologies and techniques:

• Genetic engineering: Selective breeding and cloning to produce humans with vastly expanded psionic potential, organized into distinct genetic lines (Prometheus, Isis, Phoenix, Osiris, and others)
• Biochemical treatments: Chemical enhancement of the clones' psionic capabilities beyond natural limits
• Thingstones: Radioactive crystals from Stonehenge II that amplify PSI energy, used in the breeding and enhancement process at the Kaiser secret station (Booklet 043)
• Memory erasure: The clones' personal memories are deliberately stripped away to prevent independent identity formation
• Killer Block: An artificial mental barrier implanted in each super-Driver that ensures absolute loyalty to Valdec. Any disloyal behavior triggers the block, compelling the super-Driver to commit suicide (Booklets 035--036)
• Sarym Shield (Sarym-Schirm): Anti-PSI technology developed alongside the breeding program that reflects psionic activity back onto its originator -- later widely adopted as defensive technology across the galaxy
• Psycho-hood: Virtual reality interrogation devices used at the station for intelligence extraction from prisoners

The clones are designated by their genetic series name and a sequential clone number (e.g., Prometheus 93, Isis 24, Phoenix 34). Higher numbers generally indicate later, more refined iterations within each line. The program produces multi-psionic beings of extraordinary power -- capable of telepathy, mind manipulation, psionic combat, and other abilities far exceeding those of natural-born Drivers.

Genetic Lines

The Alpha-Order produces super-Drivers organized into at least six distinct genetic series, known collectively as the Prometheus, Isis, and Phoenix Series (German: Prometheus-, Isis- und Phonix-Reihe) and associated lines:

Principal Series

Secondary Series

History

Origins: The Prison Planet Pipeline (c. 2500)

The Alpha-Order's origins are intertwined with the Council of Corporations' systematic persecution of Drivers following the destruction of Zoe (Booklet 012). As captured Drivers were imprisoned across the Star Empire, a clandestine pipeline was established to funnel those with the highest PSI potential to Sarym for use in the breeding program.

On the internment camp world Taschkanur, Narda discovers that selected prisoners are being secretly transported to Olunyan under the "Alpha Order" -- a directive from the top of the Council. The specific sub-directive Alpha-Order 27b orders the deportation of prisoners with above-average PSI potential (Booklet 037). These deportees are transferred off-world to unknown destinations -- strongly implied to be the Kaiser secret station on Sarym, where their genetic material and psionic potential would feed the breeding program.

This pipeline reveals the Alpha-Order as more than a local research project: it is a galaxy-spanning operation that treats imprisoned Drivers as raw material for weapons production.

First Generation: The Kaiser Secret Station (c. 2501)

The Kaiser secret station on Sarym's South Continent -- a covert facility concealed off the coast, equipped with robotic surveillance (floating islands, armored lizard-robots), psycho-hoods for interrogation, and genetic laboratories -- serves as the program's primary breeding ground. Hermano Lotz commands the station with the assistance of Dor Masali, a cyborg whose brain resides in a robotic body, rendering him immune to PSI manipulation -- a critical precaution in a facility housing beings of immense psionic power.

The first generation of super-Driver test subjects includes:

• Prometheus 93 -- The strongest of the three initial subjects. A master telepath capable of manipulating minds without detection.
• Isis 24 -- A female super-Driver who collaborates with her fellow test subjects to subvert their handlers.
• Phonix 17 -- Works alongside Prometheus 93 and Isis 24 to sabotage the station's operations.

These three test subjects demonstrate the Alpha-Order's fundamental flaw from the very beginning: the super-Drivers are far more powerful and autonomous than their creators realize (Booklet 043).

Sabotage and the Hate Plague (c. 2501)

When Hermano Lotz captures the Terranauts Lyda Mar, Ennerk Prime, Damon Credock, and Onnegart Vangralen and subjects them to psycho-interrogation to discover the location of Rorqual, the three super-Driver test subjects intervene covertly:

1. They monitor Lotz's actions and plot to prevent him from alerting Valdec to their growing autonomy
2. They sabotage the interrogation by overloading the Psycho-hood, freeing the Terranauts from mental blocks
3. Prometheus 93 manipulates Lotz's mind, telepathically planting the idea to use a virus against the Terranauts rather than continue direct interrogation

This manipulation has catastrophic consequences. Lotz, believing the virus scheme to be his own invention, develops and deploys the Hate Plague -- a biological weapon that ravages the Terranauts across multiple booklets (044--049). Lotz infects the imprisoned Terranauts with the virus, then orchestrates a staged prison break in which Damon Credock is killed, ensuring the carriers return to Rorqual without suspicion (Booklet 044).

Whether Prometheus 93 intended this devastating outcome or was merely deflecting Lotz's attention from the super-Drivers' existence remains one of the saga's darkest ambiguities.

Second Generation: Deployment as Weapons (c. 2501--2503)

The program produces a second, more refined generation of super-Drivers who are deployed by Valdec as weapons of conquest across the galaxy:

The Shondyke Attack (Booklets 035--036):

• Ares 17, Artemis 11, and Plutos 23 break free from their deep-sleep chambers aboard the STEELFIST and attack Arda-City on Shondyke, the secret heart of the Gray Guards. Ares 17 is ultimately killed by Llewellyn 709, who triggers his Killer Block. Plutos 23 suffers a psionic breakdown caused by the interaction of anti-PSI fields with Thingstone radiation.

The Exile Period on Lancia (Booklets 066--068):

• Following Valdec's exile from Earth (Booklet 054), Prometheus 107, Isis 31, and Osiris 84 serve as his primary enforcement tools as he builds a power base on Lancia. Prometheus 107 kills Maxwell Sholar and Tosten Phibas at Kaisergrad (Booklet 066), interrogates the Terranaut Morgenstern on Krisan (Booklet 067), and participates in operations in the Aron System (Booklet 068). Valdec also uses super-Drivers to raid colonial worlds, stripping them of resources and labor.

The Sarym Campaign (Booklets 061--063):

• Valdec deploys Prometheus 107, Phoenix 34, and Isis 31 alongside the captive David terGorden to breach the Maritime Coral City and seize control of its PSI-aura. This culminates in the War of Minds (Booklet 063) -- the program's catastrophic climax.

The War of Minds and Destruction (c. 2503)

Booklet 063 marks the Alpha-Order program's definitive failure. During Valdec's second attempt to control the PSI-aura:

1. Valdec forces David terGorden's mind to open a connection to the PSI-aura, but the aura fights back, killing Expert Mira
2. The PSI-aura empowers Prometheus 107 with psionic energy far beyond anything the Alpha-Order intended
3. Prometheus 107 breaks free from Valdec's control, becoming an independent actor who seeks to dominate the PSI-aura himself
4. Prometheus captures Llewellyn 709 and Lyda Mar, intending to use their unique psionic connections as keys to the aura's power
5. Dor Masali attempts to destroy the Maritime Coral City with fusion bombs but is killed by the PSI-aura's defenses
6. Lyda Mar, aided by her unborn daughter Aura Damona Mar, transports the Terranauts and super-Drivers to the heart of the PSI-aura, where the super-Drivers are annihilated

The destruction of Prometheus 107, Phoenix 34, and their fellow super-Drivers within the PSI-aura represents the collapse of the Alpha-Order's most advanced products. The weapon bred to serve Valdec first rebels against his control, then is destroyed by the very power it sought to seize.

Aftermath: The Second Reich (c. 2503--2504)

Despite the catastrophic losses on Sarym, some super-Drivers survive or are produced in later iterations:

• Isis 31 survives and is conditioned to Frost during the Second Reich, serving Valdec through to the Preventive Strike (Booklet 097)
• Osiris 84 continues to serve Valdec, deploying PSI control during the Second Reich
• A Prometheus clone (number unspecified) serves as Valdec's bodyguard on Earth, thwarting an assassination attempt at the Ziolkowski Shipyards (Booklet 090)

The final fate of the Alpha-Order program is sealed by the destruction of Valdec and the dismantling of the Kaiser Corporation through the Cosmic Spores in Booklet 099.

Dual Usage of the Term

The term "Alpha-Order" carries two distinct but related meanings in the saga:

1. The Super-Driver Breeding Program

The primary meaning: the classified genetic engineering program on Sarym described throughout this page. This usage appears in Booklets 043, 044, 061--068, and 090.

2. High-Priority Directive Classification

In the military hierarchy of the Gray Guards and the Council of Corporations, an "Alpha-Order" also designates a supreme-priority directive issued from the highest authority. Examples:

• Booklet 037: Narda discovers that internees on Taschkanur are being secretly transported to Olunyan under "the Alpha Order" -- a clandestine directive from the Council. The sub-directive Alpha-Order 27b specifically orders the deportation of prisoners with above-average PSI potential.
• Booklet 038: The Alpha-Order is referenced as "a directive from the Council" governing secret operations at the internment camps.
• Booklet 068: Chan de Nouille, the Great Gray, issues an Alpha-Order to the Shadows -- Queen No, Queen Yella, and Queen Zan -- directing them to investigate Valdec's exile base on Lancia. Commandeuse Cho Li delivers the order.

The two meanings are not contradictory: the deportation of high-PSI prisoners (the directive sense) directly feeds the breeding program (the program sense). The same classification authority that commands the Gray Guards to transport Drivers to Sarym also authorizes the experiments conducted upon their arrival.

Key Personnel

Products: Complete Known Super-Driver Registry

First Generation (Test Subjects, c. 2500--2501)

Second Generation (Deployed Weapons, c. 2501--2504)

Late/Unspecified Clones

The Fundamental Flaw

The Alpha-Order program embodies a recurring theme of Die Terranauten: the weapons Valdec creates invariably turn against him. The program's fundamental flaw is that extreme psionic power correlates with extreme willfulness. Every generation of super-Drivers demonstrates greater autonomy than the last:

• Prometheus 93 manipulates his own handler's mind before Valdec even knows the test subjects have become autonomous (Booklet 043)
• Ares 17, Artemis 11, and Plutos 23 break free from deep-sleep chambers and attack Shondyke independently of Valdec's orders (Booklet 035)
• Prometheus 107 plans a revolt against Valdec even before the PSI-aura empowers him; once empowered, he immediately pursues his own ambition to dominate the aura (Booklets 061, 063)

The Killer Block -- the mental barrier designed to prevent disobedience -- proves insufficient against beings of such immense psionic power. The program creates weapons too powerful for the creator to control, and the PSI-aura of the Maritime Coral City -- an intelligence far older and vaster than anything Valdec can comprehend -- destroys them when they reach too far.

As the narrative observes: "The Alpha-Order program has produced beings whose psionic abilities far exceed what their creators can control or even detect."

Associated Technology

Appearances

The Alpha-Order program and its products appear across approximately 15 booklets of Die Terranauten:

Thematic Significance

The Prometheus Myth Inverted

Valdec names his most powerful genetic line after the Greek titan who stole fire from the gods. The irony is deliberate: like Prometheus, Valdec steals "fire" (Kaiser Force) from Space II to free humanity from dependence on psionic elites. But unlike the mythical Prometheus, who gave fire to all humanity, Valdec's Prometheus clones serve only one man. They are instruments of tyranny, not liberation.

And like Zeus punishing the original Prometheus, the PSI-aura -- an intelligence far older and vaster than Valdec -- destroys his creations when they reach too far.

Control as Illusion

The Alpha-Order program is the saga's most vivid illustration of the theme that control is an illusion. The attempt to engineer absolute obedience -- through Killer Blocks, memory erasure, biochemical conditioning, and genetic design -- produces only more sophisticated forms of rebellion. The more powerful the weapon, the more catastrophically it turns against its creator.

The Weapon that Destroys the Wielder

See Also

• Super-Drivers -- The genetically engineered psionic weapons produced by the program
• Prometheus, Isis, and Phoenix Series -- The principal genetic lines
• Prometheus -- The most powerful and rebellious genetic line
• Kaiser Corporation -- The corporate entity that funds and directs the program
• Kaiser secret station -- The breeding facility on Sarym
• Hermano Lotz -- Station Commander who oversees the program
• Dor Masali -- Cyborg assistant at the station
• Max von Valdec -- Creator and ultimate authority over the program
• Sarym -- Prison planet and site of the breeding program
• Maritime Coral City -- Site of the super-Drivers' destruction
• PSI-aura -- The bio-psionic field that destroyed the super-Drivers
• Killer Block -- Mental barrier technology used to control the clones
• Thingstones -- PSI-amplifying crystals used in the experiments
• Sarym Shield -- Anti-PSI technology developed alongside the program
• Hate Plague -- Biological weapon that resulted from Prometheus 93's manipulation of Lotz
• Drivers -- The broader population from which the program's genetic material is drawn
• Alpha-Order 27b -- Sub-directive ordering deportation of high-PSI prisoners
• Taschkanur -- Internment camp from which prisoners were secretly deported under the Alpha Order
• Lyda Mar -- Oracle who destroyed the super-Drivers within the PSI-aura
• Aura Damona Mar -- Unborn Oracle whose powers annihilated the super-Drivers
• Llewellyn 709 -- Captured by Prometheus 107; earlier victim of Lotz's PSI-experiments on Sarym

The Alpha-Order program and its products appear in approximately 15 of 99 booklets of Die Terranauten. It is the Kaiser Corporation's most morally appalling enterprise -- a classified breeding program that produces living weapons of extraordinary psionic power, every one of which ultimately escapes, rebels against, or is destroyed beyond its creator's control.