Project BLUEBIRD
- Nathalie: "By offering genetic memory to the entire population, BLUEBIRD will bring universal wisdom and guide us to true freedom."
- Tomo: "Being saddled with the memories of our ancestors isn't freedom, Chapman... Quite the opposite, it's having the choice to make decisions free of influence."
- —Nathalie Chapman and Tomo Sakagawa, 2017.[src]-[m]
Project BLUEBIRD was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project that researched interrogation methods. As the predecessor to Project ARTICHOKE, BLUEBIRD officially arose on 5 April 1950 and was run by the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence. The project was shelved by 17 March 1951, and succeeded by Project ARTICHOKE from 20 August.[1]
History[edit | edit source]
20th century[edit | edit source]
On the surface, the project was made to research mind control techniques to better interrogate suspects. However, it was also a front for the Assassin Boris Pash's nefarious deeds, involving the use of Pieces of Eden to brainwash subjects and turn them into obedient "super-soldiers", who were recruited into Pash's Bloodstone Unit. This super-soldier squad later proved to be instrumental in the assassination of John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963, which had the goal of retrieving Kennedy's Apple of Eden.[2]
By 30 July 1964, Pash was forced to end the project due to his experiments on Julia Gorm going awry and causing the Assassin to be imprinted with the genetic memories of her late father, Eddie Gorm. Believing herself to be Eddie, Julia sought to kill Pash, who escaped alongside his pregnant lover Zenia and Doni and left the remaining members of the Bloodstone Unit to destroy their base in Hòn Mê and burn all the evidence related to their clandestine operations and Project BLUEBIRD's existence.[3]
Simultaneously, Alekseï Gavrani, a former member of the unit, tracked down Pash in order to retrieve his Apple of Eden and prevent him from further corrupting the Creed. After catching up with Pash and the others in Ninh Bình, they reached an agreement, where Gavrani promised to protect the group from Julia in exchange for the Apple. However, Julia killed Gavrani and Doni and injured Zenia, forcing Pash to contact the Assassin and CIA director William King Harvey for help.[3]
Aboard the USS Maddox, Harvey's men treated Julia and helped Zenia deliver her and Pash's infant daughter, Nathalie Chapman, though Zenia died from her injuries shortly after. Harvey then revealed himself as a Templar double agent and, using Nathalie's life as leverage, forced Pash to hand over his Apple and all of his Project BLUEBIRD research to the Templar scientist Warren Vidic. This research would subsequently play an important role in the early development stages of the Animus.[3]
21st century[edit | edit source]
Following her escape from the Templars with her father's Apple of Eden, Nathalie Chapman sought to restart Project BLUEBIRD and continue Boris Pash's lifework.[3] By 2017, she had opened the Clinique des Rameaux in Switzerland, a medical center that specialized in the treatment of patients with brain-related injuries and conditions.[2]
However, the clinic was a cover for Chapman's experiments, which involved using the Apple and an Animus Omega to try and imprint her unknowing patients with the memories of past Assassins. This way, Chapman hoped to resurrect long-dead Assassins in the bodies of new hosts through a permanent Bleeding Effect, creating an army of "super-soldiers" loyal to her and the Brotherhood.[2]
While infiltrating the clinic to track down the Templar Maxime Gorm, the Japanese Assassin Tomo Sakagawa was manipulated by Chapman into helping her explore Alekseï Gavrani's memories in the Animus to learn more about Pash's life and work on Project BLUEBIRD. After deducing Chapman's true intentions, Tomo contacted his mentor Hajime Shimada, who arrived with a team of Assassins and retrieved Tomo following a fight with Maxime that left him gravely injured.[2]
Tomo was subsequently placed in the Animus to continue reliving Gavrani's memories so the Assassins could ascertain Chapman's motives and how to stop Project BLUEBIRD. At the same time, Chapman relocated to her hidden base in the Swiss Alps, and used a hypnotic trick on one of her patients, Elisa Adler, to make her bring Maxime to her. Explaining her plans to him, Chapman convinced Maxime to help in exchange for restoring his memories erased by Abstergo Industries.[3]
After having Maxime relive his mother Julia Gorm's memories, Chapman obtained all the information she needed and was ready to commence the next step of her plan. However, as she activated a machine the Apple of Eden was in, her base was infiltrated by Tomo, who had resolved to stop Chapman by himself after inadvertently killing Hajime and the other Assassins under the Bleeding Effect's influence.[3]
Tomo assassinated Maxime and Chapman's guards and confronted her, revealing that he had planted a virus that would prevent her machine from functioning properly. He then offered her the virus' decryption key in exchange for a helicopter to allow him and Elisa to escape. Chapman accepted the terms but attempted to convince Tomo of her vision of a future in which BLUEBIRD would guide mankind towards wisdom and freedom. Tomo retorted that mankind did not need any external influence, and left with Elisa. As Chapman inserted Tomo's key, she discovered that it was another virus for the facility's cooling system, causing an explosion that killed Nathalie, destroyed the Apple, and marked the definitive end of Project BLUEBIRD.[3]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
Reflist[edit | edit source]
- ↑ CIA. Project BLUEBIRD. Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room. Archived from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved on 17 October 2019.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone – Book 1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone – Book 2
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