Protogen is a private company from Earth and a large subsidiary of Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile. Their corporate logo emblem was green and gold, and their slogan was "First. Fastest. Furthest." Although primarily known as the security firm on Eros Station, they also had a large biological science research division. They and Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile are the primary ones responsible for the Eros Incident, the creation of Project: Caliban Protomolecule hybrids, and any other tragedies related to the Protomolecule.

History

In 2342, the Martian Congressional Republic landed on Saturn's ice moon Phoebe to survey it for ice mining. When core samples from the moon were investigated, however, silicate samples were found, and the Martian government approached the Protogen Corporation, a subsidiary of Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile, as a co-sponsor of a long-term research facility. Protogen discovered the alien agent, informing Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile's CEO Jules-Pierre Mao of the discovery, dubbed it "the protomolecule", and began experimenting with it. Later, under Antony Dresdon and Jules-Pierre's orders, Protogen killed all Martian scientists on the Phoebe station to hide their discovery for themselves.

Eros Incident

Further research on the protomolecule by Protogen's division for biological research, headed by executive Vice President Antony Dresden, culminated in the large-scale experiment and near disaster known as the Eros Incident. They were able to move riot gear from Star Helix Security on Ceres to Eros, on which Protogen seemingly had pulled out of their security contract, and placed convicts under the employment of Carne Por la Machina, or the CPM Security Corporation, a puppet organization.

Jules-Pierre Mae ordered the construction of nine Amun-Ria-class stealth frigates from the Bush Shipyard on Luna. These types of stealth frigates had never been produced before, making one of a kind, and they were also made in total secret of the United Nations. With these highly advanced stealth ships, Protogen was now able to move protomolecule samples in secret, defend their assets from attack, and provoke larger factions by attacking their assets without them knowing it was Protogen, like how they destroyed the Donnager Battleship, causing Mars to accuse Earth and not Protogen.

While en route to Eros, one of the stealth ships, the Anubis, was intercepted by the Scopuli, which had been dispatched by OPA's faction leader, Anderson Dawes. However, the OPA had been expecting an unarmed research vessel, not a state-of-the-art warship, which was able to quickly subdue the unarmed freighter. That intelligence was gathered by Jules-Pierre Mao's daughter, Julie Mao, who had defected from her father to support the Belter independence cause. The Anubis was quick to discover the Scopuli and took the whole crew as prisoners to experiment upon, except for Julie Mao who was imprisoned. The captain of the Anubis then had the Scopuli rigged with a Martian Navy distress beacon to lure the Canterbury ice hauler, and when it arrived to rescue the Scopuli, the Anubis destroyed the Canterbury with nukes. Destroying an ice hauler would cause chaos in the Belt, which would distract both Earth and Mars from paying attention to Eros, allowing Protogen to go through with their experiment. Unfortunately, the crew of the Anubis weren't aware that their sample of the protomolecule had broken containment and was spreading throughout the ship, killing the entire crew and sticking itself to the ship's reactor core, feeding off its radiation.

Sometime after the containment breach, Julie Mao broke out of the storage locker she was being held in to find the ship seemingly abandoned. Searching the ship, she found traces of the contagion, unknowingly infecting herself with it, and discovered the crew being consumed by the protomolecule surrounding the Anubis's reactor core. Horrified, she hid the Anubis in the asteroid BA-834024112 and sent a distress call to the OPA with the Anubis's location. Leaving the ship powered down, she headed for Eros in the ship's shuttle Anubis-1A.

OPA Faction leader, Fred Johnson, and the Canterbury survivors, now the crew of the independent Rocinante, received the OPA distress call and investigated. The Rocinante crew found clues that the Scopuli's crew had been aboard the ship, at the same time confirming this was the same ship that had destroyed the Canterbury. Powering up the ship, they discovered the infection and immediately evacuated the ship, taking its safe for evidence. As she vacated the area, the Rocinante launched a single nuclear torpedo and destroyed the Anubis with everything onboard, the Canterbury finally avenged.

Tracing the location of the Anubis-1A Julie took lead them to Eros Station. Julie's infection caused her to mutate and become a "seed crystal," making her full of viable protomolecule that Protogen collected. Using the CPM Security forces, Protogen sabotaged the Eros docks with explosions. Claiming a radiation leak, they directed the Eros population to secure bunkers. As they led them there, they gave the population "anti-radiation drugs" but they really infecting them directly with the Protomolecule. Once in the bunkers, they subjected them to repeated douses of high energy radiation, giving them cancers and feeding the protomolecule.

They then sanctioned Eros, with no one entering or leaving the asteroid. The Rocinante crew managed to escape uninfected, accidently intercepting a transmission from Protogen to Thoth Station, and reported back to Fred Johnson. The intension of the entire Eros Incident was merely to give the Protomolecule enough materials to see what it would do, with Antony Dresden's main desire in having it help reshape humanity for the better, or at least his own interpretation of what "better" meant.

Protogen was at this point one of the most powerful corporations on Earth, until the OPA attacked their research laboratories on Thoth Station. Led by Fred Johnson, and with the help of the crew of the Rocinante, the OPA took control of Thoth and placed the Protogen scientists in unmarked prisons, with the exception of Vice President Dresden, who was executed by Joesphus Miller. The last remaining protomolecule sample from Eros fell into OPA hands, giving them political leverage. The knowledge of Protogen's involvement in the Eros incident was subsequently made public when Eros's live feeds were activated.

Realizing that no cure could be made, the OPA and Rocinante devised a plan to put Eros out of its misery but launching it into the Sun using small nukes and crashing the Mormon generation ship, the Nauvoo, into it. This didn't work, and instead caused the Eros Incident to occur, with the protomolecule dodging the Nauvoo by rotating Eros and then causing Eros to launch directly toward Earth. Joesphus Miller managed to direct Eros to Venus instead, saving billions.

While Earth and Mars are still scared and confused on what happened, Protogen has been exposed. However, the company is still working on the Protomolecule, operating out of Prospero Station on Io in secret. They are working with warhawk-ish factions high within both the UN and MCR to create Project: Caliban. Project: Caliban's main goal is to use the protomolecule to create supersoliders, and is willing to sell to whoever can guarantee Jules-Pierre Mao's safety the most.

Protomolecule Research

Under the direction of Antony Dresden, Protogen recruited scientists from all over the solar system in their efforts to unlock the secrets of the protomolecule. From the initial discovery on Phoebe, research efforts were accelerated as quickly as possible in order to see results, regularly bypassing conventional scientific ethics to do so.

Research Team

In order to accelerate the pace of research and testing trials, all members of the research team were required to undergo a medical procedure altering structural elements of the brain. These alterations created deep psychopathy amongst the researchers, giving them extreme abilities to focus on results-oriented research while free of moral or ethical constraints.

Subjects were temporarily affected initially, and required to agree to a permanent alteration in order to be admitted to the research team. While aiding the speed of research, side-effects such as extreme anger and violence were prevalent amongst the teams. This was demonstrated during periods of competition amongst team members. Consequently guards were placed in proximity to research team members at all times.

Facilities

Initial research efforts were completed on Phoebe Station. After completion, the base was destroyed to hide any evidence, and the researchers were relocated to three stations-Thoth Station, Prospero Station, and Osiris Station.