Einheit Elf

 "I was one of seven scientists, chosen to serve at a secret facility stationed outside of Berlin before the start of the First World War. It was known only as Einheit Elf - 'Unit 11'.

'''We agreed never to discuss what went on behind those doors. The things we were made to do there. Terrible things...."'''

-- Dr. Walter Jennings

Doomsday Contingency
Created just prior to the start of World War I, the secret research unit known as Einheit Elf was meant to address an unthinkable contingency: the end of the human race. Faced with a war where aerial bombs, poison gas, and other horrific weapons would be unleashed on a grand scale, the German government feared the worst possible outcome of a global conflict. Seven leading scientists - Walter Jennings, Jorge Vargas, Otto Funderberg, Matthas Hargett, Alec Keffler, Herbert Braun, and S.L. Aufhauer - were secretly assigned to serve in this unit, under the direction of an enigmatic genius known as Totenkopf.

The World of Tomorrow
Totenkopf believed that mankind was doomed to self-extermination - and that, in the process, Earth itself would be made uninhabitable. Thus, he reasoned, the focus of Einheit Elf ought not to be building bomb shelters, but the construction of a vessel to carry the building-blocks of civilization into space. He envisioned a bright, new technological Utopia among the stars - what he called "The World of Tomorrow".The final design featured a gigantic spacecraft, loaded with sufficient tools, livestock and other resources to start civilization from scratch. Rather than send living humans, though, Totenkopf opted to send along only the genetic blueprints for a male and female human, to be grown upon arrival. These new children - dubbed "Adam" and "Eve" - would be completely innocent, free from inherited prejudice or wrong-thinking.

As World War raged, Einheit Elf quietly gathered materials to begin the monumental project. An uncharted island served as the construction site for the vessel itself. A uranium mine in Nepal provided fuel for its three atomic booster engines. Enormous factory complexes, on the island and elsewhere, produced hulking armored automata, designed to salvage resources and heavy machinery from the ruins of the barren Earth.

Armageddon Averted?
Despite Totenkopf's apocalyptic predictions, and the unquestionably horrific nature of the First World War, mankind did not obliterate itself. The German government eventually withdrew its support, and Einheit Elf was quietly disbanded.

Totenkopf, however, refused to abandon his plans. He had glimpsed a vision of a perfect world - and had witnessed the depravity to which mankind could sink. Even as government funding dried up, Totenkopf vowed to continue the project himself. Fearing that he might actually make good on his promise - and that he might ultimately launch the Ark, with its catastrophically powerful engines - Jennings and the other scientists managed to smuggle the vials containing Adam and Eve off the island. Without them, there would be no point in launching the Ark.

As time went on, Totenkopf became increasingly dependent on his machines. By late 1918 - the year he finally died - Totenkopf had delegated nearly everything to them, from manual labor to major decision-making. Thus, even after Totenkopf's decease, his machines continued work on the Ark. Just as they continued to seek the two silver cylinders needed to populate the World of Tomorrow.