A HYDRA side project that operating in competition with Dr. List by Dr. Ausmeel.

The experiment focuses on activating a separate subset of enhanced individuals through Tesseract radiation.

I basically looped the Doom (2016) Soundtrack while reading Halo lore on the subreddit after rereading Ghosts of Onyx.

When HYDRA came into the possession of the Tesseract through S.H.I.E.L.D., Dr. Ausmeel submitted a proposal to the upper board members wherein she could use the Tesseract radiation to resurrect genomic fossils to activate latent superhuman abilities in the early 2000s.

Dr. Ausmeel began the ULFHEDNAR Program with a bevy of adult volunteers. None from that class survived. In fact, even the staff were slowly dying within the testing facility despite numerous attempts at shielding from the radiation. By pure chance, Ausmeel found the sole successful subject in her adoptive daughter, who was living within the facility at the time. She was the only one in the facility who was not showing symptoms of radiation poisoning; whereas staff members needed to be routinely rotated to purge the radiation from their system. A full genomic sequencing was done and it was discovered a previously inactive gene thought to have been rendered unusable had become active once more. She met with an unfortunate, orchestrated accident and suffered traumatic injury that resulted in her near death. It was then that her powers manifested fully. Her daughter was 8 at the time. Finally, after 33 failures her first victory was on the 34th subject.

Now armed with the necessary genetic marker, Ausmeel cast a wide net to collect individuals who met with those strict genetic requirements. However, those who possessed the gene did not always have their powers activated by the Tesseract. Nearly two-thirds were still poisoned by prolonged radiation; half of those who survived without incident would not live through the process of activation by traumatic near death state. Younger subjects managed to recover and weather the process much better than their adult counterparts. Those who also had disruptive upbringings would also fare much better in survival compared to those who lived in relative security, regardless of age.

The ULFHEDNAR Program was a two pronged approach towards crafting the perfect shock troops; after the loss of the asset known as the Winter Soldier, the aim of the program was shifted to replacing the lost asset, albeit with less precision than their predecessors. The second half involved an augmentation based upon the Erskine Super Soldier Serum. Dr. Ausmeel built upon the foundations of the imperfect reverse-engineered serum that HYDRA had within their possession and the changes introduced by Dr. Banner with Gamma radiation. As if driven by fate, she was able to independently come to the same conclusions as Howard Stark. With this serum as the basis, Ausmeel further altered it to alter regions in the frontal lobe to enhance aggressive response in times of high stress. The super strength granted by the serum was compounded multiplicatively to the natural super strength of the Ulfhednar and also allowed them to continue fighting while under the influence of shock that would be fatal in all other cases. This drug, labeled 10473-NO, was a non-carcinogenic mutagen that targeted areas in the frontal lobe that depressed higher thinking functions over time in exchange for heightened instinctual responses. To combat this effect, Ausmeel had two more drugs developed to inhibit long term effects both chemically and psychologically: 10474-DZ and 10312-CL. These drugs are administered in one of two ways, via hypodermic injection or by subcutaneous implant. Each dosage is effective up to 12 hours and decrease in efficacy the longer they go without another dosage. Within confined settings, the hypodermic injection is used. Those operating in the field are outfitted with the slow-releasing subcutaneous implant that are to be replaced every three weeks. The trio of drugs were listed under the moniker Project NERIUM. Not all subjects were qualified for Project NERIUM however, despite possessing the qualifications for ULFHEDNAR. Those recruited closer to adult age are exempt from taking the drugs and the required stabilizers.

All Ulfhednar show forms of kinetic ability restricted to a single element. They also possess enhanced strength, speed, agility, durability, stamina, and healing factor independent to the Super Soldier Serum but level of enhancement relative to humans vary from subject to subject. After being given drug 10473-NO, their natural abilities are improved multiplicatively. Their kinetic abilities remained untouched by the drug and had to be improved though natural experience.