In the Terran year 2001, two momentous events took place on the planet Earth that where to forever leave their mark on the history of that world. The first was the attack by terrorists on the World Trade Centre in New York City, United States of America, which kick-started the decades-long "War on Terror". The second went unnoticed by the general public at the time, but would prove to have dire consequences for future generations: The creation of the individual who would become known as Khan Noonien Singh.
The story of Khan's genesis can be traced back to the last years of the twentieth century. A top secret government institution started the "Augment Project", whose aim, according to one of the scientists in charge, was "To develop a whole new race of perfect beings to protect civilization and lead it into a golden age of peace and justice..." To this end, thousands of genetic samples were taken from the very best soldiers, scientists and intellectual geniuses all across the globe, to be grown into foetuses and subjected to enhancement techniques to make them even better.
To this day the identities of Khan's biological parents are lost to history. What is known is that he was "born" from his incubation chamber, along with hundreds of other infants grown from the augmented DNA, shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks, which further convinced his makers that the world desperately needed superior beings. At this time the Indian child was simply called Noonien. Over the next several years, young Noonien displayed extraordinary intelligence and ability, as did all his brothers and sisters. In his early years Noonien made a great many friends among his siblings, as well as some rivals, such as Li, a boy of Chinese lineage. How hugely ironic it was that while the Western governments scoured Iraq in search of hidden weapons of mass destruction, the real instruments of future carnage were being nurtured practically right under their very noses.
From his secret home, Noonien grew up watching the constant fighting in Africa and the Middle East and slowly came to despise humanity's inability to take care of itself properly. We find in his journal written during his years on Ceti Alpha V his recollections of this time: "One only had to turn on a television or access the internet, and one was confronted with constant destruction. What did justice and unity mean to anyone anymore? The ignorant, inferior fools! They raced to death and degeneracy and I decided 'This shall not continue.'"
It was not until the early 2030s that the existence of the Augments was finally revealed to the public. By this time they had integrated themselves into society, serving as statesmen and soldiers. Noonien Singh (as he was now called), after serving for a brief spell in the Indian army, entered politics and quickly rose to become a prominent member of Parliament. Then, in 2042 he was elected Prime Minister of India, but that was not the end for him. Four weeks into his tenure he announced that he was dissolving the Republic of India and replacing it with a new regime, the Khanate, with himself as its supreme ruler, adding the title of 'Khan' to his name.
During the next twelfth months, the world was shocked as numerous Augment revolutionaries seized power via coups across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Far from condemning the attacks, Khan contacted the new leaders, many of whom were his old friends, and proposed that they join forces to form a new multinational superpower, with himself as its overlord. With the exception of Kazakhstan and China, they all agreed and unified to form the Augment Coalition. Khan saw this is a big step toward eradicating all the ills of a decadent society. In a televised speech Khan addressed the rest of the world with these words: "Let all who live know, this is but the beginning. Too long have the weak and foolish mired this planet in ruin. Soon they will be swept away by the flood of the divine ones!"
The reaction of most non-Augments upon hearing this was fear; the superhumans had effectively declared war on the rest of humanity! Following an attempted coup of the Australian government in late 2043 by Augment General David Ferguson that was narrowly avoided, the New United Nations declared war on genetically engineered dictators everywhere.
But this was not all Khan had to worry about. Li Quan, his boyhood enemy, ruled China with an iron fist and at the same time as the N.U.N. declared war, launched attacks on India, Burma, Laos and Vietnam - all Coalition members. Enraged, Khan retaliated with devastating force and was soon fighting wars against both the N.U.N. and Li Quan's China. The Eugenics Wars were here.
By 2045 the conflict was not going well for Khan. Li Quan was defeated by a combination of Coalition strikes, a Japanese-Russian invasion, and a civilian uprising against his excessive brutality; however Libya and Egypt both fell to the N.U.N. armies that same year and the Middle East and Southeast Asia were under heavy assault. One year later, all the Coalition nations had been overrun save for India. On August 1 2046 a nuclear explosion in New Delhi was reported that completely obliterated the city, leading many to believe that Khan and his cabinet had opted to commit suicide rather than be captured by "inferior weaklings."
Although the New United Nations declared the Eugenics Wars over with Khan Noonien Singh's supposed death, the Coalition he had forged was not entirely destroyed and would soon reorganize itself into the Eastern Coalition, or ECON, this time under normal human masters. Relations between the two multinational alliances broke down again in 2053, leading into the final, much more horrific phase of the Third World War. Because Khan's body was never found, some people suspected he might still be alive and in hiding somewhere. Rumours soon cropped up that Khan had actually made a clandestine deal with his foes to allow him and his followers to Escape Earth no board a spacecraft he had secretly constructed; in return he would never trouble them again. Needless to say, these claims were ridiculed.
Then came that fateful day in 2267 when the Federation starship U.S.S. Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, discovered the S.S. Botany Bay, an unregistered DY-100 series interplanetary vessel, drifting in deep space with Khan Singh and approximately eighty Augments alive and in cryogenic sleep on board. The subsequent events are well known: Khan's attempted takeover of the Enterprise, his exile on Ceti Alpha V for eighteen years, and his escape and death in his insane quest for revenge on Kirk. Khan Noonien Singh is one of those titans of history whose dark and magnificent shadow will hang over the universe for centuries to come.