so yeah the new lore is heavily inspired by tadc (with the people trapped or wtv)
the story is that these six girls were originally real people until they were kidnapped from their homes and experimented on. their appearances (the ones shown in the gif) are what they look like after experiments.
Scientist 21 is their creator - a seventeen year old anime kid loner who was manipulated into her science job by the boss of the experiment facility. she didn't intend to hurt anyone but she was tricked by her new boss and only hired for her intellect.
also star has a virus so she acts mean but it's not her fault. this makes her an antagonist but not really (role-wise, she seems comparable to the disassembly drones from md in my opinion)
