Arknights : Final Rebirth - Gladius Belii

[E] Chapter 14 - Community Service and Lapse...

"Mono/Dialogue"

'Inner thoughts'

Narration

[Message/communication apparatus]

Date: September 1079

Location: Data not found

POV: Narrator

Infected, the unfortunate people of Terra are cursed with an incurable disease known for its 100% mortality rate, the victim of oripathy. Unlike the mutation of other similarly dangerous and lethal illnesses or diseases, Oripathy acted more like an ever-growing blight that stained the earth to claim more victims but with a force that can level a country with a mere snap of fingers by comparison.

The existence of this disease also affected everyday life in Terra, it is not an exaggeration to say that life revolved around it and to be more specific, revolved around Originium. This miraculous mineral singlehandedly answered the old age question, how do gain a limitless source of renewable power?

No matter how much people hated oripathy, originium must always flow without fail. There have been breakthroughs in using robots and protective gear, but they too can still fall victim to it.

Bringing in a smattering amount of originium dust or even the malignant tumor itself that latched on everything it touched, thus furthering even more infection vectors.

A much more insidious approach was also taken by the opportunistic, hateful, avaricious, and even the so-called good men. Ursus had employed oripathy as a means to erase undesirable rabbles or unruly rebels, sending them forth into the mines to toil and be used with utter indignity.

The tales of their brutal regime were propagated with hate and pogroms and lynching against the infected is commonplace. The last protest by infected activists and protestors was met with blades and mortar fire by an Ursus army, squashing it with lethal force.

Rumors even abound that a, supposedly, decorated General of the Ursus army had killed his own son because they were a part of this demonstration turned into a massacre. Whether by proxy, ignorance, or deliberate act, his stance is clear to the public regarding the infected.

Then there are the Columbians where, despite their relatively humane treatment of the infected, they used them to settle new lands and claim them for Columbia. The so-called settlers, with the fancy name of pioneers, were used like indentured servants.

All because they had been made to agree with the Columbian health plan that most infected, the poor or middle strata citizens as a majority of oripathy victims, can't afford to pay. Becoming a settler will allow them to live free and have their health plan rendered more manageable so to speak.

Despite these polite wordings, Columbia had effectively mitigated several bad reputations merely by using this move. The first and more obvious, the infected are being gathered in a land far away thus limiting further infection.

The second is that they can work as natural resource prospectors. With life on the frontier harsh and rife with catastrophes, the settlers must procure most things by themselves. But because they would still need help from major nomadic cities, they ended up bartering or purchasing infrastructure and modern consumer goods at an almost extortionate rate.

Third is that they can't say anything because everything has been done on the table, a legal dealing that binds both parties.

And fourth is that they toiled on expanding the Columbian sphere of influence all the while being graced with a quiet life and most likely... forgotten death and suffering for as long as they are able to live, without too much societal backlash against the image.