Diarrhoea Elemental
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Registered Phenomena Code: 959 Object Class: Gamma-Red |
Responsible Departments: | Department of Biology |
Hazard Types: Aggression Hazard Ballistic Hazard Bio-Hazard Explosive Hazard Microscopic Hazard Mind-Control Hazard Organic Hazard Grouped Hazard
Containment Protocols: The Authority has agents embedded within the World Health Organization to monitor programmes involving the distribution and instructing of clean water creation and storage. Outbreaks of cholera must be examined for any suspicious traits that indicate the prescence of RPC-959. In event of an RPC-959 infection being confirmed, any personnel within the vicinity must put all efforts to avoid contact with any fluids evacuating from RPC-959-1 instances while calling for an Authority/UNAAC bio-hazard response team. Personnel must also seek safety and confirm any sightings of RPC-959-2 instances.
MST Echo-8 "Plague Doctors" must be dispatched with incendiary and cryogenic armaments in order to destroy all RPC-959-2 instances. The outbreak zone and surrounding area must be evacuated, quarantined and decontaminated over a minimum of one week before civilians are permitted to re-enter. All water sources must be investigated for any surviving traces of RPC-959 and chemically treated as appropriate.
Live samples of RPC-959 are kept under cryogenic conditions within an isolated bio-hazard chamber in Site-279. Any testing of RPC-959 upon live creatures is explicitly forbidden. New samples of RPC-959 must be obtained from new outbreak zones1 and their genetic makeup cross-referenced against the original/older specimens kept in Site-279. Once cross-referencing is completed, any new samples that show signs of significant deviation from the original genetic code must be labeled as such (including the date and location encountered) and stored.
Personnel working with live samples of RPC-959 must conduct work within a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory. Personnel who have finished their labwork on RPC-959 are to be quarantined for an hour to observe for any signs and symptoms of infection, and are required to perform bodily functions in specifically-marked sinks and toilets whose plumbing system is isolated from the rest of Site-279 over the next week. Personnel are required to immediately report any symptoms of abnormal thirst.
Finally, RPC-959 outbreak scenes must be investigated for the presence of Church of Malthus operatives; In particular, adolescent youths operating under the Church of Malthus' "Germ Squad" subdivision. Any such members encountered must undergo high-priority detainment for incarceration and interrogation as of Addendum 2, any captured operative must be immediately restrained and subjected to the Caduceus Protocol2 before interrogation is to begin.
Description: RPC-959 is an anomalous strain of the bacterium Vibrio Cholerae. While appearing and behaving identical under microscope comparisons with normal strains of V. Cholerae, RPC-959 possesses several unusual modifications and sequential additions to its plasmid ring and nuclei that appear artificially modified, believed responsible for its anomalous properties. These modifications are observed to degrade with mitosis, eventually causing RPC-959 to revert to a non-anomalous V. Cholerae once enough mitotic cycles have occurred. Conversely, the lethality of the modifications appear to strengthen with degradation, causing the infection process to rapidly accelerate towards the end of its active span.
Unlike conventional Cholera, the disease caused by RPC-959 is capable of achieving lethality within 6 hours of ingesting RPC-959. RPC-959 acts beyond V. Cholerae in its mechanism of virulence; it creates porous lesions within the intestinal walls, allowing it to infiltrate the body to perform other anomalous actions that culminate in liquefying the carrier (termed RPC-959-1) and utilizing all available fluid content to form a sludge-like construct (termed RPC-959-2) that is universally hostile towards all human life and seeks to spread RPC-959 infections to unaffected humans.
While it is not known if Church of Malthus operatives can directly command RPC-959-2 to attack particular targets or follow orders, it is noted that RPC-959-2 instances either outright ignore, or do not recognize Church of Malthus operatives as targets to infect.
Life cycle of RPC-959
Combat protocol vs RPC-959-2 entities
RPC-959 variants
Discovery log: The Authority's inter-GoI communication channels received an emergency request for assistance from the UNAAC. What was initially a rapid response to a spontaneous outbreak of Cholera among various shanty towns located close to Athens, Greece, escalated into a riot as infected slum dwellers assaulted and mobbed WHO personnel who were setting up Cholera Treatment Centers to forcefully acquire additional water. This escalated furter into a panic and stampede as the infected began changing into "sludge monsters" and attack other humans, rapidly spreading what was quickly believed to be an anomalous infection.
The initial Authority Response Team suffered 4 infections and 3 conversions into RPC-959-2 while attempting to neutralize the instances without success. Upon discovering his infected state Agent Starr volunteered to test a theory of RPC-959-2s being flammable by lighting as many RPC-959-2s as possible on fire. His sacrifice proved that RPC-959-2 are highly susceptible to fire, with an additional 6 casualties sustained from the chain reaction of 28 RPC-959-2 detonations5. The relief team was appropriately armed with flamethrowers, incendiary rounds and ballistic shielding, and successfully terminated 159 other instances of RPC-959-2 while only sustaining 2 casualties.
When on-site analysis determined that an anomalous microscopic organism was responsible for the outbreak, the shanty town was walled off and firebombed. The event was spun as a riot that led to accidental ignition of hoarded gas canisters, and surviving uninfected dwellers were amnesticized and housed in temporary accomodations.
Near the shanty town and below an underpass, Authority investigators discovered fresh graffiti created by a previously unheard-of subdivision of the Church of Malthus:
Hey Auth-fucks
Eat shit and die
Here's some help with that :)
XoXo CoM Germ Squad
Addendum 1: A forensic investigation of the graffiti'd underpass indicated that suspects were still at large within the local area. Further investigation revealed a potential rallying point of "Germ Squad" members within a derelict warehouse district. MST Delta-5 "Garcas" were mobilized for this task, and were detected during reconnaissance and assaulted by a large group of child soldiers (est. 50+ youths) belonging to the Church of Malthus.
MST Delta-5 sustained 2 casualties, one of them critical. 18 youths affiliated with the Church of Malthus were terminated; 11 by MST agents acting in self-defense, 2 by self-termination rather than be captured alive, and 5 incapacitated combatants euthanized by fleeing comrades. 1 youth was unable to self-terminate due to damage sustained to hand-implanted bio-weaponry, and successfully detained. Identification of bodies indicate all youths are recruited from disadvantaged, low income and/or low quality of life backgrounds. Therapy and amnestics have been offered to Delta-5 members involved in the termination of minors.
A tape recorder was found in the freshly deserted warehouse that was supposedly recording the rally speech for archival purposes. Also found was a slideshow projector, albeit with its slide tray hastily emptied.
Addendum 2: The scheduled interrogation of the sole captured Malthusian operative performed confirmed initial suspicions that the "Germ Squad" serves as the child soldier branch of the Church of Malthus, recruits primarily disaffected youths from dysfunctional and low-income backgrounds, and is headed by a female teenage youth who supposedly views "Germ Squad" bioweapon creations as "artistic projects". Any past links of this PoI to the GoI "L'Academia Della Vera Arte" must be investigated. Investigation is brought to a premature end when the interviewee was terminated through an unknown failsafe system managed by an unknown sapient biohazardous entity that continued speaking to interrogators through the interviewee's corpse.