The Vis are a definite maypole of controversy. Like Gosei and Krakens, they’re an unconventional addition to the SOU due to their abnormal biology. The ‘abnormal biology’ in question is that they are considered sentient viruses. Although whether their virus form itself is conscious is still up for debate, after infecting a host, they most definitely display levels of intelligence that pass the Denzel-Turing Test and qualify for civil rights. This does not require the host to be capable of sentient.
Back in 2403, the universe was still recuperating from the Corporate Wars. Exploration into the the Unfathomed was picking up as the SOU and now broken economy was in dire need of more resources. On the planet bg24020403g5-3ts, or now nicknamed “Temnosevoye”, a group of explorers and scientists were studying the plant and animal life when one came down with a horrid fever. They passed out for several days and slowly began developing a rash around their eyes that got exponentially worse, until the flesh was peeling back and their eyes were covered in scars. When they woke up, they’d completely changed. They were obviously blinded, but still managed to move about freely, they didn’t respond to their own name and reacted with hostility when anyone tried to interact with them.
Soon after this, the crew were mauled by a group of wild animals. Their tactics were reportedly very complex, probably too tactical for any sort of wild herd. One of the reported deaths showed that a crew members had died housing an illness unregistered in the Medica Compendium, so a Quarantine Dysphere was set up to stop traffic to the planet and a team of medical professionals began work on a phagacide. While researching however, one of the field agents observed particular behaviour from the animals that were infected by the plague. They exhibited strange behaviours, ones found specifically in early sentient life. At the scouts request, they ran the Denzel-Turing test on a contained animal. Sure enough, the infected animals passed while the uninfected ones didn’t.
This created a problem, as the Vis (what they were now known as) were still dangerous and feral, and had garnered a reputation for being what seemed like an antagonist from some sort of science fiction serial. But by law were extended temporary civil rights until proven to be non-sentient. Their extermination was halted indefinitely, and the construction of schools and medical centres were set up around their planet. This caused some unrest in the outside world, as the misconceptions and rumors being spread about how dangerous the Vis were was starting to grow more fearful. Thus began a long and hateful introduction of the Vis into the SOU and society.
The SOU set up the BodyTrust system, where they’d take DNA from willing volunteers to create mindless clones for the Vis to take over. Of course, DNA needed to be constantly donated due to legalities relating to disease immunity. The reason for this was because when the Vis inhabited animal bodies, most of the time speech or complex communication of any kind was almost impossible. Putting a newborn Vis (meaning their original host died, so the virus would proliferate in the body until the flesh is consumed, leading to an entirely new Vis) in a body capable of such communication would help race relations, not to mention make them seem much more approachable aside from the horrible rash. The program took a lot of time to grow in size because of the now deep seeded mistrust of the Vis.
The SOU was aware of the backlash that was the Vis’s involvement in normal society. They were a hive mind after all, and a virus that wiped the hosts individuality for their own. So, in an act of desperation, the SOU tried to quell these statements by performing genetic experiments on the second generation of Vis newborns. Since the SOU monitors all births and deaths, they made sure to stay ahead of the game by restricting Vis mobility to their home planet. Whenever an old Vis died and a new one was about to be born, they made modifications to their virus form. They would genetically separate them from their hive mind and stunted their after-death reproduction, making them almost sterile.
Looking back at it now, the SOU deeply regrets tampering with nature's natural progression. Since the Vis’s thinking was based off of multiple minds planning tactics, they lost a lot of basic functionality. They didn’t possess any ambition, they became incredibly impulsive and couldn’t think about how actions in the present would affect them in the long term future. They also lacked a proper family unit due to their asexual reproduction. This was in the past filled by the hive mind, but now only served to show how bad at socializing they were. This lead to constant loneliness within their population, which in turn lead to struggles with depression and anxiety. Because of their already poor long term thinking, most Vis turned to synthetic means of happiness, the most common being drugs. The usage of narcata most often lead to high crime rates, which continued to perpetuate their already negative stigma.
The Vis’s introduction into the SOU was the longest out of every race, only being accepted recently in 2495. This is because of the self proclaimed Freebodies. They are just normal people who are still afraid of what the Vis use to be capable of. Most are uneducated in Vis history and biology, usually believing that the Vis still infect people, acting as sort of body snatchers. This was never the case of course, but fear mongering can turn the anyone into a bigot. They actively protest political events trying to help people accept Vis. Hate crimes are rampant, with multiple snake-oil salesmen asking for money to fund a ‘cure’ for the Vis.
During the time leading up to the inclusion, gun manufacturers began a trend of producing anti-vis weaponry. Things like Curiary gel. They used the unfinished formula for the phagacide to create a new gel that wouldn’t kill Vis, but put them into writhing agony for a couple minutes. They went as far as to make Auto-gel Compensators specifically for it which were included in the Vaccinator fully automatic pistol design. These are now banned and are considered hate symbols, but are still being cycled through the black market due to their long production.
Even though Vis are generally maladjusted to our universes society, they have do have one place of acceptance. The Mother Hive, which is a religious group which seeks to bring the Vis back together under one mind. Legally they’re supposed to allow anyone from any race into their church, but behind closed doors actively bully non Vis members out. Their group has about 44% of the Vis populus, but is a very small force as Vis only take up about 5.4% of the universal population. Although not considered radical, their methods including massive amounts of fear and hate mongering, as well as belittle Vis that refuse to join, calling the Iron Hive (which is meant to be derogatory).
#project hail mary
#photography
#nature
#writers on tumblr
