Welcome to the Codex chapters of Outbreak. The function of these codex chapters is to explain further details regarding the world of Outbreak such as the factions, organizations, history and other things that I can't fully explain in the main story. I planned to make a Codex chapter after every 4 to 5 chapters as to keep myself engaged with the fiction itself. So, enjoy learning the horrifying aspects of the world as it was in Outbreak.
The Rage Virus
Rage Virus is highly infectious, bloodborne virus that was responsible for the destruction of mainland Great Britain. Details regarding this virus are quite scarce as all the samples available for research were taken from Infected corpses that NATO were able to retrieve, but what is certain was judging from the news and reports from the survivors that escaped Great Britain as well as recordings of radio transmission as well as interrogation of the surviving personnel from the police and British Army, the virus originated from Cambridge, specifically from the Primate Research Centre. This made NATO suspects that the Rage Virus were some kinds of an experimental virus that somehow managed to escape the laboratory and causing the deaths of millions. Further investigation on the research facility however, couldn't be conducted as Cambridge, alongside the rest of Great Britain are still too dangerous to deploy a ground team.
From what virologists could discover from available samples, the virus seems to be a highly mutated strain of the Ebola Virus. It shared many traits such as transmission through bodily fluid and the Infected themselves exhibited symptoms similar to that of the Ebola such as constant haemorrhaging both internally and externally, red eyes and vomiting. Perhaps the most visible trait of the Rage Virus was the change in psychology, as the victim will experience extreme, uncontrollable anger and became aggressive towards uninfected individuals. They also lose their higher brain functions and with it, higher intelligence. Further details will be discussed in the Infected section below.
The danger of the Rage Virus however, are not from how easily it is transmitted. Rather, how fast it can spread. Eyewitness accounts from surviving civilians, NATO soldiers and Azur Lane shipgirls that were present during the outbreak all tells us that the Rage Virus were spread via contact with the Infected either through bites or direct exposure to infected blood. But the main factor was how fast an individual became an Infected. One account stated that they saw person turning into an Infected within ten to twenty seconds after he was bitten. Another, as told to us by the Iris battlecruiser Dunkerque, an Infected shipgirl pinned another shipgirl before vomiting blood all over her, and that shipgirl turned into an Infected only several seconds later. This insanely fast incubation period, combined with the virus's extreme contagiousness, means one Infected could easily infects large number of people in short amount of time, creating a huge army of the Infected too large to be contained or destroyed without resorting to extreme measures, which given the presence of civilians within the area at the time were completely out of the question as exemplified by the bombings of Sellindge and Lydden eleven days into the outbreak by both NATO and Azur Lane, which killed more civilians than the Infected causing a worldwide public outcry, prompting both alliance to refrain from using excessive force unless no civilian presence could be confirmed.
The Infected
Freaks, runners, sprinters, ragers, demons, zombies. There were various nicknames given to them by both the public, NATO soldiers and officers as well as Azur Lane shipgirls but for the sake of conformity and given their nature, they were designated by NATO as the Infected.
As its name suggested, the Infected were humans, and even shipgirls that have contracted the Rage Virus. Visible symptoms include constant spasming and bleeding from all orifices such as eyes, nose, mouth and even hair follicles and vomiting blood (haemoemesis).
Driven by an unending feeling of rage, the Infected are highly aggressive and hostile towards any uninfected individuals including humans and shipgirls and will not hesitate to attack them on sight. They only have two things in their mind, either to kill or infect any uninfected individuals and even shipgirls that they encountered. Combined with Rage Virus's ease of transmission and short incubation time, the Infected are the main method of spreading the virus, easily outnumbering the defenders with sheer numbers and decimating mainland Great Britain within twenty-eight days.
One of their most defined characteristics was their speed. They were capable of running at a high speed to chase after their target and their performance are comparable to athletes, if not greater, as they were capable of maintaining such speed for a considerable distance without stopping whereas normal humans would have exhausted if not would've stopped due to pain.
Which also leads to another ability of them, high pain tolerance. Upon sighting an uninfected, they will ignore injuries that would otherwise cripple normal humans, such non-fatal gunshots, dismemberment of one or more body parts and even immolation would not stop them from attempting to reach their target until either they died or their target is killed or infected. This made stopping or slowing them down difficult as the Infected will simply run through whatever obstacles that were put in place.
Despite the loss of higher brain function and intelligence, the Infected was far from being a dumb creature for there were several recorded instances where the Infected displayed signs that they were capable of thinking. The Infected could calculate complex routes that can be used by them to reach their targets, including flanking their targets and approaching from as many angles as possible. They were seen, as reported by survivors and soldiers alike, breaking down doors, windows, and in case of Infected shipgirls, walls. They were also capable of climbing low walls (up to chest high walls), chain-link fences and obstacles such as cars and concrete barriers. They were also capable of cooperation, working together with fellow Infected to take down their targets together. Should one Infected were able to detect the presence of an uninfected person, other nearby Infected will take notice and join the efforts.
The Infected were also sensitive to lights and sounds, and react accordingly to it. Early during the outbreak, they were active regardless of time of day but after three weeks, most Infected chose to hide within buildings, tunnels and wherever places that were dark enough, coming out to open only during night time. And as described by HMS London, she accidentally kicked a can inside a church, which attracted the attention of all the Infected within the building, and the noise they made afterwards attracted all nearby Infected. And when she detonates a tanker truck to stop the initial horde, she accidentally attracted the attention from the Infected from at least half the city of London itself.
One thing that puzzled virologists and scientists however, was how long can the Infected live. They weren't observed trying to eat their victims, let alone consuming any food nor drinks. By right, given the ailments suffered by them as well as their behaviours upon sighting a potential victim, they shouldn't live long and should had died within four days, with they themselves becoming immobilized within two days given the Rage Virus's similarity to the Ebola. Yet as demonstrated during the attempt to rescue HMS London, they weren't just still alive, they were still capable of pulling all the aforementioned feats even after twenty-eight days. Research is still going on but it was believed that they will eventually starve. It was recommended to continue the blockade until the Infected are sufficiently weakened enough to allow ground operation to exterminate all remaining Infected.
Another discovery made from autopsies of Infected bodies proved that the Infected are no different than regular humans apart from increased aggression, and as such anything that can harm normal humans will work against them. Another important discovery was the Infected were incapable of swimming. They can wade in shallow waters but anywhere above that will drown them. Together with the short incubation period of the Rage Virus this means so long as no one is allowed to leave the island, the Infected couldn't go anywhere.
Infected Shipgirls
Infected shipgirls, or ISG (India Sierra Golf) as designated by NATO and as the name implies, are former Azur Lane shipgirls that fell victim to the Rage Virus and becoming an Infected themselves. They became Infected the same way as normal humans do: through bites or contact with Infected blood. Their behaviours are exactly the same as regular Infected, even exhibited the same symptoms. But they have their own traits and threats that made it necessary for them to be discussed separately.
For starters, Infected shipgirls were incapable of using their rigging, as noted in the Infected section above, the loss of higher brain functions prevented their use, which makes them to be nothing more but a more advanced version of the Infected. It is best noted that not all the Infected shipgirls have their rigging on, as majority of shipgirls that ended up getting Infected weren't using their rigging when they were infected, as they were retreating at the time. But the threat brought by them was too big to be ignored, with or without their rigging.
Even without their rigging, shipgirls are surprisingly almost bulletproof thanks to having Wisdom Cubes embedded within them. 9mm Parabellum did no effect on them and most Infected shipgirls could survive an entire magazine from a 5.56x45 NATO assault rifles, although larger rounds such as 7.62x51 NATO will down them in about ten to twenty shots, and rounds such as .338 Lapua and .50 BMG is an instant kill to any Infected shipgirls regardless of type, so long as they weren't equipped with their rigging. There were no records or accounts of 12-gauge shotguns were used against them, but from computer simulations it is revealed that it would still takes at least six to nine shotgun shells from chest up to kill an Infected shipgirl without their rigging. This would made shotguns an impractical weapon against them given the Infected will almost always tries to close the distance, which means engaging them from a distance is the best choice.
For Infected shipgirls with their rigging however, is a completely different story. Even though they couldn't use their rigging anymore, passive abilities such as increased mass, armour and as discovered later during attempted rescue of HMS London, the ability to float on water. However, these passive abilities are the reason they were considered the most dangerous Infected to be encountered.
Against Infected shipgirls with their rigging, it depends on their armour type. Against light armoured shipgirls, they can still be killed by multiple shots chest up from .338 Lapua and .50 BMG ammunitions. Against medium armoured shipgirls only high explosives and 20mm cannon rounds and above could stop them, and even then, as shown during the rescue of HMS London, they can resist a few hits from 30mm cannons and 70mm rockets from an Apache attack helicopter.
But against heavy armoured shipgirls such as battleships like Duke of York encountered during the rescue operation, 30mm rounds simply bounced off and 70mm rockets did minimal damage. The same also goes to air-to-ground missiles such as AGM-114 Hellfire and AGM-179 Joint-Air-to-Ground-Missile. While both missiles worked on almost all Infected shipgirls, against battleships, while it could damage the rigging the shipgirl remained alive, forcing the use of anti-ship missiles such as the MBDA Exocets. It was determined that the only way to defeat them was to hit them with large number of explosives, using weapons such as GBU-24, dedicated anti-ship missiles or cruise missiles to outright obliterate them.
Other passive abilities such as increased mass made defending against them impossible as they can smash through well protected defensive points, or creating a new entry point in the defences from which other Infected could go through, jeopardizing them. And the ability to float on water, made them capable of crossing bodies of water such as the English Channel making them capable of spreading the Rage Virus beyond Great Britain. Fortunately, they couldn't glide on water like a normal shipgirl would do and as such they were easy target for anti-ship weaponries.
However, Infected shipgirls does exhibit a behaviour not seen on other Infected: They prefer to go after certain targets, specifically other shipgirls over everyone else. Should there were a human and a shipgirl together, the Infected shipgirl will target the shipgirl first before going after the human. This means the Infected only have to infect at least one shipgirl to turn everything to their favour, as most other shipgirl never expected another shipgirl to turn against them and said Infected shipgirl will try to kill or infect other shipgirls. Even if she didn't, she can still pin another shipgirl, creating an opening for other Infected to finish the job. This is exactly what happened at Bullsmoore, Cricklewood and later the breach of Park Royal – Tottenham Defensive Line.
There you go, the first codex chapter is now up. As stated in the beginning of the chapter, codex chapters are meant to provide an in-universe explanation in the world of Outbreak. Now for additional explanations.
Most information was taken from 28 Days Later Wiki, so shout out to the people that maintained the wiki for the articles on Rage Virus and the Infected.
While the Infected were able to climb low walls as seen in 28 Weeks Later when they broke into the farmhouse in the beginning, so I assume they can at least climb walls. It is also a nod to Left 4 Dead where the Infected can and will climb walls. Outbreak was originally meant to be based on Left 4 Dead before I change it to 28 Days Later. Many of rules in this fic such as shipgirls were unable to use their weapons apart from anti-aircraft guns were developed from it. The reason for the change were because of several reasons. Among them was limited character choice as I could only use Eagle Union ships, USA being an easy place because obtaining firearms are easy compared to Great Britain, which forces survivors to get creative, and L4D Infected are way more complicated. Also because I want some balance between action and drama, something 28 Days Later had.
For the Infected shipgirls, I had to be creative to combine both characteristics and create something that was believable enough.
This is all I can write right now. See you in the next chapter of Outbreak.