"Individuals presenting signs of flu-like symptoms, coughing, alongside bleeding in the nose and eyes are now urged to call relevant authorities. The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is now tracking the growing cases of these mysterious diseases spreading across the East Orland, and they will be providing relevant updates as information from tests come in."

- ROCN News

+++

Kingdom of Orland

November Palace

March 11, 2026

"Approximately six hundred seventy-nine cases and rising. Ten people already died, and a hundred twenty are in critical condition. The rest are rapidly deteriorating."

That report from Minister Allison Thell left a chilly coldness in the situation room. Amelie herself couldn't but remain silent, as she hid her mouth behind her gloved hand.

"Well…" Deputy Prime Minister Walter Plock chuckled a bit. "We're…not in a good place then."

"As we've feard, those leaked RS-12 viruses are already starting to spread under our nose since the incident at Lieplatz…" William muttered beside Amelie. "But this is the first actual outbreak."

"Can…can it be contained?" Amelie timidly asked.

"The military will be on it," Walter declared. "Place the entire Westlauren region under effective quarantine. Same with any region that would have any cases. The war effort shouldn't be badly affected. We're in tight security mode anyway."

"What about public information releases?" Jacqueline asked. "I'm wondering if we should continue disseminating them…they seem to not cause the intended effect."

"It's only natural that people will panic a bit. It's a pretty scary disease," Allison declared, before shaking her head. "No, it's a horrifying disease, especially since we and Lieplatz weaponized this strain. We still don't know the actual death rate, but, it's going to be high…and it's airborne."

"...It has the potential to wipe us out, no?" Amelie asked.

Everyone in the room nodded. Of course, that was the purpose of the Orlish bioweapons program. Exactly why she never allowed its continuation since she learned about it.

Still…now, their past monsters were again haunting Amelie and her people. This had become such a recurring theme, that she was starting to get really, really annoyed by it.

"Do…other countries report anything?" she continued.

"Lieplatz, Arkelia, and Gallia reported two-digit counts. I'm quite sure, this is also spreading a bit in CFN-held territory," Minister Adelaide replied.

"So they're hiding it?" Amelie narrowed her eyes.

"What do you expect? Even we are being tight-lipped about it. In any case, quarantine, quarantine, and preventative measures should be enough. I already advised our allied nations to do the same."

"Vaccines are now at least a quarter done with our R&D," Allison smiled a bit. "I can speed it up a bit. It's neat that we received all remaining bioweapon samples from the military, and since we had the foresight to start developing vaccines since we found that leak in Nordia, even if a large outbreak occurs, I estimate that we only need to buy a few months."

"That's a relief," Amelie breathed out a sigh. "But, I'm still quite scared about this. I'll probably start…erm, wearing masks and washing my hands a lot."

"Doesn't really help much unless you're in full hazmat suit," William said. "It's airborne."

"How are the cities affected even going to be countering this?" Amelie asked. "Are they just—?"

"Yes. Lots of people will die, obviously," Walter crossed his arms. "The military knows how to deal with this at least. So even if we take additional casualties, we should be able to contain it quickly. The hard part is civilians and our homefront…we can ill afford any shifts in the balance of power right now. Not when the enemy is unleashing all those mystery drones too."

"Best not to let it get anywhere close to West Orland then," William concluded. "That'll be our only hope. I, therefore propose strict travel bans until a vaccine is out, and tightened security measures in the West. Better act now than later when it gets out of control."

"...But, how are we going to convince the public about this?" Jacqueline asked.

William smiled in a way that made Amelie's skin crawl.

+++

Free Confederation of Westlauren

Rebenslof City

March 14, 2026

Allison Thell, now in full protective gear, watched from an elevated area that overlooked a system of quarantine tents in the stadium below her. Doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel surrounded her, as they discussed the current situation below.

"...So far, advanced healing magic seems to work, at least when it comes to managing internal hemorrhage," the doctor in charge explained. "We've already gotten twenty-two people saved with a method involving it, but, I'm afraid that without sufficient catalysts and sources of concentrated mana, we cannot keep up."

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"Isn't that a part of the medical supplies here?"

"Yes, but…the war…"

"I get it," Allison nodded. "...So we need to ship more supplies."

"The military however insists that unless they are critical personnel, we shouldn't waste our magic and medical supplies on saving them. That they should just be quarantined and the disease allowed to take its course. They want their supplies for their soldiers."

"That's what the generals here want?"

"Yes, Minister. Not that I'm allowing it. I swore an oath to save everyone. Military or non-military, nobility or not, men and women. We're doing our best to do just that."

Allison sighed. Those words were something she liked, but it was naive. She'd already spent years as the Minister of Health and Social Welfare in this war, left with crumbs by the Orlish Government to manage the well-being of its people.

No matter what she did, supplies, personnel, and the wartime realities, all clashed with her goal of keeping people healthy and keeping them off from poverty. Well, the latter was easier, since most people were now being employed, either in the homefront or the frontlines.

But the former…

"They seem like they're helping at quarantining people at least," Allison said. "I'll give you updates later on what to do."

"I see. Thank you for coming here, Minister Thell."

"No worries."

The doctor left, alongside another one of her colleagues. Allison on the other hand sighed, before looking at one of the posters being prepared on a table. It was a picture of a man dying from bleeding profusely from his eyes, nose, and mouth.

Below it was a simple infographic that said one message.

'Quarantine, protective gear, and cleanliness save life.'

+++

West Orland

November Palace

"We're not just suffering from viral outbreaks, but we're still being pummeled by that new crap," Amelie cursed under her breath as she sat inside her office. "What's our recent tallies again?"

"As of the previous few days, the casualties in the fighting against the Federal Republic have reached a thousand five hundred on the daily. Totaling ten thousand nine hundred in the past seven days," William adjusted his glasses after finishing reading his tablet. "They've been placing severe pressure on the Westlauren front after all."

"Any significant breakthroughs?"

"Not at the moment. The Westlauren Defense Forces have quite the deep reserves and to be honest, the frontline there is so solid each advance by the enemy is met with at least one-to-one casualties at worst."

"Are they using those…land drones?"

"Yes. Just like in Hebei, Kusari, and near Löt. So far, they're following a very predictable mode of operations. First, they use long-range fire missions from ground and air-based assets to soften our positions. Then they send in the drones as a shock force, followed by their actual troops."

"...I see."

"It appears that these measures are done to reduce their casualties. When I said earlier however that we cause equal casualties, I meant that in material terms. Not in manpower terms. It seems that…because we're fighting metal with meat and metal, we lose a lot of meat and metal, and they only lose metal."

"But you said they deploy their actual guys after the drones finish their attacks?"

"Yes, but usually only when our formations are forced to withdraw or are eliminated. In essence, the drones take land, their soldiers hold land."

Amelie frowned, turning her chair to the side, as she took her cup of tea. That…wasn't very pretty, not at all. Her soldiers, her allies' soldiers, were dying a lot to these 'drones' that, for all intents and purposes, seemed alive rather than remote-controlled.

It's unfair. Absolutely unfair.

"How are they even sending so many of them," Amelie muttered. "It doesn't make sense. They look…so advanced. They can't just have a stockpile of them that they could just pull out of nowhere."

"They seem to have hidden these things well."

"You said we never had a program that involved creating these weapons, but that there is a lot of money that the government lost to the military for unknown projects. Could this be one of those?"

"That's a possibility we're investigating."

She took a calm sip of her tea, still deep in thought. This damned war, it was so hard to manage. Just as she thought she had them, that she was pushing them back hard, they suddenly pulled out a bunch of cards from their sleeves.

How devious.

"...How's the outbreak?" she asked.

"So far, cases are still growing, but we've largely stabilized it. Gallia though, I'm not sure. They appear to have growing local outbreaks in their capital. Same with South Hebei and Asanai."

"...That's not good."

"Not at all. But out here, we're doing half-decently. Though, a lot of people are now getting angry at your measures to tighten internal movement, even when it's just been days."

"...You did say the benefits will outweigh the costs."

"I'll still report the costs as usual to you, regardless."

"I get it. So…do you have any ideas?"

"Ideas?"

"About how we'll actually…decisively respond to these two new threats?"

William laughed at her. He seemed…devoid of emotions, however. It was that same laughter he'd always do back then, whenever trouble was close. Amelie was annoyed by it, it just felt as if he always detached himself from the situation whenever it became too inconvenient.

"No, nothing," William shook his head. "I'm empty. Save for the measures I already suggested and that you've implemented."

"Come on," Amelie leaned forward, unconvinced. "You're the ideas guy. I'm sure your head is already formulating something."

"You won't like it."

"Eh?"

"We shoot the infected."

"You're ridiculous."

"Then there's no point talking about it. My suggestion is extreme, and it won't stand by your morals."

He smiled.

"So just do what you've been doing. Maybe it'll work," William followed.

"...Sometimes, I really want to pull your hair. The things that come out of your mouth are both so horrifying and effective that I'm annoyed by it," Amelie shook her head. "But…I suppose not. Never happening."

"That's why I don't want to suggest it."

"Anyhow…" Amelie breathed out. "You've answered that one. But you didn't answer the land drones problem."

"Well…I do have a bit of an idea there. About the stalled offensive we have in Kusari. We managed to form a salient in a region where those drones operate."

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