The White Eclipse

In this highly connected world, where the majority of the population relied on cybernetic enhancements for everyday function, the integrity of digital networks has always been paramount, especially with the advent of The Noosphere. Layered networks control everything from basic utilities to the most sophisticated personal cyberware. Thus, The White Eclipse stands as one of the most painful horrors in modern memory, serving as a terrible reminder of the dependency and dangers of integrating technology so thoroughly into oneself and the world.   The White Eclipse began as a covert cyber warfare initiative by SOC, aimed at developing a means of mass disabling highly cybernetically enhanced individuals via noospheric compromise, allowing SOC to strike anywhere with either extreme precision or devastation totality and eliminate threats with minimal risks to its own operatives. The operation's centerpiece was a sophisticated digital virus, codenamed "Eclipse." This virus was designed to infiltrate and disable targeted military hardware and adapt to netrunner countermeasures in real-time. However, the virus was far more potent and uncontrollable than its creators had anticipated, its subroutines constituting a basic Von Neumann intelligence that grew more intelligent the more it spread.   Once deployed, Eclipse slowly propagated through test systems and eventually freed itself from its air-gapped blacksite by overtaking a researcher and literally walking out far enough to get onto the general noosphere. From there it infiltrated civilian data infrastructure, spreading like wildfire through the global noosphere. The virus's unique ability to bypass conventional security protocols made it nearly unstoppable for regular citizens.   The impact was immediate and devastating. Cybernetic implants, which ranged from basic health monitors to complex neural interfaces, began to malfunction. People experienced a myriad of complications - loss of sensory functions, disrupted cognitive processes, and in severe cases, complete shutdown of critical life-supporting cybernetic systems or acute cyberpsychosis as the virus ravaged their minds with incomprehensible visions of a dead world under a white sky, blasted by an ominous eclipsed sun.   Public infrastructure wasn't spared either. The virus disrupted traffic systems, caused power grid failures, and even infiltrated communication networks, plunging cities into chaos. Hospitals were overwhelmed with both the physically injured and those suffering from cybernetic dysfunctions as their own systems failed and their own staff became afflicted despite countermeasures. The scale of the crisis was unprecedented. Millions of citizens found themselves either directly impacted or in peril due to the cascading effects of the systems' infections. The only reason it stopped seemed to be an accidental quirk of the virus's evasion coding intelligence. Once it reached a critical mass of infection, it began to perceive itself as a countermeasure, as variants unique to each individual or groups became hostile towards other competing viral variants. After 1 month it seemed all cases had burnt themselves out, though it is suspected that some codeforms were harvested from victims and stored in the deepest, most insulated blacksites of SOC.   In the aftermath, the Alloministry and Fabricator Enclaves rushed to replace the corrupted and broken cyberware and ensure the virus was truly gone. This event led to a major reevaluation of cybernetic technologies and noospheric security protocols. New, more stringent regulations were implemented to safeguard against similar incidents. SOC's involvement was concealed by closed counsel and only later did the truth slowly trickle out as rumor and suspicion grew once the horror had abated.