Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

Chapter 101 Reopening the Forbidden Zone

Those clones who worked day and night on their posts watched their companions being dragged into the dismantling workshop because their bodies were collapsing, and their organs that could still be recycled were selected. They watched as even if they gave their all and paid for "clone insurance," their final fate was to be replaced by a new generation of clones, turning themselves into a pile of parts or even more pure ashes.

Clones, which should have been fast-moving consumer goods, have survived for a long time thanks to the Foundation's "clone insurance." More and more clones have begun to think about the meaning of their existence, which is undoubtedly a backlash from the Foundation's bottomless pursuit of profits.

Only natural people have names; clones only have a cold number. In each generation, discontent and resentment flow like an underground river, quietly gathering and growing in the consciousness of countless clones.

The truly deadly crisis comes from the backup clones of those top talents. These clones inherit the original's mind and possess complete independent thinking ability due to the nature of their work. They are well aware that they are merely "backup parts" of the original.

They assist the previous generation in their work, and after the previous generation dies, they take over, watching as a new version of themselves is created. They never have a life of their own, nor do they have their own freedom.

Ultimately, the fire was ignited by the "Cloning Iteration Act" passed by the board of directors. Due to the rapid advancement of technology, the board wanted to increase the speed of cloning iteration and constantly replace the templates with more advanced ones. As a result, the time limit for the destruction of older cloning models needed to be reduced again and again.

This act completely severed the last chance for survival for all clones. They could have faced their deaths peacefully like the natural population, but now, seeing the sky above them getting lower and lower, the most devastating clone rebellion in the Foundation's history broke out.

The rebellion spread like wildfire across the Foundation's territory overnight. The large-scale application of genetic technology resulted in a vast pool of clones as a source of manpower, with no star system remaining unaffected.

As it turns out, even clones cannot escape the terror of the line between life and death.

After the rebellion was quelled, the still-frightened board of directors issued the strictest ban in the foundation's history, classifying the cloning project as a top-level taboo, destroying a large number of cloning pods, and sealing all related technical data.

Even today, Karen has brought this technical solution back to the forefront.

"I know what you're afraid of."

Karen finally spoke, "I know all this: you're afraid of repeating the same mistakes, afraid of the clones rebelling again, afraid that we'll create the weapons that will destroy us." I know all this better than any of you.

"But we had no choice. Every step forward the legion took came at the cost of huge casualties. The manpower shortage at the front was widening all the time, and the rate of recruiting and training new soldiers could never keep up with the rate of attrition on the battlefield."

"We've fallen into Vickers's specialty: a war of attrition. Dragging this out will only wear us down, and besides, when will those standing by on the border suddenly turn to the board because of our defeat?"

"You only remember the rebellion caused by the cloning project, but you've forgotten the situation we're facing now. What awaits us if we lose this civil war? Implicated relatives and destroyed."

"In times of chaos, when we can't even keep our civilization going, what right do we have to talk about taboos or historical lessons?"

'

Those who had initially vehemently opposed the move now lowered their heads, their lips moving but unable to utter a single word in rebuttal.

They were well aware of how dire the situation was at the front. Marshal Vickers was intimately familiar with the Foundation's tactical system and now commanded the most elite private armies of the major families on the board. Several general offensives launched by their rebel side had been repelled, the casualty ratio was getting worse and worse, and the manpower gap was getting bigger and bigger, to the point where it was unsustainable.

If this deadlock cannot be broken, failure is only a matter of time.

"I'm restarting the cloning project not to replicate the Foundation's crazy days in history," Karen said, her tone softening as she presented a completely new technical solution.

"We are not building low-level laborers, nor mindless cannon fodder, but the most elite warriors with their own will, soldiers who will fight for the survival of the foundation."

"Faced with the private army of the board led by Vickers, we need more powerful genetically modified warriors to bridge the generation gap with them," Karen proposed a solution to reverse the battle casualty ratio. "We need to design new genetic templates, instead of rigorously selecting qualified native races and transforming them into warriors through rounds of surgery, we need to give them physical qualities far exceeding those of ordinary soldiers from birth, and allow them to mature rapidly and be ready to be deployed to the battlefield."

"Most importantly, we will not weaken their independent thinking ability as we did before. On the contrary, we will optimize their nervous system, add new brain glands, and strengthen their tactical judgment and battlefield adaptability."

Discussions broke out in the conference room. They had doubts about enhancing the clones' independent thinking abilities, arguing that such modifications would inevitably increase the risk of rebellion, which had begun when the clones' consciousness awakened.

"Risk? Of course there is risk," Karen changed the subject. "Having a weapon and not using it is one thing and not having a weapon at all. How can you refuse to use this weapon just because you're afraid of being cut by its blade?"

Karen switched the display screen, and a huge, brain-like biological structure model appeared in the conference room. The model was covered with dense neural networks, and each pulse was like a galaxy breathing in and out.

"This is the core of this clone army plan: the biological brain central server."

Karen's voice carried an undisguised ambition and sharpness: "We all know that training a qualified soldier takes time, and that's exactly what we lack most right now."

"The swarms of killer bees in the galaxy, their hive mentality gave me a new idea. Of course, we can't do what the swarms do to have the unique advantage of real-time consciousness connection and control over all their offspring. What we need to do is simulate the advantages of hive mentality, not completely replicate it."

Karen's fingertips traced across the biological brain model. "This biological brain isn't for controlling the clones, but rather a central server for storage and computation. It's constructed from our race's neurons through gene editing and directed proliferation, connected to external mechanical computing power, and exists solely for the clone army."

"Its function is to store and transmit knowledge and experience. We will inject all the Foundation's tutorials and tactical theories into it. Before each clone soldier matures in the incubation chamber, it will be physically connected to the biological brain through a neural cable to complete the download of all the knowledge and experience in the database."

"The moment they stepped out of the incubation chamber, they were no longer clueless recruits with only a strong body, but qualified soldiers who had mastered all combat skills and could be put into the battlefield immediately without any further training."

The members in the conference room all knew that if this technology matured, it would mean that countless qualified soldiers could be mass-produced in a short period of time to fill the manpower gaps on the front lines, and that a continuous stream of clone legions could be used to wage a war of attrition against the board of directors at any cost.

Once this war begins, it might very well escalate into a clone war against clones.

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