Kalran: Tales of the four nations/Cloning

"It is the duty for everyone one of you here to fight! For you are the Trueborn mighty shield to defend us. You will be the ones who will lead us to victory against the cruel beasts outside. Whether it be our traitorous brethren, machines that hides in the mountains, cowards who will never fight head on, barbarians who try to fight us with reptiles, or even the dark order that seeks our destruction! When you charge upon them know that they are weak and soulless monsters, and that when you fall we will remember your sacrifice to bring on a better tomorrow fighting to destroy the beast you hate. So ready yourself shield. IN LIFE DUTY IN DEATH GLORY!"

-Recorded speech, during a failed ADF assassination, of officer Naofumi Tarleton, an infamous Trueborn commander known as "The butcher", towards his clone forces, roughly ten thousand, before they went into battle. Reports indicated roughly ten clones survived said battle, the rest were never recorded nor mentioned, only estimated that a third quarter of the casualties were intentional friendly fire, by the Trueborn, or could have been easily avoided.

Resources.

Resources were always needed in order to wage warfare. An endless hunger that drove nations to bankruptcy, made every victory a temporary respite from the need for more resources, made every defeat that much more painful to bear. Sometimes, war was merely an excuse to acquire more and more resources, feeding the need now in order to be that much fuller later. There were - and are - many varieties of resources. Most obvious were materials, ore that fed the nations as they clashed in world shaking wars, rubber, steel, and power for roaring vehicles of destruction, money that flowed back and forth unceasingly between nations and factions. But there was one resource that was more important than all of the above. Some nations, some factions would throw money in order to keep what they had of this precious commodity. Others would give up freedom in order to gain security for it. This most precious of all resources, more valuable than gold or ore...is bodies.

Playing god
Nearing the end of the great war the Reclaimers, long threw away their pacifist ideals, were on the brink of loss with manpower shortage. Half of their forces having defected on mass upon their leader destroying the very ideal they fought for, while the other have began taking massive casualties without a way to replace the losses. Until Desmond revisited an idea.

During one of his many research, before and during the war, he had found a way to recreated flesh and blood organs, except the brain and limbs, with the help of divine magic, that can be transplanted without much issue. In another time he could have used it to help millions and grant the crippled a new life. But as he threw away his ideal of peace he realized that, with the help of Devil blood, he can create near sentient creatures, in bulk and with little genetic materials, but came with the side effect of said clones suffering a short life, the longest recorded being nine years old, and the uncanny ability of growing up upon absorbing the essence of dying creatures, allowing a two months old clone that looked like an eight years old to suddenly grow into the body of an adult in mere minutes.

What came after is still remembered to this day, with history of a wave of soldiers, bearing the Reclaimer emblem and armed with barely functional rifles, charging upon the empires gunlines, leaving mountains of corpses as they overwhelm the defenders. And to this age their role never changed, being the Reclaimers hammer to smash apart anything through attrition.

Bullets and batteries
"The Trueborn never once, or even tried to, acknowledge the clones as people. If a single Trueborn dies in battle it's considered a great tragedy. But if ten thousand clones died to claim a mile the only complaint you'll hear for them is the time it'll take to send in the next batch, or frustrated to how much cost-ineffective the exchange was, like how one complains of getting shortchanged. To the Trueborn the clones are nothing more than glorified bullets, batteries, and gears to further their goal, and those that are broken or defective are thrown away and recycled like trash. And tragically many of the clones are taught that being labeled as objects, like swords or spears, is their way of showing love, that having the Trueborn have complete control over anything they do is considered their kindness. When in reality it's slavery and abuse with a whitewash."

-Excerpt of an interview log with "Xander", a defector of the Trueborn given a fake name, with an ADF interrogator

In life, duty. In death, glory. That is the motto and mantra drilled into every clone upon decantation.

Using the genetic material from bodies, whether from other clones or people they attacked, they created new people, new bodies and minds in vats and tanks - clones. They thoroughly washed the brains and minds of the clones, making them content, making them nearer to machines than people - or so it was thought and hoped. Using cloning, the Reclaimers were able to make themselves armies from almost nothing, composed of quick-growing clones who were not counted as people and a nobility class of those born from the womb, the Trueborn.

A clone, upon decantation, is not unlike a baby’s; lacking any prior experiences, it is effectively a "blank template", so to speak. It was soon discovered by the Reclaimers that such a state of mind was ridiculously easy to manipulate, a fact that has allowed the Reclaimers to have clone soldiers on the battlefield mere months after their creation. Exposing these clones to a wave of radio instruction would reduce the time needed to properly train them. The process took a few days at the most, by the end of which a clone could know how basic combat, speak fluently, salute properly, and so forth. The Trueborn could implant false memories, or induce absolute hatred for their enemies and fervent dedication to the Trueborn, whom the most fanatical call their master. Hundreds of programs for radio instruction were written, one for every designated role for a clone to serve in their campaign. Though their accelerated growth comes at a cost of having a drastically shortened lifespan, with the longest recorded living clone not subjected to combat or dangerous work being twelve years.

But at the end of the day, they are seen as nothing more than a means to an end and are indoctrinated to never question the lot in life. And that under their teachings and brain molding, they are as human as ever, even when they look alike their minds are never the same. They have thoughts, dreams, wishes, regrets, and fears, they fall in love, they cry, they cheer, they get frustrated. But this is something that the Reclaimer Trueborn never addresses or acknowledges, and refuses to do so. Instead seeing them as bullets, or a pet at the absolute best, to be targeted toward their enemies for them to claim victory, even the Federation with its droid army treats their robotic soldiers as people whose lives should never be thrown away unless it's absolutely the only way to ensure victory.

Indeed, in many ways the Reclaimers is a far worse kind of tyranny to its so-called subjects than the late Tuatha empire - for even the empire acknowledged that the soldiers under them are still people. Clones are not thought of as people, or even subhuman since that requires acknowledgment that they are human in a way, but as mere weapons to claim victory, weapons that can easily be replaced if broken, defective, or done it’s use and recycles to make new weapons or blood money. Perhaps worst of all is that, with the technology of cloning and their strange ability to grow up and trained into soldiers in minutes, the analogy is partially true - when people can be efficiently replicated and regrown by batches, when the very process of thought can be manufactured using only a bit of genetic material, Devil blood, and the right tools, where one can make soldiers in an instant when it would have taken months or years, when it is possible to send clones out to die in droves because it is thought better than wasting the lives of natural Trueborn... The question is asked:

What measure is a clone?

Know your place, know your lot
"Now listen clearly. You are to never question our orders! You are to follow them! You are to never question your place! Your lot is to listen to us and OBEY! Those who disobey are defectives! And defectives only hurts themselves by refusing us because we know better! Now follow our orders next time, and be thankful that I spared your life, because there won't be a next time! LET THIS BE A LESSON TO ANYONE WHO THINKS OF DISOBEYING OUR ORDERS, LET THIS SHOW YOU WHAT WE DO WITH DEFECTIVES!"

-Recorded speech of Trueborn commander Naofumi as he publicly beat up and humiliated clone RA718 (Raphta), a Banner in training who broke the rules by retreating from the simulation, to other clones until she was reduced to a crying heap, medical records indicated three broken limbs, a dislocated shoulder, multiple broken ribs, broken jaw, heavy lacerations, and nearly blinded in one eye that it was a miracle that she recovered without any disabilities, the last sentence was addressed to the clones who watched it.

Another dark thing about the clones is that of promise.

The clones are always told that their life is to follow what Trueborn says, refusing to do so will be met by beating or whipping, if they're lucky, and never question them, even if it meant working in deadly environments without any compensation. With the promise that if they work hard enough they will rise to the rank of the and, one day, join the ranks of the Trueborn.

All a beautifully crafted lie.

In the end, the clones have no chance of a better life under the Trueborn, at best they will get a good meal for obeying like dogs and being considered worth saving when heavily injured. They can never quit, doing so would lead to execution, they aren't allowed to complain or ask questions, doing so results in beating, and they can never pursue anything not approved by the Trueborn. They must always follow orders without question, no matter if it kills them or they detest it, and put all of their efforts, and for everything they give to their "beloved masters" they get nothing. Upon death their bodies are thrown into the grinder to be reduced to materials and anything they held dear with it, they are not allowed to mourn for their fallen friends, since it would hamper their combat, they can never rest, every day they either train or fight in horrible meatgrinders of attrition, and they can never complain because they are always told that this the best they can get in life. And for those who choose to rebel? They get labeled as defectives, as broken tools that must be destroyed and replaced.

And what do the Trueborn get for this devotion? They get rich, by selling blood diamonds made from the corpses of clones or by pillaging countless innocents, they never have to worry about danger, deadly tests done by the clones while those who volunteer to fight are always being relegated to support far from the frontlines, and they can pursue their own interest unless it harms the Trueborn or the clone hatcheries, having the clones to do everything at their beck and call. And what do they have to contribute to earn all of these luxuries?

Nothing.

The Trueborn themselves sits in their underground base, only accessible by teleportation, where they can theorize and brainstorm idea to claim Alcradia themselves but delegate all of the physical, and often dangerous, works to the clones to do it, observing what happens to them like lab rats, and whenever they plan to pillage it all boils down to send waves of clones, no matter how suicidal such a frontal assault would be, with little long-range Trueborn support, which often also kills the clones in the field, until they achieved their objective, all while in the comfort of a hidden outpost while the clones get massacred by the dozen, some even enjoying the clones crying and calling for help. And whenever the battle is won they always take the credit, the millions of clones that fought tooth and nail and likely lost many friends are only acknowledged as a statistic, and if they lose then they retreat, often stranding any surviving clones while blaming the faults the rremainingclones in the battle, who are often persecuted without a chance of explanation and executed by the gas chamber or the grinder.

In the end, the lot of the clones are to work themselves to death serving the Trueborn, and falling behind their demand are met with death no matter the reason, since its easier to get a better replacement. While the Trueborn gets richer off the clone's work, who uses said power to make more clones to serve them again. And when the day comes when Alcradia is under their thumb they always lie to the clones that their sacrifice and dedication will be remembered, but in the end, they would say they did it on their own, disregarding all of the contributions and sacrifice the clones did for them because they are tools, not people.

As the clone of the Reclaimers they are the Trueborn sword, often told that you are the one that can protect them and will be justly rewarded. But like a sword, they are just as disposable, because a sword is less than a person.

Because a sword is a tool that can be remade in hours, because a sword never argues back against abuse.

They are not human, they are machines made of flesh
"But clones aren't people. They are the tools to our victory, and like tools, we can easily make more and replace them if they break. What makes them worst than actual tools is that they cower, they hesitate, and they refuse orders as if they were people, and despite our best efforts, we haven't found a way to make the subservient without slowing down the making process. And until we can crack the secret of the advance ai the Humans have we have to make do with these defective machines."

-Tapped and Recorded conversation between Trueborn commander Naofumi towards a Trueborn child.

For the Trueborn they are raised to see the clones not as people, but as tools, with their value equaling to debris. For a Trueborn it is in their right to physically abuse, degrade, and humiliate the clones if they don't live up to their standards. For them they expect the clones to follow any order, no matter how unreasonable or suicidal it is. For the Trueborn the death of a clone, even a single, is nothing but a statistic.

To this end any dangerous experiments are done by the clones, any idea a Trueborn have the clones will do the steps, and in the event a clone thought of something innovative the Trueborn that command them will take the credit. And when the clones die in these experiments or assignments, in duty to their masters, the Trueborn doesn't even shed a tear, at most they'll be angered if the clone failed the assignment or research and spit on their corpse, even as friends of that clones, who are also clones, watches. Because why should they care about the feelings of debris or the opinions of replaceable machines.