OmniStat

OmniStat

Overview

OmniStat spends enormous resources annually on infiltrating and analyzing Cascadian culture and politics, both to subvert and survey. OmniStat also remembers the refugee flood preceding the Triumvirate War, when almost one fifth (20%) of OmniStat's population fled to Cascadia and Sabaeus before OmniStat managed to close the borders, and border patrols have since been mandated to use lethal force to stop anyone from crossing.

Refugees still trickle across, but Cascadia is much less prone to accept them these days, and they are all suspected of being provocateurs. Most end up as loCaste and the irony is not lost on them as they toil out the remainder of their days in a situation very similar to the one they left behind.

Cascadia maintains a standing army in the form of KrugerDef, but they rely on technology rather than numbers, and the Great OmniStat Army outnumber them at least three to one. Random border skirmishes still occur, but they are rarely relayed to the general public who remains ignorant of the true magnitude of the OmniStat threat. Only occasionally is OmniStat used as a scapegoat to create acceptance for a new security measure or privacy-invasive policy change.

Out of the Regression rose OmniStat. Inspired by tales of ancient utopias and classless societies where every citizen had equal value and production was owned and shared by all, OmniStat quickly swallowed up the majority of the isolated settlements and surviving cities – sometimes peacefully, sometimes not. Some refused to acknowledge the OmniStat way of life and resisted to the bitter end, causing much strife and paranoia within OmniStat itself as the rulers were forced to accept that not everybody was ready to blindly embrace their vaunted ideas of the perfect state.

They reacted with increased control, to the point that all citizens were surveyed by the authorities, and each other, all the time. OmniStat soon became a merciless tyranny perpetuated by The Party and its ruling elite in their fevered struggle to centralise and control everything and everyone.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

During the chapter Back In the Game, OmniStat sent one of their agents to infiltrate the Elysium Building and gather data on Reflection. The data extraction was almost complete when Aline Maera, Gabriel Kruger and Isabel Kruger found the body of Maera's colleague, killed by the agent. The agent took out the hard drive being used to extract the data and attempted to leave the office when Isabel began to subdue them, causing the agent to end their mission via cyanide poisoning. Faith, who was hiding whilst the events ensued, dove and grabbed the hard drive before Isabel could collect it.

Over the course of the game, OmniStat's hard drive became a weapon to shut down Reflection, with Maera and Plastic putting a virus inside of the drive. In the Reflection control room on top of the Shard, Gabriel attempted to claim the drive once again, but was stopped by Faith. Isabel, now known as Caitlyn, rushed towards the drive, but the virus had already activated, causing Caitlyn to start choking and run away.

Trivia

• It appears that OmniStat resides in Western Australia when compared to a map of modern day Australia.
• The backstory is similiar to the Cold War in Europe and the Korean Peninsula.
  • The Berlin Wall border security measures.
  • The border clashes on the Korean Peninsula.
  • The Cold War espionage/intelligence operations.
  • The dividing of cities (Berlin), the use of rivers as a part of the border (Korea), and the restrictions on travel (Berlin, Korea).
  • The Korean War that was started to re-unify the nation-state.
  • The superpowers used the enemy nation-state to justify internal security legislation.
  • The true level of the external threat is overplayed or downplayed for political control.
  • The use of false defectors to undermine the enemy.
  • The Warsaw Pact relied on numbers and NATO relied on technology.
  • Views toward refugees/defectors in North Korea and South Korea.

Gallery

An OmniStat assassin

OmniStat's only currently known city, Permia B

External Links

• http://www.mirrorsedge.com/intel/cascadia/neighbouring-nations-and-contentious-issues
• http://www.ea.com/en-gb/news/the-history-of-cascadia