Almost seventy years after the Awakening, just as technological and magical advancements are coming to a head, an insurgent group uploaded a virus into cyberspace. One that infected everyone who lacked sufficent firewalls while plugged into cyberspace. And anyone who wasn't using an intermediate device to access the internet was most certainly not protected. The media referred to it as a "vampire plague", but the media wasn't around for long. Anyone infected with the virus would be overcome by inexplicable, uncontrollable rage the moment they experienced hunger. They were compelled to assault, and attempt to eat the next person they saw. Live broadcasts showed more than a few images of riots devolving into a mass of infected individuals attempting to eat one another. Over the course of three months, society collapsed under the weight of the epidemic. The virus also mutated rapidly and unexpectedly, running rampant across cyberspace, even managing to circumvent most firewalls for a time. The world's population was devastated. Even machines weren't immune to the disease, however they never experienced hunger and were incapable of transmitting the virus, so it did not seem to affect them in the slightest. The only group that showed any kind of significant immunity were the Therianthropes. Post-epidemic estimates claim that as many as ninety-five percent of all therianthropes were entirely unaffected by the vampire plague. During the initial stages, many who were uninfected, or apparently immune banded together, and attempted to hunt down these "vampires". Their efforts were still not enough, however, and usually resulted in nothing but more death and destruction.
Ten or so years after the fact, and the world is in recovery. Synthetic lifeforms, rapidly retrofitted with military hardware and commanded to defend various areas provided protection to many survivors, and still more even reprogrammed themselves to help with rebuilding. A few have even managed to integrate seamlessly into society, successfully masquerading as regular people, and only causing trouble when they set off infection detectors. But cyberspace is still incurably infected, and those wishing to access it are forced to either utilize more mundane means of browsing, or to plug in through a computer of their own to ensure that the virus is unable to infect them.
There is one group, however, quite dedicated to destroying the virus by any means necessary, and they have been putting out a call for aid. They want people to help them search for anyone with a unique strain of the virus, anyone who might be infected, but not in the typical way. There are still plenty of "vampires" kicking around, and some of them are even working on maintaining their sanity, roaming the wilderness outside the stalwartly-guarded havens set up by the machines. There are some brave souls, whether immune or not, that wander the no-man's-land that is the world outside the massive habitation buildings that once served corporations. They do everything from delivering snail mail and trading for various goods, to hunting down vampires for cash. One such wanderer, more inclined toward the latter, than the former, has only recently realized that finding a unique vampire might even allow him to retire, and has begun his search far from his usual stomping grounds. The only problem being, that he needs them to be alive when he brings them in...
