Avalon Island. {Three... two... one... liftoff.} A massive rocket took flight from the center of the island and rose through the clear sky. The cloud cover had finally dissipated and revealed the island in all its majesty to the few remaining eyes in the sky, as there was no longer any reason to continue maintaining the obscuration. The rocket breached the atmosphere and entered orbit, where it was immediately met by the blanket of shrapnel covering the planet. The rocket’s payload and the second stage maneuvering body had been plated in a thick layer of an alloy of hadfield steel and chromium, which was more than durable enough to shrug off the impact of the tiny pieces of shrapnel. Beneath that was a layer of shock absorbent 99% aerogel, and below that was a carbon nanotube shock mesh, ensuring that any force exerted on the rocket would cause no damage to the delicate machinery in the warhead and the rocket body’s maneuvering jets. (Ed note: Hadfield steel, also known as mangallo
Aron stood behind a lectern, dressed in the same uniform he was wearing when he delivered his declaration of war against the world. “Rest, brave soldiers. Now, your watch has ended,” he said in a somber tone.In front of him was a crowd of people dressed in mourning colors. Due to the many cultures of the ARES recruits, it was a cacophony of clashing colors. Some wore white, some wore black, and some wore bright, garish colors. Some heads were covered, others were bare, and some were home to elaborately styled hair. Some feet were bare, some were covered, and some were wrapped in sackcloth. Some wore silk, others wore hemp, and one was even wearing nothing but body paint and a loincloth.Aron had never attempted to take cultural identities away from the people under him, but had instead supported them in their diversity and different heritages. All he asked was that they were human first, and cultures second.To his left was a guard detail of a hundred ARES troopers from the ceremonia
As Aron directed Connect Enterprises to shore up the faltering economy, some countries that hadn’t been freely connected to the internet were also beginning to connect to the rest of the world. Countries like Cuba, where the government had strictly regulated who had access to the internet, were able to freely access information for the first time, without any filters at all.The former North Korea was also finally invited into the global village, a process begun by America’s takedown of their corrupt government, but hastened by Connect, who sent technicians and ARES Aegis teams to protect them while they laid fiber optic trunk cables and connected them to the existing South Korean infrastructure. Though there would still be a lot of work to bring the two halves of Korea together, the healing had begun.That said, Aron was no fool and had sent ARES troopers to take the place of the American occupation forces stationed in North Korea, and tasked them with preventing the DPRK Army’s brai
Inside a dimly lit, dusty basement room, a group of people with anger on their faces were seated on steel folding chairs. The only sound was the creaking of the unfinished basement ceiling and the occasional dust being knocked off of it and falling to the floor as someone in the house above stomped around like an upstairs neighbor. But no matter how loud the stomping echoed against the rust-red-spotted cement floor of the basement, the only disturbance was to the spiders that had spun their webs between the exposed wooden beams in the ceiling.Soon, the stomping above stopped and a door creaked open. Everyone seated in the basement swiveled their heads as one and looked at the stairs, where a shiny leather shoe appeared. Then a leg covered in tan slacks, followed by the hem of a navy blue blazer. When the man wearing the slacks and blazer turned the corner on the stairs, the blazer fell open and showed the blue and white horizontal stripes on the thin sweater beneath it, which had the
Felix was leaning back on the couch in his office, his feet crossed on the coffee table and hands clasped behind his head, obviously in deep thought.{What’s wrong, sir?} Raven, his personal AI assistant asked. {You seem to be zoning out a lot these days.} Felix had remained unmoving in his position for more than twenty minutes, the rise and fall of his chest and blinking eyelids his only movements.“Nothing, I’m just trying to figure out where things are going to go from here. It’s been a week since the countries signed their individual surrender accords, but no matter how I think about things, I can’t see a peaceful resolution. There’s guaranteed to be problems in the future, no matter what,” Felix sighed.{What makes you say that?} she asked.“History.”{Do you mean how those who fail to learn from history’s lessons are doomed to repeat it?}“Exactly. Every time one nation overwhelmed another and received their surrender or succeeded in an annexation, an insurgency has arisen from
“Bring me to Aron,” Felix asked as he logged in to VR. With the growing number of people who had access and their varied tasks and locations, Nova had created a navigational VI aid.Once he arrived at Aron’s location, he couldn’t help but curse in surprise. He was in a large, grassy meadow with Sarah, Henry, Rina, and all of the high-level leader AIs. The meadow itself was about fifty meters across, and outside of it was nothing but devastation. Craters were scattered around the cracked, bare earth, and more were appearing every second as explosions continued booming out in the distance.“What the hell is going on?” Felix wondered, his jaw dropped so far Sarah considered spawning an egg to stick in it to see if it would fit.{Sir Aron is having a sparring session with mother,} Athena answered, pulling up a screen that showed the action in real time with slow motion replays for Felix.After watching the footage for a few seconds, he asked, “Why fight with swords and magic if it’s a spa
407 - Corpses if Necessary, Prisoners if PossibleNova appeared out of nowhere right next to Felix. If people in the simulation had to deal with biological processes, he would have shat himself in surprise.{Sir, something’s come up that requires your urgent attention,} she reported to Aron.“What’s up?” Aron calmly asked, as if he were a pillar that could hold up the sky if it fell on him.{We discovered that a large number of Edenian and Esparian citizens have gone missing in a few countries. They all disappeared at roughly the same time over the course of an hour or two.}“How many citizens in total, and which countries did they disappear from? What were they there for? Are the disappearances done, or are people still going missing?” Aron asked, this time with a distinct chill in his tone. He had a few ideas of why his people would be going missing, and none of them were pleasant.{Fifty-seven people disappeared hours after arriving in Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, and Gua
{Corporal Jose Cuervo, report to docking bay two. Corporal Jose Cuervo to docking bay two.}Corporal Jose “Tekillya” Cuervo had graduated from Athena’s basic ARES training course two months ago, VR time, and his performance assessment had qualified him to become a Reaper after the initial training was complete. He picked up his black-and-gray ARES duffel bag, slung it over his shoulder, and rushed to his assigned docking bay for transport. The VR training facility was as realistic as anything else in the simulation and recruits were required to eat, perform the biological necessities, sleep, and everything else, just as they were in reality.He had completed the majority of his Reaper training and been on “leave” for the time it took his special enhancements to be implanted in the Reaper-specific VR pod, a hybrid medical pod and ARES training pod. All that was left for him to do was one final training mission, during which he would become accustomed to the performance of his newly enh