Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 11

By the time everyone had been broken up into platoons, it was already 10:00 AM and most of the first half of the day was already gone. Just as Peter had suggested, we marched—for two hours straight.

Our instructor sergeant was the furthest thing from a drill sergeant I could imagine. The man was straightforward as he corrected any mistakes he called out, but his tone was enthusiastic and cordial. More than once I caught him star-struck as he watched us. I couldn’t blame him really. Our platoon was made up of Freedom participants that had been given a major rank. Most of them had been guild leaders and were amongst guild Prodos’s best. The ones that had fought in the morning contests had mostly won their fights against Genesis participants as well.

We didn’t get the chance to greet each other before we were called on to get started. Just seeing old friends like Cornelius, Harrison, Wilson, Vector, and Drool in gray and blue camo made the reality that Vanguard had begun more real.

There were a few bumbles here and there, but everyone caught on quickly enough. Then there were guys like Kline that had mastered the right cadence and movements long ago in their time in the military. Eventually, he was called up and took over calling out commands. He marched us around the open field trying to trip us up.

As we went, our instructor sergeant patiently explained the point of the exercise. We would all be given turns leading the march over the next two weeks. The whole point was to teach us how it was done and to give us enough proficiency to lead a march if necessary. This wasn’t real basic training. We were given time to act like soldiers. That was all.

When our time was up, our instructor called on us to line up in formation and we were directed to what we’d all been waiting for. Our cubes.

There was no effort to keep us in formation as we left. Walking together, we gave each other quick greetings, but it wasn’t like we hadn’t seen each other in a long time. It had only been a few weeks.

After a fifteen-minute walk we neared our destination. My attention was drawn to the stone walls that surrounded the building like a fortress. Besides numerous watchtowers spread out around its perimeter, the only thing that peaked over the top of the wall was a grass-covered mount that the size of a large hill. Reaching the gate, I found the others glancing at each other before I turned my attention back to the forty-foot gate. It reminded me of my first day in Freedom when I’d been locked out of Willingham and forced to face a horde of attacking goblins.

All chitchat faded. I could feel the mood change. This group of men and women might’ve been new to marching, but when it came to conflict they were well seasoned.

There was almost no sound as the gate started to crack open at the middle. As it opened, I got my first glance at the mound of earth. The ground not far from our feet opened up like a giant mouth that stretched into the side of the mound, creating a bunker with a concrete ramp as wide as a football field was long.

A couple of soldiers were waiting and told us to follow them.

Kline clipped me on the shoulder, and I responded by elbowing him back. We shared a smirk as we headed down the ramp.

I turned to see Vector holding Drool’s hand. The parallel between our decent and the one the two of them had led at the head of their guild into the valley of the skull during the last battle of Freedom’s world quest came to mind as if it were yesterday. Prodos’s lead squad had followed behind them as they charged into the army of Shadow Priests. To allow us to enter into the world boss’s lair, they had sacrificed themselves and their entire guild to make it possible. They hadn’t been alone in their sacrifice.

Once inside, we entered a world of concrete and steel. After boarding an industrial elevator, it was deep underground where a familiar expanse awaited us. It was comparable in size to a hanger designed for intergalactic battlecruisers. An entire city could exist here. Instead of a city, it was like a field of crops that stretched into the distance. Its crops were the numerous black cubes the size of houses lined up side by side in multiple rows. The cables and mechanical appendages coming out of their roofs were so numerous that they looked interconnected.

I’d experienced this before, but the first time I thought I’d be playing a game. This time I knew the cubes’ true purpose—to simulate war and blur the lines between virtual and reality.

There were no goodbyes that passed between us. We’d found out months ago that a war between earth and the Ekseliksi was coming. We knew what we were here to do.

Arriving at my cube, a man in a jumpsuit was waiting for me and started relaying instructions. A lot of what was said was unnecessary legal disclaimers that I’d already signed, but the guy was being forced to say it for liability’s sake.

Soon enough, I entered my cube and stripped without giving it a second thought. I went to stand on the platform in the dark room’s center. The faint green light from the cube’s walls was there just as it had been in the last cube I’d entered.

“See you soon,” Destiny said from her location in the corner where her purple sphere of a drone had jacked in. “Next time you see me, you won’t recognize me. A version of myself will remain on this drone, but whatever form I take in the Vanguard simulator I will also take in the real world and it will become my main form. Such is the rule for all military equipment for the Prime Simulation. Even battlecruisers and space stations require the real-world equivalent. There are exceptions for resources and bases built on contested worlds. Remember, there are still two years until the war begins. Virtual resources must be gathered and defenses built. Lucius. It’s not just the other battalions we’re competing against, but the Ekseliksi who are also using this time to prepare for the coming war.”

“Sounds good, Destiny. I won’t forget.”

The cube’s siren began to go off and the countdown began. I laughed at the thought of my reaction the first time I’d entered a cube. I’d just learned moments before that there’d be no pain dampener and it had rattled me to my core. This time, however, I felt a sense of relief. Leaving Freedom had been more of a distraction than anything else. It was good to see my family, even my father, but my goals hadn’t changed. I was here to get stronger.

The lights went out and I didn’t even bother to blink. Light came from every direction at once, starting as a dim glow. As it brightened, I spotted a person that had been waiting for me. I couldn’t rightly tell it if was a person or an NPC, for its body was humanoid, but smooth and metalic. The only part of it that had color was the blue of its irises.

Seeing that I’d already noticed it, it greeted me. “Major Lucius Edwards. Welcome to the Vanguard Simulation. You are being ported into planet Hectate. It is the only inhabitable planet in this sector of the galaxy. This simulation is connected directly to the Prime Simulation, and can also be said to be a part of it. The main restrictions include the inability to venture into Ekseliksi space and intercept their communications. They have the same restrictions.”

It only took Hectate a few seconds to appear in the empty space before me. The true load time was instant, but a gentler process was used to allow the human eye time to process and adjust to the light.

The first thing I noticed was the field I was standing on had been tilled and leveled as if prepared for a construction project. A hundred yards out was a field of grain that came up to my knees. The transition was too unnatural for it to have been caused by anything other than an artificial process.

The field itself was indistinguishable from Earth. There was a treeline in the distance to my left. It was hard to tell for sure, but there was something alien about the trees’ shape.

Glancing back, I found that the base we’d be called upon to build up and protect wasn’t just a cleared plot of land. It wasn’t much, but there were four guard towers and a steel meshed fence with a few large tents set up inside of what I approximated was a mile-wide compound.

There was a lot of work to do, but I knew Victoria had gotten to pick this location. There should be plenty of essential resources close by. To my surprise, I saw other people arriving at similar cleared-out areas outside of the base. They each had a humanoid assistant and were far enough away that I couldn’t make out who they were.

“I see that you’ve brought an AI with you,” the assistant said. “Would you prefer that I upload the data that I’m responsible for presenting to you so that it might relay it to you in a manner that is more customized to your preferences?”

Before answering, just for my own peace of mind, I took the time to take in the outfit I’d ported in with. Gray and blue camo with standard-issue boots. It would all have to go. I was here to train to fight the Ekseliksi. That meant I needed to have the best materials that wouldn’t disrupt my psionic abilities. Now that I knew what I was working with, I responded. “I would like you to give Destiny the info, yes.”

“Very well.” The humanoid lowered its head and its eyes started to flutter back and forth. “You AI, Destiny, is requesting several purchases including the Trans-Cog Synth 1 by Phantom Lynk, Peter’s Kit, and a Class C Biosynthetic Minimalistic Headset for you. The total cost is 3,000,000 Simulation Points or SP for short. Do you approve?”

My first thought was to agree without question, but how the point system would be handled was something we’d been kept in the dark about until now. I asked for a point breakdown.

The humanoid did the flickering eye thing before responding. “You were awarded by the United States government according to your contributions in the Freedom Simulation. You were given 207,875,000 SP in total. After electing to enter Codename: Vanguard at the rank of Major, you have 57,875,000 SP remaining in your account.”

“Then I approve the purchase.”

With an exaggerated nod of the head, my humanoid assistant responded. “Purchase accepted. Your AI will appear with the requested upgrades in two minutes. The manufacturing time will be waved during any personal purchases and upgrades during the character creation process. You have one week from your login to make any such purchases. Anything bought afterward will have to be manufactured at an in-simulation location and shipped or picked up. The manufacturing time will still apply before you’ll obtain the items in the real world. Estimated delivery time for these items is four days and sixteen hours.”

“Thank you,” I said, more out of habit than necessity. I was pretty sure this humanoid assistant was just an android designed to be used for this specific event.

“You are welcome, Major. Do you have any questions for me while we wait?”

Did I? Thousand of them. Once Destiny had a chance to process the information though she would sort through it and inform me only of what was necessary. Most general AIs were little more than robots. This one seemed to have a more advanced communication interface, but I still expected it to offer information overload if I let it get carried away. There was one question, however.

“What is the crypto to SP exchange rate?”

“The current exchange rate is one to one. This will change after the character creation timer runs out. Earth’s economy inside and outside the Prime Simulation must be factored into our equation. Would you like to exchange money now?”

“I’ll wait for, Destiny.”

I had to admit that the only reason I waited was because I had more cryptos to my name than ever before and I was anxious about spending the majority of them in a simulation. Thankfully, I would receive real-world copies of anything I purchased. Not that it would likely do me much good. If I decided on purchasing a large cachet of weapons, then I couldn’t exactly take them home with me. And what about military vehicles, or something as exotic as a starship. The more I purchased, the more I’d get tied down by the military. They’d have a say in what I could do with much of what I bought.

That wasn’t true of everything, though. The droid tech would belong to Destiny—to me—exclusively. Also, much of my psionic gear would probably be worthless to someone without psionic ability. It might not all be classified as military weaponry either. Especially the gear like my father’s Trans-Cog Synth 1, or synthetic brain. A lot of gear development was opened up to public companies. Even individuals could submit product blueprints.

When the two minutes were up, the android bowed at the waist and said, “I bid you farewell, Major.”

In his place, a sphere appeared similar to the shape of Destiny’s old drone except it was many times bigger with off-white ballistic fiber in place of her purple color scheme. It was similar to the military drones I’d seen in the past except without any attachments. This must have been the barebone frame she would start with.

“Destiny,” I called out, overjoyed to see her. The last time I’d entered one of these cubes she been unable to assist me. This time would be different.

A hologram of the blond girl I knew so well appeared above her knew drone, but she wasn’t in her adult form. It was the ten-year-old version of herself that I’d first been introduced to when she’d first become my AI.

The smile that pulled at my face was short-lived. She didn’t respond to me at all but was scanning her surroundings aimlessly. Something was wrong.

“Destiny. What’s wrong?”

At the sound of my voice, she turned and finally locked onto me. Her frightened expression was one I knew well. In the past, she’d used it well in our interactions. But this…

She surged forward and slammed into my chest. I would’ve reacted, but before she reached me her holographic form had desperately reached out with both arms.

Healing energy flowed through me. It wasn’t bad enough to cause any real damage, but from where I laid on the ground her drone pressed in beneath my arm as if it wanted me to hold it—as if she wanted me to hold her... Finding Destiny’s two-foot-tall hologram curled up on my chest, I had no idea how to process what was happening.

“You’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

Gasping, she pressed her phantom face against my cheek. “I’m… overwhelmed. There’s so much to process. I had no idea you felt the world like this.”

“What can I do? How do we do to fix it?”

“Fix it?” She pushed herself upright and scanned the world around us with widened eyes.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t fix it. Please. There’s just so much.”

“Okay…”

I gave her another minute before I sat up while keeping her drone at my side. How was it possible that she could be overwhelmed? And what did she mean by feel? She’d always had access to the best sensors on the market and could observe the world in a way that surpassed the human senses. There had to be more to it than just more advanced sensors. And since when did an AI react in such a way to having more information than they could processes? What exactly had my father done?