I sat down in my chair at my desk, tapping my foot on the floor in anxiety of what was to come.


    Looking around I saw the Noxu Colonel John Smith sitting across me in anxiety. The bunker was crowded with 22 people in here, it felt like a public school classroom that had poor funding and as such had to cram as many students they could reasonably fit in it.


    “So you said something will happen at midnight, correct?” Colonel John asked.


    “Well they said a message should be arriving in my office at around midnight. Didn’t say how it would arrive.” I explained.


    “What time is it?” John asked his Major Burrito.


    Major Burrito took a look at his pocket watch “23:59 about to be midnight sir.”


    John nodded, several few tense moments passed and then blue glowing particles appeared above my desk.


    I realized what was happening.


    “What is that?” John asked, holding out his finger.


    “Don''t touch it unless you want to lose a finger.” I said.


    John rapidly pulled his hand away the moment he processed my words, “Alright duly noted.”


    I felt the air being pushed around. A vacuum was forming in place of the blue glowing particles that were rapidly growing in numbers. The air was attempting to fill the vacuum the teleporting object was making, the reformation process was excruciatingly slower than what I had to build with before.


    “What is happening here?” Fish asked.


    “Our means of messaging is getting quantum teleported, but the process is slower than usual. Meaning whatever is being teleported is something with a complex build that probably needs certain states to be rebuilt in the correct place to work properly. Like a computer, the machine that is teleporting needs to account for the state of each transistor, possibly pixel, all of its memory, everything.” I said.


    Burrito responded with a surprised look. “Quantum teleportation? So you guys can teleport shit?”


    “Teleport every single atom of an object, down to the atom.” I said, looking back at the computer.


    I saw the main components of the computer, specifically a laptop in fact. Was finished being moved to its targeted spot, and then suddenly the rest of the laptop just formed with a gush of air as it all was pushed out the way with the sudden added amount of volume. Followed by the room suddenly lighting up in blue as I was sure every single air molecule had stopped moving.


    “Why did the room suddenly light up in blue like that?” Fish asked.


    “To prevent a nuclear explosion from occuring by stopping all the local air molecules from colliding with each other with the suddenly added objects.” I explained.


    “You know a lot about teleporting.” Fish said.


    “Because I helped develop a weapon for the US military that used it.” I said curtly.


    Shark sighed, “You seriously had to go out and break the NDA.” He was face palming himself.


    “They saw the technology in action with their own eyes and I do not have anything to wipe their memories with. Might as well show off what I’ve been working on these past few years.” I said.


    “Huh?” Everyone said in unison.


    “Whatever, let''s go see what this laptop has in store for us.” I looked at the fully formed white laptop. It was truly military grade in that it was a shitty ass computer with armor slapped around it running a half a century old operating system that sucked up ram. Why doesn''t the government just use Linux or whatever the Administrator designed for them?


    On the top of the laptop was a sticky note saying, “it''s the password to your great grandfather''s PC at Home, you remember it right?”


    I took off the sticky note and opened the laptop, but it didn''t turn on. I pressed down on the power button for several seconds until the screen lit up. Which it did, showing a lock screen from Windows 15. It was a furry animal standing on its hind legs with a widget in the corner saying “Despite their fuzzy and cute look, they are one tough critters… Click here to learn more.”


    The link would likely lead to nowhere as the company that used to manufacture this operating system is now gone. Went bankrupt after betting too much on “AI” bullshit and being run into the ground by its investors.


    This was their last product to the world in fact, and yet when they were paid for it the investors ran off with the final bits of money, selling everything they invested in. Including several revolutionary nuclear power plants. Leaving all the developers who actually wanted to work at that multi trillion dollar corporation with nothing.


    I tapped the spacebar and was met with an account name “JJ”, and a bar saying password.


    I typed it in, I hoped I got the right password and I did get it right on the first try. With me now being met with a simple GUI menu screen with widgets of several dozen programs, such as long abandoned and forgotten Computer Aided Design Programs.


    An older AI program was also installed on this computer called “Neuro Sama” several games were downloaded, mostly simulation games that seem related to robots, space, war, and a few FPS.


    There were several dozen folders on this main GUI, named many things such as AI Generation results, Project Sentience Progress Reports, Old Company Finances and so on. On the taskbar were several more forgotten programs, one seemed to be a social media app, another a paint program, another CAD with a big F and a FUs. And two forgotten browsers.


    A notification popped up in the corner of the screen, “Message from Administrator:


    Open google chrome you fucking slow poke.”


    I sighed “Fucking hell you don’t have to yell at me computer.” I said, clicking on what I was sure was the long forgotten Chrome. A blue circle surrounded by red, green and yellow which was the first on the taskbar. I clicked on it and a web browser popped up immediately, with me having to sign in.


    Another notification popped up “I’ll sign you in, give me a second.” When I turned my eyes back to the browser, I saw a lot of bookmarks and options on the main google screen.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Which held more forgotten websites I could choose to click. I looked at the top right and saw 9 black boxes and several more things with gmail being the one I needed to click on.


    Gmail opened instantly and there I was met with decades old emails, at the top however was a brand new email sent a few minutes ago. The time was 00:03 now, I clicked on the newly sent email.


    The title was, “Hurry up you fucking slow poke I know you wanna see what Great Grandpa was doing when he was alive but I have important shit to tell you.” I sighed again and I began reading the email.


    “Alright I got to our message.” I said.


    Everyone leaned forward in anticipation.


    “What does it say?” Shark asked.


    I looked at the message and began reading it outloud, “So you must be confused at what is happening and many questions. Most of which I am not going to answer, I know all of your questions I just don’t feel like answering them.


    However I am going to answer this: Where are we, and what are we to do?


    To answer the first one you are in a place called the battlefield by the gods. (Yes they are real, or really Yahweh/Allah and Jehovah, but I won’t be clarifying anything on that so don’t bother asking). To be more specific where I placed you people, in an area between the two human realms, surrounded on all sides by genocidal plant people. Who rule over an empire that includes goblins and ogres, which you guys have fought.


    What you guys are to do is to remove any and all traces of anything that isn’t human in your local area. (Your local area is shown in Map 1 below in PDF Titled “Your Local Area”) Because if you don’t they’ll be the ones who remove any traces of what is human, meaning if they had the chance to kill you all they absolutely would. Peace is not an option.”


    I stopped for a moment “is everybody keeping up?” I asked, quickly scrolling down a bit and skimming it.


    “Yeah. We are.” Shark said.


    “Alright, I think this is a long message with lots of things in it.” I said.


    I continued on where I left off, “You are all going to have more questions now that I explained your purpose here, and I am going to answer the questions that belong to the ‘who’ and ‘what’ section you guys are going to ask.


    Who you guys are fighting is the Toh Empire and the. Hl… le Pec… big. Hlpecbyg(?)(Literal grammar translation) Theocracy.


    What they are is that they aren’t human, and their government sponsors a war of genocide against us humans. Why is something I might as well answer, is that their creators. (if you’re wondering, yes I the thing that sent this message created you. Don’t ask any further now that you know.) Their creators are in a competition to see who has the smartest, fastest, strongest, luckiest creation in all of everything. So everyone sends a population of their creations who are at different periods of technology and understanding essentially once a century or so to compete in a war of survival.


    So where do we (yes you and me) fit in this? Well we are to be the second generation of humans to be sent to the battlefield, previous populations of humans were measured in iterations. Generations are different things, with due time you will begin to notice the differences, I am sure after your recent battles you guys have certainly noticed new abilities.


    Might as well answer some questions that pertain outside who, and what while I’m here. The last iteration was at the time of the US invasion of warlord China in the early 2070s, with a US expeditionary force being sent to promptly bomb and nuke everything that wasn’t explicitly human. Along with leaving 3rd Quarter 21s century Christianity in the remaining human populous before fucking off back to Earth allowing us to figure out wormholes and quantum teleportation better in the process. (Ask Lieutenant Hans Gunther for further details about what happened then, as he was apart of that Expeditionary force.)”


    “Wait Gunther? The old war veteran never actually fought in China?” Shark asked.


    “Apparently so.” I answered.


    I continued reading “I have compiled further details on everything from who you are fighting, with population, and military size estimate. Level of technological development, social development, details on the society, and a lot more. All located in the PDFs located below. If you want to you can use the laptop for organizing shit if you want. I''ll also be sending you several more things by 08;00 hours such as a projector, printer, fax machine and a wormhole generator, antennas to communicate with the old satellite network and a few more.” I stopped reading aloud at the next comment “(No food, although you guys did solve that immediately. Good work James on immediately deciding to resort to cannibalism you psychopath.)” I skipped to the next paragraph.


    “I expect a lot from you guys, don''t fail, but most importantly don’t lose your humanity to other humans in the process.


    Sincerely,


    -Administrator.”


    I groaned and pushed the laptop back a little “Of fucking course it was Administrator that orchestrated this.” I said.


    I heard Shark sigh as well, however everybody else looked confused when I looked up.


    “Who is this Administrator?” Fish asked.


    “Just an AI program that pretty much runs all of American Society.” I said.


    “So you mean the subway train?” Fish asked.


    “Yes.” I answered, groaning.


    “The program that does my taxes?” Punisher asked.


    “Yes.”


    “The thing that is literally central to my conspiracy theory that the government is taken over by an AI overlord that is hellbent on controlling everything?” Major Sherman said.


    I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and looked at the computer awaiting for a notification or a gun appearing out of nowhere and just shooting the guy. But nothing happened, “maybe not that far.” I said in between awkward chuckles as a notification ping on my screen.


    N: “The only reason why I didn’t kill that kid, was two reasons, the first it would only prove his point that I am hellbent on controlling everything (if I don’t we’ll all die or really humans and I like humans a lot. You guys are dumb and lovable.). Secondly it would make it clear to everyone else (The other creators) that I am hellbent on information control which isn’t a good look. By the way only you can see the message so if you mention this to anyone at all you’ll look insane.”


    I turned back to the conversation and said. “Well what matters is that it''s an AI that just makes everyone''s lives easier. So don’t look too much into this and we’ll be all fine.”


    “And if I do?” Sherman asked.


    “You’ll probably be dumped into hell and forced to fight the hordes of hell or something. For the rest of eternity I don’t know. I suggest you don’t look into something that supposedly has control over everything as it controls everything.” I said.


    “Alright, I guess I’ll do my job here instead.” Sherman said.


    “That''s a much better plan.” I said.


    Smith stood up, “So now what are we to do?” He asked.


    I simply leaned back in my seat and said, “For now you guys get some rest for the night, and I’ll be studying a lot. So come in at 08:30 hours so we can make our plan of attack with what I find out from my studies.” I said.


    Burrito stood up, and said. “I can work that, if it is fine with you can I leave?”


    I gave a yawn and stretched out, “Yes, you guys are all dismissed goodnight.” I said.


    “Good night colonel.” Everybody began to say at varying times as they all nicely shuffled out of the crowded room.


    Leaving only me and Shark, “you know you can leave for the night General Hammond.”


    “Well Secretary Maldonado as a General of the US Army you know a part of my job is to gather intelligence.” Hammond said.


    I sighed and pinched my nose, “You forget I am the one with the computer correct? And also remember I literally organized like half of the coup non violent plans into something cohesive? So leave all the numbers, and names to me and if you want I can give you the detailed report in printer paper, as my eyes are going to be in pain after this.” I said.


    Shark sighed, “Well don’t push yourself too hard.” Shark stood up and left for the door “goodnight.”


    “Goodnight.” I responded as I began to scroll down and read the linked PDFs.


    They were all titled, “Maps”, “Your enemies”, and finally “Your friends”.


    I clicked on the Map PDF and was met with text.


    “The next page is going to be the first Map of the local area, some things to keep in mind. The maps are somewhat outdated (and not you wiped out a fort, and crashed a ship outdated) outdated in that I took this planetary survey a year ago with the only area I was able to keep perfectly updated was the area 100 miles surrounding American Palisade. (Your home for the time being) So I suggest you make your own map base it off of these ones but update it with whatever has changed. So get to learning your local area James.


    -Administrator”


    I scrolled down and was met with a really zoomed in map, with 1 inch is equal to 10 miles.


    The walls were easily visible in the center, albiate the thickness of the walls were certainly exaggerated, likely to make it clear where we were in the map. To the direct west of American Palisade was a dozen red dots likely only 10 miles or so apart, there was one not that far from the Noxu side.


    The fort we attacked yesterday, has a x covering it. Showing she really did just update this. The river going through the river wasn’t the only river, around 50 or so miles north of us the river splits into two and turns sharply with 3 towns dotted on it named (from right to left in their positions) Fhof, Fomf, and Fomaf. They were in a dark green area titled Goarsdaf Colony, under it in parenthesis was the Toh Empire under it suggesting that was the mother country of Goarsdaf.


    To the north there were a lot of forts to the west of the river, bordering a pink blob with the title Anphotwp Confederacy and in parentheses under the name "friend" written. There were striped lines of alternating pink and green, suggesting that it was an area of active conflict.


    To the east of us, was a tan blob border following several rivers with some leading towards the river. It was titled Hlpecby Theocracy with “kill these guys” under its name with parenthesis. There was an unnamed black dot at the edge of the border; it was the closest village or town of Hlpecby.


    I went back to the email and clicked on “Your enemies”. It led me to a google document of all things. On the left there were titles with “Your closest enemies (worry about them)” and “your farthest enemies (don’t worry about them)” Your closest Enemies only had half a dozen headings, Your Farthest Enemies however had several dozen entries.


    “This doc is going to explain everybody I found out about who isn’t explicitly human or that is allied with humans. The only nations listed here are those that are explicitly hostile towards humans, some places may be lacking in information, you will be able to fill up and consider this document a general overview of who you''re going to fight close to home. Happy studies.


    -Administrator”


    I scrolled down to the first part.


    “Your Closest Enemies:


    This is going to be a general overview of all the enemy states within a range of a 500 miles or so of Palisade, which isn’t many in the grand scheme of things so lets start.


    Toh Empire and Hlpecby Theocracy were the ones I was interested in, so I opened up a slide deck ignoring decades old proposals and other random stuff my Great Grandfather had on his account and got to work making an even more condensed overview of them for the meeting later this morning.