Ceo

  August 5th, 2133

  09:25 Hours

  “Shit, Shit! I fucking forgot to do something that was apart of my job!” Shark exclaimed out loud, he was clearly panicking.

  “Ok, ok, ok…” I exclaimed, “Lets calm down, deep breath General, this shouldn’t be your first rodeo.” I told Shark.

  “It isn’t.” Shark took in deep breaths.

  “Ok. Before we continue talking about this we should head inside the bunker.” I said.

  “I think that would be for the best.” Silenz said.

  Shark had simply nodded, he was able to get himself to quickly calm down. We climbed out of the Foxhole, where Ronin was busy carving some Japanese words in a large rock.

  “I think he’s writing ‘flip me over’ on the rock.” Shark said.

  “Oh.” I said, giving a silent chuckle. The brief distraction slightly calms us down. We continued on leaving the kid to his own devices. We entered the bunker and then the War Room.

  The moment the door closed, Shark gave a huge sigh of relief. “Oh, lord we aren’t in a good spot.” Shark said, I went to my chair and sat down.

  “No shit, we literally forgot to secure our backyard. So Lieutenant General Hammond of the US Marine Corps what do you think our plan of action should be?” I said.

  Shark took in a deep breath, “Alright it should be made clear that I lied, I am not a lieutenant General of the US Marines. I am only a Brigadier General of American Occupation forces in Columbia.” He said.

  “And? You still proved to everybody else that you were deserving of that rank, and considering the fact you lied to me first, then got guilty and told the truth so you clearly got to that rank based on Merit.” I said.

  Shark looked surprised, and Silenz was just outright confused.

  “You aren’t angry?” He asked.

  I raised an eyebrow at him, “No, you only kept a lie up like an idiot for like two hours before breaking it to me. Even then I don’t care, so what do you suggest we do, Brigadier General?” I asked.

  Shark didn’t immediately respond, but after a moment he spoke “I suggest we send only a couple of Storm Trooper squads to go to areas we haven’t had a major presence in. Do we still have the old map of Palisade?” He asked.

  “I think so.” I got out of my chair, and began to look around, starting with the floor. Someone had very much rolled it up and placed it somewhere. The floor was still an absolute mess from before the game had shut down, but I found the map in fact underneath my desk neatly rolled up. “Found it.” I said, grabbed the roll, Shark and Silenz had moved out of the way as I hefty the surprisingly light map.

  I moved to the center of the war room and unrolled the big map onto the ground, however instead of it being the Palisade Map with all the trenches, it was replaced with another map. A large circle with a river going through the center. One side of the wall labeled Kyntari side and the other Noxu side, numerous lines went through the map with most of the lines heading towards the river.

  “That looks like a map of the walls as it is today.” Shark said.

  “Someone clearly had the time to update our maps.” Silenz said.

  “I think this will make things a little easier.” I said, grabbing the speaking and pointing stick. “It looks like the map is actually from the moments after we first arrived here, when everything was shuffled around.” I said.

  Shark paced around the map, “Alright, can I have the stick.” He said.

  I nodded, and held out the stick to him, he grabbed it. “This here is the broken wall, where we were attacked by the goblins.” He pointed to the most southern point on the wall. “If I were an army force that has the goal of attacking this place, I would probably choose a spot that the locals wouldn’t check, or is easily defendable while still being out of the way of the main population regions.” Shark said.

  “Where would that be?” I asked.

  “I actually have no idea, it would probably be the areas closest to the wall on the inside, I mean if given enough time whoever is in here with us would be able to build cranes to hoist supplies and reinforcements in over the wall.” Shark said.

  “But cranes take time to set up, and are also slow, especially if the only access to mechanical power is hand power, then you are limited by how much you can pull up, even with a huge radius giving a ton of torque.” I said.

  “We can stand here all day and theorize and we won’t be any closer to an answer than we were before.” Shark said.

  “So what do you suggest?” I asked.

  “We can only do one thing, which is send out patrols to comb through the forests inch by inch with storm trooper squads and hope we stumble upon someone.” Shark suggested.

  “How about just giving the order to simply dig in? Form a circle of trench lines, barbed wire, sandbags, and landmines around the area most people are in.” I explained.

  “I don’t think we can really afford to start building another set of fortifications after just dismantling the old ones.” Silenz said.

  “I am well aware of that.” I said to Silenz, the other Major just nodded.

  “I don’t think digging in is a good idea.” Shark said.

  “Why do you think that's not a good idea? I understand what Silenz said, but why you?” I asked.

  “If there is anyone in here, they are probably observing our work right now. Any sudden shifts in moods from the soldiers as much as I despise calling everybody that here. You giving a battalion wide order to dig in will absolutely cause everybody to start to panic, and that will tip them off even more that we are aware of them. We don’t know their actual capabilities, technology, tactics, or readiness of their forces, Colonel. The moment panic spreads through the ranks, it can possibly be even their signal to attack us.” Shark explained.

  I remained quiet and I nodded, “I understand.” I did, I saw every single point of logic the Brigadier General gave me, and there was likely way more he hasn’t simply mentioned yet. It was pretty telling he was someone who commanded an occupation force.

  “However if we start up patrols though, they likely wouldn’t respond as-”

  “I understand your reasoning Shark, no need to continue explaining.“

  Shark nodded, “I was worried you wouldn’t be as easily convinced.” Shark said.

  ”I tend to listen when someone clearly knows what they are talking about.” I said, Shark gave a quick nod. “Can I have the stick now?” I held out a hand Shark gave me it, “Assign four squads of Storm Troopers patrol inside the wall. Have all four squads start at the Broken Wall, have one half of them go in a clockwise motion towards the river and the other half go in a counterclockwise direction towards the river, if there's anything this map either missed or we missed that is near the wall we’ll learn of it.” I said.

  Shark nodded, “Got it.”

  “If I may Colonel.” Silenz held out a hand asking for the stick.

  “Go ahead.” I handed Silenz the stick.

  “I would like to also commit some of my infantry squads to patrol towards this part here.” He pointed to a series of trench lines, fortifications and buildings in a southern area of the wall.

  “Hold on.” Shark said, “What is that place?” He asked.

  “I don't actually know, I just saw it on the map, it looks like a place where the goblins could hide in.” Silenz explained.

  “I don’t remember there being a place like that on Palisade either built by us or generated by the game.” I said.

  “Even then it looks to be worth checking out.” Silenz said.

  I nodded, “Shark keep to your plan, it looks like your Storm trooper squads are going to contact that place anyways. The next set of orders are also going to apply to the both of you. Silenz sends two squads directly to that place in the South. They are to remain hidden in the forest and are only to get close enough to see what is there. If they see any presence of goblins or something else that is living and moving, their orders are to observe only, and after five minutes they are to leave.” I said.

  Shark and Silenz nodded.

  “I think it would be best if we gathered our Companies and then silently picked our patrol squads from there.” Shark suggested.

  “Good idea, after that I’ll summon the other Majors for a meeting and I’ll inform them of the situation.” I said.

  “Got it.” Shark said, Silenz nodded and the two soon afterwards left. Several minutes had passed and Shark was the first to send out orders, followed by Silenz.

  “1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Storm Trooper Squads, rendezvous at the Broken Wall and wait for me there.” Orders from Major Shark.

  “I want the 3rd and 4th Infantry squads to meet me at the Vanguard Bunker that was originally the first flag.” Orders from Major Silenz.

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  I brought out my clipboard, and sent my own order, “All Majors except for Shark and Silenz come to the War room for a meeting.” Orders from Major CeoOfMacNCheese.

  ……

  Ceo

  10:05 Hours

  Main Bunker: War Room

  “So why were we called here?” Major Fish asked, who with the other 8 Majors were in the War Room around my desk.

  “I just wanted to inform y’all that we may have an unknown force inside of the Wall with us.” I stated.

  Everybody looked confused, “Like another army?” FortheLolz asked.

  “Yes, Shark, Silenz and I think that the attack last night wasn’t just an attempted raid, but were originally meant to be reinforcements for another larger force.” I clarified.

  “And that force is in here with us?” Fish asked.

  “Yes, at least we think there's the possibility of a force in here with us.” I added.

  “Do you have any evidence of this enemy force?” Village asked.

  “I just have a hunch, too many odd coincidences.” I said.

  “Like what exactly?” Village asked.

  “It’s hard for me to explain exactly all I need y’all to know is that keep an eye on the forest, and do head counts every hour or two, if anyone goes missing report it immediately. Other than that, continue what you have been doing. I’ll know if someone hasn’t been doing the headcounts.” I said.

  They all nodded, “Anything else you need us to do?” Buzz asked.

  “I’ll need a company to start up patrols after Shark’s and Silenz recon squads have come back from their Mission.” I said.

  “I can have my company perform patrols.” Memes suggested.

  I nodded, “are there any questions?” I looked around and everybody shook their heads.

  “Ok, y’all can get back to work now. I’ll be here probably for the rest of the day, until I get new information from the recon squads.” I said.

  The majors nodded, “Y’all are dismissed.” I said.

  They nodded and they all walked out of the war room leaving me.

  The door closed, I simply sat there for a few moments, I then got up out of my chair and looked at the map. I got down onto the ground to get a closer look at it, the place with unidentified buildings inside the wall wasn’t the only strange unlabeled addition made to the map. On the Northern part of the Kyntari side of the river, it was very detailed considering the size of the map. It looked to be a small complex, with an area of around several hundred feet; it consisted of three buildings, two large buildings, and a smaller one. All of course unlabeled.

  I looked at the legend, white stood for trenches, green for tunnels, blue for bunkers, and yellow for pillboxes. The map covered a small area, of around 10 by 10 miles the exact dimensions to fit the wall, and was highly detailed. Each trenchline, bunker, pillbox, tunnel at the moment of shut were meticulously drawn in on both sides too.

  Pillboxes consistently covered the map in geometric consistent distances all equally spaced apart from each other, which from what I could see outside still held true. The most interesting detail is that over half of the pillboxes aren’t just simply pillboxes but had a combination of one yellow flanked by two blue meaning it was a combination of a pillbox and a small bunker. Though these bunkers weren’t as big as the main bunker or secondary frontline bunkers. Which turns out almost all of them were consistently considered that combo.

  These pillbox small bunker combos were present on both sides of the river, all located “behind” the main bunker, or away from where the front line was located, which is now the river. In between the main bunker and the broken wall, were a column of large bunkers each the size of the main bunker all equally spaced out. Though these were considered pure bunkers due to the lack of yellow in them.

  I flipped over the map, and I was greeted with a more notably different map that seemed to be a reflection of the map on the other side. There was no river here, just blocks of blue that seemed to be the bunkers. There were different lines, not matching the trench lines positions. These lines were the color black, and the legend labeled these lines tunnels, the blue as I predicted before remained bunkers.

  The tunnels, which ran all around the map like spider webs. All extending out from the bunkers, each tunnel connecting a bunker to its closest neighbor and so on. Including the pillbox bunker combo. There were a lot of tunnels under, miles of them, not all of them connected to a bunker, instead several tunnels seemed to even go under the river, into the Noxu side.

  “Now that I think about it, there was an idea to dig under the Noxu lines, place a bunch of explosives under there and make a gaping hole in their lines that way.” I muttered to myself.

  That plan was proposed on the tenth day but I had shot it down as it would take too long and the servers would’ve been shut down by the time we were ready. However it looks like some squads took the liberty of doing it themselves, and it also looks like they never got the chance to enact it either.

  However it looks like the Noxu had the same idea as us, and also dug several tunnels under our lines too. But the end result was the same, just tunnels leading under our front lines.

  There were also several more tunnels that led to the unknown buildings on both the northern and southern side of the map.

  There wasn’t any more interesting out of place or new information that I hadn’t known before. I and pretty much everyone else made use of the tunnel system later in the battle to make safe travel to the front line.

  I flipped over the map to the top side of the map, after that I went over to my desk and searched through the drawers for a pencil or pen. I found a simple click pen in the bottom right drawer, I checked if it had ink, it did and then moved back to the map.

  I crouched down and wrote in small cursive words, over the location of the gate on the east side of the walls, and titled over it. “The Broken Wall”

  ……

  Ceo

  War Room: Main Bunker

  14:13 Hours

  It’s been several hours since I started working on titling the map, I had only titled several Dozen places in the walls I knew. Which was a ten minute job, after that I had dug through the many cabinets I had added, looking specifically for a journal. Which I did.

  What was I doing with a journal?

  Writing a report about yesterday for time keeping sake, after that I had written a report on what happened today, what I knew about what happened today. I expect the journal to get pretty full soon if this is going to be a daily report.

  I had titled the journal “Colonel Ceo’s Report on events that happens in this alien world” on the front. The journal was a college ruled spiral notebook, the kind a kid attending class in the mainland US was required to use for class.

  But eventually I ran out of information to add for today, after that I grabbed another journal. Waiting around for information can be quite boring and I rarely ever stop thinking, so I may as well write or draw whatever crosses my mind right now. Before the game shutdown I’ve had a fascination with a recent discovery of a material that could be produced in Jupiter's radiation belt, while I don’t remember the name, I do remember what it could be used to produce what was artificial gravity, without centrifugal or thrust based acceleration to mimic gravity. It is also said that the material is capable of also producing an anti gravity field counteracting that of a gravity well's influence.

  All space ships that are expected to make major orbital maneuvers and changes do so under an acceleration of one g. As a result their decks are laid parallel to the main engines direction of thrust. This also means ”gravity” is only produced while the ship is under acceleration or there is a classic centrifugal spinner, which is expensive and hard to maintain on a ship. However the artificial gravity material would remove the need for an expensive and fragile spinner, and have limited periods of “gravity” while under acceleration.

  Then there is the anti-gravity capabilities of the material, which would make landing on astronomical bodies bigger than an asteroid such as a moon or dwarf planet, much easier, it would also allow for a change in how spaceships are laid out-

  *Knock* *knock* *knock*

  I was thrown out of my thoughts and looked at the door, I looked at my journal. It was a simplified ship design that used the artificial gravity material I decidedly named gravity plates. I got up out of my chair and went to the door.

  “You don’t need to knock, this is still the War Room.” I said.

  The door opened as Shark and Silenz entered, “I guess?” Shark said.

  I sighed, “Any new information?” I asked.

  ”Yes, there is new information.” Shark looking slightly panicked, entering the room.

  ”What is it?” I asked.

  “There is another group with us in the walls.” Shark said.

  I closed the door as Silenz entered, “What do we know about them?” I asked to unroll the map and straighten it out.

  All we know is that none of them are goblins but in fact look like bipedal lizards.” Shark began.

  “Bipedal Lizards?” I asked.

  Silenz answered, “Yes bipedal lizards, it was my recon squads that made first visual contact with them, even worse the squad reported that the lizards were carrying guns.”

  ”So we are now dealing with a potential peer enemy.” I said.

  ”From the way things are looking, that looks to be true.” Shark said.

  ”Where were they found?” I asked.

  ”The buildings and fortifications to the south.” Silenz said.

  ”What do the fortifications look like?” I asked.

  ”The fortification is a large concrete wall. The recond squads hadn’t gotten a good look at them but from what little they were able to see inside the concrete wall which from the description they gave me. They saw large concrete boxes, the squad weren’t able to tell what the buildings were for.” Shark explained

  I sighed, “Alright then, what about the buildings on the northern side? Your recon squads would’ve come across it.”

  “They have, last I heard from them, they found three buildings there. They asked for permission to enter, and I gave it.” Shark said.

  “What did they find?” I asked.

  “They reported finding 3 buildings, but they were only able to access one of the three buildings. In the building they were able to access, it was two stories tall, the first floor most notably has a massive server room, and a quantum computer the size of a house. The second floor seems to be a control room of some sort.”

  “A Quantum Computer?” I asked.

  “Yes, you heard me right. What is it?” Shark asked, confused.

  “Why would there be a quantum computer here with us?” I said.

  “That is a very good question, but how does that relate to this?” Shark asked.

  “Do you know what one of the many uses of a quantum computer has beyond cybersecurity/warfare, and research?” I asked.

  “They are also used in conjunction with Smart AI on Space ships and Data Centers. I am most familiar with their usage in commanding the D.E.A.D Network on the East Coast and Major American Cities.” Shark said.

  “Yes, that is correct, Smart AI is pretty much synonymous with quantum computers these days. Venusian Colonies also use D.E.A.D Cannons as well, San Cielo also has the largest Quantum Computer in the entirety of Venus which has the Smart A.I Administrator.” I said.

  “Are you saying that you think there's a D.E.A.D Cannon, and a Smart AI here with us?” Shark asked.

  “It’s an outlandish idea but it was the only thought I could latch onto when you mentioned a quantum computer in the only building they can access.” I said.

  “Let's also not forget about the Lizard people we found in the south.” Silenz said.

  “Right, um… Shark, do you think you can handle the planning and scouting for the south? I am going to be focused on the North for now, as it's getting close to my area of expertise. I’ll take over exploring the buildings.” I said.

  Shark nodded, “Got it, though I’ll need Villages’ Engineers.”

  “Got it, I’ll make sure he reports to you.” I said, I grabbed my stuff as Shark and Silenz got to work once more.

  After that I moved to the door, “I hope things turn out well on your end.” I said.

  “I hope so too.” Shark said.

  I nodded and closed the door, quickly making my way out of the main Bunker. The path I decided to take was to go to the broken wall first and then orientate myself from there.