Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 141: Forming Factions

Zac frowned as he listened to Thomas’ speech. While the words sounded good it felt to him that it wasn’t that simple.

“Why don’t you just drop a few nukes on the Incursions? It’s better we get some radiation than having to risk our lives,” a man in the back row shouted, and many seemed to agree by the nods.

“Honestly that was our first thought,” Thomas said with a sigh. “Better we create no-go blast zones than having people get slaughtered or turned into Zombies. But soon after the integration happened we made a troubling discovery. All our weapons of mass destruction, and most of our high capacity arsenals are simply… Gone.”

“WHAT?” multiple shouts erupted in the hall, many looked fearfully at each other.

Zac was surprised at the news, but not overly so. He had the same idea as the man who shouted earlier, but if they hadn’t dropped the nukes even after billions of people died, they simply weren’t able to. Seeing as the system wanted a struggle to create powerhouses it didn’t make sense for it to leave behind technological weapons that simply erased all struggle. A nuke at every incursion in the beginning would swiftly have ended the invasions after all.

He also noticed that while some seemed shocked, many took the news with stride. It obviously wasn’t a too tightly guarded secret.

“All nukes, chemical warfare and high capacity bombs are gone. Most of our airplanes, carriers, and battleships are gone as well. They weren’t stolen or destroyed, but simply removed. We are quite sure it is the doing of the System itself, as even any reference to an atom bomb is removed from all computers and even books. If you find an encyclopedia you’ll notice that there is just a blank space in the pages where the restricted information once was.”

Even Zac was shocked this time, once again reminded just how powerful the system was. To remove even any mention of the things it didn’t like was a horrifying capacity. However, they were still all talking about it, so hopefully it meant that the System at least couldn’t alter memories.

“To make matters worse, we can’t build them. We are not allowed. An atomic bomb is not an extremely complicated thing, and many of our scientists are able to construct them. But as soon as we make some headway the prototypes vanish out of thin air,” Thomas added. “In essence, the System wants us to fight with our own hands.”

Many in the room looked despondent. Clearly they had hoped the government would solve the problems for them, and perhaps that something was just holding them up. But Thomas Fischer’s declaration dashed any such hope. Obviously rifles and hand-guns were still around, but their efficacy was limited.

“But do not worry, we have a plan.” Thomas said, brining back the attention to him.

“We have representatives present from all corners of the world, meaning we have the means to quickly travel and assist everyone, no matter where they are. However, this doesn’t happen in practice. Why?” Thomas asked as he looked over the audience.

“It’s simple. There are only two public teleporters at the moment. Ours and the Cradle of God. And you should all know by now that whoever enters the Cradle never comes back. We do not know if it’s controlled by a traitor, a powerful Dominator, or even a foreign force that somehow has circumvented the rules. So in essence, only New Washington is accessible to the forces of the world.

“All other teleporters are closed, and I do not blame you. Leaving the teleporters open would subject your towns and citizens to danger at any time. But there is a solution. The New World Government is happy to announce that we are on course to have the first System-approved Lord within the month.”

Murmurs started through the area, many looking surprised at each other.

“For those of you who do not know, it means that new forms of settings of the teleporters can be enabled. It is possible to create a closed system where all the portals of allied towns are public to each other, whereas everyone outside the network can’t access us. That would give us an immense edge in the fight against the invaders.”

Many nodded, but there were a few people who looked like Zac felt, troubled. There was no such thing as a free lunch after all.

“We would be able to coordinate both defense and assault. Our warriors would be able to go from hotspot to hotspot and keep reaping the rewards. Because remember, while incursions are dangerous, they are also a huge opportunity to gain power. It is not without reason that many of the high rankers have their base of operations close to incursions,” Thomas added.

“This network would not only help with battle, but with all manner of society. It would help with trade, information and even relocation efforts for those who try to reach their loved ones. And every time a new town join the collective, we all grow a little bit stronger.

“Throughout history mankind has bleen splintered and our own worst enemies. But if there is one thing that has always marked our species; our adaptability and ingenuity. We haven’t really come together as one race before, but we haven’t been tested like this before either. The New World Government is a living testament to the possibility of this.

“Thirty-eight government towns are already slated to join the network as soon as we can create it. It would allow us to travel through large parts of our new world,” Thomas said, letting the audience sit in the silence and ponder the implications.

“Can anyone join?” a voice shouted from the back.

“For now, yes,” another man said as he stepped forward next to Thomas Fischer, and Zac recognized him as one of the delegates of another government town.

“However, we need to make sure the safety of the network. We will do a site visit to your town to ensure no atrocities are going on, or that letting you join the network would impact the other negatively in some other way. We would also place a permanent government liaison at your town to keep an open channel of communications,” he continued.

“But do not worry. The control of the town and its development is not something the New World Government will interfere in. There are only two requirements. The first is that the town accept the newly drafted Rule of Law that is there to ensure the human rights of all citizens. The second is contribution to the war efforts,” Thomas added.

“Let no one forget. The largest reason that we need to combine our forces is to fight back against the invaders. Someone who is not interested in contributing to humanity has no place in our network,” he said as he slowly looked over the population with a steely gaze.

“Edmonton is ready to fight for humanity,” a large man suddenly said with a booming voice as he stood up.

“Little Creek is ready to fight for humanity,” another woman with a huge scar across her face soon added not long after.

One by one a lot of people stood up and professed their readiness to fight for humanity. Zac silently looked on the spectacle with a small frown. His time with Ogras had made him a bit more cynic, and he instinctively felt that the audience participation in this last meeting were plants by the governments.

The forces might be real and their town were ready to join, but their participation was likely already negotiated and done before this meeting started. This was only reinforced as he saw the stocky man who ruled the town close to the Undead Incursion stand up and profess his allegiance.

Zac knew then and there that any hope of him using the teleporter through normal means wouldn’t be possible. It was clear that the government was setting up a sphere of influence. There was no way that Zac would join them at this point in time, so he would be cut off from the teleportation network.

They would use the safety in numbers and promise of becoming stronger to rope more and more forces into joining. It was true what Thomas said, each time someone joined their alliance it would get stronger, and the outsiders would get more and more ostracized.

He threw a glance at the Marshals, and was somewhat relieved to see that the three seemed to be completely unaffected by the commotion in the room. A quick look over at Billy showed that the giant was still snoring away, obviously uncaring about what was going on, but the slight frown on Nigel’s face showed that they weren’t one of the forces that had made a deal with the government.

“What if we don’t join?” a loud voice suddenly asked after the hubbub had died down a bit.

“We hope that as many as possible will join us in our fight, but we understand that some have their own aspirations. We will not force anyone to join unless they feel comfortable with it. However, please beware that New Washington’s teleporter will become private again a month after the network is set up,” Thomas answered.

“Having an open node in the network will risk the whole alliance, and we can’t allow that. The month is so that all forces of the world will be given ample time to consider our offer. It will also hopefully allow a few more forces to gain a teleporter and join us. But after that we need to think about the safety of our citizens, and from there on there will be no more admission,” the politician continued.

“At certain intervals the teleporter will open though, to allow teleportation to New Washington only. That would be an opportunity to join us at a later date,” another delegate added.

“As soon as the members have been finalized and the network secured we will begin our campaign to retake our land from the foreign invaders. I will not go into specifics at this time due to security concerns, but our goal is to completely close all the incursions plaguing New Earth before the anniversary of the integration,” Thomas said.

A stunned silence spread through the hall from the strong declaration. Clearly the New World Government wasn’t messing around. Zac personally was skeptic. They talked big for a group of people who still hadn’t closed a single Incursion. At the same time he didn’t want to create a scene since he couldn’t do the job alone, and if humans could organize and pick up the slack it would be for the best.

The meeting kept going, and the government officials spoke a bit more about the specifics of the future alliance and fielded many questions. It became increasingly clear that the New World Government had adopted a polite “you’re either with us or against us”-approach. On the surface it was completely up to anyone whether to join or not.

But in practice they meant that unless you joined the fold you would be alienated from the rest of humanity. You wouldn’t get access to the teleporters, and it even became apparent that trade and information sharing would only happen within the alliance as well.

Zac was sure there were some additional caveats that were not disclosed at this time. He was pretty sure that the government wouldn’t try to freeze out the Marshall Clan, since a retaliation from them with Thea as a poster child might splinter the alliance. He could only hope that type of courtesy would extend to himself as well. His problem was that while his pseudonym was well known, he was not.

Personally, he was unsure what to do. He should be happy that the government was trying to organize people to fight against the incursions. But more than that there was a deeply rooted unwillingness to hand over the reins of Port Atwood. They said they would let everyone have autonomy, but the stronger the alliance got, the more power would become centralized.

He sighed as he kept trying to think of solutions of what to do, as his eyes every now and then darted to the leader of the town close to the Undead Incursion.