LOCATION: OVAL OFFICE, WHITE HOUSE
CITY: WASHINGTON, DC
DATE: JANUARY 1, 2032 | TIME: 5:30 AM
United States President Michael Trent arose early on January 1st, 2032.
It was the last year of his second and final term as the President. It was hard to believe how much the world had changed since he took office in January of 2025.
Politics had been fundamentally transformed after the global induction.
Since the System had provided agency for every person on the planet and direct control over their own destiny, it had redefined the role of government and the need for governance.
Trent quickly got dressed and made the short journey to the Oval Office, where his Chief of Staff waited with his early morning briefing.
Being so early on New Year’s Day, Jonathan Keaton had volunteered to do the briefing solo, giving the rest of the Cabinet and other staff members the morning off.
It wasn’t as if any of them really needed extra sleep, and none would have been hungover. The Vitality provided by their System enhancements made both of those issues relics of the past. He just wanted to give them a bit more time before they kicked off their work for the new year.
Trent entered, and poured a generous cup of coffee from the carafe warming on the table.
“Morning, Jonathan. Happy New Year. How was last night?”
“Good morning, Mr. President,” Keaton said. “I had a nice time. My wife and I spent the evening at home talking about the past year and watching the ball drop on TV.”
Trent laughed. “That’s pretty low key for you. I’m impressed.”
He sat on the couch and invited Keaton to do the same.
“So, what have we got today?”
Keaton set his own coffee down and cleared his throat. He raised a tablet and began reading down the bullet points.
“First of all, sir, I assume you’ve read through the greetings from other world leaders?”
“Yes,” Trent said. “The leadership chat group has been quite lively for hours now. I’ve responded to most, but check later and let me know if I’ve missed any.”
Keaton made a note for himself.
“Sounds good. I’ll give it a few more hours and follow up. Next is the election. You wanted me to update you periodically. Polls still indicate Hannah Vexley is indeed the frontrunner as we’d expected, with more than a twenty point lead over the rest of the field in almost every poll. It’s still early, but if the election were today, she’d certainly have it in the bag.”
Trent nodded.
“I always did think she was a straight shooter. She never made it easy, and was fearless in holding those in power to account. It’ll be fun to watch her grow into the role if she is elected.”
President Trent looked out the window. The skies were blue, a relative rarity in the Washington DC winter.
“The abolishment of political parties has made such a huge difference in politics,” he said. “I’m really impressed with Barrett Langston’s leadership in making that happen. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for some of those goats to let go of their old party identities.”
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Keaton laughed.
“That’s true, sir. But once they realized they weren’t being replaced, they only had to find their new purpose. And once again Langston’s leadership was paramount.”
“I’m sure his Orator class and his crazy Charisma stat helped a lot,” the President said. “Now, give me the update on the open incursions in the Sahara and the Himalayas.”
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LOCATION: INCURSION #0032-SAHARA
AREA: THE SAHARA DESERT, ALGERIA
DATE: JANUARY 1, 2032 | TIME: 11:30 AM
While Li Wei handled the incursion in the Himalayan mountains, Samir al-Mansoor was leading Incursion #0032-Sahara due to its relative proximity to his base of operations in Dubai. His second in command for the op was Erik Drexler, the former commando from German Special Forces.
For exactly one year after the people of Earth exited their global System Tutorials, the planet knew complete peace. There was little squabbling amongst the people, as everyone was busy getting used to their new way of life.
Guilds were formed, replacing many of the international agencies and trade groups with actual non-profit entities that cared not only about goods and services, but also the true development of the people behind them all.
This quiet year was almost boring for the Peacekeeper Force, which had been training hard for a future they knew would be coming.
And for warriors, waiting was always the worst part.
The Force had grown to 300,000 members, and while they were ready for anything, that single year of peace left them feeling like a spring wound tight.
It turned out an alien race called the Krollans had sent an observation ship to watch over the planet during its transition, and they were successful in keeping the planet cloaked for exactly one Earth-year.
After that, the floodgates opened.
Skrixx and his crew arrived on Earth and made first contact. But the aliens that came next were not as benevolent and incursion portals began appearing at different points on the planet.
Skrixx and his crew were merchants and explorers, and thus possessed limited combat ability. But that was less of a problem for Earth, which had a full contingent of warriors, bored and ready for action.
The first incursions were mere probes, testing the baby planet’s response. But once the outside forces saw that their probes were met with real teeth, they began to get serious.
The System and the Peacekeepers started counting from the fifth incursion, the first one that required a serious response, using a number and location for identification.
The System provided notice to the Force, and Grim and Li coordinated the response.
Professions had come online after the global tutorial, and Peacekeepers were able to board both commercial and military flights to get to their destination, suit up, and jump into the fray.
On January 1st, 2032, Samir and Drexler watched their troops fight against the onslaught.
The incursion had begun three days prior when the System informed Grim and Li that a deterioration in spacetime had been detected in the Sahara Desert.
They assigned it to Samir and Drexler, who coordinated with local forces and converged on the location.
Samir had arrived in time to see the portal form. It was a strange phenomenon to witness.
It was just before noon and the desert sands were already hot enough to see heat shimmering above the sands in the morning sun.
When that shimmer began to appear high on a hill of sand, Samir told the two hundred troops to prepare for breach.
As they watched on, the movement accelerated and the troops felt a pull. It was a physical thing, and they had to hold their ground far enough from the portal to keep from getting pulled into it.
“Stay back!” Samir shouted. “You don’t want to be sucked into a spacetime anomaly as it’s being formed. There’s no telling where you might end up!”
The distant dunes beyond the hill bent and blurred, but then suddenly a hole was ripped into reality and hundreds of beasts came stampeding through the newly formed portal.
They were the general size and shape of buffalo and appeared to weigh hundreds of pounds each.
Their thick muscles were covered in dark black fur, but their heads were grotesque. Giant horns adorned their skulls like bulls, but when the first one caught scent of living beings and turned toward the assembled troops, it roared loudly.
Samir had to master himself to keep from shaking at the sheer volume of the monster’s battle cry. And the row after row of jagged teeth.
For three days, the Peacekeepers battled waves of them. But it was on January 1st that Samir had a new idea. He called Drexler over.
“Erik,” Samir said, “I’ve got an idea, and I think you’re going to like it.”
The smile that crossed the German’s face made Samir laugh.
“Tell me,” Erik said.
“It occurs to me that doors go both ways.”
Erik’s smile widened. “I like where you’re going with this…”
“I say we take two or three more and see what’s on the other side.”
Erik clapped Samir on the shoulder.
“Grim and Li are going to be so mad they’re not here. But fuck yes, I’m in. Let’s do it.”