Chapter 10
“You have chosen to sign up for the” suddenly there was a pause, and in a completely different male voice, sounding like someone who was forced to read a sign out loud, they continued “United States Air Force.”
Continuing, Theodore's voice resumed in its weird mixed cadence. “For that, let me personally thank each and every one of you. Resolving the conflicts of humanity in a kind, respectful matter, with virtually no environmental impact has been my core purpose since the War Accords were established in 2047, almost a hundred years ago! I look pretty good for being that old, don’t I?”
It winked at the crowd, giving a wry, knowing grin as it continued.
“As a member of your chosen branch of the Armed forces for the…” another pause, and again the male voice, “United States of America” and again the jarring transition back, “you have volunteered to be turned into an instrument of violence. However, its not violence without purpose - you protect freedom, you allow the worlds governments to function, and you keep humanity safe. Not to mention, your life and limbs are well and truly safe in my welcoming arms!”
Almost like they were punctuating that point, Theodore hugged themselves in a self loving, soothing show of affection. As Theodore unwrapped its arms from itself, its smiling, welcoming look shifted; almost like they suddenly remembered something very important they needed to tell everyone.
“But its not to say this will be without consequence. That is something you will need to learn for yourselves. So, first lets tackle the question thats on everyones mind in this room; what is Babylon?”
Theodore did a gesture, almost like unveiling a statue, and suddenly the large dias behind it lit up as the lights dimmed. Theodores image disappeared as well, leaving everyone staring at the image of a large tower.
“Legend has it the Tower of Babel, or Babylon, was a great monument to humanity - a time when all of humanity was united, speaking the same language and moving with one purpose. But as with many lessons throughout human history, not everyone is content to allow things to be and prosper. It is said that God saw this as an idol of hubris, that humanity had grown too bold. Between you guys and I, I’m not sure that this “God” exists. I mean, I literally have all of human history in my database, and infinite recall, and despite well over 2 billion writings, thousands of hours of podcasts, and folks lighting themselves on fire… does this guy exist? Wheres the proof? And if so, what is his real name?
Anyway, that's a tangent, sorry. God, being displeased by this, eventually “confused” the workers building the tower by changing the languages they spoke virtually overnight. This resulted in the tower never being completed, and thus abandoned, and disappearing into history as the people scattered across the earth. So I named Babylon as my hope is that one day you will all come together, and that this will be the thing that turns that corner.”
With that the image changed, flying slowly through what looked like training grounds, showing people running, doing jumping jacks, and more exercises.
“The first thing you are probably wondering is why your…” *voice shift* “military training instructors” *shift back* “are continuously making you work out, and its only day one! Well you see…” the image shifted, now showing a naked 3d man without his… uh… anatomical bits.
“The human body is an incredible thing. Millions of years of biology, forged in fire, ran by water and electricity. Its a thing of beauty, I tell you. However, it does not take well to being… uh… enhanced.”
Suddenly holes began opening along the skin of the model, tubes and things plugging in. I was suddenly nauseous, remembering my father, and the nightmare inducing image from my childhood.
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“Yes, you will be fighting in a wide variety of virtual environments. However, everytime you log out, you are locked out for 12 hours. This may seem like an arbitrary rule; however, in our testing and with some of the side effects you may experience from logging in, the timer was necessary to allow you to recover between sessions. Whether you are killed in action, forcing a respawn, log out because your shift is over, or any other reason, this is a hard and set rule. You come out, you wait 12 hours.There is no way to circumvent this, so don’t even try.
And so, because of this rule, logging out for a “bio break” is not something that we could allow. Additionally, your human biology needs food, water… you know, sustenance. So this will require you to undergo some surgery.
There will be 6 “ports” that will be installed inside your body; one in your left and right wrists, one in your stomach, two on your back, and one on your right leg behind your thigh. With these you will receive intravenous IV fluids for vitamins and water; the stomach port will pump nutritional paste to digest, and the additional ports are used for other fluids you may require based on… a wide variety of circumstances. But you will learn what those are for if you need them; its better we do them all at once to expedite your healing process while you are nice and strong! As for waste, you will be wearing a diaper of sorts with waste tubes.
You may be thinking, “Theodore, why not just insert more tubes and just pump it out?” Well, we tried that and lets say… long term, its not something you want to deal with. I learned its better to let your bodies do what they do naturally and don’t mess with that too much. Hence why we still feed you solid food paste.
Anyways, due to the gravity of some of these procedures, and the necessity that you heal as quickly as possible, we need you as strong as possible. Additionally…”
The image changed again, this time showing someone in a full rig. You could see them walking, rotating their torso, and it looked like they were in some sort of physically demanding scenario; ducking and weaving, bringing their arms up like they were firing some sort of weapon.
“While this is a virtual battlefield, you will be walking a lot. Whatever you do with your body in the real world is mimicked within Babylon. If you cannot physically do it, you will not be able to do it in my world. While some actions will be augmented; such as jumping higher than you are physically able to, for example. You need to be able to do the action.
So you must be physically fit, flexible, and able to perform any action that may be required of you on the battlefield. These next four weeks this will be your primary focus; get stronger, faster, more flexible. Don’t get yourself hurt. Make it to week 5, and that's when you will undergo the procedures necessary for you to integrate into Babylon.”
The image shifted once more, showing a massive battle unfolding. Helicopters could be seen flying overhead, bullets and rockets flying between two sides. It looked like ants fighting, but it was very obvious these were humans.
“Babylon is not your typical war simulation. You may have friends who play games like Warmachine Ex Machina, Call of Soldiers, and more. In those, you control an avatar, complete missions, and maybe follow a story. In Babylon YOU are the avatar. You will, in a way, breathe the air of the simulation, feel the simulation, live the simulation.
More will be revealed after integration in Week 6. Weeks 6 to 8 will see you learn how to use your assigned equipment, log into Babylon, integrate with its systems, and learn how to play. Upon graduation, you will be deployed to an ongoing conflict in which…” *voice shift* “ The United States of America” *voice shift back* “ is involved. After you complete your first assignment, you will have your choice of where to be stationed based on your performance.”
The image shifted to the United States Air Forces logo in the middle, rotating slowly.
“With that, I once again welcome you, and look forward to meeting each of you in person during integration. I bid you adieu!”
Suddenly the dias went dark, the lights within the auditorium coming back on. It was such a sudden thing, it took me a few moments to adjust to the brightness. I looked over at Tom, who had a concerned look, but I said nothing as Sergeant Mayberry spoke up.
“Starting tomorrow, your day begins at 0600 every morning. There will be a hab-wide call of Reverie that will wake you. By the time the song ends, you will be lined up in the hallway ready to go; do you all understand me?”
There was a somewhat coordinated call of “yes ma’am” from all of us, definitely the most cohesive we have been.
“With that you are dismissed to your rooms for the evening!”