“Sir, if whatever comes through that portal has long ranged capabilities, you will be put at risk sir.” Cranton said, his voice stern.

“Oh, come on Cranton. Don’t you want to see the activation with your own two eyes?” John smiled at his head of intelligence before looking back through the binoculars. He was on the outside observation post of his command deck. The snipers and spotters, who had taken up several vantage points along the deck, gave him uneasy looks as he stepped over them to get a better view.

“Sir, I really must insist . . .” John ignored the Jr. officer.

Not that Major is Jr. too much, but it is Jr. to a General. Perks of rank, John thought as he put the binoculars to his eyes and the blue sky-beam came into perfect vision. It was beautiful, and had always seemed to pull John in whenever he got to see the thing with his own eyes. The energy fluctuated blue and white, and shot off into the sky. According to intelligence reports he had read, they reached to the edge of Low Earth Orbit, and just seemed to stop. A literal pillar of light.

One minute until Earth System Integration: level 1 is complete. Be warned, as appointed Lord of a region that contains a Connection Pillar, Invasion is a distinct possibility. If this happens, you will be given a 10 minute warning.

Huh, I guess we all just kind of assumed. Why wasn’t I told about this earlier? And what does Lord mean? Thought I was a governor. John thought to himself as he growled, looking at his watch which told him he had only 30 seconds left. The System responded.

Lords attached to your faction, The United States Federal Government, were not informed because the leaders of the United States Federal Government chose a Restriction. This Restriction permitted them additional resources and access to critical information. Restriction Imposed: Limited Information Sharing, System Imposed Limited Communication Through System Processes. Vulnerability to mundane communications, providing a 0.15% chance that intercepted mundane communications will be automatically decoded by the system for your adversaries and rivals. Additionally, 1% chance of automatic interception of mundane communications by your adversaries and rivals. You are a Lord, an appointed leader of a faction on Earth, vying for total supremacy of the planet.

“Makes sense I suppose. That must be why those jokers tried not to use our normal lines of communication, and relied so heavily on System integrated tech. He couldn’t tell me because of the damn System itself. He did leave hints, though. A lot of them.”

Level 1 System Integration Complete! Welcome to the Universal Community Earthlings!