“Here is everything you need to know,” He said as he handed me a terminal. As I opened the terminal, I was greeted by the insignia of the United Bloc followed by the D.O.D’s. I was then introduced to a column of files, named Archive 1 to the number 100.

I tapped on the first archive, it opened and revealed to me a plethora of text. I skimmed through the first paragraphs, it detailed the history of the world thus far. It had actually been 89 years since I was frozen.

“I know you have a lot of reading to do so let me summarize the important parts.” The Director smiled at me. He must be putting up an act but I could see the fear building up behind his facade. Was I really that daunting?

“The United Bloc has secured the entire world. Everything is under our rule. Populations are allowed limited freedoms during the day and must stay at home during the night. Only essential factory workers and government agents are allowed to be outside during the night. the population of the world has reached a breaking point of 11 billion people and we are currently facing a housing and food crisis but not as severe for now. Anyways, that’s the boring stuff out of the way. We didn’t unfreeze you so that you can be human resource managers. Here is the new problem..”

He handed me an envelope, a surprise that something as old as an envelope was still being used. I opened the envelope and pulled out a set of papers and pictures. I looked over the pictures and at first, I refused to believe what I was seeing.

“I can see that you are in disbelief, I can assure you, everything you see there is true and not forged”

The first picture I pulled out was that of the remains of a man. He was no civilian or a common soldier. He was wearing a helmet of iron and chainmail around his torso that covered his blue tunic. The blue tunic had a dragon symbol drawn on it. He was bloodied, covered in holes that bled but judging from the state of the body in the picture, he must have been dead for an hour or so.

The second picture was of a strange humanoid. It had sharp ears, long hair that reached its shoulders and fair features. From what I remember, it resembled what people called back then in fictions as Elves. The thing had its torso pulverized leaving only the upper and lower sections of its body intact.

There were many more pictures, the more I went through each, what I saw became stranger and stranger. I refused to admit it at first that such creatures could exist but given that I was woken, the seriousness in the director’s tone all pointed out to the possibility that this was, as a matter of fact, true and real.

The last picture was the weirdest of them all. It was taken a few meters from a huge body, twice the size of the average man. The body was fat, it wore a leather suit to cover its crotch. Beside it was a huge wooden club, presumably its weapon. It was brown but pale, probably because it was dead already. Its wound seems to be a blast to the face. I guess from a tank? Or a rocket launcher.

All of the pictures were bizarre. Everything looked as if they came from some sort of fantasy world from someone’s imagination. There were elves, dwarves, orcs, ogres and the big one must have been a cyclops. What were they doing lying dead in the pictures?

I found the answer to my question when I read the first line on the document that came with the pictures.

Incident-1A

The following information details the attacks undertaken by an unknown force through a subspace anomaly, classified as a WORMHOLE by UB scientists, in and around the city of Paris.

This was where things got interesting.

..At around 0700, a subspace anomaly manifested in a suburb in Paris named PS-17. The resulting radiation that leaked at unprecedented levels during its original manifestation destroyed the DNA structure of everything biological within a kilometer radius in the time span of a minute before the levels of radiation seemingly disappeared instantaneously. Unknown humanoid entities started exiting the portal en mass and proceeded to attack civilians and responding government agents. Between 0730 and 0821, a quarter of Paris had been overwhelmed by sheer the sheer number of attackers. At around 0900, the attacks had stalled after the arrival of the 218th and 412th mechanized divisions and subsequent counterattacks by local forces.

By 1100, the attackers had been destroyed, incapacitated or captured and the subspace anomaly secured by the arriving Special Containment Unit..

The casualties were by the thousands, mainly due to the fact that at the time of the attack, many were outside and rushing to work. The enemies were indiscriminate in their killing, be you a disabled, elderly or pregnant. They had no remorse according to these documents.

After reading about the atrocities. I felt something within me build-up to the point that it wanted to burst. The very thing that motivated me to join the cause of the United Bloc many years ago. My rage.

I gritted my teeth and felt my body tremble as the rage within me built up to a point that I wanted to explode.

I then looked at the Director who was now standing behind the couch. He was sweating profusely and he did not hide the fear in his face. I stood up and handed him the envelope which he took with his trembling hands.

“Uh.. so, as you can see. We have an entirely alien enemy here. The subspace anomaly has been secured by the Department Of Defense in accordance with the orders of the Council. Your mission will be to scout their world and infiltrate their ranks if possible. The event has been fed to the public as an attack that can endanger the very peace we have sought to maintain after so many years. Fear has built up among the populace and support for a counterattack through their world is at its highest it could ever be. In a month, you’ll be deployed with the rest of your team. I will give you your objectives next week”

I simply stared at the director as he slowly backed away. I was still sitting on the couch when I noticed that my feet had somehow cracked the floor beneath it and that the couch couldn’t really support my weight that well.

“For the time being, you are welcome to roam the facility and train yourself. Make yourself comfortable before your mission. Your teammates are in the process of being debriefed right now and you’ll be able to meet them tomorrow. Have a good day, Ghost”

He tried to act as if he was not afraid. He put up his facade again before leaving and closing the door of my room behind him. What I had was this terminal in my hand.

Okay.. let’s see, Archive 1.

Archive 1, history of the United Bloc it said.

I read it through the night. It was very detailed concerning the founding and subsequent rule of the United Bloc, the founding of the council and the members, the laws, the eventual destruction of all national and cultural identities. I couldn’t be happier. Peace had been restored for so long, no wars, no unrest, just people living and not suffering.

The Council was the most interesting bit. It’s stated that they hold absolute power over the world and all their policies, orders, commands are to be carried out as law. The members.. they were all redacted for some reason, protecting their identities I guess?

It wasn’t too bad to not be a bit safer by redacting their names. Even if there hasn’t been any reported unrest, there was always a small chance that somewhere in this world where the United Bloc’s hold was weak, a small band of rebels was scheming behind the scenes to topple the very peace that served as the foundation of this world.

My savior, I believe he was one of the first founding members of the Council. I remember vividly the time when pulled me from the rubble and helped me on my feet. He was a good man, I wonder if he’s still here? Maybe he was frozen along with me? Well, it was unlikely that he would freeze himself.

I ran through 25 of the archives throughout the night. My eyes never surrendered to sleep, they did not even feel tired even after hours. The 25 archives I read covered the first 25 years of the United Bloc.

Cultural Purge

That was what they called their solution to humanity’s problems. They took advantage of the fear that was burned into the minds of the survivors and manipulated their psyches. They destroyed every bit of cultural and religious identification and promoted a single worldview. Where humanity was not divided by anything but united under the sole reason that all of us, regardless of color, age, ethnicity, was a human.

Soon, even ethnic identification was purged and a new, pure, clean, and sterile slate was provided. Nothing divided us, only the separate landmasses served as the walls of division but anyone could go anywhere, there was no special privilege.

Eventually, I got bored with reading. I wanted to go out and do my mission already. I figured that if they showed me a picture of the dead people who were the victims of those monsters, I would have erupted into an uncontrollable rage. I would have taken a gun, marched myself where Paris was and threw myself into that godforsaken world and into battle.

But, I don’t even know where this facility was located.

When our savior transported us here, we were sleeping. Without our consent, we were sedated by something powerful that knocked us out within a minute. There was no point in complaining when we woke up, though we felt disgruntled.

The past, it was so distant now.

I inspected my body and what I was wearing, I didn’t really pay any attention to how I looked after being released from that casing.

I stood up from the couch, the couch reacted as if it breathe a huge sigh of relief. I walked towards the mirror and, I was bigger from what I remember.

I stood at around 6,5 feet, my muscles, well, my body, in general, was hulking. I wore a sort of tight clothing that had been torn apart. My exercise must have strained the fiber too much. No matter, as I was bored the hell out, I decided to exercise again.

-

Council, I do not mean to question your decision to release these.. soldiers. But I could not help but be worried that they are not fit for the mission? Please, allow me to state my concerns..

Records show that they were only extremely skilled special forces soldiers that aided in the mission of the United Bloc decades ago. But, the researchers had noticed that they have gained some exponential change, physically and mentally. Their bodies have grown far from their normal size, their muscles.. they.. we don’t know what really happened but the top minds within our team hypothesize that the cryochambers must have been tampered.

Their mental states are.. dubious, one of them exerts an aura of fear and intimidation around himself while the others exert auras of similar magnitude. Almost all of them refuse to speak when conversed with. We have thus concluded that they are far from being the ideal soldiers for the mission.

wait! No, you misunderstand. I do not have anything agains-

..yes, the mission shall proceed as planned. I apologize for my arrogance and transgression of authority. Yes, yes, the portal is stable and they'll be ready within a month.

for peace and harmony.