[The Kingdom - Sub Level Six- War Room -2300 Hours]

[Bobby and Parallaxis enter the War Room. The War Room itself is a large undecorated underground cavern. At the center of the room is a large multi-panel control console]

Bobby: "What the hell is going on...and what's with the late night meetings?"

Parallaxis: "You got me. Looks like a lot of the higher ups are here though. Hey, isn't that the "Starman" that IJD GAF's team brought back?"

[Bobby looks around room]

Bobby: "I don't know, never seen him before."

[Miss Manners stands up form her computer console.]

Miss Manners: "All right. If everyone takes their seat we can begin. Whacker..."

Red Whacker: "As most of you know by now five days ago IJD GAF's team was sent to investigate a downed APC. Once on site the team found and recovered something extraordinary - a human pilot."

[Everyone's eyes seemed to be fixed on Starman.]

Red Whacker: "Once inside the Kingdom we began to debrief the pilot. His name is Starman and he's a defect from what were now terming "The Hitler Youth". Starman has brought us detailed information from inside Trekk Towers. Miss Manners..."

Miss Manners: "Since some of your were raised on the surface and prewar history hasn't exactly been a top priority around here we thought we'd cover some basics to get everybody on the same page..."

[Miss Manners walks over to a large computer screen which starts showing historical slides.]

Miss Manners: "At the end of the First Golden Age of Mankind Earth's population had become disenchanted with everyday life. Everything that was to be said had already been said before. Everything that was to be done had already been done before. A sort of universal boredom swept the globe and a worldwide economic depression soon followed. Resources became scarce and nations soon went to war to fight for what was left. The Resource Wars, as termed by the media of the time, only worsened the situation and soon the warring nations didn't even have the ability to feed their own armies. Nations broke apart and order broke down. People lived in fear and families had to protect themselves from Raiders, modern day pirates who killed and stole for what they needed. Those that managed to survive did so by forming small groups in which to protect what little they had. The Age of Global Coalitions was born. Each group, referred to as communities, fought among themselves for many years. Smaller communities were absorbed by the larger ones for their resources. Sometimes both communities agreed to merge. Other times the larger would simply wipe the smaller out. The borders from one community to another would change on a daily basis. The famous worldwide communication of the First Golden Age was a thing of the past. Hardly anyone knew anything about the world outside of his or her own community."

Red Whacker: "Enter the Trekk Corporation. Trekk Corp was one of the few remaining industry leaders after the fall of the First Golden Age. Where organizations, businesses, and nations collapsed after the Resource Wars Trekk Corp thrived. In fact by the middle period of the Coalition Age it had become a rather large community in itself. It wasn't long after that Trekk Corp began to assimilate the smaller communities around it. Raiders attempting to feed off of the community were found massacred out side the borders. Trekk Corp provided both an abundant food supply and total security from Raiders and other aggressive communities. People were flocking to get in the doors and borderline communities were all to happy to merge and pledge allegiance to Trekk Corp. As such it grew at an incredible rate."

Starman: "What wasn't known at the time was that this growth was due to Trekk Corp's last Golden Age invention. Even before the Resource Wars had ended Trekk Corp had solved the worlds energy crisis. They had created the world's first self-replicating energy matrix. The SEM. was literally clean abundant energy in a can. However instead of sharing their new found knowledge Trekk Corp shut its doors and waited...

Over the first few years of the Coalition Age Trekk Corp pursued its SEM research. Presumably this is the time when the first directed energy weapons were created. Of course Trekk Corps most disturbing weapons breakthrough came in the form of troops created from the remains of dead soldiers. Half man, half machines and powered by independent SEMs these troops were the perfect soldier. Named Men Operating on inDependent Energy Resources At Trekks Optional Restrictions or M.o.d.e.r.a.t.o.r.s these soldiers had no need to eat, sleep, or drink. Their self-contained energy matrices also gave them unexpected regenerative properties that made them nearly indestructible. Trekk Corp used the moderators to crush opposing communities and to acquire whatever other supplies it need to grow. "

Miss Manners: "Within a year of beginning its expansion Trekk Corp had globally absorbed all the communities and named itself as head of the new world order. The vast majority of Earth's population had no idea how Trekk Corp had acquired their resources. Most didn't care. All anyone wanted to see was that Trekk Corp had eliminated famine and war. Within in the first month of its new global control Trekk Corp unveiled its SEM device to the public. Within the first year of world control Trekk Corp named Christian Spears as its new CEO. The first task he saw to was plowing down the ruined remains of Paris and beginning construction of the Trekk Towers, the new center for world government. This marks the beginning of the Second Golden Age of Mankind."

Red Whacker: "Details from The Second Age are hard to come by. We do know that people lived in relative peace to begin with. However to maintain that peace Trek Corp found it necessary to curb certain freedoms…mainly the freedom of speech. People who criticized the Corp were known to disappear. Protest were organized and somehow Trekk Corp used this to justify using Moderators as a sort of global police. Within no time a martial law was enacted unlike anything known before. People were publicly executed for anything considered to be a violation of Trekk Corp Policy. Protest turned to terrorism and a resistance movement began. According to legend a large group of people even defected from Trekk Corp control at this time and founded the Lost City of Terra."

[Bobby leans over to Sardy.]

Bobby: "Terra?"

Sardy: "It's a ghost story among city dwellers. Supposedly out there somewhere there exist a lost city free of censorship and oppression. It's only a story."

[Starman continues the briefing]

Starman: "Trekk Corp was unable to maintain control of the population. For all their advances the Moderators had one fatal flaw - they were incapable of independent thought. To fight the resistance the Moderators were replaced with Hunter-Killer Droids or H-Ks as they came to be known. The H-Ks were Trekk Corps first venture into the frontier of Artificial Intelligence. Although the H-Ks were capable of thinking independently they weren't very smart. It was decided that for the H-Ks to be able to carry out their mission they would need a central guiding force. So the central computer core of Trekk Towers, ADMIN, was given artificial intelligence."

Miss Manners: "The first order to come out of Trekk Towers was the complete extermination of the human race. Three hours after ADMIN was brought on line every last man and woman inside the Towers were dead."

Starman: "Two years later the next step in A.I. evolution was born - The Terminators."

Miss Manners: "The Terminators crushed the original resistance now calling themselves Trolls. That is to Red came along."

Red Whacker: "On the run from an H-K patrol I stumbled and fell through a ventilation shaft. I fell for what seemed like forever and then hit bottom. When I awoke I was in the remains of a huge underground city. You all the story from there...how we nicknamed this place the Kingdom...how we stole plans from the machines to construct our own energy weapons...or how word of this place spread like wildfire..."

Miss Manners: "But now we have a new problem..."

Red Whacker: "We assumed that the machines goal was to completely wipe out humanity, but with the discovery of Starman that all changed..."

Starman: "I was born in the rubble of what was once known as Sidney, Australia. I don't have a lot of memories of Sidney…I don't know if that's by design or because I was so young when they came. One night when we were searching for food the machines came for us. Before I even had time to scream the H-Ks had murdered nearly all of my family. I took my baby sister from my mother's dead arms and ran. I tried to hide in the remains of old building but my sister started crying. One of the H-Ks must have heard it because it turned and followed me into the building. It looked so... angry. I thought if...if...I gave it my sister it would leave me alone. So I set her down and backed away...I watched as the H-K walked straight for me never stopping. It didn't even flinch as it stepped on my baby sister's head, crushing it like an eggshell. It never stopped; it simply came for me. The last thing I heard was the crushing sound of my sister's death. Then it all went black."

[Starman takes a pause to regain his composer]

Starman: "When I awoke again I was in a large room with hundreds of other children - there were no adults. Then the reeducation process began. I still don't have much luck trying to recall what happened during those years. Sometimes I have dreams about... experiments. Sometimes its like I'm a rat in a maze and sometimes its like...someone...is seeing how big a piece of me they can take and put back again. Not just like an arm or a leg but...pieces of my...soul. Then like a flash I was an adult in service for the good of humanity; at least that's what the machines called it. When my reeducation process was complete I was transferred to Trekk Towers to help design a coolant system for the new Terminator Mass Production Facility."

Daystrom: "Let's cut the bullshit. Everyone in this room has a sad story, if your working for the 'chines then why the sudden change of heart?"

Starman: "One day while working in the North Tower there was an accident. A local portable SEM overloaded. An EM wake blew through the conduit I was working in. Every cell in my body felt like it had been lit on fire. I spent weeks recovering, but suddenly I began remembering parts of my childhood and my abduction. I was surprised that I could have ever forgotten my own past, but horrified that up until now I didn't care. I spent my recovery period trying to decide what to do next. All I wanted was to reclaim what they had taken from me - my past. As soon as I was able to walk again I broke into the North Towers main computer archive and stole the aux data files. I stowed away in the cargo hold of an out going APC. If it hadn't been for a small window on the port side I never would have known that we had crossed the Atlantic. After what seemed like forever we set down and landed for maintenance. As soon as the flight control droid disengaged I took control of the ship. I got as far as the West Coast of the continent before the machines managed to shot me down. "

IJD GAF: "Right...where we found you. But lets back the truck up here for a second, we didn't find any data files on you."

Starman: "When I first started working in the Towers there was an accident. My shoulder was damaged and replaced with an artifical component. I was able to hide the data crystal there into I got away."

[Miss Manners walks over to Starman and begins to unassemble his atifical shoulder to remove the data crystal.]

Red Whacker: "Behold one of the advances in Trekk Corp core technology."

[Whacker holds up the data crystal which resembles a medium sized diamond.]

Red Whacker: "This small crystal actually holds 50,000 terabits of information. Thanks to Miss Manners hacking ability we were able to integrate it with are own technology."

Miss Manners: "Thanks to the data crystal we were able to determine that Starman's story is not unique. There are at least three Reeducation Camps located around the globe. One in Sidney, one in Moscow, and one located inside Trekk Towers. Over the past twenty years more than Ten Thousand children have been abducted and reeducated. The machines simply call these children "human". Anyone who's not reeducated is considered to be trash to be eliminated. The machines have finally found a way to control the human race."

Red Whacker: "We've nicknamed the reeducated as the "Hitler Youth" for obvious reasons. As cold as it may sound, until we find a way to break the reeducation process anyone encountering one of Hitler Youth should terminate with extreme prejudice."

Starman: "These people may look human but they won't haste in killing you if given the chance."

Red Whacker: "That's not the biggest problem though. This is a picture of the aforementioned Terminator Mass Production Facility. Once online this factory will be able to produce at least 200 Terminators per day. With forces like that the resistance would be wept out within a year. The plant goes online in ten days. We have no choice but to go to Trekk Towers and destroy the facility ourselves."

Daystorm: "Are you fucking insane. We'd be dead before when could ever get there."

Miss Manners: "Before today that might be true. But thanks to Starman and his data crystal we have a map of the complex and command codes to get use through the Tower's defense shields."

Starman: "Plus I'll be going with you and I know the Towers' layout like the back of my hand."

Red Whacker: "The factory and outer Tower defenses are impenetrable. The base of the Towers are surrounded by the largest collection of H-Ks and Terminator forces on the planet. The Towers themselves are protected by an energy barrier that nothing can cross."

Miss Manners: "But...Inside the Tower is another story. It's assumed that no resistance force could penetrate the outer defenses. There are no H-Ks or Terminators within the Towers themselves. Once inside the tours there should be little or no resistance."

Parallaxis: "Then what...?"

Red Whacker: "To produce the required energy needed to generate the outer barrier the main shield emitters had to be tied into directly to the Towers main SEM core. A direct overload to the emitters will cause a change reaction in the core that will destroy both Towers and the neighboring factors."

Sardy: "Just how are we supposed to get there? Trekk Towers is a continent away."

Starman: "The same way I flew an APC across North America before being shot down. The machines identify flight craft by their transponder signals, nothing else. I should be able to modify the communication equipment aboard one of your Flight Transports to produce the same transponder signal of a standard APC. Once we get to Trekk Towers, there's a small landing pad on top of the South Tower. We'll use the fake transponder and the stolen command codes to slip right in."

Daystorm: "Well that's just great, only one little problem - The shield emitters are on top of the North Tower."

Bobby: "Can't we just fire at them from the Flight Transport?"

Red Whacker: "No. To cause the chain overload you can't simply fire an energy weapon at the emitters. Our tech boys have come up with a small field pack SEM that will need to be attached directly to the emitters for this to work. "

Miss Manners: "Once we land on the Pad we'll take a freight elevator down one level. On that floor there's a supply bridge that connects directly to the North Tower. We'll cross the bridge to the North Tower, go up one level, and attach our SEM to the emitter. Once the SEM is active will have ten mins to get back to the transport before it sends out the feedback charge."

Red Whacker: "Questions? Good. We leave in one hour. Dismissed."

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