Chapter 141: Forming Factions

Chapter 141: Forming Factions

Zac frowned as he listened to Thomas speech. While the words sounded good it felt to him that it wasnt that simple.

Why dont you just drop a few nukes on the Incursions? Its better we get some radiation than having to risk our lives, a man in the back row shouted, and many seemed to agree by the nods.

Honestly that was our first thought, Thomas said with a sigh. Better we create no-go blast zones than having people get slaughtered or turned into Zombies. But soon after the integration happened we made a troubling discovery. All our weapons of mass destruction, and most of our high capacity arsenals are simply Gone.

WHAT? multiple shouts erupted in the hall, many looked fearfully at each other.

Zac was surprised at the news, but not overly so. He had the same idea as the man who shouted earlier, but if they hadnt dropped the nukes even after billions of people died, they simply werent able to. Seeing as the system wanted a struggle to create powerhouses it didnt make sense for it to leave behind technological weapons that simply erased all struggle. A nuke at every incursion in the beginning would swiftly have ended the invasions after all.

He also noticed that while some seemed shocked, many took the news with stride. It obviously wasnt a too tightly guarded secret.

All nukes, chemical warfare and high capacity bombs are gone. Most of our airplanes, carriers, and battleships are gone as well. They werent stolen or destroyed, but simply removed. We are quite sure it is the doing of the System itself, as even any reference to an atom bomb is removed from all computers and even books. If you find an encyclopedia youll notice that there is just a blank space in the pages where the restricted information once was.

Even Zac was shocked this time, once again reminded just how powerful the system was. To remove even any mention of the things it didnt like was a horrifying capacity. However, they were still all talking about it, so hopefully it meant that the System at least couldnt alter memories.

To make matters worse, we cant build them. We are not allowed. An atomic bomb is not an extremely complicated thing, and many of our scientists are able to construct them. But as soon as we make some headway the prototypes vanish out of thin air, Thomas added. In essence, the System wants us to fight with our own hands.

Many in the room looked despondent. Clearly they had hoped the government would solve the problems for them, and perhaps that something was just holding them up. But Thomas Fischers declaration dashed any such hope. Obviously rifles and hand-guns were still around, but their efficacy was limited.

But do not worry, we have a plan. Thomas said, brining back the attention to him.

We have representatives present from all corners of the world, meaning we have the means to quickly travel and assist everyone, no matter where they are. However, this doesnt happen in practice. Why? Thomas asked as he looked over the audience.

Its simple. There are only two public teleporters at the moment. Ours and the Cradle of God. And you should all know by now that whoever enters the Cradle never comes back. We do not know if its controlled by a traitor, a powerful Dominator, or even a foreign force that somehow has circumvented the rules. So in essence, only New Washington is accessible to the forces of the world.

All other teleporters are closed, and I do not blame you. Leaving the teleporters open would subject your towns and citizens to danger at any time. But there is a solution. The New World Government is happy to announce that we are on course to have the first System-approved Lord within the month.

The forces might be real and their town were ready to join, but their participation was likely already negotiated and done before this meeting started. This was only reinforced as he saw the stocky man who ruled the town close to the Undead Incursion stand up and profess his allegiance.

Zac knew then and there that any hope of him using the teleporter through normal means wouldnt be possible. It was clear that the government was setting up a sphere of influence. There was no way that Zac would join them at this point in time, so he would be cut off from the teleportation network.

They would use the safety in numbers and promise of becoming stronger to rope more and more forces into joining. It was true what Thomas said, each time someone joined their alliance it would get stronger, and the outsiders would get more and more ostracized.

He threw a glance at the Marshals, and was somewhat relieved to see that the three seemed to be completely unaffected by the commotion in the room. A quick look over at Billy showed that the giant was still snoring away, obviously uncaring about what was going on, but the slight frown on Nigels face showed that they werent one of the forces that had made a deal with the government.

What if we dont join? a loud voice suddenly asked after the hubbub had died down a bit.

We hope that as many as possible will join us in our fight, but we understand that some have their own aspirations. We will not force anyone to join unless they feel comfortable with it. However, please beware that New Washingtons teleporter will become private again a month after the network is set up, Thomas answered.

Having an open node in the network will risk the whole alliance, and we cant allow that. The month is so that all forces of the world will be given ample time to consider our offer. It will also hopefully allow a few more forces to gain a teleporter and join us. But after that we need to think about the safety of our citizens, and from there on there will be no more admission, the politician continued.

At certain intervals the teleporter will open though, to allow teleportation to New Washington only. That would be an opportunity to join us at a later date, another delegate added.

As soon as the members have been finalized and the network secured we will begin our campaign to retake our land from the foreign invaders. I will not go into specifics at this time due to security concerns, but our goal is to completely close all the incursions plaguing New Earth before the anniversary of the integration, Thomas said.

A stunned silence spread through the hall from the strong declaration. Clearly the New World Government wasnt messing around. Zac personally was skeptic. They talked big for a group of people who still hadnt closed a single Incursion. At the same time he didnt want to create a scene since he couldnt do the job alone, and if humans could organize and pick up the slack it would be for the best.

The meeting kept going, and the government officials spoke a bit more about the specifics of the future alliance and fielded many questions. It became increasingly clear that the New World Government had adopted a polite youre either with us or against us-approach. On the surface it was completely up to anyone whether to join or not.

But in practice they meant that unless you joined the fold you would be alienated from the rest of humanity. You wouldnt get access to the teleporters, and it even became apparent that trade and information sharing would only happen within the alliance as well.

Zac was sure there were some additional caveats that were not disclosed at this time. He was pretty sure that the government wouldnt try to freeze out the Marshall Clan, since a retaliation from them with Thea as a poster child might splinter the alliance. He could only hope that type of courtesy would extend to himself as well. His problem was that while his pseudonym was well known, he was not.

Personally, he was unsure what to do. He should be happy that the government was trying to organize people to fight against the incursions. But more than that there was a deeply rooted unwillingness to hand over the reins of Port Atwood. They said they would let everyone have autonomy, but the stronger the alliance got, the more power would become centralized.

He sighed as he kept trying to think of solutions of what to do, as his eyes every now and then darted to the leader of the town close to the Undead Incursion.