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The Last Legion: on the Future of the Military

'Bilderberg Peace & Security Summit' it reads. The announcement is perhaps one story high and leaves little room for interpretation: in this holo-room, on this moment, those responsible for maintaining the power balance in the Enclaves are gathered.


It was the first Bilderberg Peace & Security Summit since the ill-designed attack on the Enclave Elders six years ago - and she had been chosen to represent the Guardians of Quadrant. Even though life as a marine had taught her to fuse emotions, today she noticed a small tremble in her left arm. Strange, how her lost bio-arm still tingled and twitched when she got emotional.


She felt honored. She took a deep inhalation and in her shell-skin, Base entered the building. Nobody saw her, nobody noticed. Her VR-lenses showed other entities trying to enter non-detected, no more than a glitch or a temporal distortion in her peripheral view. But her fellow Guardians were there, sensing, noticing, analyzing, always in focus. None got through.

It was her job to record the functionalities of the new flexible full titanium shell-skin – by getting in unnoticed. As her VR-lenses were plugged in, those in the holo-room could follow her every move. She ignored the tremble and petted the organically shaped, semi-automatic weapon that replaced her arm.


“Please don't set off security," she whispered. The arm was her only concern getting passed her fellow Guardians.

Tuned into the holo-room, she could hear her superior talking about the future of the

Guardians: “And this is what we will call the Last Legion. A Guardian will serve to protect the Enclave it will choose to reside in. It will be allowed to live and love…”

Tension in the room was rising. Those present were beginning to stir a bit at the thought of Guardians allowed to have a personal life, to love.

“Will feeling not render weakness?” Abe, the Peace & Security delegate for Japan asked, "We feel quite at ease with our Kamikaze Guardians."


Sergeant Peers was prepared and retorted: “Please hold your questions until you have received the whole briefing. Should you still have doubts afterwards, I will be happy to answer your questions.”

Back to work. She was standing in front of her buddy, Guardian Guin, who was looking her right in the eye. Base stuck out her tongue, rolled her eyes. There was no response. She stood in the middle of the 4D detection field. It pierced through her like glass. Nothing happened.

Sergeant Peers switched to her lens. To room held its breath. No more fooling around

now, this was serious. She made a 360, to show the room her location. They saw her standing in the middle of 4D detection, past the Guardians and effortlessly pacing through security. Alarm bells should have been going off, she should have been in seclusion by now. Instead, she continued her journey. This was what she was trained to do. Her heart rate was steady.

Sergeant Peers began: “As you can see through the huge amount of effort and forward thinking we put into Base, prototyping the Last Legion has not been easy. I took the focus and persistence of more than 200 fully enhanced trans-human brain units to make this happen.” My superior was enjoying this; I could sense it in his voice.

A holo of me was visible to the participants. Every function of my body was highlighted and elaborated on. There were no secrets; all that I ever was or ever would be was exposed. As I approached the holo-room, the presentation reached its peak.

“And so, ladies and gentlemen, with great pride, I present to you the future of Peace &

Security: the Last Legion. It is my honor to introduce to you: Sergeant Base."

I entered the room.

 

Inspiration: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24474336 ‘US Army plans 'Iron Man' armour for soldiers.’ Oct-10-2013.

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