In a dusty old apartment in the suburbs of Shanghai, an old man was staring at a collection of medals and seemed to be reminiscing about something. You could hear him murmur, "Peace, what an ambitious prospect for humans, as long as they are men they will be at war". Indeed, the retired soldier was staring at a collection of medals he painstakingly earned by fighting for his country. "Patriotism is a foolish ideology, we did not fight for our country we fought for so that rich tycoons can get richer by invading resourceful countries and stealing their natural resources. But at the end of the day people like us who have served more than fifty years have to live as paupers while the rich politicians live in luxurious mansions." the old man muttered in anger.
This is the year 2190 and retired spymaster Gabriel Colt is experiencing his last years. After serving more than 20 years as a spymaster for the NATO Alliance he got discharged due to a political feud, he was regarded as a useless old man, most of his so-called friends stopped calling and he had to flee his home country.
He started his career as a soldier in the army after his parents died due to a missile attack. He first started out as a rank-and-file soldier then rose through the ranks to become an officer. However, during one of his missions, he infiltrated an enemy base and poisoned their food supply. This caused him to catch the eye of the SIC (Secret Intelligence Department), and they recruited him as a spy. This department doesn't exist in the eyes of the public and only the government and their counterparts in the other empires had knowledge of their existence. Eventually after years of climbing the ranks, he became the Director of the SIC.
Five years ago, while Gabriel was the Director, a new president was elected. He wanted to end corruption and lead the Alliance to a better future. He contacted Gabriel and gave him the authority to purge the NATO Alliance of parasites. Earlier the SIC was not allowed to interfere with politics or local administration, they were only authorized to do military and foreign intelligence work. Gabreil had spent the better part of his life in the military and had not been to the civilian world in a while, but it was way worse than he had thought. The corruption had seeped into the very roots of the empire; he and the president along with some other significant figures formed a plan to do a massive purge to eliminate all the corruption. Two months into the plan, the president was assassinated and the vice president came into power.
The new president was very corrupt and immediately declared Gabriel and the others to be traitors who killed the previous president and ordered an execution order. Some of Gabriel's partners wanted to start a military coup but soon they realized that even the military was corrupted, especially the logistics department. Due to poisoned rations and defective weapons, they were defeated and everyone except Gabriel and his friend Dannis were killed by the forces loyal to the president. Gabriel and Dannis knew the extent to which the military was corrupt and warned their colleagues before fleeing the Alliance and used their connections to lie low.
"Buzz, buzz". His smart phone broke Gabriels musings and made him look at his phone. It was a call from his best friend Dannis Cork who was his assistant director in the SIC and fled with him after the new president came to power. While Gabriel fled the East Asian Republic, Dannis decided to flee to the African Union due to some of his family members being there. They regularly contacted each other but rarely talked about their past due to surveillance by both countries. This call surprised him since it was 3.00 am in Dannis's time zone right now.
"Dannis! What's got into you to take a call at this time, we are not how we were once full of energy, we feeble old men need our golden rest! '' Gabriel started lecturing his best friend as soon as he answered the call out of care for his best friend's deteriorating health.
"Calm down Gabe, do you think I would call for no reason at this time'' Dannis replied solemnly. "I got some very shocking news from our old contacts in the white palace."
"What's so important that you would call me in the middle of the night." Gabriel retorted with a hint of curiosity.
"I just received information from an old friend who is still in the white palace. The recently launched space explorer 'Star hunter' has come into contact with an alien species, after hearing Dannis's statement, Gabriel couldn't believe his and asked, "Are you sure this information is reliable ''. After all it was surprising that humans have finally managed to come in contact with another sentient race.
"Of course, I double checked with my other sources, and I am confident enough to say that it is true. ", replied Dannis.
"So, what does it have to do with us? " Asked Gabriel. So, what if humans have contacted an alien race, it won't change his current predicament.
"I was coming to that part", exclaimed Dannis excitedly, "It was not us who initiated the contact; it was them and they are way more advanced than humans, so advanced that they have subdued many races like ours into their intergalactic empire."
"So, you're telling me a bunch of aliens are going to invade Earth", asked Gabriel skeptically. Dannis has finally gone mad after years of war, thought Gabriel.
"According to my contact, the Aliens have notified that they would teleport the entire population of Earth to a new realm which is larger and diverse than Earth. They also claimed that something called a 'system' will guide in this new planet."
"This sounds like something straight out of a novel" said Gabriel remembering the web novels he used to read as a kid.
" I was also surprised after I first heard it, this is all I know right now." replied Dannis.
"Alright good night Dannis, I will try to contact some of my old subordinates and try to get more information," said a shocked Gabriel. "Aliens or systems, You sleep first you old man"
"Who are you calling old, you look older than my father," said Dannis jokingly. " Good night Gabriel."
After Dannis hung up the phone, Gabriel immediately called some of his old subordinates who did publicly support him.