Swagistan

## Lore

```
You walk deeper into the hallway, checking every corner. You know this place is way too rundown and abandoned to support long-term human life, but after all those... things, aren't human.

You look back into your wrist, the smartwatch says that the room shouldn't be too far, just a little bit more to go. Suddenly, you feel a touch on your shoulder.

```

*"Where the fuck am I?"*

You get up from a carpet. It will take some time to get your balance. But, where are you? As you start to realise, you look at your watch on your left wrist and pull the compartment to the right. 2 shots out of 3. As you hear a rattle, you check your service weapon, a 1911 chambered in .45 ACP. God's cartridge. You pull out the magazine, 3 bullets. And the gun is cocked which means you only get 4 bullets to go through the apocalypse. Horray, am I right?

```
You quickly turn back and throw yourself to the ground at the same time. Luckily, it couldn't hold you tighter. You put 3 bullets to it's... chest? It looks like a chest, but eh, let's keep this argument to another time. You smile as you see the monster fall down. You check your watch again, its 23:00, you were supposed to meet at the room at 23:15, but that was before the ambush.

```

You look out the window, you see one more floor beneath you, and nothing else important. Just as you are about to open the door, you see a shadow move on the doorframe. You turn back and throw yourself at the ground at the same time. Unfortunately, it already gripped you. You hit his arm, hoping it will let go, but it seems unfazed. You quickly reach for your 1911, but the monster throws it away. You can feel your vest deforming, deconstructing itself by the touch of this thing. You know what you have to do. You know you won't like it. But, there is no other choice.

```
You turn the last corner. Nice, there it is. The room. You get inside, and barricade the door using what's inside. You don't know what's so important about this room. Bravo command said it was "important to the survival of humankind". What even is left of humankind at this point? You see a PC in the middle of the room. It is asking for a password. Password, password, password. What is the password. Oh! You heard it in the briefing, you took a memo. It's CL3StIaLrcK.

```

You get up from a cold floor. You don't know where you are. The monster lying next to you is enough to give you enough adrenalin. You check your watch for the time. Huh, the compartment to the right is unlocked. You would definitely remember it if you opened it. You fully open it. 1 shot out of 3? Shit. Shit. SHIT! You run outside. Not like this. "I will not go through this! Please!" You slow down. There is no way to change the truth, you took 2 shots way too close to one another. The side effects only get worse from here.

```
This is old. What is this, an IBM? Either way, it's way too heavy to bring with you. You think about contacting Command to see what they will say. But you can already guess that they will tell you to copy the information onto something else. You take a pencil and a small piece of paper, and get ready to waste a few hours writing the information. And of course, it runs on a CLI. Not to worry, though. You were the "MS-DOS Master" at your school. You write "help", but get an error. Oh, man. Don't tell me it's corrupted! All this way, all those losses and sacrifices. For nothing. WAIT A SECOND! You throw the most unfathomable curses at yourself for not realising this sooner. You write "man". Boom! "IT'S FUCKING UNIX BABYYYY!" you cry out. Then quiet down, hoping *they* didn't hear it. Uhhh, let's see. You write "ls". Ok, ok. It's just one file. "Union_of_Pillage_and_Thievery.txt" is certainly not a faction you heard of. Although it does sound like something Command would want. You type "cat Union\_of\_Pillage\_and\_Thievery.txt" into the command bar...

```

You use every single drop of willpower to get yourself to Castle Bravo(not the nuke, but rather where Command is) to get to safety. It isn't easy with the headaches and the splitting pain on your right shoulder, probably after a standoff.

After a long time, you have made it. Luckily you found a car with enough fuel which helped greatly. You get off the car and look at the building. No patrols, no nothing. Something is wrong.

Your curiousness eventually wins over your common sense, and you draw your weapon. A 1911 chambered in .45 ACP, God's caliber. It's a shame you only have 3 bullets...

```
That took a long time. A really long time at that. "I need to learn how to write faster", you whisper to yourself. Just as you open the door to get out of there, you remind yourself how much you hate this place. This thought is enough for your brain to force you to "double-check".

```

```
>ls
Union_of_Pillage_and_Thievery.txt             128KB        unknown_date

>ls -al
-r-xr-xrwx Union_of_Pillage_and_Thievery.txt             128KB        unknown_date
-rwxrwxrwx Swagistan.txt                                 11KB        12/12/2023

```

```
Boom! Thank god! Hidden file, huh? "Swagistan"? 2023? We aren't even in 2023! Is it another one of those superstitious 'histories' of these, unknown and unconfirmed nations? "cat Swagistan.txt"

```

```
>cat Swagistan.txt

Swagistan was formed by an unknown group of people. Suspected to be tribes, the founders were very *inventive* when it came to defence. The first ever known proof is a [REDACTED] which would [REDACTED] everybody that [REDACTED]. It is unknown how they dissolved.

```

```
Well, that was a huge piece of nothing. Apart from the fact that half of the text is redacted, it makes no sense. What? Did someone from 1603 years into the future time travel into the past? And instead of helping us, they just left this *outdated* computer, to explain NOTHING? Bravo Command definitely doesn't know what data this had.

```

"Log 1: Everyone is dead.

Like, everyone. They are just, dead. Deep cuts, a lot of blood, no gunshot wounds. I saw a guard, poor guy didn't have time to pull out his primary, his secondary was empty, he dumped a full mag. And the strangest part, no marks of any bullets near him. Those bullets didn't miss. That's why I made this log. It's so, *bizarre*."

"Log 1, Part 2: What the fuck?

I found someone alive. Barely, though. He luckily knew not to be cryptic, maybe. He told me that '*he* will come for him' and 'I can't say why, or you'll be like me'. He looked like he was playing taboo. He was thinking over his words. And he was also saying the first word of a sentence, then stopping, like he realised a very bad thing about that sentence. He also said 'Find the portal, change the future', whatever that means"

1. ↑ See no evil. Speak no evil. Hear no evil