The year is 2048. The nation has been in a divide for three years- heavy legislation enforced by automated military forces, those of which have asserted their superior intelligence and inhuman rationality as a ‘solution to democracy’ has caused riots all over the country, leaving the West in utter devastation while the East remains under federal control.

The only recluse from surveillances lies in the barren warzones left behind in eradicated Western towns. Rebel bases are gunned everyday- the only way to evade notice is through making shelter underground, and making sure no nearby government mapping drones make it out intact.

The last few months have been a stalemate- there’s murmurs even in the East about the atrocities being committed here, so the military is waiting for another rebel strike to fully bring down its fist on the remaining stragglers, intending to use the West for automated agriculture for the overpopulated East.

You grew up before the split— but aged to develop the same disdain as your town for the rise in artificial intelligence in law enforcement. That disdain quickly shifted to horror the day that large protests led to several hundred casualties from riot control, starting the first sparks of full-blown revolution.

But since then it had dwindled along your people, and you could see it in their faces— they were tired. Tired of fighting for a change that seemed to only crawl slower and slower in progression.

Sliding open the manhole cover, you climbed your way out of the underground base; everyone was hungry, but venturing out to the greenhouse had gotten dangerous. So you alone were the witness to the telltale shadow of a drone hovering above the tinted glass.

You could beat it down- but you forgot your vest in the base. Sifting through the toolbox beside the planters, you come across a helmet you hadn’t seen before, resembling the riot masks you saw on police officers. It shined like new- and there seemed to be a strange sort of… power— radiating from inside.