304 Views 9 Favorites 12 Chapters 3 Chapters/Week 9 Readers 0 Reviews 28.6k Words 3 hours ago theninjagoose On a parallel Earth, in 1902, something truly bizarre happened. In the middle of Nowheresville, Kansas, the Spire appeared overnight. The jagged, angular structure was a mile and a half wide at the base, but narrowed as it stretched into the heavens. Glowing with a neon blue light, it beckoned onlookers to approach, to investigate, to enter and try their hand at climbing its many floors. Many people did, and none of them were seen from again.
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It took the federal government only three days to completely cordon off the area, and only three weeks to erect walls that sealed off the Spire from the public, under the guise of protecting them all from the dangers within. In no time at all, however, the military had figured out not only how to survive in the Spire, but how to extract valuable technology from it. The existence of the Spire remained an oddity, and a curiosity for most people, who would never know just how great of an impact the structure was having on the world around them.
Now, in 2002, after one hundred years of exploiting the Spire, the United States has expanded its reach to encompass every nation on Earth. They still bear their names and cultures, but everyone answers to Uncle Sam and his repository of highly-advanced tech. Tech that must be retrieved from the Spire on a regular basis, if his grip on the world powers is to remain ironclad. To that end, children are tested for aptitude with the skills necessary to survive in the Spire, and those with high scores are offered extremely lucrative jobs as Runners, retrieving tech and escaping before the denizens of the Spire catch them.
Erik Abergsen doesn't know any of this, however. He's from our version of Earth, and he's a trained member of SEAL Team 4, stationed in Rota, Spain. When a mission goes sideways, Erik finds himself launched laterally into a world he barely comprehends. Armed with weapons of a bygone era and dice, for some strange reason, he begins his own training at the Pentagon and quickly discovers that there is far more at work here than meets the eye.
Uploads will be whenever I have time. Burned myself out the last time I tried to write a long-form story, so you've been warned.
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