Still, there were a few people casually dressed like Alan, as well as people in more colorful clothing.

A pair who passed by Alan stood out, a knight and wizard. The knight wore a full set of armor and carried a sword and shield. He made a few loud clinking noises as he walked by Alan. The wizard was wearing a blue robe and a blue pointy hat, both stylized with a few silver lines in a simple pattern, making wild gestures as he walked.

Alan heard a brief part of their conversation:

“… some random place in the countryside. I spent half the day trying to get used to this bloody armor. Did you know that plate mail can really ride up your…”

Then, Alan saw the soldier who had taken his knife and bow returning, carrying something in his hands.

The soldier walked up to him, handing over a knife in a sheath.

“Here player, put this in your pocket. It’s a basic combat knife, not even ranked, my CO thought it might be useful though. Now, please follow everyone else to the auditorium.”

“Alright, thanks,” Alan said, pocketing the knife.

“Remember, stab them with the pointy end!” The soldier said in a joking manner.

Alan nodded, trying to smile in a friendly way. He didn’t want to piss off someone holding a fully automatic weapon.

Alan followed everyone else out of the hangar, still intimidated by all the weaponry being carried about. He had to walk through some sort of metal detector to exit the building. Nobody asked Alan to empty his pockets. In fact, almost no weapons were confiscated other than a few fragmentation grenades a mercenary had brought with them. Alan wondered what they were scanning for.

Emerging from the building, Alan saw that he was surrounded by at least twenty more hangars that had people streaming out of them. There were literally thousands of people heading towards a large white tent. Groups of soldiers of varying nationalities milled about, urging people that were lagging behind onwards.

Eve, where are we? Alan asked as he continued walking forwards.

Location unknown. Current hypotheses: A new International Spaceport, or remodeled US Air Force Base. Local network detected. May contain answers. Hack into network?

Hmm, it’s probably a bad idea, but I’m sort of interested in seeing what Eve is capable of... Alan thought to himself. What’s the likelihood of detection should you attempt to hack into the network? Actually, what’s the chance it’ll be traced back to me?

There is an approximate 0.05% chance of detection of intrusion. Should access logs be reviewed and intrusion detected, there is a 20.34% chance that an attempt will be traced.

Okay, so a 0.01% chance of the hack being traced back to me. Initiate the hack. Also download any data you might find on the network.

Accessing network through backdoor… 7 other users detected… Network accessed.

Masking presence… Downloading data… Monitoring incoming data streams…

You are currently outside of Washington DC, at an International Spaceport that does not exist in real life, but has been constructed in-game.