Miles selected the only mission the fragment had: "Giant Insect Extermination." The game loaded a city level. His soldier—a blocky, green-clad grunt—landed from a helicopter. Across the ruined street, a giant ant the size of a bus skittered into view.
Miles laughed. It was a rusty, strange sound. He hadn’t laughed in two years. Earth Defense Force 2 for Nintendo SWITCH NSP X...
He loaded the mission again. This time, he found a second button: X to jump. He jumped onto a car. The ants couldn’t reach him. He fired until his ammo ran out. Then he found a weapon pickup: a rocket launcher. The explosion was glorious, sending ant parts flying in comical, physics-defying arcs. Miles selected the only mission the fragment had:
From that day on, the children of the bunker didn’t just salvage wires and water filters. They learned the sacred chant, passed down from a broken file. And when the first scout ship of the new Ravager fleet appeared on the horizon years later, the Earth Defense Force—the real one, the last one—stood ready. Miles laughed
Sergeant Miles Kessler stared at the blinking cursor on his terminal. The year was 2089. Humanity had lost.
He pressed the only button that worked on his emulated controller: R1 to shoot. His assault rifle chattered. The ant’s health bar ticked down by a sliver. Then another ant appeared. And another. Soon, a dozen of them were swarming his character. He died in ten seconds.