Not to the alien invasion—that, they had won. The Ravagers had been repelled a decade ago, thanks to the legendary Earth Defense Force. No, humanity had lost to something far more mundane: boredom, decay, and the slow collapse of digital archives.
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. Earth Defense Force 2 for Nintendo SWITCH NSP X...
Sergeant Miles Kessler stared at the blinking cursor on his terminal. The year was 2089. Humanity had lost. Not to the alien invasion—that, they had won
The file name cut off. The data was fragmentary, a few corrupted gigabytes out of what should have been a full 3.2GB game. No one had played a video game in years. Consoles were melted for scrap metal during the Long Winter. The Nintendo Switch was a myth to anyone under twenty. He pressed the only button that worked on
“Again,” he whispered.
“To save our mother Earth from any alien attack!”