When I opened my eyes again, I began to hear the voice that had been speaking before.

"HW-99-SM, are you calmer now?" it asked in that same neutral tone that it had kept throughout this whole time.

"I'm not," I answered. "I think I'm in shock or something because now I'm actually willing to listen if it means that I can get off this planet and back home. I can get back home, can't I?"

"You cannot. Warden of Life protocol dictates that any soldier, volunteer or conscript, is unable to leave the war front until they have achieved either commendation from two Warden Command lines or recieved a debilitating injury, such as loss of limb."

"You can't be serious. I'm not a soldier, I have no training or anything!"

"The Warden Commanders and their antropologists thought that your natural instincts as a warrior would show themselves if you were thrust unprepared into the battle. Are they incorrect in their assumptions?"

"Your goddamned right they are!" I shouted at the disembodied voice. "I'm a fry-cook! I should be flipping burgers for minimum wage and making sandwiches for ungrateful people that don't realize I'm there, not fighting some alien war!"

"Curious," the voice responded. "Does this mean that the anthropological and scientific assessment of your species is wrong?"

"If you told me where you got all your data from then yea, I could tell you what's wrong with it!" I answered, ready to hear what whacked out garbage they had come up with.

"I do not have full access to the records which the Wardens accessed nor to the reports and studies made that led them to their conclusions," the voice began, "but I can tell you that we accessed a massive network of information and from that network we compiled data on all Human capabilities. This data is what led the Wardens of Life to conscript approximately one million Humans to make use of your combat potential."

I couldn't believe it. A collection of alien races had gotten into the Internet and after processing all of it had decided that we were a bunch of soldiers or something? It was so ridiculous that I couldn't stop laughing for a few minutes at least.

"Are you alright, HW-99-SM?" the voice asked.

"Yea I'm great!" I answered through my wheezes as I caught my breath. "Just great, so great in fact that I just realized that I'm gonna die on this damned planet because your scientists or whatever the hell they are couldn't be bothered to actually check their data!"

I was shouting at the end of that but I felt justified and I was talking to myself anyway so who cares.

"Does this mean that most of the information that their conclusions were based on was wrong?"

"Only most of it," I agreed. "Do you know exactly what I'm supposed to be capable of? I want to know."

"According to all data we have on Humans, and by extension you, Humans are capable of mastering elemental capabilities that allow them to send spheres of flame hurtling toward a target, or perhaps cyclones of wind that can shred the area of choice into smaller pieces than it began in. They are able to slice through solid rock and even metal with swords of steel using only their mastery over their blade and nothing else. They can send projectiles via extreme propulsion into the smallest of targets using a flick of their wrist and a device known as a gun. Some are even able to connect with the world around them by meditation until they have achieved enlightenment. What did we miss?"

"You missed that all of that is fake," I answered as I cradled my head in my hands. "All of that is just one story after another. Humans have never had mastery of fire or wind to the point that we can directly control and manipulate it. Sure some people can cut through rock and metal with a sword but that takes practice and dedication, years of it! Not everyone is able to use a gun with the neccessary skill to shoot through tiny holes at a distance either. And the only guy in history that reached enlightenment was alive hundreds of years ago and he started a religion based on that."

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Tears began to roll their way down my cheeks at the absurd situtation and the equally absurd events that had led to it.

"Humans aren't special," I said to the voice. "We can't do any of that and we aren't some society of supersoldiers that is secretly waiting for some massive war that we can fight in. We're just a bunch of people that are lost or bored, sometimes to distract ourselves we invent stories that feature us as the super-powered guys that don't know when to quit. In reality that's just not who we are."

"What do you mean?"

"Humans have lived as we have for at least two full generations. That means that a lot of us don't know how to fight or survive in the wild; we didn't have to learn it so we didn't. We focused on other things and now most people can't hunt or fish or farm or gather food and water; we never had to learn how to do any of that. Your Wardens of Life threw one hundred people out here to die, thinking we were something we aren't. Boy, I bet they're disappointed now."

As I finished speaking, I felt a bit of catharsis at the truth of my words. I was going to die here and that would show the idiots who hadn't even thought to actually study us just how stupid they were. It would mean that no one else would be sent down to this planet to die again.

"HW-99-SM," the voice spoke again. "I am sorry that you and so many others of your race have been displaced from your home, but if what you've said is true then the Wardens of Life are finished."

"Why is that?" I couldn't help myself from asking.

"The Warden Commanders sent out calls to all allied and displaced species from across the universe; everywhere touched by the Scourge infestation. They told them all of Humans and how you would be the key to ending the Scourge. All of them are coming here to this galaxy to rally together and support the Human Warriors that will cleanse the Scourge from the known universe. If they come here and they find that the commanders were wrong then there will not be enough time for anyone to escape. Scourge follows life, they feed on it and they will follow their sources of food back to this galaxy and they will find your home and come for it. After they have ravished the Wardens of Life."

As the voice finished speaking, I felt my heart stop for a moment before trying to jump out of my chest. These wardens had found my home and made a mistake one that would eventually see my planet and everything I loved destroyed.

"There has to be something I can do," I said. "Anything to make sure that my people are safe!"

"As a Cybernetic Artificial Intellect I am only equipped with the neccessary processing power to calculate the needed equations for upkeep and fluid control of any cybernetic augments that you may have as well as acting as a built in communications function and, if neccessary, companion to maintain mental stability. I can only offer what I am capable of accessing in terms of information; nothing more."

"These alien species you mentioned, they're all coming here?" I asked as a desperate idea began to form.

"Yes," the voice answered. "Though if neccessary all species allied with the Wardens of Life have allowed copies of their technology and their data to be kept within the Library of Species."

"And are any of them really good at, I don't know, genetic engineering?" That idea was coming closer to the front of mind and I was almost liking it.

"Many," was the only answer given.

"Okay then I've got a plan. First, I get out of this coffin. Second, I get off this damn planet. And third, I see about making something insane reality. Sound good, uhh what was your name again?"

"CAI," the voice answered. "And yes it sounds 'good.'"

"Great, now how do I put that helmet on?"

As Cai walked me through the process to properly put on the helmet and sword, I tried to hype myself up for what had to be the absolute first steps any human had ever taken on a totally different and alien world. The moon didn't count; it was the moon and just right there. This was something so much more. A different world orbiting a different star with different lifeforms, hostile but whatever.

I put my new helmet on, it did attached to my collar and filtered all air I breathed to keep any harmful gases away from me so I could fight or more accurately function in any environment; the air filtration was something that Cai assured me the Warden scientists and technicians had gone to great lengths to get totally right for humans. Once it was all set, I grabbed my sword and hooked it to my belt on the armored jumpsuit I was wearing; Cai told me that since the Scourge had first been found and fought against, no form of projectile weapon had been able to injure them enough to kill them without using far more ammunition than anyone was comfortable with. I still would rather have been given some sort of plasma pistol or even better a rifle to use instead; the fact that my aim would have made my bow- and rifle-hunting ancestors cry from shame wasn't something I cared about. Onto my back went a pack with a bunch of weird alien tech. Stuff to pull water from the air and make it safe for me to drink and cubes that were supposed to have enough calories to keep me fed on one a day; plus some sort of shelter that could keep a safe atmosphere for me and help hide me from the Scourge.

Loaded down with all new supplies and hoping I wasn't making a huge mistake I followed Cai's instructions and began to open the door closed my little coffin from this strange new world. Part of me still secretly hoped I was being pranked but as I soon learned, that was a stupid hope.