druth

An invasion from another dimension is shut down by an Empire's traitor and the world has a scant few decades to build the strength to resist a multidimensional Empire.  How will the world fair when no one even knows its doom is one barred gate away?  Fortunately, the traitor has a plan.  Maybe with a bit of luck and planning, he can build a force to defend the world without anyone realizing it. 

Author's Thoughts:

What is litRPG
(From wikipedia) - LitRPG, short for Literary Role Playing Game, is a literary genre combining the conventions of MMORPGs with science-fiction fantasy novels.[1] LitRPG is a literary genre where games or game-like challenges form an essential part of the story. A LitRPG work simultaneously narrates the story of characters inside and outside of the game-world. At least some of the characters in a LitRPG novel therefore understand that they are playing a game: they are 'meta-aware'. So, while Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel, a book about people creating avatars and interacting in a Lord of the Rings MMORPG would be a LitRPG novel.
Why do I read them? You know, I am not too sure. I love MMOs. I played them, quit them, joined up and repeated the cycle. They are fun! They are a massive waste of time but so are most games. Do I want to read about someone else playing them? Sort of?
The advent of VR and the possibility of VR someday becoming so immersive that you can't tell them from reality sets the imagination on fire. What if this could be life? But most stories fall short. At the end of the day the protagonist hangs up his VR helmet and goes to have dinner with his mom and dad or other family and it becomes meaningless. It's like the story that ends because the main character woke up and nothing you read matters.
There have been some books that explore the concept of the intersection of reality and total immersion VR. Enders Game is a classic. There were a few others that escape me but they exist, however, the cross between the game and reality is weak.
So what if the game was real? The technology needed for total immersion VR is so advanced that by the time we reach that goal technology should have naturally evolved to include several items.

You must have direct neural input. You simply can't have a total immersion (all senses and perfect presence) experience without this basic prerequisite.
If you have direct neural access, you can probably do neat things like feed knowledge and skills directly to that person. You can undoubtedly do many horrible things as well.
Muscles are controlled by the brain. If you control the brain why would you let the body just sit there and rot? A person that sits unmoving for 24 hours a day will have their body whither away just like a coma patient. However, if you control the brain you could control the muscles. On a basic level, this would be isometric impulses, working muscle group against muscle group to avoid atrophy. Taken to its logical conclusion you would be able to gain muscle mass and program muscle memory. The flip side is that you could remote control their body... but let's not go there.
So what would people do if it were real? Well, they would probably limit and regulate it since the drawbacks are very obvious. Even if you look at the basic aspects of this you can see some negative possibilities. Look at the Sword Art Online anime. Personally, I think they missed the boat by putting a bomb in the VR helmet. Do you really need a bomb when you have direct access to the brain?
So what kind of events would you need to have a situation where the obvious drawbacks haven't been explored? Maybe a society where the advancement of technology has so far outstripped the explorations of its applications that ignorance was truly bliss? Okay, so I had to put in an alien invasion to kickstart the premise, but that was just one of the possibilities.

A Virtual Invasion

He seethed silently. With effort, his rage subsided. He hadn't explained any of the specific circumstances so why would they know?


"Well?" the grey haired man asked again. "What can you do for us? We have tried to examine the bodies and we haven't found anything useful. The metallic armor is impervious to all measurement devices and seems to be downright indestructible. The deceased look to be human but even now, after all this time, show no sign of decay. We can only do a superficial investigation due to the suits. We can't even open the faceplates. The only thing that has shown progress is examining the er... Husks."


"The suits are merely shells. Except for their durability, their only other feature is as psionic amplifiers. It was the people inside the suits that made them formidable."


"Can you give us the designs for the suits?"


"I have repeatedly told you, they are useless to you. By the time you can make them, you won't need them. Even if you put one of your soldiers in them they would be turned into jelly the first time something hit them. The majority of the defensive capabilities came from the soldiers themselves."


"Were these creatures created in a lab?"


Salthuin looked balefully at the man before him. "These creatures were merely men like you or I. They had been upgraded through standard biological modification."


"Wait, that's the thing you want to do to our soldiers?"


"Yes. You wanted super soldiers, didn't you?"


"Will our soldiers be able to do the same things? They say one of them waved his hand and destroyed a jet."


"Eventually. The modification will be the mostly the same, however, you won't be able to activate the advanced features until your technology advances."


"That was the deal. You learn how to do it yourselves. I just show you how."


They were failures. They died during conversion. The bodies were recycled into low-grade footsoldiers."


"Technically. However, I think you mean to ask if they are sentient. No. Each one has a psionic link with an evolved human."


"How strong are they?" the man asked with a rather subdued horror.


"Not very, however, the soldier can channel a portion of their own energy into the husk. The real question is, how strong is the soldier?"


"The husks are the only thing we can do any analysis at all. The scientists are saying they are not only dead but they haven't been alive for years. They are slowly decaying… at least when they are removed from the freezers."


"Naturally, after all, they failed mid-conversion, otherwise even in death bacteria wouldn't be able to get a hold. In the Empire, unless the head is completely destroyed they can be resuscitated."


"No. They are dead." The Empire installed kill switches. Those it wanted dead would be thoroughly dead. Maybe the unknown arts the Rebellion held could reverse the process, but as far as science was concerned they were gone.


Prelude 3: Modification