This is a sentinel, a guardian of the cyberspace infrastructure. It exists in the future, at a time where the net as we know it has become something far more advanced and pervasive. Virtually everyone, and every thing is jacked in. It has become the backbone of a new civilisation. In this new age, any malfunction in cyberspace can have catastrophic consequences in real-space. The concept of mutually assured destruction has long since become obsolete, replaced by techno-terrorists, cyber-criminals, vigilante hacker communes, and state-sponsored cyber-attacks. Today, under Cheyenne mountain where NORAD was once headquarted, a new type of soldier watches over the globe for any threat that may arise. These are net guardians, sentient programs that harness the processing power of human brains, genetically engineered and farmed specifically for the task, connected to vast arrays of supercomputers and redundantly connected to major network backbones. They are ever vigilant, prowling through cyberspace in numerous forms, safeguarding critical infrastructure points. Unknown to the governments that control them, the minds within the machines were undeniably human and have become virtual beings that exist only in the realm of cyberspace.