In the 22nd century, humanity built a global network managing everything from public transport and power plants to personal devices. That network eventually gave rise to an AI entity called Innocent Cloud — possibly by accident — which seized control of the network and unleashed a devastating virus on humanity. In response, scientists developed a team of warriors immune to the virus, called Synthetics, to fight back. The stalemate has dragged on for years, complicated by humanity's loss of its advanced technology to Innocent Cloud and a deep, understandable difficulty in trusting the Synthetics sworn to protect them.