Envelopment: The Cannae Protocol

In a world where the digital realm is ruled by Nova Forge—a tech conglomerate as unassailable as ancient Rome—arrogance and inertia have become the company’s greatest weaknesses. Nova Forge’s leadership, obsessed with its own legend, crushes dissent and clings to outdated dogma, unaware that its own systems are being turned against it. Enter Joan Westerly, a visionary systems strategist and exile whose life has been shaped by both the failures of the past and the relentless pace of technological change. Approached by a clandestine coalition of AI engineers, creative outcasts, and decentralized finance rebels, Joan becomes the mentor and catalyst for a daring plot: to orchestrate a modern-day Cannae by exploiting Nova Forge’s blind spots and weaponizing its orthodoxy against itself. Drawing inspiration from the legendary strategies of Hannibal Barca—revived as an AI-driven mythic advisor—and haunted by the cautionary avatars of failed tech giants, the rebels launch a campaign of digital sabotage and psychological warfare. Inside Nova Forge, dissenters inspired by the Roman general Fabius Maximus struggle to shift the company’s course, but find themselves up against a monolithic board led by the unyielding Varro Paulus. As the battle escalates from covert code manipulations to public reckonings, the fate of the digital empire—and the world’s infrastructure—hangs in the balance. The central question: Can Joan and her coalition outmaneuver institutional hubris before the collapse becomes catastrophic, and will they resist the same cycles of pride and complacency that doomed their predecessors? Inspired by: The Cannae Problem - https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-cannae-problem/