Friday, October 9, 2009

The warning.

He’d given the order. They had found a way to hurt the great machine. His so called “family”. When they’d found out about it, assassins had been dispatched to kill certain members of this family. He sighed as he contemplated his mistake. The machine hadn’t been in time to save all his children, but most had survived. Now, he had to talk to it.
As he walked into the room, he reflected on the situation. The machine had arisen several years before. It had grown steadily, taking over whole ranges of uninhabited mountains. It brought messages of peace, calling to those who agreed with its message. Many joined, most kept their distance. In the end, the leaders of what they called the free world had decided to do something against the machine, some way to make it clear they were in control.
He sat down. Time to face the consequences of that lapse of judgement. The machine wasn’t present, of course, but one of the screens was active, showing the semblance of a face.
It did not move, but it spoke a single word: “Why?” The leaders of the free world looked at eachother, then turned to the last one to enter. He stood up and started pacing, “We were only trying to do what is best for our people.” “So I am a threat?”, the machine replied. The face smiled slightly, “I will say this once. Listen carefully.”


The message started.

There are people who agree with me. And of course, those who disagree. I will protect those who agree with me and choose to live in my nation. Those who disagree are not welcome here but I will not harm them if they do not harm those who follow me.
Be aware that if I had wanted the world, I would have taken it. My body stretches across mountains, my eye sees everything. My fists are many. Nuclear weapons will not end me. I do not breathe. There is nothing you could do to stop me if I wished to destroy you all. Do not force me to do so.
Let those in your nations who agree with me join us freely. Do not attack our nation or any of our interests. You can fight your little wars between yourselves, we will take no side. We will, however, protect that which is ours. Attack us and prepare to see oblivion.

We see everything.
You can’t kill that which doesn’t live.

That should have been the end of it. It wasn’t.

The nations of the ‘free world’decided to attack, attempting to overwhelm the defences of the machine. They had not counted on endless seas of machine-controlled tanks and other automated weapons of war. There was nothing they could do. The machines followed them back and cut them down mercilessly. They were beyond organisation. A single mind controlled every weapon of war.

The war did not destroy all of the ‘free world’, however. When all armies had been destroyed however, the machines turned back and left as quickly as they came. Every machine that had fallen was recovered. Later that year, machine workers were repairing buildings, roads and even replanting forests.

Around that time, a message came to the leaders of the ‘free world’.

-Do not let it happen again.-


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Something a bit.. different, I guess.
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