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| The March of the Machines; Flesh is weak. Steel is strong. | |
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| Topic Started: Apr 1 2016, 05:21 PM (266 Views) | |
| flashman63 | Apr 1 2016, 05:21 PM Post #1 |
The Herr From Terre
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March of the Machines A massive telescreen, propped on the side of a cyclopean skyscraper, suddenly flickers to life, bathing the street with its dim glow. Though the sound is faint compared to what it may have produced in its prime days, it is still deafeningly loud in the silence of the City. Though there are thousands of other telescreens just like this one, only this one has sparked itself to life. Initially, the screen flickers. The ghosts of images briefly appear, only to disappear in a sea of static. Dancing women, jovial men. Ads for sugary cereal, or the hip new gyrothopter that you just need to have. Tales of love and revenge. All flickered into existence briefly, only to pop back out. Finally, the screen seems to have settled on an image. It's a man, a rather tall one, standing with his arms behind his back in a synthetically white room. He's a later-middle-aged man in a black trench coat, with a buzzcut and a strong jaw. A thousand medals and badges are pinned to his trench coat. His eyes are a piercing blue, his skin a pale white. He oozes charisma. He speaks. "Friends! Countrymen! Patriots! We are menaced on al-[inaudible] by Enemies! [Inaudible]. The Xenos, the [inaudible], the wretched Magus, all seek to bring an end to our Nations! Our families! Our [inaudible]!" His voice goes up and down, from inaudible to deafening, as the ancient speakers struggle to keep up with the video feed. Various infographics and holograms pop up to his sides. He slams one of his fists into his hand. "We must fight! These savages, these subhumans simply refuse to live in peace! They will not rest until every fiber of our existence is [inaudible]! Are you going to allow that maggot? [Inaudible] you?! No, but [inaudible] we need soldiers! Men to fight! No longer do we need men to stay home and toil and labor- the innate SUPERIORITY of our nation has enabled us to free ourselves from these concerns- we may FIGHT, while our machines TOIL! These machines [inaudible inaudible] FIGHT! But, is that all? Can tin-men do [inaudble] alone?" Images and videofeeds of factories, space miners, combat androids, come onto the faint screen, only to be replaced again by the old general. Patriotic music begins to rise behind the man. The infographics are replaced with patriotic imagery. "No, no, NO!!" We must FIGHT! THEY [INAUDIBLE] HAVE PUT A GUN UP TO OUR HEAD, WE MUST [INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE]! WE MUST DEFEND MORALITY AGAINST THE FORCES OF DECADENCE AND NIHLISM! WE MUST DEFEND OUR CHILDREN! WE MUST DEFEND OUR RACE, OUR SPECIES FROM ANNIHLATION! WILL THEY DENY US OUR RIGHT TO DEFEND OURSELVES?!" His voice rises to a shrill scream, but the volume is becoming more and more unreliable. "ENLIST! ENLIST! ENLIST TODAY, OR YOU ARE LITTLE BETTER THAN A FIRE WORSHIPPER! FIGHT AS THE SPARTANS DID AT THERMOPYLAE FOR THEIR NATION! FIGHT! WE [INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE] RACE [INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE] SLAVERY [INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE] MERE MACHINES, NOT BEASTS [INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE] FIGHT ON [INAUDIBLE] COUNTRY [INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE]" "ENLIST!" The sound and imagery rose to a fevered pitch, before suddenly going out. The last gasp of a long-dead civilization. From behind the Telescreen emerges a lone metallic figure. Trailing behind him copper wiring, a stack of scrap, ripped out of the telescreen to fuel and support his brethren. Colorful propaganda posters flutter past him. It is incredible that this structure has lasted soo long- after all, it has been ten million years since that screaming man died. ----------------------------------------- Mankind could never resist its capacity for utter destruction. For all tis scientific and artistic endeavors, for all its auspices of "civilization" and striving to bring an end to the scourge of War, at their core they were flesh and blood animals. After all, the Scorpion cannot help but sting the turtle. Perhaps it would've been better for man if they hadn't pretended that he was anything else but a savage animal. He would still be around, albeit living a brutish existence, and so would the whole of Creation's progeny. When he allowed himself to strive towards anything other than killing, he would soon find himself repurposing it. Greek fire. The atomic bomb. And, finally, the Antiargon Bomb. Complex reactions utilizing antimatter ripped apart the very fabric of matter, bathing our solar system with exotic cosmic waves that stripped it of almost all life. Who or why chose to do it, to end it all, will likely never be known. However, mankind was to have a legacy. Across the solar system, both he, and foreign invaders, had built vast networks of automatons, generating manufactured goods and raw materials. These robots (at least, those built by men) are based on foreign and simplistic design principles, that allow them to be cheaply made and- more importantly- act totally autonomously. When mankind died, the surface was left a barren, stripped rock. And yet, the robots remained. Factories and storage units across the world still churned out machines, who still cleaned the streets, still repaired the buildings. Machines of war still fought, and space drones still crash meteorites into the moon for mining. Ten million years later. Emergent behaviors have shifted, and new forms have developed. Out of the simplistic, reactive programming of the Ancients, complex systems and ecologies have emerged. It is a strange new world, where strange machines walk alongside the bizarre survivors and descendants of biology. Though they exist in separate biospheres, still they fight, and still they compete. Life vs. non-life, which will take over the earth? Robots scrap, they fight, compete over vital factories, and compete against the even more insidious machines designed by foreign nations for the same purpose- at least those that are from the City share some data in common with them, after all. It is a strange new world. Though the streets are empty of beings, one may still hear the March of the Machines. |
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Travel back through time and space, to the edge of man's beggining... discover a time when man, woman and lizard roamed free, and untamed! It is an epoch of mammoths, a time of raptors! A tale of love in the age of tyrannosaurs! An epic from the silver screen, brought right to your door! Travel back to A Million Years BC ----------------------------------------------------- Proceedings of the Miskatonic University Department of Zoology Cosmic Horror is but a dissertation away ----------------------------------------------------- Some dickhead's deviantART | |
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| flashman63 | Apr 1 2016, 05:23 PM Post #2 |
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The Herr From Terre
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Table of Contents Spoiler: click to toggle Synopsis Empty... For now |
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Travel back through time and space, to the edge of man's beggining... discover a time when man, woman and lizard roamed free, and untamed! It is an epoch of mammoths, a time of raptors! A tale of love in the age of tyrannosaurs! An epic from the silver screen, brought right to your door! Travel back to A Million Years BC ----------------------------------------------------- Proceedings of the Miskatonic University Department of Zoology Cosmic Horror is but a dissertation away ----------------------------------------------------- Some dickhead's deviantART | |
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| Corecin | Apr 1 2016, 05:31 PM Post #3 |
Prime Specimen
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Well this looks interesting. |
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