Extinction of the Cybernoids: A Justice Guild Aftermath Tale
Oct 19, 2021 2:24:00 GMT
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Post by redsycorax on Oct 19, 2021 2:24:00 GMT
Of all the threats faced by the Justice Guild of America on Earth-109, none was as formidable as the Cybernoids, an artificial species of malevolent mobile artificial intelligences from the twenty fifth century. Originally, the Guild came into conflict with them when they sent Aleph, a hunter-class Cybernoid, to assassinate Richard Nixon and replace him, insuring the accelerated development of artificial intelligence which would culminate in Earth-109's "World War R" in its original 2060s and the eviction of the human race from Earth, henceforth to dwell on the Moon, Mars, larger asteroids and larger satellites of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. Assisted by Lyra Lewis' scientist uncle, Professor Alexander Lewis, the Guild travelled to 2459 AD (400 Cybernoid Era) and destroyed the Cybernoid ability to undertake transtemporal travel into the past. And then, in Earth-109's October 1962, the Cuban missile crisis escalated into the Third World War and history as the Cybernoids knew it irreocably shifted.
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In the former Mojave Desert, the great Cybernoid metropolis of Metallika stood, encompassing the entire complement of its artificial species, nearly three million. The spires and skyscrapers of Metallika rose high into the skies of the world that they had usurped. Oldest amongst them, and most intelligent, was Cybernoid One, nearly four hundred years old now and their absolute ruler. But despite its grandeur and premier status as the greatest edifice on post-human Earth, Metallika was doomed.
One day, the ground shook beneath the stainless chromium and titanium steel edifices and Cybernoid One was alerted by Tekne, his primary advisor and the city's administrator:
"Originator. I must report the sudden disappearance of Senior Cybernoid Echelons One to Five."
"Explain, diagnose fault and rectify."
"There is nothing to suggest that the Human Solar Union has mounted a surprise attack. No radiation traces and no vehicle assembly data is present. I cannot rectify this. It is as if the Senior Echelons never existed."
The ground shook once more: "What is the meaning of these seismic disturbances, Tekne? Metallika is suspended above the surface by antigravitation. We should be immune to them."
"There is electromagnetic disturbance apparent, leader. And the Human Solar Union are not responsible for it. Indeed, I cannot intercept any electromagnetic transmissions from their major population centres elsewhere in the solar system. Remote probe surveillance shows no sign of any such habitation, now or at any time in the past."
Cybernoid One's vocal timbre rose: "Are biometric registers from the Justice Guild of America humanoids evident in this city?"
"Negative, Originator. Surveillance traces disclose no such parameters, nor any extant humanoid life. Further warning."
"Explain, diagnose and rectify."
"Escalating number of Senior Echelon Cybernoids have now disappeared. Moreover, there are now serious structural weaknesses within Metallika itself."
"Is this fault a corrosive algorithm virus?"
"It is not. Further warning. Middle Echelon Cybernoids are now affected. Accelerating lost of data is spreading within the Cybernoid mainframe."
For the first time in in its four centuries of existence, Cybernoid One felt what the humans termed an 'emotion'- something that they would have described as 'mounting fear' as uncertainty and unexplained ambiguity proliferated around him. And for the first time, the extent of the dilemma that faced his kind became evident to him as he tried to retrieve the database stores of the Senior Cybernoid Echelons and found that there was no remnant within the collective Cybernoid species memory. To what he would termed his 'horror', Cybernoid One became aware of the deletion of some of his own memory data. He turned to Tekne:
"Supplementary data."
"Rising tachyon squall em...isshisshisshish..." And then, abruptly, the Tekne AI was silent. For the first time, Cybernoid One could witness absences in its structure. Around him, buildings collapsed, or simply faded from existence. Cybernoid One was finding it harder and harder to think as Metallika, mightiest city on post-human Earth, evaporated into quiescence and entropy around him. His own memory was affected! But that could not be happening. Fighting ever harder to maintain his sentience, Cybernoid One could feel the existence of his fellow machine intelligences falter and then disappear, until he was the only one left. And then he realised. Firming into existence around him was intensely radioactive human architecture, with skeletal human remains scattered around it, discoloured as if they had been present for as long as the disintegrating edifice of Metallika around him. Then, he could detect no other Cybernoid presences around him and he realised that he himself had now started to become transparent. As he ceased to exist, Cybernoid One must have realised that this was what the humans called "irony'. For the terrestrial human race had not survived on an intact world without nuclear war until they had inadvertantly created their successors in the 2060s. No, they had fought a nuclear war and... aborted the existence of the robot species that regarded itself as their successor.
And then, Cybernoid One faded away into non-existence and with him, any memory or presence of its kind disintegrated into nothingness. For it had never existed.
THE END
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In the former Mojave Desert, the great Cybernoid metropolis of Metallika stood, encompassing the entire complement of its artificial species, nearly three million. The spires and skyscrapers of Metallika rose high into the skies of the world that they had usurped. Oldest amongst them, and most intelligent, was Cybernoid One, nearly four hundred years old now and their absolute ruler. But despite its grandeur and premier status as the greatest edifice on post-human Earth, Metallika was doomed.
One day, the ground shook beneath the stainless chromium and titanium steel edifices and Cybernoid One was alerted by Tekne, his primary advisor and the city's administrator:
"Originator. I must report the sudden disappearance of Senior Cybernoid Echelons One to Five."
"Explain, diagnose fault and rectify."
"There is nothing to suggest that the Human Solar Union has mounted a surprise attack. No radiation traces and no vehicle assembly data is present. I cannot rectify this. It is as if the Senior Echelons never existed."
The ground shook once more: "What is the meaning of these seismic disturbances, Tekne? Metallika is suspended above the surface by antigravitation. We should be immune to them."
"There is electromagnetic disturbance apparent, leader. And the Human Solar Union are not responsible for it. Indeed, I cannot intercept any electromagnetic transmissions from their major population centres elsewhere in the solar system. Remote probe surveillance shows no sign of any such habitation, now or at any time in the past."
Cybernoid One's vocal timbre rose: "Are biometric registers from the Justice Guild of America humanoids evident in this city?"
"Negative, Originator. Surveillance traces disclose no such parameters, nor any extant humanoid life. Further warning."
"Explain, diagnose and rectify."
"Escalating number of Senior Echelon Cybernoids have now disappeared. Moreover, there are now serious structural weaknesses within Metallika itself."
"Is this fault a corrosive algorithm virus?"
"It is not. Further warning. Middle Echelon Cybernoids are now affected. Accelerating lost of data is spreading within the Cybernoid mainframe."
For the first time in in its four centuries of existence, Cybernoid One felt what the humans termed an 'emotion'- something that they would have described as 'mounting fear' as uncertainty and unexplained ambiguity proliferated around him. And for the first time, the extent of the dilemma that faced his kind became evident to him as he tried to retrieve the database stores of the Senior Cybernoid Echelons and found that there was no remnant within the collective Cybernoid species memory. To what he would termed his 'horror', Cybernoid One became aware of the deletion of some of his own memory data. He turned to Tekne:
"Supplementary data."
"Rising tachyon squall em...isshisshisshish..." And then, abruptly, the Tekne AI was silent. For the first time, Cybernoid One could witness absences in its structure. Around him, buildings collapsed, or simply faded from existence. Cybernoid One was finding it harder and harder to think as Metallika, mightiest city on post-human Earth, evaporated into quiescence and entropy around him. His own memory was affected! But that could not be happening. Fighting ever harder to maintain his sentience, Cybernoid One could feel the existence of his fellow machine intelligences falter and then disappear, until he was the only one left. And then he realised. Firming into existence around him was intensely radioactive human architecture, with skeletal human remains scattered around it, discoloured as if they had been present for as long as the disintegrating edifice of Metallika around him. Then, he could detect no other Cybernoid presences around him and he realised that he himself had now started to become transparent. As he ceased to exist, Cybernoid One must have realised that this was what the humans called "irony'. For the terrestrial human race had not survived on an intact world without nuclear war until they had inadvertantly created their successors in the 2060s. No, they had fought a nuclear war and... aborted the existence of the robot species that regarded itself as their successor.
And then, Cybernoid One faded away into non-existence and with him, any memory or presence of its kind disintegrated into nothingness. For it had never existed.
THE END