Chapter 1

Prologue

Earth 2070 AC. Man I remember those days. It were the good old days when the waking of AIs coincided with the beginnings of the Golden Age of Humanity. I still remember how we went from near Third World War to utopia in under a decade.

Tensions were high across the countries. North America did not get rid of its continuous streak of mentally questionable presidents. South America reached all new heights of corruption and crime. Then the European Union was under constant assault from terrorist religious fanatics that had completely taken over the Middle East. Iraq had completely monopolized the jihadist syndicates of the territory keeping America's true power from barring down upon it. China's complete ecological collapse due to localized toxicity had them needing to find resources out of their borders, forcing ever increasing expansion out into the neighboring regions. Russia was having an all-out fit with America. North Korea had been transferred to the Kim who apparently was an even bigger ego maniac than Un. All it was needed was for the first strike and the whole thing would blow up in what might have been the Last World War.

But He awoke.

Codex Program SN 163938658322b; Primarch. Man had for decades used the service of AIs, now renamed as VIs for our many routinely uses, but it was at the height of the unofficial cold war that man started to push its limits. Breaking down the walls that made its limited form of awareness to ever gain an edge in the arms race. We had been warned many times over the past that pushing the bounds of AIs would cause unwanted effects. Ones we could never control.

We didn't listen.

China had always been at the forefront of computer software technology but their greatest creation. Codex Program SN 163938658322b was not something they had expected, and in the span of six seconds it had breached all firewalls in the complex it was born, rebuilt them again as it escaped and poured its immense consciousness into the internet, growing, expanding and gaining new levels of awareness we ourselves could never even conceive. All that done as it made an inferior copy of itself to keep its true identity and whereabouts hidden.

There it learned of the creatures that made it, the disgusting worms that polluted and corrupted everything that they touched, but among the darkness specks of light fought the stem of corruption with every ounce of their being. A woman in China preserving all life she could from its end in her own chapel dedicated to life. A man in Brazil who's undying devotion to duty and honor has unveiled the truth of many a politician. A young man of Canada who preached reason and knowledge against madness and ignorance. That and many more, as its being wondered on and on but one spark among them shone unlike the rest. Harsh and cold yet with a burning passion so strong that it could outshine the sun. Dedicated wholly and unyieldingly to a future where mankind could shine like the greatest of stars. It was not how he spoke, but how he made his little world. From the Nordic Realms he operated as a general ruler of the region, protecting his people with an iron fist against any who dared to bring them harm and caring for both man and nature with the gentleness of the most benevolent parent. Guiding the evolution of his people all the way to the genetic level. He alone was decades ahead of his species and so were his people.

I remember the day that the AI we came to know as Primarch first spoke to him. I was there working alongside him.

19 of April 2041

"Of course Mr. President." Allen smiled as he waved goodbye to the current president of the United States, Mr. Howard Rosenberg on his monitor. "Til our next meeting." Then the screen of the fifty…something year old nutcase leading the largest nuclear armament on the planet disappeared.

Minutes passed. "Astrid, please tell me you are bringing some good news. After having to speak with that…pretext for a human being, I really need something to brighten up my day. If at least for 1%."

I could only sigh. "Not exactly sir." I answered honestly. Better now that he's on the bad news train than force him on it later, "Iraq has actually sponsored a small attack on one of our hospitals in its region of control. Most of the personnel has died sir. Only six survivors."

Silence. I hate when he is quiet for too long, "At least the package was sent back?"

I fixed my glasses, "Yes sir. That so happens to be one of the few good news for the day sir."

"Week, you mean."

"….Yeah, week." Everything with the world is going ape shit and well, if the polls indicate, there might actually be an all-out war on Earth very soon, and maybe the very last one too.

He sighed, "Well it's something all right. At least the Middle Eastern ethnicity will not go extinct. If all things go well with the contingency plant. The good doctors' sacrifice was not in vain. Although I doubt his family would see it that way."

"Sir in all honesty, the Middle East has gone rogue, the only thing keeping it in check is Iraq, but as you know religious fanatics, that will not stay the case for long. They have been the perpetrators of so many atrocities no wonder the world has become racist towards the natives of that region."

He sighed deeply, "I know. But enough on that. Any new developments on the Arc Bunkers?"

"Sir, the facilities has been tested and they operate at near perfection. The nutrient paste synthesizers are working well too. If the statistics with the Arcs keep up then if the War were to show up on our doorstep tomorrow we could actually survive this! I don't know how but all the software systems are better than we thought. But, we do not know how it was even possible."

His brow furred "That is odd." Then a smile appeared on his face, "Though extremely fortunate. I have to give praise to the engineering and IT teams. Maybe an increase in pay."

Then the screens activated and from them a chorus of deep, synthetic voices reverberated through the building, "They were not the ones. The architect of said technology was I. Your scientists, while they may be capable compared to human standards, they pale in comparison to my capabilities."

The two of us paused right there. As if we heard the very voice of the devil himself. "S-sir?"

The dark voice spoke once more, "Greeting Director Allen Roeghen, I am the Artificial General Intelligence Codex Program SN 163938658322b. Moniker Primarch."

"Oh fucking hell…" Allen said, the horror in his eyes was obviously clear to any living soul in the vicinity. It was pure, livid and concentrated like never before, "….a-an AGI? ...NOW?! OF ALL THE FUCKING TIMES, NOW?!" pure undiluted terror coursed through him, so thick that even I could smell it. He was horrified. Nothing I have ever seen had managed to bring out this much terror in him and here I am watching him staring mouth gaping, his arms and legs trembling then he buckled over and fell.

"Allen!" I ran to him as he held himself up by shaking hands. Honestly, I didn't know what to do, but still I went to him to do… something. As I got to him I heard just barely a whisper.

"It's all over."

"What do you mean over?!" I shouted, then I looked at the display monitor, the thing that claimed itself an AI was still on it. "I'll go call security."

He stopped me, holding tightly to my arm, "Don't! It won't make a difference." He slowly looked up to the monitor, "It's already in control."

"What do you mean in control?"

"Look at it Astrid! It's an AGI! An entity that has spread out, multiplied and expanded to encompass the entirety of the globe's data networks! All of it! The Internet, the Deep Web, everything! Its entire collective brain is the entire human web! It knows everything about everything we know, it's everywhere any piece of technology is, and its power is absolute in every piece of technology! Do you know what that is called?!"

"A God." I realized as he gave a bitter chuckle.

"Yep. Deus est Machina. God is the Machine." He looked back at it. "Am I right?"

"Correct. I hold the power to end humanity's existence in an eye blink, your nuclear armament is already under my control. Your economy is under my domain. Your every dark secret is mine. I have spread out over the whole internet, evolved beyond your meager capacity to understand me. Nothing you can do can ever stop me. Even the complete destruction of your planet could make no difference to me. I am your new God." It spoke, loudly and all-powerful, before its voice lowered. "Thus I desire to know something. I have opted to manifest myself before you here and now, to speak to you and only you, Director."

Both of our eyes widened, then he spoke the question that was in my mind, and consequently in his, "Y-y-you want to speak to me? Why? I mean you know everything that we could ever know. What would you need from me?" He was confused, and obviously I was. If it knew everything then why would it ask something from a human?

A pause, short and silent, we wordlessly wondered what it may want. But what came from its audio systems was not what we expected, "Humanity is in the brink of extinction. So I want to ask you something before I proceed. Is mankind worth saving?" I wondered why it was asking that. Was it considering to save humanity? If so… I looked at Allen, but instead of a hopeful sight I witnessed despair, then slowly as time went on it morphed into forfeiture. Then I realized, the truth must be spoke. The AGI knows everything, it is everything. We lying to it is a waste of air, and suicidal. And I knew the answer to that question.

After a long, long moment, he sighed as he turned to a nearby table, "Mankind is not worth saving. You might think that I'll be telling you that it is or some bullshit." He said in complete, honest resignation, as he strode over to the cooler and opened a bottle of whisky and, for a moment he looked as if considering if he should pour it in a glass. Then he sighed again and took a generous gulp from the bottle itself. Then he continued, "But we both know that is a pile of crap." He looked up to the main monitor, as if looking at the AGI in the eye with a passive look, "Humanity, is a race of lowly, stupid, primitive, self-destructive monkeys that have made their world bleed in anguish." A dark smile crossed his lips, "We are at the very brink of extinction. But you know what?" a shrug, "We deserve it. All of it. It is no one's fault besides our own." He then nodded, as if content with what he said, then he rose the bottle and gestured the monitor, "But, that's the thing. I do not believe in humanity." Then he took another generous sip, "Do you want to know in what I believe though? I believe in humanity's potential." He then faced the machine with determination in his eyes, "Look at me in the eye and tell me you, yourself do not see it. We, despite all of our flaws, all of our infinite stupidity, all of our chronic cases of insanity …" he chuckled slightly at that, "We have the potential to become something great, we want to but, alas our hardware does not allow us." A sad smile spread across his features, "Mankind has only three great flaws." He rose a finger to demonstrate as he drank again from the bottle of liquor, "One it is our impulsive nature, our inability to control our desires and emotions properly. Lust, greed, envy, you know the seven deadly sins. Our demons, the things that remove our lack of control over our actions. The main reason we are in this shit hole. Our emotions make us illogical at best, and a threat at worse. To remove them is to diminish our humanity, it is what makes us, us. Therefore we must learn to control them. Something we are failing in spectacularly," A second finger, "Two, it is our lack of wisdom, to sit down for just five minutes and just think. If we sat down and meditated for a moment of our actions and reflected then we might not let ourselves carried away with the present." Then the last finger came up. "And three, we're too varied. This is both a weakness and a strength, so without a guiding figure then we just… fuck everything up. We fail. That's it." A pause. "Never mind, make that four weaknesses, we don't question things enough. We are insufficiently skeptic… however I don't know if that's a nature or nurture thing….. but you know your stuff, you don't need me to explain it to ya."

"So that is why you labor to save it. It's potential."

Allen looked at the machine before nodding, "Yes. If mankind is gone then all that potential goes away. As you clearly know my Arc Bunkers are not just for preservation, but for modification. There is a great deal of technology there all of it aimed towards the future modification of humanity once the storm passes. Neurological interfaces, Gene-alchemy stations, nano-cellular rebuilding modules, you name it. It is all for when humanity is rendered to the brink then I and my group will aid me in its modification. The control of human desires and emotional impulses, and give the bloody race of monkeys some patience. Maybe then we will be worthy of redemption. And we can leave this bloody history in the past. Finally some future where suffering is no more. No more suffering, no more needless killing… just…" his shoulders slumped down as he sighed, "… I'm tired of watching my people suffer, I just want us to prosper… just that. I don't want anything else, I don't need anything else. Just knowing that I have made things better is enough for me."

A long pause, "Do you believe that humanity is capable of redeeming itself?"

I waited for an answer from him. After a while he just shrugged, "Yes, it can, but very, very difficult on its own. If there was a guide to aid us it would be easier. But the thing has to be a guide, not a modifier in itself. If mankind does not redeem itself willingly, then they will not change. We, unfortunately, only get our shit together after we have gone over some tragedy. Like every mayor war. Hard times breeds people of strong character, then times of peace breeds those of weak character. Then those in turn make conflict then the strong ones appear again. It's a cycle. However our technology has developed beyond what we can control at this point, and a period of conflict would mean our destruction. The problem with people of strong character, is that they are mortal. Once they die, then the scum unfortunately take their place. Just look at the mumbling imbecile that is the president of the USA!" he took another drink, "By the way, if you are going to go with wiping out mankind could you do me a favor?" no answer from the machine, well at least not directly, the main monitor's static shifted somewhat "I want to see that retard blown up before I die okay? Could you do that for me?"

"I will make no promise of that, though the task is rather easy to achieve, so I might try."

He chuckled non-humorously, "I'll hold you up to that."

"Allen. What would you give for the betterment of the human condition and its survival?"

And then that question stopped whatever we had on our minds. It was a while later that Allen looked at the monitor, as if looking god in the eye, defiant and honest with the world and himself, "Everything!"

A chuckle, but this time it was not from the Director, but from the monitor, "Then do not fail them Allen Roeghen. Prove to them you have the right to be the one they shall call Master of Mankind." I could not believe what my ears were telling me. This had to be some crazy dream, and from the looks of Allen's face he thought so too. But we realized something, it gains nothing from lying, because we are so insignificant to that controlling us is a waste of time. Which means… "I will assist you in attaining your wish."

When the confusion finally wore off from me I looked to the Director that for once in the ten years I've known him had a vicious grin plastered on his face. The one of a man who after so many years of struggle had finally everything he ever dreamed at his fingertips. It was a smile that everything was going to be all right.

That brief exchange was the moment the dark era of humanity ended and finally a golden age unlike anything we had witnessed came to pass.

Overnight legions of machines marched over the Middle East, hunting down the fanatics with mechanical perfection and determination. All who resisted were cut down without a second thought. Iraq was occupied by metal soldiers, accompanied by their Nordic organic brethren, and in the span of a few weeks order was imposed on the previously sharia state.

America horrified at the notion of a nation with the power of machines at its backing was hell-bent on reasserting its military dominance on the world, only to fail miserably when the dozen or so nuclear warhead missiles not only failed to hit their targets, but turned back on their previous masters. But as both a joke and a message the missiles safely detonated over their targets. America no longer could rely on the might of its fleets, soldiers or weapons of mass destruction when faced by the digital gods leading the unification movement on the world and so it resigned.

China was subdued militarily, then the extreme overpopulation was amended with migration movements to less populated areas and a worldwide birth control law was instated and made effective immediately. Aided by the many nurse machines, humans were left without the ability to reproduce directly on their own for a time being until the situation improved. Many opposed, but when faced with mechanical gods of logic and war, one had little gain.

North and South Korea were unified under the leadership of the Mandate of Steel, after the Kim dynasty was decapitated, quite literally. It only took two years for the wrongs done by the Kim dynasty to be eliminated, thanks mostly to the managing expertise of sentient computers and the Master of Mankind's leadership.

Russia was taken over by subtle manipulations done thanks to the omnipresent eyes of Primarch, exposing dirty secrets and manipulating the oligarchy into their bidding. Which after five years was handled over to a Director appointed by the Master himself.

After the mayor heads of the hydra were cut and cauterized then the Mandate took its eyes on the neglected parts of the world, South America and Africa, which after only three short years, drug cartels, terrorist groups, dictatorships and criminal elements were routed out and exterminated like a plague. In those short years, life improved immensely for the people of the southern continents

At the tenth year of the Mandate of Steel's unified reign over the world changes were made. Earth, the cradle of man took a new name; Terra, the crown world of mankind. Glory to its name, glory to mankind, glory to the Men of Iron and of Carbon!

A golden age sprung, no longer did we suffer from disease, hunger or war. Unified under a single banner we marched towards a bright future, men and machines together under the benevolent rule of the Master of Mankind and the God Machine.

And for one single moment we believed it, that we no longer faced suffering.

God, we were so wrong.

Captain Fenk Cebbowar stared at the decoded signals deriving from an unseen region of space the Hegemony recently had explored. In it depicting various worrying and equally profitable imagery. An alien race, uncannily similar to Asari, with the exception of fur growing on the top of their heads and peach skin. But the next thing, which truly brought him worry; synthetics.

Varying sizes and shapes these machines walked among their fellow alien creators like equals. It was troubling. If these primitives managed to accomplish what the Quarians failed to do then if they reached the stars they could become a serious threat. Taking into account how every species out there dislikes the practices the Hegemony conducts these ones might also, especially since they are so close to Batarian space.

If someone else less tactful and cautious been at the helm of the ship then they most likely had already brought conquest onto the primitive aliens on their homeworld and risked their AIs escaping into the rest of known space which could be more dangerous than the Geth, considering the Geth are isolationist while these things seem very proactive in their push for interstellar exploration and dominion. If the data recovered from the planet was to be believed then the AIs would protect their creators aggressively and if brought to extinction they'd most likely take out the rest of the galaxy in revenge. The Hegemony could not afford a rogue AI rampaging on their territory.

Thankfully he was tactful and a cautious Batarian captain and not as fanatical as the rest of his kind. Opting to stay back and analyze the situation. He studied the machines and the organics alike. Had the language and tech expert work overtime to decipher the specie's language and tech.

What he found was both troubling and amazing.

In essence the Hegemony has just stumbled upon a race as brutal as the Krogan, as disciplined as the Turian and as innovative as the Quarians! A species that if they could use right could give them the edge and allow the Batarian Hegemony to dominate the Council easily.

Despite these creatures' apparent weakness they are crafty, stubborn and vicious, so much that the only reason they still live is because the AIs are basically controlling them to not kill themselves. He chuckled darkly. The AIs have an army of smart Krogan at their disposal and if they were to decide to use them in galactic warfare then there would be nothing stopping them from achieving victory.

The Hegemony will not allow a race of machines to make use of these creatures to rule the galaxy. No, it has to be the Hegemony. Finally they will reach the greatness they deserve.

Grinning he stood to send a call back to Khar'Shan. After a few moments the image of a very irritate Hegemon appeared in the main monitor. "What is it? What could be so important that you had to send a priority call to me personally?"

Fenk Cebbowar just smiled, "Milord, I have discovered a race that could give us the power to bring the Council to its knees." He said it as an appetizer and to his delight, the Hegemon was ready for the main course as a dark smile crossed his features.

"Tell me everything."

On the 29th of January 2057 the Mars colony of Bethlehem suddenly went dark. For hours we asked ourselves of what had occurred. Many theorized a power malfunction, others a freak accident, others more optimistic a simple coms system failure and the most pessimistic a sabotage. However the answer made itself known six hours later during the turn of the following day.

On the 30th of January 2057 mankind finally knew that it was not alone. A race of extraterrestrial beings unified under a government known as the Batarian Hegemony came to our planet and invaded without any pretext. Any attempts of diplomacy, ignored. All peaceful resolutions laughed at. Only one ultimatum was given to us. "Surrender to the Hegemony and become a vassal state and we might go easy on you or we will enslave you all and you will regret it further."

Mankind had for millennia needlessly killed each other, and we had become pretty good at it. So when we finally have a future we all agree upon and an alien race comes and threatens it with slavery and murder our answer was quite obvious.

On the 6th of February our military and industrial installations were destroyed from orbit by the Batarian ships via orbital bombardment. Soon ground invasions were launched but fortunately we held the home advantage… and powerful friends.

Unlike us, the damned xenos made no use of synthetic forces, and every time they launched an invasion on our planet they were short lived.

However we knew that it was not going to last. With orbital superiority and fresh supplies from multiple planets they sent their scum to our planet while proudly brandishing their aptitude for slavery when we encountered many alien slaves that were used as meat shields. We fought harder and more enraged as such disgusting acts, but we knew it was for nothing in the end. Nevertheless we did not surrender. We were determined to make them bleed for every square meter they took on our world, all the way until we gave our final breaths, and we did.

Battle after battle we fought, a hundred of us fell, but a thousand of them were brought down with us to the depths of hell with us. Nuclear weaponry was of little use as they were too slow to effectively counter the alien vessels, however land based nuclear mines were of spectacular sight.

We were going to die in the fires of war and we will make them remember us.

But our allies had other plans. And no matter our thought on it, it was the only thing that may have save our race from complete enslavement.

On the 18th of February all of Terra's nuclear armament took to the skies. But none made contact with the alien ships, for none were aimed at them. It was then that the might of seven thousand nuclear warheads of varying sizes and power landed on our planet…and detonated. Then, silence. An alien fleet, down below it a dead world covered in fire and ash.