Chancellor Eric Robertson had no idea that this would be the day the world would end. He thought that he would just sit in his office and sign letters, like any other head of state. Eric would never be more wrong. The Republic of Incrementis was the first nation to ever be based upon science and logic.
Therefore, they were part of the Scientific Alert System, or SciNet. SciNet was developed in 2035 to allow scientific corporations and organizations to alert each other to new findings. So, when a Priority Level 10 Alpha transmission came in through SciNet, it was quite the surprise. A man wearing a suit came into the Mendel Office and said, "Sir, Polaris Corporation has just sent a Priority 10 Alpha transmission across SciNet, and, sir, you are going to want to take a look at this."
Eric got up immediately and headed to the Executive Communications Center. There, a computer monitor showed woman in a blue suit. She said, "an artificial intelligence project we have been working on for many years has gotten out. She is currently hacking into United States nuclear missile systems and is expected to launch in the next fifteen minutes." Eric said, barely holding his voice calm, "Get me a Priority Darwin transmission across all radio frequencies. Television, AM, FM, HAM, Internet. Take us down to Nuclear Condition One. Order evacuations for all cities under our jurisdiction." "Yes, sir."
Eric came into the filming studio wearing a black suit. He said to the camera. "I have no way to make this less difficult to take for any one of you, but we have just received word that any minute now, the world will be destroyed by nuclear fire. We will, as a species, survive. Humanity always finds a way. In peace may you leave the shore. In love may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels until our final journey on the ground... May we meet again."
Two minutes later, the bombs impacted, destroying the world. Only about one hundred and fifty million people survived the initial impact. Ten million would die out over time.