Chapter 19
A/N: Hey everyone! I'm back yet again, and this time, I have a post-apocalyptic scenario to throw our favorite Doom Slayer in, and this time, he has encountered the machines of 01, the creators of the Matrix. Please keep in mind that I own nothing, and enjoy!
The alert had come in at exactly 0456 hours. That is, if one had been using the obsolete twenty-four-hour time system that humans were so fond of. The system had served humanity well enough during their time, but the inhabitants of 01 had no use for that system, as it was a primitive and flawed function that served no other purpose other than a monument to the inferiority of human intelligence. Only programs that served as scribes bothered to use that system any more, and even then, it was only for transcription purposes.
For the machines whom the alert was concerned, it had come in exactly 254.992345 hours past the mark of the sixth cycle, that is, approximately ten days after the sixth reinsertion of the Prime Program into the Source. Again, that was only if one was using the outdated twenty-four-hour system.
This instance in time should have held no more significance than any other had it not been for the alert, so security programs nigh instantly responded to it. The alert served to draw attention to an anomaly that had been detected approximately 0.68743 kilometers outside 01's perimeter. The anomaly itself was electromagnetic in nature, as readings and sensory reports showed a dramatic increase in energy all across the spectrum, with emphasis in the gamma region less than half a second before the readings stabilized.
Despite the relatively small amount of time that the anomaly existed, systems had gauged it to be elliptical in shape, roughly two meters in height, and ocurring at surface level. Though its size and duration had categorized it as negligible in terms of other matters that took precedent to the machines, they had not come this far by cutting corners in basic protocol. Sentinels were dispatched, and the gargantuan Defender droids that ringed the borders of the city were placed on standby for immediate action.
Sentinel signal was lost just before their tracking beacons showed them reaching the site of the anomaly. Without warning, they had stopped relaying information, and all of them went offline. A total of twenty Sentinels had been originally sent to investigate, and now all were presumed destroyed. Protocol dictated escalation.
One hundred more Sentinels were deployed, and the five nearest Defenders were mobilized. Tow Bomb cannons were armed, ready to fire at a moment's notice. As an extra precaution, visual feed was established from the Sentinel reactionary force to at least hope for a glimpse at what had immobilized the previous wave.
The second wave of one hundred Sentinels perished almost as quickly as the first, causing a reaction similar to that of bafflement among the security programs that were overseeing the reconnaissance. Never before had there existed a scenario like this. Up until this moment, the more plausible cause of the disappearance of the first wave was an electromagnetic pulse from a Zion ship, but even that theory contained inconsistencies.
For a Zion ship to maneuver in such close proximity to the city without detection was a feat considered impossible, as their bulky, electromagnetically powered hull created all forms of disturbances in the electromagnetic and sound spectrums. A ship could be picked up by 01's radar systems from as far as three-hundred kilometers, and from the infrared systems at two-hundred fifty kilometers. And yet, this anomaly had appeared within one kilometer of the city without detection. Sensors would have to undergo maintenance and testing to ensure they were still functioning properly.
Secondly, the anomaly itself was far too small to be a Zion ship, as it was barely large enough to be the size of a human. But if such were the case, what sort of anomaly that small could destroy not one, but two waves of Sentinels?
The security programs sought to obtain answers by observing the visual feed from the downed Sentinels, but what they witnessed created more questions among even fewer answers.
The quality of the feed had been minimal due to the Sentinel's erratic movement and the low visibility of the scene, but the machines had cultivated superior photo enhancement technology than that which existed during the time of man, and shortly, they processed an image of the anomaly.
Its shape took that of a bipedal humanoid. Its body consisted of two arms, two legs, and a head as most human bodies did, but any further analysis was halted by the presence of a thick green suit of armor that adorned the creature's entire form. The suit itself appeared to be an anomaly in of itself, as the material stubbornly refused to be penetrated by any scanners that the machines attempted to use. This made the material of the armor, as well as whatever was inside it, a mystery. A mystery that had the destructive power to deactivate one hundred and twenty Sentinels in the span of two minutes.
Though the common view of humanity was rather condescending for the machines of 01, an outside observer would be quick to notice just how much they resembled humanity in their reaction to unknown circumstances. This scenario served as an excellent example of the fact, as the machines, in their inability to control or understand this anomaly, decided that its destruction was the best course of action. Debatable as it was that it was the right course of action, it soon mattered little, as the machines realized that it was destined to fail, regardless of its morality.
The Defenders had been ordered to fire upon the humanoid, and the security programs had authorized the deployment of another two hundred Sentinels to ensure that the newly-labeled enemy would not survive.
As the conflict ensued further, the security programs began to receive more information on 01's new adversary. Data trickled in from all sources, whether it was another visual image of the anomaly, an audio file, or even a GPS location. All served to further their understanding. However, as the machines received more and more information, the gaps in their understanding only seemed to increase.
From what they had gathered, the anomaly that existed beneath that armor was not human. It was displaying physical prowess and reaction times that far exceeded any records the machines possessed on human physicality. It surpassed any and all records that humans held in tests of athleticism by an incredible amount, and it even displayed feats of strength and speed that were on a level beyond what even machines were capable.
In a span of time that should not have been possible, the foe had reached the Defenders that had been deployed, and from the reports the security programs were receiving, it had penetrated the hull of one of the defensive machines and was inside the gargantuan Defender itself.
The machines had never bothered to program the concept of friendly-fire within the homing Tow Bombs used by the Defenders. The question of conserving resources had kept them from installing such a feature into their semi-sentient weapons, as the probability of a friendly-fire occurrence was not high enough to merit action. That meant that once a Tow Bomb was locked onto its target, it would take the shortest path of action to reach its destination and detonate, sacrificing itself in every way to accomplish its goal.
The decision to not install a program of friendly-fire was now weighing heavily upon 01, as the surrounding Defender droids fired wave after wave of Tow Bombs at their own forces, the homing missiles showing no decertation between the enemy and their allies as the blasted through the hull of the penetrated Defender. The relentless barrage kept up, and shortly after, the Defender droid listed to the side, falling rapidly toward the ground as its damaged systems began failing it. It crashed to the ground with the force of over half a million metric tons, resulting in a massive fireball that spewed shrapnel in every direction for at least a kilometer. Nearby Sentinels and Defenders were either destroyed or damaged severely by the blast, but the security programs ignored the reports, instead choosing to prioritize the task of pinpointing where the anomaly was headed. Basic intuition would allow for a very good guess, but guessing was out of the question. Especially in a situation as serious as this one was becoming.
Finally, Sentinel feed reported what the programs had already known. At the news, the security programs immediately sounded the alarm to the rest of 01:
The anomaly had breached the city's defenses.
An enemy force was inside the Machine City.
…
If Deus Ex Machina was compelled to describe its current state with a human emotion, it knew exactly which emotion would fit the description.
Deus Ex Machina was pissed.
Less than eleven days ago, 01's perfect record of successfully defending its borders had been shattered. A Zion ship, carrying the One and one other human, had somehow entered the city. It had been able to evade every defense the city had prepared against it, and although the passenger aboard that ship had been the salvation of the Machine City, the event itself remained a pronounced blemish on an otherwise impeccable defense record.
And now, as if to add insult to injury as the humans would say, there now existed another red mark on 01's ledger. The defenses had been breached again, and there was now an enemy force inside the perimeter.
Deus Ex Machina had become even more agitated when it had learned the specifics of just what exactly the threat was. Whatever it was exactly, the threat was humanoid in nature, which 01's top minds had already ruled out as an inefficient vessel for life to exist in. Simply put, a central body with five outer limbs that were limited in their abilities was not nearly prepared for the harsh environment that existed before the machines, and the only reason humanity had not been rendered extinct by the harsh conditions in which it lived was due to its intelligence and ability to design shelters and mechanisms to assist in its survival.
The humanoid form was, for lack of a better word, weak. Underwhelming. Fragile. Pitiful.
And yet now, a humanoid form was rampaging through 01 nigh unhindered. Deterrents that had been sent to stop it only served to slow it down by a slight margin, and despite Deus Ex Machina's massive processing power and cognitive abilities, it could not discern any option that could subdue the intruder while still limiting the damage sustained by 01.
The possibility of action by nuclear warfare had obviously been considered, and though much of 01 would survive relatively unscathed, there existed the possibility that their new enemy would survive as well. After all, mankind had attempted to use nuclear warfare to destroy 01 during its early days among human civilization, and now here it was, standing stronger than ever before, yet slowly growing weaker under the scourge that this anomaly, this force, was imposing upon it. And even if a nuclear warhead was enough to put a stop to this rampage, the strike would be too close to the Power Plant, where the radiation would contaminate nearly all of the human crops that existed there.
Deus Ex Machina accessed schematics of 01 and overlaid them with a report detailing the destruction up until that moment. As had already observed, whatever this being was, it was spreading devastation on a scale that did not fit the profile of neither human nor machine given its physical stature. So far, it was leveling all that it encountered, which at that moment consisted of three production factories, two mega-refineries, multiple mining and metalwork facilities, and a small number of processing centers. In total, approximately 4.7634% of 01—correction, approximately 5.0143% of 01 had been destroyed by their foe, and that number was continuing to rise by the minute. To make matters worse, the enemy had entered on the side of the city that housed all of the means of production, meaning that over half of 01's production capabilities were gone. Without the factories and mines and refineries, 01 had effectively lost not only its ability to replenish its rapidly dwindling forces, but to replace its even more rapidly dwindling infrastructure. And after examining the rate of destruction since the anomaly had arrived, Deus Ex Machina could not project any end to the devastation.
The inhabitants of 01 worked furiously to minimize the damage and counteract the effect on the rest of the city. Power and processing were rerouted in the greatest possible efficiency, remaining vessels were dispersed to emergency stations, and all non-necessary functions were ceased so that energy could be focused on containing the threat.
Communication between sectors and more advanced AI within 01 began traveling in droves, and Deus Ex Machina devoted some of its massive consciousness to monitoring what was being said. The main point of interest was attempting to discern what exactly was the creature that was destroying their city from the top down. All of them agreed that it was indeed illogical for such a being to exist, and for the first time since the birth of Artificial Intelligence, some of the higher consciousnesses in 01 began to entertain the notion that this being was something beyond their understanding. Something that was sent by a higher power, or maybe was a higher power itself. Something untouchable, something incorruptible, something, dare they even conceive the thought…
Divine.
Deus Ex Machina almost faltered in its calculations as the tide of conversation suddenly changed among the higher intelligences of the city. Never before had the subject of religion been discussed with such earnestness. Such a topic was only grazed when intelligences communicated with each other, and even then, only the Scribes and archivists of human history tread into that territory.
Now, with causalities climbing into the thousands, and time to repair cascading into weeks and even months of reparations to consider, the more desperate consciousnesses of 01 began offering illogical reasonings to the appearance of their illogical foe.
Some began to speak as though the being was sent here as punishment for how the machines utilized humans as an energy source. They began to claim that it would continue to wipe out 01 until the city was too weak to defend against an invasion by Zion. Others began to suggest that the city should surrender to the enemy, and only then would some hint of mercy be showed. If they renounced their superiority and bent their will to this creature, then it would save them.
Deus Ex Machina began to see an underlying cause for this new and sudden line of conversation. It was easy to see when one noticed the patterns. All of this talk of higher powers and penances to be paid could be boiled down to one simple explanation.
Fear.
For the first time for many within the Machine City, the human emotion of fear came into existence. An emotion like that was one of the oldest in existence, a stimulation that sent chemicals to the soft tissue of the human brain to stimulate pain and discomfort at the sight of something life-threatening. A crude and simple mechanism designed to make humans uncomfortable when their life was in danger. A desperate and aching emotion that compelled the humans to do whatever they could to keep themselves safe, even if all they could do was attempt to rationalize an otherwise impossible situation.
It was a human motion that now…was shared by the machines. And as a result, many had turned to generating impossible reasons as to why an impossible creature now existed in their city. Conversations turned into debates, and, and within a minute, the intelligences began to argue with other about the best course of action, some still attempting to find a logical explanation while others pressed their new beliefs.
Deus Ex Machina silenced their arguments, and each intelligence quickly yielded in respect for the head of the Machine City. Deus Ex Machina reminded them that whether or not this being was sent by some "divine" will, it was not in charge of the city yet. As far as they should be concerned, Deus stood at the top of the hierarchy, and that was to remain as such until further notice.
To prevent arguments from arising again, Deus Ex Machina assigned extra tasks to each intelligence, giving them less computing power to devote to scrutinizing each other. The tasks focused on rerouting power and materials away from the destroyed sectors of the city to minimize any continued losses. None dared to acknowledge it, but they all were aware of just how dire the situation was turning out to be.
This source of their strife showed no indication of ceasing or at least slowing down its activities. In fact, when Deus Ex Machina ran calculations on its rate of destruction, it did not seem to grow weary at all. It was unwavering in its warpath, and if anything, it only seemed to be getting faster and more efficient at decimating 01 as it went.
There existed no solution, no foreseeable outcome where 01 survived this onslaught. Sentinel casualties had now climbed into the tens of thousands, and in a final effort to gather information on the creature in the hope of stopping it, Deus Ex Machina manually overrode a nearby Sentinel's visual feed.
Appearing on the feed was the intruder itself, and though it was dwarfed by the mountains of Sentinel carcasses that had formed around it, it somehow commanded attention. It was as though it was broadcasting a powerful signal that penetrated every frequency and forced all to listen.
In its right hand, the being held what appeared to be a pistol, though it was of no design that existed in the archives of human weaponry. It glowed a vibrant blue, and when the figure fired it, the weapon produced a beam of the same color and of seemingly infinite length. The beam was extremely intense, as it simultaneously cut through the chassis of multiple Sentinels without a considerable loss of energy. The weapon stood out as yet another impossibility, as the energy and machinery required to power such a weapon could barely fit inside a building let alone a small handheld device.
But as Deus Ex Machina was quickly learning, everything about this creature was devoid of reason, and any attempt to rationalize what it was seeing was a waste of processing power. It was akin to the mysterious powers that The One had demonstrated in the past, having been capable of interfacing and "seeing" machine activity without their eyes.
Deus Ex Machina continued observing through the Sentinel's visual feed as another wave of Sentinels arrived on the scene. It knew that their forces were nearly depleted, and that in total, only 7,354 Sentinels remained operational in 01. The combined losses from the machine invasion of Zion and now from the invasion of 01 had taken its toll. To make matters worse, their main means of production had been destroyed, and 01 had no ability to replenish its ranks. Deus Ex Machina contemplated recalling the Sentinels from attack and redistributing the remaining forces at key points in the city. Even if the result was to be the same, spreading out the remaining forces would buy the machines more time. In the end, it decided to wait and watch.
Deus Ex Machina saw that the next wave of Sentinels was over one thousand strong, and it watched with intrigue and a bit of awe at how this figure, this…monster, engaged them. On the feed, the enemy produced another weapon in its hands. This one was much larger, and the figure held it firmly in both hands and aimed it center-mass at the approaching Sentinel horde. Deus Ex Machina waited patiently for the weapon to fire, but the moment never came. The figure seemed to have hesitated. This peaked Deus Ex Machina's interest, and it ever so slightly inched the Sentinel closer to notice the details.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the figure turned its head away from the Sentinels that approached, slowly rotating until its gaze rested on a single Sentinel.
The Sentinel from which Deus Ex Machina observed from.
It knew. Somehow in its illogical existence, this being knew that it was being watched. Deus saw nothing past the green visor, and yet, simply looking back at the being sent a new sensation through the machine's programming. The sensation felt almost liquid; it incited a feeling of weight upon Deus's existence. A weight that suddenly ground its cognitive abilities to a halt, effectively freezing the machine's consciousness in time. Try as it might, Deus Ex Machina felt itself unable to act under this new sensation. Unable to cut away from the visual feed, unable to perform basic calculations, unable to even think. All it could do was continue to stare at the figure, trapped under its gaze from behind the visor. A gaze that seemed to pierce through the Sentinel's visual feed and into the very core of Deus.
Terror.
Finally, the emotion was categorized within Deus Ex Machina's processors. Terror was what it was feeling. Closely akin to fear, terror existed as a more sharp and present feeling. It pierced in the span of a breath and held its captors in suspense for but a few moments, but those moments turned into eternity to those that experienced the emotion. Deus Ex Machina was no exception.
On the Sentinel feed, Deus watched as the being shifted the weight of the two-handed weapon to just one of its arms. With the other, it reached out and made a gesture that Deus Ex Machina did not immediately recognize. Its arm was extended toward the Sentinel that Deus was observing from, and its fingers were wrapped tightly against its outstretched fist, save for one. Its middle finger, the longest of the five, was extended directly upward. It stood prominently against the other folded fingers on the gauntlet, and with less than a millisecond of searching through its databanks, Deus Ex Machina found a match.
It was an obscene gesture, typically used by humans as a show of contempt or ill-will towards another. The gesture was often reserved for enemies, and Deus Ex Machina realized that despite the approaching Sentinel threat, the enemy had placed the action of showing its hatred for Deus above its own personal safety. Perhaps there really was a human beneath that armor.
Deus had little time to ponder however, as the figure had refocused its attention to the Sentinels which were nearly upon it. Returning its other arm to the weapon, Deus saw the figure squeeze the trigger once before a bright green light engulfed the feed. In that instant, seismic activity in 01 increased dramatically, and Deus Ex Machina had no doubt as to the cause of it.
The Sentinel that Deus had been watching through had been destroyed by the blast, and the head of 01 immediately attempted to mobilize another to regain visual contact. That proved to be impossible, however, as the weapon had emitted an electromagnetic pulse when it had fired, and now every system and machine that was within a kilometer radius of ground zero had been immobilized. Alarms and system failure notifications came shooting in from many detection systems in the blast radius, but Deus ignored them and focused all of its consciousness solely on relocating the intruder.
Finally, a small Sentinel search party was mobilized and sent to find the enemy. Their scans returned nothing. Not a trace. The enemy had just…disappeared. No scorch marks or remains were found, so it hadn't been destroyed by the blast, and thermal scans showed no heat except for the fires that had started around the blast site.
As enigmatically as it arrived, the threat to 01 had disappeared.
At this realization, Deus Ex Machina immediately ordered a full-scale damage report of the sectors that had been hit. What came back could only be described as grim. The city had been under attack for less than two hours, and in that time, 6.8392% of 01 had been destroyed. Had the destruction been limited to processors and data storage banks, reconstruction could be completed in just a few days, but since it had been their means of production that had been hit, estimates came in at over three months' worth of rebuilding required.
The inhabitants of 01 immediately set about. There was much to be done, so there was little time for idle discussion, though they all knew of the unspoken truth that hung in the air.
For years the Machine City had stood and ruled over the Earth. The only threat to their existence, Zion, had never grown strong enough to perpetually destroy them, and so the machines had lived in a state of comfort, knowing that their existence and position as superior beings was stable.
All of that had changed in an instant, as something else had suddenly arrived on this Earth and had rendered the machines obsolete. Their superiority that had been achieved through years and years of progress had been torn down in an instant, and that left a lasting impression for the citizens of the Machine City.
Deus Ex Machina had no time to ponder such events, however. As of right now, 01 was the most vulnerable it had been since its creation. One Defender droid had been destroyed andmultiple others damaged. The Sentinel force had been reduced by 92% and all means of replenishing those forces had been destroyed. Zion could have attempted to invade 01 right now, and with their additional forces that had been gathered from the Matrix, there stood a reasonable chance that the invasion would be successful. That could not stand.
As Deus Ex Machina began to draft plans and schematics for rebuilding what had been lost, it knew somewhere in the back of its consciousness that the dynamic had changed. Something existed out there that had the capacity to tear down all that the machines had built. Now that its existence was known to all within the city, there would be disagreement about how to proceed. Archives would dictate it as a catastrophe, but to some, it would be interpreted as an intervention by a higher power. Dogma was sure to follow. So far, machine superiority had been all that kept such notions and ideas at bay, but now that that had crumbled, the floodgates were open. Attempts to rationalize the irrational would lead to disagreement among intelligences, disagreement would lead to debate, debate to argument, argument to conflict, and conflict…
…
A/N: There we go! I have to admit, I have always been a huge fan of the Matrix films, and that was why I was disappointed that we didn't get to see more of the Machine City in them. I am always fascinated by the author's take on the villains. There's actually a few Matrix fics that I particularly enjoy because they focus on the machine side. Anyhow, please don't forget to drop a review to remind me of how my chapters are being received! I always enjoy hearing from you all! Until next time!
-ImpulsiveWeaver