Nine Elms, London, Year 2049
The condescending smell and the manure laid streets do not distract Fysh’s focus. He has his sniper eyeing the crowd below and he wants to take out one or two. He is eager to extract Gorron’s, which are hybrids with bodies from the nearby cemetery enhanced with robotic and AGI technology. Defeating a Gorron would cause severe consequences for the people Fysh defends. They are slumbered at the top of a penthouse. All is silence here. Around thirty of them were chosen by Fysh and Samantha. Amongst the people they picked are two engineers with no family attached. Three doctors with no family attached. Three couples with one child each. The last human crew accepted an elderly army veteran into their ranks after he impressed them with his life story and expertise. And the rest are a couple of neighbours of Fysh, Samantha’s two sisters and a triplet of young ladies who were picked up on the way while they were running from Cortollers (Invading Army of Robots and AGI powered independent Reactionaries of Silicon Valley) The city was under siege from within. Two AGI power plants blew up on Monday evening, causing a sudden disturbance from within. They couldn’t leave because of the fear that they will show up in Gorron’s BiXors and that they will be transformed into guinea-pigs.
I think they are preparing for a massive onslaught across the pond. Samantha said. Fysh doesn’t pay any attention. He is busy trying to make sense of the situation across the street and how they can depart without prioritizing their safety.
Some noise is heard from the group.
It’s only when Samantha hears the baby’s cries and the moans of older adults that she understands the weight of her responsibility.
Ignore it. Fysh tells her.
We need to know where they are. Discovery will come by nightfall. They are aware of a human presence in the city but are puzzled by its purpose. Their primary aim has been achieved a while ago, when they took over the Decillioxa (Superbrain, which holds global communications and network arteries). But they will not stop now. Their intention is to proceed. They want to go deeper. They want to go into the deep end of human habitat. Their goal is to recreate and erase any remnants of human presence in the ecosystem. Does this not hurt? Crosses Samanthat’s name. Surprisingly, Fysh thought the same.
Samantha asks if she could turn the Treakers on *These are anti-surveillance windows that shut from inside the building and do not allow to be detected by Gorron’s army. Fysh is not sure about that.
If we close the shutters, they might suspect something hidden.
Fysh leans on the sliding door of the corridor that leads to the balcony. Samantha notices the Flycopters are on the air and they are observing below. They are right on top of them. Fysh touches his lips with the finger and points below. Samantha steps back, trying not to attract attention. Its total silence out there. Samantha conveys the message to everybody. She needs them quiet, if you want to live. She tells them.
Flycopters disappear and then soon to be replaced by airbruminators *These entities do sweeping of the buildings tracing human activities. They run on human blood smell. They can detect the blood flow, a trigger is registered, then within minutes a squadron of Gorron’s robots smash buildings down and catch any biological form and eliminate it.
Now they are in a pickle. Better chances to pull the Treakers down and not be detected or let luck play its game, its best game–that of not getting caught. Samantha takes off levers from the panel and pulls down treakers for shields.
Airbruminators hover on top and come very close to the roof of the apartments. The only sounds they hear are aircraft signals and intercom murmurs. “We detect nothing here, but there have been traces of fresh blood three hours ago. I think this was when we first entered the city, sir.” The aircraft flies away. All are relieved and happy.
That was close boss. Samantha said.
Very close, but not for long. I think they know we’re here. But they won’t do anything.
In the main Hubbercraft, *This is a mobile aircraft carrier that hangs in the air for weeks and months on end by using air vaporisation hydrogen based minerals. Decillioxa is held at the same place where Gorron’s office is situated. The hybroids are working hard. The area must be cleansed, and humans should not touch the ground. Their project for the day is dehumanising the city’s architecture. They do this by melting buildings, depriving concrete solid walls and flooring off of the steel and using that steel structure to reconstruct and add on piles of metal onto their Hubbercraft. They want to expand and expand big. The interbreeding sessions start every Sunday evening at six. Their AGI brain-powered systems create a molecule-centred electronic cell, which is ten thousand times more resilient and stronger than a human cell. They use combine metals they derive from the steel structures of the building, remains of non-steel and aluminium metals, plastic, organic mass from forests like use of trees and plants, animals and in particular insects to help them contain a lot of data on building the first molecule-centred-electronic cell or *MOCEC. Hybridisation of the first cell is confirmed between six and nine in the evening, while HardCraft division creates a durable body to withstand human attacks for centuries. These breeds do not live for the past two years, and their bodies change. Their MOCEC remains intact it only reconstructs itself with permitting the TRULA *Technological Regulation Under the Law of Azgan. This is the body that has permission to create, recreate, and destroy hybrids.
Samantha and Fysh decide to stay the night in. They fear messing things up for fellow humans. Tomorrow, a new day starts with excitement.
Hubbercraft has been maneuvering on top of their building, evaluating the damage. Melting begins soon. Fysh switches on his Vertigo *A virtual reality sensor-built communication device that provides networking on everything from contact numbers to digital repositioning, communicating with third parties, weather check and news flashes. Vertigo operates with human consciousness. Robots cannot operate a Vertigo and they cannot intercept its functioning.
Within seconds, everybody switches their Vs on and receives the latest. “We’re about to be melted. RUN” The commotions, screaming and panic ensues. Samantha grabs her sisters and the child from their mother and chases Fysh. They follow a long corridor that goes through the basement, which leads to the Thames Estuary, very near the water flow. Only six escaped in their memories. The whole place is thrown into smithereens. The smell and the dust chases them all the way down the tunnel, filling their lungs with dirty vapour and air particles. They might not make it, according to Samantha. Fysh begs to differ, ploughing his arm around her collar and pulling her along. They run through the tunnel. By the time they arrive at the exit point of the Thames Estuary, water drones appear on top of them. Fysh stares at one of them, pulls his gun and shoots two of them down. Now they have been detected. The entire city is shaken, just like a tremor. A high magnitude earthquake had ensued. Samantha looks back to find the others’ location. Sisters and child are nowhere to be seen. She cries and tells Fysh that they should hide in the bank building for a bit. No, Fysh says I have a tracker thrown in my skin. These drones have sprayed me everywhere with it. They have got little time. Before they evaporate, they must hasten to make progress.
They cross the street quickly. But Samantha doesn’t feel well. Fysh grabs her by her hand but her hand feels cold and becomes smaller. Not as big as a young lady’s usual hand.
He looks her in the eye. Her eyebrows are gone, her hair is dissipating, and her legs are blending into the water. He calls her name, but she is holding his hand. But she is disappearing. Her melting occurs right in front of the entrance to the bank's sliding doors. Now Fysh needs to survive himself. Entering the building corridor, he looks back and witnesses Samantha melting like a child’s dropped milkshake.
Climbing stairs, he spots three hybroids waiting. AT six foot eight, these hybroids are the elite soldier and paramilitary militia of Gorron. We need you, sir. Come with us. They grab him by the collar and lift him up, injecting him with a long needle that releases a yellow juice into his bloodstream. It’s called CurledupStreamingZest, poison which is the most expensive weapons of conversion for Gorron. This will ensure that Fysh’s body is used as an experimentation source for discovered human-consciousness intervention. Gorron had won the war and has entered human consciousness and there is nothing else that can stop him from controlling the rest of the earth.
*London fell in year 2049, followed by Berlin and Paris and within three weeks Washington, New York and Beijing, together with the rest of major capitals, have fallen under occupying the Gorron’s army. An army built in the labs of joint enterprises between western-powered technological conglomerates and unknown knowledge-acquirers of of the otherworldly and Chinese made technical know-how. For a decade, the technological industrial complex has found a cure for humanising technology and investing in the AGI architecture. For years the likes of Silicon Valley and other unknown entities in the Ultra-Space programmes have built on the developments in this technological space to enhance the human reach by creating independent sources of productive outcomes so the economies of the globe can grow, people can consume and prosperity unleashed. But all went wrong when the Ultra-Space programme got hijacked by a quantum-centred super brain device which unshackled itself from human control and submerge with metals and human remains to create its latest Hydroid in the shape of Gorron.
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