They descended from the sky, like rain. They
didn’t fall hard on the ground but rather softly, walking slowly after landing.
They looked like simple robots but everyone watching knew what they were:
androids. The last generation that had been built in the Takashima factories,
in what remained of Japan. They were the last remnants of technology as
Takashima was the only company still spending so much money on technology.
People didn’t like that and had tried, several
times, to disable the factory. But that had proven impossible. The owners of
Takashima had found out how to be independent, not relying on the energy
generated by any of the public dams or energy plants. No one knew how although
some speculated they had reactivated a nearby nuclear facility or maybe they
were harnessing the power of the ocean waves.
No matter how they did it, the androids were
landing in small groups, all over the world. Takashima had been hired, in the
midst of chaos, to ensure security wherever they could. Only fifty countries
were chosen for the trial run and two hundred androids had been built to be the
first to ensure the safety of the people. Those first hundred had the toughest
job as humans did not like to be lectured or punished by what people in the
slums called “inhumans”. And they called them liked that because they had no
visible feelings, no remorse when killing or hurting someone.
Their job was to protect people but in order
to do that; other would have to be eliminated. For the next year, thousands of
thieves, murderers, rapists, drug dealers and con artists, among many others,
were arrested or killed on the spot if they had resisted. There was no way to
escape one of the two hundred when they became angry, if that can be said.
Because a machine does not become angry, it just enters another mode in it’s
programming and responds only to those directives.
The people that remained in the destroyed
cities began to fear the robots. Small groups of rebels formed but they were
always destroyed by the androids, not even having a chance at defying them
somehow. On the other hand, the few governments that remained were very happy
with these prototypes. They were behaving exactly as they had predicted and, in
some time, the occupation of the now empty territories could be achieved with
the help of a new generation of androids.
Because, as always in the world, the powerful
are the ones that really control all situations. It was them who paid Takashima
Industries to build the robots in a time when money was not abundant. The
needed that help because their rule was coming to an end and, effectively, the
androids turned the tide in favor, again, of the powerful. The rebels, who were
mainly poor and many more, had won several territory and were starting to
colonize the remains that the war had left them. But the androids took that all
from them in just a few weeks.
The first two hundred were scheduled to be
decommissioned after the first two years but that didn’t happen. Takashima
assured the governments that those androids were still in pretty good shape and
could serve as a support for the new generation of robots they were preparing
in the factory, which had grown to the size of a small city.
The United States invaded the “empty”
territories shortly afterwards, when the second wave of androids was ready.
They were another two hundred, better equipped for land and aerial assault.
They were more military and had only one directive: obey the orders of their
commanders. They did not protect civilians nor guarded for no one’s security.
Although more evolved, they were brutes, cybernetic bullies at the service of
the oppressor.
The invasion of the territories was fast.
Practically no resistance came from the few inhabitants that had remained,
becoming slaves for the enjoyment of the new masters of the land. They formed
several small states, each greatly relying in the strength and relentlessness
of the new generation of androids.
The
first two hundred, however, were removed from the colonies and returned to
protect people in what became known as The Core. This was the most part of the
northern hemisphere, where the wealthy of the new world were still settled. The
androids there protect people, much like policemen and soon became loved by
these inhabitants, which grew to like them and trust them. So much they did
trust them that children even greeted any android they saw on the street and,
as androids that they were, the artificial life forms began developing a
relationship with the humans.
That was not the case, at all, in the
colonies. All artificial life was evil. That was what the native inhabitants
knew and they were always very careful around them as any sign of rebellion was
enough to be killed on the spot, it didn’t matter where it was. Their masters
never cared, making the slaves clean the mess that the androids had caused. It
was brutality at it’s best and no one dared to challenge the state of things.
That is except the group that called
themselves the Invisibles. No one really knew whom they were or if they were actually
human. It was rather impossible they weren’t but slaves, in their quarters,
loved to speculate that it was an advanced alien race that had come to save
them from their masters. Of course, they were wrong. The Invisible were nothing
more than people who had welcomed back their savage ancestry, behaving like
animals and living in the woods and forests.
Many territories of the world had not been
recolonized after the war, so many of the survivors had gone into hiding there,
slowly becoming more and more animal, losing themselves to nature and trying to
forget the technology that they had used in the past. Not all survivors had
taken this path and were now dead or enslaved. The Invisibles apparent goal was
to be forgotten by the rest of the world, asking them to be left alone and
leaving behind all trace of their disastrous humanity.
The official of the Core knew about them but
they regarded them only as intelligent animals, nothing more than a chimpanzee
or a gorilla. But the Invisibles had not shed all of their humanity yet. They
still had enough to seek revenge. And for many years they planned, away from
everyone and everything. They sought to destroy the Takashima factory, once and
for all.
Although they did not speak that much anymore,
they knew that this had been their target for a long time and the only logical
thing was to proceed with their old plan. Once it had been done, they could go
back to the forests and just live a peaceful life in the nature. They had no
intention of breaking the rule of the Core, nor of liberating the many slaves
of the world. They were a small group and they were going to use that only to
avenge their deceased. That was it.
Slowly, for some years, they travelled the
wilderness until they arrived to the ancient country of Japan. That wasn’t the
name the Core used anymore, changing the world so much, even the names, for
people not to remember who they were. All of those all country names had ceased
to exist.
Takashima Industries was located on a small
island, off the coast of Kyushu. The savages waited, scouting the island from
afar, planning their strategy with care. The island could only be reached by
boat and the place was heavily guarded. So it was best to do it at night. After
all, they had dragged with them a secret weapon, which they knew would be
essential to their plans. They stayed hidden for some weeks until they had a
raft ready to sail closer to the island.
On the raft travelled only two people: a
woman, partial leader of the group, who used to be a scientist and a strong
man, who used to be a military officer. There was a third passenger though. It
was one of the first two hundred, an android that the Invisibles had defeated
in battle, the only one that had ever fallen to them. They sailed the raft midway
towards the island and then the woman pushed a few buttons on the back of the
robot. The creature lit up and people on the shore could see their plan was
working. The android was blind but functional. The man whispered a few
coordinates to his cybernetic ear and then waited. The android then stood up
and fired a rocket from his hand.
The rocket flew up and this gave time to the
raft to go back to the shore and escape with the rest of the Invisibles.
Shortly after, the bomb fell on the factory, fully destroying every single
piece of equipment on the island and killing hundreds of workers. It was the
end of Takashima Industries as the Core decided to build new androids by
themselves, even going as far as torturing the founder of the factory and making
him give them all his research on artificial intelligence. Afterwards, he was
killed by fire squad, falsely accused of treason.
The Invisibles returned to the forest, with
their android companion, and disappeared for years in the thickness of nature.
But they would return again, very soon.
