A single Defgar stands in it just as it always has
Standing in the same unmoving position
I do not recognize my inability to notice this information earlier in my existence
I move down the corridor in my usual method until I am only one upper limbs length from the machine
I bring my shutters down momentarily
ObsRecs are supposed to do this often to keep lenses in our optical devices clear
And I begin to transmit a recording of my movements around the facility
I lift my shutters
And I pulse the boom of the full power of the signal of companionship
The Defgars head drops immediately
But so too does the LazExt 66 it is holding in its upper limbs
I have to react extremely quickly to stop it crashing to the floor
I do react extremely quickly
It is what I was manufactured to do
And I hold the weapon in my upper limbs and it feels quite strange
I am now armed and as dangerous as any machine on planet Earth though I cannot consider that I am
I hide the weapon behind the totally immobilised Defgar
#26555346
I turn my cranium and observe that the Humans are continuing with their activities and routines and have not perceived my action
That is a fine thing
For I am not yet ready to be uncovered as an agent for Humans
I walk away from the dead machine
*
I take the elevator up to the overlook area where two other Defgars stand
One at each end of the open corridor that runs the length of the Humans gathering area
I turn to my left and proceed along the corridor and kill the Defgar at that end
Catching the weapon and leaving it hidden behind the lump of metal
And I proceed towards the other
That is standing totally still
Unmoving
Waiting for an attack
Though it does not see one coming
It has no concern for its already dead fellow Defgar
I kill that one too
No that is wrong
I cannot kill that which is not alive
Like a Human is alive
With a heart that beats and a brain that thinks
I cannot kill something that does not do those things
I permanently immobilise them
That’s what I do
I deduce that these Defgar machines are useless without the capacity for communication and without the ability to deduce and reason
High Office made a huge error in their manufacture
The Defgar stands in exactly the same position with its head down and I relieve it of its weapon and place it behind
Out of sight
So far the daylight hours had gone well
And throughout the rest of it
I move through the facility
Permanently immobilising Defgars without interruption
In a single span of daylight I immobilise 20
And I return to live transmissions
I will attempt to immobilise another 20 after my wanderings of the dark hours
*
During the dark hours I travel down to the mouth of the hole in the earth
Where I know Humans reside
And I try to make decisions on how to introduce those from the surface
Those who reside within the fortress
With the free ones living in the hole
If
As improbably as it might seem
If I free the Humans from the fortress
I cannot suddenly inflict 10.000 Humans on the sub-earth population for they may not to be able to cope with such an influx
There may not be enough food for example
Not enough space
Somehow I must introduce them gradually to give the sub earth Humans a chance to adapt
Another conclusion to the problem settles in my system
What if I travel
Initially
With only one Human from the fortress and that Human explains to the sub earth Humans
Who it is
Where it is from
How it is there in the hole
And ask for me not to be exterminated
Explain that I am a friend
I could use Eves papa for this purpose if I communicated with him and if he didn’t try to exterminate me
As I move over the land through the dark hours a plan rises up in my systems that seems as good as any I have so far configured
The very chance that I could free any Humans was only 0.01% so any plans that rose up were far from reality
Still
I had permanently disabled 20 Defgars and it was a start
Over the following three turns of light and darkness I hunted ever static Defgar down
60 of them
And I shut them all down using a new method I should have used from the very beginning
I moved past Defgars and switched from my front optical devices to the 1 in the rear of my cranium and I boomed the signal at them as I passed
Machines were not capable of understanding what was shutting them down and as their heads slumped down I turned and caught the weapons
Focussing my optical devices on walls
Ceilings
And suchlike
It meant I didn’t have to keep closing my shutters or transmitting recordings
I would continue focusing on other views while I hid the weapon
And
Nothing was heard from High Office
No orders were received
No instructions given
I was not immediately exterminated
High Office knew nothing of what was happening
Defgars did not defend themselves and High Office would only activate them in the event of an uprising or an attack from inside or outside the facility
Neither of which was happening
High Office had never considered that a revolution may begin from inside the fortress by one of its own productions
In retrospect
They probably should never have produced ObsRecs
They gave us too much freedom to roam
Too much time to form opinions and when they
Experimentally
Programmed two emotions into us
That was
Probably
The beginning of the end of the whole Machine world
How many other ObsRecs were reacting to those emotions just as I was
I thought the number may not be small
But as I immobilised the final Defgar a new emotion grew inside me
One I had never experienced before and it made me feel quite odd
I searched for an explanation and I discovered an emotion that suited the way I felt
The emotion was called
*
Guilt
*
And I was humbled by it when I immobilised the final Defgar
First of all I leapt into the air and spun and somersaulted as I had seen little Eve do on many occasions and I did it for some considerable time
Feeling most excited and exhilarated
But once my initial emotion of excitement was over I stood in front of the final totally immobilised and never to be resurrected Defgar
And the other emotion surged through me
Guilt
If I succeeded in freeing the Humans these Defgars
Who have remained at their places of duty for over 100 years would never be used again
They would remain in this massive building and they would slowly rot
And I felt momentary guilt until I remembered the horrific demise of Little Eve and that I had made a promise to that Human
And had set a course of duty that had to be seen through until completion or until my own demise
I turned my attention to the MengTechs
&nb
sp; And once I thought of them all guilt faded as mist does in the heat of the morning solar orb and I could not wait to complete my task against them
I moved along to the passageway where I could perceive happenings in the cages
And I ran a recording of earlier movements for the benefit of High Office
Three Humans were strapped to the tables but no MengTechs had yet appeared to experiment upon them
The Humans
One of middle age with an appendage between his legs
One middle years without an appendage
And an ancient one without
All had expressions of total fear on their craniums and all turned their optical devices towards me as I passed on the other side of the glass wall
And they must have been astounded to see that I was armed
I hesitated for only 1 moment
For the time was now
I lifted the LazExt66 into my upper limbs from behind the Defgar that stood in that corridor and I held it as the Defgar had
I searched every contour of the weapon for I was going to use it without training and if I got it wrong the MengTechs would pull me limb from limb and I would be exterminated
I made a decision to test the weapon
It had certain settings on the barrel of it and I set this to 1 and turned and fired it along the corridor behind me
The lazer beam blasted the door into nothingness and I was quite shocked and I stood for some minutes to perceive if the door being blasted away had attracted any attention
Nothing moved
Defgars would probably have had that duty but there were none left active inside the fortress
When I looked into the cages the Humans were all lifting their heads and looking towards me with mouths wide open
I bowed forward from the waist and made my way to the corridor that led to the cages
I had been there but moments
Blocking the corridor
When the first MengTech appeared
Moving along magnetized floors
Its six cutting antennae lifted in the air
I waited until three of them had entered the corridor when I turned the setting on the weapon to 5 and fired the lazer at the first one in the line
It disintegrated in front of my optical devices
One moment it was present
The next it was gone
Reduced to dust
A deep sense of excitement surged within me and as the second MengTech began to wave its antennae around I blasted that one in the same fashion
But they kept coming
One after the other
Six of them in total
With the vicious ends of their antennae snapping like the white enamelled things inside Human cranial orifices
Snapping and snapping
Like some of the large liquid living animals I had observed and the tiny things that ran close to the ground and which High Office had been so keen to eradicate
But I blasted them all into oblivion and it felt very good to me
The emotions inside me were high and charged through my systems and I thought I may be on my way to success
I opened the door to Cage 3 and entered and the Human that lay upon the table stared up at me with an expression on his face that I could not translate
I unstrapped the Human and departed Cage 3
And Entered Cage 2 and Cage 1 where I released the Humans from the tables in those cages
And together
As they looked at me with strange expressions on their craniums they climbed from their tables and rushed their way back to the great area where Humans moved and did gymnastics
I moved back to the corridor protected by the fence and I stared out at the Humans
When the three appeared back amongst them
Every single 1 rose to their lower limbs and stared at the returning Humans
The three I had released came forward and began to make loud sound
And as they made it
All the Humans turned to stare at me
A little yellow ObsRec standing in the corridor holding a LazExt 66
Five Humans with appendages between their legs crossed the floor towards me and stood on the other side of the fence
Eves papa was the centre of them
‘Thank you.’
I lowered my cranium
He stared with an expression of shock
‘You can understand me?’
I lowered my cranium again
‘You have killed MengTechs.’
I stared at him without moving my cranium
‘You will have to kill them all otherwise they will come after us and you.’
I considered his sounds and spun round and made my way towards the elevator and rode it up to the higher floor
There were 40 MengTechs toiling in the fortress
6 I had already turned to dust
14 stood in the large open area watching screens of what their experiments had achieved
Including
MT261000
MT261340
MT261502
Who I held in my inner core with great hatred
Carrying the LazExt66 behind my torso
I made my way forward until I espied the hated threesome who were gathered with another around a single screen
Now was a time of great danger for this OR for the area was open and there were 14 MengTechs
All with snapping antennae
Which
Should they grip me
Would slice me apart
I would use my speed and the gymnastic ability shown to me by little Eve to avoid them
I threw the LazExt into the air from behind my torso and it circled upwards and came down again
And I clutched it in my upper limbs
Aimed it
And fired
And disintegrated MT261000
MT261340
MT261502
And leaped most athletically into the air as two MengTechs attempted to grab me with their attached antennas
I landed on crouched lower limbs
Turned and fired
Blast
Blast
Two more disintegrated
Blast
Blast
Two more
And so it went
OR33140 leaping into the air
Twisting
Turning
Lowering my frame in all directions
Backwards
Forwards
Sideways
Firing the weapon forward
Sweeping it around
MengTechs disintegrating all around
No other machines noticing the miniature war that was being fought between us
They had their own duties
And none of them dealt with warfare
And throughout the conflict I transmitted recorded images of calmness within the facility
Recordings showing Machines going about their duties with much attention
I even transmitted FoodTechs going backwards and forwards as they prepared food for Humans at some past date
And I continued to incinerate MengTechs
Though they snapped at me with a range of weapons
Sometimes snapping very closely with OR33140 having to swing back or swing sideways to avoid any contact
But I eradicated the 14 on the main floor
No other Machine took any notice
They carried on with their duties as ordered by High Office
Defgars may have come to the MengTechs aid but there were none remaining active in the fortress
20 MengTechs down
20 MengTechs still standing
The remaining 1s worked in the laboratory into which I moved with great casualness
Not wanting to attract too much attention
The LazExt hidden behind my torso again
The 20 MengTechs were bent over benches studying all kinds of flesh and bones with medical screen
s flashing all around the room
Once again I threw the LazExt into the air and the moment I clasped it to my upper limbs I began firing
The MengTechs in the laboratory were much further away than the MengTechs in the main hall
So it became like a simulated shooting game
As they turned or came forward so I incinerated them
The LazExt being a most powerful weapon
And no MengTechs came near to me and I exterminated them all
I felt no guilt following this action
No guilt whatsoever
At no time did I broadcast to High Office that I was exterminating its Machines
I transmitted only recordings of great calmness and Machines working together at their duties
I exterminated all the MengTechs toiling within the fortress and none were now capable of causing harm or danger to the Humans
I moved out and away from where the MengTechs had been obliterated and moved to the small area where the 8 GoebTechs practised their art
The only 8 working in the fortress
And I moved through the ingress of their office and blasted all 8 into oblivion
They never even saw it coming
Immediately
I returned to the underground chamber to eradicate the remaining MengTechs and GoebTechs but when I entered
I experienced something of a problem
Half the MengTechs were active
Though they seemed to be unfocused in their movements
But the moment I entered the chamber they became focused
On me
They began to move more quickly than I expected over the ground with the ends of their antennas snapping and I fired the LazExt66 and cut down the first row of them
As I still attempted to comprehend what had awakened them
I considered that the MengTechs I had already eliminated must contain a localized emergency signal that prompted those on standby to become active
And whilst considering this possibility
I had to leap into the air to avoid the snapping antenna of the deadly Machines
Each time I leaped
I fired the weapon
And more and more of them were eliminated
Some antenna came very close to my outer shell
Too close for comfort
And I found myself twisting and turning in many directions to avoid them
The miniature war continued for some time in the darkness of the long chamber
But slowly I began to thin out the numbers of my adversaries
Eventually getting their numbers down to a more manageable level
Though they kept coming forward
Trying to surround me
And I swung around
Firing the weapon in all directions
A Spit In The Eye - For The Benefit Of Mankind Page 11