.....at the height of the Twenty-Second century, the Factory States
had finally settled into some semblance of order. Centered around
the three remaining great Factory Megaplexes, Seattle-Vancouver, Sheffield
and Gotha, these three new AI controlled (essentially) Superpowers received
disturbing news from far away.....
.....late in the Last War (a great misnomer, much like the First World
War's War to End All Wars), before they themselves obliterated each other,
the L4 and L5 colonies launched probes to the nearer stars. One such
probe had an OGRE class AI controlling it, named Icarus. Aimed at
Alpha Centauri, Icarus was expected to reach its destination in 53 years,
sending back photographs and other data. The Megaplex at Gotha just
happened to have antennae able to receive the data pointing in the right
direction when it happened.....
.....Icarus had reached his objective, and was sending back reams of
data, when he suddenly went off-line. Examining the data, the Gotha
AI came to a conclusion, someone, or something had ended the transmission
suddenly and violently. He shared his data with Sheffield and Sea-Van,
and they began to make quiet preparations.....
.....as the Twenty-Third century approached, new orbiting satellites
noted the approach of a large object, imaging revealed an asteroid, 56
kilometers long by 23 kilometers wide. And it was decelerating.
The AIs made their final decisions. It was clear visitors were coming.
Long years of war had left the AIs with one thought, was war coming?
Their answer, probably. So as the massive body entered the long abandoned
L5 point, kinetic energy weapons removed the new satellite constellations
from orbit, and large vehicles moved to enter Earth's atmosphere.
Surface lasers slashed at these, with some effect, but they fell quickly
to the surface, and disgorged their cargoes.....
.....once again, war had come, only this time it was some unknown and
unseen enemy. Why had they not simply bombarded the world from above?
We may never know, we must only be thankful they didn't. But the
world was once again torn by horrific war, and once again, to counter alien
technologies, the AIs created anew their own worst nightmares.....
.....once again, OGREs rolled across the landscapes, obliterating their
enemies with nuclear fire. The AIs hoped it would be enough.....
.....enter the world of.....