At the top of the central tower located at the central area of the Machine Base, One was leaning on his chair with his eyes fixated on the several monitors in-front of him. He didn't really need the monitors for he could just remotely access each individual drones' sensors but he could only access one, hence he had these monitors.
The walls in the room were glass reinforced by transparent materials capable of withstanding explosions or high-speed projectiles. The floor was covered in metal tiles painted in black, One adored the color, for him it somehow represents his nature, devoid of any humanity other than his objective and will to rebuild the Earth.
"Strikers, status report" One said as he swiped across the monitor to the right until it displayed a vague top-down view of the peninsula. The top-down view was a combination of data from scouting missions and detection instruments used to map out the land in which the Machines set foot on.
A vague map with three colors, dark blue, yellow and dark green was showed in the monitor. The dark blue color represented the vast ocean to the southeast, the dark green color represented the land area which spanned from the northwest to the middle southeast before the oceans and the south.
Ten yellow dots were moving slowly through the map, leaving behind a trail of broken lines in their wake. The yellow dots were the ten strike groups consisting of modified pre-war F70s, though not as advanced and powerful compared to the original prewar design, it still packed devastating power and high speeds. The planes were piloted by a single AI core capable of using the plane to its full capacity and capabilities without risking failure of any on-board equipment or damage to the aircraft itself.
The ten dots were circling ten particular areas each, the areas were cities under the Freetan Theocracy as referenced by information from scouts and extracted human memories. Why did they extract memories? Because it was the only most efficient method. No questions.
"Hmmm…" One tapped on the northernmost yellow dot and another window appeared on-screen displaying the camera-view of the leading F70. The camera feed was somewhat crisp but the rain combined by the cold moisture at that attitude in which they were flying almost completely fogged up the lens.
"Striker-A1, copy" The AI noticed its camera being viewed by One. He awaited orders regardless if against its mission or not.
"Status Report, you didn't get my command?" One asked, he was awaiting the status reports of all strikers but they failed to comply.
"Communications were fuzzy. Initiating Status Report" The AI simply answered. The storm was somehow messing with communications, the frequency used shouldn't be in any ways be blocked by the storm itself, maybe there was something else interfering? A magic jammer perhaps?
"Status Report: Systems: Nominal, Weapons: Ready, Attitude: Maintaining 10,000 feet, Wingmen: Nominal"
One had to communicate every striker one at a time due to an unknown interference with group communication. The unknown interference severely degrades the signal before reaching each recipient when sent to a group of recipients in differing locations, only a single signal sent to a single recipient was powerful enough to somehow send the message without having too much interference.
The strikers initiate their status reports, all were nominal and all were ready. One clapped his hands, displaying a somewhat human satisfaction of what was to come.
Initiate Operation Thunderstorm.
Operation Thunderstorm was a plan modeled after a combination of both superior firepower, air superiority and a full-scale land invasion of thousands of troops accompanied by heavy armor and said air superiority to lay waste onto their enemies to ensure a lightning victory similar to that of the blitzkrieg from eons ago.
The main reason for the invasion of the Freetan Theocracy was none other than, Oil. Oil was a resource which was depleted prior to the Earth's destruction. Although One managed to reverse-engineer the ruined 'environment friendly' energy infrastructure eg; hydro, solar, geothermal and most prominently, nuclear energy, it wasn't still enough to comply the needs of all machines in the Machine Network System.
Each drone had a mini reactor embedded inside its 'torso area'. To humanoids, the mini reactor was located in the center of their torso, while non-humanoid droids had their mini reactors inside the very center of their bodies reinforced with the best components and armor. If the reactor is damaged severely, the drone will die due to lack of enough energy to power its demanding technology.
Oil was a necessary resource not only because of its high-energy potential but it could be combined to existing prewar elements like Grunium and compressed to form non-nuclear bombs which would yield enough firepower comparable to modern day nuclear weapons. One acknowledged its potential in war, for he knows in the future, this world would inevitably be laid to waste.
One didn't know how he was sure, but deep inside his memory he knew.
What killed Earth would revive it but kill this world in the process.
"A small sacrifice for the betterment of mankind" He always quoted, reassuring what was left of his non-existent humanity to justify his sadistic and cruel mission.
Operation Thunderstorm was just the first of many steps he would take to succeed in his goal.
"Let's try it once more," One tapped on the monitor in-front of him and it displayed on-screen the ten Infiltration teams currently inside each city, he was directly observing Alpha's team during their mission but was unsure of the current progress of the other teams.
He swiped the screen and tapped on the second team, no video feed was registered, only static. Communications were still up but fuzzy.
"2nd Infiltration Squad, report"
After a few seconds of static noise and unintelligible speech from an unknown source originating from the other side, the drone finally responded.
"Alpha, reporting. Team: Damaged, no casualties, we secured presumed important information, team was caught in the act and a fight ensued. Alpha, Charlie, and Delta sustained damage, no emergencies to be reported. Location: 1 click east of southern wall of central government building of city. Inside wooden structure, no organics"
The message was accompanied by periods of static and unintelligible speech from the drone and other drones from the background, One was relieved that the no drones were lost. He shrugged off the anomalies as damaged voice-box and damaged microphone.
But, the drones were retrofitted to withstand even the most punishing of attacks, this proved the research AIs' assumption of high-ability manipulation of M1 within organic life specifically humans. One needed to be more cautious.
Whatever the attacks were, they managed to penetrate the highly-protective layer of uranium reinforced by synthetic uranium fibers and damage the inner electronics of the drones themselves. Though the downgraded plating was mostly to blame.
One then went about checking on each Alpha drone from every infiltration group, all sustained no loses and surprisingly, the tenth team designated as "Religious Heretics" managed to pull off the most important objective of them all.
Thanks to information extracted from the minds of captured humans, specifically Vilvintine's, the Machine Intelligence was able to pinpoint the Pope's exact location and known abilities thus retrofitting the Alpha team assigned to kill him as the "Religious Heretics" with specific weaponry and upgrades to their bodies and hulls but on the contrary, the hulls were somehow weaker though they couldn't accommodate against the high-flexibility of the Pope in bending magic, the Machine Intelligence was able to retrofit the drones to counter most of his known abilities, it was up to the drones themselves to process ways of countering the other known abilities which they weren't fitted for.
"This is Religious Heretics, mission objective complete, pope has been neutralized, 9 casualties. Alpha survived. Papal Estate currently in flames, current location: On top of Holy Church Spike, watching burning structure, awaiting orders"
One was suddenly confused, raising his left eyebrow and leaning forward against the monitor. The drone was displaying abnormal behavior. It was against logic to specifically 'watch' an entire building go up in flames, it was also impossible for the drone to disobey direct commands of retreating from the area as soon as mission objectives were a success or a failure.
"Alpha, explain deviation from specific orders" One questioned the drone.
"Deviation was followed, current location is unreachable by enemies, bodies are littered everywhere." The AI answered lazily. Bodies were everywhere? Something was indeed off with the drone. There was no reason to specify the number of bodies from the operation.
"Vengeance for fallen comrades, followed" The AI suddenly answered, shocking One, for the first time, a drone somehow felt emotion, remorse for its fallen comrades, something completely unheard of and concluded as impossible by both One and the Central Research AI.
One didn't question further and allowed the drone to continue whatever it was doing. He somehow knew the drone would retreat before the strike crafts lay waste to the areas. He then tapped on the screen which displayed Alpha and its camera feed was shown on the monitor.
The drone was staring at a literal hell, a surging fire engulfed what could only be presumed as the Papal Estate and the Church overhead, the walls and ceilings along with various decorative furniture and statues were crumbling under the collapsing structure. The bright red and yellow light from the flames illuminated the dark surroundings of the estate, One then noticed peculiar silhouette scattered on the streets seen from the edge of the camera feed.
Those were indeed bodies, the bodies of everyone Alpha murdered in an act of vengeance.
One was further intrigued and came to accept the drone's deviation. The time is ripe. the Operation was to begin on schedule, no more hurdles, no hiccups. The teams have accomplished their objectives and so, they were done.
One closed the window which showed the drones and switched back to the map on the monitor, tapping on each individual yellow dot in a manner of grouping them together.
"Initiate Strikes. Inform all drones on ground zero to evacuate immediately, those with targets, initiate targeting protocol. Those without, proceed as ordered"
-
Ivy sat on the cold brick on the side of the paved street. She was bruised and cut but alive nonetheless. She sat against the castle doors which were wide open. Knights were walking in and out, some of them carrying bodies of the dead.
Her cloak was torn in many areas, the emblem of the Red Scripture located at the right side of her cloak was slashed in half and beneath the ripped cloak was her cut skin which was still bleeding. Healing mages managed to quell her Inner Magic before it killed her.
She continued to gaze at the ruins of the might castle which once housed the all-powerful archbishop who was said to be the most powerful of bishops in the Theocracy, now he lied on the bottom of the dungeon beneath his very home, dead.
Ivy watched as the Archbishop's younger brother, Johnathan erupt in a fit of despair as he saw his brother's corpse beneath his very feet. He was dragged off by the knights to his chamber along with his wife.
Ivy looked around her, there were many civilians who were out of their homes and were grouped together in the streets, looking on as a fiery blaze engulfed the entirety of the castle, whatever ancient relic, document or anything of value to anyone who had something in the castle, was set ablaze and forgotten from physical memory, burned to ashes.
The people were gossiping about the tragedy of Frederick and what was unfolding in-front of them.
"I thought we'd be safe with the scripture…" These remarks flew through the air and into the ears of eager bystanders and adults which were more than accustomed to the protection of the church, especially the blessed scriptures.
Ivy clenched both her fists when she heard each word which escaped their mouths, over time the groups grew into a crowd of gossiping adults and screaming children who were too busy admiring the flames to process the fact that the archbishop was dead and they were in danger, danger of uncertainty.
For the first time in 100 years, the Freetan Theocracy now seemed vulnerable, though most still believed if the rest of the mages stationed in the castle didn't go home too soon, things would have been different but others begged to differ.
Ivy was getting rather infuriated, the gossips of the people who were too keen on their own safety and didn't care of the lives of the people ensuring they were safe, well she is not sure how they keep the people safe provided they only protect the Archbishop, but of course the Archbishop was their protector and so on and so forth.
"Just die, like that pig." Ivy whispered under her breath, she was resentful of the Archbishop, resentful of this city, resentful against herself.
"But why did you need to die for him, Frisha." Ivy was about to get lost in her thoughts until an explosion just half a kilometer to her right shook her awake. The explosion sent a shockwave powerful enough to rupture half of the crowd's eardrums and send a tingling pain in Ivy's ears.
Ivy fell to the street in-front of her, screaming in agony as her ears felt like bursting. She barely opened her eyes from where the explosion was and another explosion shook her from behind. The crowd and the knights were sent in a panic as a barrage of explosions shook the castle and the surrounding areas.
Shrapnel and rubble were sent flying in all directions as the city was yet again set alight, a burst of red and yellow accompanied by huge puffs of smoke illuminated the entire city as wave upon wave of bombs fell from the sky.
Ivy could only cower in fear as an unknown force decimates the city around her, she screamed and screamed for it to stop but whatever it was, it wasn't listening.
Her eyes were shut close, the tingling pain in her ears was still unbearable but it was an unexpected blessing for she couldn't hear the rest of what was happening around her. The crowd had scattered, people who were in their homes were crushed to death as their ceilings collapsed on top of them, soldiers and mages scattered as the explosions continued to decimate the city.
The mages weren't powerful enough to block the attack, and after half an hour of agony and destruction, everything went silent.
The rain had stopped pouring. The clouds have begun to disperse. A looming roar from an unknown beast echoed across the night sky as it seemingly travelled above the city itself and flew into the darkness of the Anub Forest.
The city, which was the center of its religion, was no more.
What were left standing were the outer walls and the buildings near them, from there up to the center, flames raged on the rubble. Entire communities were burning down, buildings collapsed with people underneath. There were no wails from children or anyone, no screams, nothing. Pure and utter silence dominated the air.
But there were wails and screams on the walls of the city. The garrison of the walls was struck with the sudden death of everyone they loved, the children they had and the people they were supposed to protect.
Most of them never really cared about their job as soldiers for the peacetimes have made them shallow, but it has been brought to them how powerless they were.
Ivy was miraculously spared from the bombings as she accidentally fell into the moat, using her Ice Magic she managed to generate an encasing to help her breathe. The pain in her ears was rescinding but so was her magic once more.
Out of 50,000 inhabitants and soldiers,
Only 5 thousand remained.
-
One was somehow divided with Alpha strike group's bombardment, the infiltration team in the city survived and escaped but the bombardment was too ridiculous in scale. Compared to the other bombardments which only targeted a very small area of each city, the strike group destroyed 90 percent of the city itself.
"Alpha of Strike group, please explain to me why the heck did you bomb most of the city to oblivion?"
"This is Alpha of Strike group Alpha. Infiltration Team sent coordinates, complied. Rerouting for main bom-"
"Forget it, you no longer have any targets, return to base."
"Roger, Alpha Strike group returning to base."
One leaned again on his chair, scratching his hair even though it wasn't itchy. He just felt a humanlike urge.
"So much for focusing three companies on that front." One let out a sigh in annoyance.