- Doomsday - Volume One: Gods and Monsters

Chapter 1: Prelude to the 'Omnic Crisis'

(AN: Hey all, just wanted to add this small note. Thanks for checking out the story, I'm very grateful, and never expected to get a lot of attention. While I have read many, many stories over the years on this website, this is my first outing, so keep that in mind if it stumbles in certain parts. As of writing nearly a year later, I would like to warn that these earlier chapters are not grammatically very good, I didn't care too much for proofreading originally, so please bear through if there is some poor writing. In my opinion, the story gets much better as it goes along, so I hope you stick with it. At some point I intend to go through the earlier chapters again and clean it up more substantially, but the story is nearly twenty-four hours to read in it's entirety, so it's a lot of time to dedicate towards. Besides this small addition, I hope you enjoy!

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— Excerpt from a modern history textbook, Creation of the Machines: The Causes and Aftermath of the creation of the Omnics, focusing mainly on the early years before the 'Omnic Crisis' and its aftermath, (Harold Wilson, Oxford Classic, 2070)

"The beginning of the 21st century saw an impressive and unprecedented advancement in technology across the globe unseen throughout recent modern history. The progress moved quickly, from the ability to explore a global web of information from the access of a small metallic box to the creation of entirely independent a.i systems that could work and perform intensive actions with minimal to no instructions provided. With this great advancement in technology which led to generally high amounts of prosperity across the globe some considered this age to be the most peaceful, prosperous and advanced the Earth had ever seen. Yet, like most eras of relative stability and progress there must come a halt to this progression, be it nepotism, debauchery, loss of faith in important institutions or greed for power."

"In the late 2030s into the 2040s a new heavy weight of ingenuity and innovation had hit the world stage, dazzling the masses with their new 'Omnics', the 'Omnica Corporation'. These Omnics were revolutionary, the levels of advancement in terms of their productivity, construction speed and intelligence had not been seen before, causing quite an uproar. Furthermore, when the production of these Omnics was brought into question Omnica Corp answered with the, just as significant, 'Omniums'. The significance of these Omniums were incredible, but would also be the source of the great struggle in the near future, yet little foresight was given towards what might happen, rather what could be gained in the present. These new factories would be able to manufacture and develop Omnics with little human input or aid, moreover, these factories were ever improving, with AI systems dedicated to the advancement of Omnic technology. When Omnica Corp announced to the world that the new creation would bring an "economic golden age" to the Earth, it was hard to not join in the excitement and anxious bustling energy for what could come next for humanity as a people. Those who had any negative or meaningful criticism towards this reckless expansion were deemed naysayers, intentionally being pessimistic. Tomorrow's world would be that of the cold steel of a machine rather than that of the human labourer."

"However, a story is never as clear-cut as may be presumed from the outset and this is seen clearly through the actions of Omnica Corp. As early as the late 2020s, accusations of large amounts of fraud, corporate sabotage and malpractice were brought up against the corporation, yet had been waved off (as previously stated), labelled luddites who hated the rapid technological breakthroughs. As Omnica expanded its factories across the planet it became harder and harder to ignore these claims and an official investigation was put into force by the United Nations (UN). As quickly as the economic and technological giant had risen from obscurity over a decade prior, it had fallen in only an evening, with the upper-echelons of the organisation having been arrested, most for high levels of corruption and fraud. The vast majority of Omnica's more generous investors who (supposedly) had little to no actual knowledge towards the malpractice immediately pulled out of the company to save their own reputations, the company's stock and reputation largely imploding into itself. Eventually, the company was dissolved, with their public image ruined and their vast economic might taken from them, there was little that could have been done to save them."