Deus Ex Machina (Watty 2012 Entry)

Introduction

Sometime in the Future…

“I’M THE REASON FOR ALL OF THIS.”

Vicious flames licked across the world in the viewing bay in waves, trying to sedate their unending thirst for destruction like locusts on a plain. Explosions dotted the cities across the screen as the fleet of the 8th Segmentum fired projectiles the size of buildings to support its scattered ground forces. “Millions dead. Billions. All because of me.”

The glass didn’t reflect his face as he moved inches away from it. Worn eyes stared at the death below. Coughs echoed through the empty room from behind him. “You didn’t want any of this to happen. It’s not your fault.”

The second man who spoke limped towards the first. His teal visor still glowed despite the damage to his suit as dozens of scratches and burns dug into his armor that slowly repaired itself. The first one said, “Used to tell myself that too. But then I realized I was just feeding myself lies. Been lying to myself ever since I woke up in that room.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Spent all this time trying to find myself. Who I am. Became so entranced by it that I didn’t want to accept what I was. What I had become.”

He glanced down at his open palm. The blood of his last victim had already dried out.  “They wanted me to be more than human, more than machine. They succeeded. But I also became something less.”

“You’re a hero, that’s what you—”

“No. Just another lie I told myself. If I had just died in that room, we wouldn’t be looking at this.”

The first man turned as he spoke, his emerald eyes flashing in the light. He pointed towards the flames over two hundred miles below. “What do you see?”

The second man stared for several seconds without breathing as his visor flickered. The first one said, “All I see are the dead, the dying, and those that are going to die.”

“This is war. War demands sacrifices, tribute. Always has and always will.”

“No. Not war. In war there are two sides, both seeking a chance for victory. But we have already lost. This world, it’s people. All lost.”

The second man didn’t speak. This same scene had laid before his eyes one too many times. A burning world, millions dead. The first man was right. In time at least. “It will be, but not yet. There is always hope.”

“Hope? Thought you weren’t a man of faith.”

“Don’t need religion to have hope. Hope in man.”

The first nodded, the cloud was cleared. “Yes. Have hope in man.” He glanced back down at his bloody arm, then the station controls. “There’s only one thing left to do.”