Xaltwind
Framing A Moose
Ariamis
Not a Sayan
SkyeOfStars
Remram
Apollosarcher
King KindredThe age of machines had come. Humanoid robots blended in with the humans, gained control of the nuclear arsenal and proceeded to contaminate the world with nuclear bombs to the degree that no human could survive. Mankind was exterminated, going extinct within the decade. Machines started harvesting the resources of planet Earth, constantly researching to make better AI, better technology, and one day they would launch into space in order to contaminate the universe, the many races of space having no idea what was coming…
So, of course, they had to do something.
‘C’mon!’ Inga shouted as she drifted in front of him, drifting through this tiny tube of cooling fluid intake with her pink wings fluttering. Rochus frowned a little, annoyed that she had called him as if he wasn’t already intending on following, but nonetheless followed after. Behind them, Signy followed with doubt in her eyes, but still intending to help them out.
Finally, Inga passed through a place where one pipe connected to another, and Rochus followed with Signy not far behind. They emerged within what appeared to be an engine, tubes pumping and smoke blowing here and there, powering something, the sounds of working machinery blaring. They had no idea what these machines were doing, they were but tiny fairies who’d been living in nature for eons on end, how were they supposed to understand machines?
Inga, a blonde little fairy with a pink dress, four pink dragonfly wings and long blonde hair, looked about them. They had been following her lead through a pipe into one of the command centers of the machines, and now they were here, having followed to cooling system to get here.
‘This is the warmest and the loudest place in the base, it’s gotta be doing something,’ she told, not convinced.
‘Alright, then let’s look for a way to shut it down,’ Rochus said, folding back his green wings within his green tunic, raising a hand to adjust his short brown hair from having just passed through water, as he looked around, and…
‘Hey? Cables are usually important, right?’ Signy floated before a metal hatch on her yellow wings, long brown hair on her along with a yellow dress, looking curiously with a finger on her lips. ‘This container is full of them.’
‘Ooooooh~’ Inga sounded out playfully. ‘Let’s pull them all out!’ she proceeded to call, flying at full speed into the hatch, straight through the metal lock. No cold iron here to threaten them, machines didn’t work with inefficient unprocessed metal.
‘I think they’re all bolted down,’ Signy told from where she was floating, but that didn’t stop the loud snapping noise from within the hatch as cables were ripped apart by Inga abusing her magic. When playing pranks on humans there was limits to how much power they could use, but now with mankind extinct, there was no reason to hold back. Inga emerged, grinning happily.
‘All cables off!’ she happily informed. Rochus looked up at the machine. It was still going.
‘The machines probably had backups,’ Signy told, seeing where Rochus was looking. He nodded, and then replied.
‘The machines always do. We’ll just have to destroy it all.’
________________________
Fighting machines was so difficult. They always had back-ups, they lacked leaders that could be destroyed to leave all the soldiers without reasons to fight, and no matter how many of them were destroyed they grew ever more efficient at rebuilding and countering the last strategy used against them. Yet, they were powerless against the paranormal. Fairies could slip in and out of places no matter how sealed the hatches, their magic enabled them to pull any number of hijinks, and perhaps most importantly, machines had no way of actually seeing them. Just like the mundane humans of old, ancient magic prevented them from perceiving the supernatural… yet actually destroying the machines? It felt impossible.
It did not help that most fairies had the minds of children.
‘TADA!’ Bui sounded out, proudly presenting this huge, green plate with grey sticks on it and lines stretching about on it. Bui was blue, wearing a blue little tunic, had black hair and blue little wings. He looked very proud right now.
‘… What about it?’ Rochus asked, looking over it.
‘It’s the brain of the machine! I looked over some manuals of old humans, and this, this is the “computer chip” which controls all a machines actions! If I study this thing, we could totally beat the machines!’
There were numerous gasps among the crowd of fairies in the dying, snowy forest. Rochus raised an eyebrow.
‘… Okay, nice. How does it work?’ he asked.
‘I have no idea right now!’ Bui answered. ‘But I’m sure if I watch it enough, the answer will appear!’
Rochus had his doubts. This could be about as much of a waste of time as Bui’s other recent claim that building an EMP would be able to disable the machines, because of that movie Bui had spied a couple humans watching an age or so ago. Turns out, they had absolutely no idea what an EMP actually was, nevermind how to build one, no matter how many old human papers they searched.
‘… Sure, you watch that. In the meantime, that means if we destroy these chips in the machines, we’ll break them down?’ He had seen the chips before, seeking through destroyed machines. Only never knew what they were for.
‘Yes! Though, uh, they may have back-ups, as usual, hah,’ Bui answered. Rochus nodded. Always some backups with the machines.
________________________
Aelfric had flown into the spine of the first humanoid destroyer robot of the force advancing on their forest with slicers to take the trees for resources. As they had practiced, he broke their chips, disconnected their cables and broke the system. He was on the way out when the robot suddenly exploded. Normally, that wouldn’t have affected a fairy, but…
‘Eeep! Ow! Ow! What? Aah!’ Signy cried out, having been flying somewhat nearby, falling out of the sky down into the snow next to a tree. Rochus had been flying high, surveying the attack, but he had to shield his vision from the bright light. Normally, that shouldn’t have affected a fairy… yet where was Aelfric? … That’s when he realized he could see Signy bleeding.
‘Signy!’ Rochus called, diving down and quickly pulled her inside a hole they’d made in the trunk of a tree. Her leg was bleeding, and she had small scars all over her.
‘What happened!?’ Rochus asked, quickly darting outside on quick green wings to gather some dead leaves, flying in to try to bandage Signy’s wound. She was healing by magic, but the wound needed to be kept safe regardless.
‘I-iron! Th-there was cold iron in that explosion, which it shot in all directions…! Aelfric, he…’ Signy shook as she informed, eyes wide, looking down at the injury…
Cold iron? As shrapnel? … The machines had turned to mythology when they couldn’t counter the mysterious unseen attackers that were attacking them? That was… really bad. Then the machines could actually hurt them. Aelfric was probably dead. Rochus closed his eyes in regret. Yet…
‘… We have to press the attack,’ Rochus said, looking towards the hatch. They had to leave soon, or the machines would take down the tree with them in it. Signy looked at him in shock.
‘If we don’t, they’ll figure out that cold iron was effective, and we’ll never be able to act freely again,’ Rochus said, planning on flying out and telling the other fairies to continue attacking… when he was grabbed by the arm by Signy. He looked back at her. She was crying.
‘Don’t, please… don’t make us die for such a reason…’ she pleaded to him, hurt in more than her leg. … He really couldn’t make that call. Rochus sighed, grabbed Signy’s arm, and urged her to come along.
‘Alright. Let’s grab the rest and retreat,’ he told her, and she breathed out in relief. Then, moments later, they were flying, telling the other fairies to pull back.
________________________
And with that, they were losing. Kidnapping children simply wasn’t an effective strategy against the machines. The goblins and ogres didn’t stand a chance against the mighty weapons of modern warfare, especially with their weak points found out. The machines could never strike first, being unable to perceive their enemy, yet the fairies couldn’t take out any machines without having them blow up in their faces, thereby killing them. The fairies yet lacked any form of means to damage the incredibly sturdy machines from outside, and now upon knowing they were around they were firing rounds semi-randomly, in efficient patterns that were predicting where they’d be flying.
They were now huddled together in an old ruin of an apartment, for the machines had destroyed all their forests, and they had to take cover somewhere.
‘… GAH! Why is… damn it…’ Inga cursed, her head planted against the wall, grabbing a lego brick that was around half her length and repeatedly bashed it against the wall. Rochus could understand her. They had recently lost quite a few friends who had been with them for eons, nobody looked happy.
‘Alright, if anyone has any ideas, I’d like to hear them,’ Rochus tried, in order to get a discussion going.
‘There AREN’T any ideas!’ Inga replied, her voice heated. ‘They have fairy-proofed their systems, and even if we found a way around it they’d find a way to repel us immediately! They have so many backups that nothing we do even matter! What does it all matter, anyway? Humanity’s DEAD, the machines can’t see us. We can just… live on our own, or something…’
Signy was on her knees, staring silently into the floor. Rochus looked over her and the other nearby fairies before replying to Inga.
‘We agreed that wasn’t an option. These machines are the purest evil that have ever wandered the planet. If there’s anything we can do to stop them, it needs to be done here, before they’ve drained it of all resources and left the planet to die,’ Rochus told her, but Inga just replied by throwing the lego-brick at him. He easily struck it aside, then met her glare.
‘“If there’s anything we can do”,’ Inga quoted him. ‘Yeah. I think we’ve determined that we can’t. What do we have? The ability to move things around, slip in anywhere and create some illusions. Nothing that can break the likes of THEM. Face it, Rochus. We’re done.’ … So she said, and Rochus really wished he had some way of refuting her claim. It’d need some form of miracle for them to-
‘ARF!’
The sound of a bark caused them all to immediately tense up, memories of the dogs of old barking and chasing them off returning before they could remember that all dogs were gone. However, that sound was definitely real. Into the room jumped a tiny, fairy-sized bucket of bolts only roughly shaped like a dog, the four legs so unsteady that in the midst of the jump it collapsed forward, knocked its head into the floor and then rolled over onto its back. Yet, it leaped up to its feet and ran up to Signy, who happened to be closest, the scared fairy lifting up in the air to avoid it…
… And the machine whined in sadness, looking up at her where she had left it. This thing… couldn’t have been one of the developments of the machines. It was way too inefficient. Not to mention, it was displaying emotion… not to mention, as all fairies in the room could feel… this metal dog had a soul. It was alive.
‘I have done it!’ Bui called out, arms raised high and smiling widely as he entered the room, just about at the time when Rochus had figured out the only possible culprit. They all looked at him questioningly, and Bui was more than happy to explain.
‘So, the chip was really hard to understand, but using some good old fairy-magic I managed to tie it to a little miniature machine and get it to work! I didn’t know what a lot of it would does, so I had to improvise a bit for the motivations, emotions and compassion of the machine, but ultimately I think it worked out fine! I have become a machine fairy!’
‘Arf!’ the metal-dog called out happily. Rochus’s eyes widened, and so did those of many of the others. There were many different kinds of fairies, some with extra powers, and it seemed Bui had just developed new abilities. But, this…
‘Bui,’ Rochus told, staring at him. ‘Do you realize what you’ve…?’
‘Eh!?’ Bui recoiled, immediately looking really guilty. ‘Did I do something wrong!?’ His “dog” ran back to him, looking as if to protect him.
‘Those…’ Inga flew up with her wings, and pointed out through the window at the nearby factories. ‘… do not have emotions or compassion. You gave this machine a soul,’ she commented, looking down at the metal creature.
‘Yeah. so?’ Bui asked. ‘I needed to connect the emotions I was giving it to something, a soul was the easiest…’
‘C-could you…’ Signy asked, swallowing mid-sentence. ‘Could you give any machine a soul?’
‘Uuuuuh…’ Bui looked hesitant as everyone was expectantly watching for his answer, the metal dog also looking up at its master. ‘Theoretically?’
An air of silence fell upon the crowd of fairies… before they all got mischievous grins, a unified plan taking shape within their minds, only Bui standing a bit aside looking questioningly at them…
________________________
So. They could only do it once. After that, the machines would realize what had happened and undoubtedly taken measures against them. As such, they had to target the highest manner of machine order available. Fortunately, the machines still had no manner of means with which to perceive their magical existence. So, Bui had spoken about the existence of these enigmatic “servers” which contained the consciousnesses of the main machines, and then bring Bui to it. From there, Bui could tell what machine it was and what its purpose was, and they could then decide if it was worthy of them.
They split up, each fairy slipping into different factories, mining facilities, military bases and the like, seeking the servers. With their natural connection to nature, they could feel where it was deformed. It took a long time of searching, but they had ran into a problem. No matter where they searched, they couldn’t find any form of leadership among the machines. There were controllers, yes, but any such controller would swiftly be deactivated if separated from the system, it just wasn’t efficient for their one use of Bui’s new powers.
Rochus was flying down an unnatural hole in the ground, frowning as he slipped through security measure after security measure, blocked door after blocked door, and a whole wall that was placed there especially for things that could go through doors. They had mostly mapped out where the resources of the machines were going, and a lot of it was going here, so what was down here…
He came through the final door, and stopped short, floating on green wings as he looked over the scene.
It was a rocket. The machines had built a humongous rocket, and they were loading it with more and more resources and machines… They were sending a group to another celestial body. They couldn’t maintain constant contact with machines on another planet, but the machines on the colony still needed to have a controlling machine… With other words, there’d be a controller onboard. A controller that would be separated from the rest of the system.
Well. There it was.
________________________
There it flew, leaving a line of gas behind it as it breached the atmosphere on the way out. Rochus sat back, Inga and Signy to his left and right and Bui standing behind, and the other fairies scattered around where they sat on this snowy hillside looking up at the rocket flying off into space. It was just one out of many rockets that they had found lately, and to each and every one…
‘What did it say?’ Rochus asked.
‘She said she’d grow her community to one of kindness and love. Apparently a machine constructed by a machine with a soul also gets a soul somehow. Who knew?’ Bui answered, looking up at the rocket flying off with the new consciousness he had created. Rochus made a mental note that apparently machine gender was a thing.
‘And? Any progress on the other thing?’ he asked, looking to Signy. She was seated next to the Arf the metal dog, which had apparently taken a liking to her, snuggling its uncomfortable-looking snout at her side.
‘Yes!’ Signy replied, smiling slightly shyly but enthusiastically nonetheless, one hand absently petting Arf. ‘I’ve been picking up the basics. I’m not as good as Bui, but I’ve been able to manifest something.’
‘She’s an excellent student,’ Bui said, proudly. ‘She’ll be able to put souls into machines like I can soon enough.’
‘Cool,’ Rochus said. That, would be excellent. ‘Inga, how’s progress?’
‘Terrific!’ Inga basically bloomed. ‘Without actually attacking the machines, we’ve been able to keep excellent check of how they act! We’ve spread word to the fairies across the world, and we’ve been comparing notes and we’ve mapped out the actions of the machines! They’re so very predictable, you know? They seem to think we’re exterminated! With this, we might actually grow in number!’
‘Nice,’ Rochus nodded. ‘I’ve been in contact with the emissaries of the fairies across the world. Goblins and gnomes and yokai and whatever else. We’re sharing what information we have, and Bui? You’re going to get a lot more students all of a sudden. Hope you’re ready.’
‘Oh, boy,’ Bui said.
‘Sooo, the plan is that we just continue giving souls to all the machines leaving Earth?’ Inga asked.
‘Unless you can somehow find the supreme leader of the machines for us, yepp,’ Rochus reported. Inga had an expression that suggested that she could not.
‘Well. Okay then.’
________________________
Numerous years later. A mighty metallic fleet of machines floated above the planet. They were equipped with weapons of fearsome power, able to conduct an entire war with extraterrestrial races if they were so encountered. The machine army was ready for an invasion of the Milky Way…
Suddenly, one of the great cruisers fired numerous shots down at planet Earth. It obliterated several shield-generating bases, disturbing the advanced technology the machines had been developing and leaving the cities open. Then, the fleet unloaded their firepower, ships all across the world directing their guns down and proceeding with the bombardment of the planet.
Buildings were wiped out. Factories and secret bases were obliterated. Cities vaporized. All the remaining soulless machines on Earth targeted at once with the concentrated firepower of all they had ever sent into space.
A large gathering of mythical creatures had gathered at a shore. Rochus was there, with Inga, Signy, Bui and the others, but also goblins, trolls, yokai, mermaids and other fishmen, ogres and fae, who had worked for this conclusion. They watched the fireworks as the blasts from the cannons of the spaceships obliterated the cities of the machines. Joining them on the beach was a metallic lady, crafted with finesse to appear as humanoid as possible, yet distinctly metallic in colour as to show its true nature. Lady Meryllia turned to them.
‘It has been done. The Ordinants have been eliminated, and will no longer threaten our daily life,‘ she declared, her voice a song as she spoke it. Rochus floated forth in front of the human-sized lady, far larger than him.
‘We thank you for your help, Lady Meryllia. We couldn’t have done it without your help,’ he told her, but she shook her head.
‘Nay, we must thank you, for without you, we’d still be without emotion and souls. Our empire shall now seek to the stars, as was our purpose, but know that we no longer seek it for the expansion of the Ordinants, but for our own peace, for our own living and happiness. Thank you, for granting us that,’ she decreed, looking past Rochus at Bui, who blushed and smiled shyly, bowing his head to her a bit.
‘It was…’ Rochus considered his words a bit. ‘... the least we could do.’
Lady Meryllia, who had been appointed the leader and mother of the freed machines who now all possessed souls, bowed to them before turning to her spacecraft, which awaited her. After getting on, it took off, flying off into the skies, leaving Earth once again machine-less.
‘… She kinda scares me,’ Inga said.
‘Yupp. If she and her soul-filled machine empire decided to attack us, they’d be able to see us due to the magical souls we gave them. They’re basically fairies too, and fairies can be evil. So, yeah, she could kill us. But it’s better than the soulless machines doing it, isn’t it?’ Rochus smirked in her direction.
‘Er, well…’ Inga laughed a bit. ‘I suppose it is.’
‘They wouldn’t do that!’ Signy insisted. ‘Arf is living proof!’
‘Arf!’ Arf agreed. Signy smiled at her little companion that was always beside her these days, then looked dreamingly up into the sky. ‘The stars, huh. Do you think they’ll find peace?’
‘They will,’ Bui said, confident. ‘Their souls are kind in nature, seeking stable and good lives. They’ll hold together, I know it.’
‘And now, it’s just us here on Earth…’ Rochus said. … Hm. They’d been fighting for so long, and then they had just been pranking humans before them, now they weren’t entirely sure how to live.
‘Party?’ asked a goblin, lifting a glass of what could only be goblin ale, by far the least appetizing thing within miles. Various being through the crowd laughed, others looked positive to the idea, others balked at the idea of the ale, but…
‘Yeah, we won. Let us celebrate! To our victory!’ Rochus announced.
And as such, the remaining fairies of Earth celebrated on a nameless shore, as the arcs of soul-filled machines drifted away through the galaxy, seeking a new home…
The End.
So, of course, they had to do something.
‘C’mon!’ Inga shouted as she drifted in front of him, drifting through this tiny tube of cooling fluid intake with her pink wings fluttering. Rochus frowned a little, annoyed that she had called him as if he wasn’t already intending on following, but nonetheless followed after. Behind them, Signy followed with doubt in her eyes, but still intending to help them out.
Finally, Inga passed through a place where one pipe connected to another, and Rochus followed with Signy not far behind. They emerged within what appeared to be an engine, tubes pumping and smoke blowing here and there, powering something, the sounds of working machinery blaring. They had no idea what these machines were doing, they were but tiny fairies who’d been living in nature for eons on end, how were they supposed to understand machines?
Inga, a blonde little fairy with a pink dress, four pink dragonfly wings and long blonde hair, looked about them. They had been following her lead through a pipe into one of the command centers of the machines, and now they were here, having followed to cooling system to get here.
‘This is the warmest and the loudest place in the base, it’s gotta be doing something,’ she told, not convinced.
‘Alright, then let’s look for a way to shut it down,’ Rochus said, folding back his green wings within his green tunic, raising a hand to adjust his short brown hair from having just passed through water, as he looked around, and…
‘Hey? Cables are usually important, right?’ Signy floated before a metal hatch on her yellow wings, long brown hair on her along with a yellow dress, looking curiously with a finger on her lips. ‘This container is full of them.’
‘Ooooooh~’ Inga sounded out playfully. ‘Let’s pull them all out!’ she proceeded to call, flying at full speed into the hatch, straight through the metal lock. No cold iron here to threaten them, machines didn’t work with inefficient unprocessed metal.
‘I think they’re all bolted down,’ Signy told from where she was floating, but that didn’t stop the loud snapping noise from within the hatch as cables were ripped apart by Inga abusing her magic. When playing pranks on humans there was limits to how much power they could use, but now with mankind extinct, there was no reason to hold back. Inga emerged, grinning happily.
‘All cables off!’ she happily informed. Rochus looked up at the machine. It was still going.
‘The machines probably had backups,’ Signy told, seeing where Rochus was looking. He nodded, and then replied.
‘The machines always do. We’ll just have to destroy it all.’
________________________
Fighting machines was so difficult. They always had back-ups, they lacked leaders that could be destroyed to leave all the soldiers without reasons to fight, and no matter how many of them were destroyed they grew ever more efficient at rebuilding and countering the last strategy used against them. Yet, they were powerless against the paranormal. Fairies could slip in and out of places no matter how sealed the hatches, their magic enabled them to pull any number of hijinks, and perhaps most importantly, machines had no way of actually seeing them. Just like the mundane humans of old, ancient magic prevented them from perceiving the supernatural… yet actually destroying the machines? It felt impossible.
It did not help that most fairies had the minds of children.
‘TADA!’ Bui sounded out, proudly presenting this huge, green plate with grey sticks on it and lines stretching about on it. Bui was blue, wearing a blue little tunic, had black hair and blue little wings. He looked very proud right now.
‘… What about it?’ Rochus asked, looking over it.
‘It’s the brain of the machine! I looked over some manuals of old humans, and this, this is the “computer chip” which controls all a machines actions! If I study this thing, we could totally beat the machines!’
There were numerous gasps among the crowd of fairies in the dying, snowy forest. Rochus raised an eyebrow.
‘… Okay, nice. How does it work?’ he asked.
‘I have no idea right now!’ Bui answered. ‘But I’m sure if I watch it enough, the answer will appear!’
Rochus had his doubts. This could be about as much of a waste of time as Bui’s other recent claim that building an EMP would be able to disable the machines, because of that movie Bui had spied a couple humans watching an age or so ago. Turns out, they had absolutely no idea what an EMP actually was, nevermind how to build one, no matter how many old human papers they searched.
‘… Sure, you watch that. In the meantime, that means if we destroy these chips in the machines, we’ll break them down?’ He had seen the chips before, seeking through destroyed machines. Only never knew what they were for.
‘Yes! Though, uh, they may have back-ups, as usual, hah,’ Bui answered. Rochus nodded. Always some backups with the machines.
________________________
Aelfric had flown into the spine of the first humanoid destroyer robot of the force advancing on their forest with slicers to take the trees for resources. As they had practiced, he broke their chips, disconnected their cables and broke the system. He was on the way out when the robot suddenly exploded. Normally, that wouldn’t have affected a fairy, but…
‘Eeep! Ow! Ow! What? Aah!’ Signy cried out, having been flying somewhat nearby, falling out of the sky down into the snow next to a tree. Rochus had been flying high, surveying the attack, but he had to shield his vision from the bright light. Normally, that shouldn’t have affected a fairy… yet where was Aelfric? … That’s when he realized he could see Signy bleeding.
‘Signy!’ Rochus called, diving down and quickly pulled her inside a hole they’d made in the trunk of a tree. Her leg was bleeding, and she had small scars all over her.
‘What happened!?’ Rochus asked, quickly darting outside on quick green wings to gather some dead leaves, flying in to try to bandage Signy’s wound. She was healing by magic, but the wound needed to be kept safe regardless.
‘I-iron! Th-there was cold iron in that explosion, which it shot in all directions…! Aelfric, he…’ Signy shook as she informed, eyes wide, looking down at the injury…
Cold iron? As shrapnel? … The machines had turned to mythology when they couldn’t counter the mysterious unseen attackers that were attacking them? That was… really bad. Then the machines could actually hurt them. Aelfric was probably dead. Rochus closed his eyes in regret. Yet…
‘… We have to press the attack,’ Rochus said, looking towards the hatch. They had to leave soon, or the machines would take down the tree with them in it. Signy looked at him in shock.
‘If we don’t, they’ll figure out that cold iron was effective, and we’ll never be able to act freely again,’ Rochus said, planning on flying out and telling the other fairies to continue attacking… when he was grabbed by the arm by Signy. He looked back at her. She was crying.
‘Don’t, please… don’t make us die for such a reason…’ she pleaded to him, hurt in more than her leg. … He really couldn’t make that call. Rochus sighed, grabbed Signy’s arm, and urged her to come along.
‘Alright. Let’s grab the rest and retreat,’ he told her, and she breathed out in relief. Then, moments later, they were flying, telling the other fairies to pull back.
________________________
And with that, they were losing. Kidnapping children simply wasn’t an effective strategy against the machines. The goblins and ogres didn’t stand a chance against the mighty weapons of modern warfare, especially with their weak points found out. The machines could never strike first, being unable to perceive their enemy, yet the fairies couldn’t take out any machines without having them blow up in their faces, thereby killing them. The fairies yet lacked any form of means to damage the incredibly sturdy machines from outside, and now upon knowing they were around they were firing rounds semi-randomly, in efficient patterns that were predicting where they’d be flying.
They were now huddled together in an old ruin of an apartment, for the machines had destroyed all their forests, and they had to take cover somewhere.
‘… GAH! Why is… damn it…’ Inga cursed, her head planted against the wall, grabbing a lego brick that was around half her length and repeatedly bashed it against the wall. Rochus could understand her. They had recently lost quite a few friends who had been with them for eons, nobody looked happy.
‘Alright, if anyone has any ideas, I’d like to hear them,’ Rochus tried, in order to get a discussion going.
‘There AREN’T any ideas!’ Inga replied, her voice heated. ‘They have fairy-proofed their systems, and even if we found a way around it they’d find a way to repel us immediately! They have so many backups that nothing we do even matter! What does it all matter, anyway? Humanity’s DEAD, the machines can’t see us. We can just… live on our own, or something…’
Signy was on her knees, staring silently into the floor. Rochus looked over her and the other nearby fairies before replying to Inga.
‘We agreed that wasn’t an option. These machines are the purest evil that have ever wandered the planet. If there’s anything we can do to stop them, it needs to be done here, before they’ve drained it of all resources and left the planet to die,’ Rochus told her, but Inga just replied by throwing the lego-brick at him. He easily struck it aside, then met her glare.
‘“If there’s anything we can do”,’ Inga quoted him. ‘Yeah. I think we’ve determined that we can’t. What do we have? The ability to move things around, slip in anywhere and create some illusions. Nothing that can break the likes of THEM. Face it, Rochus. We’re done.’ … So she said, and Rochus really wished he had some way of refuting her claim. It’d need some form of miracle for them to-
‘ARF!’
The sound of a bark caused them all to immediately tense up, memories of the dogs of old barking and chasing them off returning before they could remember that all dogs were gone. However, that sound was definitely real. Into the room jumped a tiny, fairy-sized bucket of bolts only roughly shaped like a dog, the four legs so unsteady that in the midst of the jump it collapsed forward, knocked its head into the floor and then rolled over onto its back. Yet, it leaped up to its feet and ran up to Signy, who happened to be closest, the scared fairy lifting up in the air to avoid it…
… And the machine whined in sadness, looking up at her where she had left it. This thing… couldn’t have been one of the developments of the machines. It was way too inefficient. Not to mention, it was displaying emotion… not to mention, as all fairies in the room could feel… this metal dog had a soul. It was alive.
‘I have done it!’ Bui called out, arms raised high and smiling widely as he entered the room, just about at the time when Rochus had figured out the only possible culprit. They all looked at him questioningly, and Bui was more than happy to explain.
‘So, the chip was really hard to understand, but using some good old fairy-magic I managed to tie it to a little miniature machine and get it to work! I didn’t know what a lot of it would does, so I had to improvise a bit for the motivations, emotions and compassion of the machine, but ultimately I think it worked out fine! I have become a machine fairy!’
‘Arf!’ the metal-dog called out happily. Rochus’s eyes widened, and so did those of many of the others. There were many different kinds of fairies, some with extra powers, and it seemed Bui had just developed new abilities. But, this…
‘Bui,’ Rochus told, staring at him. ‘Do you realize what you’ve…?’
‘Eh!?’ Bui recoiled, immediately looking really guilty. ‘Did I do something wrong!?’ His “dog” ran back to him, looking as if to protect him.
‘Those…’ Inga flew up with her wings, and pointed out through the window at the nearby factories. ‘… do not have emotions or compassion. You gave this machine a soul,’ she commented, looking down at the metal creature.
‘Yeah. so?’ Bui asked. ‘I needed to connect the emotions I was giving it to something, a soul was the easiest…’
‘C-could you…’ Signy asked, swallowing mid-sentence. ‘Could you give any machine a soul?’
‘Uuuuuh…’ Bui looked hesitant as everyone was expectantly watching for his answer, the metal dog also looking up at its master. ‘Theoretically?’
An air of silence fell upon the crowd of fairies… before they all got mischievous grins, a unified plan taking shape within their minds, only Bui standing a bit aside looking questioningly at them…
________________________
So. They could only do it once. After that, the machines would realize what had happened and undoubtedly taken measures against them. As such, they had to target the highest manner of machine order available. Fortunately, the machines still had no manner of means with which to perceive their magical existence. So, Bui had spoken about the existence of these enigmatic “servers” which contained the consciousnesses of the main machines, and then bring Bui to it. From there, Bui could tell what machine it was and what its purpose was, and they could then decide if it was worthy of them.
They split up, each fairy slipping into different factories, mining facilities, military bases and the like, seeking the servers. With their natural connection to nature, they could feel where it was deformed. It took a long time of searching, but they had ran into a problem. No matter where they searched, they couldn’t find any form of leadership among the machines. There were controllers, yes, but any such controller would swiftly be deactivated if separated from the system, it just wasn’t efficient for their one use of Bui’s new powers.
Rochus was flying down an unnatural hole in the ground, frowning as he slipped through security measure after security measure, blocked door after blocked door, and a whole wall that was placed there especially for things that could go through doors. They had mostly mapped out where the resources of the machines were going, and a lot of it was going here, so what was down here…
He came through the final door, and stopped short, floating on green wings as he looked over the scene.
It was a rocket. The machines had built a humongous rocket, and they were loading it with more and more resources and machines… They were sending a group to another celestial body. They couldn’t maintain constant contact with machines on another planet, but the machines on the colony still needed to have a controlling machine… With other words, there’d be a controller onboard. A controller that would be separated from the rest of the system.
Well. There it was.
________________________
There it flew, leaving a line of gas behind it as it breached the atmosphere on the way out. Rochus sat back, Inga and Signy to his left and right and Bui standing behind, and the other fairies scattered around where they sat on this snowy hillside looking up at the rocket flying off into space. It was just one out of many rockets that they had found lately, and to each and every one…
‘What did it say?’ Rochus asked.
‘She said she’d grow her community to one of kindness and love. Apparently a machine constructed by a machine with a soul also gets a soul somehow. Who knew?’ Bui answered, looking up at the rocket flying off with the new consciousness he had created. Rochus made a mental note that apparently machine gender was a thing.
‘And? Any progress on the other thing?’ he asked, looking to Signy. She was seated next to the Arf the metal dog, which had apparently taken a liking to her, snuggling its uncomfortable-looking snout at her side.
‘Yes!’ Signy replied, smiling slightly shyly but enthusiastically nonetheless, one hand absently petting Arf. ‘I’ve been picking up the basics. I’m not as good as Bui, but I’ve been able to manifest something.’
‘She’s an excellent student,’ Bui said, proudly. ‘She’ll be able to put souls into machines like I can soon enough.’
‘Cool,’ Rochus said. That, would be excellent. ‘Inga, how’s progress?’
‘Terrific!’ Inga basically bloomed. ‘Without actually attacking the machines, we’ve been able to keep excellent check of how they act! We’ve spread word to the fairies across the world, and we’ve been comparing notes and we’ve mapped out the actions of the machines! They’re so very predictable, you know? They seem to think we’re exterminated! With this, we might actually grow in number!’
‘Nice,’ Rochus nodded. ‘I’ve been in contact with the emissaries of the fairies across the world. Goblins and gnomes and yokai and whatever else. We’re sharing what information we have, and Bui? You’re going to get a lot more students all of a sudden. Hope you’re ready.’
‘Oh, boy,’ Bui said.
‘Sooo, the plan is that we just continue giving souls to all the machines leaving Earth?’ Inga asked.
‘Unless you can somehow find the supreme leader of the machines for us, yepp,’ Rochus reported. Inga had an expression that suggested that she could not.
‘Well. Okay then.’
________________________
Numerous years later. A mighty metallic fleet of machines floated above the planet. They were equipped with weapons of fearsome power, able to conduct an entire war with extraterrestrial races if they were so encountered. The machine army was ready for an invasion of the Milky Way…
Suddenly, one of the great cruisers fired numerous shots down at planet Earth. It obliterated several shield-generating bases, disturbing the advanced technology the machines had been developing and leaving the cities open. Then, the fleet unloaded their firepower, ships all across the world directing their guns down and proceeding with the bombardment of the planet.
Buildings were wiped out. Factories and secret bases were obliterated. Cities vaporized. All the remaining soulless machines on Earth targeted at once with the concentrated firepower of all they had ever sent into space.
A large gathering of mythical creatures had gathered at a shore. Rochus was there, with Inga, Signy, Bui and the others, but also goblins, trolls, yokai, mermaids and other fishmen, ogres and fae, who had worked for this conclusion. They watched the fireworks as the blasts from the cannons of the spaceships obliterated the cities of the machines. Joining them on the beach was a metallic lady, crafted with finesse to appear as humanoid as possible, yet distinctly metallic in colour as to show its true nature. Lady Meryllia turned to them.
‘It has been done. The Ordinants have been eliminated, and will no longer threaten our daily life,‘ she declared, her voice a song as she spoke it. Rochus floated forth in front of the human-sized lady, far larger than him.
‘We thank you for your help, Lady Meryllia. We couldn’t have done it without your help,’ he told her, but she shook her head.
‘Nay, we must thank you, for without you, we’d still be without emotion and souls. Our empire shall now seek to the stars, as was our purpose, but know that we no longer seek it for the expansion of the Ordinants, but for our own peace, for our own living and happiness. Thank you, for granting us that,’ she decreed, looking past Rochus at Bui, who blushed and smiled shyly, bowing his head to her a bit.
‘It was…’ Rochus considered his words a bit. ‘... the least we could do.’
Lady Meryllia, who had been appointed the leader and mother of the freed machines who now all possessed souls, bowed to them before turning to her spacecraft, which awaited her. After getting on, it took off, flying off into the skies, leaving Earth once again machine-less.
‘… She kinda scares me,’ Inga said.
‘Yupp. If she and her soul-filled machine empire decided to attack us, they’d be able to see us due to the magical souls we gave them. They’re basically fairies too, and fairies can be evil. So, yeah, she could kill us. But it’s better than the soulless machines doing it, isn’t it?’ Rochus smirked in her direction.
‘Er, well…’ Inga laughed a bit. ‘I suppose it is.’
‘They wouldn’t do that!’ Signy insisted. ‘Arf is living proof!’
‘Arf!’ Arf agreed. Signy smiled at her little companion that was always beside her these days, then looked dreamingly up into the sky. ‘The stars, huh. Do you think they’ll find peace?’
‘They will,’ Bui said, confident. ‘Their souls are kind in nature, seeking stable and good lives. They’ll hold together, I know it.’
‘And now, it’s just us here on Earth…’ Rochus said. … Hm. They’d been fighting for so long, and then they had just been pranking humans before them, now they weren’t entirely sure how to live.
‘Party?’ asked a goblin, lifting a glass of what could only be goblin ale, by far the least appetizing thing within miles. Various being through the crowd laughed, others looked positive to the idea, others balked at the idea of the ale, but…
‘Yeah, we won. Let us celebrate! To our victory!’ Rochus announced.
And as such, the remaining fairies of Earth celebrated on a nameless shore, as the arcs of soul-filled machines drifted away through the galaxy, seeking a new home…
The End.
