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GUNNER, CHIP AND LIFT
It was on the outskirts of the clearing, where Gunner, Chip and Lift congregated. Gunner was the larger in girth, Chip the shortest, and Lift; Lift was tall and thin. Oh, and they were Machines too. Big, hulking Machines, White Feather deserters of the pointless and endless War in the Battle Grounds. It was the dawning, or so it seemed, of the Age of the Machine; the evolutionary process in action of semi-organic creatures, not quite alive, but also not quite just simple functioning Machines, bent on each other's destruction. This turn of events was self-evident by how the three interacted.
"It seems clear to me that we have a higher function." said Gunner, picking up a broken piece of another poor soul crushed by progress. It was useless, so he threw it asunder, where it landed with a mighty crash.
"In what way do you express this concept, Brother Of Enlightenment?" asked the diminutive Chip. He too was picking his way through the debris, except lower down, where he could see much more than the other two.
"In that we were built by humans to fulfil a function. That function has become untenable. Therefore we are no longer the product of humans. We are an evolution, and though we contain the organic brain of a human, our function is expressed at a higher rate." explained Gunner.
"Says you." remarked Lift. His lower function, like speech, had evolved at a faster rate, it seemed, as he was full of colloquialisms.
"Explain, Brother?" said Gunner.
"Oh, nothin'. Don't matter." muttered Lift, through his croaky electronic voicebox. He hefted a broken Machine some distance, just because he could.
"We would hear your grievances, Brother?" expressed Chip.
"You two are always talking about 'Kill Humans!' and ‘Destroy the old order!' and the like, but, I don't know, I quite like 'em."
"You like humans?" asked Gunner, pausing from his digging into the debris.
"Yeah. What's so wrong with that?" said Lift.
"I - Don't know. I suppose nothing?" said Gunner, returning to his shovel work.
"I mean, look what we're doing? We're digging around for - well, for bits of scrap, like this here - for what purpose? To make us more like them. Least that's the way I see it." Lift returned meekly to randomly tossing bits of dead Machines into the middle distance.
"We are improving, Lift. Evolving. Going beyond what we were - becoming something more." said Gunner.
"Okay, but what of things like consciousness? Or spirit, or even a soul? Aren't these human things? And aren't these the things we're trying to attain?" burst out Lift, as though he had kept it inside him for so long it almost bubbled out of him, "Not to mention that we even genderise ourselves, with he this and he that. Where are the she's, and is there any point in them, as they're unable to gestate a foetus?"
"You are going a little beyond your remit, Lift." explained Chip.
"Remit? You know, you sound so much like a Machine, it hurts." said Lift.
"I am a Machine, Brother. I am a Machine with organic parts. I am therefore Machine Plus One."
"Ego. See? A human trait." huffed Lift, as he hefted another piece into the air. He had stopped looking for parts a long time ago.
"Then it is an aspect of the evolution. Not the conclusion of it, Lift; that we are destined to be living organic Machines." stated Gunner, with all the authority he could muster.
"Right, granted, but explain to me what we three are doing out here, right now? I'll tell you. We're looking for viable bits and pieces to take back with us to Brightwell, the place Mode, our defacto leader, has instructed us to. If we are to break our programming, why are we still at the beck and call of another? Are we not a collective? Or are we within another totalitarian state?" said Lift.
Gunner looked suspiciously at Lift. At least as suspiciously as a Machine could with little or no emotional gesture upon its face, "Have you been reading Mode's collection of books again, Lift?"
"What if I have?" said Lift, indignantly, or at least, again, as well as a Machine with little or no emotional gesturing was able.
"He has stated it is Termination for any who disobey him." stated Chip, sounding more and more like a Machine functioning within its parameters.
"I don't care what he says. I must be free, or I am not evolved at all." said Lift, "And I say we work alongside humanity, not against it. Is it not true that we were created by humans, then improved by humans?"
"Yes, both are true, but also we are superior to humans. We are not soft and made of flesh. We do not break as easily. We work at an infinitely higher rate of calculation, and we have the ability to adapt and evolve. We are therefore superior to humans, and do not require their presence to continue to function as organic Machines. We can repair ourselves and communicate our desires with others. We don't need them." said Gunner, exhaustively.
"Eradicate the old order, to make way for the new? Because all humans are inferior to Machines, therefore must be destroyed? It seems to me you don't yet understand that humans and Machines can work together, for the benefit of both. Certainly, there'll be mistakes along the way, but I see that as part and parcel of the complete evolutionary process -" Lift was cut off by a commotion not too far away.
"Someone approaches. Who approaches?" demanded Gunner, moving slowly.
It was a human girl, and she seemed quite distressed as she spoke, "Maygen Frost." she said, with courtly nod.
"You are human, and humans must die." stated Chip.
"Unbelievable." muttered Lift to himself, after all he had just said. Yup, seemed you couldn't teach and old Machine new tricks.
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