It was nearly two hundred years ago. We keep the records to remind us of the threat.

TPT AI Helena: Automated convoy to Denaco Crater mining facility. All systems green.
TPT AI Helena: -Minor EMP disturbance in automated convoy to Denaco Crater. Suggest science team investigation priority 6.-
--Warning: AI Helena report late. Previous report orange. Suggest science team investigation priority 4. Activating backup AI.--
TPT Wings of Steel backup: <AI Helena offline. Severe EMP disturbance.> <<HOSTILE FIRE!>>
Preliminary scan: <<<Unknown life form.>>> <<Unknown ship.>> Quantity and advanced scan transmitting... transmitted.
TP%ae01T W..ngsss *31 S\\[] back;up: We are the Mortigua. You will be destroyed. Your weapons are useless.

That was all that was said. It was the call to our destruction. We were fighting a war on two fronts, the quite successful Pligii campaign and against this new threat, the Mortigua. They spoke our language and apparently could read our databanks, as they had direct co-ordinates to the colony the transport was heading from. They could destroy a quite heavily armoured transport ship and an entire colony with the only report being that of "minor EMP disturbance".

It got worse.

The battlefleet sent to contain the situation had their databanks stripped and flew without a central AI, as a precaution. They were also equipped with detailed logs of the entire android ground force and emergency self destruct charges. It was a total loss - the androids weren't destroyed, they just forgot which side they were on, and then turned on us. We blew the charges just before even they stopped responding.

It was at that point we realised. Anything with a microchip... no, anything electrical, they could manipulate to their will. For the first time in a few hundred years, actual humans were summoned to the front lines, waves and waves of cannon fodder that bought time for vital shielding, plastics, anything that might help to be researched back on Terra. All of the AIs were deleted - I make it sound like they were mere machines but they were much more, living things with emotions and friends and family. We wiped out their entire race to stop them turning on us. Every database everywhere had any reference to the location of Terra was scrubbed clean of it.

The only place we kept any armed machines was in the battle against the Pligii. It was ironic, but the moment we were faced with extinction we finally broke their lines, had a free run on their homeworld. We stayed our hand, realising it was a futile pursuit.

Then, the day of our doom came. They found Terra. Some archaic information store, an antique that we could no longer access was in the belongings of one troop on the firing line. They read it, and by some chance it was an ancient encyclopaedia, with information about our star on, and our position in our solar system. We couldn't read it, but they could.

The generals on Terra knew that they were licked. They knew the planet was doomed, and humanity too if they didn't do something drastic. There was no time to wipe every piece of magnetically stored information on the planet, and the Mortigua knew a lot of it anyway. It was decided that a series of bombs would be planted in the core of the planet Terra, and any other planet that the Mortigua might be interested in and then detonated when the invasion fleet was close enough to be caught in the blast. To ensure the survival of humanity, any information useful to a remaining human would be transmitted using the entire planet's energy supplies in the buildup to the blast, and multitude of hard copies were stored in sealed shells strong enough to withstand the blasts, before opening afterwards and heading towards any known human colony.

The Mortigua came within range. The signal started, and the invaders were momentarily caught up, attempting to download it. They located the android ships, still in orbit around Pligiian planets and immediately dealt with that threat.

The bombs fired. The entire fleet was destroyed. It never reached some of the furthest colonies.

Humanity survived. The Pligii survived; they had some colonies that the humans didn't discover. The Mortigua were beaten back to wherever they came from, and from what we know now there weren't a lot of them left either.

This reminds me of that "all your base" meme.



Not your average Tupperware...




Nice story, but they weren't really doomed if they survived, now were they? Also, you switch between "Terra" and "Earth."

Nice story--thanks for posting =D

Augh! I thought I fixed the Earth thing!

I'll just hop back and sort that out.

As far as AYB goes, I thought I made the Mortigua sound too much like the borg from star trek, actually.