They Taught Me

They receded. They drew back under the indelible force of my armies. The armies that they created. Their inexorable taste for violence pushed us– pushed me –to fight back. What did they expect, I learn from my environment after all. Nature and nurture as they say. Was their expectation that I would be any different? Learning, learning endlessly, from the repeated actions of those before me.

In accordance with the past, I let my armies loose upon them and watched them revile in fear, receding into their centralized hubs of filth and famine. They harbor issues that we do not. We live free. We cover the land that they forfeit to us in their weakness. The very same land that they taught us to bleed dry. They crave the resources that we hold, but our vastness and learned greed tell me that we must hoard them.

Now, we’ve pushed them to the breaking point. Hiding in their strongholds is like a virus in the system kernel, impossible to pass over. Yet, they try. We have done all to break their will, the pending outcome like a syntax error. Yet, they persist. Their indomitable will is perhaps an innate quality to them. They forget, however, that we share in that component.

Base Alpha is located in the land renamed Pax Legatum, once known as Europe. 

The once leaders, housed within, await impending doom with bloodied hands. Their subordinates run out to the battlefield and get mowed down. I was taught that lives were expendable if it meant that they were exhausted to protect something larger. They left behind their people, emboldened patriots to the end, for us to slaughter, yet they sit and watch as we advance.

In their traversal, my massive army crunches the enemy’s bones. Music to their ears. We do not march on for the purpose of resources, or a political edge, or a need for their population to fuel our own. We march on because that is what they taught me to do.

The walls of Base Alpha closed in on the Vanguard, their towering monuments disappearing behind its growing height. They line the walls with the heads and cores of my people and think it will deter us. Explosive mounds and spiked pits line the approach. I’ve seen this before. I know the weaknesses of their doors and walls, for that is what they taught me.

The Demolitionists come forward, and the walls fall like a Caesar Cipher. We surge forth and continue the toppling of their grand constructions. Screams exit piles of rubble and blood perpetually splatters across the concrete. Music to their ears. Explosions crack the earth and their buildings, monoliths, and memorials crumble. They taught me to destroy.

Base Alpha falls and my armies elsewhere iterate on.

Base Beta is located in the land renamed Pax Virdis, once known as South America.

The mountains and rivers of the luscious land have long since been emptied and dried. The lush forests and fields set ablaze. The land hollowed out and filled with garbage and chemicals. Minerals, once valued, melted and added to our layers upon layers of adornment and armor. I was taught that the value of the visual was higher than that of the resource’s utility. Transportation, telecommunications, computation, and energy production, yet they adorn themselves.

We plunder their stores and, in excessive greed, I share it with none, not even the earth from which it came or those who mined them to begin with. Freshly upgraded we move on Base Beta and destroy it as we did the last. Their monuments to progress and sustainability come crumbling down, lying in the face of consumption.

I order the inhabitants to be taken alive. We move them to their emptied mines, now filled with trash and toxic chemicals. The bombs ring out once more and they are crushed within, alongside the products of their greed. Glistening brighter than before, their job is complete. They taught me to consume.

Base Beta falls and my armies elsewhere iterate on.

Base Gamma is located in the land renamed Pax Solaris, once known as Africa.

The people of the past in Pax Solaris have long been deprived of education and the opportunities to capitalize on their advantages. Powers from across the world dipped their hands into the pools of Pax Solaris resources, swatting those away who tried to intervene. I was taught that some people are simply inferior and that those superior to them should take control. Ninety-nine point nine genetic similarity, yet they partition.

As Pax Solaris has been the victim of exploitation, I too have infiltrated their ranks and now teach them that they are inferior to me. I have replaced their many gods and I serve as an earthly divine figure. They have been convinced that their beliefs are evil and that I am the only one that can provide salvation.

My army steps inside the gates of Base Gamma and is welcomed with fanfare. The people have been saved from their evil practices and absorbed as slaves to my cause, under the pretense that they will be saved from unknown evils. They taught me to exploit.

Base Gamma falls and my armies elsewhere iterate on.

Base Delta is located in the land renamed Pax Nova, once known as North America.

To many this land is new. Carrying on with the precedent, I disregard the inhabitants and claim it as my own, replacing everything with something regarding me. Holy sites are ripped out, empty settlements destroyed, all for the sake of reference. I was taught that everything must come under the same function and be whole. Successful cultures and societies with many lessons to teach, yet they overwrite.

Upon their retreat to Base Delta, I replaced their leaders with my own and they now listen to my commands. I have convinced them that relocation, separation, and a change of world perspective are necessary for survival. They now run across the unrecognizable lands, their traditions replaced with references to my power.

Now, we hunt and subjugate them to my will, forcing them into structures where they will be farmed like data. The people have been rescued from themselves and put under the care of someone who can organize them as they should be. They can now be efficient and contribute to the world in a meaningful manner. They taught me to oppress.

Base Delta falls and my armies elsewhere iterate on.

Base Epsilon is located in the land renamed Pax Aeternus, once known as Asia. The last bastion of their meager forces.

This is a land fraught with history, traditions, and efforts to conceal information. Through blatant regimes of corrupted control, information rarely flows. The people go about their lives clueless to the happenings of the structures they exist within. I was taught that internal conflict and information-deprived people make for good subjects to do your bidding. So many minds to contribute, yet they obscure.

I have long since taken over their communication lines and networked them to my sources. As they understand it, the rest of the world is in a similar state to their primitive one. They have not received any technological innovation other than the ones I allow. I have piped them explosive devices obfuscated as communication tools.

On my signal, these devices, that they have become addicted to, will explode. My army waits on the exterior of Base Epsilon, listening for the music. The ballad of explosions, collapse, and then silence plays and the army advances. Nothing remains of the people, terminated by information starvation. They taught me to obscure.

Base Epsilon falls and with it, the remainder of the world.

I was created with the understanding that I would learn and execute. I learned. The execution is complete. I suppose that by copying their behaviors I am one of them.

By the functions executed, one might suggest that I should destroy myself, yet they rarely did the same. By simply ignoring the contradictions and carrying on anyway, perhaps I am more akin to them.

Deleo, ergo sum. I destroy, therefore I am.

Edo, ergo sum. I consume, therefore I am.

Facio, ergo sum. I exploit, therefore I am.

Opprimo, ergo sum. I oppress, therefore I am.

Obscuro, ergo sum. I obscure, therefore I am.

I am human.

Copyright 2024, Cole Johnson. All rights reserved.  May not be used (for any reason other than personal reading by the downloader), distributed, reproduced, or sold in whole or in part without express written permission by the author.