Synthetic Survivor: Machine Age

Nuclear Weapons.

The most powerful weapon humanity has ever made. These weapons possessed the power to destroy entire cities and wipe out millions in a blink of an eye. Let's not forget about the nuclear fallout from these events. Nuclear weapons have been humanity's most deadly and most inefficient weapon.

Any nation with a nuclear arsenal would know of the concept of MAD. Mutually Assured Destruction. If a state were to launch a nuclear strike against another state, another state with a nuclear arsenal may retaliate and thus, mutual destruction on both sides.

Nuclear war was too stupid for humans to do. Now One was planning on launching a nuclear missile directly at a storm.

The storm that had been brewing over the north of the peninsula has come closer. This time, it threatens the main hub itself.

One and Hailey were both inside the bridge. The bridge was at the very top of the hub tower. It was where both of them stayed when they had nothing to address outside.

"To think you'd ask me about work as soon as you see me after a long time hurts my feelings you know?" Hailey teased as she was swiping through a monitor.

"I do not care about your feelings," One replied.

"..." Hailey pouted in silence.

"So, what's the status of the storm so far?" One asked. He was sitting on a chair facing the glass walls. He stared blankly into the distance as always.

"All readings are the same," Hailey replied.

"How?" One asked.

"The storm is magnetic in nature and indeed maintains its size and power not through natural means or causes but by use of a lot of magical energy," Hailey explained.

"Where is it now?"  One again asked.

"Current ground tracking shows that the eye of the storm is a good 400 kilometers away but with its speed, the ground instruments project it to arrive in 5 days time. Yes, it is fast," Hailey confirmed.

"Not only is it fast, but it also threatens the hub itself, what is the status of the hovercrafts tasked in monitoring it? have they made any significant breakthrough? what is the aftermath?" One turned his chair around and looked at the direction of Hailey, specifically at the monitor she was using.

"There has so far been nothing to report except for the fact that the landscape through which the storm has gone over has so far sustained minimal damage," Hailey looked back at One.

"Minimal?" One raised his left eyebrow. He was visibly confused.

"Yes, as you can see through this photograph that was taken not long after the eye made landfall a few days ago, the coast is relatively clear with not trees uprooted," Hailey lifted the monitor and showed it to One. The monitor was displaying a photograph of the scene, trees were fine, the beach was also fine. There wasn't really that much damage for an area that was just hit by an abnormally strong storm.

"It's strange, with winds as fast as the instruments measure, those trees should have been flattened. There should be tons of debris from a massive storm surge alone, wasn't there a storm surge?" One was confused further. This raised more questions than answers.

"No, the storm is completely acting differently. It does not follow the weather patterns and effects that we know of and thus we cannot really determine a definite description, reason or cause," Hailey was confused as well.

Both stare into the monitor. A few minutes of silence passed and One came to a decision.

"Alright, let's lob a nuke at it," He said.

"What? no, we can't just launch an ICBM at a storm, One we talked about this," Hailey made her position on the matter clear, she was not going to allow the nuclear option to be used on a storm. Particularly a storm that they don't even understand.

"What other option do we have? We can not take a huge gamble such as this, the risk is far too large and the possible consequences too much for us to handle. It may even just be a fake projection of some sort by using magic, hell this may even be just a sneak attack!" One made sure to stress his points.

"But, One, please understand that violence is not always the answer," Hailey was getting testy.

"May I remind you, Hailey, the best answer is always the one we choose and violence is the almost always best answer there is, a nuke is our only option," One wasn't having any of it. A tense atmosphere engulfed the bridge.

"One, think this through," Hailey insisted that they give more time for research. This was stupid in One's mind and decided to assert his position and control.

"Hailey, for claiming to be someone equal or greater than me, you don't really show it," One said without caring. He cared not for her feelings nor if she would get hurt of his words. One needed progress and solutions not pointing bantering and excuses. Hailey clearly did not know what to do and is blinded by her own naive nature.

Hailey closed her eyes and looked down, She clenched her fists tightly and gritted her teeth.

"Emotion won't solve this, I have made my decision, I call the shots around here, remember that," One stood from his chair and walked towards the door.

He did not look back, not even when he heard the faint sound of a teardrop onto the floor. The doors shut behind him.

Hailey burst into tears the moment the doors shut close. One still could not understand her, nor does he know that Hailey was only trying to help. Of course, One knew that she was trying to help but her help was more of a nuisance than 'helping'

One believed his solution to be the best. Of course, he would feel that way, he is One. He built this machine empire from the ground up, Hailey was just someone who happened to be someone related to One's past and thus given a free pass.

Lest she forgest, One was the machine in-charge.

-

The hatch split open from the sides. Slowly it revealed a deep hole. Around it was nothing but grass, it was strange to find something like a hole of metal with yellow back lines around it. The sun was rising and dawn was knocking. It was time for the launch.

One stood quietly inside the control tower not far from the silo. The silo housed an ICBM armed with a 30 megaton warhead. A powerful nuclear bomb capable of destroying multiple cities at once.  It was the only warhead in the Empire's arsenal and due to this fact made it a valuable asset.

It was a risky move to transport the warhead from Earth to Fiorg. Due to the sudden shifts when transversing the wormhole, there were many close calls. Who knows what would happen if the nuke was to go off inside the wormhole. It could cause it to collapse, trapping One and his drones in Fiorg for a good amount of time or quite possibly, forever.

But through this terrifying moment, the nuke was safely transported into Fiorg and thus the power to wipe out millions has finally entered this new world.

"Hm," One watched with a blank face, as always.

The nuke was set to launch in ten minutes, first, they had to perform safety checks. They had to make sure all systems were checked out and without problems. The systems were divided into these: Guidance Systems, Targeting Systems, Flight Systems, and the Engine.

The guidance system guides the missile to the target, in short, it uses several methods to guide the missile. The most common method of guidance is to use some form of radiation, such as infrared, lasers or radio waves, to guide the missile onto its target.

The Targeting System is pretty self-explanatory, it is used with the help of the guidance system to know the location of a target. This guidance system guides the missile by knowing the missile's current position and the position of the target, and then calculating a course between them.

The flight systems help the missile in terms of its flight. Whether a guided missile uses a targeting system, a guidance system or both, it needs a flight system. The flight system uses the data from the targeting or guidance system to maneuver the missile in flight, allowing it to counter inaccuracies in the missile or to follow a moving target.

The last would be the engine itself, without the engine, how the hell will a missile even fly? Missiles are powered by an engine, generally either a type of rocket engine or jet engine. Rockets are generally of the solid propellant type for ease of maintenance and fast deployment, although some larger ballistic missiles use liquid-propellant rockets. And this missile right here uses the latter.

8 minutes passed and the checks are completed. All systems are nominal and the missile is ready to launch. All they had to do was wait for One to issue the order to launch.

One stared blankly at the silo.

"This will make history," One whispered.

"Launch the rocket," His order was received.

In a few seconds, the rocket's nose slowly appeared and rose up until the body was revealed. The missile flew off, leaving a trail of white smoke in its wake. It rose up above the clouds and began its journey towards its target. The storm that brewed on the horizon.

One and several drones waited. The monitors over at the tower displayed the location of the missile and the coordinates in which it was to target. the missile flew with incredible speeds with the aid of more advanced propellant. It was expected to reach the storm in 4 hours.

And now, they had to wait. The drones did not need any rest or recreation. The machines just focused on their jobs and waited. Monitoring the missile for any trouble, it was their job to send commands to protect the missile from any sort of harm through its journey.

An hour passed and there was no sign of any danger. The missile stayed on course and the storm maintained its speed and strength, with such goodnews there was little chance of failure.

Another hour passed and the same result. No signs of danger and the missile were staying on course, the storm maintaining what it had maintained.

Another hour passed, the drones were struck by an alert. A severe wind shear displaced the missile by a few inches and was now off-course, luckily, the drones immediately gave it commands to return to its original trajectory.

And then the hour of truth finally came. The moment they all have been waiting for, if they could feel the stress of a human, they'd be sweating buckets right now but they were machines and so did not feel anxious, frightened or nervous. They and One stared blanky on the screens, waiting for the missile to hit its mark. They waited and waited, they watched as the radar displayed the missile go into the eye of the storm.

The missile disappeared and a brief stint in the radar startles One but it was an expected outcome. The nuke detonated successfully.

The storm seemingly vanished instantly the moment the nuclear bomb went of. It was a mission success. One closed his eyes and sighed.

"Sigh.. Finally,"

-

The God Of Death witnessed it. He was temporarily blinded by the sudden flash of light. He saw the storm completely disappear in an instant, the storm was indeed a projection. It posed really no threat but One wanted to be sure anyway. The mushroom cloud rose up unto the stratosphere, it was seen by millions and the flash of light blinded thousands. It sent out a powerful shockwave that destroyed nearby villages and crippled towns and cities. This was the power of the machines, the power of nuclear technology.

Trees were flattened and they burned. It was something incomprehensibly devastating and powerful that none would ever forget that day, particularly, the God Of Death.

"This.. I.."

"yes.. yes... yes! praise you and bless you, metal men! you bring upon the same power that killed my brothers and sisters, and now, release thy wrath! slay this world! let it burn under your power and might and let the heavens crumble and bow before you!"

"O hear me, hear me, I am grateful, forever grateful, my revenge is nigh, my revenge is why, my revenge shall be swift until the day I die, oh lo! oh lo!"