| KILLERBEE's current ICQ status is: ŞKORE-MOREŞ's current ICQ status is: |
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Tanks patrol desolate city streets. Turrets and missile sites threaten the skies. Robot warriors carrying pulse rifles surround military installations. What's become of Earth? Machines have taken over. Corporate greed and rapid technological advancements have made humans pawns of their own creations. As a resident of the past, this may all seem shocking to you. Perhaps a bit of background would soften the blow.
During the first fifteen years of the 21st century, Mega Corp began to dominate computer technology in both peace-keeping and war-fighting applications. As this giant churned out better and better technology for manufacturing and warfare, humans were relegated to service industries or to working as drones on PC terminals. The Internet grew in popularity to the point that the Government issued PCs for every home in America, from welfare-bound families, to high society. Telecommuting became the norm. Mega Corp became the largest employer in the United States.
By 2010, every computer in America used Mega Corp software and was Internet-connected and monitored through the Mega Corp Network--anti-trust suits be damned. Each day, Mega Corp would issue government-endorsed messages through the Network that broadcast pro-machine propaganda. As it became more apparent that humans were the weak link in a technological takeover, the population suffered what your psychologists might call a massive case of low self-esteem. The downtrodden population gave in even more to Mega Corp's browbeating messages. The country was becoming brainwashed. A land of Internet zombie drones on the payroll of Mega Corp, whose only
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connection with "reality" was through the Network and their Mega Corp-produced modems. So disdainful of the part humans played in their world domination, Mega Corp even began developing clone technology in order to clone drone workers. The second part of their plan was to eliminate the human race altogether.
In 2018, the wonders of artificial intelligence turned ugly in the hands of a few disillusioned Mega Corp programmers. Frustrated at being a part of such an ethically challenged corporation, these hacks altered coding in various Mega Corp products--turning certain robot and tank machinery into self-directed, man-killing machines. The irony is, these programmers were among the first to die at the hands of the machines during a melee at the corporate headquarters of Mega Corp in December of 2018. Even more ironic, these iconoclastic workers had actually furthered Mega Corp's plans of human eradication. Unfortunately, when they died, so died the killer code and any hope of reprogramming the metal monsters. Today, May of 2019, in a war-torn, machine-ravaged world, only a few free-thinkers remain. Only a few outsiders have escaped the spell of the Network. We call ourselves the Alliance of Dissidents--A.D. I am leader of the Alliance, Dr. Raines, a former professor at an ivy-league university, banned from teaching for my criticism of the technological movement. I have formed an underground resistance. We operate out of abandoned buildings and travel at night to avoid detection by the machines. We have survived this long, but we cannot defeat the Network by ourselves. Our Alliance of Dissidents needs help from an outsider. Thanks to some creative hacking, Simmons, Wayne and I have developed a computer program that gives us remote control over an experimental enemy tank. We have also tapped into a way to send the control program through a time loop to the recent past--the late 20th Century. Through pirate channels, our operative in the past--whoever is reading this--will be able to bypass viruses and other Network computer defenses to gain complete control of a Battle Force Tank--the most powerful and versatile war machine of this century. Now we must wait in hopes that the right person will intercept our message, someone who is not afraid to join our threatened cause and help to liberate the future from computer control. I cannot emphasize the gravity of our situation enough. This stands to be known as the last battle of man.
-- Excerpted from the fine folks at Zipper Interactive
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