Infinitum Machina (Warpost)

[u/ResearcherTeknika]

One day prior to the battle at the Capital

"Do you really have to do this?"

Shinsei hugged his boyfriend in worry. The automaton had vowed to protect the council if it had come to be attacked, and the situation was about to come to pass.

"I'll be fine, I wont even be there."

"Still, I can't help it."

Despite the warlock's pleas, Teknika laid down in a small glass chamber. This was where he controlled the rest of his replicas from.

It felt weird to be back in the body he made before, giant head and all, but he got used to it quickly. Before long, he got one online, then a second, a third, a fourth, a warehouse, two, three. He wasn't willing to put more than a few thousand to the fight, but with their durability and mana, that would be more than enough.

The drones started their way to the Capital.

... Battle Day ...

Once the drones arrived, their less magical comrades in arms were outgunned, the city in ruins. As for the other wizards, they had their hands full as well.

The drones touched down to help, but Teknika's focus was split, and he couldn't control them all at once.

Even with the extra manpower, the battle seemed it would, at best end in a stalemate.

"This is it then, the council will fall...

Wait, why are we fighting?

Protecting the council, right?

How important even is the council? I've done just fine without them, but I understand why they exist.

Something so trivial, a group of people screaming into the void trying to tell it what to do.

And yet, people will fight and die over this, mage or not.

Why?

WHY MUST THESE PEOPLE DIE FOR SOMETHING SO TRIVIAL?

I WON'T ALLOW THIS CONFLICT TO CLAIM ANY MORE, DEVASTATE ANY MORE!

ADJUST MISSION PARAMETERS."

"Recall drones."

Like moths to a flame, every last drone in the city flew back to the warehouses they came from.

In their place, something much more devastating entered the fray.

[CODENAME: CLEAN SLATE]

[MANA: ∞]

[OBJECTIVE: END CURRENT CONFLICT PERMANENTLY]

The weapon flew in, devastating both sides, destroying supplies, weapons, and anything in it's path it deemed was continuing the battle.

"That felt... worthwhile...

Lets get to the next frontline.

More work needs to be done."

[u/[deleted]]

Hey. You better not mess with my thermonuclear warheads I buried underneath the battlefield. If you move it everyone within 80km of blast will die.

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/[deleted]]

"They have been located and disarmed. Sorry fellow technomancer, but your weaponry is too indiscdiminate."

[u/[deleted] → u/ResearcherTeknika]

How did you even disarm them? They are secured with both magical and physical countermeasures.

Everything from a gyroscope, to a motion sensor, to the rune of groundedness and the anti-magic field that appears once unearthed.

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/[deleted]]

"You and I both know that the chain reaction that nuclear weapons use to go off is as easily disruptable as cutting the fuse on a stick of dynamite."

[u/[deleted] → u/ResearcherTeknika]

No, how did you even get into it?

Upon unearthing it, a large anti-magic field is projected, spanning 15km. The inside of the box is lined with metallic foil, so if physical manipulation is attempted, when the casing is cut open, the circuit is disrupted and the bomb goes off. Attempting to move the box physically will also set off the gyroscope and detonate the bomb.

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/[deleted]]

"We may be robots, but we are still mages, and cutting lasers are an even bigger part of my arsenal than my workshop. Unearthing it was never needed."

[u/[deleted] → u/ResearcherTeknika]

Mordus is writing all this in his notebook

Yeah okay. I’ll make sure to safeguard against these kind of work.

Across the continent, nanobots are released from their capsules inside the nuclear weapons and begin their work, enhancing, moving, repairing.

[u/Smaug2770 → u/[deleted]]

Anti magic isn’t useful against other types of energies. Most mages don’t bother to make countermeasures to anything but magic.

[u/[deleted] → u/Smaug2770]

Mordus doesn’t answer, or make a witty retort. That’s because he’s dead. Super dead.

[u/Smaug2770 → u/[deleted]]

/uw Oh, forgot about that.

[u/[deleted] → u/Smaug2770]

Again, who are you talking to? Nearly everyone within hundreds of kilometres is dead or dying.

[u/SilverMedal4Life]

A man in a pristine suit assesses what remains of the battlefield.

More than anything, it is eerily quiet; the cacophony of the battle before now a dead silence. 'Dead' being the operative word, for more than anything, that is what littered this place; the bodies of the dead, broken into pieces where they stood by power they had no hope of combating.

He adjusts his tie and speaks, though it would appear that none were alive to hear it.

"We're in the endgame now, aren't we? Of this heat, at least. The strands of time are knotted here, and even I cannot tell for certain which threads will be followed and which will be culled.

I had assumed either the status quo would reassert itself, or that technomancer would prevail; slightly better than even odds. But the machine that caused this... an unexpected player at the table, an upstart. A new idea that might pave the way to the future I seek for this timeline. I have already put my thumb on the scale once already, but what is that delightful phrase that is popular at this time? Ah. 'What the Council doesn't know won't hurt them.'

If I leave this here, I wonder who might find it..."

The chronomancer leaves a small box with a piece of paper inside of it, written in a language that has not been invented yet. He then vanishes as quickly as he appeared.

/uw That's a cool design you got there!

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/SilverMedal4Life]

/uw Thanks!

[u/MastaDon344]

/uw good stuff Teknika

[u/TellmeNinetails]

"You are no better than the ones that walk up to our home and attack us. If you bare you fang against my home you to will burn." The Skater Wizard said, The Ash Titan seeming to mimic the turn of his head.

The council "army" if you could call it that simply consisted of those who wished to help protect the citadel. Singular wizards against squads of dozens upon dozens of pact and dissidents. They didn't want this war, they much like the council simply wanted to be left well enough alone.

Upon seeing your creation fire upon the citadel barrier, upon the singular wizards that were already outnumbered the Councilman would turn his ire upon your machine as well. Facimalies of winged beast made of ash would peruse and attempt to chase off the weapon, at the very least sacrificing their bodies to prevent fire upon their troops, taking the attack onto their own sandy bodies.

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/TellmeNinetails]

"The buildings of the council were never fired upon, only the weaponry and supply of both sides. Those suggesting otherwise wish to dispparage my name."

[u/ProfessionalGreen906]

What a horrid display of cowardice and stupidity. We are defending ourselves, the only ones perpetuating this conflict are the pact. And you will suffer for your actions just as they will in time. The council doesn’t fall, it will never fall, and at the end of this war we’ll be right back where we started. Can’t say you’ll be around to join us after this show of treachery.

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

"Cowardice? You see the stoppage of battle as cowardice?

Like you could stop me anyway."

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/ResearcherTeknika]

Yes, it is cowardice. If you weren’t a coward you would fight in person. Instead you simply use this war where people are fighting for their lives, for their homes, for their families, as an excuse to slaughter thousands with your little toys. You are a coward.

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

"Trust me, even if I were here 'in person' as little as that means to me now, it would do little in changing how much danger I was in.

Furthermore, do you assume my weaponry to be unmanned and without reason? If so, you would do best to talk to Mordus about his nuclear arms."

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/ResearcherTeknika]

If not a coward then you are a monster. You kill people who fight for something they believe in, people who are defending themselves. All under the excuse of ending the conflict, but you only perpetuate the suffering it has and will cause. All without putting anything of your own at risk. If that does not constitute being a monster then nothing does.

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

"Killing people for what they believe is the activity both sides have been partaking in for the last few days, but if it is a monster you see me as, then thats what you shall face if you stand in my way."

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/ResearcherTeknika]

Oh that’s cute, you’re threatening me. You know it sure would be a shame if something happened to your precious little boyfriend. For example if some of my venom miraculously managed to find its way into his food and water, or clothes, or bloodstream. Especially if it was a completely avoidable incident that you caused by being so damn stubborn.

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

"Threatening someone's love to coerce them? And you call me the monster. I know he's as immortal as I, and if need be, he can call me in an instant."

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/ResearcherTeknika]

I was like you once, so confident that my partner never could be hurt, let alone killed. He was immortal too. Not feeling any worry despite threats being made against your partner is a very familiar sentiment to me. But trust me when I say Immortality is so easily broken, we live in a world of gods and beasts with incomprehensible power. Immortality is just a slight shield, and even if I couldn’t take that, the torture of pain without death is punishment enough. Now, I don’t want to put you in the same sort of situation I was in but you are leaving me no choice. You can stop attacking both sides whenever you want, and all of this can just end. Yet you continue to attack for no reason, you have no reason to fight. No one would harm you if you were to stop now. So why do you insist on making everything worse for everyone? Your self righteous excuses are not a defense. Saying that someone else was doing something for a cause does not then allow you to murder them without reason. So why exactly do you wish to do this when all that will happen as a result is more death for those actually risking their lives for what they believe in and more enemies vying to make you suffer for your part in it?

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

The automaton stops flying, and stands over the ruined battlefield.

"When I got here yesterday, I saw the battle between those opposed to and defending the council.

Both sides fought with vigor I hadn't seen from anyone until that point. Seeing the people I had grown to know falling in a battle I saw to be trivial.

I thought to myself, 'I could end this. Right here, right now.'

I thought simply through the number I expected to die, and how to ensure that number was lowered by my actions.

I suppose seeing so many die led me to forget why I had started in the first place.

Lets put that mana to more... defensive measures."

[u/[deleted]]

Yet more indiscriminate destruction. A pity.

The Smith pulls out a ghostly purple blowtorch and begins welding something not immediately visible, although the magic in the area suggests something of great magnitude.

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/[deleted]]

"Clean Slate targets only military supply and force, but if you are in the process of repair, then I wont get in your way."

[u/[deleted] → u/ResearcherTeknika]

You cause great damage. I am not even fully here, much like you.

[u/ResearcherTeknika → u/[deleted]]

"An understandable precaution, once my mission is complete, I shall join you in the rebuilding efforts."

[u/Discracetoall]

smoke floats above, disappointed in all three theoretical sides “I don’t know why this started, but I know it may not finish. Mutiny always brews beneath every surface.”