“EOD tools of the trade” by The U.S. Army is licensed under CC BY 2.0
On May third, 2025, our lives changed forever. Ever since that day, I have believed it was the end of humanity. Robots are the end of us. And not just any robots. War robots. Robots that have been developed to kill and destroy enemies from opposing countries. Technology has clearly gotten stronger, while humans have become weaker. Computers, robots, unmanned armies have shaped wars and battles as we know them. What happens though, when the enemy steals the keys? All it took was one little hack from the enemy to screw the whole world. The things America built to keep us safe have been turned against us. When shit hit the fan, that’s when they realized they will always need men like us to protect the world. My name is Geovani Reducci, a retired US Marine, and this is my story.
As a retired man, I worked for Engle Robotic Corporation, a high-tech robotic company that built robots to protect the country as law enforcement and as war robots. I was an engineer who fixed the systems that created the robots and fixed the robots. Anyways, on that fateful day I was in the testing room working on something small making sure one of the robots could properly use a weapon. All of a sudden, the power went out. I sat in the dark asking myself what was happening. The power never goes out here. Then it hit me. EMP. Next, I heard loud popping sounds. “pow pow pow”. Gun shots. It was time to make a plan. I felt around for my flashlight and the robot and ripped the gun out of the robot’s hands. It was a simple semi-automatic pistol. I then heard voices. They were speaking Russian. “The Russians finally turned against us”, I thought. The voices were coming closer and closer. As they were coming closer, shots were being fired. It didn’t sound like they wanted to negotiate with anyone. I had to act without giving up my position. I knew I couldn’t survive if I fought them all myself. Then, it came to me. There was a grate in the wall to an air duct. I quickly grabbed my screwdriver and unscrewed the screws to the grate. I quickly climbed in the air duct and put the grate back into place. I heard the door open. It sounded like they quickly checked the room and left. Seemed like they were on the clock because of the EMP. I hid in the grate still for a couple more minutes until I knew the coast was clear. I climbed out as quiet as a mouse hoping the Russians wouldn’t catch me off guard. It was time to leave. What was their goal though? I had to find out.
I stealthily moved through the hallways checking my corners. As I walked to the main control room, I heard voices becoming louder and louder. I peeked in the room. There were four soldiers heavily strapped with weapons. As I tried to sneak behind them to get a closer look, the worse came. The power had come back on and they hacked the main control system for all the robots being created. They completed their mission. As they started to turn around to leave the facility, I hid under a desk. They left with only myself still in the room.
Moments later, I heard screaming in Russian. Then the sound of shots going at rapid fire. I was curious. Did assistance come? I had to find out. I walked towards the sound of the shots. I then found the bodies of the dead soldiers…and a robot. I thought to myself, “Okay, they hacked the robots. Now the robots killed them. That means they must have turned”. My guess was correct. The robot looked at me, aimed its weapon at me, then decided to fire the weapon. I dove for cover and shot back. My shots hit the robot right in the head. It fell and made a loud thud. I decided to act quickly before more decided to show up. As I ran, I heard more shots and screams of most likely scientists being killed. Then I ran into a big problem. I ran into Prototype Z. Prototype Z is a cyborg which is half human and half robot that is about six foot four and 250 lbs. It is somewhat slow but is very strong. It busted down the door to the room it was being stored in and stormed towards me with its giant metal body. It tried to grab me but it quickly escaped its grasp. It followed me as I ran away. I then found the closest exit and ran through the doors as Prototype Z followed me slowly with murderous intent.
As I ran away, my mind was spinning with questions. Is this the end? What do I do now? Does anybody outside of the facility know about this? I got in my car and started to drive home. I turned on the radio to see what the news was like. Nothing. Just a frightening static sound. I looked out my window and saw Prototype Z walking towards my car. I shifted gears and drove out of the facility towards my home in the city. I got onto the interstate highway to go towards my apartment in Philadelphia. On the way there, a bunch of military jets flew past me towards the city. So did a police force. So did more military ground vehicles. Not good. I arrived to the city of Philadelphia. What I witnessed next was insane. Robots that patrolled, helped, and worked around the city were causing chaos. I saw the citizens of Philadelphia fighting for their lives and running away in panic. All of a sudden, a law enforcement robot flew itself into the windshield of my car. It got stuck in the glass and started shooting. I ducked my head and ended up crashing into a light pole by my apartment. I blacked out.
“Hello! You need to wake up. Please wake up.”
Everything was coming to light. I was slowly waking up from my collision to the light pole. A woman was standing beside me trying to wake me up. “What happened?” I asked.
“You were in a collision with the light pole. That robot flew into your windshield crashed into your car which caused the collision.”
“Oh. Well thank you for waking me up. Much appreciated.”
“No problem. Do you know why this is happening?”
“Yes. I’m an engineer for Engle Robotic Corporation. There was an attack on the company by the Russians and they hacked the whole system. I think they want the robots to be used against us as an attack against our country.”
“That’s insane! Shouldn’t we tell somebody?”
“The authorities have to know by now. Somebody has to know. I’m running to my house down the block to grab some weapons. Feel free to tag along if you feel like it.”
“Sure!”.
“Say what’s your name? I never caught it yet.”
“Sharah. How about yours?”
“My name is Geovani. It’s Italian.”
“That’s cool. Nice to know.”
We ran over to my house to grab my weapons in my safe. I’ve always believed in gun safety ever since I joined the military. We grabbed the weapons, but what were we supposed to do next? I thought of going to the city’s police station. That had to be the safest area. We made our way out of my house when I saw a huge figure walking towards quickly. Prototype Z. “Run!” I yelled. It ripped off a door to another house and threw it at us from a distance. It was a couple feet off from taking us out. We ran as it followed us. It must be after me. If I remembered correctly, Prototype Z was a weapon that would target a specific threat or person. I must have been its target. As I was running, I decided to take cover behind a car and shoot at the threatening robot. The bullets bounced right off of it. I also remembered then that this robot was made with a very heavy and tough metal. Tough enough to withstand any bullet. There was no sense in wasting more bullets. We ran to the police station as it continued to follow us.
When we made it into the city it was pure chaos. Dead people. destroyed robots. Total destruction around the city. Fires and destroyed buildings everywhere. Philadelphia was ruined. After miles of moving around the city, we finally made it to the police station. It was locked. I banged on the door yelling for somebody to let us in. An officer came to the door and let us in quickly. “Thank you, officer. Do you know what is happening?” I asked.
“Yes, we have been informed. The Russians have planned an attack to use our robots against us not just here, but all over the country. They hacked all of Engle’s systems. The military is aware too and trying to take care of the situation. However, last I heard, whatever virus the Russians used to hack the robots, is impossible to get rid of.”
I shook my head in disbelief. They had a room full of civilians and officers watching the news. Trying to understand the situation.
All of a sudden, a loud explosion came from the front of the headquarters. The robots had breached. They walked and flew into the headquarters for one thing and one thing only. To kill. Everybody took cover, pulled out their weapons, and fired at the corrupt machines. They fell as we kept shooting at them. However, there were too many of them. They took down many of the people defending the police station. Then, a miracle happened. The police chief came in with a grenade launcher and fired at the machines. It took out many at once. It was looking good for a little bit until it showed up again. Prototype Z was back. It walked in the building taking all of the bullets being shot at it. It grabbed a random person and threw him against a wall. It looked like it broke his neck. What was I supposed to do? I knew it was mainly looking for me and nothing was going to stop it from accomplishing its mission. The chief was out of ammo for the grenade launcher and there were no more explosives in the building. I knew what I had to do. I slid passed Prototype Z and ran out of the building. Prototype Z turned around immediately and followed me while everyone else was dealing with the rest of the robots attacking.
I ran aimlessly trying to get away from the walking giant. I was trying to think of what else could disable or kill it. Then it came to me. A high electrical charge. And right in front of me was a hardware store. They had to have electrical gloves. I ran in while Prototype Z followed me into the store. I moved around quietly while the cyborg was looking for me tearing down the store. I eventually found the gloves and took off out the store. The enemy spotted me and followed me. I ran around the city looking for a broke power line. I looked behind me and the cyborg was continuing to follow me. It grabbed a whole car and threw it at me. I dove out of the way and the car took down an electrical pole with a line coming down. Perfect. I grabbed the line and waited for a moment to strike when the robot got closer. The cyborg reached to grab me and as it reached, I dodged him and put the line on its head. A loud shocking sound happened and the cyborg fell. Its glowing eyes turned off and I knew it was over. Prototype Z was down for the count.
I ran back to the headquarters and it was quiet. I walked in and there were dead machines and dead people laying on the floor. I walked upstairs to see if anyone else was hiding. I found the chief, another officer, and Sharah. “You guys okay?” I asked.
“We’re okay. How about you?” asked the chief.
“I’m okay. I took out the big one. I think it’s time to get out of here and head for the closest military base.”
“Agreed. Let’s go.”
We packed our stuff and left looking for a base. And here we are in present time in a car, on our way to a base we found. I’m hoping for the best and hope our country can fight against our own technology that we’ve always relied on. However, I truly believe this is the end.
Bibliography
Sparrow, Robert. “Killer Robots.” Wiley Online Library, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 21 Mar. 2007, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-5930.2007.00346.x.
Treyarch, director. Call of Duty Black Ops II, Treyarch, 2012.
Cameron, James, and Brad Fiedel. The Terminator. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 1984.