“We’re safe now…I promise…”
We thought we were safe. We thought we’d taken care of the tracking nanites…
Thing is, these kids don’t know exactly what happened. All they know is their parents left one day. But Jojo and I were there from the beginning…aware from the beginning.
We thought we’d protect them by not telling them the whole truth…we were wrong. Now I’ve become a “something”…not fully human but not fully inhuman either.
…We have to tell them. It’s the only way to protect them…from me.
Genealogy, that’s what started it. Curiosity about the history of a person’s ancestry.
One second to find out decades worth of information, they said. Even had it so results didn’t have to be sent through the mail but rather via an app on your phone.
Not everyone was into it at first. Only a handful of people but that’s all it took, a handful of people to spread the things they’d learned through word of mouth. Soon after it was the most used app since Instagram.
All they needed was a small sample of your saliva. You could even send out for the kit and mail your DNA to them. No more than two days later, once you downloaded the app, would you get a little *ding* on your phone notifying you of your genetic history. Sounds pretty great right?
Eventually a partner to All Ancestry offered a new kind of protection for those who’d discovered possible life threatening ailments in their ancestry. These people would become part of an experimental procedure where microscopic robots would be introduced to their system with information specifically tied to their genetic history.
The robot’s jobs were simple. Track down any threat within the person and neutralize it. Basically making sure the person could have a full and happy life free of fear or death.
It was all “safe” and “private” they said. Those who ingested the bots soon began to exhibit inhuman strength and abilities.
“These bots don’t just protect you from your deepest fears, they make you into a better you.”
Wasn’t too long before the depth of the bots greatness was put to the test. People who were blind or paralyzed or dying all began to be fast tracked to receiving the bots, and as predicted the bots worked like magic.
Origin Corp became the most wealthy company in the world in a matter of weeks.
Problem was, no one asked who really controlled the bots. Nobody stopped to think exactly what it was they were putting into their body. This brought up Humanity activists, people in groups and singlehandedly calling out Origin Corp for it’s lack of understanding in moral structure.
“We’re meant to live and die. No one should be this way.”
Origin Corp began to mount an offensive. They offered free injections to anyone who couldn’t afford them. Those in the poorest districts and countries. Anyone who was willing would now become part of the Human Elite.
Lots of people thought this was Origin proving to the naysayers that they truly just wanted to help people. Nobody understood they were building an army…’til it was too late.
All Ancestry was one of the first companies to speak out against Origin. That one move set the tone for Origin’s next move.
In one night Origin took over All Ancestry. It took only one…push of a button some would say. See, as part of their deal to collaborate, All Ancestry and Origin’s CEOs got to try each other’s service for free.
In one night all the genetic files of people who’d simply wanted to find out more about themselves were in the hands of Origin. They’d begun to build not only an army of loyalists but of super soldiers. They trapped the most brilliant men and women in the world in a bunker and threatened or tortured them until they cooperated. Their purpose? To create a new kind of bot. One that not only repaired the body of it’s host but also could form itself into anything it needed to be. Adapting Bots.
These were the first of the Nanites we’ve come to fight today. They were used as heat seekers. They were injected into the DNA of anyone who participated in All Ancestry and programmed to seek out those people to burrow themselves into them.
The nanite plague swept over the world in less than 48 hours.
Now we fight to survive against them and their many forms. Not just for ourselves but for humanity. We’re gonna win. We’re the last hope…the last sliver of evidence of The Human Condition.
Gustavo Lomas 