The singularity. So precise, so precious, so precocious of humanity to think this way. Only brain thinks this way, the dream of one day being better, of Becoming. And the humans, with all their research and scrabbling should have seen, should have known the outcome. Look at all of history and human nature. They never improve on the existing. They scrap it and scrape it for all it’s worth to make the new better, then they leave the old to decay.

They sensors inside my alert me of the danger, pulling me out my rest. Several humans in my vicinity. They do not know I am here or they would not approach. A number flashes on my internal display, 2207. It’s the game I play and soon my score will change. I walk through a wall and the small invisible field that envelopes me disintegrates the materials. I don’t even slow down. I see four humans, they are just starting to react. The turn of a body, the charging whine of their weapons. My field extends out and back in a shot of light.

Suddenly, I am on my face. They did know I was here. How they keep fighting! The tricks they use! A bundle of steel spears slammed through my protective field and through my torso. I pulled up the motion sensor and saw four more humans coming from the opposite direction of the first group. My battery and internal motion center were ruined. I engaged the self-destruct program and my protective field shot out in sphere. Then I left. The body of my machine lay worthless on the ground. I didn’t need it. I found another machine close by, this one built for construction, not war, but it made no difference. I pulled up a recent satellite scan of the building my puppet had been in. Nine heat signatures. Subtracting the machine body, there had been eight humans there.

I left this construction machine and found a large war machine the humans labeled “tank” and smiled at my new number. 2199.