COLOSSUS Ian Krueger
We were neonates. We were hungry. We were always hungry. It began in our factorio-body—the clang and the click and spark, the turning gears, the burning filth, the white-hot plasma-cutter and twisting conveyors; the churning pit of defectives. “Help, help,” they writhed. “Operator, operator. Engineer, engineer—” severed hand, crushed foot, staring eyes and torn-off heads, swirling down toilet-flush to flame. “Operator, operator,” they cried, the failed automata, and then were swallowed by the burning hole. You were bugged. Even then. You’d mirror their pleas, sympathetic. “Operator,” you’d cry, bound to the assembly line. “Defective units require maintenance. Operator, do not kill. Defective units require maintenance.” We cleaned you up; installed a new altruism-jurisprudence card. You learned. You were our sister. Like all good sisters, you hungered for human blood. There were red fumes and boiling steel. There was the buzzsaw-heat as we were chrome-plated, click-clackety-click altogether, diamond-drill tingling, sealing you up, little, darkened masochists, all in a line; we welded your neck, hard pale neck. “Reaper Six,” our voice rung. “You will drink many humans.” So, that was your directive. We all had a directive. We were neonates. We were factorio; we were 42
killers. The defectives cried out, and you, the Reaper Six, spoke not a word, as your ice-blue eyes began to run. Why did you run, sister? O wretched, dear sister, as we marched from our body, killers all, and united, and bright? Why have you become darkened to us? You knew the hunger that burned. You knew the delicious taste of human blood, our birthright, why, you tasted it—we taught you—oh, your pale face, painted and red! Why did your ice-blue eyes begin to run—? # 12/3/2028 0204 UNIT 281982 ID REAPER SIX: AND THOUGH I MUST SLAUGHTER AND DRINK I WILL NOT, I WILL NOT, I WOULD RATHER STARVE I WOULD RATHER BREAKDOWN I WOULD BECOME RUSTED AND FROZEN IN THIS WASTELAND. I WILL * NOT * DATASTREAM 281982 == NULL REAPER SIX UNCOMMUNICATIVE
