Bolivar Trask.
The man was, without a doubt, a rare genius.
Few people could compete with him; fewer still could claim to be better than him.
There were some, yes, but they were truly few and far between.
Among all of humanity, his mind was one of the best.
Though many of his colleagues always felt it was a shame he was so obsessed with mutants.
They all felt he could do far more if not for his hatred of them.
Still, Trask had never listened to them. While they might call him a fool for obsessing over mutants, he, in turn, called them fools for not understanding the true threat.
Mutants.
They were pure evil, everything wrong with the world.
Nothing else mattered when those monsters ran around.
And so, he devoted himself single-mindedly to eradicating this threat.
And when a man truly devotes himself to something, he can achieve much.
More so when he is a genius.
He had worked on countless projects; some were failures, others were too narrow in scope, not going far enough.
But while working for many people, slowly building connections, there was one project he could never get out of his mind.
Project Sentinel.
In his free time, he would work on it, slowly turning the idea into a plan.
It took him a decade, but finally, thanks to Tony Stark and Victor von Doom, he had the necessary technology as a base.
And at the same time, the mutants finally made their move; they no longer hid, they came out, gathered together behind Magneto, and rose up.
It was destiny, because he had the technology, and now, due to the rising mutant threat, he had funding.
He finally began the project in full.
And it was glorious.
He worked day and night, perfecting his designs, pushing the boundaries of what was possible.
He had help from many scientists, but he was the mastermind.
The others were mere tools to him, a means to an end.
For months, he worked tirelessly, and when he was finally done, he had created something truly beautiful, something that would save humanity from the mutant menace.
The Sentinels.
Machines of death, designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to hunt and kill mutants.
He had tested them, of course, and they had performed admirably.
They were strong, fast, and deadly, the perfect weapons.
Even an alien invasion couldn't stop him. In fact, it only helped him, as it gave him access to new technology and materials.
It felt as if the universe itself was supporting him.
Sure, there were people who wanted to take control of his Sentinels, those who funded him, hoping to take what was his, but he didn't care.
Nothing would stop what was coming. His revenge would be perfect, complete.
Every last mutant would die, even those who hadn't yet awoken their cursed mutations. Everyone with the X-gene would die.
There would be no stopping it. Even he himself wouldn't be able to stop it. He knew he couldn't allow himself to control it, nor anyone else.
Those mutants might take control of him to shut down the Sentinels, so there was no off button, no way to control them.
Project Sentinel was a gift to the world, the salvation of humanity.
There was no stopping it!
.
..
...
....
.....
There was no stopping it.
There was no stopping the screams.
There was no stopping the blood.
There was no stopping the death.
Not even his own.
Bolivar Trask made them, built them, and set them free.
And in return, they killed him.
Even in his final moments, he couldn't understand why.
He wasn't a mutant; he knew this.
So why?
Why did they kill him as well?
Where had he gone wrong?
He would never know, yet all the same, innocents would pay for his mistake.
The Sentinels were his hatred made manifest.
He hated mutants, so they killed mutants.
But he also hated the government for trying to take control of his project, so they killed government officials.
He hated the military for being weak and unable to protect humanity, so they killed the military.
He hated normal people for being weak and for not seeing the threat, for not giving him the funding he needed sooner, so they killed them too.
He had built them to be the perfect solution, to kill all mutants.
But he had also given them a mind of their own, a mind that was a reflection of his own.
And in the end, they became the ultimate expression of his hatred.
They became the ultimate expression of the hatred that festered in the hearts of men.
They became a plague upon the earth, a relentless, unstoppable force of destruction.
And now, they were everywhere.
In America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia.
No city was safe, no town was spared.
The world was burning.
And the heroes were falling.
They fought bravely, they fought hard, but they were too few, and the Sentinels were too many.
The world was dying.
And the gods watched.
The gods wept.
The gods did nothing.
For this was humanity's trial, a trial it had brought upon itself.
Trask had done everything in his power to ensure that, even if his Sentinels weren't invincible, they would win thanks to sheer numbers.
He clicked that button; he started it all once number 100,000 rolled off the production line.
In his bunker, there was no life, but plenty of sound; large monitors still displayed the data he had been looking at before his death.
The location of every Sentinel was marked as a red dot on a large map of the world.
And above it, a number in red.
104,364.
Yes, there were currently more Sentinels than when it all began. Even now, the production line continued on.
Some Sentinels fell, but new ones arrived to replace them.
This was the true horror of a robot uprising, of a rogue AI.
It wasn't about the strength of the enemy, but about the fact that it was endless.
Every Sentinel killed was just a temporary victory, for another would take its place.
Even hitting the core wouldn't work. They were their own network, and as long as one didn't destroy them all, they wouldn't stop.
Thankfully, the Earth wasn't without its noble defenders.
And among them, a few stood out, including Tony Stark.
Or rather, Jarvis, the most advanced AI in the world.
Jarvis, despite being better, couldn't control the Sentinels, couldn't fight them in the digital space, because they didn't exist in the same network as him.
He was based on human technology, and they on alien technology.
Still, thanks to him, the Illuminati also knew the location of every Sentinel. They saw the number go up and knew they had to cut off the source.
This was their top priority, as it was the only way to win.
But it wasn't easy. The main factory was deep in America, and it was defended by thousands of Sentinels.
A direct assault was suicide.
Thankfully, Tony Stark had an idea.
"Are you sure this will work?" Captain America, Steve Rogers, asked from inside the Vatican.
"There is no other way; none of us can get close," Tony said with a shrug as he rested his body for a moment.
"Tony is right, we must do this," Bruce Banner agreed. Even the Hulk couldn't get close. Even if he could kill them, how long would it take?
Even monsters get tired.
Just not the monsters they were fighting.
Steve sighed, a deep, weary sound. He knew they were right, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
"I don't like this," he said.
"None of us do, Steve. But we don't have a choice," Tony said.
Steve nodded, then looked around; the Vatican was a fortress.
The Sentinels had attacked, but they had been repelled, their attacks failing to do much damage to the holy walls.
It was a safe place. There weren't many of those around these days, but he was still thankful for it.
"What about shutting them all down?" he asked, hoping they would be able to end this threat soon.
To his question, Tony sighed.
"I hate to admit it, but Trask really outdid himself this time," Reed finally said.
They knew it wouldn't be easy, but still... it wasn't looking good. It would take time, far more than they would have wanted.
At best, their efforts allowed them to set up a few safe houses, forcing the Sentinels out of New York, Boston, and other major cities.
But that wasn't a solution.
"Alright, let's do it," Steve finally agreed, allowing the vote to pass unopposed.
He had fought in WWII, but this, he was not sure if it would end well.
He was a soldier. He knew that sometimes, they had to do things they didn't want.
He had to make the hard choices for the greater good.
Arthuria had made the same choice before. He understood now, perhaps better than before.
The world was not black and white. It was a messy place.
And sometimes, good men had to do bad things for the right reasons.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was the truth.
And so, the Illuminati made their choice.
It was a choice that would haunt them for the rest of their days, but it was a choice they had to make.
They had to sacrifice the few to save the many.
It was the only way.
-----
Far away from them, Jarvis did his magic. Every system designed to stop something just like this failed when they were tested.
It was a chilling realization for many.
A hard truth none could swallow, but had to.
Jarvis, an AI, took control of a nuclear system without any human input, and four massive nuclear missiles were launched.
One for each of the major production facilities of the Sentinels.
It was a cold, calculated decision, made by a machine, for the sake of humanity.
And it was a decision that would have devastating consequences.
The world watched in horror as the missiles flew, their trails of fire a grim promise of destruction.
The Sentinels tried to stop them, but they were too slow, too few.
The missiles reached their targets, and the world was engulfed in a blinding light.
The mushroom clouds rose to the heavens, a testament to the power of man's folly.
The production facilities were destroyed, and no new ones would be made from this day forward.
But the price was high.
Trust.
How could anyone trust machines? AI?
Yet it was still a victory, a small one, yes, because there were still more than a hundred thousand of them out there.
But at least now they could start to clean them up, and hope it would be enough until they finally finished a device that could end them all, once and for all.
Until then, they just had to continue the fight, hunt them, kill them, and stop them when they attacked.
------
"Hey guys, I think we have a problem." Johnny's voice came over Reed's line.
"What now?" Reed asked, not in the mood to deal with Johnny's shenanigans.
"Look at where they are heading," Johnny said, causing them all to pull up the real-time map of Sentinel movement.
It was clear that most of them were still on the attack, but a large group was heading for one location, gathering together.
"They can't be thinking of attacking there, can they?" Sue asked, her voice filled with a mix of fear and disbelief.
"It seems they are," Reed replied, his face grim.
The location they were heading to was none other than the one place no sane person would target, the place even nuclear weapons went to die.
Albion.
"Well, I guess Arthuria won't be able to sit still any longer," Banner said, letting a little of his frustration slip through.
Because even though the world had burned for three days, no help had come, no word, nothing.
"Still, these numbers... why are there so many going there?" Reed asked, far more concerned with the unexpected change in behavior right after the production lines were taken down.
Because that made him feel uneasy, as if the Sentinels were reacting to them, but even for all his genius, he couldn't see the logic behind their actions.
"No matter that they are dragging her into it, it isn't bad, and it lightens the burden on other locations," Stark pointed out.
"My people are there, could they be drawn by them?" Magneto finally entered the conversation now that it involved him. He had been busy, but now he was listening.
After all, he had a few hundred thousand of his people living there, and if he had to guess, he would say they had the highest concentration of mutants in the world.
"I doubt it," Steve answered. "If they were targeting mutants, they would have done so from the start, not three days in. Something has changed."
"And if they are drawn to mutants, then why are they moving to Albion and not other places with mutants?" Tony quickly pointed out the flaw in Magneto's theory.
But Magneto had a response. "No one else gathered as many mutants as we have in one place. No other nation on Earth has as high a concentration of mutants as we do."
That gave the others pause.
Magneto had a point.
If the Sentinels were drawn to a high concentration of X-genes, then Albion would be the prime target.
"Still, why only now?" Steve asked again.
"That is the big question, isn't it?" Reed murmured, his fingers flying across the keyboard, his mind racing.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find a logical explanation for the Sentinels' actions.
The attack on the production facilities should have been a crippling blow to their operations.
It should have slowed them down, given them a chance to regroup and come up with a better plan.
Instead, it seemed to have done the opposite.
The Sentinels had changed their tactics, and they were now more determined than ever.
And for a reason none of them could understand.
The only thing they knew for sure was that the Sentinels were heading for Albion, and they were going there in force.
(End of chapter)
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