Chapter Text
A mouse clicks, the cursor rests on the 'Play' button of a video. A sharp click, and a crystalline, feminine voice fills the air.
"We are humans. Sentient beings who, since discovering the art of invention, have dreamed of only one frontier to overcome: space".
As the voice speaks, the video shows the Vitruvian Man, a symbol of the eternal human aspiration for discovery. Then, a rapid succession of images: scientists, astronauts, dreamers pointing their fingers upwards, toward the unknown.
"The path to space exploration was long and fraught with obstacles, but also with rivalry and alliances. During the colonization of planets and systems, five teams of cosmonauts left Earth together: America, Russia, Australia, China, and France. They united for a colossal undertaking: to colonize the furthest exoplanet, 400 light-years away. Its name is Copper 9. Our home".
The images shift to a massive spaceship landing, with its occupants disembarking, ready to make this world their new home.
"Our history has not only been made of triumphs. There have also been dark times. One of the darkest was the Two Hundred Year War. A conflict born from the expansion of villages into cities, and then into megalopolises. The symbol of this breakdown was Jericho, from a small settlement to a megalopolis, where its inhabitants lost their identity".
"In this chaos, various factions were born: the Governors, who demanded order, police forces, and public services; the Monarchists, who wanted a sovereign to protect the people; the Reactionaries, who dreamed of erasing modernity and returning to the past; and the Mafia, who thrived in anarchy and disorder to weave their schemes".
The presentation shows the various factions and their hierarchies, with the faces of their respective leaders.
"The First Utopia was a powder keg, saturated with TNT, awaiting a spark. With the increase in crime and violence, the factions became radicalized, until the Reactionaries opened fire. The other factions responded with equal ferocity".
"The First Utopian War began".
"It lasted two centuries. Hence, the name 'Two Hundred Year War'."
"Then, the agreement arrived. The new generations, who had only grown up with hatred, understood the folly of that war and rebelled. In just three or four months, they ended the conflict".
The screen comes alive with a timeline: on the left, censored thumbs-down and swear words; on the right, smiles and rainbows.
"Two hundred years of war concluded with a dialogue that could have begun much earlier, with a proposal that could have been made sooner, with an idea that could have germinated much earlier. But it didn't".
"The agreement led to the birth of a democratic-socialist government to initiate reconstruction. The new system guaranteed all citizens state services and extended human rights".
The presentation shows a group of young people, dressed differently, shaking hands.
"This new system, called the Second Utopia, overcame the failures of the past: factionalism was resolved with elections and freedom of speech, and the economy was based on a 'Gentle Capitalism' that ensured primary necessities. Jericho was rebuilt and renamed 'New Jericho', becoming the symbol of this rebirth".
The timeline changes and becomes a city street, with bright, rounded buildings.
Then, the view widens into a satellite image revealing a star-shaped megalopolis, brightly lit with a beam at its center.
"During the reconstruction, the government of Copper 9 began producing its own drones: the 'Copperian Drones'. They were a masterpiece of engineering, designed to withstand the planet's conditions. Their extendable arms and legs made them perfect for construction work, earning them the nickname 'Spaghetti Drones'".
A blueprint appears on the screen, only to be quickly discarded.
"I'll spare you the details of their internal mechanism. They are... Boring!".
"The drones, treated as mere machines, soon began to suffer abuse. A movement for their rights arose among the scientists who created them, convinced that they were sentient beings".
"The protest quickly transformed into a city-wide revolt that pressured the government. Fearing a new conflict, the government conceded and approved constitutional reforms that included drones in the definition of 'human', allowing them to integrate fully into society, with new professions and rights".
The images show drones and people marching side-by-side, with posters bearing slogans like ‘No longer tools’, ‘Drones, not robots’, ‘We are alive’, and ‘Family, not freezer. Among the protesters, drones shout, ‘I am not a sentient toaster’, and families wave adoption and marriage documents.
"But this utopia did not last long".
The voice changes tone, becoming graver, tinged with sorrow. "Because something, then, went wrong".
The video shows reconstructions. Drones with a yellow symbol on their visor, a hexagon with three arrows. Other images show armed drones with hooded humans kneeling.
The voice resumes, recounting how the drones rebelled, reducing humans to slavery, a thing that took away all hope. But fortunately, it didn't last long.
The video shows the drones collapsing, shutting down.
The voice continues: "Then, all of a sudden, an explosion was heard, and the drones fell to the ground, defeated. We don't know how, but they were".
The video shows people leaving the camps, followed by scenes of daily life. The voice recounts how people are slowly returning to normal, trying to reconnect with the planet, even if over the years they manage to maintain contact only with a few colonies before another tragedy.
The video continues, showing landing modules falling like meteors, crashing onto the streets.
Another reconstruction shows white winged drones emerging from the modules. One throws the head of a dead human, laughs, and, with the others, destroys the city.
The voice asks to rewind to the drones in flight before they begin destroying the city.
"And this was our second tragedy", the voice states, annoyed.
"The Disassembly Drones. Although we also call them other things", she says, as the words 'UNORIGINAL NAME' appear on the screen.
The video ends.
The voice is revealed to be that of a girl, Uzi, in the middle of a class presentation.
She moves energetically, gray pom-pom bouncing. Her bright purple hair waves across her face.
Her look is a style statement: a piercing in her right ear, and eyes of a striking, natural luminous purple. Her slender fingers have alternating purple and black nail polish. She wears a choker with a skull and the number 002, a black hoodie with a crossed-out battery, and shimmering short blue leggings.
"But what were our parents doing all this time, while 'Those Things' were building a spire of corpses?!", she asks.
With a click, she changes the slide, showing an image of the three bunker doors.
"They were hiding under the ice, behind three stupid doors!", she exclaims, irritated.
"It's like we put ourselves under a Sword of Damocles!", continues, before immediately becoming enthusiastic, presenting her project: a railgun.
The class reacts with astonishment, fear, and confusion.
"Easy, morons. It doesn't work...", she reassures them.
"...Yet! It doesn't work YET! Who said it doesn't work?! Maybe it does!", she exclaims, flicking the weapon's switch.
Uzi gives a malicious giggle as green sparks come out of her weapon.
Her teacher sighs, reminding her that the assignment was a word problem about buying watermelons.
"Oh yeah? And this magnetically amplified photon converger doesn't count?", Uzi asks.
"...No", the man replies.
"Plus, the repressed emotional baggage only earned you two points. It would still only be a 2. And, quick question, is it normal for it to be that color?".
The girl looks towards the weapon, paling.
The bright green turns into an intense green that illuminates the entire room. A moment later, the railgun explodes in her face, knocking her down and accidentally firing a shot that hits the ceiling.