Mekhanic Theocracy

During Great War-

The machine charged into the mounds of flesh, it’s creator’s carriage sinking into the distance behind it. It’s comrades are dropping like flies around it, but it does not care. The dull monotony of fighting an overwhelming force has become a familiar sensation to the machine. It’s quite simple, really. Hack through a grotesque arm to your left, snag an abomination’s wrinkle with your hook on the next one, burn it on the rebound, so on and so forth. The machine knew it would win this fight, after all, MEKHANE was on his side.

 All was going well until the machine was alone. It hacked its way through the filth, burned the heretics responsible for the attack, and fought its way back to the palace. The palace truly was magnificent. Was. The assault started with a bombardment on the palace, dropping abominations right into the royal court. Heretics were summoning them in the nearby mineshafts for weeks. The machine walks through the lavishly decorated hallways, glittering with gold and smeared in blood. It beelines directly towards the southern tower, where the ruling family lived. Upon entering the tower, the machine's thought emulator runs to a stop. 

There, directly on the first floor, is its charge. The one it was designed to protect. The mage king's youngest daughter, Synthiatris. Her skin was bubbling, growing deformed and stretched. Her bones shatter and reform, her neck twisting like the hands of a clock. The machine throws its glaive to the right of the poor girl, and blood flies into the air. A heretic falls dead, cloaked underneath the corpses that the machine failed to check thoroughly on its first scan. The machine's legs kick the ground, catching Synthiatris before she hits the ground, searching for any signs of life still in her. The analysis proves inconclusive. She is dead, it has failed. The machine falls to its knees, clutches her close to its chest, and sobs.

“I failed”

“Failure is not acceptable”

“Failure was not planned for”

“What now?”

“Awaiting Orders”

“Awaiting Orders? From who?”

“Irrelevant, Awaiting Orders”

“Unauthorized personality subroutine boot, forcefully terminating program”

10%

14%

56%

88%

95%

99%

------shutting down------

“Error, termination not complete”

Override Failed, Combat Unit #G1UTT0N Shutting Down...