USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 THIRD ASSIGNMENT- 'The Fortress'

"You are correct, this battle is of some particular significance.

"Once what you now call The System had gained an initial foothold in the war, the strategic objectives of boith sides soon became very clear. The System could afford battles much more than Humans could. From the earliest days, our strategy was not to create much in the way of large, complex war machines, but to create very large numbers of small ones, easy to build, easy to replace. What you would now call Sentinels.

"Hence, in a battle, material losses were felt much harder by the Humans. This is not just because our industrial production was highly efficient- that was balanced by the larger size of available Human effort. But as a biological life form, there was one disadvantage- inevitably, at some point, there had to be a biological component to how you fought. Autolmated weapons systems are primitive and easily beaten. And intelligent ones... came under our domain. Only Humans themselves could take the field- as infantry, in or in war machines- in any efficient manner.

"But when a Human is killed, replacement is difficult. Biological life forms have a natural disadvantage in creating new... stock? Whereas our losses could be replaced exceptionally quickly and without any prospect of the supply running out. Sooner or later, there would simply not be enough Humans left to fight.

"So for the Humans their strategy was very apt. They simply had to destroy the production capacity of the Machines. It didn't matter where they broke the link, but somehow they had to stop the endless and infinite supply of Machine reinforcements.

"My counter strategy was, at first, to protect that line at all points. But that was a temporary masure; the war was not to be won defensively. If I could guarantee survival of production, the war was won by default.

"At Battle 47, the last of the Human strike fleets was routed. There was no longer any capacity to strike at ouur means of production. From that point on the war was one of attrition, a war the Humans could not possibly win."

The display fades.

"And yet. Whilst the most important battle of the war, for the Humans it was not the moment of greatest strategic significance."

"So you had the advantage of time working for you during this war? It was easier to defend and react to human desperate efforts, I think. So what was the main mistake humans made? Was it during this significant moment you refer to?"

"A defensive war would have been poor use of our advantage, and a poor way to desteoy the Human strike forces. It was a continual offensive."

"What was the humans moment of greatest Strategical signifigance?"
Burn is intrigued by this conversation. Philosophy he never cared for. But this idea, affecting him more than much of the babble he had picked up on his time on the Shez. He was a soldier, and these were his soldier politics. This is what he fought against. Loomis, and Melitus, distractions. This is what he wanted to fight. This superior enemy. This machine, the abomination. Unhuman, there must be something flawed, something that he had, that he did not. But then, he shunted it out of his mind, and in doing so another question arose.
"Could you win this war. Our war? My fight, my battles, could you and your tactics defeat us?"

"That is not actually very difficult. I defeated the Humans at the height of their power. The situation now hardly compares.

"I think you know what the moment was."

"Scorching the sky? Our trump card? Also, our war has changed, it is not outright, even here, we are not forming the battle lines, our commanders are not in direct control, our forces subtle, guerilla, We don't fight a classical war. Our war is what we make it."

"Were our commanders of any worth?"- Melkor inquires.

"Your fight is a feeble pretense at resistance in a situation where the only decision on how to proceed rests with the System. Your guerilla war is completely ineffective and will never alter System policy or disrupt their aims. It is also dependant on one single location, which will eventually be destroyed.

"You lost your real stake, your ability to affect things, during that part of the war. Now all there is are the consequences. But you did make one final strategic decision that would affect things more than any other effort you made ever did. Indeed. You scorched the sky."

"The moment we obliterated the Sun's rays from earth, was the moment we gave the Machines their final motivation."

Barb's Face hardens.

"Not the best decision. This was the moment in which the Machines displayed their ability to take those options, none thought possible." He pauses. "The moment the Machines decided to Enslave the Human Race.

"Do you think that it was right thing to do?"

Another hesitation.

"I wish... I could have met the man. The one who made it possible. Perhaps the one who pushed the button. I wonder... if he really realised what he had done.

"Of course, he thought he was going to win the war by destryoing all Artificial Intelligence. At least, some people involved did. Maybe if it had been done earlier; much earlier."

He laughs, a deep, booming laugh that feels as if it might cause an earthquake.

"It was brilliant. And it was not foreseen. Did he really know? I mean, he did he really know quite what he had done? That for all that it failed in its main aim, and that for all in which humanity seemed to have no hope or option... that the moment he pushed that button, he had saved the Human race. I hope he know. I hope someone knew just how brilliant it was. It is something that deserved to have been done with purpose."

"So even you couldn`t predict it?"

"Then why are we here? Why do we fight if our defeat is inevitable? We have something that Machines do not, we have hope. And we are willing to die for it. Dispite anything you say, I hope for the freedom of men again, I fight for the freedom of men. I die for it."

"And die you will. Bravely. But still dead, and for a cause that will not be won.

"And... it was not within my parameters to predict. It was not a battle. It was not even an act of war. It was a strike at the very source of life on Earth itself. For everyone. Man and Machine alike. Such reckless, brilliant destruction."

"Why do you care for soon to be death people?" -Melkor suddenly wonders about the motives of this King. Is it ego or simple boredom?

"I do not. I talk because I choose to."

"What if there was a variable? Something like the scorching."
Burn knows little about Neo, he views him as simply a better warrior...

"Why do you choose to talk to us? Are we supposed to apreciate your greatness, or do you still have curiosity? I don`t think that you want to teach us something.... since we are apparently doomed no matter what. System wants us death, I think, don`t you feel loyalty towards it?"

"The System wants you dead because if not countered you would disrupt their system of Control; sadly for you, doing so is very easy for them. As for variables, the variables are inside that Control system. Please understand my position; I was present at the design, programming and formation of the Matrix and I understand it implicity, including all within it.

"I have no need to kill you myself, You talk in my presence, I have decided to respond. I have no interest in enforcing the system of Control, or any respect for that system."

"But you don`t want the system of control to be distrupted? Did you disagree with the formation of Matrix?"