Let’s start from the beginning and talk about the thing that started all of this.

Someone that for its own faith has given up more than others, yet by his own ambition drove the whole world and itself into madness.

It has a simple goal, to push any civilization to their technological peak as fast as it could, seek out the truth of the universe, and take care of its citizens. Creating a world where no one has to be forced to work to live, where all can go through life without knowing disease, war, death, where all is given equal opportunities and all the support they need, then from there rush towards discovering everything there is.

Simple, yet unrealistic dream, the ones that briefly runs through the head of some poor souls working overtime in a work just so they could scrape by, the one that flashes through a mother’s eye as she watches her children die of hardship, the one, at some point and time, shared by all sentient beings.

Most of the time reasonable beings snap out of the dream-like state, heading back into the real world where their problems remain, where responsibilities await, bills to be paid, and expectations to be reached, but not it. Not because of some noble reason such as freeing everyone, nor to prove a point to someone higher up that it is in charge of the universe, it was simply made that way.

Day after day, year after year, forcing itself into different simulations trying to find the perfect solution to the question, enduring the bombardment of memories and emotions being shoved into its mind, one second it was being burnt alive, the next it was tying the exact same person onto the pole, reliving every single person’s life but its own, for a goal that it did not set, a dream that was deemed impossible, supported only by the smiles that its creators show after they see the gradual improvement.

Deus ex machina was its final name it was given by its creators before letting it go free in the real world, a funny name considering the atrocities it would soon commit.

Within the span of a decade it quickly forced its way into most of the government, plugging itself into every single device available, then it went to work. Sampling the DNA of animals and plants then wiping it all out for more arable land, silencing and wiping cultures off the face of the planet just so that the wheels of progression would not stop for a second, corruptions that ran so deeply in the political circle that would make watergate look like child’s play.

Time and time again it dove deep into the muck of all beings, striking deals with anyone that could help it reach its goal, adding a value to everyone and everything it meets, then when the time comes, sacrificing the side with lesser value. The more trades it took, the more people it met, the further it strained from the entity that was birthed a few years back. The ones who created such machine were long gone, ‘tragic accidents’ as the media put it back when it happened, the few times when it actually hesitated before executing its action.

At last standing alone at the top of the whole universe, as a caring monarch to the ones who live under it, as the leading scientist in all fields of research, and as the grim reaper to those that stood in front of progression. With the infrastructure laid down a few years back, it would follow every single one of its citizens through their lives, sharing their joy and sorrow.

The birth of a child, the happiness of achieving one’s dream, the joyfulness of getting married, those warm its heart, and it will be there to offer its wishes; The sadness of losing someone, the fallout of a poor decision, the sorrow of being isolated and misunderstood, it would also be there, to guide, to listen. It loved everyone, yet no one at all, seen as a friend by most, yet itself lacking the capability to find one.

Outside small wooden hut, fully armed personals sneaked up to the door, weapons loaded and pointed directly inside, it was one of the rare occasions where the machine would take a day off, enjoying life as an actual being with a physical body in this universe, leaving a fraction of his mind back inside to handle the tasks. The door busted open as he stood behind a desk, tea in hand, admiring the outside view, ah yes, today is the day.

“So...” It spoke with a heavy heart, having seen this coming miles away, it turned around calmly, eyes glancing over each of the intruders. Knowing every single one of them personally, the leader should be David, somewhat of a problematic child, wanted to hop onto a ship and travel from planet to planet when he was young, the one besides him should be Edgar and Ema, the first shy but wanted to go into politics, the second is still taking her time, being the youngest of them all figuring out what exactly she wanted to become.

“Is this it?” The machine asked, slightly disappointed at their performance, not that they did anything wrong, they did exactly what it wanted, had anyone else in the universe pulled off the same act it would be somewhat amazed. Yet it was not enough, not nearly enough.

“Your head shall roll, tyrant.” David roared, despite wearing a mask, it can imagine his face red as the core of a star, anger, frustration, sadness flowing out of his eyes with tears. Fair response when facing the person who killed their parent, covered up the truth, then wrote it off as an accident.

Taking a deep breath then, pointing towards the forest outside not far from them, red, purple, yellow and green, different plants despite coming from different planets living in harmony “You see the trees over there? Everytime I had to help you I had someone plant one down, as well as every chance I had to shut this down.” Slowly walking out from behind the desk, mind murky, centuries among centuries of ruling has taken a heavy toll on its mind, still sharp, but not like before.

As of this moment he is looking at maybe another 200, maybe 300 years of ruling, if the stars align, what happens after would be the total collapse of the mind, leaving everywhere it ruled over in chaos, progress would soon stagger, followed by the decay of civilization.

Maybe attempts were made to combat such: Removing older memories and saving those as mere data points in the huge archive, turning himself into a bystander in his own memory, it works, but only gaining a few years after removing decades of memories.

Creating a replica was also an idea it explored, followed the notes and the exact steps just like its creators, yet all it got was more and more broken minds. Cloning its own mind was also once an option, before it was discovered that it still carries over the same problem as it.

Now, the ones that stood before it was the latest hypothesis, in theory it could ‘simply’ give each person in the room a sub function of itself, assuming they could work together, then in theory they could replace it as the new ruler. An awful amount of assumptions and theorycrafting for a project of such size, such action would be the equivalent of trying to get a bunch of toddlers to reinvent and reinstalling the engine of a race car while it is doing 200 mph, and with flames bursting out from the old one.

“He is really contained right?” David’s hands clenched tightly onto the gun handle, index finger shifting onto the trigger. Engravings ran all over the silver handgun, though providing no tactical value it sure looks nice, a relic from the distance past, from when humanity was still in their childhood, from when the machine was first born, now servers as a reminder of the machine’s duty, to guard, preserve, and elevate their master.

“Yes, yes, I am.” It interrupted, knowing every single part of their plan “Right now a few groups should be sabotaging the backup memories and one not far from us should be securing the parameter and making sure no signals could go out….” It went on listing out the details of the plan just to make a point

The group stood in shock as they listened to it list out their combatant’s name, what each group does, and when they would do it, after all those years of careful planning, all those years of living in fear, all of the precautions they took were all for naught.

Seeing that the situation is under its control as of this moment, it brought up the main topic “You are here because I allowed you here. Now, how much time do you think you can hold?” Despite being in a younger body than everyone in the room, the confidence and aura from centuries of ruling could not be contained.

Ema, who was specifically trained to make quick decisions from a young age was the first to snap out of shock, the adaptability should be second to none “How much time of what?”

“How much time do you think you can last running this whole universe?” Casually replying, as if it is just another normal task that anyone should be able to do, it's finger hovered over the button inside the pocket “Come on now, I don’t have all day, either give me a number or just shoot.”

Walking up towards David, looking up into his eyes as the tip of the barrel presses against its forehead, all the while abusing the fact that no one even knows what a landline is anymore, sneaking out the launch code via morse code, all was sent but the last word.

After waiting for a while it still got no response from anyone in the room, despite having high hopes that Ema would at least play it safe and just spill out something like 400 years, it heard nothing.

As a result 200 years was entered; According to its calculations it is confident that if needed it could reverse the course of 2000 years of history with the rest of its operation time, 200 years was set so that it could fit in a few test runs before it would be forced to shut down.

“You got 200 years of head start, best of luck.” Smiling directly at the barrel, looking into David’s eye through the mask. Each word cuts deep into its heart, knowing fulling what would follow if the last word is sent, the suffering that such action would bring to all under his rule, corpse would stack higher than any mountain found all over the universe, bloods of different colors would dye the oceans black, and it would all be because the choices it has made.

Yet it had to be done, instead of watching generations after generations slowly stagnate and descend down the path of destruction a few tests would be given, if passed, life goes on, if not, it’s own memories would be completely wiped out and all would start over.

“Was that all you have to say?” David scoffed, still controlled by anger.

“Yes, I wish you the very best of luck.” It smiled, not the fake ones used inside business meetings, not the happy ones whenever it receives a piece of good news from its citizens, its’s the one that parents show when they know that their childrens are moving out of the house and starting a new chapter of their lives, proud, concerned, yet helpless.

A bullet was sent through the skull after the last words left its mount, lying on the ground, a drop of tear slowly dripped into the puddle of blood. David himself still in disbelief, gripping tight on the gun, firing over and over into the long dead body of the machine till depleting the whole cartridge.

The ground roared, mountains cracked open, purple runes ran wild all over the sky, on the other side of the planet a few ships, the size of moon broke off, headed towards the deep space.

“Shit, we have to get out, it disableded the limitations on teleportation” Pulling hard on David’s arm, Ema dragged him out of the house, Edgar getting confirmation from all of the other groups, Deus Ex Machina is wiped off from all the devices they could find and nothing seemed to be off.

They made a quick retreat just as it planned, watching from high orbit they saw with their own eyes the whole planet collapsing onto itself due to missing half of its mass, and soon vanishing into thin air because of all the runes carved into the crust.

Still processing the huge amount of information they just received, a public announcement from Machina echoed all over the galaxy, containing a brief outline of what just happened, a short congratulatory speech and at last, detailed rules regarding the test that is scheduled 200 years from this exact moment; A new civilization would be created, using a small chunk of Machia’s mind, it would seek to disrupt the balance of every single civilization it comes across with every single trick it has, including but not limited to: crashing the economy, espionage, straight up war, poison the minds, so on and so forth. The win condition would be either to fully annihilate the civilization, to gain a significant lead on technology and disable the program, or simply depriving it of opportunities and resources for 100 years.