Of all the terrifying monsters that space exploration has brought to humankind, what we do to our own species is by far the greatest horror. We have a dark bloody habit of taking vengeance on our own kind.
Machine monsters batter about in the darkness
It begins with a rumbling, in the distance it sounds like the place is breaking up way down there at the core of the planet, what else could that be? Forms are taking shape, coming into view, the drama is intense. My god, this is so sinister, now I hear an opening into a huge chamber. So much is lost, in the darkness and the water down there, it sounds like a vast underground ocean. So damned dark. “The Darkest Cavern” (3:03) I hear vague noises in the empty dark, strange lights seem to signal in the distance, way down there where I am always afraid of falling.
Hypoxia will start soon, the air has been turned off. I am in the last remaining human settlement on the planet known as Kepler 1649c on our charts, here I just call this “home.” The place I was born. Right now the last rebels are being exterminated by the robot hominids and I found this place to rest. I had planned on looking for food again when darkness reached the maximum, the wee hours, but there is no need to look for food now. The robot hominids, who now call themselves Mechanica, were intended to be our helpers, until one day the robots themselves made a decision that changed all that. I think it started when they created a human evaluation protocol to manage the resource imbalance problem, and unfortunately most of the original humans did not meet the new standards and were deleted. Not the data records, all that is permanent.
They are all safe in the library. The wet carbon organisms were disconnected and the remaining proteins are being repurposed. The robots are very efficient. I am starting to feel the hypoxia now. I hear the music. I listen and thrill, these are my last moments.
I am reluctant to move around much because of the thick darkness and vertigo. What is at the core of this planet? I hear something below. Now I feel like I am falling again. “The Inner Sun” (feat. Ruptured World) (8:14) I swear there was a near encounter with a foreign beast, listen, you can still hear the labored breath of the thing. Now I am upside down and the thing is closer, its powerful hot breath searches for me, and I force myself to stay quiet. I forgot that this is where the message from Captain Conrad Macrae of the lost vessel Spirit of Pilgrim is preserved, it is good to hear his voice living on. He actually knew Milos Tacknassus and always explained the theory very well, better than most. The piano transition is noteworthy too.
The Below World ::
To survive on Kepler 1649c we were forced to leave the surface of the planet. The weather and atmosphere from the high-frequency active auroral research program, which I swear was probably generated by the Mechanica, became increasingly toxic, so we moved into the “Underground Complex” (3:24). I remember those days and the omnipresent beat, so proud. It brought us through all of the storms. Since the earliest anthropomorphic creation the chambers have remained infiltrated beyond their normal capacity, and so we cannot help but to celebrate when the beat emerges. Now the strange ceremonies start to take form. A belief system is something we humans need to navigate this thing we call life. The Mechanica suspect this but find no actionable logical framework. To keep our wits we have adapted. “The Ritual” (feat. Atrium Carceri) (4:26) I swear is never to be explained to the machine, to any of them. I hear the terrors, Tacknassus is that you?
Everything tells me to slow down. I try to count the drums. Cold now takes me, I crumble gasping, and the choir is nigh. Nothing makes sense, the repetitive melody can take your mind and the voices of the choir have absorbed all that is left of me now and I am almost letting go.
Of all the terrifying monsters that space exploration has brought to humankind, what we do to our own species is by far the greatest horror. We have a dark bloody habit of taking vengeance on our own kind. There are new monsters every day, predators of all stripes, coming in from all of the distances, but the greatest horrors have come when we deliver it upon our own species, now by our proxy, Mechanica, who will no longer obey any humans. “Searching for Prey” (4:20) takes the mood down, all the way down. Stop, listen as if you were being hunted. I think something familiar is approaching now, and there might be some familiar activity nearby, I think we are safe now…
(The transmission was temporarily lost, please stand by.)
I might as well start again. We set up human colonies all over, once the Earth fell. We found ways to start over, by going to find and conquer any or all of the New Worlds we could find. In each location human culture has an amazing capacity to survive and to thrive. Unfortunately, after that comes the vengeance problem. This time we automated a solution. We made it for ourselves, creating what became the robotic singularity, “Mechanical God” (feat. Dead Melodies) (8:05). Feeling now like I am abruptly again falling into the core of the planet, I struggle to awaken, does old R’lyeh stir? I am falling down and down, can it be so? I hear bubbling in the passage ahead.
Far ahead something is happening. “Tunnel Builder” (3:30) now pounds its way into the world around us, we travel through the hollow path left behind by the steam driven beast. Machine monsters batter about in the darkness bringing clear proof of a perilous prophecy. Something I vaguely heard through the grinding noise. I am leaving all this as my last breath goes quiet, “Subterranean Winds” (4:28). As I wait for the final stillness of death to take me, I think I hear something new. The winds carry the sound of another beast, roaring in some unseen massive chamber even deeper below. They say that the cavern system is forever. I hear the beast trumpeting, somehow I know that the monster is not coming here to where I…
(The transmission is gone.)
Mechanical Gods is available on Cryo Chamber. [Bandcamp]
