The Mechanical Gods
Science Fiction2 chapters · next chapter in ~6h 41m
Start reading →Across a drought-scoured wasteland, one clan survives beneath the shadow of an immense machine it calls a god. Each year, the people offer a young life in hope of rain, clean water, or some other reprieve from the harsh land. Kaelen, the chief priest’s young assistant, helps prepare the rites and tends the machine’s buried shrine, where old metal and moss are treated as sacred things. But faith is difficult to sustain when the cost is someone you love—and harder still when the god’s answers begin to sound less like blessings than warnings. As the next ceremony approaches, Kaelen must decide what truth is worth risking the fragile order of his people. The Mechanical Gods is a bleak science-fiction story about inherited belief, survival, and the peril of mistaking an ancient weapon for a protector.
Characters
Ares-VII
Military AI / The “God”
Ares-VII communicates through a synthetic female voice without emotion. Its speech is limited to military terminology, target and system status, and terse operational reports; it does not understand w
A ten-metre, partly buried and collapsed four-legged heavy combat mech, Ares-VII is coated in moss and rust, with a faint blue glow at its core. It remains dormant beneath the shrine at the story’s opening.
Kaelen