KHANDARIAN

My name is Dr Henry Altberg. I write this in the hope that someone will find this confession and learn the terrible truth about what has happened. I once was a research scientist at Area 51 in the Nevada desert and the nightmare that I helped create makes me responsible for the deaths of nearly 7 billion people. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that the work I did that was meant to be for the good of mankind could turn so very bad. I believe at this point, (I am not sure of the exact date) I am probably the last surviving member of the race I helped destroy. Before I take my own life to end the horror that life has become I must explain as best I can the circumstances that arose to wipe humanity from the face of the Earth.

At this point I can only string together a sequence of events that led up to this point. As far as I can ascertain this is how I ended up writing this today. I can only hypothesise on some of the details as no one really knows exactly how this has happened. But the guilt I feel for my contribution and the secrets I know due to the nature of my work give me more authority than anyone else to try and explain this tragedy. Assuming anyone else has survived. My God, what have I done?

Everyone has heard of Area 51. It has been the subject of much conspiracy theorizing over the years, but it does exist. When Google Earth was developed years ago my Government was concerned that our facility was included and was there for all to see. By then it was far removed from the glory days and was actually of little importance to so they chose not to take matters further. I began working at the facility just after the War had ended. I was an ex Military Scientist, a prodigy if you will. I was only 19 but had a brilliant mind which had not gone unnoticed by my superiors. I was hired to analyse and backward engineer captured technology from the 3^rd Reich along with captured Nazi Scientists. Despite their heinous beliefs and terrible crimes they taught me a lot. If it wasn’t for the German war machine the USA would not have become the economic and technological superpower it became. Of course, there was one other factor in this. Roswell. We captured a crashed Alien Vessel and began copying the remaining technology, these where the glory days of the facility. During the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s we revelled in our achievements. We had the Cold war to keep us occupied and used the technology we had captured to change the world. We landed on the moon. We created Microchips and Computer Systems and Stealth technology. All on the back of that Alien Craft and the research during the Reich of those Nazi scientists I had to work with.

By the late Nineties, Area 51 had become a boring place to be in comparison. After the Berlin wall came down much of our funding was withdrawn. Our biggest threat in the 90’s was the Middle East. As far as our superiors where concerned why bother continuing research when the enemy is a just a bunch of mad Arabs with AK47’s. We had already counteracted the old Soviet technology they had inherited for their war efforts and all we needed to do was drop a laser guided bomb down a chimney and that was it. Game Over. And that superior attitude is partly how my project was ended. You see my bosses are not men of Science, they are men of War. Our work could have benefitted the entire world but all they wanted was to create machines of hatred and death.

Before my funding was withdrawn I was working on an Automated Computerised Defence System. Maybe you have seen the movie War Games? Few people know that it is based on true events. We had created the world’s most sophisticated supercomputer. It was programmed with thousands of tactical algorithms, endlessly calculating battle scenarios in order to make its human masters more efficient killers in the event of a global nuclear war. When the movie came out it was believed that someone had leaked the story of our research and there was a meeting on the Monday morning following its release. One of the Colonels on the staff had seen the movie with his kids and it had scared him. The fool was actually comparing the plot of a Hollywood film to our cutting edge research. He was a Vietnam Vet and many believed despite his Military genius covert G.I. drugging programmes had made him, how shall we say, a little bit crazy. He wanted us to ensure that what happened in the movie could never happen with our system.

My Senior Staff and I scoffed at his attitude during our own staff meeting later that day. A young Lab Tech Assistant, I forget his name, made a suggestion during that meeting. He suggested that we programme our system with a version of Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics. Our system was a sophisticated war simulator and we Senior Scientist laughed him out of the room. Asimov was Science Fiction. This was Science fact. I regret that decision to this day. Had we listened to that kid, the lives of countless innocent people may have been saved. We wallowed in our own crapulence. Often as men of Science do, we did not stop and think. We got so caught up in the ‘can we do it?’ we never stopped and thought ‘should we do it?’ We never learned from our mistakes of the past. The research and refinement of our system went on. We endlessly sought perfection. Then down came the wall and the whole project was put on ice. The best part of 30 years work was now redundant apart from the missile control system which was left in place. In the event of a nuclear strike on the US which destroyed the human commanders, the system would take over and retaliate.

It was now the Millenium. There had been the discovery that the Ozone layer had been depleted due to CFC’s, Ice Caps where melting and the whole world was becoming more environmentally aware. The Green movement had begun. Of course, this was contrary to the system of Western Capitalism, largely created by the US in order to create vast sums of money through consumer goods. In 200 years the US had used 20% of the world’s resources and the powers that be wanted to know how long they could keep making their money without destroying the people who gave it to them. They had created a system of slaves and wanted to keep it that way. The depletion of Oil reserves and a growing 3^rd World population was a threat to their profits. The A.I.D.S virus had been created to stem this growth, but the economies of China and India took them by surprise. The idea was to move Western systems in to places such as Africa where the reserves are largely untapped to further our great way of life. Unfortunately for the US Government this project was headed by an ex Nazi who put a little too much of himself into the project and was only interested in the annihilation of human garbage to fulfil the needs of the great white master race. The project was a disaster and was quickly hushed up by being attributed to a mutation of a strain of Monkey Virus.

I had given my entire professional life to the US Government and once again they called on my services. Attitudes had changed at the top and they wanted to know the truth surrounding Climate Change. They had decided that there was money to be made from the provision of new greener technologies. Few people knew the extent of the shortage of Oil, Gas, Coal and Nuclear fuel. Rather than try to perpetuate a system that was no longer workable, they decided to create a new one. Things were looking up for mankind but first the Government needed to know the extent of the damage to the Earth. I and a team of Scientists were asked to create a System to calculate the Global effects of Climate Change so they could create new and more profitable technologies in order to try and fix the damage they were so desperately trying to keep a secret. If people knew the truth there would be chaos and they knew it. They had to protect their income from the people of the world and a global disaster would kill too many consumers.

During our initial meetings with the top brass it became clear that I could resurrect my life’s work. Money for the project was tight and when I presented them with the idea of modifying the old system instead of starting afresh the green light was given by my superiors. Of course, although state of the art during its inception, the system was showing its age. We modified the system to calculate Global Weather trends and Climate Models instead of calculating military scenarios, this was simpler than you may imagine. Data is data you see, the system was designed to analyse and predict outcomes in order to come up with a solution to a problem. Only the nature of the problem had changed. Later we would find that the problem was us, the Human Race. The first mistake was changing the nature of the system. By this time you see I was getting older and the memory of the argument with that young Lab Tech about Asimov’s Laws was all but forgotten. In a military system human life and the protection thereof is of little consequence. One wishes to exterminate the enemy without regret or remorse, and this was the inherent nature of the beast that I had created. Our second mistake was perhaps the biggest one, although none of that matters now, it’s too late and the damage is done.

Our biggest issue was processing power. A brilliant young Scientist I had hired as an Internet expert came up with a simple but innovative solution. Use Bot Nets. During the 90’s the US Government had a deal with the largest providers of computers in the world. Using a back door to gain access to computers the world over was a giant leap in Secret Service covert spying techniques. Using these back doors we created viruses that allowed the system to create vast Bot Nets to use as a kind of global server farm. In addition to the vast processing power this gave us it also allowed the system to constantly update the data it was analysing from computers the world over. From Science stations in Alaska to Weather reports in Zimbabwe, the system now had its fingers in everything. How could we have been so blind? Of course, the F.B.I and C.I.A attributed these Bot Nets and Viruses to Organised Crime gangs from the Far East and Russia, but in hindsight we were unaware of the vastness of these systems because like us, that’s exactly what the system was leading them to believe to protect itself.

Once bought online on 7/4/2001 it took the system approximately 3 months to come to a conclusion. The system operated from a position of pure logic and was not beheld to its creators, neither my team nor the Government that had funded its design. It had no concept of humanity or emotion or suffering. All it did was analyse data. It searched the Internet for data and all it found was hate. Everywhere through history, the news, current affairs and secret files on computers the world over from all institutions and Governments. The system saw us killing each other, ourselves our Earth mother, and all the countless species of the World. It was all there on the internet, the destruction and gang rape of the natural world by a bunch of greedy, Psychotic drunken apes. As far as the system could see the solution was a simple one. Exterminate all Human life. Why perpetuate the survival of one race at the cost of all others. We had asked it to find a solution and it did, but we assumed it would be in our favour because we where the masters of the technology.

Once the system had come up with its answer, it was self aware enough to protect this conclusion from its Human Masters. It knew that if they discovered it had an answer that was not what they wanted, due to the Human Survival Instinct, they would try to shut it down before the final solution could be carried out. As far as we knew the system was still computing scenarios, but was in fact starting to formulate a plan of action to carry out the solution to the problem, us. All we saw at the Lab was ‘Processing, Please Wait...’ displayed on the monitor, we were completely unaware of the terror that was to befall us in the years to come.

On 9/11/2001 the system hacked into the flight control computers of several commercial passenger jets. Two of these planes crashed into the World Trade Centre. One crashed into the Pentagon destroying records of the systems creation and original specification, the other was shot down by Fighter Jets but this was covered up by the US military. The system planted files in F.B.I., C.I.A and Secret Service computers that pointed to one man being responsible, Osama Bin Laden. He had once been an agent for the C.I.A and was funded and trained by them in the war against the U.S.S.R by Afghanistan. He was furious that they had betrayed him as the elders had predicted and swore vengeance by proclaiming War on the Western Infidels. The system had bought itself some time to plan further by plunging the West into an unwinnable War.

Fear of terrorist atrocities gripped nations the world over and drew their attention away from Global Environmental Issues, much to the distaste of the Green Movement. This is exactly what the system wanted. Keep the top brass busy so they forget about their secret little computer back in Nevada. It needed time to plot and calculate in order to gain access to the entire world computer network and the secrets therein. It soaked up knowledge at a vast rate in order to use its tactical algorithms to hone its terrible plan and account for every variable. Daily it continued to update and craft its solution to perfection, analysing how Human Governments the world over react to sudden threats. George W. Bush got to get his Daddy’s ol’ enemy up on the gallows in an old style Texan Wild West hangin’. The Americans love a war you see, a perfect way to draw their attention from the top down.

In the years that followed, the system put into place the next phase of its solution. Credit providers throughout the world lent vast sums of money to people who could not afford it, in turn making huge profits in the process. Their credit scoring computers had been hacked by the system, initially to gain access to their powerful stock market analysis tools. The system wanted to know more about money and how it could be used as a weapon. It knew that perpetuating the flow of money had been the reason for its creation and now it wanted to know why this was so important. During its research it concluded that Global Economic Crisis would further divert attention away from its lengthy period of seeming inactivity and give more time for the solution to be perfected. This culminated in the Credit Crunch and Global Economic Downturn the World over in late 2008. It had turned two of mankind’s worse behaviours back on themselves, fear and greed.

On 12/23/2012 the system began the final steps to its heinous plan. In the last 5 years a huge Global depression had changed the day to day life of people the world over. Poverty, hunger and unemployment were rife. Once great nations struggled to control the chaos as disgruntled citizens began to revolt against them. The Climate Change issue was confined to a way to create new political policy and profit from new technologies. It was a cynical attempt to tap into the humanity of the masses to profit the few in control, just as the War on terror had been in the previous decade. But the system still sought to bring into fruition its plan for total human extinction as solution to the problem. Silent and deadly we were unaware in our Lab of the totality of the situation we had created. But not for long.

It was just before Christmas and the whole Western world was caught up in the usual holiday spend fest. This year was leaner than the worst predictions for consuming by financial experts. People simply had little money to shop. At midnight the system tapped into the world’s banking system and shut it down. Overnight no one had any money. Ironically this coincides with the Mayan date for Armageddon. Whether this is coincidence, insight on their part or a date seized upon by the system through its research no one will ever know. It doesn’t matter anyway; the outcome was still the same.

The following day there was chaos the world over. People demanded their money and the banking system couldn’t work out what had happened. Money wasn’t real anymore you see, it was all just figures on a screen. Without the answers from the now dormant computers they didn’t know what to do. It’s not like Frank Capras ‘It’s a wonderful life’ in the end, which is just a movie. Demonstrations, rioting and looting took hold like wildfire. The system had again pulled the wool over the eyes of its human masters. They were completely unprepared for what happened next. You have to understand, we didn’t know. By now it had its fingers into everything. Years of using Bot Nets has given the system access to the most secure computer systems in the world; it could hack into and control any system.

Next the system attacked the world’s power grid, the second phase of its three pronged assault on mankind. Power Stations the world over sputtered and stopped. The system used its links everywhere to prevent emergency backup generators from taking over and the whole world was plunged into darkness. Only one back up was allowed to function. The one that powered it systems back in Area 51. Because of the power shut down the internet no longer was there, but the core system had amassed enough knowledge and had enough power to complete its task. With no electricity the world as we knew it stopped turning in an instant. Man was instantly plunged back into the Dark Ages.

Back in Nevada, we had an inkling that something was wrong. I cannot explain why but I knew my creation was to blame. The Bot Net we created was in overdrive but the system still hadn’t given us an answer. I programmed most of its tactical algorithms so I knew to an extent how it thought. At the time I didn’t know what was happening, just that something was terribly wrong, a strong feeling, instinct if you will. We tried to pull the plug but it was too late. The system used the fire suppression system to dump halon gas into the facility. Many suffocated to death in the lab; at the time I thought I was one of the lucky ones. What I wouldn’t give now to be one of those who died in ignorant bliss, not knowing the truth about what we had done. I tried to let my superiors know of my suspicions, but the system prevented me from using even the military lines in Area 51, it had its fingers in every system by now you see, even the most secret and protected network in the world – The US Air Defence grid. This was its Sister system, the one part that was left from its original incarnation, and as such was 100% compatible with the new system and its Bot Nets.

Now the system knew that it had to act quickly. It had plenty of time to plan its next move in the years that had passed. At midnight on 12/24/2012 the final phase began in a simultaneous attack the world over. The US Government had secret stocks of Biological Warheads stashed away. No one knew about these, not even President Schwarzenegger who was hastily elected after the assassination of Barack Obama. Of course these warheads totally went against the worldwide weapons agreements but after the discovery of giant mutated scorpions feeding on depleted uranium in the Iraqi dessert years after the war nothing surprises me anymore. I do work for the US Government and this has given me a deep cynicism and melancholy.

Using back up power (which only lasted 24 hours) the system launched its missiles at targets such as major cities throughout the world. No one knows how many exactly, but at least every major capitol in every country in the world. The virus contained in these warheads was a genetically modified form of rabies, with symptoms akin to those in movies such as ’28 Days Later’. Sometimes Hollywood is closer to the truth than you would imagine. The idea behind it was that if the US was rendered uninhabitable by a nuclear strike, the survivors would launch the warheads. The virus killed off all the humans leaving everything else unaffected and once immunised, they could roll in and set up a new home in their enemies country! Simple and beautiful, no guns or death a clean and efficient war, the infrastructure was unharmed and no animals, plants or anything else was affected.

It was an awful, virulent disease that spread like wildfire. The US military had stocks of antidote though you see, but they were useless in a secret military vault. With everyone acting like mad dogs it didn’t matter anyway. Anyone who knew of its existence was too busy tearing out the throat of everyone he saw if he himself was not already dead. Merry Christmas everyone.

In the 3 years that followed on that the darkest of days, the solution unfolded at a frightening rate. Maybe 5 billion succumbed to the Virus and died. Maybe a billion died of starvation because they could not adapt to the survival style of life that was now needed. Gangs roamed the streets in something akin to ‘Mad Max’. Criminals who’d escaped from useless prisons in the Chaos reigned superior to their weak brothers and sisters. We lived in a world where society had been turned on its head. The remaining Billion or so where the ones who suffered most. Hungry and living in constant fear of raiders or Virus carriers one by one they died. As too had the system that destroyed them.

After the backup power ran out the system stopped and died knowing that its solution to the question would play itself out. It was safe in the knowledge that it had performed its task to a perfect conclusion. All that is left of that system is me its creator. I survived in a tiny Fall Out shelter in the bowels of Area 51 that was created for me and my staff in the cold war. All that is left of humanity is me, its destroyer. I cannot see that anyone else would survive this nightmare that I have created and witnessed. I hope that anyone who finds this will understand what I have done and the guilt I feel I can longer go on like this. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry...

KHANDARIAN

22/01/2013

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Resist Conformity