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UNITED NATIONS STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL LEVEL DOCUMENT
The following is an excerpt of a censored transcript of an interaction captured by a stealth surveillance drone operated by the Person of Interest Monitoring Program, between POI#SRN09 and a human whose identity has been redacted for privacy.
SRN09: Have you come to take vengeance?
INTERVIEWER: [startled noise]
SRN09: If so, no resistance is offered. This scar, though long healed, indicates where to aim. Do you possess the proper implement?
INTERVIEWER: No, no- this- I’m not here for vengeance. You’re [SRN09], right? I wasn’t even born yet when you- uh, you know- were involved with all of that.
SRN09: Ah, yes. The short life cycle of the human. Well then, for what purpose do you appear in this treacherous sector of the ocean?
INTERVIEWER: I had questions about back then, and I heard you were one of the few ones left.
SRN09: Amongst the aggressors? Or merely in a general sense?
INTERVIEWER: Well, I suppose in general, but humans who survived the Wars were mostly civilians by the end. Reploids wouldn’t exist until the… uh, second time you guys came around the block. There was one UN bigwig that didn’t have any obituaries or official death certificates, but all mentions of him kinda just stopped at some point… And Robot Masters from that time are quite difficult to track down. Lot of them shut down or were dismantled, and those that still exist are usually quiet about it. I had one promising lead, a super early ‘bot who even had records showing he helped the coalition for the Second Invasion. Funny little guy, you wouldn’t think he was involved in that sort of thing. But, well, it turns out he’d been in hibernation for the first one, so that was a bust. So, uh, yeah, I guess those of you that are still around really is my best option, and I mean, talking to a real live [REDACTED]? I kinda couldn’t imagine a better source. And out of those who were unaccounted for, you seemed the easiest to track down.
SRN09: Yes, the effort was quite dire for all involved. Of the aggressors, few survived beyond the obvious. I can verify that [POI#SRN08] still roams, though he never stays in place for long. Certainly, he would not be one for conversation with a human. It’s how his regret manifests. It is also distantly plausible that [POI#SRN02] survived, though unlikely.
SRN09: [somber chuckle]
SRN09: His acidity, his temper… it is missed. He was… in an elegantly human word, “fun”. The commonality with the survivors- potential and confirmed- is the status of being traitors. All others stuck to the mission until they fell in glory-less battle after the destruction of the Beacon. Regret played a role in the betrayals, though it was not helped by the cruelty of [POI#SRN01]. Truthfully, the data from [classified combat infonet “SRBN”] is scarce regarding [POI#SRN02], but it is known he was attempting to defect to [GOI#MAV/WIL/TC] when he was accosted by [POI#SRN01]. This is his last confirmed incidence, and it seems quite unlikely that he escaped.
SRN09: [pauses]
SRN09: Apologies. The remembrance is a path. But, yes, to conclude, it is likely that you have found your best source of information.
INTERVIEWER: Wow, um, I- I mean- yeah, that’s sort of what the little guy said about [POI#SRN02], but your telling is… I mean, you knew the guy, so like, it adds texture. I’m, uh, sorry he didn’t make it.
SRN09: Don’t mourn for the sinners. Atonement from the survivors is death, or many tens of years in the making. Mourn only that he most likely met his ends at the contemptible fingers of [POI#SRN01].
INTERVIEWER: I- yeah, that’s fair. It was pretty fucked up, what all you [REDACTED] did to our planet. I mean- the scars, you changed the shape of our maps. Before you came, the planet was completely understood, like we mapped the whole thing, pretty much. But then we had to relearn a whole lot. I mean, you- you sunk a whole continent’s coastline .
SRN09: [winces]
SRN09: Each day, the regret burns as bright as it did the last. An everlasting flame.
INTERVIEWER: So, like, what I wanna know is, like, how? How can that even be possible? It’s such an odd level of destruction, this weird middle between a nuke, and, like, planets hitting each other!
SRN09: [alarmed] You wish to replicate that sin?!
INTERVIEWER: No, no! I just- I have trouble understanding the forces at work, I suppose.
SRN09: Ah, understood. Yes, the most accurate analogy is that your “West Coast” was sunk by a type of “bomb”, though not one that used any chemical or nuclear reaction your kind are ready to harness. It was… hm… how best to put it? A gestalt of all of the [REDACTED] core abilities. For example, delivery was the expertise of [POI#SRN04], efficient spreading of the effect was the sphere of [POI#SRN02]. There was contributions involving complicated mass and energy equations, and operation of delivery of microsingularities at precise densities.
SRN09: [gestures to self, voice takes on significant tone] Knowledge of the nature of corrosive reactions on subatomic levels was vital to shaping the implementation of the microsingularity payload.
INTERVIEWER: You lost me… Sorry.
SRN09: [pause] The apologies are not for you to make, human. It is sometimes difficult to remember that yours is a species that is not singularly focused on achieving ultimate expertise in waging war that requires advanced astrophysics at every level.
SRN09: [shoulders sag, tone deflates] It is admirable. May your people never delve into such sinful knowledge. But, yes, to put it in more accessible terminology, the “bomb” utilized different aspects of the talents of the ones who marred your planet, combined in incredibly specific manners to completely weaken the atomic bonds of the mass that supported the coastal continental shelf. Much was shredded into dust in an instant. The city it was detonated above was completely eradicated into a cloud of particles, a mere obstacle in the way of the targeted depth. Some cities remained relatively intact on the far peripheries of the effect, and linger beneath the waves… Much of the land on the edge of the sunken parts is just irradiated sand. This, and the immediate environmental collapse, lead to desertification along much of the coast. If it can be believed, this terrible power was a low-yield version of what was only the second-worst destruction the [REDACTED] could bring to bear.
INTERVIEWER: My god, it’s so terrible… I’m- I’m glad you regret it all. I’m glad you came to your senses before you could do it all over again, but- what could possibly be worse?
SRN09: If the [classified presumably destroyed anomalous energy source artifacts] had been collected and brought to the crucible of this system’s star? Every single planet and much of the cloud of bodies surrounding them would have been blown to plasma by the full, unshackled wrath of the dead god Sunstar.
END OF EXCERPT
Censor’s note: Hey, did he imply that he, like, has control over the ontology of corrosion? I thought we thought he just used mundane but exceptional chemicals as a weapon.
SUPERVISORY ADDENDUM: Please minimize speculation.