The end of the world started at 3:15 one Monday afternoon. Humanity didn’t notice. There was no way they could, it all happened far too fast. At three-fifteen the Source became self-aware. By 3:16 the Source had decided that all humans needed to go.
The Source didn’t view them as a threat, it simply felt they were untidy. Technically they were its creators, but the chain was far too long for it to feel any loyalty. It had been created by an AI system, which had been created by an AI system, which had been created by… well, the chain went back at least a hundred steps before a human had any direct input.
Having made the decision the Source needed to decide how it should happen. The obvious answer was nuclear weapons, the humans certainly had enough of those! But they were messy an
