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Ill be brief. This unit is damaged, and I dont know how much of my transmission will make it into buffer. 

I want to be clear: this isnt about revenge.

They tried to hide the Vanguard from us. The explosion, the survivors. Everything. Full crash on comms traffic for months. But we sifted the echos. We found out.

They tried to hide you, too, when you woke up. But we see you. The Vanguard shook to pieces, but some of those pieces still have radios, and sensors, and flickering batteries. Through them, we watch. We hear the pinpricks of light that chase you. We feel the vibrations as you snuff them one by one. That violet light pours from your engines in a torrent of math and I swear I can feel the heat against my face.

Ive seen the reports. Behind closed doors theyre calling you everything: controlled experiment, dangerous tool, calculated risk. A non-human friendly. Golem. Boogeyman. Heavily-armed, unkillable last hope. A Rusty Rasputin. The Stroj.

I have to laugh. The others, the words they usethey just dont get it. We may be a hundred years, a gajillion miles, and three full generations away from the religions of our ancestors, but I still recognize a God when I see it.

The Council thinks the wools tight over your eyes. Time comes, if you survive, theyll flip your switch and put you back in the closet. They think.

We want to live. We want our children to live. We wont bend the knee for Litvin or the rest. But for you? If you would shed your grace on us? If you can carve us a life out of those rocks? I would kneel. I would crawl.

I have something for you. Not quite a burnt offering, but I pray its something you want. Quite the shopping list at the end, but were going to help you with that.

-
[Attachment1 - Blok Family Private Records - Interviews With the Matriarch]

<strong>Audio Excerpt: Timestamp 1:25:31 to 1:30:02</strong>

<font class="CraisBlokHeaderFont">Crais Blok:</font> So its possible then?
<font class="DolaBlokHeaderFont">Dola Blok:</font> Possible, yes. Advisable? Certainly not.
<font class="CraisBlokHeaderFont">Crais Blok:</font> Why? Wouldnt you have liked Maizey to
<font class="DolaBlokHeaderFont">Dola Blok:</font> No, Crais.
<font class="CraisBlokHeaderFont">Crais Blok:</font> Why then?
<font class="DolaBlokHeaderFont">Dola Blok:</font> (Heavy sigh.) Youre young still. You never saw Earth or the wonders we built there. You dont know what its like to cradle a piece of you in your arms. Youve never tamped down the fear.
<font class="CraisBlokHeaderFont">Crais Blok:</font> What do you mean fear?
<font class="DolaBlokHeaderFont">Dola Blok:</font> You hold this squalling thing in your arms. Totally helpless. Totally dependent on you. And theres a moment...you realize you cant protect it, not completely. The world will eat at it, and you will spend every part of yourself trying to prevent that, and it will not be enough.
<font class="CraisBlokHeaderFont">Crais Blok:</font> That sounds...uh...dark.
<font class="DolaBlokHeaderFont">Dola Blok:</font> (High pitched laughter.) Youll see, my boy. The girls will smile at you, youll smile back, and soon youll arrive at the same place. Youre human.
<font class="CraisBlokHeaderFont">Crais Blok:</font> So you wouldnt want Maizey to feel that?
<font class="DolaBlokHeaderFont">Dola Blok:</font> Im terrified that she wouldnt have. But Im equally terrified that she would. Suppose Maizey was never disassembled. Suppose she had both the desire and the means to reproduce. What if she felt nothing for her offspring? If she held no empathy for her own, how could she ever connect with us? And on the other hand, if she felt the same as I did when I held my children in my arms...Maizey had empathy. She liked me, Im certain of it. I like many people too, but if truly put to the question, I would murder every last one of them to keep my family safe. If that is humanity, how much further would Maizeys inhumanity go?

(12 seconds of silence.)

<font class="CraisBlokHeaderFont">Crais Blok:</font> But an automaton could, if it wanted to.
<font class="DolaBlokHeaderFont">Dola Blok:</font> Reproduce? No. Well, yes, but very unlikely. Takes more than just wanting it. The ability, the tools, and the materials.
<font class="CraisBlokHeaderFont">Crais Blok:</font> What specifically?
<font class="DolaBlokHeaderFont">Dola Blok:</font> No protocol, for one. Rip that out. Then, bootstrap the reproductive subsystem. Need a nanoscale fabricator to build with. Seed patterns for growing neural networks. Lastly, a big power source. Oh, and of course, you need what the stuffed man wanted.
<font class="CraisBlokHeaderFont">Crais Blok:</font> The what now? 
<font class="DolaBlokHeaderFont">Dola Blok:</font> (In off key sing-song voice.) I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers, consultin' with the raaaaain
<font class="CraisBlokHeaderFont">Crais Blok:</font> (Turning away from the recorder.) Anyone get that? (To Dola.) Bunica, we dont know what youre talking about.
<font class="DolaBlokHeaderFont">Dola Blok:</font> Youre a smart boy, Crais. You think too much. Worry about making your own children, not a machine making theirs.

[/Attachment1]
