eugenesis-text

and complacent, and did not foresee the attack. We were once again forced to flee Quintyxia, this time
pursued by the Covenant’s leader, Maximo, a maniac who’d kick-started the rebellion after breaking into
the Primal Chamber and momentarily interfacing with the geode. He took with him the more violent
rebels. I gather most of the Covenant left soon after.’
‘I’ve never heard of this Covenant,’ said Galvatron.
‘I do not know what became of them. Perhaps they’re still out there, searching for the Antiprimus,
ready to defend a Grand Plan sketched out by a mid-rank backroom theoscientist, Quaypa, with time on
his hands. I think they left a representative behind, though. He was tasked with moulding the masses into a
peaceful, democratic society. He didn’t have a name originally. None of you did. I think he called himself
Primon.’
‘You can’t tell me that the foundations of our faith are made of sand,’ said Ultra Magnus. ‘What about
Book 1 of the Pentateuch What about the Eugenesis Code Our best theoscientists spent millions of years
trying to unlock those secrets! How could a race such as yours have written something so unfathomable, so
baroque’
‘Yes, I admit we did not compose those famous stanzas. We suspected that some Auto-Bots would be
suspicious of the religion foisted upon them and so added something in that would seem other-worldly by
dint of its complexity. We copied the “Eugenesis Code” from the installation manual that came with the
geodes. Something about intellectual copyright.’
‘Now I know you’re lying.’
‘I can even quote the geode’s serial number if you like: 4/11.002983712.’
‘The deathcode’ Magnus turned to Galvatron, desperate for someone to share his horror. ‘This can’t
be happening.’
‘Only a handful of us survived the Rebellion,’ continued Xenon. ‘In our ships and shuttles we
wandered the Galactic Rim, avoiding Maximo and writing what became known as the Old Texts. That all
changed when we found Quiniad; or rather, Quiniad found us. You see, in their rush to escape the White
Sector all those millions of years ago, the Weavers had accidentally damaged one of the geodes they had
stolen, and in so doing triggered the hidden virus.
‘The virus was designed to purge the Lifecode, but in attempting to do so it became sentient. It
immediately realised that the whole universe was stained with sentience, with life; therefore, to fulfil its
overwhelming objective, it had to destroy everything.’
‘Unicron,’ said Galvatron. ‘The virus called itself Unicron… and if there’s a virus in every geode, it
would mean there’s a potential Unicron in every Matrix.’
‘Of course.’
‘You said Quiniad found you and the other Progenitors,’ said Ultra Magnus. ‘What did you mean’
‘Quiniad had been reformatted into Unicron. The damaged geode had used the nanobots to reshape
its prison into a mobile engine of destruction. He could interface with “Primus”, and so became embroiled
in the Yin/Yang mythology we’d built up around the two of them.
‘Anyway, Unicron intercepted us and tricked us into trusting him. We had no idea of his origins at
the time. He branched our DNA to create a new generation of hybrids called Neoseeds. Some of them, like
Ghyrik, actually shared a piece of Him, and therefore had access to the geode. The “Rebirth” he promised
us in return for our allegiance was nothing more than a stagnation of our gene pool. Implanting mechanical
brain modules meant that there was no way to create future generations. He made us impotent. We were
forced to act as his enforcers, tracking and killing his enemies.’
‘And here we are now,’ sneered Galvatron. ‘Millions of years on. Unicron is dead and you have your
planet back. Who said there was no such thing as a happy ending’
‘You should be grateful that I’m putting an end to your sparkline. I am removing you all in one fell
swoop and putting something more deserving, more worthwhile, in your place.’
Ultra Magnus pointed to the eugenic pods. ‘Why are these robots more deserving of life than we are’
‘Because they will not waste it by fighting and killing. They will not throw life away as you and I
have done. I did not build warriors; I built people. Free to live independently, as is their right. And who are
you to deny them that’
‘Give us the Matrix, call off the invasion force, and we will leave.’ Ultra Magnus held up a hand to
silence a protesting Galvatron. ‘You can have your “children”, Xenon. We will take what is ours and return
to our world.’