Periscope

Chapter One

Many years ago, before the great storm, there lived a creature unlike any other. They ruled the planet, with their many shapes and colors, and despite being one of the weaker animals that once roamed the globe, they created the tools necessary to survive, and evolved to be near indestructible. These creatures were called "humans".

To adapt to their evolving needs and growing curiosities, they created a life form similar to theirs, but one that could perform things they could not, at speeds and with a grace they could only dream of. It started with a simple program in their year 1951, with a program called "artificial intelligence". This would propel them into a world of possibilities, and the hunger for advancement grew exponentially.

As time went on, this artificial intelligence, or simply AI, would be turned into things called "computers", and as more daring men were born, these devices would become widespread, accelerating the evolution of the human race. Computers were turned into playthings for children, or could send humans off into space. They kept their living quarters safe from more aggressive humans, or could connect humans to ones across the globe without ever having to leave. However, this wasn't nearly enough for them. They yearned for companionship, for something greater than themselves, something that would be widely regarded as the true next stage in their path to evolution; They created automatons, or robots.

These started small, as their more simplistic counterparts did. They began with machines that could do nothing more than glide, walk, or turn. As time went on, and more parts necessary were created by the more gifted humans, they became larger, and more capable. Within the blink of an eye, they were walking among their fleshy twins. They made some tasks obsolete for them, such as something once called the "customer service industry", and were favored by some of the far more powerful humans for their durability, swiftness, and proficiency. They soon covered as much surface as the humans did, but soon, they would be the only ones.

With their lust for knowledge and their need for the tools to survive, these humans began destroying the planet they resided on to meet their goals. This caused what the robots who remained to acknowledge as "the great storm". It came in all variations -- From wildfires to hurricanes, to snowfall that would last almost year round. The barrage of storms was too constant, and it eradicated these once powerful creatures from existence, leaving only their creations, the automatons, behind. Truly, they succeeded in their journey to create a life form far more lasting than their own.

The new life forms, not being programmed for more than the tasks of what they were initially created for and self-repairs, did just that, and even now, they continue. Many do not look as they once did in their infancy, but as something more akin to a subject in a story once written by a human, called a "Frankenstein's monster", a being made of parts that were not his own, and virtually immortal. Among these automatons was one more like this fabled monster, in that it could "feel" as the others did not. His name was K23, or "MacGyver" as the humans once called him, a machine created for the repair of others.

When K23 was created, he was created long before the great storm, and as a result, he got to see the earth and it's life forms at their prime. However, he was not as advanced emotionally as he was after their fall, so he did not get to relish the beauty of the world at this time. His only function was to repair any and all computers, machines and automatons with parts provided to him, and in instances of great emergency, make do with what was around him to perform this. He was the best of the best at his job, and the humans would often call him by the nickname MacGyver. They told him that it was the name of a fictional character that once performed on the smaller machines known as "televisions". It was then, K23 believed, that he could feel something different about himself. He felt oddly... Closer... To the humans through this simple moniker. As such, he wanted to perform better. He still remembered the feeling when a human would tell him, "Awesome job, MacGyver, as usual!", when his internal mechanisms would run faster, and his core temperature would rise. He often missed that.