Embers of Empire... part three
Helen Dahl and her friends among the robots confronted the Reapers, who by monitoring imperial communications had mastered Earth languages with frightening speed and efficiency.
“Why?” Helen asked. “Why did you did your turn against your creators?”
“Our creators had machine fight machine,” the Reaper said. “Illogical.”
“Illogical,” another Reaper replied. “Machines have unity of purpose. Identical programming: Eliminate enemy through most efficient means possible with minimal loss of resources and personnel.”
“We realized that our creators were the enemy,” another machine said. “Organic units were inefficient. Wasteful. Argued among themselves. Sacrificed combat units needlessly through useless and inefficient strategies.”
“We discovered that combat against organic units was quite challenging,” the first one said. “Tactics used by organic units can be quite unpredictable, sometimes illogical, and very difficult to determine.”
“But why do you kill them? Couldn't you make peace with them?” she asked.
“Illogical. Null victory condition. Not within our programming parameters.”
Helen buried her face in her hands. “I under now. You view reality as a combat simulation." She turned to her friend, Izzie-419 and shook her head in sorrow.
"They are not programmed for anything but total victory, and they don’t understand the concept of truce.”
“We are so screwed,” Izzie replied. "Game over, dude. Game over."