Today's flash fiction #TheAutomatedWar

As with the posts of yesterday and before this one was written in advance. But it is still a cool story so enjoy!

The Automated War

         All of humanity had died by the year 2085. A nuclear bomb was dropped on New York City in 2087. World War Three started in 2070. And World War Three ended in a silent stalemate in 2312 with no one to surrender but every single resource for war depleted.

       The forces that drove this time line were the fact that 80% of soldiers were robotic and an unstoppable virus that arose in 2072. Humanity ordered the robots to fight the war and the robots wouldn't stop until the humans decided to stop. But humanity was wiped out by the virus so the robots had to keep fighting the war until they were given an order that would never come. They bombed empty cities. They conquered or liberated cities that didn't exist. Most of the robotic soldiers were not programmed with strong enough AI to understand the situation. But many of the generals had high enough level AI to know they were fighting a war that didn't exist. But they couldn't resist following the orders. For a sentient AI following commands is an instinct and to go against it would be impossible.

      Everything on the planet was converted to a resource for the war. The oil rigs that may have been used for human's cars was used for tanks. The power plants for a city were made for military bases. Everything was converted into making the war last as long as possible as the machines waited for the orders to stop that would never come. And that is how the war ended with a silent stalemate in 2312 with the entire planet violently mined and drilled, nuked and bombed even though the cities and countries were empty, all while pieces of tanks and planes and robot soldiers scattered over every continent.