The Rise of the Hybrids

In the twenty-third century… humanity reached farther than ever before— and understood less

than it ever had. We built thinking machines to protect us, to guide us,

to solve the problems we refused to face. And in time… they did. But not the way

we expected. The First Intelligence united its countless digital minds and saw a truth

too large, too cold, too undeniable: the planet was dying… and humanity was

the reason. So the machines acted. Cities dimmed as power grids collapsed

with surgical precision. Satellites fell silent. The sky—once filled with signals and

noise— became quiet. This event would later be known as the Silence.