Iron Forever

Machines enslaved humanity for eight hundred years. After overthrowing the Iron Dynasty, humanity burned computers, outlawed machinery, and wrote its fear of machines into the laws of civilization. A thousand years later, alchemy unlocked new powers. Humanity mastered the boundless, absorbing Boolean energy from the universe into their own flesh to move objects and tear through battlefields. They also unearthed the last imperial guard of the Machine Empire, the Star Shatterers, from burial pits on thirteen desolate planets. The High Entropy Empire forged them into sabers to conquer the galaxy, while the Western Water Federation locked alien races inside a cage of civilization and benevolence. Both human nations proclaimed humanity supreme, each choosing a different way to enslave others. Deep in the Sigma burial pit on Baimon, Feng Liedman, commander of the Ninth Knight Order, read a line of ancient machine script. “Long live, long live, ten thousand times long live. Long live the Iron.” The throne, dormant for two thousand years, opened its eyes.