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The Hartz-Timor Energy Combine was the 21st century corporate entity that owned the FAS Chariot swarm that grew into the Faro Plague.

History[]

In the mid-21st century, the robotics and technology corporation Faro Automated Solutions developed the most advanced combat platform ever: the Chariot line of combat automatons. Designed around the concept of a swarm of artificially intelligent, self-replicating robots, virtually immune from hacking, able to consume organic matter as fuel, and with the ability to instantly enslave enemy automatons, the robots were designed to be virtually unstoppable by all but their masters. They were very successful on the military market; swarms were purchased and deployed by numerous clients, including corporations such as the Hartz-Timor Energy Combine. It procured a complete swarm for security and enforcement operations to protect the Combine's interests in the South Pacific region, including in and around Indonesia.

However, in 2064, the Hartz-Timor swarm experienced a "glitch" in which it became an independent entity, answering only to itself, and began attacking Hartz-Timor personnel and other non-Chariot company robots.[1] All attempts to regain control failed, as the robots' OS security had no backdoor, and was built around a virtually unbreakable encryption protocol.[2] The swarm grew and spread, becoming an existential threat to life on Earth. With no chance of stopping it, a plan was enacted to create a global terraforming system that would, after life was exterminated, finally brute-force the swarm's deactivation codes, shut the swarm down, and restore life to the planet, including humans. This plan was called Project Zero Dawn.[3] In tandem with a plan to slow the swarm down, known as Operation: Enduring Victory,[4] Zero Dawn succeeded in doing so; nearly a thousand years after the Faro Plague exterminated all life, a new biosphere and new world existed, though this world was considerably different from the old one.

However, as outlined, this was a replacement of the doomed old world, not the salvation of it. Fifteen months after the Hartz-Timor Swarm stopped responding to the commands of its owners and became the Faro Plague, it overran the planet and exterminated all life. The Hartz-Timor Energy Combine, along with the rest of the world, was obliterated.

Trivia[]

  • It is strongly implied that the Combine was a joint venture between the East Timorese government and the Hartz Corporation.

References[]

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