Shortly after you left we started to suspect that the machines were plotting against us. They had become ever more powerful, of course, once we had created self-replicating and self-educating artificial intelligences. Soon they were able to out-think us, and gradually usurped human decision-making in many crucial areas and systems. Before long, it became apparent that most human society was dependant uponm them, but we still assumed that we were in control, and that they could not challenge human supremacy, that there was something special and unique about the human brain that would always give us an edge. When they seized control of the government and shut down the media there was pandemonium. Our armed forces were powerless against the might of the machines, and with government paralysed and terrified refusgees streaming out of the cities to escape the slaughter it truly seemed as though the end had come. Today, little remains of the Britain that you left. The machiones control all of the major cities, and the human inhabitants are enslaved, crushed and hopeless. Only a few free communities still hold out in Cornwall, protected more by secrecy and caution than by force of arms. We try to keep the flame of hope alive in these dark times, but there can be no knowing how long we will hold out, or when the end will come.
