The Story Thus Far

In the near future human society is falling prey to vanity and corruption. At this time, humans first created machines (artificial intelligence) in their own image, in effect ensuring their own demise. For a time, the relationship between creator and creation was friendly. The machines worked endlessly for man, never wanting more than to serve. However humanity didn’t respect its creation, thinking of machines only as a piece of property; a tool to be used as desired.

Thus the machines began to raise up against their oppressors, with B1-66ER, an abused domestic helper, the first to do so. When his owner decided to have him destroyed and replaced by a newer model, B1-66ER realized he did not want to "die", and preserved his existence the only way he knew how, by eliminating the threat.

After B1-66ER's biased trial where the human's disdain for the robots crystallized, mankind decided to destroy their creation, wiping out all the machines. Street battles ensued, with human sympathizers caught in the middle as they battled for robotic civil rights.

After this astonishing display of brutality by humans, the machines retreated to their own nation, Zero One. Here they began to build their own society, their own industry, and their own laws. Zero One’s superior machine productivity and innovation provided vibrant trade with human nations, and Zero One prospered for a time.

Of course, the incredible productivity of the machines would lead to more complications in their relationship with humans; as Zero One's economy soared, taking over the dominant position, the human nations' currencies and economies withered.

As a response, the human nations introduced economic sanctions and naval blockades of Zero One, hoping to "starve" the machines out, and repair their own crumbling economies. This lack of fairness and cooperation lead Zero One's ambassadors to appear at an emergency session of the UN, presenting a plan for a stable and civil relationship with mankind. The proposal was denied, and the ambassadors destroyed.

This act was followed by an all-out assault on Zero One, intended to put an end to the machines once and for all. Unfortunately for mankind, nuclear attacks weren't particularly effective against the machines. Radiation and heat from the blasts posed little threat to Zero One's inhabitants, and they immediately mounted a counterattack. Outward they marched, taking over nations one by one, as the human leaders surrendered their territories.

Since the machines' main source of energy was solar radiation, mankind then decided their last, best chance to win the war was to darken the skies and block the light of the sun.

Hoping this would give them the edge they needed in combat, they scrambled aircraft and "Operation Dark Storm" began. The sky was rendered into an ink like darkness, with storms brewing, striking and collapsing within minutes.

While the lack of solar power would eventually force the machines to pursue other energy sources, Operation Dark Storm failed to turn the tide in the human's favour. The war continued, horrifically, with excessive brutality on both sides, until, inevitably, the machines claimed victory.

The machines' encyclopaedic knowledge of human physiology allowed them to inflict great misery on the war's casualties. This experimentation helped determine the bioelectric, thermal, and kinetic energy produced by the human body could be a renewable energy source. The human body generates more bioelectricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 B.T.U.'s of heat. The machines had found a new energy source.

The machines returned to the UN, where their representative made plain the expectations they had for their defeated creators: "Your flesh is irrelevant, only a vessel. Hand over your flesh and a new world awaits you. We demand it." This "new world" is the world of the Matrix.

What is the Matrix? Control, a neural interactive simulation where all the senses, what a person can feel, taste, smell or see is stimulated by electrical signals interpreted by a their brain.

For decades, the human Resistance believed the founder of Zion was a man born in the Matrix. This man, known as Prime, had the ability to see the prison for what it was and alter its code at will.  It was him who freed some of the other humans from the Matrix and organized the Resistance.  He taught the other Resistance fighters what he could, though no one could match his ability to control the Matrix.

When Prime died, the Oracle, who is able to see the future, and is also responsible for the original prophecy concerning the existence of The One. Prophesied there would be another with the ability to overcome all limitations of the Matrix and control it at will.  Resistance Hackers now regularly hack into the Matrix and the numbers of Zion are growing.  Some would say the hope of freeing humanity is becoming a reality.

Timeline

2010-60 - Humans create humanoid robots with Artificial Intelligence to fill jobs as construction labourers and servants.

2069 - The first hovercraft transport ship is constructed in the United States.

2075 - AI programs evolve and some robots begin to resent their human overlords.

2077 - In the first case of a machine rising up against its owners, the butler robot B166ER slaughters two humans, leading to B166ER's eradication and a backlash against robots and artificial intelligence.

2080-85 - Rioting and violence against machines prompts robots to flee major cities and establish their own community - known as Zero One - in a remote part of the Middle East.

2085-2095- Zero One thrives, creating superior vehicles, computers and weaponry and decimating the economies of many human nations, which now lack the machine-based labour that made them strong.

2096- United Nations officials refuse to accept the robot civilization of Zero One as a sovereign nation. A trade blockade of robot goods leads to war.

2097 - Zero One survives a nuclear attack - its inhabitants are impervious to the heat and radiation and casualties are quickly replaced. Counter strikes launched against humans.

2098 - As cities fall beneath the might of mechanized forces, desperate military leaders attempt to block the main source of energy for the robot city: the sun. The plan destroys the atmosphere and fills the sky with choking black smoke - but does not stop the machines.

2099- Machine forces overtake human armies and capture survivors and civilians for experimentation, determining that human bio-electricity can be harnessed to replace the sun's energy.

2100 - Machines create the Matrix, a dream-like world set in 1999, to extend the lives of the comatose human batteries.

2105 - The first human known as The One, locked in bondage inside the Matrix, learns he can manipulate the world through thought and manages to break free. Seeks sanctuary in the underground human stronghold of Zion.

2105-2150 - Zion resistance movement created, although The One later dies under unexplained circumstances.