Flash Fiction 010 - The Farm

Just another day on the farm

dEar ValUeD CitiZen,

Digital Taxidermy has not let the heat of this week get in the way of our progress, still a lot happening behind the scenes, developing our processes and techniques to improve our services and entertainment value for you all. Our Twitch stream is being worked on to make sure that we can bring you more test prints of our new models and a few Easter eggs along the way. Also, with the new Temporal Displacement Agitator Spool Tower you should see a good change in the media we will be putting out and increasing the activity on our Instagram and other social platforms. Its always pretty busy here on the farm, lost to cultivate and even more growth to come, then we should be able to harvest the fruits in due time.

Latest Releases

This week saw another two bunkers from our back catalogue released for you, there is the Regelbau FL247 Flak bunker, this is a medium sized Flak emplacement that will add some much needed air suppression above your bunker forts. Then we have the Regelbau R654 anti-tank 5cm KwK embrasure, giving you the perfect place to hide those anti-tank weapons. These two bunkers give you total coverage from the ground and from the air, check them out today and up your defensive capabilities.

As for the Spool Towers Kickstarter we have the Temporal Displacement Agitator on the way for you but we are just working out the last of the bugs in the model, you can see the preview images on our website and in the media we have been releasing and it will be available in the next few days, so if you like what you see add it to your wish list for notifications when it goes live and don’t miss out on being the first to print this awesome print in place moving model.

Story Time - 'The Farm'

Looking out their window, Algo watched as the city’s residents started their nightly rush of finishing work. Getting to their dwellings to consume sustenance, upload gigabytes of useless information, and recharge ready to do it all again the next day.

The street, thick with people, drones and robots. On any given night it would be busy at this hour. However, yet another malfunction in the transport hubs system had grounded all sky cars. Yes, some old ground wheeled vehicles were still functioning but that was a form or transport even slower than walking when it was this busy.

“Algo?” It was Rythm, Algo’s partner. “Ready” he replied turning away from the window and crossed the small room to the door. Touching the activator Algo opened the door and they passed through to the hallway outside. Every ten feet a glow rod would illuminate and de-luminate behind them as it detected movement. They reached the elevator only to find the emergency button flashing red. Clearly,  it was stuck between floors again. No doubt the same problems the transport hub down the street was suffering were affecting systems here to.

They crossed to the stairwell and down the 126 steps to ground level. Algo methodically noted each of them on the way down. Exiting into the lobby, they were met by crowds pushing and shoving trying to get into the faulty elevator.

“Sheep” Rythm said, “not one among them thinks on their own.”

Pushing through the throng, Algo faced little resistance, due to his size most got out of his way without incident. There were a couple of times he had to stare at a human male who was clearly intoxicated and trying not to fall over.  An android of female orientation that had what humans may consider perfect assets needed to be diverted before they moved on.

Exiting their building into the street, the noise dampeners on the windows no longer filtered the cacophony of life. Immediately and automatically Algo’s audio receptors adjusted to remove everything except speech. His visuals changed to allow multi-spectrum analysis on the fly.  This was the time of the day they could start their work. Input streamed from the lives of those working and living in the city. They began collecting, collating, and categorising all they heard and saw. All information that could be farmed could be re-seeded. It would be fed, grown, and put back into circulation just at the right time.

Just as Algo received the input, did Rhythm break it down into code. Splicing and slicing it. Tweaking it to produce the best possible seeds. The two of them worked seamlessly together and had done so for years. Each knew what the other wanted and when, what to do with it, and when to release it.

Using their own specialist code (Total Whole Inception To Terminal Evolution Routes) developed to maximise the effect of the information, they can spread it like wildfire throughout the networks within minutes.

Surveying the crowds as they walked through the streets, they encountered no problems or hindering of any kind. People didn’t pay attention to them. They were so busy, head down in their own technology from Rose Tinted Glasses^TM to dermal implants and central processing units, that they didn’t even notice Algo and Rhythm passing. Didn’t feel the information and input being absorbed as they went by, passed on to be processed and redistributed.

But then again, until their product was taken out of the humans’ pockets that they were already seeded in, no one would even be aware of them.

……

By Scott Phipps 

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