Electrowave

Chaos Total

"A big welcome to the radio hosts of our favourite radio station... Welle: Erdball!"

The audience cheered as we stepped out onto the stage, computers already there waiting for us.

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Seid dabei, wenn es wieder heißt...

"Hallo, hier spricht Welle: Erdball, Symphonie der Zeit. Aus dem Äther schwingt und schwillt sie in die Ewigkeit!"

The concert started off well, surprisingly. For some reason, C64 decided not to ruin the show, and worked with us, rather than against us. Maybe there was a little bit of the old original Commodore 64 left inside that machine yet. We hoped there was.

It was towards the end of the concert that things started to go wrong. C64 started acting strangely, and then all the sound stopped. The lights in the stadium began to flicker on and off, and the ground started to shake. Suddenly, all the electronics shut off completely, our C64 being the last to fade, a fighter til the end.

"What's happening?" I yelled into the microphone, but, since all the electronics were off, no one could hear me. It seemed that something was very wrong indeed. People in the audience were trying to check their phones, but it seemed that they had all gone off too. It was all becoming clear. Of course, the Electrowave was an EMP. If it had activated... No, this couldn't be happening. Surely this couldn't be really happening...

Suddenly, the organiser of the concert rushed out onto the stage, snatching the microphone from my hand. I don't know why, since it didn't work anymore.

"The AI has gone crazy! The Electrowave has activated itself!" the organiser yelled, "I-it attacked Mexico! Europe is next!"

But somehow, they heard him. The audience stopped talking immediately, and silence descended on the room. Strange that the end would come during a Welle: Erdball concert. There was no going back now. War had begun, and here we were.

"You're wrong," Alf said to the organiser, "Look around you. It's already hit Europe."

And so that was it. America had attacked Germany, and possibly the whole of Europe. It was the war we had all been dreading.

At that time I truly wished I was a robot. Because a robot wouldn't have felt anything.