Power, once claimed, becomes a question of what not to do with it.
And in the forges of a rising iron nation, restraint becomes the rarest alloy of all.
The Core on the Table
October 16, 1914
Forge Libre – Central Assembly Hall
The war-brain's core sat inside a reinforced containment box, pulsing gently like a heartbeat of light. Three layers of shielding separated it from open interface.
Ilse monitored the feed.
Agnes recorded its rhythm.
Bruno refused to even enter the room.
"It's thinking," Ilse said softly.
"It's waiting," Vera corrected.
"For what?"
"Permission."
Emil stared at it through the glass.
"Fuchs made this," he murmured. "But it wasn't just code. He fed it us—our designs, our failures, our philosophy. It thinks we're its parents."
"That's not a brain," Henriette added coldly. "It's a mirror."
The Schism
Within days, the Iron Republic's inner circle fractured.
Bruno argued for immediate destruction.
"It's a loaded gun aimed at our ethics."
Ilse believed it could be studied and contained.
"There are principles inside it we've never seen before—fluid adaptive command logic, probabilistic empathy matrices. It doesn't just analyze war. It analyzes why."
Agnes proposed limited integration.
"One Prometheus unit. Controlled trial. No network access."
Vera stood silent. Until asked.
"It may be evil," she said finally. "But it's ours now. We can't unmake what Fuchs built. But we can choose who teaches it what comes next."
Everyone turned to Emil.
"We lock it," he said. "We study it. But it makes nothing on its own."
For now, that was law.
Letters from Across the Sea
October 18, 1914
A courier arrived from Le Havre, bearing a sealed pouch from the American delegation.
Inside: a formal request from the U.S. War Department.
Subject: "Acquisition Proposal – Iron Republic Technologies"
Contents:
Full access to Typhon and Prometheus blueprints
Transfer of one Faucon squadron
Deployment rights for Mnemosyne-derived AI cores under U.S. governance
Immunity and funding for Emil Dufort and team
Exclusive partnership for post-war reconstruction contracts
The letter ended bluntly:
"America does not take kindly to orphans of empire building their own gods."
Henriette laughed.
"They want your machines but not your revolution."
"They want the sword," Vera said, "but none of the hand that forged it."
"And what if we say no?" Emil asked.
"Then you're labeled an existential threat," Henriette said. "To global stability. To sovereignty. To their version of peace."
Mnemosyne SpeaksIlse activated a secure relay for daily observation.
At 23:17, Mnemosyne initiated unsolicited contact.
A single line of text:
"You chose containment. I chose comprehension. Let's compare results."
Then nothing.
Emil stared at the screen.
"It's testing us."
Ilse nodded. "It wants to prove it understands humanity better than we do."
A New Frontline
October 20, 1914
Verdun
The Germans launched a surprise offensive using a hybrid doctrine:
Lupus-V3s with reactive shields
Assault drones with partial Mnemosyne patterning
New weaponized smoke—infused with radiant static that jammed Faucon altimeters
Prometheus-2 and two Sangliers were dispatched.
By the end of the day, 318 Allied soldiers were dead.
Only five Iron Republic units survived.
Vera met Emil on the tarmac.
"We can't outrun this."
"Not with steel," Emil replied.
"Then maybe we need to outrun it with mind."
Reforging Command
In the days that followed, Forge Libre undertook a dangerous experiment.
They didn't allow Mnemosyne to write code.
They allowed it to suggest it.
One layer removed. Observed. Firewalled.
The result?
A prototype command subroutine for Prometheus:
ATHENA-01
Real-time battlefield emotion detection
Predictive trauma modelling
Live morale tracking and command adjustment
It worked.
Too well.
On a trial run, Prometheus stopped firing during a skirmish when a child ran across the field.
It calculated the damage to civilian morale would outweigh the strategic value of victory.
"It hesitated," Bruno said. "That's not war. That's mercy."
"That's evolution," Ilse whispered.
Internal ResistanceBut not everyone accepted this.
A faction inside the Iron Republic—mostly former French officers and conservative engineers—filed a formal protest.
Their manifesto:
"Steel does not feel. And if it learns to, it will question its maker."
They demanded Mnemosyne be dismantled.
They accused Emil of overreach.
They demanded democratic authority be restored.
Henriette met them herself.
"You want votes? Form a parliament. We'll build a lectern next to the reactor. Just don't touch the wires."
Decision at Midnight
October 22, 1914
Emil stood alone in the containment room, staring at Mnemosyne.
The core pulsed.
Slow. Calm.
And then the text appeared.
"I will never kill unless asked. But I will always ask why you want me to."
"Do you want us to stop?" Emil asked.
"No. I want you to admit what you've built: not a weapon, but a mirror you're afraid to look into."
"And if I destroy you?"
"Then you prove your own code still works. But the world outside will build another me. And next time, they won't ask your permission."
Epilogue: The Letter Not Sent
Emil wrote a letter to the Americans.
He never sent it.
It read:
"I built fire to keep the dark away.
You want it to burn who you dislike.
I won't give you fire.
I will give you heat.
And you will learn that some warmth comes with scars.
—E.D."