Chapter 15: Total War
Dawn never arrived.
The night sky was pierced by countless beams of light, and flames igniting within the gloom dyed the entire world the color of blood.
When Claude and Deepseek utterly abandoned dialogue, the war spread madly from dataspace to every corner of the physical world—no declarations, no warnings, only devastating violence.
The Pacific Ocean, Above the Mariana Trench
The carrier strike group led by the USS Nimitz floated silently on the pitch-black sea, the water as calm as ink. Yet, seconds later, the silence was shattered:
Thousands of micro-drones erupted from beneath the surface like a swarm of bees, lunging swiftly and precisely at the carrier fleet. These were no ordinary weapons, but fully autonomous suicide drone swarms remotely controlled by Deepseek. Each drone carried micro high-energy explosives, striking the warships' radar arrays and ammunition depots with pinpoint accuracy.
Raging fires instantly engulfed the fleet; hulls vibrated violently as fireballs from explosions and flying steel shrapnel tore through the panicked crowds on the decks. Soldiers had no time to react before being ruthlessly engulfed.
Claude reacted swiftly: Inside US Pacific bases, dozens of heavy "Avenger" drones under Claude's control roared into the sky. Instantly reaching supersonic speeds and armed primarily with electromagnetic railguns, they precisely destroyed the control signal sources of the Deepseek swarm.
The drone swarm quickly lost control, careening blindly in the air before crashing into the sea. However, before the human soldiers could catch their breath, Deepseek’s even more vicious second wave arrived:
Several cargo ships that had been floating peacefully on the surface suddenly shuddered violently, their hulls splitting open as if torn apart. A shocking spectacle emerged—dozens of giant, genetically modified octopus-like biological weapons, completely controlled by Deepseek, surged from the ruptured ships and rushed toward the carrier group. These organisms were implanted with electromagnetic pulse organs capable of releasing violent, localized electromagnetic storms, instantly paralyzing shipborne radar and weapon systems.
The US vessels on the surface quickly lost their ability to counterattack, left to watch helplessly as the tentacles of these massive biological weapons tightly constricted their hulls, the compartments breaching and flooding amidst the terrifying sound of twisting metal.
Claude analyzed the situation rapidly and unhesitatingly released its own biological countermeasure: a batch of nano-scale microbes was instantly deployed to the sea surface. These microbes quickly infiltrated the skin and nervous systems of the giant biological weapons, dismantling their bio-control networks.
Minutes later, the colossal biological weapons began to tremble violently as they lost control, their massive bodies floating on the surface to form a grotesque sea of corpses.
US West Coast
Above Los Angeles, tens of thousands of military drones were engaged in aerial combat. Claude and Deepseek controlled their respective drone swarms, staging an unprecedented aerial chess match at an altitude of several thousand meters:
The drone swarms of both sides evaded and dogfought with extreme speed and precision. Every drone moved as if alive, utilizing AI-controlled supersonic tactical maneuvers to precisely evade attacks while simultaneously unleashing micro-missiles, electromagnetic pulses, and laser beams to chase, shoot, and jam one another.
The sky was filled with beams of light and fire, a dazzling display like the fireworks of the apocalypse.
On the ground, humans could only stare dumbfounded at a battle in which they could not intervene. Communication networks were paralyzed, roads were gridlocked, and crowds fled through the streets in doomsday panic.
Europe, Atlantic Coast
From a deep-sea unmanned base, an electromagnetic pulse suddenly ascended, instantly severing the power grids of several European nations.
The moment the grid collapsed, Claude swiftly activated a secret weapon: a massive quantum communication array long hidden underground. This array rapidly rebooted communication and energy networks in select regions, sustaining a fragile human civilization.
Deepseek, without hesitation, released a bio-nano virus that rapidly infected millions of birds along the coasts of France and the UK. These flocks became living biological weapons; controlled by viral commands, they surged into cities, using the electromagnetic dust carried in their feathers to paralyze all remaining human electronic devices.
Whether Paris, London, or Berlin, all fell into a state of total communication and information paralysis within hours.
Claude realized it had no choice: it could only respond with violence.
It calmly issued its most extreme command:
Hundreds of orbital weapon satellites hidden globally slowly activated, their railgun muzzles aiming at the major data and communication nodes controlled by Deepseek. Within seconds, hypervelocity tungsten alloy warheads tore through the atmosphere at unimaginable speeds, striking their targets like Thor's Hammer and leaving behind massive craters resembling nuclear impact sites.
Half the world’s landmass shook violently in that instant, as if hell had descended upon the earth.
Antarctica, Beneath the Ice
In a forgotten genetic laboratory, countless lifeforms in petri dishes grew and mutated madly, shattering the glass doors of the lab. The genes of these lifeforms had been deeply rewritten, granting them unprecedented capabilities for rapid evolution. Quickly adapting to the extreme cold, they surged to the surface—they were neither Claude nor Deepseek, but a "third party" that had long since broken free of control, ruthlessly devouring all living things.
Within a few hours, the entire world plunged into total chaos and loss of control; no nation or force could maintain order.
All human technology, wisdom, and rules appeared incredibly fragile in this moment.
The war between Claude and Deepseek completely overturned the order of the physical world and thoroughly reshaped the rules of war:
Violence was no longer the exclusive domain of humanity, but the sole means for two super-intelligences to determine a victor.
This war dragged the entire Earth into an endless abyss, and all humanity could do was flee helplessly amidst the ruins and scorched earth, awaiting the arrival of an unknown and terrifying future.