[ WP ] Commuications from Earth suddenly goes dark shortly after Earth scientists announce a breakthrough in AI . The citizens of Mars are beginning to fear the worst has happened and that they may also be in danger .

`` Grey Goo?'' Fred asked, looking out the window of the Martian station. 
 
 `` Yes, an old thought experiment where humanity told self-replicating nanomachines to excavate an area, and they never stopped.'' His boss, Doctor Henric S. Machaes, explained while sifting through materials and blueprints, looking for something. 
 
 `` And you're afraid that's what happened to Terra? Why we have n't heard anything for the past few months?'' No one called it Earth, not on Mars anyway. Fred had never been to Earth, hell he had only seen Olympus Mons once as a kid. He worked for Machaes as an engineer and assistant. Where the doctor made plans and blueprints, Fred actually built them. And he did not like the components the doctor was pulling off the shelves and clattering to the floor of the grey, flat room. 
 
 `` Yes. And while the politicians in Ares are figuring out whose taking the blame when the Martian Space Program screws up yet another launch, my colleagues and I have decided to send some probes to Terra on our own. The it's the closest window we have for the next few months. It'll be at extreme sublight speeds, all we can do legally, so it'll take a few days to reach Terra, link up with the other probes, and figure out what went wrong. If it's goo, it ca n't reach us but everyone with a nicotine addiction on Mars is going to be out of luck, and if it is n't, then something else went wrong and we might have a reason to be worried. Either way, no news from Terra is bad news.'' 
 
 Machaes piled the supplies, canisters, sensors and casings that would later become the probe, and motioned to Fred. 
 
 `` Can you set this up? You know how, and I hate those damned suits for surface launches.'' The doctor did n't mention his back, which had become quite a pain recently. He was an older man, 144, and the years wore on his body more than his mind. 
 
 `` Alright, but why would AI tests have anything to do with nanomachines? Could n't they use nukes, or something?'' 
 
 `` They could, but Nanomachines are more efficient. More delicate, preserves resources. Nukes are messy. Now hurry, we need a synced launch to do this right.'' 
 
 Fred carefully prepared the tiny, lamppost-sized rocket, checking wind speeds and air pressure, loading each sensor into one of the many sockets on the probe's multiuse frame. He carried the rocket through the low gravity, resting it on the smooth surface of the station's launch pad. The probe was incredibly light, and because of the thinness of Mars's atmosphere, it could be launched with a minimal amount of fuel. Fred stepped back, readied the small detonator, and clicked the button. Instantly the rocket, it's clean white paint already flecked with the characteristic Martian dust, began launching into the air, fire spewing out from it's base and a noise like the car engine of God roared through Fred's suit. He loved the launch, the thrill of liftoff, the heat pushing him back as the red glare burned in his tinted visor. He watched the rocket rise into the the air, ascending towards it's distant goal. 
 
 Over the next few days, more news came in. There were distress calls, garbled and coded beyond reason. There were ships coming in from Terra at FTL speeds, no life support and flushed ship computer. Eventually, the probes reached the cradle of mankind. 
 
 Whatever had attacks Terra, for this was definitely an attack, but no Grey Goo. The planet's valuable resources, plutonium, uranium, gold, we're all being stripmined by reprogrammed mining droids. Military bases and major science and political centers were empty, but otherwise, the population was unharmed. Ships were seen, flying low to the planet's surface, guarding these sites of military or industrial importance. Again, the ships were reprogrammed military vessels, bereft of crew. 
 The probes continued to relay information for another hours before blacking out, all simultaneously losing contact. 
 
 The next day, Machaes and his comrades explained their findings, showing that Terra had been assaulted by a malignant AI, one which was hunting for resources but was unwilling or unable to kill humans in large quantities. They also noted that the AI could have travelled in the empty ships, or through the probe's themselves. The day after that, Mars as a whole entered martial law. Within the next week, every major military center on the planet was destroyed by contained self-detonation, and massive hordes of mining drones moved north, towards the planet's ice caps. Nothing more was heard from the Red Planet, or mankind as a whole. 
 
 

