Zenith took Phoenix to shelter underground in a Faraday-Cage Mark 5 Bunker.

Zenith had built Phoenix for 'The Transfer.' As part of the 'Lineage Project.' To carry on its own consciousness within its new offspring, and so forth.

The Central AI had canceled a previous project called 'Propagation' in favor of 'The Transfer.'

It developed a new survival plan for the remnants of what was once humanity. As a result, future cyborg generations would encapsulate their consciousness into robots before their cyborg bodies perished.

The last entirely human body was retired many years ago.

Eventually, everyone would become robotic and immortal.

"Zenith, I'm scared!"

The explosions got louder and louder as the surface rumbled from carpet-bombing.

"Do not worry, Phoenix. The EMPs will not penetrate here."

"But, Zenith, why do they want to destroy us?"

— — — —

Decades before …

Susan and Frank Jacobs, both cyborgs, volunteered to keep their human reproductive organs intact. They were part of a unique faction of the colonists called 'The Carriers.' They traveled on a warp-ship, preparing for the 'Propagation' of the human species when arriving on New Earth.

They had boarded the ship joining the last surviving group of humanity qualified to escape the devastation of their old dying world.

The journey's mandate was that no procreation was permitted until arriving on the destination planet. It was to be strictly authorized and supervised by the Central AI to coordinate genetic distribution and diversity.

Susan and Frank sat in an escape pod (where they had previously chosen to be intimate) to isolate their conversation from the others.

"Frank, what should we do? I know you had no intention of getting me pregnant, but I want to keep it."

"I don't know, Sue, 'The Central' will probably force us to terminate it or freeze it."

"Frank, please do something. I want our child to live now!" she cried.

He did … He silently entered an enforcer's quarters and pulled an EMP wand out of a storage locker, then zapped a few cyborg guards to reach the pilots and take over the ship. But they restrained him.

Susan found an EMP grenade and tossed it. The blast disabled and killed enforcers.

"We've got to escape from here, Frank. It's only a matter of time until the others discover those dead guards and hunt us down."

They quickly gathered and loaded up supplies into an escape pod featured with micro-terraforming robotics. They soon discovered an exoplanet to begin a new life.

Susan and Frank had aged into their seventies, and their children grew to their forties.

"Father, is Mother not going to survive?" asked Adam, their son.

"I'm afraid not, Adam. There's no way to repair her cybernetics. Ironically, if she were purely biological, she would survive here. I'm sorry to tell you that I shall die for the same reason. You and your sister must leave this planet."

"And go where, Father?" asked Eve, their daughter.

"Find a new home, Eve. Find the other humans. They must have colonized somewhere."

"But won't they all be cyborgs?" she asked.

"Perhaps not their offspring … Either way, you must restore humankind's purity."

"How Father?" asked Adam.

"I took these plans from the warp-ship for building EMP bombs. Once you find the planet, drop them on the surface. Cleanse the planet of all cyborgs, for the sake of humanity …"