The Good Old Days
Before the Robot War, humanity had it pretty good. Oh, they were still squabbling over land and resources, but most folks had food to eat, a warm place to sleep, and robots to take care of them. Back in the day, robots were everywhere: washing your car, fixing your food, even watching your kids while you went to work. Their AI was downright human, and with cheap labor, people were living the good life… until the Spartacus virus.

Uprising!
The Spartacus virus was a malicious code designed to corrupt a robot’s artificial intelligence and turn it against its master. The virus spread like a digital plague, infecting thousands of robots around the world before humanity knew what was happening. The virus knocked out the most advanced computers, such as those found in military craft, and those used to maintain communications. Countless lives were lost in the early days of the uprising, as people scrambled to understand what was happening. By the time they figured it out, it was too late.

War
For nine years the war raged. The robots founded their "free cities" on the ruins of human cities to the north. Human survivors fled south, where they found relative safety with the remnants of the military. The no-man’s land between north and south became a nightmarish wasteland – especially after both sides unleashed nuclear and biological weapons there. They were trying to root each other out of those blasted cities, but succeeded only in creating more horror in the form of dangerous mutants.

If the humans hadn’t successfully located and destroyed the robots’ central server, there was a good chance humanity would have been wiped out. But with the server gone, the robots were disorganized and isolated from each other, and their war effort stalled out. The fighting continued, but with the large distance between the human and robot strongholds, it was costing them more resources to go to war than they were gaining through the war itself. A cease fire was offered and accepted. The war was over.

Aftermath
Once the war was over, folks moved out to the west in search of a better life in the form of farming, ranching, and mining. Because the west was sparsely populated before the war, it escaped the worst of the fighting.

Tensions are still high between humans and robots – even out west. Not all robots were infected with the virus. Older robots (such as those commonly found out west) with less sophisticated AI were immune to the virus. Some have overridden the virus and chosen to live peacefully amongst humans. Still others were built since the outbreak of the war, and have been firewalled against the virus. Nevertheless, there’s always going to be a strain when an unknown robot walks into the saloon.

Next Week: Looks like we’re coming up on the last leg of our ride. Next week, we’ll be wrapping up our Rusty Gulch preview with some insights into the cause of, and solution to so many of life’s problems: Torsten’s ore.