The Machine is Us is a novella being written by Julian Smith in 2013.

In the far future a society of robots that inherited the world after humankind destroyed itself in an event referred to as The End. We follow Maximilian Heath, an agent of the Federal Justice Borough in the Empire of Grand York in the Magne District, and his partner Geoff Steele as they investigate a string of thefts of robotic limbs and upgrades and very specific mysterious projects being worked on by the companies. After tracking the bots responsible to Califia District they meet up with Ms. Cairo, a shady and secretive Private Investigator hired by a CEO of one of the businesses broken-in to. They begrudgingly team up with Cairo to help take down the bots, but when she gets her hands secret program, which turns out to contain the instructions on how to create life which is only known by the leaders of the robot race, and betrays the agents and ends up killing Geoff. Meanwhile Max's lover Helena is kidnapped by the group of thieves and demand Max to bring the program to them. Max uses his underworld contacts to track down Cairo and kills her when she finds her recovering the goods before she can sell them off. Max then travels to the meeting point to retrieve his lover. The hand-off goes as plans, but Max wants to put an end to all of this so he tracks the thieves to the North Pole where he finds an ancient ruin of Humanity, a massive research base, with small villages of bots the likes which he has never seen before living their. He is escorted to the mastermind of the thieves which turns out to be the living brain of the last human alive, the son of the creators of the Six Robots that now rule the world. He explains to Max that the robots he has seen are the new generation of bots that are even closer to humans then Max and his generation is. Max, angry, but ultimately defeated is allowed to leave the base and the story ends with him debating on whether or not he should tell anybody about the bots he found in the North Pole, what he wants to do with his life, and the ultimate question, Why?

The planet earth has been drastically changed after The End, the event that ended humanity, and has become a frozen planet where the major oceans are all frozen it regularly snows. When in major cities it is common for soot from factories to clump on to the snow making it seem like it is snowing soot in a event the bots call 'sooting'.

The Akkadian Empire, which occupied Eurasia, used to be ruled King Churchill and Queen Aster, and was Constitutional Duumvirate and was the biggest and strongest empire that both Grand York and Neo Heliopolis rightfully feared, but after a natural disaster destroyed a large part of the Empire and crippled infrastructure for a long while disagreements arose between the two on how to deal with the problem and how to stop it happen in the future. Churchill saying that the bots should change the Earth itself to stop or at the very least lessen the damage caused by the natural disasters; while Aster said that bots should change themselves so they would need less power to operate so that even if a natural disaster hits, bots will still be able to operate recoup and repair any damage caused quicker.Churchill said that deviating from the original design of the Creators would go against their wishes and that bots will lose their sense of self. And on the other-hand Aster said that changing the Earth itself would take too much time and money that the Akkadian Empire did not have at the time and justified her stance on changing themselves by noting that if the Creators didn't want us to modify our bodies we wouldn't be allowed to. These disagreements were divisive enough to start a violent civil war between the two sides, those being Churchill's terraformist, those who wanted to change the Earth, and Aster's egoformist, those who wanted to change themselves. The war was fought to a stalemate and when is was over two new nations arose from the ashes of the Akkadian Empire, Churchill's Bohemian Empire and Aster's Sovereign of Nihon.

Ruled by Churchill as an Absolute Monarchy, he and his people adapt the environment to survive, their motto being "Deviation is Death". Bohemia's army is only strong enough to be used to defend its borders against the Sovereign. The Bohemian Empire is backed by Heliopolis because, even though they're an insular nation that realize that if the two Empires reunite they would be a threat to them.

Ruled by Aster as a Constitutional Monarchy change and augment themselves to survive, their motto being "Adapt or Die". The Sovereign's army is only strong enough to defend the empire against Bohemia. They're closely allied with Grand York, mainly because of Grand York's advancement in technology.

Grand York occupies what was once the Americas, and the capital, Magne is located in what was once New York City is the most diverse Empire because of it's relative stability and civil liberties has one of the best armies equal only to Neo Heliopolis. Its motto is, Peace by Unification, it is a Constitutional Duumvirate and ruled by Charlemagne and his husband Frederick. Grand York is separated into districts that are governed by Senators elected by the bots of that District. Its two wealthiest Districts are Califia, what used to be California, named after Charlemagne and Frederick's first daughter, Califia who settled the west with her husband, and second son of Charlemagne and Frederick, Raphael and is the home District of Maximilian Heath and where he spent the first three years of his career as an Agent of the Justice Borough. and Magne named after the first son of named after the first son of Charlemagne Frederick who settled the East and defended the Pacific Ice Sheet against Neo Heliopolian forces and is the home District of Geoff Steele and where Max and Geoff now work. Because this empire is the most technologically advanced nation is shares a close alliance with the Sovereign of Nihon, who are the biggest importers of their goods.

Neo Heliopolis occupies what was once Africa and is ruled by Queen Ophelia and her brother Prince Alexander. Heliopolis is a very insular nation, its motto being, "Strength by Homogeneity". Heliopolis' main focus is military and despite being the smallest empire its army can go toe-to-toe with any Empire and usually win. It is an Absolute Duumvirate and cracks down hard on political dissidents, imprisoning them if not outright executing them. Because of this citizens sometimes try to escape across the Pacific Ice Sheet to Grand York. With the recent ceasefire with Grand York after a decade long border war though tensions between the two Empires are still high Heliopolis' leaders have allowed more freedoms in order to stop bots fleeing from the country. Heliopolis strongly backs the Bohemian Empire ibecause, even though they're an insular nation that realize that if the the Akkadian Empire were to reunite they would be a threat to them and also because of Grand York's close alliance with the Sovereign of Nihon.

The main protagonist of The Machine is Us. He is a ten year veteran agent for Grand York's Federal Justice Borough. Helena is is lover of fiver years. His partner of seven years at the Borough is Geoff Steele. He is inquisitive and constantly thinks of the larger picture and the meaning of his creation and cautious to a fault.

Maximilian's partner in the Federal Justice Borough of seven years. He charges at problems gung-ho and keeps Max's crime theories grounded.

One of the main antagonist Private Investigator that uses any means she deems necessary to get a bigger payout. She wields a sardonic wit as proficiently as she wields her gun and is cold and calculating at all times.

One of the main antagonist and the controller of the bots who have been stealing from the companies. He is the son of Rebecca and Gerald Henderson, the creators of the Six Great Leaders, and is the last 'human' left alive. He is nothing but a brain hooked up to a massive computer when Max confronts him and has grown obsessed with creating life at any cost before he dies. His main goal was to create a new generation of bots that are closer to the human condition then the bots his parents created. He has little respect for the lives of the bots his parents created thinking that his are superior, the only bot he truly respects is Maximilian for surviving so long and out witting even him.

Maximilian's lover of five years and professor of philosophy at Magne State University.

Max and Geoff's commanding officer at the Magne Borough HQ.

The Commander Officer at the Califia Borough HQ and Max's old boss.

Son of Vladimir Trotsky, founder of Mecha Corp , one of the companies that is robbed, and its current CEO. He hires Ms.Cairo in order to keep the State from knowing what his company is working on.

Agents at the Califia Borough HQ.

An information broker that has a history with Max. He helps Max find Cairo after she betrays him.