Monthly List Fiction: Exhibits From the Museum of Impending Conflicts (Patreon)

The origin of the "Museum of Impending Conflicts" is not known. Located *** miles North of ************ in the ********* desert, the facility is unconnected to any public road and shows no evidence of having ever been staffed or patronized. There are no records of its conception or construction. Powered by its own array of solar panels, the fully automated museum displays exhibits alleged by an introductory plaque to represent "Military innovations that will inevitably shape the remainder of you're[sic] history."

Each exhibit offers a beginning and ending date for each war, but provides no additional information.

EXHIBIT 1, 2128-2139: 

A machine with two long, thin mechanical legs supporting a single gun turret, emitting a thin blue beam. An accompanying white, human shaped mannequin is riddled with thin holes.

EXHIBIT 2, 2138-2145:

A mannequin is posed clawing at its face and chest. Hundreds of tiny, metallic objects are clinging to its surface. An accompanying model enlarges one of these objects, an isopod-like biomimetic robot.

EXHIBIT 3, 2141-2141:

A full size exhibit of a triangular, jetlike aircraft only two meters in length and four meters from one wing tip to the other, each wing carrying what appears to be 16 small bomb shells. There is no cockpit, but a panel has been removed to display the machine's inner workings, which includes a network of what resembles organic tissue.

EXHIBIT 4, 2143-2147:

A small tank-like machine roughly four meters in length and three meters in height. Instead of a cannon, its turret bears a single metallic tentacle eight meters in length, ending in a blue spotlight. A mannequin is posed dragging itself away by its arms. Both of its legs are caught within the spotlight, modeled as though all soft tissue has been stripped from the bones.

EXHIBIT 5: 2149-2152:

A set of two white, humanoid mannequins. One mannequin appears to have had its left arm replaced with a mechanism that projects an unusually long humanoid arm with an oversized hand comprised entirely of dim, yellow light. This "hologram" arm is extending completely through a ragged hole in the chest of a second mannequin, clutching a model mass of viscera in its large fist. It is not known how the material is suspended within this hologram, as all other matter passes through it with ease, but no attempts to move the material "held" in the "fist" have been successful.

EXHIBIT 6, 2150-2151:

A four-legged machine approximately the size and shape of a horse, with a surface of rubbery, translucent brown material. Pink flames are pouring from the tubular "mouth" of the "head" but do not move, and appear to be a holographic "model" similar to the arm of Exhibit 5. A white human mannequin is posed engulfed in these flames. 50% of its body is encrusted with a pink crystalline material.

EXHIBIT 7, 2155-2162:

A machine similar in construction to the "horse" from the previous, but birdlike in shape, and only twelve inches in wingspan. Its "head" matches the spotlight weapon from Exhibit 4, but it is pursuing a mannequin model of a domestic cow riddled with large holes.

EXHIBIT 8: 2156-2160:

A small tangle of metal wiring and tubing hovers in the center of an amorphous mass of light matching that of the "hologram arm" from Exhibit 5. This mass is extending numerous long, thin limbs that branch into radiating clusters of small tentacles. Three of these appendages are posed tearing a mannequin into pieces.

EXHIBIT 9, 2157-2170:

A model of an enormous mass of unidentified, bright orange cacti similar to the genus Opuntia. Multiple mannequins are suspended in the mass, with cactus leaves growing directly through their bodies. All are posed contorted in pain and clutching at the plant biomass.

EXHIBIT 10, 2160-2162:

A translucent model of a luminous green cloud hovers four meters in the air, with a dense, luminous red orb in its center. The cloud is releasing a torrent of dull grey-green liquid also suspended in the air of the exhibit. The mannequin caught in this downpour is reaching out with a single hand, but the rest of its body is a featureless, lumpy and bloated mass.

EXHIBIT 11, 2165-2168:

What appears to be a silverback gorilla is impaling a second gorilla with a halberd-like transparent implement. Each gorilla's head appears to have been replaced with an artificial one. One resembles a canned drink of an unknown brand in an unrecognizable language. The other resembles a stylized blue cat with large eyes, winking and smiling.

EXHIBIT 12, 2170-2190:

A translucent, hollow mannequin is crouching, curled over with its head between its knees. The mannequin's back is torn open, and a model human skeleton is stepping out of this cavity.

EXHIBIT 13, 2210-2212:

No reason is given for the 110 year gap in the exhibits, but this exhibit consists of an object or organism resembling a giraffe-like animal covered in a material similar to thin, green-yellow latex. Its featureless head has a tubular "mouth" spraying forth a hologram model of blue-black vapor drifting to the floor and collecting into a thick layer of fog. The mannequin model appears to be "deflated" in a crumpled heap beneath this mist.

EXHIBIT 14, 2210-2225:

A mannequin is portrayed with unusual proportions; its body is much thicker and more muscular than modern humans, and its arms proportionately longer. This mannequin is pulling open its own stomach area with its left arm. Its right arm is feeding a length of its own model intestine into the mouth of a crawling, infant-like mannequin twice its size.

EXHIBIT 15, 2214-2600:

A model mannequin head is atop a long, thin pole or neck rising nine meters from the ground, with a wide open dark mouth. This is surrounded by over 100 sets of mannequin arms rising from the ground around its base, all reaching toward the head.

EXHIBIT 16, 2221-103: 

The meaning of the provided dates remains unknown. The exhibit consists of a large, transparent object resembling an immense model of a polyhedral virus, hovering one meter from the ground. A human fetus is suspended in its center, larger than a full grown adult.

EXHIBIT 17, 2399-2450:

A white mannequin model shaped like a domestic dog is fleeing from a sphere approximately 12 meters in height, formed entirely from human mannequin arms and faces.

EXHIBIT 18, 3009-6070:

A translucent, yellow object resembling a long-limbed sea star is wrapped around an object resembling a white bird egg. Together this model is 12 meters in height. A square section of the egg shell is absent to display the wrinkled organic tissue within.

EXHIBIT 19, 14678:

From this point on, the exhibits appear to be in random chronological order, and they do not offer an "ending date." The meaning of either change is unknown. This exhibit consists of a white, branching, tree-like model. Several hairless, mole-like organisms are clinging to the trunk, each inserting a pink proboscis into its surface. The swollen, translucent stomachs of these animals are filled with red liquid.

EXHIBIT 20, 4044:

An organic, olive green sphere walks on five tubular, segmented legs. A tangle of red tendrils are erupting from a black slit along its upper surface. A model of a white pterosaur-like animal is caught in these tendrils.

EXHIBIT 21, 72394:

A model of the known solar system, missing Earth and Venus but with 16 identical instances of pluto. Between Uranus and Neptune is an unknown planet with green-brown oceans and scattered, bright red land masses. Tendrils of this planet's ocean material are reaching out and wrapping around Neptune, which is modeled in white.

EXHIBIT 22, 9121:

A crab-like metallic object is standing six meters off the ground on its long, jointed legs, pouring a thick reddish material from a hole in its underside. This material is enveloping and evidently dissolving a smaller mechanical "crab" portrayed in the white mannequin material. On close inspection, the pink substance is finely sculpted and textured as though comprised entirely of minute, tangled human bodies.

EXHIBIT 23, 81809:

At the center of an otherwise empty exhibit platform is a small patch of many tiny, varied mushroom-like growths.

EXHIBIT 24, 3984982121:

This exhibit is missing. The flooring appears to be partially dissolved in a trail precisely 35cm in width, leading from the exhibit platform to the fire exit.

EXHIBIT 25, 0000000000000000:

This exhibit consists of a normal, modern human mannequin curled on the floor with its eyes closed, smiling.