When theories of global warming had first emerged, few truly believed the massive impact it would have on our planet. The fires that first broke out in the Western United States were initially met with fleeting success at stopping their spread, but each time they returned they were larger, more intense, and longer lasting. After several decades it became clear that the entire California coastline was going to become uninhabitable. Tens of thousands of people – civilians, paramedics, and firefighters alike – had all perished in the flames before it became clear the area was just too dangerous for any human to live. The situation became hopeless, large swaths of the California coast essentially deserted. Trillions of dollars worth of real estate abandoned, tens of millions of lives forever altered. Scientists, engineers, and countless others spent their lives working to find a solution, desperate to return the area to a place where people could exist unthreatened. Desperate to take back one of the most gorgeous landscapes on Earth as a place suitable for human existence. Desperate to finally stop the fires that had proven unstoppable. Various biological, ecological, and other ideas were tested, but the final solution came in the form of an idea that had at first seemed insane: Mechs. Massive robots beyond the scale of anything seen before. An engineer had proposed the idea years before, except for the use in large scale construction, but had been laughed off and ridiculed as being “too fantastic” or “insane.” But in a desperate attempt to salvage the remains of the West Coast, the project had been funded. The idea was to use the mechs to walk directly into the millions of acres of scorching flames, and spread a newly developed flame-smothering foam in the hope of quenching the long untameable fires. To the amazement of all the initial doubters, the mechs were successfully created. Piloted neurologically by firefighters willing to face the rigorous training required, the mechs doused the fires in mile-long chunks, and within a year of their creation, managed to extinguish all the flames. However, the newly fire-free coast was razed. There were nearly no buildings left, and those that remained were heavily dilapidated and destroyed. It would’ve taken decades to even partially rebuild the vibrant cities there had once been…if it hadn’t been for the mechs. Now that they were able to be utilized for their initially intended purpose, the massive robots drastically increased the speed of the repairs. What would have taken a minimum of twenty years to do without them was done in only nine, and the coast, while still showing the scars of the flames, was nearly completely rebuilt within fifteen. The increased productivity of smaller robots that had risen up out of the advancement of the mechs helped to quicken the process even more. Their work to create a mass supply of housing materials created time for architects and designers to design and construct buildings made to resist any future fires. Probing robots were invented to help scientists test the areas still contaminated, to find better methods to prevent the flames from starting in the first place, as well as the quickest ways to regrow the vegetation lost. Back in 2025 no one could have ever predicted this nearly unbelievable and fantastical future. The fires were just really starting to inflict incredible damage, and robots were just emerging from their long infancy. Yet it was the robots, and the humans that invented and worked with them, that came together to save our world and begin to heal the damage done.