Eight is an understandably important number by octopus reckoning. So the sixty-fourth anniversary of the death of Megamax, as he was now called, promised to be quite central to the community of enhanced octopuses, that the robots had managed to grow up to over a hundred of thousands. The octopus government anticipated the event and had requested the help of the lords which was to be expected from a ruling party called: Foreign Lordship for Octopus Progress. The robots agreed to use their powerful surveillance capabilities to identify and restrain the leaders of the demonstrations that were sure to occur on that day.

Eight days before the date, an opposition party officially declared himself to the world: Progress Led by Octopus Freedom. Flyers were distributed widely and they clearly antagonise the government.

"Forget the FLOP, join the PLOF" was the motto. Bypassers were reminded that the robots were "tyrants, invaders, sharks" among other names, as well as full sentence colourful descriptions.

What worried the FLOP leaders was that the clearly aggressive tone of the PLOF was backed up by a recent discovery of their spies: the PLOF had created a secret (or so they thought) military section. That section called Power and Leadership for the Octopus Freedom Fighters or PLOFF triggered the chancellor to call the robots for a physical military intervention rather than assistance based on pure intelligence.

'Good evening, Chancellor.'

'Good evening, Lord Thoral.'

'So, what is this matter you seem so afraid of?'

'I am a bit surprised you don't already know my lord. The thing is the country has been in turmoil to say the least and now the PLOF is building up armed forces. I am pretty sure they will want to use the anniversary to attract enough followers to launch an attack on the government buildings and attempt a coup.'

'And you fear that even with reinforced local security, they might still succeed? Are you afraid to lose your position? If you are not perceived as the adequate leader, it is your personal failure, and it becomes your duty to accept the consequences.'

'You don't exactly understand. It's my family I'm worried about. I am humbly asking you to secure them in a remote place.'

'Why don't you ask us to come down in number on that date, so that no one will even think of distributing a single flyer?' suggested the robot.

'Well, my advisors assure me that your visible presence on that day will be considered an insult to Megamax and a further proof of your ... Hum... Leadership...' he finished hesitantly.

'Very well, we will monitor the celebrations as planned and we will step in physically but only if the events turned out to be a severe threat to the government and of course your family.'

'Many thanks again, my lord, for your superior wisdom and your ability to reassure a country in need. But I'd like to ask again whether it might be possible for my family to be secured prior to that date in a remote place strictly not accessible to common octopuses.' And he kept on speaking to avoid giving the chance to the robot to answer by the negative. 'I know it has been done before, and though none of them returned I think it is the right move for my family.'

'Now you don't understand.' the lord spelled out menacingly. 'There is as much difference between water and air as between air and space. It is a difficult adaptation that only the fittest can achieve. Your unprepared family is facing less danger in the seas. Besides, space is traditionally reserved for our weapons. They are so powerful they can go through the air and the sea to utterly destroy any building you care to name. Actually, they can evaporate the water of an entire sea if needed.' And satisfied by his demonstration, the lord assumed again his usual condescending tone. 'I assure you my friend, you have nothing to fear. We will watch over you.'

***

The attack was in fact launched two nights before the anniversary and it caught everyone off guard.

It actually started with the rebellious third son of the chancellor. He had smuggled a weapon in the guarded apartments of the chancellor family, and at the predefined time, he did not hesitate to use it on his siblings and mother. It required all the guards, but one staying back by the chancellor separate apartment nearby, to force the door and finally restrain the boy before he could put a hand on his hidden remaining sister.

In the meantime, the chancellor was still sleeping, which made things easier for the lonely guard. He took the time to draw the sign of the death star on the forefront of the chancellor before cutting his throat.

The attack was concerted but not concentrated. Instead of the expected attack en masse to force the government to step down, the rebels took that for granted and went directly for their real target: the people.

For months, the rebel recruits had been requested to identify all the collaborators with the tyrants. That list of names had been dispatched to the rebels as close as possible to them to make the kills effective. Every important collaborator was targeted by two assassins. Every rebel had a list of eight targets to kill, written on a card with their addresses.

The leaders considered it was not a priority to formally identify the target. 'The more people killed in the house, the better,' some would say. But others argued a silent and precise kill was giving the assassin the best chance of making it to the next target. So in the end, they had delegated to the assassins the choice of who was to be killed in those houses.

The recruits had obviously already realised that eight targets in a single night would be difficult to reach. They implicitly accepted that they would die for the cause, and swore that they would attempt as many kills as physically possible.

On top of that, to prove his faith in the great cause, each rebel was requested to start by killing his own family. A little psychological help was sometimes applied if the recruit did not immediately show a readiness to comply. The usual trick was to show the family names on the death card of another recruit. If that failed to impress, the rebellion was facing a potential traitor and asked another recruit to deal with it, for practice.

Surprisingly, the abnormally high number of young octopus who disappeared in the months prior to the anniversary was noticed but not really handled by the minister of defence. He was in fact more preoccupied by the systematic disappearance of all his spies. He was also almost scared by the apparent lack of concern from the chancellor, who indeed relied on the robot technology until his very end.

The night of the rise was probably the most violent, more because of the emotional tension released at once rather than because of the number of kills. That said the rebel leaders were satisfied of the estimated ten to twenty percent of the population killed that they eventually reached in the morning. Out of their thirty percent or so of followers or members of the PLOF, they had recruited one out of six into the PLOFF. Both were excellent penetration numbers. The fact that the assassins only reached an average of two to four kills instead of the probably unrealistic average of six did not deter them.

That night was a complete success over the doomed collaborators. They would be able without issues to complete the second part of the plan on the very date of the anniversary.