DARPA's Big Dog

Okay, picture this.  You're the youngest daughter of a hard-working Pakistani family in the year 2018.  You were just born today.  Dad sells disposable cell phones downtown.  Mom dry cleans suits around the corner from Dad.  Your older brother is thirteen today, but he'll be heading off to college (the first to  do so in the family) in just a few months.  Last year, however, the global war on oil slithered its way into your city and the enemy of your country (not your enemy, mind you) has entered your streets.  So far you've been lucky.  Your house is intact.  Your close relatives are unscathed.  But then you hear it.  You hear the sound of...Big Dog.  It's that sound that's about to turn your world inside out.  It's that beast that's about to put a big question mark on your outlook on life...and on the entirety of humanity, as well as his dutiful and steadfast offspring: the machine.