The Hegemony believed the Shrike was a weapon left by the TechnoCore. The Ousters believed it was the final evolution of the human soul. Both were fragments of a larger lie.
He laughed without sound. The thorns trembled. Dan Simmons - The Hyperion Cantos
It came at the false dawn—that moment when Hyperion’s twin suns tangled their light into paradox. Four meters of chrome and malice. Blades where hands should be. A face of such beautiful, pitiless geometry that I understood, for the first time, the true meaning of the word numinous . The Hegemony believed the Shrike was a weapon