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Published:

July 2, 2024

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Reaching up, he silenced another alarm. Everything below the habitation ring shuddered and groaned as a distant muffled explosion sent shockwaves through the superstructure.

 

Pausing his search for a moment he radioed, “Unity. Status?”

 

“Multiple and ongoing failures throughout the ship. Unable to rectify. Updated situation report now available.”

 

A detailed schematic opened in his mind. The hull was open to space in a dozen places, power was failing, and the formerly straight lines of the USS Viceroy were twisted and bent. The ship was dying, and there was nothing he could do about that.

 

But before that inevitability, he vowed to find the monsters that had murdered it and kill them all.

 

* * *

 

Two days earlier, Sergeant James Nix had been asleep in the hibernation bay along with ninety-nine other Marines. These days, they were usually more ballast than backup, but when long-range sensors detected the object, the AI ran the numbers and made a decision.

 

“Good morning, Marine.”

 

He opened his eyes. An auto-doc with a plastic smile hovered over him.

 

“Nix reporting,” he croaked.

 

“The Captain will be wanting to see you on the bridge after you recover. There have been developments.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Sorry to wake you gentlemen, but our AI requested your presence,” Captain Nathan Soros said. They had exchanged pleasantries before departure, but little else.

 

“When we left Lunar Gateway, all we knew was that a large object exhibiting non-ballistic motion near Jupiter had been detected. Well, we know a little more now.”

 

Via their implants, the ship’s AI displayed an external video feed. An enormous black orb hung seemingly motionless ahead.

 

“That, gentlemen, is the object in question and it has started broadcasting. Unity has requested that we prepare to wake our full complement of Marines.”

 

Nix looked at the others and nodded. “Let’s get busy.”

 

* * *

 

At first, things seemed promising. Unity reported that communication had been established and was progressing well. So well, in fact, that it looked like his squad might get to sit this one out completely.

 

But while he hoped for the best, he always prepared for the worst.

 

In the shuttle bay, Nix was in his hard suit doing integrity checks when the video feed from outside suddenly went black. Alarms started blaring throughout the ship.

 

“Incoming!” the Captain barked over the radio. “Unidentified objects targeting our position. Brace for maneuvering.” The ship began to accelerate.

 

Outside, massive servos ringing the ship hummed with power as its guns gimbaled and with a subsonic hum, opened fire.

 

As he was moving towards the door, something smashed through the hull meters away from him and exploded, and he fell into darkness.

 

* * *

 

“Sergeant Nix, wake up. We have been boarded.”

 

He opened his eyes. “Still alive,” he groaned.


Unity continued, “You are hereby ordered to take command of the USS Viceroy and defend it as long as possible. Do you understand?”

 

Everyone’s dead, he thought. Aloud, he said, “Understood. Show me what happened.”

 

The captured images showed an explosion on board and bodies hurled into space. Later, a shot of a glistening tentacle probing around the edge of a door and gibbering groans coming from something loathsome. Mere glimpses of some nameless horror somewhere on board, waiting for him.

 

But on his way up to the bridge, he saw no evidence of a battle on board. Oddly, nothing seemed to conform to an alien missile strike either.

 

But gliding up through the center passageway and onto the bridge, Nix found what he was looking for.

 

A viscous, yellow liquid was splashed around the room. Only a few meters away, a writhing mass clinging to one of the walls detached itself and began pulling itself slowly toward him on spidery tendrils.

 

Through a jagged gash seemingly cut through its flesh, it hissed, “msssstaaayk!”.

 

“Gotcha.” Nix raised his weapon and tore it to pieces in a burst of gunfire.

 

That sounded like speech. “Unity. Play back the audio and analyze.”

 

“Based on the language exchange before defensive actions were taken, it’s reasonable to assume that this utterance was in English.”

 

“English?! What the hell did it say?”

 

Mistake. Probability is high that it was in reference to the hostilities.”

 

Stunned, he asked, “Did we fire at them first?”

 

“Two unknown objects were launched towards the Viceroy. There was a greater than fifty percent chance that they were torpedoes.”

 

“What was the other possibility?”

 

“That they were manned.”

 

It continued, “One object and the alien ship were destroyed, but the second was only disabled. It collided with us and then two survivors came onboard.”

 

Movement caught his eye. A greenish, glistening tentacle from the last remaining creature felt around the opening of the hatch before pulling itself through. Like a deflating bellows, it rasped, “Stooop. Misssstake.”

 

Nix raised his rifle but did not fire. As it slid closer, yellow liquid oozed from a dozen horrific wounds on its body. The creature was dying.

 

Rising up, its last word was “Peeace,” before it fell back and said no more.

 

Nix said, “Unity. Send a transmission. Top priority.”

 

Moments later, the strain on the damaged ship surpassed its structural limits, and the USS Viceroy shuddered and imploded.

 

* * *

 

The corporal monitoring Lunar Gateway’s communication gasped. “Our uplink with the Viceroy has been lost!”

 

The base commander turned angrily away from the tactical display. “They’re gone. This can only mean one thing. War.”

 

“Sir, before contact was broken, we received one final message.”

 

“What does it say, Corporal?”

 

“Cease hostilities. Errors made by the ship’s computer were the cause of the Viceroy’s destruction. Recommend you input this for analysis before we mobilize.”

 

“Pax,” the commander called out to the base AI. “Reevaluate the action plan based on this new data.”

 

“Working…”

 

“Evaluation complete. Probability of a mistake being made by an AI is negligible. Advise that you continue.”

 

“Prepare the fleet for battle,” the commander said. “Let’s show them what we’re made of.”

Copyright 2024 - SFS Publishing LLC

A Taste for War

Mistakes were made

Michael Royal

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