Unilaterally Assured Destruction

by Felix Bartel

To whatever Arini scum it may concern,

My name is Tedai, and I write to you because I am terribly, terminally bored. I am stationed on a godsforsaken asteroid, floating by my lonesome in a sector of space you’ll forgive me for not disclosing, relations between our polities being what they are.

Every three months a small, unmanned shuttle comes bearing vacuum-sealed rations and OPSEC-approved items from friends and family. A drone unloads the cargo and plays a prerecorded message. It reads a manifest of the goods and reminds me to immediately activate the base’s self-destruct sequence if any undisclosed object has been included. On that cheery note the drone instructs me to report any symptoms of isolation-induced psychosis and blasts off, leaving me alone with nothing to look forward to but its metal face and grating voice in three months' time.

The monotone screech of a machine, music to my ears!

When I’m not unpacking rations I spend a few hours each day exercising. I try to limit the damage a low-grav environment does to my body. The idea is that I’m getting out of here at some point, after all. After working out I like to put on one of the holo-vids I usually get with the supply drops so I can get a taste of what was hot back home half a cycle back. Then I get to work destroying lives.

Much like how I assume it is with you, our military is almost wholly automated. Big supercomputers back home analyse the situation, generate attack plans and forward these to unmanned battleships who in turn deploy drones to rain hell on you and your traitorous ilk.

Nothing personal, you understand.

The Concord of Casuarius stipulates sapient oversight in any military action, so here I am. I’m in charge of a sector of space orders of magnitude larger than what the human mind can conceptualise. I am to review and approve any attack plan carried out in my sector. Of course these are quite numerous. I crunched the numbers once, and on an average day I have 46.2 seconds to review each plan. If I fall behind I will face court martial for obstruction of the war effort. Thus the Concord is technically obeyed but central command and the August Lords suffer no real restrictions. My approach has been to immediately approve the majority of plans, buying me some time to actually review the ones involving large volumes of munitions, but even this feels futile.

After a long time in this routine I felt I had two paths before me. I could either continue as I have been and drive myself insane and hopefully towards a medical discharge or I could seek some stimulation. So on one supply drop I sent back a letter as usual, but this time the innocuous and vague update hid a message written in a cipher me and my brother made up when we were kids. It was a long shot. I didn’t know if my brother would even read the damn thing, much less bother to look for a cipher we haven’t used in years, but to my surprise and delight the next supply drop came and there it was. Stuffed in a pastry and wrapped in rad-foil was an ansible. The very ansible I’m using to compose this message, aim it vaguely towards your space and hope that someone in a similar position picks it up. In the unlikely event that this happens, who are you? Is your situation as dreary as mine and would you like a pen pal? If you do, and I realise there are a lot of ifs, here’s a subject to get us started: What the hell is this war even about?

Your inevitable defeat is nigh!

/Tedai

04.11.23 3346th standard cycle

***

Dear Tedai,

Your luck is literally astronomical. For the sake of my side, I hope it does not hold. My name is Drani and like you wished I am a human member of the Arini military in a position somewhat similar to yours. I’m stationed on an orbital defence station. Exactly which one will remain unsaid, I’m sure you understand. My condition is rather less miserable than the one you describe, a perk of my country’s not being a dystopic autocracy (do let me know if you’d like to turn your coat). Nevertheless I am also rather bored. The station’s defences are naturally automated. I’m only here for the eventuality of a critical failure. Considering the genius of our engineers no such thing is likely to happen. So I may have tampered with the systems slightly to borrow the station’s military-grade scanner and look at the transmissions flying between our nations. Drowning my boredom in voyeurism, I found your missive. And though you are the enemy, your message was such a pathetic cry for help that I had to respond.

Our side hasn't forgotten about morality.

So by all means let us talk, but if you’re an intelligence operative you’ll be disappointed. I know nothing worth knowing. You ask about the war. As we both know the proximate cause of the outbreak was the assassination of Cora M’Deni on Tamias by Zygi extremists. The source of your confusion is, I think, that Tamias isn’t in either of our spaces, M’Deni was a local politician and the Zygi are a purely Tamian movement. So what does what happened on a small, neutral moon got to do with either of us? M’Deni was suspected of being in the pocket of Koschei corp and was indeed about to introduce a bill that would let them establish operations on Tamias. The Zygi, aware of what tends to happen in places where Koschei corp establish operations, turned M’Deni’s head to cinders with a blaster rifle. A blaster rifle of Arini design. The final piece of the puzzle is that Koschei is one of your corps with close ties to your August Lords. I don’t know if my side actually had anything to do with M’Deni’s murder. I hope not, but it is beside the point. What is this war about? Self-determination. You think freedom, “free trade’’, means your corps being able to do as they please. That no nation, moon or planet can say no. So strong is your conviction that you’ll turn the galaxy into an ash heap rather than suffer any obstruction. Our side fights for the principle that the people of any world should decide what happens there.

I’m curious, did you know that your posting would be as dreary as you describe? If you did, what drove you to enlist? Or were you conscripted? If you would only share your position I’m sure my side could arrange a rescue operation.

As long as Arine stands your fascism will never triumph!

/Drani

111.03.36 1733 post revolution

***

Dear Drani,

Your attempt to learn my location is as subtle as I’d expect from your side. For your next attempt I’d suggest some description of the rustic charms of your backwater world before trying to flip a hostile combatant.

I’m more of a clerk but you know what I mean.

You speak of self-determination. A high ideal! I’m sure it’s pure coincidence that what the Zygi determined happened to align with your interests. Coincidence also that you sponsor anti-Koschei ‘‘documentaries’’. Is it self-determination if it’s influenced from the outside?

I’m flattered by your interest in my personal life. To answer your question, yes, I did know that this posting would be a difficult one though I perhaps underestimated the extent. As for why I took it, the perks are proportional to the pain. Tuition-free admission to a top university in addition to the more-than-fair compensation, which I have nothing to spend on over here means I already have a considerable amount of money saved up. Don’t be surprised if you can hear the party I throw when my tour ends over in your system. Besides, I was recently single so nothing was keeping me where I was. Figured I might as well put up with a terrible job for a few years if it means I’m set for life. On the subject of money, news just reached me of the battle at Mephitis Minor (congratulations on that victory, I’m sure it’ll be your last) and the losses on our side are estimated at around a thousand trillion Solari. Our factories and shipyards are churning out matériel to replace these losses as we speak. I feel slightly unpatriotic but I can’t help but think of what else those resources could have been used for. Would that we valued every life as highly as Cora M’Deni!

What were your reasons for joining your military? You strike me as an ideologically aware person but is what happens on Tamias truly that important to you? On the doubtful premise that you should survive, what are your plans after the war?

Resistance is futile!

/Tedai

02.12.24 3346th standard cycle

***

Dear Tedai,

It’s funny that you should mention the ‘‘rustic charms’’ of my world. It’s true, Arine is quite different from your elegiac Ecumenopolis. Upon your imminent defeat I’ll show you. We treat our prisoners quite well.

I’ll take you to the deep jungles, where there is more life in a square mile than there are clothing brands in one of your sprawling malls. I’ll take you high into the mountains, where the crystal lakes sparkle in the sun. When night comes the whole galaxy can be found there, both above you and below. If you hadn’t had a bottle of Papilonidea while gazing into the two universes, real and reflected, you haven’t lived.

You insert a reference to being single about as subtle as your attack plans at Mephitis Minor. Is this an attempt at seduction? If so, I admire the spirit if not the execution of your attempt. Again, you should defect to us. As our prisoner we can include or forgo the handcuffs, based on your preference.

How’s that for seduction?

As for my joining our military, I’d love to tell you that deep ideological commitment drove me, but in the interest of honesty I should admit that I ‘‘won’’ the lottery. The incentives your side provides sounds fair on the surface but of course the rich do not need them and so the underclasses fight your wars. On our side the few sapients needed for the war effort are picked by random draw, which does not discriminate between social classes. That’s how I got my posting. Speaking of which, your concern for my well being is touching but you need not worry. Arine is orbited by an asteroid ring that is not only beautiful but also hosts the planet’s extensive defence system. The nexus of this system is our moon and that is where I am stationed. In a clever—if somewhat sinister—move by the Executive Council our base is built so deeply into the moon that there is no way of destroying it and thus disabling our defences without cracking the moon itself open. Of course your side is well aware the havoc this would wreak on Arine’s ecology goes far beyond what The Concord of Casuarius allows. So don’t worry. Your side will never disable our defences, never seriously threaten Arine itself and never win the war. I’m in the safest place in the universe. You really should switch sides while you can.

May you cower before our righteous forces.

/Drani

74.05.37 1733 post revolution

***

Dear Drani,

Though I’m sure it will be inconsequential in the long run, your victory at Mephitis Minor accomplished something. It drastically increased my workload. I was trying to follow my usual routine, approving all the smaller strikes so that I can actually review the major ones. In my haste, however, I accidentally approved deployment of a monstrous amount of munitions and now the order is sent off and I can’t even see it. I’m sure it’s nothing. We’ve probably found one of your automated shipyards and the digital brass wants to blow it up before you can move it. Still, I had taken some pride in doing the best job possible under the circumstances. Maybe I should just stop trying. I’m tired.

You paint a flattering picture of your little backwater but you fail to see the charm of my world. You still have darkness, true, but Lycaon shines like a star. It is the centre of the universe. You can do anything, meet anyone, ingest any variety of illicit substances.

No mortal can travel the universe in their lifetime. But as luck would have it the cosmos is drawn to Lycaon. Perhaps you’re afraid of what it’ll be like when inevitably you become my prisoner. An exotic barbarian viewed with pity and scorn.

Worry not. In a place where everyone is a freak, no one is.

I can’t help but notice you didn’t answer my question about your future plans. Sore subject? Trust me, new opportunities come when you least expect them. The future of your pathetic polity may look bleak, but I am sure that yours is bright. Now back to work so that I may keep fending off that court martial.

I’ll see you under your white flag!

/Tedai

13.06.25 3346th standard cycle

***

Dear Tedai,

I didn’t answer your question, it’s true. I simply did not know. I won’t bore you with my biography, but to keep it brief you aren’t the only one who was a bit lost before the war. Perhaps getting picked in the draw was a blessing after all. In over an Arine year I’ve hardly communicated with anyone but you. That leaves a lot of time to think and this is going to sound stupid but the universe really is big, isn’t it?

I’ve been to other worlds before, but they’ve all been in the Arini sphere. They had the most amazing geography, impossible flora and fauna and stomach-churning ‘‘delicacies’’ but people were more or less the same everywhere.

Then I caught your message.

I was stunned. The way you still invoke the gods in this day and age. How you wholeheartedly buy into a system so obviously designed to exploit you. How you take the side of a faceless monster like Koschei corp.

And yet.

You’re not a character from a propaganda flick. You’re curious about others. You question. You made me realise that there are so many more kinds of people in the galaxy than I had imagined. That not everyone outside of Arine is a sneering villain or a pitiful victim. When this war is over I want to meet them for myself.

You won’t believe this. As I write, the base alarms started blaring. ‘‘Incoming attack vector,’’ they warn. Getting desperate, are we?

I’ll write again once this little strike of yours has been repelled.

Be well.

/Drani

95.09.38 1733 post revolution

***

Dear Drani,

I know you’ll never read this but naturally I can never tell another soul of our conversation and I need an outlet somewhere so here it goes.

The newscast seemed almost giddy about it. We did it. We blew up your damn moon. It’s little comfort to you now but I imagine you’d be happy to know that this foolish war is over at least. Your Executive Council could have used this atrocity to energise your people and try to get other powers to join your side over this flagrant violation of The Concord of Casuarius. To their credit they did the responsible thing and requested a ceasefire. Proper peace negotiations will start shortly and analysts on the news expect major concessions from Arine. Some of the more sceptical ones voice concerns over the long-term damage this will do to our reputation. I’m in the latter camp myself.

In personal news I’m taking a raincheck on that party. Arine has been hit with all kinds of aftereffects from the blast and I’ve signed up as a volunteer to see if I can airlift some people from the paths of floods or deliver supplies to hard-hit areas. 

I scoffed when you proposed it but in retrospect I would have much rather come to you as a prisoner. We would have gone up to the mountains with a bottle of Papilonidea and poured out a glass for the millions of robots who had been destroyed. We would have been content that at least in a modern war no sentient lives are lost.

I feel like I should say more but I don’t know what.

Well.

It’s been real.

Told you we’d win.

/Tedai

03.18.27 3346th standard cycle

***

Felix Bartel is a fiction writer from Sweden. He enjoys making cocktails, petting his cat and taking absurd scenarios seriously in his fiction. His work has previously appeared in the 206 Word Stories Anthology from Bag of Bones Press and in Rune Bear Weekly. Find him on Twitter @Drinking_Thalia