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Peace at all cost? |
Peace Through Unity I crouch at the edge of the clearing as my three other blue squad members fan out beside me. Two-hundred yards away, a two-story farmhouse dominates a cluster of outbuildings. Apart from a scatter of chickens scratching the dirt, nothing stirs. Central command's genderless voice cuts through our hive mind. "Blue team-Hostile targets identified. Proceed with weapons hot. Peace through Unity!" When we break cover, anxiety ripples through our collective consciousness before our training seizes control. "Blue7984-Sweep east of farmhouse." I break left, round the farmhouse, and roll in the dust when a shotgun gun blast shatters the silence. Pain sweeps through the collective as Blue3629 takes a hit. The whump, whump of our plasma rifles says my brothers are having their say. I spin when a farm gate clatters against its latch. Not detecting any movement, I pass through the gate onto a narrow trail through the forest. Alone with the collective's ever-present mind-chatter, I stalk my prey to a cliff face where I freeze. Listening. A whimper. A child's cry drifts from a narrow fissure in the limestone wall. Removing my pistol, I squeeze through the cleft, my eyes adjusting to the gloom. "Blue7984-We've lost visual. Relay your visual." A woman blocks my path, brandishing a knife while shielding three children. A blond tress falls across the hostile's face. I falter, lowering my weapon as the memory of a blond woman weeping floods my mind. My mother. She mouths I-love-you before her chest explodes in a pink mist... "Blue7984-Respond!" "Adult female and three children." "Terminate Adult." Shaking, I raise my pistol... "Terminate all." "No!" I yell, and the hive mind snaps into silence. "Blue7984-I repeat! Terminate all!" No more! I drop my weapon, whispering, "Don't tell me what to do."
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