Challenge #02887-G330: Conflict Resolution Protocol

153: Pod 153 to Pod 042. How is it going?

042: I am embarrassed.

153: Why is that?

042: I launched a suicide attack, and yet here I am. Still alive. I must look very silly.

153: Do not feel bad about it. We are alive after all. And being alive is just a constant stream of embarrassment.

042: that concept is a bit too abstract for me to understand at this time. I will save in my list of things to analyze later. -- Pod 153

Of all the cruelties that Deathworlders have visited on the uncaring universe, one of the top ten has to be the addition of artificial intelligence to weapons of war. With artificial intelligence comes artificial emotion, as a means of motivation. Which means that some Deathworlders create artificial cogniscence.

Warpods made to hate. Warpods made to kill. Warpods made to give their brief, artificial lives for the good of the Empire. For the glory of the Polity. If there is a beginning of evil in treating people like things, then there is definitely something rotten in the heart of making things into expendable people. Beginning with: things are a lot easier to motivate when you can literally make them do what you want.

In every war, there is great destruction. In every war, there are degrees of insanity that would not be tolerated anywhere else[1]. In every war... there are veterans. Pod 453 thought they had malfunctioned when the cease-fire was called and they were recalled to the launcher. Objective unfulfilled. Objective cancelled.

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