Look at their faces, shaved so smooth. The soldiers look like children as they sleep peacefully in their cryoberths.
Earth is so far away. What is it like to dream for decades--centuries?--frozen?
They took such great care: a shackled AI to sing them to sleep if they wake early, robots to keep their guns and armor and knives and atomic bombs clean and ready for genocide, and all the proper paperwork and bureaucracy for colonization signed.
These little toy soldiers, these arrows of conquest, they planned for it all.
Except for us meeting them halfway, while they dream.
The End
This story was first published on Thursday, October 1st, 2020
We hope you're enjoying
Arrows of Conquest by
Marcus Vance.
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