Toy Wars by Thomas Gondolfi

right arm was now less than my left. I guess what bothered me most was that it was white. White now adulterated my beautiful p urple. I guess I should have been more specific about my selection among the dead animals. It didn’t matter, but it bothered me anyway.
    On that twenty-first day two trains arrived at our end of the line. The first train to arrive brought a long list of fresh troops to replace much more than we had lost. I was ecstatic. The security of our position just jumped an order of magnitude . It now was truly more than secure. Security also seemed within Six’s thoughts as well . The same train also carried a squad of three net - building units, which looked remarkably like brown plastic scorpions about 6 meters long and 2 high ( 4 if you counted the tail). Each carried eighteen NCs for deployment. Six inten ded to expand our territories here where I held our line.
    My memories reported this to be the first expansion for Six in nearly eleven years. I could almost see the dust puff off the scorpions ’ shiny , but unused bodies as they climbed down. I could sense the eagerness to accomplish something after so long a hiatus.
    Just as I was getting excited at the prospect of making headway myself, I received an order over the WAN.
    I must digress here for a moment. My processor had been designed to implement directives from Six in any way d esired. I self-direct ed, determining my own priorities. I was fully autonomous. So completely self-controlling was my processor that I was fully capable of disregarding orders given to me by Six as long as I preserved the overall good of Six. That is I could ignore all orders . Two exceptions remained to this control — an order to self-destruct and an order to recall .
    The self-destruct order was one I feared. Losing activation because of the ultimate act of Six’s selfishness I didn’t relish . Even so my fear seemed to symbolize a lack of discipline within myself. I knew th at order was hardwired into my processor . N o amount of tampering with it on my part would do anything but cause premature detonation of the small explosive charge on my sump and processor board.
    The recall order I didn’t fear but it still involved involuntary actions. I couldn’t even put it in the “wait for action” queue for more than ten thousand clock cycles. It was nothing less than an irresistible urge to return home.
    Six cast the geas upon me. “Teddy 1499, recall.” Don’t get me wrong. I would have obeyed in any case, but not to have a choice bothered me beyond understanding. I complied, with a troubled thought process, as soon as I had given orders to load the larger train with the animal bodies.
    The second train, a small single car unit, sent here for the sole purpose of taking me back to Six, managed to convey its displeasure in being used in such a trivial manner. I could imagine its thinking. “To be used to transport a single unit. What a waste of my precious time.” The engine, obviously irritated that I should rate any such special treatment, didn’t even wait for me to buckle down before starting off with such an amazing acceleration that I almost flipped over backward. I struggled to pull the belt tight across me before we screeched around the first corner of the track. It felt somewhat like being on the back of the Tyrannosaurus rex beast as we flew around corners with me clinging to the edge of the flatbed car . That battle wa s som ething I wanted to forget for a long time — forever being a good length of time.
    My processors must have decided my body had abused itself enough with three weeks of continuous operations as I began to get very tired. I decided that this was the best time to sleep, so I drifted off. What happened next I can only explain with a Human definition: “ nightmare : n oun, a sequence of frightening images passing through a sleeping person’s mind. ”
    A huge Human male , at least 16 meters tall, with water pouring from his eyes and