Marina J. Lostetter - Activation Degradation (2021) ENG

When Unit Four&;a biological soft robot built and stored high above the Jovian atmosphere&;is activated for the first time, it&;s in crisis mode. Aliens are attacking the Helium-3 mine it was created to oversee, and now its sole purpose is to defend Earth&;s largest energy resource from the invaders in ship-to-ship combat.

But something&;s wrong. Unit Four doesn&;t feel quite right.

There are files in its databanks it can&;t account for, unusual chemical combinations roaring through its pipes, and the primers it possesses on the aliens are suspiciously sparse. The robot is under orders to seek and destroy. That&;s all it knows.

According to its handler, that&;s all it needs to know.

Determined to fulfill its directives, Unit Four launches its ship and goes on the attack, but it has no idea it&;s about to get caught in a downward spiral of misinformation, reprograming, and interstellar conflict.

Most robots are simple tools. Unit Four is well on its way to becoming something more....