ZER0ED METRICS

The cockpit reeked of sweat-coated leather and chemical coolant. Janmar twitched nervously as he ran his hands over the console and watched the threat-assessment overlay on his main monitor turn a pulsating, hostile crimson. His mech was rapidly approaching a camp full of potential insurgents.

“You’re doing so well, darling,” said a woman’s voice on the internal speaker system, and he instantly relaxed in his chair.

Her voice was so gentle, so comforting, and for his ears only. It was a blanket that covered up all of his insecurities and protected him from the information overload on his screens. She was his copilot, and she would tell him whatever he needed to know. He could trust her.

“Sensors are picking up movement in those tents. They’re preparing anti-armor weaponry. I don’t want them to get the chance to use it,” the voice said, sounding concerned.

“Don’t worry,” replied Janmar. “I won’t let them touch us.”

He grabbed a joystick in each hand and rotated his mech’s gun arms to face the camp, a haggard assortment of white tents, squeezing the triggers without hesitation. On his central display, streams of fire erupted from his vehicle and began to engulf everything. Wood splintered and figures came scrambling out into the sand, but he kept his weapons hot. He heard their screaming for just a second, then his copilot shut off the external microphones.

“The enemy are running, Janmar. Don’t let them get away.”

A screen to his left flashed a boxy outline over a truck that was speeding away from the camp. It looked crammed with more people than he’d ever seen in a vehicle of that size. He turned the mech towards it and fired light machine gun rounds until it and all of its passengers were no longer moving.

“Area clear. Threat level reduced to 0%,” the voice said as the red overlays vanished. “Oh, Janmar, you’re so good at this. What would I ever do without you?”

Janmar smiled, a deep sense of peace washing over him. He was happy that she was happy. He would tear the whole world down to keep hearing her satisfied voice.

“You’ll never have to find out,” he said.

“Look at that freak,” said the munitions officer, leaning across a stack of ammo crates and lighting up a cigarette.

Janmar was walking across the base with a stiff, unnatural stride. His gray jumpsuit was drenched in sweat and covered with various stains. In his hands, clenched tightly, was a plastic tray with some kind of nutrient-enriched slop from the field kitchen and a pair of electrolyte drinks. He didn’t stop to acknowledge any of the other soldiers.

“He walks over to the mess, grabs his rations, and then goes right back to that fucking mech. He eats there, sleeps there, and won’t even look us regulars in the eye.”

“What, you think he’s got it in his head that he’s better than us because he’s a mech pilot?” asked one of the infantrymen.

“No,” spat the munitions officer. “I think he’s fucked in the head. Insane! He’s got this crazy glassy-eyed stare, if you ever actually manage to get close to him before he scarpers back his killing machine. He gives me the fucking creeps.”

“You know, apparently some of the guys watched his gun-camera feed from the fight with the locals earlier. He burned a triage camp to a crisp and then went hunting for the survivors. He didn’t even give them the option of surrender before pulling the trigger. Just absolutely merciless stuff.”

“That’s messed up. A guy like him has got to be a total psychopath. I don’t care if we’re on the same side, I’m not turning my back on him for a second.”

“Ah, lay off him,” said a third soldier, a mechanic, as he finished off a can of cola. “He’s just devoted.”

“To what?” the munitions officer snorted. “To the VMA? To the ‘buffer zone’? And there I was thinking we were all in it for the money.”

“Nah, man, to his wife. Haven’t you heard? He talks to her in his mech even when most of the base is asleep. It’s all sappy-like, joking around, making promises, calling each other pet names. The guys from night patrol said he sounds like a giddy teenager.”

“And you’re sure he’s not just hearing things and talking to himself?”

“It’s not to himself. All the mechs these days come with artificial intelligence copilots. They’re really lifelike too.”

“Hah, so he married a fucking robot? Who does that? That’s ridiculous,” the munitions officer chuckled.

“Even worse,” said the mechanic, leaning in. “I saw his papers and it’s not some standard template AI with a personality added on top of the default tactical suite like an afterthought, it’s a neutral-print.”

“A what?” asked the munitions officer as he and the infantryman stared blankly at the mechanic.

“He and his wife were both from the slums on Vitaria’s east side. When she got sick, there was no way they were going to keep up with all the medical bills, so he joined the VMA on a tailored contract that offered them a full brainscan. They probably didn’t expect it to be fused to target acquisition software, but that’s what’s in his mech. It’s his wife’s memories, personality, speech patterns, all mapped in as the AI copilot.”

Everyone went quiet for a moment. They looked towards the Janmar’s mech, Gildhome, a heavily armored, heavily armed, metal monster. Janmar had already sealed himself back inside. The munitions officer’s cigarette burned away between his fingertips as he studied the way the sun reflected off its brassy paint job.

“So,” the officer began, pausing as he used the underside of his boot to snuff out his cigarette in the gritty sand, “he thinks that she’s alive and in there with him?”

“That’s right, and her programming means that she only feels safe when the threat metrics hit zero. He isn’t killing people for fun, for the ‘glory’ of the VMA, or even for the money to live a good life back in the city. He knows that if he ever stops shooting, she’s gonna suffer, and she’s going to do it the way his wife would. If he runs off or his mech goes down in battle, that’s it, she’s dead again.”

Inside Gildhome’s dark cockpit, Janmar had just finished eating his meal in the cold blue light of a single monitor. His wife was on the screen, leaning in towards him and smiling. He took off his left glove, revealing his wedding band. And he held it to his lips.