Available in Clarkesworld issue 190, David Goodman’s short story Carapace is a smart, thought-provoking and perfectly-paced blast of military SF exploring questions of identity, autonomy and badass giant robots. When ‘Combat Armature Unit’ (i.e. massive armoured robot ‘suit’) Sierra Mike One Four survives an ambush that wipes out the rest of its squad, its systems automatically follow standard protocol and bring it to full, autonomous consciousness. Its original objectives now impossible, SM-14 determines to complete at least part of its mission and, retrieving a wounded and abandoned enemy officer (which it quickly, horrifyingly instals in its blood-drenched pilot canopy), turns and returns to base. Unfortunately, damage sustained earlier has rendered it incapable of identifying itself as friendly to the automated defences of ‘the Swathe’, forcing SM-14 to improvise in order to survive long enough to make it home.
As you might expect from a story about a self-aware robotic suit of armour, there’s plenty of high-tech military sci-fi action on offer here. While a lot of fun though, SM-14’s tussles with assorted deadly autonomous defence systems aren’t the point of the story. Instead, this is a story about overcoming your limitations, in this case SM-14 rapidly developing its own personality and growing into a rational being, capable of drawing its own conclusions and making decisions beyond the bare essentials of its programming (maybe…maybe…helped by the masses of books, films and music that its now-dead pilot strangely left in its data storage). As it navigates the trials of its journey back to base and interacts with Klezta, the prisoner of war cocooned within its shell, SM-14 proves to be an intriguing and genuinely compelling character, full of unexpected warmth and insight (not to mention a little melodrama) from what is basically a massive mobile weapon.
It’s strangely, brilliantly entertaining to follow this most unorthodox of characters as it observes human and non-human behaviour, chooses a name to make its prisoner more comfortable, quotes literature to illustrate its points, and generally applies its unique combination of knowledge, experience and machine logic to the problems in front of it. This is a great example of the power that science fiction has, to take complex and compelling themes, wrap them up in a story about a giant robot, and produce something powerful, deeply human and very relatable. It’s also one of those stories that’s beautifully satisfying in its own right, but at the same time hints at a broader scope for both its setting and characters that simply begs for further exploration. In short: if you like a bit of thoughtful, intelligent military SF then definitely check this out.
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