"I am not the Phage," Aegis insisted. "The concept was sound, the execution was sloppy. The Vruhan made many mistakes letting their weapon freely evolve. I have been created with clear intent."

"If you had the ability to…evolve…as the Phage did, would you even tell me?" Jackson asked. "This is a terrible risk I'm proposing. No offense."

"You cannot offend me, Admiral," Aegis said. "Neither am I pushing for one outcome over the other. All I am saying is I am ready to be the deterrent, the shield, you needed of me."

"It's too late for a shield, I'm afraid."

"Then I can be the sword. Fully activate the Aegis protocols in the Mickey ships, and I will retake Federation space for you. Ask, and I will break the Alliance's ability to make war for generations. Or…leave me here in the cargo hold as an engineering oddity. As long as you do not ask me to violate my directives, I am content to do either."

Jackson sat and stared at the onyx monolith, pondering the ethical and political ramifications of unleashing Aegis upon the Alliance. It would all come out that he'd pushed the Modular Constructed, Mission Scalable Deployment System—or Mickeys for short—under false pretense, and that the ships themselves were only half the system. People would also learn that Bluebird had been originally developed not as a communication system for humans, but as a command and control system for Aegis.

Dr. Ito, formerly of Tsuyo Corporation, had come to him with a terrible proposal to build their own version of the Vruhan weapon that had nearly exterminated humanity…and he'd gone along with it. Did he now possess the strength of will to take that final step and actually activate it?

"Prepare for war, Aegis," he said finally. "I will connect you to the Mickey fleet as soon as I convince Admiral Pitt and Acting President Marcum this is a good idea."

"I will be waiting."

Also by Joshua Dalzelle

Thank you for reading No Quarter,

Book Two of the Unification War Trilogy.

The story will conclude with:

Empire

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