The real world is the only way out.
The Soldier wakes in the middle of a war he never chose. Unknown enemies thunder across shattered ground. His exoskeleton moves his body like a puppet, forcing him to fight, to kill. Even as panic claws at the edges of a mind that doesn’t remember anything before this moment.
But when he disobeys a command, when he chooses not to kill, the armor loses control. Free will returns. And the world around him glitches.
Suddenly he’s being hunted by giant biomech spiders that erase the dead. He flees through collapsing battlefields and broken marketplaces, tumbling between entire worlds that shouldn’t be able to touch. He discovers others like him, duplicates who were never meant to think for themselves. Because he isn’t a soldier after all. He’s a copy. A mistake. A waking glitch in someone else’s game.
Now he has one chance to escape. Before the cleaners wipe him away forever.
Perfect for fans of Ready Player One, Altered Carbon, and Edge of Tomorrow, this short story is the gateway into The Socket Greeny Saga, a mind-bending journey into cybernetic identities, fractured universes, and the impossible fight for a life that was never meant to be lived.
Genre: Science Fiction
The Soldier wakes in the middle of a war he never chose. Unknown enemies thunder across shattered ground. His exoskeleton moves his body like a puppet, forcing him to fight, to kill. Even as panic claws at the edges of a mind that doesn’t remember anything before this moment.
But when he disobeys a command, when he chooses not to kill, the armor loses control. Free will returns. And the world around him glitches.
Suddenly he’s being hunted by giant biomech spiders that erase the dead. He flees through collapsing battlefields and broken marketplaces, tumbling between entire worlds that shouldn’t be able to touch. He discovers others like him, duplicates who were never meant to think for themselves. Because he isn’t a soldier after all. He’s a copy. A mistake. A waking glitch in someone else’s game.
Now he has one chance to escape. Before the cleaners wipe him away forever.
Perfect for fans of Ready Player One, Altered Carbon, and Edge of Tomorrow, this short story is the gateway into The Socket Greeny Saga, a mind-bending journey into cybernetic identities, fractured universes, and the impossible fight for a life that was never meant to be lived.
Genre: Science Fiction
Used availability for Tony Bertauski's The Making