Bullet Points 3 (Digital)

War exists at two distinct levels: the visceral, personal struggle of the individual, and the dispassionate calculations of the strategist. Between these scales lies the complexity of human conflict—a reality that breeds both horror and hope. Bullet Points 3 features works from alternate history giant Harry Turtledove, subgenre founder George Tomkyns Chesney, SFWA member Larry Hodges, and award-winners Liam Hogan and Lisa Short. Now read stories that look war in the face, from the muddy trenches of alternate history to the erased timelines of the deep future:

• Harry Turtledove, "The Phantom Tolbukhin": In an alternate WWII, a Soviet general known as "The Phantom" must lead a daring raid to strike the Nazis where they least expect it.
• George Tomkyns Chesney, "The Battle of Dorking": The classic tale that launched the subgenre warns that national complacency is the swiftest road to total destruction.
• Larry Hodges, "War Around the Clock": A strategic satire where a short-lived general leads his infantry in a relentless, circular march against an impossible enemy.
• Liam Hogan, "Merry-Go-Round": A relativistic combat mission reveals the horrific price of time dilation: soldiers who have spent centuries in the cockpit.
• Lisa Short, "Inversion Point": A young specialist must choose between military duty and a "decontamination" protocol that will kill her own family.
• MV Melcer, "Ships Made of Guns": A collaborator waiting for his day of reckoning discovers that DNA markers are the ultimate weapon against an occupying fleet.
• C. B. Droege, "The Compulsion of Venus": A political dialogue reveals the cold hatred that drives men to resist conscription and go to war.
• A. P. Howell, "Used Armor Smell": Advanced combat suits can scrub the air, but they can’t wash away the copper scent of blood or the weight of hopelessness.
• Caias Ward, "Artist Known": In a war that bleaches reality itself, a soldier fights to preserve a single glass bauble so his erased daughter might still be remembered.
• Marc A. Criley, "The Golden Rays of the Morning Sun": As his battery levels hit zero, a dying soldier fights to save his human heart from a corporate medical waste bin.
• Mia Dalia, "Forget Me Not": A veteran seeking peace discovers that the ghosts of a vanished village have a very sharp way of reclaiming the past.
• Addison Smith, "Bone and Acid and Rushing Waves": On a ship overrun by acid-dripping creatures, a soldier carries her captain’s remains as a gruesome reminder of duty.
• Kiran Kaur Saini, "The Thin Rising Line": A family drills their home-defense missile system with surgical precision to satisfy a sadistic government inspector.
• Daniel Crow, "We’ll Make Them Pay": As the last artillery shells fall, two bloodied captains lead their battalions into a final, silent valley of revenge.
• Conrad Gardner, "Something Else": A soldier brought back to life in a laboratory discovers that being set aside for violence has a profound effect on the soul.
• J. T. Gill, "Hounds": A father guarding robotic "Hounds" of war discovers his own son’s brain has been repurposed for the front lines.
• William R. D. Wood, "And Kill Them": Space jockeys shoot noncoms through slipspace to a target world, where they discover that meeting exotic people is a very relative concept.
• T. M. Thomas, "Closing Time": A drunk pilot's refusal to leave his gunmount leads to a surprising encounter with lethal nanotechnology.
• Ray Daley, "Spun Yarn": A wounded gunner behind enemy lines learns that the enemy is not the heartless alien race he was programmed to believe.