A Taste of Armageddon

The original Star Trek series did several episodes that explored the theme of war. One of these “A Taste of Armageddon” looked at a society that had replaced physical war with computer simulations. They also had a population that was so ‘patriotic’ they were willing to blindly step into a disintegration chamber so the deaths reported by the computer were achieved. The result of this ‘clean’ warfare was that their culture was able to continue growing and advancing – no destruction or loss of property or information – only people. People willing to die to preserve their society and culture. This also meant the war had been ongoing for centuries with neither side willing to discuss ending it. They saw no need to do so as everything continued as it always had – with no destruction / no suffering / none of the horrors of war.

In today’s society we are striving to find ways to make war as ‘clean’ as possible – with the use of robots, drone aircraft, etc. We have weapons that can pinpoint targets to the square inch while leaving surrounding areas relatively untouched.

As we make war ‘cleaner’ so only those involved are the ones touched – are we going to reach a point where society and culture will only be impacted minimally – removing the need to end wars quickly and letting them continue until they too are an accepted part of our society and culture?

WolfSinger Publications is putting out a call for submissions for A Taste of Armageddon – a speculative fiction anthology that will explore the advancement in ‘clean’ warfare techniques and at what point does war become nothing more than a computer game to those involved. In the Star Trek episode – Kirk challenged that wars had to be messy and those who engaged in warfare had to suffer all the horrors war brings – otherwise they have no reason to stop or avoid it.

At what point does war become nothing more than a computer game?

Is it possible wars will become too clean?

Is it necessary for wars to be messy so people do whatever they can to avoid them?

At what point is war necessary and at what point is war going too far?

At what point does war become too messy or too clean?

Humans have a violent history – are wars necessary – why? / Why not?

Explore warfare in a speculative fiction setting and bring us A Taste of Armageddon.

What I’m not looking for – pro-war or anti-war treatises desguised as a story. I know it is difficult to write this type of story without some politics leaking in – please try to be subtle.

Stories should be 3000-5000 words long.

Payment will be $5.00 plus equal share of 50 percent of royalties

Please send your submission to editor@wolfsingerpubs.com as an .rtf attachment. Put “Armageddon Submission: ‘Title - Last Name’” in the subject line.

Deadline is 31 November 2010 (planned for a Spring/Summer 2011 release)