Robert was a normal guy. He was born to an average family in an average American home, and he had average aspirations as a child that followed him into adulthood. He wanted to join the military and fight amazing battles, it was all childish dreams however, but as he grew older he decided to protect his country and enlist in the space force. He had chosen the space force since, at the time, it was little more than some minor patrol vessels in space and control stations on the ground. He had been given the gunner position on one of the larger vessels, and he took to his position with pride, shooting down any criminal vessels that needed to be shot down, but mostly just incapacitating the ships for boarding. Robert had been the best shot in the whole fleet, which he was proud and completely happy with until the war broke out. The exact cause for the war was unknown, but everyone started shooting at everyone else all at once. No nuclear weapons were used at first, because most people in power weren’t complete idiots, but other methods of destruction were devised and a new arms race had begun. This arms race was different from those of old, as space was a new frontier for warfare this time around, and this led Robert to be given the culmination of the arms race.

The new weapon given to Robert was a gun big enough to put the Tzar Bomba to shame, this Orbital Suppression Laser (ORSUL for short) was able to not just wipe out cities, but entire countries. This weapon was meant to end the war, and fighting seemed to slow to a crawl after it was demonstrated on The Moon and melted the entire Ocean of Storms.

So here Robert sat, at the helm of the most powerful weapon ever made by Humanity, but never to be used. He did not like his new job, while he was paid handsomely to effectively just watch videos and wait for an order that would never come, he hated it. Robert missed the action of gunning an unassuming ship and fighting, he just wanted to do something. He longed for one shot, he could take out the Antarctic Federation, The New Confederate States of America, even just Oceania’s main continent of Australia. He used to fire many shots a day, but now he had just defaced The Moon a few years ago, the shot had been so easy, but it made him think, why had it been so easy? It was easier than any other shot he had taken, even though it was by far the most powerful. Maybe it was the lack of people that made it easier, now that he thought about it more, that was definitely it, the lack of people. There had always been a feeling, a bit of hesitation before he killed someone, and even more when he killed hundreds in a single ship. Could he kill billions of innocent people if he was given the order?

Suddenly, his ruminations were cut off when he received a message on his datapad, it was probably just some spam or a reply to one of his posts, no matter what it was, he still had to check or he could be in trouble if it was something serious. He read the notification, and what it said made him drop everything else he was doing and just stare.

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ALERT!

MULTIPLE NUCLEAR LAUNCHES FROM:

[THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN]

HAVE BEEN DETECTED

IMEDIATE ACTION REQUIERD BY THE ORSUL AGAINST:

[THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN]

He couldn’t believe it, they had actually gone and fired nukes, and he was given an order, but should he follow it? With this shot, not just a few hundred million people would die, not even a billion, but six billion people would die. Some would be instantly vaporized if they were lucky, but most would die from far more painful and excruciating death. No matter what he did, billions of people would die, but by pressing one button, he would kill billions that would not die otherwise. Six billion innocents whose only crimes were living in the wrong place. His finger hovered over the button, if he didn’t press it, nothing would happen, six billion people would live, but probably be thrown into a hellscape apocalypse. He would need a while to make a decision, a few minutes at least, that was when another notification appeared on his datapad.

WARNINING!

MISSILES ON INTERSEPT COURSE WITH THE ORSUL DETECETED.

CONFIRMED NUCLEAR.

APROXIMATE TIME UNTIL INTERSEPT

T- 30 SECONDS

Now there was no longer the comfort of all the time in the world to make his decision, Robert only had a matter of seconds to make a choice, so he made it before he could regret it in his final moments. With a single button press, all of the Japanese Empire was destroyed, along with it, parts of Africa, Europe, and Australia. The sheer size of the Empire meant all of Asia was gone as well, the people had no chance to run or hide, they just ceased to exist. Robert then awaited his inevitable demise, one second passed, then five, then ten and thirty. After only a minute, Robert realized what had happened, it was a computer error. There were no nukes, no world ending apocalypse, and he just wiped out half of the population in cold blood.