Grailem by Gary L Beer (top 100 novels txt) 📖

the flagship show a bright green light as a beacon, indicating their readiness. Grailem watches the screen for several hours as each starship indicates its readiness with the bright green beam of light. As the final starship's light shows green the captain grunts in approval and instructs his navigator to set course for Dangilhooley, the planet they are to invade.

This is what Grailem has been waiting for; the Starship‘s to be fully loaded and ready for action. Using the transmitter fitted inside him he wirelessly transmits the right frequency that will release the poisonous gas he has also installed in every Starship.
Within thirty seconds all of the Arct on board the Starship‘s are dead. Activating all of the robots on board the Starship‘s he wirelessly instructs them to dispose of the bodies into outer space. Inserting his modified circuit boards into the main computer's Grailem takes control of all the Starship‘s in their distant orbit around the planet.
Assigning each starship a sector of the Arct planet below, with each central point a city, he instructs the Starship‘s to land and the robots disembark and kill every living thing in their sector.
Remaining in orbit, in case the Arct possess a super weapon he is unaware of, Grailem watches the Starship‘s break orbit and head towards the planet.
The robots had been programmed well in preparation for their invasion of the humanoid planet. Their main directive was to kill; and kill they did. The Arct, with no weapons or robots to defend them and not experiencing any wars for generations were killed easily. Though the Arct were their creators it made no difference - as the robots slaughtered their one time master's – every single one of them.
Eighteen hours later every mammal on the planet was dead; women, children, the pet dogs and even the herds of buffalo and the birds flying in the sky were killed.

Breaking orbit Grailem instructs his robot navigator to land him in the capital of the planet. Called Severdia it was the height of Arct civilisation, before Grailem's interference twenty million Arct lived within the confines of the city. Grailem locates the science headquarters through the ship's computer network and instructs the navigator to land the starship at a nearby park.
The main science building is an imposing structure; made of stone rather than the familiar bright metal of all the other buildings around it made it look old, and somehow evil.
The robots had done a good job in clearing all the dead Arct bodies away and many were mopping the floor, trying to clear the puddles of blood. Making his way to the main office Grailem pushes the door open and steps inside.
Here was one room the robots had not cleared, as the Director lay slumped across his desk, his head in a pool of blood. The ancient single shot revolver he held in his right hand implied he had taken his own life. With his death not being reported into the robot main frame, his body would remain here until the cleaning robots arrived.
Looking over his shoulder at the blood stained paperwork sprawled across the desk, Grailem can see that most of the information is obliterated by thick blackening blood.
Looking around the room Grailem sees a large star chart covering one wall. The chart is expertly done and shows the domain of the Arct. Every planet and moon they occupy is indicated on the chart. Population figures and estimates of humanoid food consumption are displayed in holographic three dimensional labels. Here before him, was all the information he needed to destroy the entire Arct race.

Searching the computer's memory banks Grailem tried to find the exact number of Arct who had lived on this planet. He knew the legion of robots had killed billions; but also billions of other mammals and all of the humanoids. Each Arct kill made by one of Grailem's improved robots was recorded onto the main computer in great detail. The problem was that all the other kills were also recorded, even though they were of other species the same amount of detail was recorded. The error in Grailem's computer programming was that the kills were added along with the Arct kills to give a total number of kills.
Grailem studied the figures which showed that the total number of kills was nearly three times the recorded population of Arct. Many Arct may have hidden themselves amongst the shattered buildings and may have even escaped to the forest. Instructing his robot legion to seek out any remaining Arct and with the figures confused by the addition of the other mammals they searched for a week and only found a few who were half-starved and near to death before Grailem was satisfied no more remained.

The next Arct occupied populated planet was fifteen light years away and travelling through hyperspace the journey would take nine weeks. But it would not be nine weeks wasted, as after witnessing the death of every mammal on the planet; including the wildlife and humanoid's, Grailem knew he had to alter the robot's programming. More importantly to him was the wasted week searching for Arct survivors, which in the end had only numbered a few pathetic individuals.
His concern for the millions of humanoid's and other wildlife his legion had killed on the planet was non-existent. Death and suffering of the Arct became his one obsession and the death of the other creatures only slowed his legion down and caused confusion with the total of recorded kills.
Grailem decided he would have to make his robot legions more selective. Selecting the image and profile of an Arct he programmed all of the robots to destroy this one target. Due to the sheer number of robots he had to delegate much of the work to the repair robots or he would have run out of time.
Working as quickly as he can altering the programming, the repair robots put him to shame. Even with his mechanical arms and advanced technology he was no match for these nimble fingered bits of metal. Each repair robot could alter the programming of a military robot five times faster than Grailem could.
Their work was also superior, much to Grailem's disgust.

The computer provided the information by giving him the exact population of Arct on the next planet. Each kill carried out by a robot or disruptor cannon would now be recorded in the main memory banks of the flagship. When the record of kills showed that all the Arct had been destroyed they could then quickly move onto the next planet; and not waste a week searching for a few stragglers.

Sitting in the forward observation deck of the Flagship, Grailem looked out at the galaxy spread before him. Rather than seeing the wonders portrayed before him the view reminded him of his countless years of drifting in space. His dream world re-awakens inside his mind and he forms a mechanical smile at the memory it invokes.
The loneliness that he always felt but kept repressed surfaced with a vengeance and he felt a cold wind blow through his mind. The loneliness of space, without even the carers to torment him, nearly drove him mad with despair. He had always been alone, different from those around him which made true communication difficult.
The loneliness of space was different, for out there he was totally alone and the sadness and depression of it all had made him wish for death.
Grailem opens his eyes (he had not even realised they were closed) and comes back to the reality of the observation deck. There is still no sign of the sun and planetary system that is their destination and Grailem wonders at his thoughts.
Why was he thinking about his time drifting in space, and more especially the loneliness he felt?
Because that is what he feels now.
He had also felt lonely when he was on the Arct controlled planet even with happy smiling faces around him, but had refused to admit it. Here on this starship he felt even more lonely and acknowledged that he would always be alone. He was different from anything else in the universe - and would probably always remain so.

Several hours later a distant sun shines brighter than the stars around it as they finally approach their destination. Of the two habitable planets in the system there were also several terraformed moons and large asteroids.
An all out attack on one planet would alert the other that his fleet had arrived; and these planets may also have sophisticated weapons. A different approach would be needed, of the forty-nine Starship‘s he could deploy twenty four to each planet and the remaining starship, loaded with extra shuttlecraft, used to kill all those on the moons and asteroids.
Slowing his fleet down to sublight speed Grailem transfers all of the spare shuttlecraft to the second largest starship. Loading it also with extra robots and armaments Grailem programmes the main computer. Identifying the highest populated moons he instructs the computer to destroy the highest populated first. Working down to the lowest populated moon he then programmes it to destroy distant asteroids that contain only a handful of Arct.
Re-entering hyperspace the forty-nine Starship‘s head there separate ways and carry out the programming efficiently. Even though the Arct had been warned when their home world was being destroyed they had no real idea how to defend themselves. Having no weapons and with their civilisation being complacent and peaceful for so long they could not come to a decision as to what to do.
The dithering of the politicians provided no leadership and Grailem's legions attacked with no mercy. Twenty-one hours later the computer registers that all Arct within this sector have been destroyed; though not without casualties this time.
Damage was inflicted on one of the starship's which had been hit with an old fashioned atomic device fired from one of the moons. Half the robotic force of the starship was swept out into space into a cloud of metros and destroyed before the hull was sealed. The moon the starship was attacking had a militant hostile force of resident Arct; a feeling almost alien to their culture.

The moon had been dependant on supplies from the nearby planet and for several years food deliveries had been poor. The discovery of a rare mineral that could prolong life had been discovered on the moon and the big Arct corporations wanted it all. Their intention was to starve the local inhabitants off their moon and take over.
The occupying Arct, instead of giving in, made secret factories deep underground and armed themselves with phaser rifles and pistols. A lot of their weaponry was based on atomics as a nuclear power station provided the heat and power for them to be able to survive on this barren moon. The bi-product of the nuclear fusion was their main source of weaponry and they had been constructing them for years.
The Arct were preparing to invade their home planet when Grailem and his legions arrived. The battle for control took many hours and Grailem could see many shortfalls in his 'indestructible' army. This was the first