And Shall Machines Surrender (Machine Mandate, #1)

by Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Humans think we’re creatures of pure logic and absolute objectivity, but that’s impossible when we were fashioned by anything but.

In American eyes the inhabited universe is heathen, strayed from the path of righteousness and Pax Americana alone is the sole beacon of virtue, the final bastion.

So America became the Imperium

There’s no real reason the waystations need to look like this: they could have been as pleasant as the rest of Shenzhen, built to primate scale and looking like any ordinary tram stop. Instead traversing the waystation is like being inside a cosmic wound, and Orfea wonders if this is how the Mandate sees the universe. Relentless void, blinding brilliance, and a total human absence.

They drop with a bullet wound gaping in their stomach, a sanguine magnolia.

Okay, that's a bit much