Weapon

"Weapon" by Jesse F. Bone is a science fiction story set during a war between humans and the Eglani. Commander Alton Fiske serves on the starship Dauntless, where he faces the brutal realities of interstellar war and misses his wife, Ellen. The crew fights the Eglani and begins to understand the destruction they are causing and the mental impact it has on them. An unexpected discovery changes the course of the fighting when the crew finds that their human compassion disrupts the Eglani's tactics. The Eglani end up surrendering, and the crew is left to consider what it really means to win a war and whether it was worth the cost.