Eden Burning by Niall Teasdale

Artificial life is a hot-button topic in the summer of 2061. BioTek Microtechnologies have revealed Eve, the first real bioroid, and the rights of AIs and other infomorphs are on everyone’s mind, at least partially because MarTech now has the capability to digitise the human brain. Fox Meridian, the first human ever to become an infomorph, hates politics, but she’s right in the middle of with only a small case of apocalypse to keep her from getting bored.

Around the world, people are being infected by a meme which suggests that Halley’s Comet has appeared in the sky to mark the end of the world. There are mass suicides and shootings. Protestors are claiming that bioroids are here to save the world, or destroy humanity. Up in space, rumours abound of aliens who have followed the comet and are watching from invisible ghost ships. Behind it all, it seems like someone is spreading dangerous memetic packages.

Someone, somewhere is manufacturing Armageddon.