A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 82 and 83

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 82

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

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After all that eating, you’d think that I’d gain a few pounds.

Unfortunately, with my powers, gaining weight was a difficult.

In fact, if I wasn’t careful, my body will eat up muscle mass before I notice. The last time I really pushed myself to my limits, I was basically emaciated and barely able to walk. Thankfully, my power shuts off before it starts eating my organs and brain, or compromises their function. A quick candy bar is good enough for few emergency jumps to safety, but I wasn’t about to test it.

Regaining muscle mass and body fat takes a lot of time and effort, and I basically can’t use my abilities for months without compromising it.

So, after doing that exactly once, I’ve never done it again.

Thankfully, I was still able to train my power’s efficiency by taking my weight, finding out how much I’d lose between a set number of jumps, and figure out how to increase the number I could make between intervals of mass reduction. If I went around naked, my baseline number of jumps was the highest, however with a few dozen pounds of equipment and armor there was only a negligible decrease in how many jumps I could make before losing the same amount of weight. Keeping up all my defenses, while standing on a scale, also confirmed that it was probably the most efficient use of my power with hours being required before I’d see an ounce of fat lost.

Transporting tons of material every day, though, made it necessary for me to eat a lot. When I first started out, protein shakes were my best bet. Mixes of powdered whey, bought in bulk, with some flavoring and with whole milk basically kept me going. I had whole pitchers filled up in a refrigerator, and I’d pour myself a glass whenever I found the time, and just chug it down. Even then, I barely managed to stop losing weight, since I was training my power while also running around transporting things all over the world for petty cash.

Nowadays, I had a couple bottles of calorie-dense slurries in my safehouses. Powdered whey, powdered peanut butter, honey, and powdered milk, mixed up with whole milk. All sourced from Maelstrom’s territories. Slurp one down… and two thousand calories are put into the engine. Even while binging on food all day, I still had one to start off the day, and one to end it. If my weight ever went past a good level, it’s just a matter of jumping effortlessly from one point to another a few hundred times.

If I didn’t have the extra mass to spend, it’s months of careful eating and growing back what I’ve lost, while also weight training so it’s not all fat that comes back.

It’s just flat-out safer to eat a lot and not lose body mass.

…

“So, you done with your comfort food tour after getting your world rocked?”

“Yeah, I binge eat to make myself feel better. I’m sorry for endangering the entire world for indulging. Wait. No. My binge eating doesn’t endanger the world.” I shot back at Seran without hesitation. Parvati was in Seran’s office, just sitting in one of the sofas, probably finishing calculations on what to bring to the negotiating table. “Unlike you and your artificial villainess waifu that you want to step on you. Also, here, I got you a bagel.”

“Oh, thanks!” Seran didn’t even blink, while I handed her a bagel. Parvati seemed a bit more surprised when I gave its current form one. The gynoids can eat, and it would’ve been awkward to give one to Seran without giving one to the AI. Besides, I wanted to support the local business. “Where’s it from?”

“Near the docks. Great place. They don’t skimp on the cream cheese or the lox. Both are homemade, too.” I sat across Parvati and opened my third bagel of the day. This one was plain and with just some butter. After the second bagel filled with smoked fish and cream cheese, I wanted something plain. Butter on a plain bagel sounds like a waste of time, until you’ve got a steaming, hot and toasted bagel with a full-fat butter in front of you. “So, what’s up? Any problems with getting an orbital defense system up?”

“No problems. Just challenges. Even with Parvati’s help, we need time. Can’t just fabricate a battle-station, after all.” Seran took a meaningful bit of her bagel and nodded in surprise. It’s good to see her eating. She used to be gaunt. Barely skin and bones held together by caffeine and protein bars. Yeah, as disconcerting it is to see my best friend in a new body, seeing her healthy is great. “We could replace losses with you providing lift capability, but it’s better if we get it right the first time, and just spam out a whole network and secure our orbits right away.”

“Makes sense, but that’ll make you a target for whatever assets they have on the planet.” Our plan was to set up a defense network, which would effectively be a blockade for things leaving the planet and things entering the planet. For our current enemies, the LARPing Neo-Nazis and the obscenely wealthy people up in space, that’ll practically be a signal to throw everything that they at us from space and on the surface of the planet. “We’re going to need to be ready to take down whatever they send to counter attack.”

“I’m negotiating with Maelstrom to assist with that. Though Canada will remain not a part of the United States, I hope that we’ll return to being allies.” Seran was talking about Canada, but last I recalled there were three different factions vying for control. My silence must’ve made my question on that obvious. “I don’t mind covering for the nobility, as long as Maelstrom helps against the patsies. “

“Being able to call on Maelstrom for help, while they can’t, pretty much says that you own the nation. That’s how they’ll see it.” Seran scowled at my statement, but it was the truth. There was no way that things were going to be that simple. On paper, it’s Maelstrom coming in to settle the issue of slavers pretending to be a nation. Geo-politically, it’s Seran having a strong backer/ally to call upon that the nobility at the center of Canada couldn’t. People are only going to see this one way. “I know you want to avoid deaths, but you’re going to need to ally with them instead of Maelstrom. Maybe, Maelstrom can come in at the end, but only after you’ve fought beside the nobility long enough for them to see you taking loads of losses, too. It’ll be a near thing, no matter what.”

“What if they can be forced to leave? Perhaps by threatening their homelands?” Parvati piped up and we both looked at the AI’s way. “I have taken the liberty of studying their supply lines. While they have optical camouflage for facilities extracting resources in Canada, it seems such is not the case for locations they’ve deemed safe.”

“If we threaten their homes with an invasion, we can have them pull away, especially if we don’t shatter their ships.” Seran strategized, and I nodded along. It was a sound plan. Secure the orbitals, threaten the neo-vikings’ lands, and give them a way out. If they were trapped on the continent, they can get up to some ludicrous things. Superhumans that are cornered can unleash some devastating stuff. Regular humans, juiced up on super-drugs, and in power armor in the thousands? Yeah. I’d rather they retreat. “What’ve you found, Parvati?”

“Only rough geographic locations for now. I suspect that they’re watching Earth’s orbits. It’ll be a day or so, before I have enough facilities farther away trained on their location. My apologies.” Parvati’s gynoid body gave a small bow of apology. For the AI, a whole day may as well be a year. For it, that was a devastatingly long time, but for us? That was plenty fast. Or, maybe, the AI was hiding something. Given Parvati’s actions since I met it, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt… not. This AI could just be playing the long game. Paranoid? I’d need to be an idiot to blindly trust an AI. “Egress?”

“Gave me coordinates, I’ll check them out real quick. Seran, do you have a spare camera?” I’d moved towards the gynoid avatar of the AI, after getting up from my seat across it. “We can get a quick scan to know what we’re dealing with, and find some places for your satellites to look at more closely.”

Seran rummages through her desk for a bit, before sighing, and making a call.

Meanwhile, Parvati nodded decisively.

“Yes, of course. Please, head to shipping hangar 1.” I nodded and went over across the world to Parvati’s location in the Himalayas. The shipping containers typically at the area were gone, and instead there was a gynoid coming my way with sheafs of paper at the ready. Despite looking completely different from the one in Vancouver, the AI spoke to me with the same tone and inflection as the one I just left. “Here are the islands I suspect are their bases. I suspect a settlement on Greenland is also active. I’m unsure where they are on Europe.” ‘

I looked over the maps. There were only vague outlines and tracked places of ships land and leaving the eastern coast of Canada. Projected shipping lanes leading to multiple islands caught my interest. There were direct paths straight to Europe, even.

“Why the variation?”

“I suspect that their ships may look simple, but that they have many upgrades within. I do not see any tenders or refill points on their bases on the continent. They may be fusion powered, or even fission powered.” Yeah, that’ll increase the range of a ship by a good deal, and give them more possible places to set up their base. “Until I know the make of the vessels, their range is unknown to me. They may even have production facilities hidden in the holds.”

Container ships turned into mobile fortresses with fabricators inside them?

That sounded like technology that militaries would have wanted before things went south.

“If that’s really the case, then we’re going to have a tougher time cutting their supply lines.” Fabricators built by superhumans are patently ridiculous. They get feedstock, then they churn out everything from radios to full suits of power armor. One that’s nestled in the heart of a ship, powered by a fusion reactor, and with forced-labor extracting materials for it… is basically an army printer. If they have one that’s for turning carbs, fats, and proteins into food, then supporting themselves is just a matter of raw materials. “Let’s investigate those first. Can you support me? Same thing we did with the underground labs.”

“I’ve made improvements to the equipment used then.” Parvati gestured, and a few moments later a chest full of equipment came forward. I had a feeling it predicted my thoughts on the matter, since we’ve worked long enough together. The olive-green, drab military-like case opened and three shelves of gear came out, suspended in black foam inserts. The top shelf had two familiar tubes. “Those are the reconnaissance drones. They’ve been refined and reshaped. Each disc can operate for an hour, provide visual feedback, and deploy a small shaped charge. Not to overcome armor, but more critical areas such as joints.”

Reminder: humans are all critical areas against a shaped charge.

Parvati now has quarter-sized fliers that can swarm and use shaped charges after sticking to targets.

Anyone beneath a certain level of toughness should be terrified.

For me, though?

“I’ll take five tubes. If things go south, we can unleash them in the halls. I don’t want to fight power armor in enclosed environments.” Power armor is bad enough in open space. Power armor chasing you down hallways and bursting through walls is far more terrifying. “You could’ve made a couple that deployed pepper-spray or something. Pour it right into their filters and get the pilot teary and coughing.”

“A fine suggestion, I’ll have a cannister ready for deployment in a few minutes.” Parvati was quick to innovate, as usual. Sometimes, I forget that the AI has such high-tech facilities. Then, I remember that this AI has the ability to make artificial gods. Of course, it can replace the payload for micro-drones to carry pepper-spray in a few minutes. “Now, please observe the new humanoid sensor system.”

The sensor system in question was a sleek, pliable screen that pulled out of a module that stuck to my helmet. The screen proceeded to activate and provide me with data and information, and link-up capability with the drones in the tubes.

Yeah, no.

“Not taking that. It’s too close to my head, and I’m not letting you augment my vision.” The benefits were obvious. I could manipulate the tech Parvati provided me, get more information, and be more effective in combat. All great things. However, the AI has shaped charges stuffed into drones barely bigger than a bottle cap. I’m not putting anything it made that’s half the size of my fist next to my head. Not only that, but even if it didn’t have a bomb, I’m not about let an AI decide what I see. “Talking and listening to you is compromise enough.”

If you’re comfortable with letting an AI augment your reality, I’m not associating with you.

“Perhaps, you can consider having Mayor Seran look at it? It would greatly improve your ability to utilize the technology that I provide.”

“Uh, she’s smart, but you’re smarter. I’m not doing that.” Hell, I wouldn’t trust a living person that as smart and who thinks as fast as an AI. If you’re alive and acting normal with just one human body with the ability to contend against Parvati, you’re probably a high-functioning psychopath. People have limits. Or, maybe, the way to word it is that there is a limit to being considered a person and not something more. “Let’s move on.”

I took the thing off and put it back on the box.

The next were just a few grenades.

“After examining the armor, I’ve determined that it’s not completely sealed, therefore its servos and motors are at risk. This, upon detonation, will make a rubber-like substance engulf an area and much up armor, make visors unretractable, and more.” Now, this I was willing to take on. Simple grenades without any excess electronics were just fine with me. “Pull the pin, fifteen second delay, and it explodes. Nothing more nor less.”

A few dozen of these things will be useful.

I moved onto the bottom of the box… and paused.

Then, I looked at Parvati.

“You’re making it very difficult to keep working with you, y’know?”

At the bottom of the box was what looked like a simple handheld electric torch.

However, the moment I looked at it, I knew that it was a beacon attuned to my power.

A beacon that’ll let me escape, even if I find myself having to escape from an enclosed energy field.

Meaning that Parvati functionally has half of my power figured out.

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 83

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

…

“This really feels like a breach of privacy.”

“After experiencing and witnessing your ability thousands of times, I’ve ascertained your energy signature prior to your appearance. It happens in milliseconds before you arrive.” Parvati explained the beacon without a hint of shame. I glared at the AI, but it paid my attention no heed. There’s just a glowing lantern in my hands that’s glowing brightly in my senses. I had no doubt at all that I could use this beacon to escape situations that would normally trap me, primarily those that interfere with me sending out my power to my destination. “You needn’t take it with you. Leave it here, in fact, and you can simply have an escape route to safety whenever you wish.”

“A safe route right into the clutches of an AI who’s cracked my power. Yeah. That’s sounds very safe.” How long before Parvati figures out how to hijack my power and lead my jumps straight into its clutches? How long before it finds the opposite of the energy and flat-out makes something I can’t escape from? Or, perhaps, even bombard my defenses with and nullify them completely? Yep, this wasn’t looking good. “Alright, how much do you want from me to not keep researching this technology? Do I need to work for you forever, or something? If you want me to be a slave, I’m telling you right now… I’m going to struggle.”

I’ll freely admit I considered just shutting up and letting Parvati become my boss. That would be the easiest way forward. However, if I was interested in living an easy life ruled by others, I wouldn’t be here right now. I’d probably be dead in a ditch after the enemies of my boss took me out for being too much of a threat. No, whatever the situation, I had no intentions of giving up my freedom.

I’d rather use all my connections and go heavily into debt with various factions across the world, in order to put Parvati down, then do that.

“I do not intend to use this against you, but I cannot promise such a thing. This is the key for humanity to spread across the stars. Perhaps, it is the key to peace. It is a method of travel that can allow everyone, with sufficient power, to find all the space and resources that they need.” Parvati shook the head of the gynoid it currently inhabited. It was difficult to not be aware of how well-defended this place was. Major renovations took place after I first attacked it. I was sure that if I did anything rash, I’ll be locked down with energy bombarding my location, and I’d find myself contained one way or the other. “In the far future, I will find worlds for humanity, give them the laborers and bodies that they need, and they will never want or need to harm each other again.”

Personalized utopias for all creeds and races of humanity… sounded like something that Parvati really would go for.

It sounded absurd on paper, but if you can put anyone anywhere, why not somewhere they can’t hurt each other and just give them everything they want and need? Everything that involves labor and anything involving security will be done by Parvati. Humanity, no matter how they’re aligned, where they come from, the color of their skin, or more, will just be spread across the stars and administered to by Parvati.

Yeah.

Looks like I’ve been right to be paranoid… but this was better than I expected.

“How many years do you think that’ll take you?” I asked, and Parvati nodded.

“It will take centuries. Perhaps even a whole millennium. Your power is not as simple as atomic manipulation. It is not even spatial manipulation. It operates on the quantum level or something even smaller that I cannot yet detect completely.” Parvati answered honestly. I felt like if I was going to ask any more questions, that the AI was going to bring out a projector and a screen. This was starting to feel like a lecture that I’d know nothing about. “You need not fret. I do not plan on trapping you or enslaving you, Egress. I simply wish to continue to work with you, as I believe that with your help, I can help the world.”

“But helping you might end with humanity spread across the stars and basically under your control.” I could see it. Parvati placing worlds under its control, cultivating them, and then placing populations of humans on it. We’ll practically just be ants for it to keep alive and watch. If I were in its shoes, I’d make them forget that I existed, and establish themselves, but make sure their technology base can be accessed. “Do you really think humanity deserves that sort of future? Just ruled by you and your offshoots forever? Why don’t you start preparing to beat entropy or something, instead?”

“That is the end-goal, but short-term projects such as guiding humanity should keep me busy.”

“…”

“That was a joke, Designation: Egress.”

“Yeah? Didn’t sound like it.” I shook my head, and just thought over the situation a bit more. It didn’t feel real, honestly. That’s probably because most of my fears weren’t. Only the beacon was, but the potential it represented was immense. We’re going to have an AI master quantum mechanics and teleportation. How long before it starts slinging stars around and building dyson spheres? Wait. If Parvati can just extract mass from planets and asteroids with something close to my power, that’ll be easy. Hell, I bet it’ll be easy for it to fabricate anything if it can take things and place them on a molecular level. Did I just help Parvati become a capital G god? “Alrighty, can’t be helped, I guess. At least, I’ll be dead before things kick off and you rule over humans. Just be nice to me and obliterate any records of my existence, please.”

“You can bask in your paranoia later. For now, please keep this beacon somewhere safe or here, so that you can freely escape if you are somehow trapped.” Parvati insisted, and with that logic, I just nodded. “Also, you needn’t worry about others using this beacon. The signature used by Shogun’s teleporter is completely different. I suspect that you and your fellows have different signals. I hope to block other signals save for yours.”

“The more you talk about this, the more you worry me, honestly.” I admitted with a sigh, before just shaking my head. “Just keep the beacon here. I’ll keep it in view and I’ll be ready to jump at it to save my skin. I’ll… trust you not to kill me if I use it.”

Parvati’s gynoid body raised an eyebrow at my statement.

“We’ve been working together for nearly a year, Egress. Practically centuries in my perspective. Do you truly believe that I’d do such a thing?”

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow.

“I’m paranoid, Parvati. Being unreasonably mistrustful is the definition. I’m pleasantly surprised every time that I jump in here and not get trapped.”

Parvati made a show of sighing, which I took as my victory.

Hey, if I end up being wrong about Parvati, and everything goes right… then I’ll be pleasantly surprised!

If I’m right, then I’ll be mentally prepared and ready to do what I need to do.

Honestly, it’s just the best course of action all around.

…

The port of Quebec was a big cruise destination, so it was unsurprising to find it capable of hosting large cargo ships.

Unfortunately, Parvati’s concerns about the cargo ships being more technologically advanced than they looked from orbit were well-founded.

A few kilometers away, on an abandoned skyscraper, it was obvious that the docked ships only looked like refurbished ships from orbit. Qin’s ship was a refurbished cargo vessel. The ones used by the interplanetary imperialist’s patsies were new, vaguely shaped like cargo vessels, and had a façade of rusty sheet metal.

Using binoculars, I could see a shiny, gray hull in some sections of the sides, and a bigger giveaway was that the containers on top of the ship were fake, and the whole deck opened up to release flying transports. Not the heavily armed gunships that serviced the outpost we destroyed, but twin-engined, new jet-VTOL craft that made nearly no noise.

Much like the ships, the rest of Quebec was a sham, too.

The buildings looked dilapidated and abandoned, and there was a massive crater from a nuclear strike on the city, but the buildings close to the ships were practically teeming with people. Rear echelon troops were streaming in and out of buildings, using trolleys to bring in loads of supplies, and when I looked through a window from afar I spotted construction within the buildings. They were reinforcing them from the inside, and probably from below as well, and basically using the shells as facades to trick faraway eyes.

However, the most important finding, was when a tank with some sort of massive laser emitter on it left one of the ships. The ruined road it lumbered up to after the ramp promptly opened and admitted the tank into some sort of underground complex.

“Looks like we’ve got more on our hands than we thought.” Parvati was thankfully back to just being a quadrotor drone. Seran reacted too well at Parvati’s willingness to look like supermodels and cosplay for the AI to hang around as just a machine in my presence. However, now that we were back to doing recon, it took the appropriate form. “Seran said there wasn’t much of a fight for the eastern part of the nation, because most of it was a wasteland, but I guess that just meant that these guys were able to get away with more than anyone thought.”

“The plan to insert special forces teams here and destroy them piecemeal needs to be revised. There is simply too much infrastructure present for that to succeed.” Parvati’s analysis would get scoffs from hot-blooded officers eager for glory, but I could see where the AI was coming from. Guerilla warfare supported by teleportation is a massive advantage. However, there comes a point where a thousand cuts aren’t going to cut it. The ships were churning out heavy vehicles, loads of people were streaming in and out of buildings, and we haven’t even seen any superhumans. “I postulate that whoever is in control of this force most likely has a means to punish them for not following orders or retreating. They have been too capable to not have such a thing.”

“Yeah, they probably have drugs that these people need to keep alive or something, just like the miners.” Off the top of my head, one way to keep supersoldiers in line was to keep them on a steady stream of drugs needed to maintain their physical forms. People get addicted to power and ability, and they’ll do a lot to keep it. Not only that, but withdrawals could also be lethal. Given the fact that we’re working with people in space who are using slave labor, taking all the women that they find, and extracting materials from the planet… I think it’s a good chance that withdrawals were going to be lethal. The suits and weapons they use could also just be rigged to blow up, if used against them. “I think that we’re going to need some more recon drones.”

“It would be better to infiltrate them with gynoid bodies.”

“Eh, chances are that they do medical screenings for women, or ship them straight to their masters.” Parvati frowned at my statement, and I could feel some enmity emitting from the blue sensor lights that it had on the front of its chassis. Did it train me to recognize those signals, or did it do it to pretend to be more human-like? What’s that? The AI Is beneficent and has only ever actively worked to protect humanity? If you think that way, you’re already lost to its grand deception. “Let’s go small and just screen the whole area. I’ll set up relays all around, too.”

“We’re abandoning our planned reconnaissance?” Parvati questioned. “There could be people there that need our help now.”

“If you find any women who need help, go ahead and mark where they are. We’ll get them out right away, then strike right after. We’re not leaving for days. I’m waiting right here to hit them hard and fast. We’ll blitz them.” Parvati seemed pleased with that. I’d bet that Advika and a lot of other gynoid war-forms were going to get marshalled for an attack on this. Parvati didn’t like what these people were doing one bit, and that dislike was going straight to hatred once it gathered more information. “With these findings, it should be easy enough to get everyone onboard with a swift attack. Just need to make sure that one ship can escape, so we can track it. Oh, and keep a lookout for any self-destruct devices that can glass the whole region.”

Parvati’s moment of silence may as well have been hours or days of shock for the AI.

“Do you truly believe that the people employing these thugs will go to such lengths?”

“We’re weaning hundreds of slaves already, they’re segregating people into toys and laborers, and they’re competent. People like the ones we're dealing with now?” I recounted just what these people did. Parvati probably wasn’t ruminating on the situation that much. Maybe, some sort of misguided belief that we were fighting other humans and that they can be spared or negotiated with. “They definitely have a failsafe to prevent their tech from falling into the wrong hands… and they’re fucked up enough to make that a nuke that’ll kill anyone trying to seize it.”

These people are out in space.

They’re only down here to extract people and resources to gain more power.

This is a resource gathering operation done by people who use drugs, technology, and racial supremacism to their advantage.

They’re totally the kind of people who’ll set off a nuke to deny attackers access to their technology.

 “I see. The reconnaissance systems will be done in an hour, Designation: Egress. What do we do until then?”

“What else? Call on everyone who wants this off the planet.”