A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 47

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 47

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

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There should honestly be an age requirement for the battlefield, but that wasn’t true before the apocalypse, and it wasn’t true now. In the end, some kids are forced to grow up earlier than the rest, then they have to fight for the right to live, while other kids live happy lives.

I guess, with the current state of the world, the kids living happy lives are the exception rather than the rule.

“Parvati, if you can track them down, I can take them somewhere else.” I forced some food down my throat, took a long draught of some protein drink, and wiped the food off my mouth. I was supposed to have a fifteen-minute break to catch my breath. However, even if I was willing to hunker down in a bunker while the world burned, I wasn’t about to let kids die when they’re in a situation partially my fault. “How many are there?”

“Almost two hundred.”

“Shit, that Shogun was seriously running a breeding camp, huh?” If there was someone in the world who deserved getting punched in the face by Walker, I was pretty sure that the Shogun made a solid case for himself. “Where did they all come from? Have we got a bead on where their families are? The kids might be fighting to keep those guys alive.”

“…I will conduct a search for them immediately. For now, here are the locations of the deployed units.” The two hundred child-soldiers were deployed in groups of ten. Some were flying a bit ahead of the rest, some were paired up with each other, and there was a leader for each group. Each one looked taller and more built than they should, especially with the baby-fat on their faces. “They most likely had their growth accelerated. Be careful when handling them or dropping them. Their bones might be weak.”

Yeah, the Shogun was on my personal shit list now.
Even if he got imprisoned, I’ll be sending all sorts of vile garbage straight into the cell he’s trapped in for the rest of his life.

“Got it. Let me get a better look on their equipment.” Parvati showed me what I asked for with a nod from the gynoid servant form by my side. The floating screen showcased several vantage points on the poor kids. Thermal black under suits, ballistic armor, small arms, and helmets with attached binoculars. Their armor all looked brand new and enhanced and they were obviously doing their best to look calm, despite being deployed to battle. “Nothing special… except for that thing over their heart. Looks like an emitter of some kind.”

I suggested it and a second later Parvati and I were both looking at the little gizmo… as it was being analyzed in real time by the AI.

“It seems to be radiating a faint, ionizing radiation. Weak enough that the wind can blow past it, but if they stay in an area or a room for a prolonged period, it’ll be enough to stop you.”

“What if it blows up?”

Parvati took a moment before replying.

“I see. That is possible with the power source it is linked to. For a brief moment, though it will cause the user harm, the emitter can emit enough to enrobe an area in energized particles.”

“There’s a counter to me. Or, maybe, the other teleporter. Kage, whatever his name was.” I was sure that I didn’t recall the man’s name correctly. There was also his kid, but it was highly possible that the kid was trained to move the rest of the child soldiers around instead of get countered by them. It could be a balancing act, naturally. One force countered the other. If the kids who had emitters didn’t get supplied by their government with more power, they’ll be at risk of dying to a teleporter. If the teleporter didn’t do as they were told, they’d get hunted down by people who could lock them down. “Can you hit them with an EMP pulse to knock those out?”

“Already in progress.” Parvati was terse with that statement, probably not at all pleased at the thought of kids being deployed with a weapon that could harm them when it fired. Or, maybe, the AI was just flat-out displeased with kids being used as child-soldiers. It had a pretty rock-solid moral compass. “They are arriving now.”

A door opened to the shelter and a drone came in with a belt full of custom-made grenades. They were a bit heavy, probably meant to be used by gynoid soldiers rather than a human, and were boxy as hell. Meant to be thrown by cybernetically-enhanced, genetically-altered limbs rather than a normal dude who barely maxes out at a hundred kg. Alright, alright. I haven’t maxed out like that in more than a year, but still!

I can just teleport the bombs, and have them blow up.

“How’s the fuse work on this?”

“The top dial. Maximum thirty seconds. Halfway is fifteen. That is also the minimum. You need to press both buttons in to unlock the dial.” Parvati’s servant form came forward and went through the motions short of arming the weapon. I thought it was strange that the weapon was so manual and didn’t have any electronic sensors and readouts… then, I remembered it was an EMP device. All of that stuff would just be fried and worthless, and it would make setting up consecutive blasts in a single area a nightmare. The current design can have staggered EMPs go off in the same location, which was just dandy. “The range is ten meters. I trust that you will not be using this weapon against me?”

I paused at that statement, which answered Parvati’s question about it.

“I see. It did not even cross your mind, Designation: Egress.”

“I mean, it should’ve. You are an AI with ludicrous amounts of power at your back… but, I guess that you’ve held up your end of the bargain long enough.” If I could get a brain scan for any nano-bot-looking tumors in my head, I would. Normally, I’d be considering using these EMPs on Parvati. The fact that the AI was upright and generally decent 10 times out of 10 shouldn’t make me put aside the fact that it was an artificial construct designed for world domination. Though, the fact that I gave the AI a foothold into space and it was my only way to get off the planet should. “You’re also my best bet living somewhere else besides this rock in relative safety, if things go really south. I’d rather you stay alive.”

“I see. That is acceptable.” The Parvati servant form moved aside, and a new quadrature form came forward. It was hefting a large, underslung launcher of some sort. It proceeded to speak to me with the tinny, electronic voice I knew it was used with me to get me to calm down around it. It was hard to trust an AI when it had tons of perfectly-crafted female forms surrounding you. I could more easily trust a flying gun with stubby wings and rotors. It was honest. “Please neutralize a squad and then return. I will be brining up the stockpiles of the weapon to re-equip my ground troops.”

“Got it.”

I really should be more considerate about taking weapons and working so closely with a powerful AI with designs on mankind… but there were kids about to get themselves killed.

Conundrums like these can wait to be solved after saving their lives.

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Interlude: Nori

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There were studies before civilization collapsed regarding soldiers and information access. The proliferation of cheap sensors onto the battlefield begat the question on the extent with which the modern warfighter should have access to information. Some called for limiting information to the battlespace in which the infantryman would fight. Others said information should be freely accessible to the man for the whole theatre.

There were many arguments, many differing limitations on accessibility, and many different scenarios and tests.

However, it was decided that the average infantryman should only be granted the information relevant to his mission. At most, a drone operator will coordinate with the officer on the tactical level, and perhaps soldiers should have cameras that could be thrown around corners and kill zones.

No soldier should have access to all the information available to the battlefield.

I knew the reason why, now.

Despite all the efforts of Egress, Parvati, Maelstrom, and myself, the capital of the Shogun was in ruin and its people were suffering. We tried to stop casualties from occurring, but the Shogun and Shin cared little for the people. Soldiers died on the streets. Workers died and were buried beneath buildings. No matter the age, the gender, or the station, humans died in droves as the new powers of the new world clashed above them.

Once, I had thought Egress a coward, a fool, and a man without ambition, but now I knew the truth.

He looked upon all the horrors superhumans and humans wrought upon the world and decided that he would not be a part of it and sealed himself away.

And, now, he returned just as soldiers my age came forth.

In the face of it all, he came forward to do what needed to be done.

I needed to do the same.

“Begin preparations to launch teams of marines and drones, 223.”

“Captain!? But they’re still fresh!”

“They can still fight.” I gave the order and did not countermand it. 223 looked at me in shock with my own face, but was taken aback by my steady gaze. I had been shaken by what I had seen, but I was not going to allow it to break me. This was still Japan. My goal was to return it to the people under the governance of an elected body. How was I to do that, if I could not act when people were in danger? “They’ve been asking for battle the moment they were decanted. It’s time.”

223 seemed ready to argue, but nodded after my statement.

I rose from my command chair and headed towards my personal armory with none contesting my actions.

A few strides through the narrow halls and I reached it.

My grandfather’s mechanized walker was squat and compressed. The arms folded into the torso, and the legs locked into themselves. It resembled a metal shed of multiple sections, but as soon as I gave it the activation command, it came to life. The Izanagi’s  already-dimmed lights flickered as it took a deep drought to activate its miniature fusion engine and it grew before my very eyes.

Grandfather had designed it with survivability, speed, and firepower in mind. Standing three meters tall, when full unraveled, it had two digitigrade legs covered in armor at the front and thrusters in key locations. The soles of its feet had tracks that could propel it in any direction, send out spikes to hold it in place, and use both tracks and spikes to speed along the sides of buildings. The ankles articulates in 360 degrees, allowing the weapon to accelerate and reverse in any direction and strafe with ease.

The torso contained the sensor array, the energy core, and the quantum entanglement device that allowed it to be piloted from afar with no input lag… solely by me. None of my clones had the same implants, none of them could feel radio waves brush over mechanized fingers, feel the strength of jet turbines propel them at speeds excess of Mach 2. None of them used its massive arms to smash apart buildings, break through the defenses of the hardiest talents, or wield a weapon that could punch through mountains with ease or send flechettes through buildings.

This was a weapon for which only I could be responsible for, and with that in mind, I unclasped my uniform and let it fall from my shoulders. All I wore was the temperature-regulating suit that would ensure my body would not overheat, as I sank into the open ‘coffin’ filled with ice and water and connections for my body and the machine. I felt the machine link through the ports in my spine and in the base of my skull, while the armored hatch began to close… and when it did and enshrouded me in darkness, I became another individual entirely.

Power coursed through me. More than enough to support an entire city for days. My limbs were metal, and my skin armor and my senses beyond anything any human could hope to achieve. I could see the wiring of electricity within the walls, the organs and skeletons within my clones, the coursing of electricity within wires, the transmission of signals through the air, and finally the power that I now had at my command.

The sensation alone, the feeling of being a walking WMD, was intoxicating especially after feeling so much fear... but I leashed those emotions and activated my thrusters to rise onto the deck.

Where my ‘marines’ awaited.

“Captain!” In armored jumpsuits, they were presented to me. My own face and body, aged up, and put through an extensive hormone therapy. Most of my crew were my own age, meant to grow beside me, and persist for a normal lifespan. My marines were made to grow older, grow stronger, and learn better, no matter the cost in lifespan. I asked for this, and now they stood before me… ready to follow me into battle. “Marine detachment 1 is at your command!”

Hopefully, the first and only detachment.

No matter what I thought when I spurred on their development at first, I could no longer allow them to exist as they are now. I will keep them alive, I will fix my mistakes with their bodies, and find a better way in the future.

However, for now, they were to join me.

My voice was tinny and electric and loud as it came through the transmissions and the speakers on my metal body.

“We move to save as many as we can in the battlefield that was once Kyoto. If nothing is done, the Shogun and Shin will kill everything in their quest for power.” They all nodded as one to me, reminding me that even in their artificial wombs, their minds were as tampered with as their bodies. They could only obey me. They knew no other course of action. They will follow me into that hell without a hint of fear in their hearts… nor an ounce of courage. I’ll do my best to teach them when we return. “To me!”

“Yes, Captain!”

I launched towards the city, and they boarded their transports to follow me.

Despite all that I’ve done, and all the people I’ve saved, as I went towards the battle before me now… I felt for the first time that I deserved to be called a hero.