A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 35

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 35

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

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Shin gave me time to think about the offer and telling me to get to him through the same contact I’d contacted him last.

It was a thoughtful offering, mostly because I would’ve told him to fuck off if he’d tried to meet him at the same place twice. He’d either booby-trap the place to trap me, or put us both at risk of getting caught by Japan’s current rulers. The latter would be flat-out stupid and not entice me to work with him. The former concern was a good showing of him being aware that I didn’t trust him.

There were probably more subtle things that I was missing out on, but I couldn’t be bothered to notice.

I was busy with trying to figure out if there were other options for me in regards to Japan.

“I do hope that you’re not planning on simply taking the country over for yourself.” Walker chimed in, while I was thinking. I was back at her farmstead and for once she wasn’t clad completely in a black suit with a red tie. Today it was a black suit with a blue tie. This woman seriously didn’t hesitate to show off the fact she was invincible and could wear whatever she wanted. “You make for a poor leader, Egress.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s why I’m thinking about other schmucks who’ll be willing to do the job.” Honestly, I’d considered asking Walker. She was half-Japanese. However, given her dream to reunite the United States, I couldn’t. There was a massive conflict of interest. Thus, I needed another potential tyrant to replace Shin. “What do you think, Parvati?”

The quadrotor with a large sphere for a main body cast its gaze upon me.

“So you see me as a schmuck, Egress?”

“Well, you have a dozen hang-ups and issues with very little things, and you can be convinced to do whatever with the right words—OW!” The quadrotor zipped at me and gave me a bop on the head with one of its propellers. Of course, I wasn’t actually hurt by the attack, but I glared at the AI regardless. I had a reputation to uphold. “Fine, fine. You’re not a schmuck. Do you want the job and to pay me for it?”

“I’d rather not do as you suggest and pay you for the opportunity.”

“Cheapskate.” I grumbled and crossed my arms in the rocking chair I’d been enjoying on Walker’s front porch. Her house had a great view of the budding agricultural community under her control. Trade with Anderson’s people was mostly limited to agricultural machines and the like, while most agricultural products were restricted, besides fruits like apples. There was a focus on cider returning as America’s drink of choice, especially with the upcoming winter. “Hey, Walker, you fought over in Japan a few times as part of the Pacific Corps. Anyone come to mind willing to fight for Japan?”

Walker gave a hum and crossed her arms, while her head slightly tilted to the side. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Walker was a living WMD.

“Japan as I know it no longer exists, but there remains the possibility that some people have chosen to hide from both the current government’s forces and Shin.” Walker lifted off slightly from the ground, then blurred for an instant and disappeared. A few heartbeats passed and suddenly she was brushing back her hair, while looking over a pager of all things that was modified to the nth degree. It looked like a mini ham radio. She pressed a button on it and the thing spat out a hologram of the planet and lit up several locations with different colors. Most were red and marked offline, but there were two or three that were yellow and blue. Yellow was ‘last known signal’ and blue was ‘active.’ The sole, blue signal was in Hokkaido’s most northern point… no… it’s ocean and moving beneath it. “Ah, it seems the Corp’s undersea cruiser is still online and currently has someone aboard it with a communicator. Should I contact them?”

Parvati didn’t provide any information on the matter because the AI was busy studying the superhuman piece of tech that was probably breaking several laws of physics to do the same as a tracking application and a touchscreen smartphone.

So, the ball was in my court.

“Any guesses on who that magnificent son of a bitch might be?” A submarine base? Goddamn, I was jealous. That was one of the most perfect answers to nuclear war I’d ever heard. Highly mobile, incredibly deadly with the right armaments, and with a careful tech selection… it could sustain life with ease. Why didn’t I have a submarine? I could literally keep it underwater at all times and just pop in and out whenever I wanted. I wanted to shake the hand of whoever thought this up. “It’s the perfect shelter!”

“It is not a shelter. It is the Pacific Corp’s undersea carrier.” There was nothing about that sentence that I didn’t love. Walker took note and laughed lightly at the obvious fascination I had with the idea. “It is a double-hull submarine, twice as large as the US’s largest on record, and instead of missiles it carries vertical launch pods that deliver the corps. It has an array of drones instead of torpedoes which have varying forms of attack methods. It’s perfect of pursuing superhuman pirates.”

I had to take a moment to just close my eyes and stop thinking.

I wanted to engrave the memory in my mind.

“That sounds like the best thing ever.” I admitted after a moment and sighed at the thought. If it could catch superhuman pirates on the open seas, the carrier-sub was most likely quick as hell. Scratch that. It was fast enough to get in range of any of its targets and launch drones and superhumans after them. It sounded like the perfect answer to the carrier dilemma since superhumans popped up and threatened them severely with simple, underwater vehicles and ludicrous amounts of firepower in neat, humanoid packages. “I want one.”

“Well, given the current state of the world, I imagine that the Izanagi is not being used for its intended purpose. If its captain is who I believe it may be, then it is likely that he’ll trade it in exchange for Japan’s freedom.” A powerful ship headed by a captain willing to part with it in exchange for saving his nation? Stop it, Walker. I could only get so eager to go meet this guy and acquire my new submarine. “Here. Take the transmitter and get to the closest island. Activate it and the Izanagi will most certainly come to investigate.”

I took the not!pager with a grin, but before I could pull it away Kaede spoke to me while clenching her fist around it.

“Egress, I consider may of the corps my good friends… if they have perished by Shin’s hand… it will be very difficult for me to hold back if you choose to work with him.”

Walker was right to make that statement.

I’d still considered Shin an option, even after knowing what I did, because doing nothing would be worse.

But if Walker was against the thought…

“Yeah, I’m not an idiot. I won’t work with the guy if you say so.”

“Good.”

Yeah, I know better than to pick an uploaded supervillain with delusions of tyranny over Kaede Walker.

I might be a bit stupid, but I’m not a freaking moron.

…

The Pacific Corps was mostly for show and a testbed. Most of the conflicts that went hot with superhumans were over in Europe as spillover from Middle East and Africa. Those massive swathes of land had always been filled with unrest and that only intensified as the average superhuman at least had similar qualities to an MBT and none of the logistical need to maintain said MBT. Refugees spilled over to Europe because of the conflicts, and borders were hard enough to guard against without the chance of those refugees having someone amongst the that could solo a division of armor.

Supervillains popped up. Crime shot up. International trade became more difficult with super-powered piracy coming online. Countries either broke down completely, fell into civil war, or started arms races while holding themselves together through great, national expenditure. Even before nukes started getting launched, and before infrastructure collapsed, the world had been going to shit… and efforts were made to stem the bleeding.

The Pacific Corps were a collaborative effort between US-affiliates in the region to contain the problems springing out of Asia. Some of the rising Chinese warlords of the time had ambitions beyond the Middle Kingdom, therefore a counter needed to be made. Vietnam, India, and other SEA countries decided to pick up the manufacturing slack, so the sea routes there had to be closely watched and protected. Funding was multinational but about 20% was from America since they didn’t contribute much in manpower, save for the odd deployment of Walker from time to time, and it was headed by Japan.

That’s the official story, and besides that I knew that it was successful at stabilizing trade in the Pacific, but beyond that I hadn’t paid them much more attention.

I’d thought that Walker was deployed a couple times, while the rest of the corps decided to sip cocktails on the beach on the American taxpayer’s dime.

But, no.

Apparently, the corps did the vast majority of the work.

It was too bad that they were mostly dead now and I was waiting for just one, active member.

“Hey, did you know about the Pacific Corps?” I addressed Parvati. The new form accompanying me was a Japanese infiltrator model. Young woman, straight black hair, and thin figure without much way in curves. It was different from Parvati’s usual reliance on appealing designs, but most of Japan was on rations and it would be out of place for someone to look full and healthy and curvy in their midst at the moment. “All that about Kenshi and Golem?”

“I have limited data regarding the Pacific Corps. My initial directive was to conquer Japan and lay claim to Pakistan. Shiva did not find it prudent to supply with such information.”

“You’re telling me that the pervert that coded in his AI to only make fantastic women wasn’t a weeb? You expect me to believe that?”

Parvati’s current form glowered at me, but before the gynoid could defend its creator, the ocean across from the beach we stood rumbled and then parted. A mile or so off the island’s shore, the undersea light carrier Izanagi arose from the depths. It was more massive than I expected it to be, despite knowing it was twice the size of an American boomer sub. Then again, if you could project a carrier’s strike package via drones and WMDs in the form of superhumans without an auxiliary fleet, then I suppose you could afford to make a few, large investments.

“It is most likely a three-hull design. Perhaps even a four-hull design.” Parvati mused and peered beneath its straight bangs at the sub. The AI wasn’t directly transmitting to its main server, so it was naturally gathering as much information by itself now. Parvati’s forks tended to get the same personality as each other. It made sense, I suppose, since they had identical minds before the split. There were slight differences depending on the loadout of the chassis. The combat-bodyguard I’d been assigned last was more protective. This one was more easily distracted by vital information. “It is assuredly a marvel of engineering, but if reports on its speed are to be believed, then its engines will need to be superhuman in design.”

“The report’s by Kaede Walker. You’re working off of perfect information.” I commented, while the hull opened up to reveal four different magnetic catapults that slanted into the hull. Hatches opened with a hiss and a moment later the hull was closed but four dagger-like drones were heading our way. No there were eight. Four more catapults had opened up at the stern and issued drones out while I’d looked at the prow. “Damn, I want it.”

“You’d only use it as a shelter. It’s better in my hands for study. Undersea designs are the closest to spaceship engineering I can get to study. If you want a mobile, undersea mansion, I will give it to you in exchange for the ship.”

On one hand, a super-undersea carrier was awesome.

On the other hand… I could get more than one.

“I want at least one for every two oceans on Earth.”

“Done.”

I pumped my fist, while the drones bore down on us.

Honestly looking more like missiles than Drones, save for small winglet and engines on their sides, the drones stopped after homing in close enough for the signal my not!pager was giving off. Sensors on the noses of the eight craft were looking my way, while their weapons were nowhere to be seen—

“They have some sort of weapons lock on you. Some sort of particle bolt that utilizes hydrogen fuel and has different levels of output. Very multipurpose. I imagine the undersea versions use some sort of magnetic rail.” I grunted at the news of having several guns pointed at me. I didn’t like the idea in the slightest, but I resisted the urge to pluck the things out of the sky. They looked expensive and irreplaceable, so it was better that I didn’t when I wanted to make friends. Instead, I took out a white handkerchief from my jacket pocket and waved it in one hand while holding the pager in the other. “Be careful, this is an infiltration unit. I will not be able to help very much, if they bombard the area with energized particles to stop you from teleporting… ah, they’re doing that now.”

Well… that’s not good.

Seems like the people I intend to work with have had run-ins with teleporters before.

Man, it really sucks to suffer from the consequences of someone else’s actions.

Still, though six of the drones peeled off. The remaining two divided roles. One hovered and kept an eye on me, while the other kept saturating the area. I could sense my escape routes being cut off, so I intensified my defenses just short of blocking light and turning into a human-sized mass of darkness that shredded everything in its path.

That would be too intimidating for the alliance that I hoped to have… and the fine piece of engineering that I wanted to acquire and exchange for several undersea safehouses.

I waited for a while with the situation not changing, until Parvati spoke.

“A transport is launching from the side of the ship.”

Nice!

Peaceful first contact with another faction!

Damn, it feels really bad that I’m so happy about it.

It should be normal.