A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: Chapter 13

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: Chapter 13

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

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Tactical nuclear weapons were a thing back in the states, before they decided that it would set the wrong precedent back during the Korean War. They had plans to utilize artillery-based nuclear weapons against Soviet tanks and sapper chargers meant to glass entire industrial districts via commando teams. I was pretty sure that the French, no matter how many people thought they were likely to surrender at the next conflict, had plans to create a wall of nuclear fire if their homeland was threatened again. I considered dabbling in the Middle East, just to get my hands on some nuclear weapons that didn’t exist from the various polities there. Britain had enough fissile material stocked up that it would’ve been easy to ask for some for some payment.

But, in the end, it would’ve been too much trouble to deal with… even with the advantages it presented.

It was the same dilemma with being able to steal anything that I wanted.

If I had nuclear weapons, while being able to appear anywhere, I would be counted as one of the biggest threats in the world. If I was an entire nation with a stable governing body that had an interest in keeping the status quo stable, being a nuclear power would’ve gotten me a slap on the wrist. A prepper with a nuclear device, without a governing body he was affiliated to, was a loose cannon with a bigger output than most people would want around. Not only that, because of my ability to be anywhere, I everyone was a neighbor and everyone got nervous when their neighbor had a nuke.

Ergo, even if I could get my hands on a nuke, it would’ve been a stupid idea that would’ve caused me a great deal of problems.

But it was a different story if I was dropping them off for a nuclear power.

In laymen’s terms, it gave me a degree or two of separation from any wrongdoing, because I was just delivering a payload prepared by other people. They could do the same with ballistic missiles or other forms of delivery. I was just being a very effective and efficient delivery device that everyone else would want on their side. My ability, in that sense, became something more worthwhile to keep around and call upon with large sums of money, especially because I had no affiliations with any nation and worked entirely for the money. My prepper routine, where I looked out for doomsday and didn’t want it to happen, was more believable and liked with that situation in mind.

In this case, I was just delivering very powerful cargo in a very skilled manner that could be replicated by a more expensive piece of equipment. My employers were using me as a cheaper substitute and nothing else, then we’d part ways without any further issue. Not only that, but we were protecting the rest of the world from a supervillain with an army of powerful gynoids capable of upturning entire countries.

I was in the clear, even though I was delivering nukes.

Tactical nukes.

Unfortunately, I found that my employer’s view on tactical nukes was vastly different from my own after dealing with a superpowered robot army for a several years.

If anything, calling what they wanted me to deliver nukes was an understatement.

…

“That isn’t a nuke.”

“It is a weapon based off the principles of nuclear fission.”

“I understand, but nukes are supposed to go boom once. This doesn’t.”

“This is the only form of tactical weapon that would reasonably affect Shiva’s production structures.”

“What? You’re telling me you need a singularity to exist for ten seconds on our only planet just to blow up a factory?”

“If we could use less, we would, Egress.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose as a felt a headache coming as I spoke to Rakesh. The size of each package was perfect. Suitcases, around twenty-five kilograms, and with very easy arming and detonation mechanisms. A kid could use it, although if that kid couldn’t fly or teleport, he’d probably be shit out of luck. They were inconspicuous, easy to carry, and will kill anything caught in its blast radius instantly while murdering anything within ten kilometers too. All of that was perfectly fine… if not for the fact it would keep doing that for ten seconds, because it was a singularity bomb instead of a nuke.

“If this thing goes wrong and isn’t perfectly contained, it could literally tear through Earth.” I spoke and Rakesh just grimly nodded at my statement. Earth wasn’t static in the universe. It moved through space with the rest of the solar system like everything else, because we were all space dust flowing outward from the big bang. I couldn’t get the exact number, but I was sure that Earth was moving a few hundred thousand miles an hour through space, thus having a singularity exist at a fixed location on Earth, without having it move along with Earth, was like running into an unbreakable, very sharp object. “Why the hell do you need bombs like this to kill factories? They look like normal buildings!”

“That is how they appear, but assaults on similar bases of Shiva had us discover that his infrastructure is heavily protected by various protections and they are capable of rapid production of mass-production, robotic infantry in battle that are durable and have immense strength.” Rakesh delivered the news and I wasn’t pleased with it one bit. Given the grimace on his face, he understood that the weapons were fucking terrifying and didn’t want them, but had no choice in their usage. “We would need twenty nuclear weapons of the same size and shape to destroy one factory. You said that he has multiple factories. They will all have forms of energy-shielding, be composed of advanced materials, and even be able of self-repair in combat. To destroy the number of factories you described, Egress, these are the weapons you must use. If we could give you mere nuclear weapons, and not these, we would.”

Fusion-powered singularity bombs for tactical strikes on factories that churned out armies, self-repaired, and could resist nuclear weapons.

I really should’ve made a moon colony instead of staying on Earth.

I had contacts with NASA and everything, if I’d gone with them, I could’ve had a colony started on the moon’s ice caps and we’d be growing food no problem. I’d just zip over with everything they need, get all the drones there, and carry over passengers in exchange for my own house in the dome. Even if the entire planet still went down, I’d still be able to work with the scientists sent over to get everything at we needed from Earth from time to time and continue expansion.

God, if only I wasn’t an antisocial mess of a person, I could be off this rock full of crazy people willing to drop singularities in our only biosphere.

…

“Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I am not lying to you, Egress.”

“But I want you to. Please do.”

I was rapidly getting sick and tired of all the bullshit that the Indians had. It was like the used the nuclear apocalypse that happened to the rest of the world to just do their own thing without anyone to say no. While everyone’s superhumans were killing each other, as armies fought and died, and as nuclear bombs fell, they decided to be like kids when parents were away and just do whatever they wanted because they could.

“I wanted to help you guys stop a robot apocalypse… but you’re telling me you have your own AI in your damn basement!” I pointed at the AI in question. It wasn’t anything like Shiva’s Gynoids. It was “just” a computer in a heavily secure location with multiple air gaps and destructive failsafe systems linked to completely human operators, on an OS incapable of interfacing with any form of wireless transmission method, and turned off when not needed. Most of those safety measures would be fine for most people, but not for me. “Goddammit, Rakesh, I wouldn’t have even thought about helping you all if I knew about this! I’d be hunkering down somewhere safe!”

Preferably on Mars.

Yeah, the moon was way too fucking close now.

Mars was the only solution.

“This was the only way we could compete in electronic warfare against Shiva, as well as reverse engineer his weaponry. If we did not come together to utilize AI such as these, then we would’ve fallen long ago against his horde of devils.” I glared at Rakesh while he crossed his arms and spouted out “logical” and “reasonable” words. He raised a bushy eyebrow at my glare. “Would you rather we have laid down, died, and allowed the madman to enslave us all and set his blasphemous hordes upon the world?”

I really hated it when other people made good points, especially when my paranoia was telling me to start gathering all the scientists I could and get them working on a space habitat.

“You know that you could’ve all sucked up the losses and just killed him earlier, before it came to this.” Some people would hesitate to imply that throwing enough superhuman bodies and regular people with enough directed energy weapons was a solution to a problem. It implied that I didn’t care about human lives. That’s patently untrue. I value my life immensely, and I believe that most people should value theirs the same amount. However, if I’m told that if don’t fight harder that an AI supercomputer would be made to start learning and reverse engineering technology, I would put my life on the line. “This thing is smarter that you, better than you, and even if you keep turning it on and off… it could still have plenty of time to think, plan, and wait for a moment to escape with a plan we’ll never see coming.”

Rakesh and I walked down a long, white corridor with obvious explosive chargers ready to turn it into a cave-in. We reached the room where the AI’s interface was located after passing through a heavy, white, and hexagonal blast door. We found ourselves in a room with what looked like a simple keyboard, mouse, and screen from any old office, besides the fact that it was hooked up to a hyperintelligent, self-aware entity that might not like the fact it worked for meatsacks that completely and utterly controlled it.

I’ve met a lot of superhumans who wouldn’t even think about listening to someone without any powers. It was basically instinctive nature to be pissed when someone “less” than you is trying to order you around. A lot of people took decades to learn how to deal with those feelings and act like a normal person, while some people never learned how to in their entire lives. How was I supposed to believe that a superior intellect trapped in a cage would want to continue service some hairless apes?

Shiva was building robots that could be reprogramed and utilized for other purposes, and I feared the day he’d cross the line and give his army an upgrade that’ll make them go rogue, which was why I was here in the first place. But apparently, the people I allied with were already fucking ahead of him in making mistakes that could ruin the planet.

“I will interact with the machine and have it attempt to create spoofed IFF signals against Shiva. This is a weapon we need for the upcoming battle, especially you. His creations are incredibly accurate without this. Before we implemented this method, his creations could kill us from beyond the range of any of our weapons.” Rakesh ignored my complaints and approached the AI’s interface, while I stayed back and did my best to not look perturbed in the room where a man was essentially communing with a creature that was far smarter than he could ever be. I know that computers outstripped people in computation and analysis a long time ago, but most computers didn’t have personal beliefs and feelings on being kept in a prison. “Besides, many share you concerns, which is why have been brought here. If all the failsafe systems fail, you will be called upon to destroy this place with several singularity bombs. In fact, if the battle against Shiva fails, we cannot allow him to have access to this weapon, so if we are defeated and the failsafe systems are not activated… then we ask of you to destroy it.”

Rakesh took a very large, rustic, and very proprietary cable and attached it to a slot in the wall. The large package he carried thudded a little after he lowered it gently to the ground. It was the size of a wheel and probably had more computational ability and storage capacity than most military supercomputers, but Rakesh was using it as a glorified USB to transfer data from the AI. It was a very thorough system for a reasonable person, especially with a teleporter involved that would happily erase it from reality, but I wasn’t reasonable when it came to AI.

“Can I just destroy it after you get the latest electronic warfare device functional? I’ll work very, very hard to make Shiva’s beaten and all his glorified sexdolls are dead… just let me sleep at night knowing this thing doesn’t exist anymore.” I made a very unreasonable suggestion to destroy a piece of strategic hardware and software developed by a nation that I wasn’t even a citizen of. Rakesh rolled his eyes at my statement, but I continued. “I’m being serious, Rakesh. I really don’t think keeping things like this around, even with all these precautions, is smart.”

Rakesh sighed at that, unplugged his device and shouldered it, and shut down the AI by using the mouse on the screen, then manually having the power shut down as we turned to leave. All the lights went out and we were left following glow-in-the-dark paint on the walls leading to the outside. The AI was active for only five minutes. Three to warm up, two to make what was requested, and then no electricity flowed in its vicinity for a kilometer.

I saw all this and said all the things I said without any exaggeration whatsoever.

I really, really didn’t want hyperintelligent AI existing on the same planet as me.

Rakesh was quiet for a while, as we walked together in the darkness, but he spoke eventually.

“Speak to the others after securing Shiva completely and destroying his blasphemous hordes. There are many who would argue and support your statement, especially once the threat Shiva poses is eliminated.”

The statement had a certain finality to it… but I took heart in it.

It was good enough for me to not do anything drastic that would piss of an entire continent of superhumans, since I knew some of them were reasonable.