A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: Chapter 12

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: Chapter 12

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

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“So, how many times can I use this thing before it breaks?” The thing that I was talking about was a directed, electromagnetic pulse emitter. It was heavy, needed luggage-sized backpack battery on the back, and needed two hands to use. If not for a light exoskeleton built to help whoever used it not break their knees, as well as a supporting aperture at the waist that helped guide it the thing would be too clunky to use. It was a crew-based weapon grafted onto light powered armor to fight cyborgs built by a lunatic. “Two hundred shots?”

“The battery will run out of power before the emitter is made nonfunctional. If we had access to the wireless energy transmissions utilized by Shiva, it would take over two hundred shots before the emitter deteriorates to the point of uselessness.” Rakesh explained the ins and outs of the weapon, while I familiarized myself with its movements. It was a large piece of equipment, but moving it around felt like moving a rifle at the hip and it felt like a toy, rather than a weapon, even though hitting a person with it would turn them into a pile of ash directly and a mess of third-degree burns with a glance. “The battery is specialized, however, and if you access a gynoid’s power source it will accept it and use it to power itself from the power they store within. That should give you fifty shots, while a full battery will do the same.”

I nodded and looked over the rest of the preparations taking place in the bunker. Given the fact that Shiva most likely had high-flying observers, military preparations took place in bunkers built beneath cities. They weren’t small bunkers too, but entire military complexes that allowed munitions, people, and weapons to be stored safely against impending attack. According to Rakesh, it had many defensive choke points, was tough enough to withstand tunneling efforts, and resisted most forms of detection. It didn’t have a hydroponics bay, but it had showers, plumbing, and a large warehouse filled with a year of supplies for more than a thousand people, so I had nothing bad at all to say about it.

The bunker’s main staging area was filled with regular people arming other regular people with weapons meant to confront gynoids capable of toppling cities. India hadn’t changed much since the apocalypse. Power armor, some new and some well-used, was plenty and being loaded up with munitions that would make the Depart of Defense salivate at the thought of having at their disposal. India had a massive population, which led to a lot of superhuman geniuses, and they were allowed to work and sell their inventions instead of being escorted away to secret places and work under duress.

Thus, India benefitted a lot from advanced technology, while the rest of the world’s superhuman geniuses realized that they needed to hide, be villains, or never reveal their talent unless they wanted to work for the government of their country for the rest of their lives. Who would’ve thought that it would be difficult to catch normal-looking, but very, very smart people after you showed the rest of the world how you treated them?

But back to the militia that the city was raising.

“Is it like this every time you fight against Shiva?”

“Yes. The whole nation knows better than to let that madman have his way. That’s why I told you no one would object to him being taken… especially now that it’s known that leaving him alone simply has him mass-producing his weapons.” Rakesh grunted and give me a once over, before turning to his table full of weapons. The dark-skinned, mustached man was utterly ripped and superhuman powers that I wasn’t aware of, but he had a full suit of power armor with self-articulating arms and weapons painted a mottled, urban camouflage pattern. It was worn out and had patches in several places, while all the guns had some scorch marks here and there. It was obvious that he used it. How terrifying. A superhuman going of his way to get even more firepower and protection. I really liked it better when I was the only one who did it. “All of India will gather, but if what you reported is true, we may lose if you do not uphold your end of the bargain. We nearly lost our last battle against Shiva and had only a few hundred of his weapons, but now you say he has warehouses full of them… if such is the case then we will lose the next battle. Many would rather submit rather than die, even if their freedom will be lost.”

I did my best to just nod at that.

The fact that this India repelled an invasion of over a thousand superpowered gynoids was worrisome. It made me worry about the rest of the world, if India decided to stop infighting… and that thought alone calmed me down. That was never going to happen. Or, rather, it was extremely unlikely that they were. They were working through too many internal issues. Territory battles between warlords, the rise of tribes securing their ancestral territory and holding it, the caste system being accepted some places and others trying to eradicate it. All those things happened before the apocalypse and it was still happening now.

In fact, taking Shiva out of the equation would probably remove any chance of unity that they had, because he was slowly bringing them together by being the crazy bad guy who they had to fight together against.

At the very least, by taking him out of the picture, I wouldn’t have to worry about India united and fighting to take over the rest of the world in my lifetime… and that was good enough for now.

“Alright, then, let’s make that happen. Where’s the rest of my kit?” The Sikhs promised me weapons and armor that I would get to keep, as well as two weapons either based off of fusion or plasma. Hard hitting stuff that I’ve taken most dangerous jobs on for, and I was also going to get fusion sells and access to the spice industry that remained in India. This was shaping up to be a very, very lucrative venture, even with all the danger that I faced. “Where’s the armor?”

“Right. You have need of it, just in case.” Rakesh nodded and looked away from his armor towards a waiting helper. The young man was quick to fetch something and bring it back. Rakesh took it with a mention of thanks before presenting it towards me. It was a large, sleek orb-like device that activated and started floating in the air. It shivered a few times and briefly become masses of cubes that rejoined one another. All the squares made a sphere and it was disconcerting to look at. “These are a serious of modular drones. They are hardy and can act as shaped charges against incoming projectiles and ablative against energy weapons. They also provide a passive electronic warfare system that will trick the sensors of the foes you will be facing. It is, as the Sikhs’ said, the finest form of defense you can call upon against Shiva’s creations.”

I thought about the warbling, floating piece of high-tech in front of me, gave up, and accepted it with a nod.

It was just too complicated for me to understand, so I needed to learn more.

“I’d appreciate an instruction manual for it.”

“It’s in the box. Translated.”

“Thanks.”

I started reading and leafing through the pages, while Rakesh watched, until he spoke up again.

“Leave it for later. We need to examine your payload and get you your weapons. Let us head to the armory.” I didn’t know why, but he looked uncomfortable when he spoke this time. Given his age, and how I took defending my life so seriously, he must’ve realized that I was quite younger than him and I was going on a mission to set off nukes in enemy territory. Yeah, usually people my age didn’t do that. “Your time will be better served learning how to use the weapons first, because the sooner you use them the quicker you can leave Shiva’s territory.”

In the face of the sudden concern aimed at my direction… I nodded and didn’t hesitate in the slightest to take advantage of the situation.

It was rare that my age gave me any perks, so I was going to make use of it when I could.

…

While it would be interesting to go into armories and steal what I needed, I didn’t for a multitude of reasons.
The first being that I had no interest in being hunted down and killed by everyone who wanted to keep their belongings to themselves. Sure, I could probably steal from someone who had a lot of enemies, but the moment I stole from someone with connections, I’ll get hunted down and killed by everyone. People liked to keep their stuff under lock and key and took offense to having their stuff stolen from them. If you had something important locked away, and you found out that someone in the world could just pop in anywhere and steal your stuff, then you’ll try to have that person killed.

The second was that I couldn’t go somewhere that I didn’t know existed or that I haven’t seen. Sure, I could go to a lot of places on Earth by just bringing it to mind, but it was all intuitive and places I’ve been before. My power didn’t come with perfect memory though, so I had to refresh from time to time between key locations that I kept in the back of my head or really, good photographs with terrain of the area mapped out. Once I got to an area, a quick jaunt into the sky and a glance at the surroundings allowed me to get my internal map working, and I was good to go.

But that didn’t work for places that I didn’t know existed, places that were locked up tight and out of sight, and had the defenses necessary to keep me out. I’ve managed to get into places with a pair of binoculars and an open window or two, but I couldn’t appear inside a building that I’ve never been in. I actually had to do the leg work, disable guards, cameras, and endure a lot of dangers that most infiltrators had to… just that I had the key asset of being able to retreat whenever I wanted and appear anywhere in a base that I looked at.
Finally, the last reason why I didn’t go around just stealing stuff I needed from armories was the fact that I wasn’t a dirty kleptomaniac who couldn’t restrain himself for the sake of business relationships. No one would work with someone who stole shit and didn’t have restraint in any business. Even though I was an amazing delivery device, smuggler, and attacker, no one would work from me if I was known to be a scumbag who stole whatever he could get his hands on. If I did everything that I could to steal everything that wasn’t nailed down, then I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I have in life, because I’d either be killed or wouldn’t have any connections to get the money and funds I needed.

So, I made sure to explain to Rakesh and the other leaders that they didn’t want to take me to their armory.

They needed to take me to a secure location that they didn’t use, which they didn’t mind me popping into, and put only what they were willing to offer there.

It avoided all three issues with stealing shit perfectly and increased their trust in me.

A good trade all things considered, especially since they improved more than I thought in terms of technology.

“Take your pick, Egress.”

“Hold on. I need a moment. I don’t recognize half of these things.” I’d thought I’d get my hands on a plasma emitter or maybe a fusion lance. The former was a large rifle the shot a bolt of plasma contained by magnetic fields at a target. Very effective against most forms of energy shielding and even ablative armor, as well as most superhumans who thought they were invincible. The fusion lance was a melee weapon that used fusion cells in a single instant by creating a five-meter-long ray of heat and superheated particles at a target. Both were very strong, lethal weapons that I would be very happy to have on hand, especially since I could trade the Indians for ammunition. “What the hell happened to the fusion lance?”

“They’ve been streamlined for use against the rising number of superhumans gaining incredible toughness. They have become more common since the apocalypse and so demand has risen. They have been turned into simple rifles and their energy cost greatly limited.” Rakesh explained and took up the weapon in question. The bulky machine that I recalled was now a rifle that could be shouldered with a “magazine” that was a power cell with the ability to power several blocks of a city for years. “We use them to police the roads and ensure trade. Bandits and robbers fear them. Their attacks are instant, their range is 300 meters, and there is no “drop” as there is with plasma and bullets over long distances.”

That explained the lack of massive plasma cannon as tall as me, but not the replacement which I pointed at.

“And, what is that?”

“Plasma gauntlet. Very effective close quarters weapon. It can change its shape and create various weapons and shields.” Rakesh nodded at the replacement for close-quarters developed by the Indians while I was away. It was gauntlet with an armored power cell stuck on the bracer, as well as several switches with simple outlines of weapons. In the grip of the mechanical glove were several points where plasma would form and be shaped by magnetic fields. “You can use the two in conjunction to fire nigh-instant attacks with great penetrating power safely behind a shield that will incinerate everything coming your way.”

A part of my brain was overloaded by that statement, because I hadn’t at all expected India to keep advancing. Everything they had years ago was leagues beyond everyone else, but now they were reaching heights straight out of the more outlandish forms of science fiction. I honestly thought that, even if we dealt with Shiva, I would have to worry about the Indians internal war ending the world as collateral damage.

But, even as my head ached with possibilities, I refocused on the task at hand.

I needed more information and better equipment for the mission ahead, so I’ll worry about things later.

For now, I’ll learn about the litter and take my pick of the best of the bunch.

AI uprising with superpowered robots first.

Humans potentially killing the entire planet killing each other later.

The more things changed the more they stayed the same.