A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 46 (Patreon)

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 46

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

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Interlude: Nori

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I looked upon the capital of the Shogun, the city once known as Kyoto, and saw firsthand what a battle between legends truly was.

The Shogun’s most secret project was released into the world. A biomechanical titan composed with the cloned flesh of the hardiest of his elite caste of Talents, with an artificial brain grown from tissues of innumerable geniuses, stood as a titan of destruction at the city’s center. It not only had immense strength and power, but reflexes, speed, and other abilities as well. Through the screen, I saw that it could fire energized particles and manipulate matter.

The Shogun’s aspirations to become a god were right before my very eyes.

Its appearance alone should’ve been the death knell of our plans.

But it fought against Shin, the Transcendent. A genius beyond even my grandfather, the man who once tried to take over Tokyo at its height transformed himself into code and uploaded himself into innumerable hardpoints and sites. Leaving his mortal flesh, he became capable of taking over the machines that he forged and created with previously-mortal hands, and now he assaulted the capital in new bodies. Three massive flying fortresses bristling with weapons which spewed forth armies of drones onto the battlefield below was his new form.

Both were beyond death.

Immortals clad in artificial flesh with artificial minds and who desired to reach divinity and rule over humans and Talents alike.

Upon seeing them do battle for the fate of the nation, I felt that I should run.

However, even as I summoned courage, I could see that others already did.

Maelstrom was here. Though retaining a human mind and human form and aspiring to the heights of human ideals, she was a match for the two artificial gods. With a punch. she shattered meters-thick armor plating formed by the Shogun’s new form and sent the colossus flying to the city edge. A create almost thirty meters tall, yet with a punch she sent it flying. The innumerable swarm of drones and the large cannons of Shin’s flying fortresses did little more flow against her like a breeze, and when she charged into the swarm it came apart and fell to the ground like dust.

The Izanagi was my grandfather’s finest work, and I crewed it with myself and my clones with no shortage of pride. We believed ourselves capable of bringing Japan back from an era of feudalism and fear into the country it once was. However, as I looked around at my own face a dozen times over, whether they manned sensors, weapons, or any other station, I saw the same thing: fear, despair, and the struggle to find the courage to fight. Even with the weapons and tools that we had at our disposal, there remained the struggle to fight.

The struggle to not run away.

Then, in an instant, that changed.

“Transmission incoming, Captain!” 233 called out, and I was shocked enough to look her way. “It’s the AI that accompanied Egress and Maelstrom.”

“Air-gap our communications systems.”

“Already done, Captain!”

“Send it through.” I waited and then the communication screen came to life. I looked through the eyes of an artificial creature with a mechanical mind. An artificial form of life, which allied itself with Maelstrom and Egress. Even now, I watched as it hauled a humanoid body covered in armor plates and the snarling mask of a samurai. The Talent being hauled away was bound and covered in chains attached to a battery, and I realized that Kaze had spawned a child. And, that child had already been defeated. “The line is open, Parvati.”

“Fire support is necessary to bring the flying fortresses away from the city. Their destruction will result in collateral damage, if it is not done. Your main weapon can do it.” The experimental particle cannon that took up the majority of the space in the central hull of the submarine. Grandfather’s finest weapon and the one he declared the sword which will allow Japan to carve itself into the new age of Talents. We did not have the power to utilize it to its fullest extent. “Tell me what you require. How does it consume power?”

“Send the schematics for the power interface, 233. However, the main gun is incomplete. It cannot fire more than a dozen times before it must be maintained.”

“If everything goes as planned, then it will only need to fire thrice. I am already saturating its defenses.” The feed on the screen switched, and I looked through the eyes of an artificial life form with three pairs of arms and blue skin. With a yell, it shot out plasma from its hands, which split apart and turned into emitters in a second. The shield surrounding the flying factories shuddered and sparked, then there was a flash of light and the body was sent flying back at speeds that would turn a normal human to mush… and it started speeding towards its target once more. “Egress will be transporting the energy-providing units in one hundred seconds.”

With that uttered, the line cut off and my face turned to look at me a dozen times over.

This wasn’t the time for fear.

“Bring us up! Set all stations to condition red. Get ready for battle. All defenses at maximum power. Sensors to full. Spool up the main gun!” I barked the orders as I did a hundred times in practice. It felt familiar and different at the same time, but I fell into it as my crew began to work. The sound of fingers flying across mechanical keys, the groan of the ship as it surfaced, and the hum of the reactor and dimming of lights as auxiliary systems received less power. My fear was replaced with calm born from diligence. “How many seconds left?”

“Fifteen. Main hull opening completely… now.”

“Cameras on the deck.” I spoke, and my orders were followed. The Izanagi’s sword was a proud and robust weapon. Six-pronged and with rings designed to create magnetic tunnels hundreds of kilometers long, it was meant to strike at humanoid targets with enough force and power that they would simply be erased from existence. Even the strongest Talent would be felled by the weapon, utterly vaporized in a single shot, and it would be mass produced to ensure that a nation and its people would not be overcome by those with Talents. Alas, grandfather died and the nation fell before it could be mass produced, and there were still many who were beyond the weapon’s reach. “Keep eyes on Egress.”

The moment I said those words… he appeared with four hulking gynoids, the same as those assaulting the flying fortresses, and I realized that he knew exactly how powerful he was. There was little defense to against his Talent, if he was willing to swallow his pride and bring others to the fore to fight for him.

“Give me a line to the deck speakers.”

“Aye, captain!”

“Egress!”

“Yeah!?” He returned my call through the speakers with a yell in English. It was good that I learned the language since we last met, even though I still faltered on some words. “You need something from me!? Kinda busy!”

He implied, correctly, that there was little I could ask of him that I couldn’t ask Parvati. The AI could provide coordinates for the strike, help us utilize its provided power batteries, and answer any of our questions. However, there was something only he could answer regarding the situation that the AI couldn’t.

“Can Parvati be trusted?”

“I wouldn’t trust anyone who can hack all my systems, but it’s nicer than a lot of people I know. Might be a long con, though.” He worked with the AI often enough and held it at arm’s length,  a wise course of action. “But, when the chips are down, I’m trusting it with my life just fine. Can’t tell you to do the same, since you can’t just run away, but you’ll need to make that choice yourself, kid. See ya around!”

With that said, he vanished from the deck, while the three gynoids began to move and provide power through the power conduits on the deck. Their hands opened and transformed into interfaces to provide power.

For a moment, I hesitated, but I spoke after a moment.

“Create a secure line between the communication system and the targeting system.” We had only a few shots at our disposal, and I did not wish to waste it and endanger lives. “By my order, we’re providing access to the main gun’s firing mechanism and software to the AI Parvati to ensure operational success!”

“““““Yes, Captain!””””””

The chorus of my own voices surprised me for a second, before I nodded and devoted myself to the task at hand.

Saving the people and felling those who would inflict terror and injustice upon them.

…

I knew that I did enough damage, by confronting Shin and the Shogun’s forces, when they started diverting their attention my way.

Shin’s attack was in the form of the larger cannons from above starting to target me. The weapons once focused on trying to bring down the Shogun were energy-based artillery, and there was no warning and chance to dodge. One second, I was bringing in more of Parvati’s forces to launch another assault wave, then I felt my fields getting overwhelmed with pure energy one after another, while the ground around me popped and shattered and melted all at once. The gynoids set up their defenses and countered by creating shields, but most of them popped and melted at the same time.

The fleshy portions contained water which superheated instantly and came apart explosively, while the metals and plastics and whatever else were melted by the beam.

I didn’t even get a chance to be traumatized, because a second later a hunk of stone the size of an office building was hurtled my way with the speed of a race car. The hurtling mass of rock and stone was reinforced with some form of energy, probably some esoteric garbage that’d take a few scientists and a ton of coffee and stimulants to classify. The massive hunk of energy-enrobed mass, right after my area got saturated with energy, was impossible to dodge, so I put everything toward defense.

I stayed in darkness for almost an entire minute, the hurled hunk of earth and stone carved apart by my fields like I was a drill going straight through… but it stopped around me, then everything around me shook, and it started imploding with me at the center. The sheer amount of energy-enriched mass collided with my shields threatening to enclose me and crush me as it sped into my fields and used up my power.

Slowly, but surely, I felt the strain grow and grow, until light surrounded me once again… only for me to be hit straightaway with another blast of heat from above.

As calmly as I could, while I was being suppressed and could see another building-sized hunk hurtling my way, I contacted Parvati.

“Being suppressed and locked down over here. Please tell me you’re almost done beating them.” My defenses were holding under the straight, even as ‘over here’ was nothing more than a molten wasteland. Shin’s attack continued to melt and slag the surroundings, while the Shogun’s thrown projectiles upturned and churned the surrounding. I felt like an ant, while one kid was trying to burn me with a magnifying glass, while another was flicking pebbles at me. “I can last ten minutes in this.”

Technically, I could last for another five minutes, but I wasn’t about to tell them to take their time. Besides, I’d like those five minutes to make sure that I could implement my own escape plan.

Which was going straight down into the ground and walking through solid earth and popping up somewhere else to make a quick getaway.

I haven’t practiced that in a while though, and never while under fire, so I didn’t want to try it.

Thankfully, Parvati’s answer came in the form of a pure blue streak of energy flowing through the air and shattering the shields of the flying fortresses above, a second shot hitting the Shogun square in the chest, and a third smashing through two of the flying fortresses at once.

And, the mass-based and energy-based bombardment on me stopped instantly.
Looks like the kid decided to trust the AI.

Don’t know whether to call the decision smart or stupid, but I decided against questioning it for now and popped over to India.

“Designation: Egress, are you well?” I took the offered seat and nabbed a calorie-dense bar off the table of snacks, as well as water. I consumed both and let the heat and tiredness building in the back of my skull, making my eyes feel like coals in their sockets, go away after a few breaths. “You’re radiating a significant amount of heat.”

“I just processed and sent away more mass and energy than I ever want to. It has some after effects.” Was it some form of radiation that might end up killing me? Unlikely, since powers didn’t tend to kill their users. I’m sure that the same heat was generated when I jumped around all over the world, but it was miniscule compared to the usual. “Scan it and tell me if it’s dangerous… but that’s for after the battle. How are things going?”

I was ready to take a short break, since most of the city was evacuated and we now had strong support coming in from offshore. Between that cannon and Maelstrom, we shouldn’t have any issues with either Shin or the Shogun. Parvati verified my thoughts by bringing up a feed from Japan onto the screen of the little break room beside the transport pad it had created, which was already filled with the next shipment of gynoids. Looking at them made my stomach turn over, since I instantly recalled seeing them pop and turn into slag in an instant, but rested easier knowing that they were still connected to the system and most likely just got new bodies.

Or, at least, that’s what I’ll tell myself to not get nightmares.

“The battle is going in our favor. The Shogun and Shin are both set to be defeated.” The Shogun’s biomechanical titan had a gaping hole in its chest, and Walker was laying into it faster than it could heal. Two of the flying fortresses were retreating whilst covered by the remaining one. It looked like a great win for us, until the screen shifted. “The Shogun is deploying the rest of the child soldiers.”

Oh, great.

Another moral quandary to handle before the battle really ends.