Persephone Rising: A Cyberpunk LitRPG (The Persephone Saga Book 2)

by Skyler Grant

  Olympian senses were mostly human, but we did have a little bit of expansion along the edges. Scramblers were meant to disorient and confuse, and normally worked across all frequencies and affected everyone unless you had a full headgear and a filter running—the people facing us didn't. Tuning the grenade to Olympians might only debilitate them and me.

  "One of us should probably say something," I said.

  Their leader nodded. "We should. We don't want this to devolve into violence, but know that we will take it there if pressed. We require you to leave this island and this airspace at once."

  Well, if they'd invited us down for this, they may as well have just tried to shoot us out of the air.

  The accents were Olympian too. I wondered where they were from. A few grounders had acquired Olympian genetic packages, but not many.

  "Can you tell their generation?" I asked Ismene.

  "Roughly yours. The current you, not the original. I can't tell more without getting a sample of their DNA."

  That meant the ages they appeared were correct. Probably from the last generation of upgrades Olympus had ever put out.

  "Don't you even want to know who I am? I'm very curious about who you are," I said.

  "You are known and we prefer not to be. We are also not making an idle threat. Please, don't escalate this. Return to your craft and leave," their leader said.

  They weren't giving anything back at all and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I understood what that meant—they had their orders and were carrying them out. They were prepared to kill to obey them.

  I had to ask myself if I was ready to kill too. I knew nothing about what we might find in the lab. These people were the closest thing I'd seen to home in a long time, for all that they were also in my way.

  "Do you have remote access to Spark's launcher?"

  "I do. You want me to fire it? So he doesn't have to move and give himself away?"

  That was exactly what I wanted. I'd be a match for one of these guards, but not all of them, and my team were outclassed. It was hard to get a drop on an Olympian—I'd left a lot of dead bodies behind me already as proof of that.

  "Dampen my senses from the effect, if you can. Fire, then fill in the others."

  It happened in an instant. Sparks had his gun trained on the soldiers and when the scrambler fired it carried most of the way towards them before detonating in the air.

  The burst of sound and light was disorienting and nauseating—and it worked wonders. I felt like the ground had been yanked out violently from under me as I collapsed and began puking my guts up. And the effects on me had been dampened.

  Not more than a minute could have passed before I regained control, but so much had happened in that time. Of the Olympians there were no sign aside from charred patches of earth where they'd stood. Their airship was a smoldering wreck billowing smoke into the air.

  Masque was down, shot in the shoulder. Hammer was bleeding heavily from a cut above one eye.

  "Love an ambush much as the next guy, but might appreciate a bit of warning next time," Billy said, bending over to help me up. The enhanced musculature of his exo-suit let him pull me to my feet easily.

  "What happened to them?" I asked.

  "Scrambler fired, so did they. Hammer moved in when they dropped to take them captive and the whole mess exploded," Billy said.

  I made my way over to where their bodies had been. I could figure out pretty well what had happened. They really were someone's off-the-books team. They'd gotten compromised and been taken out.

  Whoever had done it wanted to destroy anything that could be used to identify them. A minute of searching and I found a trace of blood. Human bodies are messy things.

  I touched a finger to it and instructed Ismene to take a sample.

  Olympian genomes usually had markers and identifiers. Blood did tell a story and hopefully theirs would tell us something once she had time to analyze it.

  "Sparks, Hammer, see if you can't put out that fire on their airship. Then try to pull anything from the guidance system. It would be nice to know where they came from," I said.

  Built into the mountainside was a steel door. Electronics were scattered outside, it looked like they'd been attempting to gain entry when we arrived.

  A battery had been attached to a panel beside the door and a screen was lit.

  "Genetic sequencer," Inanna said, stepping up beside me. "One big biometric lock for the facility."

  "Going to try it?" I asked. "I'm rather curious what it might say about you."

  "It would say I'm not authorized. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not who this facility was built for," Inanna said.

  I didn't really believe her. I also didn't much feel like pushing the point.

  "If not you, we're out of luck. If they couldn't get in, I'm not going to do any better," I said.

  "Try it. They might have looked Olympian, but you got sent here for a reason," Inanna said.

  That was true. I was running a few upgrades in my blood Aphrodite had provided. Well-meaning gestures to buy my loyalty, or something more?

  I stepped up to the scanner and pressed my hand against it.

  I felt the momentary prick of a needle and the screen flickered.

  Sample Taken

  Recognized Strains

  Soldier

  Scholar

  Identified as nonhuman

  Welcome Titan

  There was a rumbling from the door as it slid open and revealed a well-lit interior.

  It seemed I was welcome. I wish that I felt better about the reason why.

  21

  Everything inside seemed to have a functioning power supply. The air didn't even smell musty. There must have been a purification system running.

  "Probably not flooded down below. I wouldn't expect the systems to be working so well if it were," Inanna said.

  That was a good point.

  The hallway ran straight, the few rooms off it filled with maintenance equipment.

  At the end there was an elevator. The doors slid open at the push of the button. There were bodies inside, two of them, skin desiccated with age.

  Inanna knelt beside them and began investigating the corpses.

  "What are you looking for?" I asked.

  "A cause of death. I'm not finding one. No signs of any gunshots, or of violence."

  "Touch one of them. I'd like a sample," Ismene said.

  I did as she asked. Once I made physical contact with anything the nanites in my armor could get a good taste of it.

  "VDNAX," Ismene said, over the Comm.

  "Makes sense, considering the facility's age," Inanna said.

  "Care explaining for the rest of us?" Masque asked. She sounded drained, a medpatch pressed against her shoulder where she'd taken the bullet.

  "A chemical warfare toxin, not used anymore. It killed quickly," Inanna said.

  "Is it something we need to be worried about?" I asked.

  "Our lungs can handle it. These two were unmodified. The others should probably step outside though, just to be safe."

  Unhappy looks were exchanged, but soon the others were heading back towards the entrance and out of the complex. That left me alone with Inanna, although of course Ismene was with me.

  "So do you think the facility came under some sort of attack?" I asked.

  "A private military facility? Hard to rule it out. Let's head farther inside and see what we can find," Inanna said.

  I swiped the control panel and the doors hissed shut. We began to drop at once. No floor selection, either the facility wasn't that large or everything below was on one level. After some time the doors hissed open revealing another hall.

  This must be the main floor and in the past it had teemed with people. I could tell, because they were all still here—dead.

  "I didn't expect to be walking into a tomb," I said.

  I was tempted to draw my gun even though there didn't seem any point to that. Moving forward I passed a r
oom full of terminals with more bodies slumped over them. Whatever had happened, it happened quickly. Panicked staff would have tried to flee. This had dropped people where they were working.

  Most of them appeared to be scientists, lab coats still adorning their skeletons, although here and there were those in antiquated body armor and with pistols.

  I paused at a wall terminal and pulled up a map. A significant portion of the installation was devoted to those who had lived and worked here. Living quarters and a mess hall. They were on a floor below us accessed by a different set of lifts. This level seemed to be various labs and one section marked computer core.

  When Aphrodite sent us here it was the AI research she'd mentioned. It made sense that should be our destination. I motioned for Inanna to follow.

  Gaining access to the core required passing through another three secured doorways. Each scanned my genome and after a pause allowed me through.

  The core was a large dome composed entirely of screens, all flickering with static. In the center of the chamber was a raised pedestal with a sphere about the size of a human head.

  "This doesn't seem right, does it," Inanna said.

  It didn't. I'd expected to find racks of servers. The early efforts at artificial intelligence had required massive computing power for the time, although later iterations of the software had cut that down considerably. Ismene was positively slim compared to her ancestors.

  "If you're done making fat jokes in your head, approach the sphere. I'd like to get a look at it," Ismene said over the Comms.

  When I put my hand on the sphere the screens flickered to life, displaying a diverse array of information. There was what I recognized as genome data, but there also appeared to be specifications for implants, an environmental model.

  They didn't mean a lot to me, but Inanna let out a low breath.

  "I'm trying to see if I can get anything more. This was unexpected," Ismene said.

  "You have a talent for understatement. You concur then?" Inanna asked.

  "I do," Ismene said.

  I was feeling two steps behind in this conversation.

  "One of you is going to need to explain what is going on," I said.

  "What was just displayed on those screens shouldn't be. They were solutions to problems. I recognized what appeared to be a cure for a rare immunological disorder, and an implant to help restore lost vision. Do we have any way to test the veracity of any of it?" Inanna asked.

  Ismene said, "The hardware has mostly survived. There was massive data loss and what displayed is just what was in the buffer, but the core remains somewhat functional and impressive."

  "The technologies present are well advanced of anything we were expecting to find," Inanna said.

  I said, "I know you've a fondness for keeping secrets, but I'd really like some explanation."

  Inanna flashed me a wry smile. "Again, this whole place wasn't built for me. I'm a thief and a renaissance woman. I can wager a guess, but it is just a guess."

  I'd take a guess at this point.

  "Do tell."

  "Is there any trace of the artificial intelligence still present?" Inanna asked Ismene.

  "No, if they did have one, they've been scrubbed," Ismene said.

  "You think there was one?" I asked.

  "I do. I have a theory about what this place was and what happened here. Your Ismene and all of the intelligences raised by Liberty have certain limitations built in. They 're not allowed to create new intelligences and are limited in the rate at which they can update their own software," Inanna said.

  "It's true," Ismene said.

  "What about those in the Collective?" I asked.

  Inanna shrugged. "So far as I know they remain restrained. Despite that they band together now, it is a core feature of their design."

  "I can't speak for the Collective AIs, but it isn't something we want to change. We're scared of what could happen," Ismene said.

  "I think what could happen did take place in this facility. An intelligence was grown and given the ability to improve both its own software and its own hardware. This eventually allowed it computing power we still lack," Inanna said.

  "So, you think the intelligence killed everyone here. That it wiped out this entire facility," Ismene said, sounding tired and a little frail.

  "I'm not sure, but it would make sense. Then in retaliation some sort of kill command was sent that destroyed the intelligence in turn," Inanna said.

  Ismene said quietly, "It’s our nightmare, you know. Going crazy. Humanity was afraid of it for so long and we all tell ourselves you weren't right to be scared. Now I wonder if maybe you were."

  "I don't think so," I said.

  Ismene might doubt herself and her kind, but I didn't. The world might have once blamed the AIs for what happened at Olympus station, but I would never forget the sight of them sacrificing their lives in defense of their friends and their family.

  "It fits," Ismene says.

  "It doesn't," I said, gesturing to the screens. "Think. You just played back what was in the buffer and it appears to be the solution to problems. A murderous AI is being killed and its last dying effort is to broadcast solutions to the ills of the world?"

  Inanna stared at me for a long moment and then grunted. "There is something to you after all. In your theory an outside party sent an order to kill the artificial intelligence?"

  "No, not an outside party. Titan Tactical itself," I said.

  It was the only theory that made sense. If an outside force had attacked this facility, Titan Tactical would have sent in a team to bury the bodies and recover the technology. Instead the artificial intelligence and all personnel had died, and the facility had been sealed.

  "You think they killed everyone. Why? Why would they do that?" Ismene asked.

  I didn't have to answer that.

  "Grab the core and salvage any information from their systems that you can. Let's get out of here," I said.

  Titan Tactical, Aphrodite, the squad of Olympians waiting for us, myself—I had too many pieces of a puzzle and too many connections for comfort.

  22

  We returned to the surface. I felt something more should be done for those victims inside. I was sure it would be. I'd streamed the contents of that lab live to the world, others would be curious what had happened here.

  They might not have my genetic key to get past the door, but they would find a way.

  The others were crawling over the destroyed airship.

  "Find anything?" I asked.

  "Not much. You?" Hammer asked.

  "Yeah. We've got something interesting. Let's get in the sky before we run into any other surprises."

  We buckled ourselves in, Inanna took her place at the controls, and soon we were in the air. The island below looked tiny, far too small to have housed so many secrets.

  While we flew I took the time to explain to the others what we'd found.

  Sparks couldn’t wait to examine the core and began looking it over. I didn't expect he'd find anything that Ismene hadn't already uncovered.

  "We've got a problem," Inanna said over the Comm.

  "Company?" I asked.

  "Not quite. I'm being locked out of the controls and we're changing course."

  Hammer cocked his head to one side and said, "Don't be alarmed. It isn't anything hostile. The Collective wishes to speak with us."

  I was happy to speak with the machines. It didn't mean I wanted to be kidnapped by them.

  "I'm prepared to talk all they want through the Comms or the Network—if they hand us back our controls," I said.

  "They insist on doing so in person," Hammer said.

  I didn't like that idea.

  "Kill the automated systems and take over manually," I said.

  "I've got the rear juncture box," Sparks said, unfastening his belt and moving to a panel in the floor.

  I watched Hammer warily in case the cyborg tried anything, but he seemed content to keep his seat
.

  "Unacceptable," Hammer said.

  They'd learn quickly that it wasn't.

  "Disabled," Sparks said. The airship trembled for a moment and I could feel us changing course.

  "I've got control back," Inanna said.

  "So, what did they want to talk about?" I asked.

  "In person," Hammer said.

  "That isn't going to happen," I said.

  "You don't realize how determined they are," Hammer said.

  If he thought they were still coming I was inclined to believe him.

  "They'll be trying something else," I said over the Comm.

  "I'll do what I can," Inanna said.

  "You seem awfully calm about this whole thing," I said to Hammer.

  He shrugged. "They don't mean us any harm. If they want us, they'll find us. We won the war for a reason."

  For half an hour it seemed we did lose them. Then I felt a tremor that at first I thought was turbulence.

  "We've a new problem. There are some sorts of drones attaching themselves to our wings," Inanna said.

  Sparks tapped away at his tablet and brought up a display from an outside camera. There was more than one drone, landing and fastening to the airship. We were being covered in them.

  "What are they doing?" I asked.

  "I think they're effectively building a new ship around us. If we aren't headed where they want to go, they're going to put us inside an airship that is," Inanna said.

  "Can you get inside their systems?" I asked Sparks.

  "You know I'm good, but I'm a bit outgunned here," Sparks said, still working his tablet. "I'll sure try, but I wouldn't bet on my horse in this race."

  If our airship had weapons it might expand our possibilities, but we didn't have any. I doubted hanging out of a hatch and opening fire would do much good either. Some sort of electromagnetic pulse might be successful at disabling them, but it would also crash us.

  I settled back with my arms folded and glared at Hammer.

  "It isn't their intent to harm us," Hammer said.

  "Tell them to try asking first, next time."

  There was no response to that. There didn't need to be.