Apocalypse: Generic System, Macronomicon [e book reader android txt] 📗

Amanda said, turning to Jeb, the ruby-studded needle in her hand. “They can be reasoned with. If we can start up some kind of dialogue, we shouldn’t have to kill them.”

“Huh…” Jeb said, crossing his arms. “I probably shouldn’t have made all those killbots, then.”

“You did what now?”

***

***

This is bop betty leader to bop betty squadron, I have a visual.

The thumb-sized marble wiggled its air bubble at the others, the only way of communicating that they had. They’d figured out a language fast enough, though.

Their line of sight was typically awful, being as low to the ground as they were, it was rare that they were able to make visual contact with their prey. In this case though, Bop Betty leader was on top of a small swell of ston, no bigger than a man’s foot. it afforded him a better view of the surroundings than the fifty-four marbles rolling around him.

The enormous entrance to the cavern was looming in front of the bop-betty, approximately fifty feet away. Standing guard at the entrance were two creatures that had tried a night raid on Casey.

That was unacceptable.

Bop Betty leader, confirm visual. Sending in Bop Betty five four.

This is Bop Betty twenty-four, starting my approach.

The glassy marble began rolling forward, nearly undetectable in the dim light. Their stealth mission was guaranteed to succeed due to their small size and the poor ambient light.

Or so they thought.

Once Bop Betty twenty four was within fifteen feet of the creatures, they noticed, reacting violently, throwing spears at Twenty-four.

I’m getting a lot of enemy fire here! Twenty-four signed as he hopped from side to side, sprays of stone shrapnel peppering his sides as spears missed him by inches.

Bop Betty leader watched the marble put himself into high gear now that the stealth aspect was blown. They couldn’t afford to let these creatures report to the rest of their ilk.

Twenty-four spun rapidly and blasted forward, popped up into the air at the two and a half foot mark, bubble pointing straight up as he sailed through the air.

FOR CASEY!!!

A fraction of a second later, the delicate spellwork inside the marble keeping Twenty-four alive fizzled out as the powerful Mystic trigger erupted out of him.

Massive telekinetic blades manifested above him and turned the two enemy guards to quivering chunks. Large gouges were dug out of the wall where the blades impacted the stone face of the mountain.

The marble clinked to the ground, lifeless. There simply hadn’t been enough time and body mass in the marbles to imbue them with resilient life like the golem guards, and as a result, the enchantment keeping each of them alive and moving was whisper-thin.

None of them railed against the cruel fate of such a limited existence, though. They were proud to be doing what had to be done to keep Casey safe: striking back before the enemy organized a defense.

A brave man. A moment of silence for Twenty-four. Salute!

The bop bettys turned their bubbles toward the motionless marble in the midst of the carnage. They held this pose for a solid five seconds.

All right, you marbles, we know this is a one way trip now! Sear every moment into your SOUL and take as many of these bastards to hell with you as you can! They tried to hunt our mother!

The Betties cheered and streamed forward into the enormous entrance, ignoring the sweltering heat of the dungeon as they tracked the strange copper creatures back to their source.

***

“This is horrible…”  Amanda gasped, scanning the scene of the slaughter. Shelters made of carefully melted together stone dotted the new cavern, creating a circle of stone igloos, at least a hundred.

The stone huts were torn to shreds, toppled to the ground without exception, huge gouges taken out of their sides.

The ground was covered in the bodies of copper-skinned creatures in various states of dismemberment. Some of the luckier ones only seemed to be missing an arm or a leg, while others were horrifically carved into chunks.

In the center of most of these piles of dead bodies was a single black marble with a bubble facing up.

“Is this what you meant!?” Amanda demanded, rounding on Jeb. She pointed at an obvious child, its body was over a foot shorter than the other bipedal creatures, its form split in two. “They’re people!”

“They tried to kill us. Twice.” Jessica retorted. “Now they’re not.”

Ron and Brett looked uncomfortable.

“The decision was made in a cave under threat of death,” Jeb said, stepping between the two of them, facing Amanda. “I didn’t know it would be this effective, and I’d do it differently if I could, but we can’t undo this.” he motioned to the carnage.

Jess snorted behind him.

Amanda glared at him, her eyes burning behind her visor.

“You created autonomous drones capable of finding and killing people with no human involvement. You can’t tell me you didn’t know that was a war crime.”

“It wasn’t war,” Jeb muttered, scanning the desolate village. “It was hunting.” He glanced back up to Amanda. “They weren’t trying to capture us, interrogate us or anything of that nature. They were hunting us. Plain and simple.”

Jeb pointed to a corner of the village, where one of Eddie’s men sat, half-butchered.

Amanda stared at the corpse, jaw hanging open.

“It’s never gonna be easy,” Brett said, gently pulling his wife closer before her back started shaking.

Jeb heard a quiet groan behind him and spotted Jess rolling her eyes,

Damnit, this group is hanging on by a thread. I need to defuse the situation and separate Amanda from the glaring reality, give her some time to cool down. I should talk to Jess about not antagonizing the healer, too.

“Let’s push on,” Jeb said. “Hanging out here isn’t doing anyone any good.”

Beyond the ruined village was