Carnival - A LitRPG Apocalypse

“Where are we going?” asked Ryn. The Grove had always been a warm and welcoming space in her experience but right now the trees loomed over her and rather than feeling like trees reaching for the sky they felt like skeletal hands preparing to descend on her.

“To the portal, sweetheart. We’re going to get you to the Bunker so you can see your friends,” said the Ent escorting them.

“How badly are they hurt?” asked Sally in a quavering voice.

“Oh, not too bad.” Seb turned slightly and his bark-like face shifted into a smiley emoji aimed at the young woman. “Between Armand’s dad, Vic and Ryn the heat was largely contained. The injured are being treated now by Ascension healers, just like Raoul.”

“What about Raoul? And Armand’s dad?” asked Bad. “What about my dad?”

“Your father is fine, lad. Armand’s dad gave his life protecting people. Raoul… until he wakes up… He isn’t responding to the healers at the moment. Once he comes round he’ll be fine. Come along children, it’s just through here.”

The trees grew thickly this deep in the grove and before them a clump of trees grew, forming a solid circle around the portal site. A tunnel lit by eerie blue light led into the copse of sentient trees. Ryn stopped at the entrance and turned to her grandad.

“Booah, how many died?” she asked quietly, staring defiantly into the old tree’s eyes. Seb smiled sadly and all the trees around them shook slightly, producing a gentle susurration of leaves and branches rubbing against themselves.

“Too many, little one. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been though. I’m sure your parents will explain everything to you all soon. Run along now. There’s an escort waiting to take you into the Bunker on the other side of the portal.” Seb’s voice was full of a pain that masked his anger. He had lost old friends and almost lost family to the attack. His Groves covered much of the wild areas of the UK now, and colonies had been set up across the world. He was not a forest to be taken lightly and would bend all his resources and influence to finding whoever had perpetrated today’s atrocity.

The teenagers nodded, waved goodbye to the Ent with Ryn giving her grandfather a fierce hug that scratched at her cheek, and then they hurried into the tunnel. They emerged into an oval of foliage grown around the portal. Portals to the Groves weren’t as heavily trafficked as more cosmopolitan destinations. There wasn’t much trading to be done with a sentient forest after all. The kids moved through and found themselves back on Blue Street.

“Hey kids. Let’s get you to your mates. Once we’re sure there’s not going to be a follow-up we’ll get you home. Your families are all under guard so please don’t worry about them,” rumbled the BD-209E. This was the latest version of the bipedal war machines Bob preferred, other than the legendary Doris herself. It towered over them, nearly four metres tall and bristled with barrels and blades. Flash, his helm retracted so his face was visible, stood on a rainbow coloured platform of force fifty feet above them and combat drones swarmed the sky. He nodded at them before resuming overwatch and scanning around like danger lurked behind every tree and building.

A squad of B-1945s hustled up with their dangerous plasma weapons slung on their backs. Their gleaming silver lines and fluid movements made them seem to be made of mercury rather than solid metal.

“You heard the big me, youngsters. Let’s get you to your mates,” the first one said as it set off, the rest falling in around the kids as they started to follow. The BD-209E clumped along at the rear.

Blue Street was much quieter than it should have been. The normal hustle and bustle would smother the cries of the hawkers on New Main Street but today even without that ambient noise it was strangely silent. Bob’s drones were everywhere, standing at intersections or orbiting above the buildings, almost matched in number by the human enforcers from Gemma’s Internal Security teams.

A man made of bronze jogged over and nodded to the Bob’s.

“Bob. We’ve got Central Wayfaire locked down. Can you move out towards the Boroughs?”

“Sure Brendan. I’ll re-task now, give me a couple of minutes to get full aerial cover.”

“It was your job to keep them safe!” blurted Sally, losing control of her emotions.

Brendan turned his head slowly to look at her then crouched down on one knee so he was looking up into her face

“I’m not going to argue jurisdiction or any of that bullshit with you girl. But you’re right.” Brendan’s eyes gleamed as tears began to form, glistening on his bronze cheeks as they fell. “I’ll find who did this, lass. And when I do they’ll pay. Gemma- my friends were there too.”

Brendan straightened and looked to the nearest B-1945. “I’ll begin secondary sweeps once you're clear. The special teams are being deployed. Any Minders lurking around are going to be in trouble. If there are any accomplices we’ll find them.” His tone was once again pure business, all hints of emotion suppressed. Ryn reached out and put a hand on Sally’s arm.

“You need authorisation for the special teams, Brendan.”

“Everyone who can authorise- they’re all fucking dead, Bob. I’m happy to face any consequences for the decision,” Brendan said quietly.

“I’ll back you up if it comes to that. C’mon kids. Let’s get you to Armand and Kev. They’re just about patched up.”

The team of silver androids shepherded the kids to a portal into a lower level of the BME complex. They were led through various tunnels and workshops to another portal then repeated the process twice more, moving ever deeper into the labyrinthine complex Bob called home.

The medical facilities Bob maintained were intended for use during the void invasion. Buried hundreds of metres below the surface they should be immune to any form of bombardment from above and any attackers would have to fight their way through the various military floors of his complex before even getting close to the injured.

As a result they were of a scale that seemed preposterous to Ryn and her friends. Wide, white tiled corridors stretching away into what seemed like infinity, lined with endless wards and rooms. Tens of thousands of people could be housed here while they recuperated, receiving the best automated and human medical treatment.

As they moved down yet another interminable corridor, their honour guard now reduced to a solitary B-1945, a door flew open ahead of them and Armand staggered out. His skin was healed and his modesty was preserved by a hospital gown. He saw his new friends and his face lit up.

“Where’s my father?” he called desperately. “These putains de machines won’t tell me merde!”

Ryn moved closer and gave the boy a hug. He resisted for a moment, pushing her back before reading in her face the news he had been dreading. His lip quivered before it firmed and his expression froze into the hauteur that was the hallmark of his noble family.

“Who did this?” he hissed, pushing away from Ryn and stalking back and forth in the corridor. “Don’t try to keep it from me. We’ll find out eventually and as my friends I’d hope I could expect honesty from you.”

“Easy dude,” said Sally gently. “We are your friends but we don’t know yet mate. Let’s go find Kev, eh? Make sure he’s ok as well?”

Armand nodded sharply. “Monsieur Gillybrook. Please could you provide suitable clothes?”

“Sure Armand. Head back into your room, I’m having some delivered through the vacuum tubes. Give us a minute?” the B-1945 asked the other kids who nodded solemnly.

It took more than a minute. Ryn, Bad and Sally carefully ignored the enraged shrieks and sounds of crying that slipped through the door. Soon enough Armand was clad in decent clothes and while his eyes were puffy and red he once again had control of himself.

“Kev is just down here. He took a worse hit than the rest of you. Follow me.” They trailed along behind the robot in silence. This wasn’t a time for banter and although they weren’t yet adults they knew to focus on what was important. The Academy had drilled it into most of them from a young age and the Court took preparing their scions for combat losses very seriously as well.

"We need to get strong. Fast,” muttered Bad. He received a round of serious nods from the others.

“That’s probably on the cards. Whatever Greg ends up doing after today he’s going to face a lot of pressure to speed up the grind process. It’s unlikely you’ll have to spend weeks at each level refining your powers. There’ll be consequences. You won’t be as fluent with your mods as previous years were but you’ll get powerful a lot faster,” replied Bob.

Ryn caught Bad’s eye and they shared a look. If the Headmaster would be forced to change, the losses must have been far more significant than they’d assumed. Signatories rarely died in combat these days and to lose so many in one go… it would shake things up, all the way to the council chamber on Unity.

“Are we nearly there yet?” asked Sally, without the tone one might expect for that question. Her voice was flat.

“Yes. Here we go.” The B-1945 knocked on the door to their left and it swung open. They found Kev pulling a shirt over his head. When his face was squeezed through the neck hole he smiled grimly at them before flinching as his gaze landed on Armand.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply. Armand nodded his head in acceptance but Kev blinked and looked away. In the lanky boy's eyes Armand was surrounded in a halo of dark, angry colours that left the air around him looking bruised and hurt. His other friends weren’t much easier to look at but this was an order of magnitude worse and he shook slightly as he bent to fasten his shoes.

“What about Raoul?” asked Ryn.

“He’s down here as well, in a hangar. Ascension sent some of the top Medicus Corpus clergy. Sam is with him as well. As soon as he comes round and activates his ability he’ll be fine. Until then the big guy is essentially comatose.”

“They took out a member of the Carnival as well as all those Signatories,” said Bad. “The anti Accord elements out there will be crowing about this.”

“You’re too young to worry about politics, lad,” replied Bob.

“Fuck off you patronising old mech! War is just an extension of politics. Professor Death trained us to be warriors. I am a Gurkha!” The last was said with such conviction the B-1945 stepped back slightly. Glowing silver eyes focused on the boy with his fists clenched at his side.

“Fair enough. You’re not wrong, lad. Anti-Accord elements are already gloating about this,” said the bot gently, not rising to the tone and language Bad had used.

“Gloating? About kil- about my father?” snarled Armand.

“Not specifically about that. They see this as us being humbled. The more calculating among them are looking for ways to exploit our losses.” Ryn turned to the robot with a shocked expression. “I don’t make the rules, Ryn. Politics is politics is war, like Bad said.”

“We need to start the grind. Now. Can we speak to Greg?” Ryn asked.

“Not today, girl. Greg is going to be even busier than usual for the next few weeks until Wayfaire sorts out another Count or Countess. Greg was the only member of the old leadership that survived today.”

“How didn’t the dead know this was coming? They see everything in Wayfaire!” asked Armand.

“They only see stuff. They can’t read minds.” The bot flicked its eyes to Kev who had flinched at the last part. “With Gemma gone as well there’s going to be some shenanigans over trade and transit rights as well. It’s a shit sandwich and we’re just going to have to eat it. That isn’t for you guys to worry about though. You will need to focus on getting stronger fast. Children of prominent people are all going to get boosted up fast.”

“Why not just give us the Essence?” asked Ryn. “Dad had a few million last time I asked him. That would jump us all up to Signatory strength.”

“He’s got a lot more now. He executed the man who attacked us a few minutes ago. He was level forty one so now the Carnival are all level forty two due to the extra Essence we were sitting on,” replied Bob as he began to shepherd the kids back towards the portals that led to the higher levels of the Bunker.

“He’s caught up with Gemini? Surely he could bump us all to level thirty easily enough. I’m sure Dad wouldn’t mind.”

“He might end up doing so but you’d best hope it doesn’t come to that. That would set us back millions of Essence from level forty three in exchange for a handful of relatively weak thirties. The only way that happens is that we end up really bloody desperate. There’s going to be an announcement at the Academy tomorrow, your parents will probably get a message tonight.” Armand flinched at the bot's words.

“I do not wish to return to the Court. I am enrolled at the Academy and they have facilities for boarders. I will take advantage of this and remain in Wayfaire,” he said in a carefully controlled voice that showed the strain beneath the surface in slight tremors and hesitations.

“That can be arranged, lad. You don’t want to go and see your mother?” asked Bob.

“She was lost in the attack on the tower hives. I have four uncles and many cousins. No one who can outrank me within the main family line is left. The cadet branches might try to push me out but I don’t care. I want to get strong, not posture and dabble in infighting and politics. I am now the Comte de Loires.”