Nobody Dies A Hero
A Steampunk LitRPG
BY FOUND FORESTER.
—PROLOGUE
Bane clutched his aching side as he knelt behind the large barricade separating him from the death squad that had been hunting him for hours.
His muscles strained, and his joints ached in protest, as he repositioned himself behind the barrier, in preparation to mount a counterattack.
But just when his muscles twitched to make a move, a fresh barrage of gunfire whizzed overhead forcing him to duck down and out of sight. He’d been spotted again.
“Slag it!” He pushed a shoulder against the wall and craned his head.
Being pinned down in one place for too long is always dangerous. But moving recklessly is always deadly. His years of training were screaming at him to be careful—to be patient—to wait.
But time wasn’t on his side. He could feel the seconds ticking down as the footsteps of his pursuer closed in.
One wrong move, one more misstep, and it was all over. Everything he had worked so hard for, suffered so much for, would vanish in an instant.
He couldn’t allow himself to get distracted, to get lost in the suffering. He needed to focus on the mission at hand—will himself forward—push through the pain.
Bane protected his eyes as a wall of gunfire eviscerated the concrete barrier, sending chunks of stone and metal skittering across the floor and a cloud of grey powder billowing into the air!
“Not so tough now are ya, traitor!? ” One of the armor-clad men mocked, as he along with his comrades continued to lay down suppressing fire!
“Why don’t you come out and play!? I promise this will only hurt for a second!” He shouted to be heard over the cacophony of gunfire.
“Amateurs” Bane thought, refusing to rise to the bait.
Insults are the tools of fools and cowards, A distraction from the stress of the situation.
But why not play along?
“Okay, Okay! You got me!” Bane said, causing the men to stop firing for a moment.
“I’ll make you a deal. The same deal I offered the rest of your boys. Lay down your weapons and you can walk out of here with your lives!”
The room erupted with laughter. “So you got jokes, ah!?” the soldier bellowed “I heard you were crazy! But holy halo! This guy is certifiable! You got a lot of stone to think you’re calling the shots!
But, if you hadn’t noticed”— he gestured to his men with a wide sweeping motion—“There’s a whole lot of us but only one of you!”
“So how bout we cut you a little deal, ay!? Why don’t you come on out here so we can end this nice and quick like?”
“That's your final answer? your sure?” Bane asked calmly.
“Sure, I’m Sure! Come on out here! I wanna see what the great ‘Ravager’ is all about!”——He rifled his gun and aimed down-sight—“ the boys here didn’t think you were real. Just some kinda boogie man. But I know better. You bleed like all the rest of us.”
If that’s what you want… Bane thought
Tapping on his earpiece Bane activated his suit's built-in Sonic Resonator; a device that leveraged the acoustics properties of the objects around itself to produce sound. Making it possible to project audio to almost any location.
After a few adjustments, Bane projected his voice against the wall behind the soldiers, making it sound as if he was standing to their left.
“You know the problem with guys like you?” The men spun on their heels and blindly fired in the direction of his voice!
“Give a couple of guys a gun and they think they're untouchable!”
The men fired again as Bane altered the location of his voice and spoke again. “But I know better.”
Panicked, the men opened fire at a shadow of a flag that was flapping in the wind. The ricocheting sound of their bullets took up a panic staccato as they haphazardly fired in multiple directions!
“Where is this freak!” One of them yelled!
“How is he moving like that!” another asked
“Is he even human!? I can’t see him!”
“What’s wrong?” Bane asked, his voice echoing omnipresently as he spoke. “I thought you wanted me to end this quickly....”
Before he even finished his sentence the men unleashed another spray of wild bullets that littered the room with smoldering holes.
“Just keep shooting! One of us will get him!” One of them yelled between bursts.
Bane reached out with his mind and used his powers to intensify their fear. Coaxing them to fire even more and more recklessly.
“one, one thousand…two, one thousand… three, one thousand… Four…” Bane counted down until—Click, Click, Click!
Right on schedule, the sound of the gunfire disappeared only to be replaced by the sweet sound of firing pins clashing against empty chambers.
“Son of a-” the man racked his rifle and checked the chamber. In the heat of the moment, he along with all his men had completely emptied their magazines.
A simple mistake that Bane planned to take full advantage of.
Before the full gravity of their mistake dawned on them, A stun grenade flew from Bane's hand, detonating in mid-air, filling the room with blinding white light.
The symphony of their horrified screams rang out to the night sky bringing a smile to Bane’s tired face.
Vaulting over the barrier he quickly sized up his prey.
There were six men in total; each wore a black and grey tactical suit with a blue symbol embroidered on its upper arm that identified them as soldiers, mercenaries really, of the isekai Cult. An extremist organization that believed death in glorious battles would grant them a better life in the world to come. As long as they took enough infidels with them of course.
Bane didn’t care who they were or what they believed in. They were in his way and that made them targets.
Six targets, sixteen seconds to take them out. Bane counted the seconds as he switched his fighting stance.
Falling back on their training the men tightened their formation, pouting their guns outwards in a semicircle, and pressing their shoulders together.
“Stay together, don’t let the geezer pick you off!” One of the men ordered. “and watch your crossfire!”
“Got it!” Another replied as he fell into step. “Reloading!”
With blinding speed and deadly accuracy, Bane dashed forward, leaped high into the air, and landed a savage knee to the face of the closest and largest man before he had the time to reload his weapon.
The impact threw the soldier backward, causing him to slam into the man beside as he crumbled to an unconscious heap on the floor.
14 seconds—one down, five to go.
Standing in the center of the group, Bane planted his feet, shifted his weight, and executed a brutal spinning high kick that landed a clean blow to the back of the skull of the man to his left, causing him to topple head-first onto the floor!
In the same fluid motion, Bane grabbed the arm of the man on his right and threw him over his shoulder, and slammed him onto the hard unrelenting concrete!
The man let out a bellowing shout which abruptly cut off when Bane landed a devastating elbow to the side of his head!
9 seconds—Three down, two remain.
Blind, panicked, and disorientated the two remaining men began to scurry in opposite directions away from Bane; stumbling as they redoubled their efforts to reload their weapons.
Narrowing his eyes, Bane noticed that one of the men was seconds from sliding a loaded mag into the chamber!
Bane knew he couldn’t allow either of them to gain much distance. If he did one or the other would have enough time to chamber a round and fire!
Reaching into the holster on his hip Bane retrieved a high-powered grappling gun, which he immediately fired at the soldier who seemed to be gaining the most distance.
A spray of white-hot sparks lit the room for a brief moment as the spear-shaped prong of the grappling hook pierced into the side of the automatic weapon embedding itself inside the metal plating.
Bane pulled back hard on the tether, engaged the automated wench, and wrenched the rifle out of the soldier's hand.
With a powerful smooth motion, he swung the weapon around his head, behind his back, and whipped it like a mace and chain into the jaw of the man standing behind him. The blow landed with a sickening crunch as the solid metal stock drove into the side of the man's jaw fracturing it.
6 seconds—Five down, One target remaining.
Bane cracked his neck and rotated his shoulder. The phantom pains were back.
The now unarmed man tripped over his own feet and stumbled to the ground.
“P-Please Don’t!” The man shouted, his voice trembling like a scared child.
Shuffling backward the panicked man dragged his legs along the floor in a desperate attempt to scurry away. His wide eyes darted between Bane and the motionless men that lay by his side.
Bane could see dread welling up in his eyes as he realized that he was the only one left. There was no one left to save him.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“You should have taken the deal...” Bane said as he towered over the man. “But now it’s time to pay the piper.”
“Please, I-I just! I-I wanted to! I” He choked on his words as Bane walked slowly forward.
This wasn’t going to be present.
“Plea-“ Bane halted the man’s retreat and silenced his whimpers by planting a steel-toed boot squarely on his chest and kneeling down with all his weight.
Tearing off the soldier's mask, Bane got a good look at the features of the man’s face. He wasn’t a man at all. He was just a boy. A kid who couldn’t have been older than nineteen or twenty.
How the hell had he gotten wrapped up and all this?
“There’s only one way this ends. You know that don’t you?” Bane said in a calm whisper. “You're gonna tell me what I want to know and you gonna do it now—Where is it!?”
“I-I don’t. I can’t…” The man muttered. He was so gripped by fear and panic all he could manage were sporadic shrills and hushed gasps as he struggled against the weight on his chest.
Bane was tempted to beat the truth out of him, the process would have taken only a minute or so. But he didn’t have that kind of time on his hands.
“I promise“ —Bane took a deep breath—“this will only hurt for a second.”
Making a three-pronged claw shape with his thumb and two of his fingers he pressed a hand against the mercenary’s temple.
In an instant, the man's thoughts devolved into a horrible mess of memory, emotion, and distorted imagery as Bane, using his empathic powers, forced his way into the soldier's mind and pushed.
Unprepared and untrained in telepathic warfare, the man didn't stand a chance. All he could do was watch the corners of his mind buckled and cracked until the immense psychic pressure finally shattered his mind to pieces.
With the calm precision of a surgeon, Bane pulled the truth from the fragments of thought and memory that remained of the man’s battered psyche.
The procedure, as excruciating as it was, lasted only for a few seconds. By the end of it, the mercenary was nothing more than a quivering pile on the floor.
“Vita Nova,” he croaked out as white foam oozed from the corners of his mouth, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his body was gripped by terrible convulsions.
“I’m sorry,” Bane whispered. No matter how long it had been, it never gets easier.
drawing a long breath as he rose to his feet, steadied himself, and began to sort through the garble of information that he had extracted from the young man’s mind.
The brief reprieve gave bane time to catch his breath. Enough time for the long hours he’d been fighting to catch up with him and the pain he’d been ignoring to rush to the forefront of his mind.
He’d bested countless men to get to the forty-seventh floor of this half-constructed highrise.
But the small mistakes he’d made along the way were beginning to pile up. An improper foot placement left a bruise on his shoulder, a slip of the hand left a gash in his thigh, a single miss-timed strafe left him open long enough for that punk with a gun to fire a wild round and land a glancing blow.
Pulling a shaking hand from his side, Bane checked for blood… Nothing. Continuing his self-examination he traced a finger along the thin rugged groove that ran the length of his ribcage and led into the newly minted hole on his side.
To his surprise, when he prodded a digit into the hole, he felt nothing but the smoldering heat of a shell casing at his fingertip.
This was good! It meant his tri-weave armor had done its job, managing to stop another stray bullet. The lingering pain he felt, however, was a less promising omen. It meant that not only was he suffering from another broken rib but the numbing effects of adrenaline and K-12 were beginning to wear thin. His body, like his armor, couldn't take much more abuse. Sooner or later something would have to give.
“Slag it.” Bane snapped himself to his senses as he worked out what the Cult were Planning. He’d know they were fanatics, but—“Holy Halo”—this was extreme even by their standards.
His whole body protested as he dashed up the stairs onto yet another unfinished level of the half-constructed skyscraper.
This floor, like the ones before it, was practically barren. Rows of metal pillars jutted up from the floor and buried themselves in the ceiling. Tools, automated construction equipment, and half-eaten Dacta containers were scattered around the place, and there was the smell of Orgon gin and rust in the air.
Bane's eyes darted across the room, scanning through the clutter of metal and equipment as he searched for the object he’d seen in the recesses of the man’s mind...
There!
At the center of the room stood a large mechanical device decorated with blinking lights. The shape of this machine was unusual. It looked almost like a crucible; a large metal cylinder that flared out to a wide base with rows of interlocking panels.
High-pressure canisters containing dangerous chemicals were crudely mounted to either side and there was a large analog keypad mounted to the far side. The whole thing was interlaced with a rat's nest of multi-colored wires, cables, and welded metal.
Bane tapped his earpiece activating the heads up display of the Hologaze embedded in his mask. The visor augmented his vision allowing him to see the inner workings of the device. To say it was complicated would be an oversimplification.
The intertwined circuitry of the device was enough to give a hardened electrical engineer a conniption. Though Bane suspected half of these systems were redundancies.
“Computer, analysis. What am I looking at?”
“It appears to be some kind of tachyonic explosive device.” The computer's synthesized voice replied.
“No skrip Sherlock.” Bane jabbed, “How do I disarm it?”
“Calculating… please stand by...”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“Analysis complete!”
“deactivation of device not possible. Detonation sequence active.”
“How long do I have!?”
“Detonation will occur in one minute forty-seven seconds. Probable casualties…
“…”
“…”
“11,000,000.”
Bane swore under his breath.
“Is there any way to delay it!? Contain it?”
“Negative. Suggested operations not possible.”
“What about moving it?” Bane asked, he didn't see anything bolting it to the ground.
“No telemetry sensor detected. Locomotion unlikely to trigger device.”
“Unlikely!?” Bane chafed at the indecisiveness of this artificial ‘Intelligence’.
That would have to be good enough. But how would he move it? The device must have been twice his size and three times his weight.
Casting back his mind, Bane remembered seeing a handful of construction drones on the lower levels of the building.
A few of them had been destroyed in the crossfire but he only needed one or two for the plan that was percolating in his mind.
“Computer, activate protocol Alpha Epsilon 1. Gain remote access to any and all operative service drones in the area and program them to carry the device away from the city! I’m transmitting the necessary data now.”
After a few seconds, the machine spoke again. “Transmission received... Activating intrusion protocol. Please stand by...”
A wash of motors filled the air as the three T-37 Construction drones roared to life and took flight. Ordinarily, these drones were used to lift heavy equipment and material onto higher and higher floors as the building was constructed. All Bane needed them to do was lift the bomb out of range of Light City.
A squad of 4 drones encircled the device, extended their mechanical arms, and grasped onto the uneven sides of the device.
But Bane couldn't trust a machine to get the job done.
leaping forward, he jumped on top of one of the drones and knelt on its flat head as it began to lift off the ground.
“Computer, Calculate the estimated radius of the explosion.”
“1.38 miles”
“At this speed how far from the city will we be when the timer hits zero!?”
“0.82 miles.”
“Can we move any faster!?”
“Negative. Operational limits of service drones have already been exceeded. By 174% Estimated casualties 6,500,000.”
Bane racked his brain as he was lifted higher and higher above Light city. Down below millions of people were living their ordinary lives; unaware of the life-and-death struggle that raged on above the neon-lit streets.
“Thirty seconds until detonation.” the computer warned. “Immediate evacuation recommended!”
“Computer! You said this is a tachyonic device, didn't you!?”—He didn't wait for a response— “That means the explosion occurs in two stages; concussive and then Tachyonic. Correct?”
“Correct.”
“If I were to short-circuit the device somehow--reverse the detonation sequence,”—His mind raced so quickly his tongue could barely keep pace— “The explosion would be denser... The radius smaller? Correct?!”
“Correct. Estimated radius: 0.47 miles. Casualties... Calculating... 1 —The voice paused as an emergency subroutine triggered—warning! Suggested action is not recommended! Probability of operator death 100%”
“I guess he was right”—Bane pulled off his mask, tossed it over the edge, and watched as it tumbled toward the city streets below.
“Live too long.”
Bending down he pried a panel off the side of the machine before retrieving a knife from his belt.
Reaching into the device he wrapped a single red wire around the cracked blade of his knife.
Just the slightest pressure would end it all.
“Warning 15 seconds to detonation. Evacuate! Evacuate! Evacuate!”
Throughout his life, Bane had witnessed far too many deaths. He’d sat with allies and enemies in their final moments, held frail hands as their grip waned, and told them everything would be okay when he knew it could never be.
It had taught him a valuable lesson about life. In the end, everyone is the same. It didn’t matter who they were or what they had done, In those final moments, everyone wanted the same thing.
To say goodbye—To say a tearful farewell to that special someone.
But now that his time had come—now that it was his turn to say goodbye, Bane had no one. There wasn’t a soul who would listen to his final words. He was all alone.
Alone with his suffering, alone with his pain, alone with his guilt, and the full weight of a lifetime bearing down on his shoulders. Alone as he had always been.
The emotions hit him like a ton of bricks.
Suddenly he felt small, weak, insignificant—powerless. His heart and his hands trembled as they did all those years ago. When all of this began.
The city rushed below him in a blur of light and color as he ascended into the sky. His vision was overlaid by the images that had tormented him since childhood. Flashes of their contorted faces appeared before his eyes, floating in the air like spectors, spinning around him, and shouting their tearful pleas.
“Help me!”
“Save us!”
“You're a monster! Get away from me!”
“I just want to live!”
Their terrible shrieking cries echoed through his mind like a dreadful symphony, their pain tore through his heart like a requiem of a thousand blades. He could feel their suffering pressed down on his soul.
He was suffocating, drowning in the blackest pit of their sorrow and despair.
But this, he told himself, was what he deserved. This was his punishment, the price for all he had done.
Penance for all the suffering he had caused, all the lives had he destroyed and the blood that stained his hands.
Maybe it would finally be enough to silence their hateful cries.
Or maybe not. Maybe he was forever bound to this fate—forever condemned to be the monster they created.
Either way, it was time to end this.
5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
With almost no effort the blade sliced through the wire. Bane leaned back and allowed his body to finally give in.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he fell over the edge and dropped into a freefall.
A spray of tachyons erupted from the crucible, bathing the sky in flakes of blue pulsating light!
A microsecond later, the high-yield explosive went critical unleashing an eruption of pure energy that split the clouds and cracked the heavens in an instant of time!
Tendrils of lightning, bright and fierce, stretched out from the heart of the explosion and fractured the sky.
Daggers of piercing energy streamed from the singularity as it grew larger and larger until it swallowed him whole.
Absolution.