Chapter 731: Caravan

Chapter 731: Caravan

“Commander…” Director Kenneth greeted with a curt nod. “Good timing. We just ran a successful discharge test.”

Kenneth then explained a few things about their current weapons research. Then, Cloud also provided him with some additional information, so he could see more of the situation.

“Show me…” Shane said after a few moments.

Kenneth then motioned for him to follow as they moved through the Research Bay. It had a huge space filled with towering arrays of equipment, steel vaults, and testing cells protected by reactive shielding.

Along the way, Shane noticed the newest prototypes under construction:

Arc-Spike Javelins. They were throwing weapons capable of piercing armored zombies and releasing a concentrated plasma burst.

Grav-Tether Mines. They’re proximity-based devices that create a reverse gravity field, pinning targets in place.

Pulsefire LMG-X8. A light machine gun with almost heatless kinetic discharge, designed to bypass zombie armor plating.

Neuroflash Detonators, on the other hand, were stun-based projectiles supposedly capable of disorienting even high-tier Zombies with psionic traits.

“Good… Good… Everything we found here is being used.” Shane muttered as he confirmed that the tech they had previously discovered in this place was just being repurposed.

They entered the next room, where a massive containment bay was active.

Inside, a reconstructed turret hummed quietly. Its form was lustrous, and it appeared like a coil-fed railgun mated with a rotating EMP pulse emitter.

“We call it Project Vortex,” Kenneth explained. “Reverse-engineered from the previous defense node that we found… Took us a few weeks just to decipher the magnetic framework trigger arrangement. No. I think that without Cloud’s help, we would still be stuck on it till today.”

Shane nodded as he looked at the interesting turret in front of him…

“Yes… I think I got one of Cloud’s reports about this thing. Is that… the one that fried an entire testing platform?”

Kenneth chuckled dryly. “That was a smaller prototype. This one’s output is thirty-two times stronger. EMP radius of over five hundred meters in an open field. It’ll short out anything with exposed circuits—drones and all… Right, we heard the Mechanical Zombies are already appearing in other regions. That was why we’re hurrying this weapon for a bit.”

Kenneth heard this information from the others… He heard about some Half-Machine Zombies in various sectors, and they should be preparing for them as well.

As for the threat of the Wild Necromancers or even the Vampires, they shouldn’t have to worry about them already.

“Have you tried mounting these new weapons on a Mech?” Shane asked curiously.

Kenneth gave a knowing smirk. “Not yet. We’re working on a modular casing now.

Bastion or Juggernaut frames would be ideal, especially if we integrate the cooldown sink with the mana-reactor you’ve been testing upstairs.”

It seemed that Kenneth was also aware of the project being done by the Elves.

‘It must have been mentioned by Cloud.’ Shane mused.

He then glanced at the test logs. The results were promising.

All signs pointed to one thing: humanity was finally clawing its way back toward technological superiority.

And not just with brute force, but finesse.

Weaponry that could target, disable, and counter the evolving threats outside the walls.

“We’re doing so well in such a short amount of time… Cloud is really a blessing…” Shane muttered to himself.

Kenneth then led him into a more restricted vault. This one with cryo-seals and biometric security layers. Inside was a heavily shielded, coffin-like containment pod.

Well, aside from the Hybrid Humans like Arial that they had found here, there were also other things they had discovered in the containment pods…

Shane didn’t really take charge of recovering all the pods and he allowed the others to handle them all…

Anyway, the containment pod that was shown to him had a solar winged insignia, with the words HELIOS BLACK etched on it.

“We haven’t cracked this one yet,” Kenneth said quietly. “But it’s not a weapon.”

“What is it then?” Shane asked as he looked at it carefully.

“…We think it’s a combat AI core. A sentient war-mind, built to run autonomous battlefield scenarios. It’s dormant… but intact.”

Shane felt a chill, not from fear, but anticipation.

It seemed that the previous civilization, overtaken by the zombies, was indeed trying to create a revolutionary method to fight against their enemies.

If they could awaken that core and interface it with their Mech Division, the tide of future raids and sieges could shift dramatically.

After all, Cloud was ultimately an Assistant AI… Although Combat was also quite possible with Cloud, it was not something that could be easily done with such a small mainframe…

At this time, Kenneth was already anticipating the next step.

“We’ll need your approval to start deep-layer scans and perhaps, take it out. But if it activates wrong… we may not be able to contain it.”

Shane looked at the pod one more time.

“Prepare the protocols suggested by Cloud… We’ll do it carefully, step by step. But if it works, this AI may become our pilots’ best assistant.”

As Shane was about to give Kenneth the final nod to begin preparing the scanning protocols, his radio crackled with a familiar voice.

“Commander Shane, come in. This is Arial.”

Shane pressed a finger to his comms. “Go ahead.”

“A Merchant Caravan has just arrived at the perimeter gate. They’re requesting trade access—and possibly medical assistance. They seem to have been attacked by a mid-tier Zombie Horde during transit. Minimal injuries, but their lead vehicle is partially damaged. Thought you’d want to be informed before I authorize entry.”

Shane’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Arial had always been meticulous with his reports.

“Got it. I’ll meet them at the checkpoint. Hold authorization until I arrive.”

There were many reasons to hold it off, and one of them was to check for a Virus Infection. It was something they could not easily ignore.

Still, before he could remind Arial about this, the other side had already taken care of it.

“Understood.” Arial signed off, his voice as calm and composed as ever…

Well, it was mostly thanks to the unique bio-synthetic neural network implanted on his body that allowed him to directly interface with New Genesis’ infrastructure.

Shane turned to Kenneth. “I think you can go ahead without me. Cloud will monitor any spike in the AI’s activity if it happens.”

“Understood, Commander,” Kenneth replied with a nod.

***

A short while later, Shane stepped out into the afternoon sunlight near the northern gate of New Genesis Shelter.

Arial was already there. He was tall, androgynous, and unnaturally graceful.

Though technically still human, Arial’s altered body had subtle glowing traces of cybernetic lines running along his neck and down his arms. It was residues of the bio-integration system that was put on him by the mad scientists who had experimented on them.

“It’s been a while, Commander.” Arial greeted.

Shane’s eyes then swept toward the caravan now rolling in through the outer gate.

A trio of heavy-duty sand-trucks came into view, their frames armored with some mismatched plating or scrap metal, welded shields, and even salvaged parts of tanks from what he could see…

They also bore the mark of a Mercenary Company that Shane had seen in one of the neutral shelters he had visited before.

Then, Cloud confirmed their identity as members of Taurus Mercantile Company. According to the information they have gathered from various sources from other merchants, neutral shelters, and visitors of their shelter, they were an independent trader faction known for long-haul routes between settlements, and for dealing in rare tech, relics, and even exotic biomass.

“Interesting…”

Trailing behind the trucks were two escort vehicles. There were also machine guns mounted with gunners, scanning their surroundings warily, even inside the safe perimeter.

One of the mercenaries jumped down from the lead truck and saluted with a casual wave, his coat still streaked with blood and scorch marks.

It seemed that they really had just gone from a huge battle.

“This is New Genesis Shelter, right? Name’s Rork Maddin, Quartermaster of this caravan. Sorry about the mess—we had a run-in about thirty kilometers out. Horde tried to swamp us near the gorge…”

“Horde?” Shane asked, stepping forward.

“Yeah. Mostly low tier with a few tier 2… but something weird, too. They weren’t just chasing us randomly. It was like they were… scouting. They didn’t attack us like other frenzied Zombies. Someone must be controlling them.” Rork frowned.

Shane exchanged a glance with Arial, who nodded slightly, already tagging the intel into the shelter’s system.

“Casualties?” Shane asked.

“Four injured. No dead. Thanks to our machine guns and a few skillful warriors… We also left behind some trap mines that allowed us to buy some time to escape.”

Soon, the guards or warden units surrounded the group with a few physicians…

“Alright… We’ll have to check all of you before you can enter.” Shane said as he approached them as well.

There was no way he’d allow any infected person to enter the shelter without being classified.