Global Awakening: Apocalypse Ender's Chronicle

Shane smiled as soon as he confirmed from Cloud that Arial had indeed synchronized with the shelter's main system.

To be honest, he was also worried that this might not work. After all, there has never been an antecedent before. Thankfully, with Cloud's confirmation, Shane heaved a sigh of relief.

After a few moments, when he thought that Arial had finally stabilized, Shane made a suggestion.

"Try activating the eastern barrier's lockdown. Do it carefully, and make sure no one will get hurt."

"I… I will try." Arial then focused, and with a thought—

CLANG.

The eastern gate's reinforced door suddenly slammed shut. It had been sealed with a hydraulic hiss, which was heard by the residents nearby.

They immediately felt concerned by the sudden activation of the reinforced plating blocking the gate. However, Shane's voice immediately came through the speaker, telling them not to worry.

"You did well… Now, scan for hostiles…" Shane said, knowing that Cloud had installed scanners that could cover about 300 meters around the shelter.

"I don't—Wait… I can do it." Arial said as it only took him a few moments to realize that he could indeed scan for any enemies lurking around the Fortress.

Arial's mind expanded further, the shelter's sensors sweeping the perimeter.

[ Scan Complete: No High-Tier Threats Detected. ]

[ Minor Undead Activity: 12 Rotter Zombies, 200m North.]

"Got 'em," Arial muttered.

"That's great… Now, take them out," Shane ordered.

Arial wasn't surprised as he expected that Shane would give such an order…

Without any hesitation, Arial linked with the nearest turret, overriding its auto-fire.

Then, he aimed at the Zombies---

BZZZT—BOOM!

A single shot was fired through the darkness… With Arial's control of Cloud's advanced systems, he was able to vaporize the Rotters in a single blast.

"Ohhh… That's nice. I think you can become a great commander here. I no longer have to worry about the shelter's defense with your presence here."

This was Shane's true thoughts.

After all, he still really liked the Eclipse Domain. Furthermore, that was the place where Travis's shelter was connected to.

Indeed! Since Travis' team had arrived, he was now able to establish the Gate Stone and create a path going to the Drakeheart Vanguard's territory.

That way, the transportation of crude oil was also a lot safer and faster. After all, they were now doing a larger transaction each time.

***

After a few moments, Arial disconnected… He gasped as the world snapped back into focus. At this time, his circuitry started cooling down, as he had used a lot of energy just now.

Shane grinned. "Well? How'd it feel?"

Arial stared at his hands. "I can't explain it… It's strange… Like… I was the fortress."

"That's because you were." Shane clapped him on the shoulder. "From now on, you're our Systems Overwatch. When the zombies, vampires, or even those cultists come knocking, you'll be the one who sees them first."

Arial's chest tightened. For the first time since waking up in that lab, he didn't feel like an experiment.

He felt like a weapon—one that this Fortress truly needed.

***

On the next day, Shane left the New Genesis Shelter once again to visit the Silver Mine Camp. According to his schedule, he might return later in the afternoon.

In the meantime, the operations were as is and nothing was changed. If there were any problems, Edwin, Arial, or even Anna could take care of it.

As for the other Survivors like Raze, Tundra, Layla, and others, they wouldn't stay for long inside the Fortress as they needed to get more Experience Points and level up.

In the meantime, Jace, one of the rescued survivors in the evacuation shelter of the previous Dreadnight Fortress, was about to start his day.

There were more than a hundred survivors during that time but Jace was one of those who stood out.

After all, he had an interesting talent called Gearspeak…

It was something he thought was useless as it didn't help him gather food before. However, after Shane found out about his talent, he was immediately put to use.

Apparently, it was an innate ability to understand, repair, and modify machinery with almost supernatural intuition.

As he describes it, it felt as if the machines "whisper" their flaws to him.

At this time, although the sun had already risen, Jace was still on his bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He had been very busy lately not because Shane was making him overwork but because he was too excited about the project he was making with other mechanics…

After a few more minutes, Jace finally sat up and started preparing for the day.

He then had his free breakfast meal before he trudged toward the Central Engineering Building.

Apparently, Shane's aim was to make this place a special area where all high-tech items are created. These items would then be distributed to various shelters or even be sold to others if they needed money.

On the way to the building, Jace was glad to see the fortress lively even at this hour.

In just a week of establishment, Shane had already invited traveling merchants. A few of them even had rolled carts of salvaged tech or mechanical gear toward the market. There were also a few super soldiers in the courtyard, and some elves exploring the market.

It was very interesting to see these elves as they would normally stay in the hydroponic farms or in the forest to scout.

That was why whenever he saw them, he would kind talk to them and thankfully, they weren't that cold beings. They would warmly greet those who were treating them kindly.

Jace nodded at one of the elves that he had recognized. "Morning. Still working on those solar converters?"

One of the elves, Eudora, flicked her silver hair over her shoulder as she looked at Jace. "Your design was flawed. We fixed it."

Jace wryly smiled and gently nodded. "Yeah? S-show me later."

***

The Engineering Bay wasn't just a simple workshop—it was a place for lost and reborn technology.

Inside this building, it housed Shane's most ambitious projects, supervised by Cloud, the Shelter's A.I.

Jace swiped his access badge, and the vault-like doors hissed open.

Inside, eight other mechanics were already at work and of course, they were guided by Cloud.

[ Jace. You're late... ] It was Cloud's voice connected to a nearby computer.

With Shane's instructions, Cloud only placed a small part of its computing power in this place. The most it could do was provide guidance, monitor progress, and ensure their safety.

Well, the main reason was also because they do not have other high-end storage devices for Cloud to be installed. There was simply no way to do it unless they used some sort of device from the Anima.

"By three minutes, Sir Cloud. I met a few people on the way, so…" Jace replied as he rolled up his sleeves to start working.

Within this building, one could see Exoskeleton Frames that Shane had provided. They were currently hanged as they were in mid-assembly.

There were also Automated Turrets on repair racks, as their targeting systems were being recalibrated under Cloud's guidance.

Then, there was the main project in this building. The Humanoid Robotics Division.

In this field, Shane made him the leader of a small team and aside from Shane and Cloud, no one else could order him around. It was such a great feeling and he really liked what he was doing in his work.

"Status update," Jace said as he looked at his small team.

One of the mechanics then looked at the progress on Project Warden—a line of combat-ready humanoid drones designed to supplement the fortress's defenses. It was Shane's idea and planned by Cloud…

As for the implementation of the plan, it falls into their hands.

"We're at 68% completion on Unit-07…" said Ziya. She was a fellow mechanic with a Precision Welding Talent. It seemed like a useless talent that no one would ever want but Shane had obviously found a good reason to recruit him…

"Uhmm… But the neural-response lag is still at 0.8 seconds. Too slow for combat according to Sir Cloud." She added.

Jace leaned over the open chassis of Unit-07, his fingers then touched the exposed wiring.

Just like that, his Gearspeak automatically activated and soon, he started 'talking' to the machine…

It was at this time that Ziya heard him speaking some words she couldn't understand.

"The feedback loop's clogged… The servo system is fighting the central processor. We need to reroute the impulse relays through the secondary cortex…"

After a pause, he turned to Cloud, the only one who could fix this problem…

Just like that, Cloud started to work.

"Adjustment logged. Proceed."

For the next four hours, Jace and the team rewired, tested, and cursed at the stubborn machinery, until—

"Got it!" Ziya shouted as Unit-07's optics activated…

Jace exhaled as he looked at the result…

"One step closer to an army that Lord Shane dreamed of…"