After the battle, everything seemed unged. The manufacturing bugs were still w around the clock, their tireless movements filling the streets and alleys. Ant and Spiders returning from missions roamed the city, tinuing to clear out zombies from hidden ers. The city settled into an eerie ess, as though the chaos had never happened.

  Down in the basement, Zack was already hard at work early the m after a night of rest. “List satellite on options,” he anded.

  “Right away, Sir,” Ego responded, activating a holographic proje that appeared mid-air.

  Zack was w on a bold pn: verting the LSI satellite into a tactical on ptform. It wasn’t just for striking the ground—it o be versatile enough tet other satellites too. A true multi-purpose on of war. “Orbital ser on?” Zack murmured as options poputed the s. He quickly shook his head. “No, it drains too muergy and takes forever to recharge.”

  His fingers glided over the holographiterface, dismissing one cept after another. “That’s it! Space-based kiiergy ons!” His voice sharpened with resolve.

  The pn was straightforward but devastatingly effective. Satellites would unch tungsten rods—each weighing several tons—fitted with embedded nanomaes designed for maximum destru. These rods, measuring 30 timeters in diameter and 6.1 meters long, would plummet to Earth uhe force of gravity, accelerated further by eleagic propulsion. By the time they struck, they’d reach blistering speeds of 39,000 kilometers per hour—over 10,000 meters per sed.

  On impact, the nanomaes would activate, using the kiiergy a from the collision to power themselves. These microscopic maes would immediately begin breaking down the molecur bonds of nearby materials, liquefying or vaporizing them and allowing the rod to punch deeper into the Earth or fortifications. Against this kind of force, everything was as fragile as paper.

  But that wasn’t all. The LSI satellite would also carry aromagic railgun, desiget aroy enemy reaissaellites. A true dual-purpose on. “Ego, modurize the on system. Use rocket propulsion to send it into orbit,” Zack ordered. “I’ll hahe final assembly myself.”

  Ego hesitated. “Sir, none of the current Power Armor are capable of operating in space.”

  “Then we’ll build a space suit,” Zack replied without missing a beat.

  The cept of specialized armor wasn’t o him. Each Armor had a specific purpose, designed for different enviros and enemies. Ego chimed in again. “Do you wao modify the Project Alpha?”

  “No,” Zack said firmly. “Just strip down the MV-02on systems and increase thruster power. It doesn’t o be fancy, just funal.”

  His focus shifted to a different projetirely. “Sehe bat armor blueprints,” Zack demanded.

  Zack nning to create the ultimate nd-based bat armor, a on designed not for restraint but for absolute domination otlefield. Unlike earlier models built with limitations in mind, this new suit would be relentless, engineered for power and adaptability rather than trol. “This armor will need modur pos,” Zack muttered as he examihe files. “Each module powered indepely—eleveors should do the job.”

  His fingers flew across the interface, tweaking the design to match his vision. “Material detected,” Ego, his AI assistant, reported in a calm, meical tone. “Ultralium: position—60% gold for ductivity, 32.7% titanium for durability, and 7.3% graphene infusion for structural reinfort and flexibility.”

  Zaodded. Ultralium’s unique properties made it ideal for armor. Its gold tent ensured fwless power transmission, while the graphene infusion added terength a resistahe titanium provided the baween toughness and lightweight mobility.

  He focused on the framework, splitting the design into modur ses. The arms would house ied energy ons, powered by individual reactors to ensure sustained firepower. Each joint was reinforced with graphene weave to withstareme stress without promising flexibility. The chest pte, the rgest po, featured a reinforced power core housing a high-yield Cold Fusiuoor capable of providing the suit with unmatched energy efficy.

  For mobility, Zacorporated a graphene-based muscle weave throughout the armor, mimig human muscuture for unparalleled agility. The legs were outfitted with hydraulic actuators desigo amplify physical strength, capable of lifting several tons or propelling the armor into massive leaps.

  “We hermal regution,” Zack murmured, adjusting the cooling systems. Using graphene’s excellent thermal ductivity, he added microels throughout the suit to disperse heat from the reactors and ons systems. A sedary cooling meism, using a liquid nitrogen-based pound, would ki during high-energy output to prevent overheating during prolonged bat.

  For defense, Zahahe outer pting with a yered structure: an ultralium alloy, topped with aromagic field geor capable of defleg projectiles and energy-based attacks. Over that, he added an abtive coating desigo dissipate heat and energy impacts, making the armor resistant to ser and psma-based onry. “Ego, there’s not enough reaaterial for this,” Zack said finally, frustration creeping into his voice. “Send the Ant and Spiders to gather what we need.”

  “Already dispatched, Sir,” Ego replied. Then, after a pause: “But there’s a problem.”

  Zack looked up from the proje. “roblem?”

  Ego dispyed satellite footage on the holographic s. “The cargo ship leaving Caribbean base was attacked while crossing the o. All passengers and meical dogs onboard were lost. The ship sank to the bottom of the sea.” The footage showed a lonely freighter drifting across open waters. On deck, meical dogs maintained order while frightened passengers huddled together. For a while, everything seemed fiil the o around them turned bck.

  From above, it became clear the dark water wasn’t natural. It was alive. Thousands of aquatic creatures swarmed the ship, surrounding it like a tidal wave. Ego zoomed in, revealing the attackers: grotesque, mutated beings that were part-human, part-fish. They had humanoid faces but gills and sharp teeth. Their bodies were covered in scales or shrimp-like exoskeletons. Some had fish tails, while others had shrimp-like legs that allowed them to move swiftly uer and on nd.

  But their most horrifying trait was the unmistakable sign of iion: they were zombies. Bullets were only effective if they hit the creatures’ brains or tral nervous systems. Worse, aten by them would turn into one of these monsters within moments. “Analysis indicates these are marine creatures ied by the Zeta virus,” Ego expined. “We’ve hem Abyss Crawlers. They’re highly aggressive and amphibious. Current popution numbers are unknown.”

  Zack’s face darkened. “Wait… are you tellihe Zeta virus i aquatic life too?”

  Oh, 71% is covered by os, with only 29% being nd. Imagine how vast and terrifying the marine life must be. "Yes, Sir. There’s actual evidehat the Zeta virus i aquatic anisms," Ego expined.

  "Have there been any recorded cases of Abyss Crawlers nding on shore?" Zack asked.

  "No," Ego replied. "The atta the freighter was the first knoearance of Abyss Crawlers."

  "Alright, got it." Zack frowned slightly. He hadn’t expected to be the first person to enter zombie-like creatures from the sea.

  Satellite footage clearly showed the Abyss Crawlers—tless of them—swarming like a tide. Their sharp, i-like limbs pierced through steel ptes as they quickly climbed onto the freighter's deck. Forty-five meical dogs opened fire, taking down a rge number of them. But the skimmers kept ing, an unending stream p out of the o.

  Soon, the entire cargo ship was overrun. By the time the Abyss Crawlers retreated bato the water, not even a single bone remained of the 1,900 survivors brought back from the Caribbean base.