Without hesitatiourhe suit downward, beginning his rapid dest toward the p below. In uen minutes, Zack was s above NYce more. "Apex’s performance is solid," Zaoted as he nded. "But to transport space-based on modules, we’ll in some professionals."

  Back at his Mansion, Zack removed the Apex armor and poured himself a gss of chlorophyll juice, drinking it in one gulp. "Ego, locate the rocket unch site with a funal unch vehicle," he ordered.

  Moments ter, Ego responded, "Sir, I’ve found a suitable base with a ready-to-unch vehicle."

  "Kennedy Rocket plex, huh?" Zack raised an eyebrow as the holographic dispy projected an image of the unch vehicle. The sleek design bore the marks of an old but funal private aerospaitiative. He chuckled. "Who’d have thought an abandoned unch facility just outside NYC would still have rockets ready to go? Too bad the virus outbreak left this gem gathering dust." His expression turned serious. "Let’s fix that mistake for them."

  Zack donned his Apex armor and walked out of the Mansion. Along the way, he found Ava and gave her instrus. "Bring a few of the meical bugs. We’ve got work to do."

  Two Days Later, At the coastal Kennedy Rocket plex, Zack’s team was hard at work. Outside the perimeter, meical dogs and spider drones systematically cleared away the lingering zombies, ensuring the area was secure.

  Meanwhile, dozens of meical fabrication bugs, each varying in size, made their final adjustments to the rocket stationed on the unch pad. The space-based on module and four specially modified space-work drones had already been loaded. The rocket was almost ready. Just one more round of testing remained before it could take off.

  In the observation room, Annie leaned against the window, her eyes sparkling as she gazed at the massive rocket in the distance. "Big brother, is that the unch vehicle?" she asked excitedly. Her voice carried the wonder of seeing such a thing for the first time outside of a s.

  "Yeah," Zack replied with a nod. "You’ll get to see it unch soon." Annie wasn’t alone in the observation room. Sophia, Erza, and even Mia, who had only arrived at the Mansion a few days ago, were there, watg the preparations unfold. Zack had given them permission to withe unch.

  Dressed in his Apex armor, Zack stood quietly, waiting fo’s final report. "Sir, testing is plete. All systems are green. Fueling is finished," Ego’s voice firmed. "We’re ready to light it up!"

  Zack gave a short nod. "Proceed with ignition."

  In the distahe rocket’s unch ptform began to shift, its structure opening like a hand releasing its grip. Fuel lines and cables detached, retrag into their housings as the tdown began. "Ten… ni…"

  The voices of the base systems echoed through the room, matg the tension in the air. "Three… two… one…"

  "Ignition!" A fiery roar erupted from the rocket’s engines as fmes surged from its tail, propelling it upward. The ground trembled with the force of the unch as the vehicle asded steadily, gaining speed with each passing sed.

  Soon, it disappeared from sight, leaving only a long trail of smoke stretg toward the heavens. "Booster separation firmed," Ego reported. "First-stage rocket detached."

  "Fairing separation plete. The designated orbit has been reached. Sed-stage engine shutdown firmed. Approag the LSI satellite. Payload separation initiated. Beginning dog procedure…" A pause, then Ego’s voice sounded again, calm and clear. "Dog successful. The module has been ected to the LSI satellite."

  Zack grinned as he prepared to take his turn. "Alright, my turn," he muttered, stepping out of the observation room.

  The thruster on his propulsion backpack roared to life, and in an instant, Zack shot into the sky like an arrow released from a bow. His speed was incredible, almost rivaling that of a rocket at unch, though his propulsion system's tail-end thrust couldn't quite match a full-fledged unch vehicle.

  Mier, Zack spotted the LSI satellite, now bearing a dramatically altered appearahe once-symmetrical structure had been upgraded with a massive, space-based module that dwarfed its previous design. "Deploy the space bugs!" Zaanded.

  Four puppy-sized meical space bugs emerged from the oversized module. Uandard meical units, these bugs were made from advanced high-temperature-resistant and radiation-proof materials. Equipped with multi-direal low-power thrusters, they could maneuver effortlessly in the weightless void of space. "I'll hahe module es. You take care of the rest," Zastructed the bugs.

  He positioned himself beh the space-based module, unscrewing the hatch to divide the unit into its four main pos. One by one, Zack docked the modules onto the LSI satellite. It sounded simple, but for Zack, who erf space operations for the first time, the task was far from easy. Even with the assistance of the bugs, it took nearly frueling hours to plete the process.

  When the final module was secured, Zack exhaled deeply and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Phew... More exhausting than fighting zombies," he muttered.

  "Alright, little guys, it's all up to you now. Do your best," he quipped, activating his propulsion pack. Without a backward gnce, Zack desded toward Earth, leaving the smaller parts and final adjustments to the capable space bugs.

  By the time Zack returo the rocket unch base, Annie and the others had already left. Following Zack's earlier instrus, they had taken the Avalon back to NYC, apanied by the meical bugs. The base was now eerily quiet, occupied only by a dozen spider drones, a few meical dogs, and a single Avalon. "Let the Avalon take off," Zastructed. "The Ant and Spiders stay here—this base might e in handy ter."

  "Uood, Sir," replied Ego, his AI assistant. Soon, the Avalon lifted off, asding smoothly into the sky and heading toward NYC. Zack, however, didn’t wait. He quickly overtook the Avalon with his propulsion pack, reag the city ahead of it.

  Back at his vil, Zack removed the Apex suit and immediately immersed himself in work on his test project: the Titan Armor. It had been six days since he first outlihe design, and now the armor was no longer just a cept on paper. Several rge modules sat on his workbench, showg signifit progress.

  "No, I o modify the Avalon before finishing the other modules," Zack muttered, frowning as he reviewed his designs. Uraditional heavy deployment systems that rely oernal logistics, Zack’s Titan Armor would use a modified System. This approasured the armor could be deployed indepely, eliminating the need for costly external maintenance or retrieval missions.

  While Zack worked, the streets of NYC were undergoing a transformation. Hundreds of Ant and Spiders patrolled the city, systematically clearing out zombies building by building, street by street. More than thirty workers from the steel mill followed behind, loading zombie corpses onto ten massive trailer trucks. These trucks would then transport the remains outside the city for destru.