New Akra City.
The evening sunlight bathed the highly modern city in a warm glow. After years of development and construction, New Akra had risen to the top in almost every aspect, with a quality of life index unmatched by any other city. Between the buildings, the number of airships, used for handling emergency situations, had quadrupled from the previous year.
The New Akra Police Department (NAPD) had expanded its fleet of drones, even equipping some with optical camouflage to prevent them from disrupting daily life while keeping their positions hidden. Though violent incidents couldn't be entirely eradicated, NAPD's clear rewards and punishments system, coupled with their tough enforcement measures, had dramatically reduced crime, making the city's safety levels unparalleled globally.
In the northern suburbs of the city lay the Atlas Industrial Park. This vast area housed neatly arranged factories and workshops, on a scale that rivaled the entire urban district of New Akra. Employee dormitories and apartments lined the greenbelts, equipped with convenient services and public transportation systems.
On the surface, this was Atlas's largest production base. The production lines featured an extensive array of automated robots and mechanical arms, with human supervisors ensuring smooth operations and preventing accidents. This facility ensured that Atlas never had to worry about supply issues, even during surges in demand, and played a key role in maintaining Atlas's dominant position in the global market.
The industrial park was heavily fortified, with countless military checkpoints, land-based air defense systems, and even vertical missile silos armed with tactical and strategic nuclear warheads. Since Atlas had publicly announced its mastery of nuclear fusion technology at a press conference, they no longer hid much of their military capacity, sending a clear signal to the world: "We have the most advanced weapons."
The difference between *not having*, *soon having*, and *already having* determined how the world treated Atlas. This is why the Atlas Corporation in the primary universe could smoothly expand its economic development and infrastructure projects globally. After all, no one would casually provoke a private company that possessed nuclear weapons, especially one that controlled half of the USA's state governments.
The industrial park, and indeed the entire region, was powered by a nuclear fusion plant located several kilometers north of the park. The reactor array provided more than enough energy, though its primary client was not the visible facilities above ground, but rather the sprawling underground complex.
This subterranean production base was divided into multiple zones and levels. One of the newest additions was a shipyard that occupied one-fifth of the total area. Positioned close to the surface, it was equipped with massive gates that connected the underground facility to the surface, allowing completed space vessels like the Selene-class transport ships to be launched directly into space.
Another fifth of the base was dedicated to the Biological Weapons (BOW) and cloning centers, with the cloning production lines still slowly expanding. The remaining areas were occupied by factories producing personal gear, standard weaponry, armor, and aerial vehicles. Like the surface park, these facilities were filled with Hextech machinery and 3D printing stations, operating non-stop under the supervision of skilled technicians.
Once production and packaging were completed, the BOWs, clones, weapons, and vehicles were transported through an underground network. From there, they were shipped to ruin bases, different universes, or company branches, and ultimately delivered to Atlas's armed forces.
The final sections of the base were reserved for research and biological departments, where experiments and trials were conducted. One notable facility was a simulated town, which had been used for live data tests on Tyrant-class creatures, consuming large numbers of D-class personnel.
At this moment, inside the expanded simulated town:
Bang! Bang bang!
Boom! Boom!
The air echoed with gunfire and explosions. A fierce street battle was unfolding in this town, now more than twice its original size. On one side were the all-too-familiar and "valuable" D-class personnel. Over 600 of these individuals, deprived of their humanity, were concentrated in the western district of the simulated town.
They wore the classic orange prison uniforms and were equipped with fully protective exoskeletons and personal weapons. While their tactics were disorganized, exposing their role as cannon fodder, they still possessed significant combat strength.
Opposing them were various new models of BOWs. Some resembled small versions of the Raths, while others were beasts spliced with North American gray wolf or Siberian tiger DNA. However, before these BOWs could inflict any meaningful damage, they were swiftly taken down by the concentrated firepower of the well-armed D-class personnel.
It appeared as though the biological department was using the battle to "clean up experimental waste" while gathering some combat data on the side. Even most of the new Tyrant models exhibited clumsy, simple movements, clearly lacking a proper pilot to control them.
However, a black-coated Tyrant, standing about 2.67 meters tall, displayed some degree of intelligence. It avoided the D-class's defensive lines, taking alternative routes and moving swiftly. Yet, its stiff actions and inability to use weapons revealed that it, too, lacked a pilot.
At a nearby intersection:
"Hahaha! This is awesome!"
"Kill those things! Kill them all!"
The D-class personnel, taking cover behind abandoned vehicles and buildings, relied on the heavy firepower provided by their AMWS (Advanced Modular Weapon Systems) to eliminate every BOW in sight. Even the fast-moving Tyrant was reduced to a molten heap by a plasma cannon.
From this perspective, unpiloted Tyrants could never replace armored units in direct combat and were not durable enough for such encounters.
"Hahaha! This is amazing! No matter how many come, we'll kill them all!"
"Damn it! Do they really think we're trash?!"
With the street now empty of standing BOWs, the D-class personnel gathered at the intersection began shouting excitedly. After being imprisoned for so long, unleashing their frustrations by squeezing the triggers and watching their guns spew fire was the best way to vent their emotions.
Bang! Bang!
Suddenly, before they could finish celebrating, a distinct burst of heavy gunfire rang out. Several of their comrades were immediately blown apart.
At the end of the street, they caught a glimpse of a figure, towering at about 2.7 meters tall, with an incredibly robust physique.
A… "human."
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