Surviving the Apocalypse

Upgrades

Hanna spent three days after the trade meeting on a rage when she went out with the Squad, killing zombies calming her nerves as she unleashed her fury on the one thing she could easily kill without remorse or regret. Each evening spent processing the Crystals they had received from Camp Epsilon, more than 200 of them ability crystals that would expand their capabilities even further than they were now. Especially since most of the Scavengers and Guards had been saving for them.

Most were the same types of abilities she already had, a few intriguing her as she processed them before she decided to place them in the market. She had no clue how many she would be able to have, the ones she wanted now rare to encounter. When she finished the one she had just placed into the device and it informed her it was a magnetism ability, she knew it was one she absolutely wanted before she donated the required points and drank the serum in a few swallows.

This time however she didn't feel that different, as each power had a unique essence that filled the person when they obtained it. It however was her ninth ability, and she didn't think it had worked at first until her stapler flew to her hand with just a thought. The understanding of magnetic currents flooding her mind making her smile as she realized she would be able to easily combine the magnetic ability with her lightning. She had no idea what the actual effect would be, but she was dying to try it out.

A knock at her door while she worked drew her attention for a moment before she responded. "Enter."

Nathaniel entered carrying a tablet that seemed to be glued to his hands most days when he wasn't in the lab, his smile showing that his team had some success in their tasks. "We successfully managed to reverse engineer the schematics needed to construct more drones, as well as the harness we need to properly deploy the bombs. With the increased payload, each one should be able to carry 4 of them, plus sensors to detect the zombies. It has a flight time of 22 hours and range of 1,500 miles." he told her earnestly. "The only downside is we won't be able to modify our drones to take advantage of most of the technology upgrades, and we will have to build a runway that is at least 4,500 feet long for full payload deployment."

Hanna was surprised by this, knowing the perfect place to establish the runway would be on the top of the cliff that they currently sat inside of thanks to the mine. "Have James begin construction as a top priority. How long to build them?"

"We can have the first one built by ourselves within 3 weeks. If we make a few modifications, we may be able to improve upon the design even further. Once we establish the base design and gain the actual experience, we should be able to make 1 per week. Missiles however will take at least another week to fully reverse engineer, but once we do we should be able to make 10 of them per week." he told her.

"Focus on bombs for now, missiles are necessary but lower priority. I don't see any aerial threats approaching any time soon, but we should prepare none the less." she said as she finally remembered the anti air system that she had deployed but hadn't activated yet. She sent the command to the radar stations, all of them coming to life as soon as the signal was received.

"Yes ma'am, we have a team of 5 constructing them now. The last set took 3 days to construct one each. We will have nearly 30 by the time the teams secure the area around Depot Oscar." he said as she looked at him surprised.

"Thank you Nathaniel, your team has done well. That many will allow us to ensure we cover more than the area we need to." she replied. "Are any of the systems with the drones we acquired compatible with the ones we currently utilize?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am, the fuel systems and the mounting brackets can be easily adapted to our current stockpile of drones. We are actually using the brackets to deploy the bombs, however they do not have the payload ability to launch missiles unless we miniaturize them slightly. The range of the miniaturized missile will be roughly a third of the traditional ones, the explosive charge reduced from 500 kilo's to just 50. We aren't sure how effective it will be." he said as she grabbed a piece of paper and started writing a formula.

"We do have someone with a background in Chemistry, do we not?" she asked him as she wrote what was clearly a scientific formula.

"Several ma'am."

She nodded as she finished before handing it to him. "Tell them this is the formula we need to make to replace the explosive charge. 5 kilos should be more than enough for our uses which will enable more fuel to extend the range further."

"Right away." he said as she decided it was time to put her knowledge of the other timeline to use. Especially the explosives she had designed that were far more powerful than anything before the world had collapsed.

An hour later the head chemist was in her office after having received her written instructions on how to actually synthesize the explosive liquid, the diatomite providing the stabilizing effect needed to turn it to something slightly safer for transportation. It however didn't fully reduce the risk of detonation, as a hard impact would still cause it to explode. It however was 10 times more destructive than the nitroglycerin used to make dynamite when mixed with the same powder.

"Do I want to know how you came up with this?" he asked as she smiled.

"Probably not." she replied with a smile as she remembered how she had discovered it from a complete accident in a chemical factory. It however was on the far side of the city, and no amount of desire would get her there within 2 years. The path was just to great and the risks not worth the reward when they had several other places they could source the individual components. She didn't need to discover it twice to use the knowledge she had retained from the life she had lived before.

"We will begin production immediately, but it will be a week before we are ready to perform any testing on it." Kyle Kirk said seriously. "We will take every safety precaution we can, but there could still be serious risks."

Hanna nodded as she looked at him. "I am well aware of the risks. Ensure you utilize every precaution there is, it is a top priority for your team." she said making him nod before he left her to complete her work.

Two weeks later Hanna was preparing the final work to secure the entire perimeter around Depot Oscar, the construction team reporting it would be another 2 days before the barricaded it off from the rest of the zombies with the same walls they had been using. They however had just finished constructing the first drone they had dubbed the Phoenix, a complete upgrade from the Avenger Drones it had been upgraded from. Instead of pilots that controlled it, they had developed an AI system that could control all of the drones. The HNIW fuel used in the miniaturized missiles had given them an even greater range than their full sized counterparts, as well as enabling the drones to gain flight times of over 70 hours as they used so little to actually maintain flight. They had loaded 6 of their bombs onto one of their new Phoenix drones, each one weighing 500 pounds before they watched it take off. It would take 10 minutes for it to reach the target they had selected, in the center of the city core where a hospital was swarming with the undead.

Several smaller drones were now monitoring the area as well, to give them a visual feed without the need to use high powered binoculars as the location was actually 12 miles from where they were. The buildings in the way would make it impossible for them to see the results, so it made sense to use the drones. They held their breath as the Phoenix approached the drop point, the bomb falling from 60,000 feet before it reached the deployment altitude of 3,000 feet. The first drone captured it beautifully, the bomblets separating exactly as simulated with the fins keeping the barrel ends pointed exactly where they needed to while the wax plugs held the copper pellets in place through the descent. At exactly 50 feet they began going off, the pellets turning to superheated plasma because of the RDX that was used as a blasting charge. The result was more spectacular than any of them could have imagined, as every zombie if a 500 foot radius burst into flames from the plasma bolts that were burning at 7,000 degrees. Within a minute over 3,000 zombies had turned to ash, leaving nothing but the Heart Crystals behind before her system automatically collected them through whatever magic it used.

The cheer from everyone watching was deafening as the radio came to life from Camps nearest to the detonations, all of them wondering what fresh hell awaited them as their drone approached the second drop point. Hanna knew this would be the turning point as they watched the second one repeat the process of leveling hundreds of zombies. They were amazed that the first one had drawn every zombie to the area, the massive sounds drawing them in the hope of fresh meat.

Within 5 minutes they were packed into the blast zone so densely that Hanna ordered they drop another bomb on the site. Once again, it worked flawlessly. Even the ones not directly struck by one of the bolts burned when the other zombies were engulfed in flames so intense that nothing nearby could withstand the heat. Even cars that had been abandoned were melting after the second bomb went off, the blazes burning themselves out after an hour when nothing else caught fire.

"I think I would call that a success. What do we tell the Camps on the radio?" Melissa Walters asked nervously.

"Nothing. They don't need to know what exactly it is we have access too." Hanna said as their personal frequency lit up.

"Camp Hope, this is Crystal Johnson from Camp Epsilon. Come in please." came the calm voice as Hanna grabbed the transmitter.

"Copy Camp Epsilon, this is Camp Hope actual, over." Hanna replied keeping her own voice steady.

"Request meeting at rendezvous point Alpha, urgent request." Crystal replied within seconds.

"Acknowledged, will arrive shortly." Hanna said looking at Lucas.

"That was a bit cryptic." he said as she smiled.

"Keep the Phoenix airborne and cancel the other 3 deployments for now. Nathaniel, how many drones do we have outfitted with the new missiles?" she asked him.

"6, all with air to air and air to ground capability." he confirmed.

"Launch them and maintain overwatch. We want no surprises. Squad one with me, Squads 2-4 provide recon cover." she ordered as they all prepared to leave the Camp.