Raven moved deeper into the lab, fingers brushing along the edges of cold, stainless steel. Machines stood silent but ready—laser cutters, robotic arms, precision lathes—all the components for building her future army. Her lips parted in a slow, deliberate smile.
“This is where it begins,” she whispered.
The room felt holy. Not in the sacred sense, but in the reverent hush of unspoken potential. She could already see it: swarms of flying drones, fast, silent, deadly. Miniature machines of death flying through ruined skies, dropping explosive charges onto clustered hordes of zombies. Micro machine gun turrets mounted on their underbellies, wired with recoil-dampening stabilizers. Surveillance cameras with real-time feedback.
Once her Technomancer abilities hit Level 1, they wouldn’t just be machines. They’d be her limbs. Her fingers in the air. Her eyes in the dark.
People assumed the collapse ended human innovation.
They were wrong.
It just changed the direction.
In the world to come, technology wouldn’t mean consumer gadgets and networked social lives. It would mean survival. Crafting weapons from trash. Growing edible crops in poison soil. Turning car batteries and lawnmower blades into weapons.
Some bases would build flame-throwing fences. Others would genetically tweak tomatoes to grow in saltwater. A few might even rediscover electricity through hamster wheels and prayer.
But most would die.
Starvation. Disease. Cannibalism.
Only the strong would have food. Only the ruthless would have the tools to grow them.
Raven had both.
Her Sanctuary overflowed with food, protein, medicine, and meat. Her plants grew faster than weeds on steroids. And now? Now she’d have drones to do her dirty work.
Ravens body felt warmer than usual. A tight pain ran beneath her skin, like something about to break loose.
Soon.
Her Technomancer and plant power awakening was coming.
She had a few hours, maybe less, before her awakening began. She couldn’t be caught exposed outside, not while her body remade her biology. Raven planned to rest inside Sanctuary when the awakening began.
But that is for later. Now it's harvest time.
Raven raised her hand and touched each machine she passed. As they were all absorbed into the system one by one.
Epilog Fusion Pro laser cutters
Markforged X7 and Stratasys F370 industrial 3D printers
Haas CNC milling stations
Multi-ton hydraulic presses
Robotic prototyping arms
Even the reinforced benches and cabling racks were taken.
[Apocalypse Ascendancy System Notification:]
"Machinery absorbed. Stored under Technomancer Workshop category. Awaiting installation in Sanctuary."
Raven stepped back and nodded to herself in satisfaction.
“It’s all coming together.”
Time to hit the next jackpot.
The Electrical Engineering warehouse wasn’t far. She slipped out the back hallway, bypassed the old elevator shaft, and descended two levels into the warehouse staging zone. The outer door was locked, but barely. One hard kick and the rusted frame broke with a thud.
Inside the storeroom was a vast treasure trove of technological supplies.
Plastic filament spools stacked on pallets—PLA, ABS, TPU in every color. Crates of copper wire. Bins of microcontrollers—Raspberry Pi units, Arduino starter kits, half-sorted and begging for application. Rows of capacitors, resistors, diodes, and LEDs filled the shelving like candy in an engineer’s Halloween.
She saw compact electric motors, pre-packed rotor blades, drone chassis, servo kits, lithium battery packs sealed in foam. Sodering iron stations lined a wall, surrounded by neatly hung reels of shrink tubing, flux bottles, and cutting tools. Nuts and bolts were organized by size, bracket mounts labeled in faded Sharpie. Even the wall-mounted housing units for drone frames looked like they’d just been restocked.
This place was untouched, waiting to be looted.
Not anymore.
She raised her hand and began to touch everything. The warehouse flickered as her system absorbed every spool, every circuit, every inch of usable material. The shelves vanished. The racks dissolved. Even the steel scaffolding went with it.
Nothing was left but dust outlines and pallet scars.
She stood in the center of the emptiness, her inventory bursting with supplies.
She checked the time.
The heat in her bones had deepened. Her heartbeat was steady but elevated.
Her Awakening is close.
“Time to head on to my next target and wrap things up."
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