Zenith: Last Revenant - Chapter 43

A few weeks had gone by since the rebellion had been taken care of. Z’akk had gotten what he came for and had been working in the lab alongside Bey’on ever since. Despite him not having anything else he could learn, he still had many things that he could improve upon. One of which was their bioship technology.

The bioships were one of the most difficult things that he studied on this planet. Creating a somewhat living self-sustainable ship without the aid of an AI was astounding. The improvements and modifications he could apply were ever-growing, the more he expanded his understanding, the greater his grasp became.

He had also made improvements on their warp technology that would allow them to travel a much farther distance in less the time, but he made sure to keep that to himself. Another one of his experiments in his free time was a second personal project of his own.

Currently, he was present at the lower regions of the lab that was normally used by Bey’on to test her creations, but he had completely taken over this space for the past few weeks.

In his left hand, he held a small metallic orb made from an indistinguishable material. Holding the object in front of him, it abruptly shifted into a moderately sized handheld cannon. He then moved his arm to the side as the cannon then shifted into a hilt emitting a blade of plasma.

He was proudly watching as his second creation shifted and changed into different weapons to be used at any time. He was filled with joy, and as another test, Z’akk observed as it shifted back into an orb and placed it on his ċhėst, observing as it spread and engulfed his body in a moving mass, only to compress down into a protective suit resembling that of phantom modular armor.

Z’akk proceeded to test the armor. The armor had a variety of features, ranging from camouflage, a built-in weapon system, and a self-repairing outer shell. It also held a degree of adaptability that would prevent the armor from being damaged repeatedly the same way. He had also attempted to implement warp technology within the armor, but the strain caused it to fail numerous times in succession.

Examining himself in the armor, he began to walk around in it, paying attention to every little detail of its functionality for later potential modifications he can make. Holding his hand towards a self-repairing humanoid target that he had set up previously to be used to test his weaponized creations, the armor around his arm quickly shifted into a large cannon surging with plasma.

“Power output could use some tinkering, but at least it works…”

After saying his thoughts, the suit converged into an arm cuff on his left biceps. Looking at the cuff on his arm for a moment, Z’akk made his way back to the upper lab. Upon his arrival, he was immediately met with a question from a certain someone.

“How did it go?”

Seeing the eager look on Bey’on, Zakk replied with a smile as he continued walking over to his desk.

“It works, surprisingly well for a prototype. Once I develop Siege Prime, it will become something capable of much, much more.”

Reaching his desk, he sat down and removed the arm cuff that encircled his biceps, placing it on the desk in front of him that was littered with blueprints and theories. To the left, his weapon, now named as the Photon Cannon, laid in its newly designed holster. Once he removed the arm cuff, it abruptly returned to the shape of that of an orb. Then he placed the orb in a tube, prompting it to float in place.

Taking his eyes off of the prototype, he relayed his attention to the solid holographic screen of data before him.

“Hex, was all of the data on the prototype recorded?”

Z’akk questioned out loud facing the holographic monitor.

“All data on the prototype has been successfully recorded, host.”

Hex was a highly advanced Ai created by Z’akk to ȧssist him with his projects. It responded with a clear male voice, prompting an array of numbers and grids to appear on the screen, displaying the data that was gathered during the test in the lower regions of the lab.

Carefully examining the screen and scrolling through the lines of information, Z’akk stood up and began to modify and interchange specific functions of the project.

“Hmm.. look like I’m going to have to rewrite these lines to allow it to upgrade its mainframe…” he mumbled focusing on the screen.

Doing just that, Z’akk’s fingers moved at a blur as thousands of lines of data was rewritten and changed to match the parameters he had set. The process had only taken a few seconds, but the changes that were made would have taken days by normal means. Bey’on who was observing this did not bother to question it and returned to her work.

“Hex, implement yourself into the siege prototype for me.”

“Right away, host.”

After a moment of the AI responding, a loading bar appeared on the screen.

[10%]

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[29%]

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[46%]

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[100%]

“Implementation complete.”

After the loading process was completed, the mechanical voice of Hex emanated from the floating orb that rested in the tube. Taking the orb from the tube, Z’akk examined it as it liquified and traveled across his body to converge back into an arm cuff over his left biceps.

“Okay, time for a retest.”

Making his way down the stairs to the testing area of the lab, he arrived in the reinforced room. Walking to the center of the room, he faced the target that he created not so long ago.

“Commence the raid!”

Seeing that it had finished setting up, Z’akk turned his attention to the arm cuff and sent a mental command for it to activate.

‘Siege V1 ACTIVATE!’

The arm cuff then began to spread and engulf his body in an instant, acting as the same moving mass as before, then quickly compressing down into a suit of armor over his body. He then placed his focus on the targets surrounding him.

“Begin siege!”

Issuing yet another command, the back of the armor opened up as six beams of light flashed out and moved in a manner as if they were alive. Each beam targeting the individual targets and piercing a hole through the heads of each one.

“Works perfectly fine against stationary targets. Let’s check moving ones.”

He stood there contemplating the question for a moment until he made up his mind.

“Commence the second phase!”

Immediately after he said these words, the eyes of the targets all flashed a deep red color as they began moving around the room at a generally high speed, almost becoming blurs flashing throughout the room. Watching as phase two began, he proceeded with the second test.

“The Photon Cannon and now this impeccable suit of armor! All that’s left is to finish the siege prototype and make a ship to move on from this place.”

Walking up the stairs and returning to the lab, he slowly made his way over to his desk and cleared it of all of the blueprints he had laying around. Subsequent to doing so, he placed his hand on a scanner that was on the right edge of the desk.

As it scanned his hand and verified it was him, the hand scanner sunk into the desk, and not long after, the center of the desk opened and a rack holding three vials filled with blood emerged from it. Picking one of the vials up from the rack, Z’akk gazed upon it with some anticipation in his eyes.

Taking all three of the vials from the rack and placing them in a pocket he generated on the side of his leg, he looked over to Bey’on and spoke.

“I’m going to be in the Test Lab for quite some time. Do not disturb me while I am there unless it is absolutely necessary.”

Bey’on stopped her work and looked at him.

“What are you going to do?”

She asked while tilting her head in confusion, something she has been doing much too often when dealing with him.

“Don’t worry about that. It’s nothing you should concern yourself with.”

Giving a quick response, he made his way down to the testing area once more and sat at the center of the room. He took in a deep breath and reached into his inner world. He was instantly met with the orbs of essences that resided there, but the only one that drew his attention was the one that he separated away from the others. The essence still shined the same blinding hue it had before. Promptly leaving the inner world and returning to the outside, he sent a mental command to the arm cuff.

“Commence isolation!”

The arm cuff liquified from Z’akk’s arm and dropped to the floor of the room, soon enough after touching the ground, it gradually formed into a glowing circle around his body. The AI sending out instructions to the testing targets within the room, causing them to liquify as well and surround his body, creating a dome-like structure.

Once the dome was completed, support structures began to branch out and connect to the edges of the room, creating another layer of reinforcement.

“Time to finish what I came here for…”