Global Awakening: Apocalypse Ender's Chronicle

Fiona continued exploring the facility.

By now, the rats had spread throughout almost every accessible corridor. Some searched the upper levels, while others moved through narrow maintenance tunnels and collapsed passages that humans could never have entered. Despite the vast size of the facility, most areas remained eerily silent.

Then one of the rats discovered something different.

It had entered a massive corridor that seemed to lead toward the center of the facility. Unlike the other sections they had explored, this area showed almost no signs of decay. The walls were remarkably clean, the metallic floor was free of dust, and faint blue lights still illuminated the corridor.

Fiona immediately became cautious.

”Everyone, slow down.”

The rats reduced their pace and began advancing more carefully. One of them eventually reached the end of the corridor and cautiously looked inside.

Fiona’s expression changed.

”What...”

Through the rat’s eyes, she saw an enormous chamber.

It was far larger than any of the laboratories they had discovered earlier. The ceiling stretched hundreds of meters above the floor, supported by massive metallic structures that disappeared into the darkness. Rows upon rows of humanoid machines stood throughout the chamber, with hundreds of them visible at a glance.

Perhaps there were even thousands.

Some were completely intact, while others were missing arms, legs, heads, or entire sections of their armored bodies. Several were suspended from the ceiling by enormous mechanical arms while damaged components were being replaced. Other machines were lying on massive platforms as dozens of smaller mechanical drones worked around them.

Metallic limbs were being attached to their bodies. Armor plates were being repaired, energy cores were being replaced, and countless cables were being connected to their mechanical frames.

The entire chamber looked like a gigantic repair facility.

And the machines were still working.

Fiona stared through the rat’s eyes for several seconds.

For the first time since entering the facility, she felt genuinely uneasy.

”This place isn’t abandoned...”

The rats remained near the entrance while Fiona carefully studied the chamber. Most of the humanoid robots were completely motionless, apparently undergoing maintenance, but several stood near the edges of the room.

They weren’t being repaired!

They were guarding the area.

Fiona immediately realized that something was wrong.

”Don’t go any further.”

Unfortunately, the command came too late.

One of the rats had already moved several meters into the chamber.

A faint red light suddenly appeared on the head of a nearby humanoid machine.

Fiona’s eyes widened.

”Get back!”

The machine raised its arm... Then, a thin red beam suddenly shot through the darkness.

Zzzzt!

The rat disappeared instantly.

There wasn’t even enough time for it to react. The laser struck it directly, leaving behind nothing more than a small scorch mark on the metallic floor.

Fiona froze.

One of her rats had just died.

Then another red light appeared... Then another... Then another.

All around the chamber, the dormant humanoid machines began turning their heads. Their eyes lit up with crimson light one after another.

”Everyone, retreat!”

Fiona immediately issued the command.

The rats scattered in every direction. Some rushed toward the corridor they had entered through, while others desperately searched for nearby openings.

Then the chamber erupted.

Zzzzt!

Zzzzt!

Zzzzt!

Dozens of thin laser beams crossed the room.

The rats desperately ran between pieces of machinery, but the Sentinels moved with terrifying precision. They weren’t firing randomly. Each machine tracked its target, predicted its movements, and adjusted its aim accordingly.

One rat ran beneath a damaged maintenance platform, hoping to use it as cover. A Sentinel immediately adjusted its aim and fired through the structure. The rat barely escaped through a narrow opening before the laser tore through the platform behind it.

Another rat climbed onto a pipe, only for a mechanical arm to suddenly reach toward it and crush the pipe in its grasp.

The rat fell, and in almost an instant, another laser flashed.

Its connection to Fiona disappeared!

”Run!”

Fiona’s voice echoed through the rats’ network as they desperately attempted to escape.

Some squeezed into ventilation shafts while others crawled beneath the massive machines. A few searched for cracks in the walls, trying to find any possible route out of the chamber.

But the Sentinels continued hunting them.

Their movements were frighteningly efficient.

They weren’t behaving like mindless machines and they were identifying targets, predicting movement, and cutting off escape routes.

Fiona immediately understood what she was dealing with.

These weren’t ordinary maintenance robots... They were security units.

And the moment the rats had entered the chamber, the facility had recognized them as intruders.

”Everyone, focus on getting out of there!”

Fiona’s command spread through the network of rats.

Although they were replaceable rats, she didn’t want any of them to die this way...

Just like that, dozens managed to escape back into the corridors.

But many never made it.

One after another, their connections disappeared and of course, Fiona felt every loss.

Her expression became increasingly pale as the number of surviving rats rapidly decreased. She had sent nearly a hundred rats into the chamber, but now only a fraction of them were still moving.

”Move!”

A group of rats rushed toward the entrance, but a Sentinel stepped directly into their path.

The machine was nearly three meters tall, its body covered in dark metallic armor. One of its arms suddenly transformed into a long energy weapon.

The rats immediately changed direction.

The Sentinel fired.

Several rats disappeared in the flash of red light.

Fiona clenched her fists.

”Turn left! There’s a maintenance tunnel!”

The surviving rats immediately followed her command. They squeezed through a narrow opening beneath a damaged section of the wall just as another laser struck the entrance.

Boom!

Metal fragments flew through the air.

The rats continued running until they were several corridors away. Only then did the laser fire finally stop.

Silence returned to the facility.

Fiona remained completely still for several seconds, and she could still feel the surviving rats moving through the facility, but there were far fewer than before.

Her expression became grim.

”Those machines are still active... and hostile”

This changed everything.

Until now, Fiona had believed that the facility was simply an abandoned ruin filled with old machines and forgotten experiments.

She had been wrong.

At least one section of the facility was still operational...

”I guess I need to send in the cleaning crew...”