The sun had long set under the western horizon, but the day still had not ended.
A soldier carried two corpses—one on each shoulder—and dragged his body towards a mountain pile. It formed erratically on one side, making it look uneven and unpleasant to look at.
But it wasn't his job to make it aesthetically pleasing; nor his mate that panted beside him; nor the other soldiers around them.
Metal rang loudly from the direction of the industrial sector. A man stood proudly behind a machine gun nest, banging the metal wheel with a bar.
"Shift's over for you lots!" the man yelled.
The soldiers didn't cheer. A few laughed weakly, dragging their worn bodies back to camp.
Some lay on the ground, staring at the dark sky. The battlefield had gone silent, but the base had not.
Lights flickered across the large industrial complex. The air and ground hummed low; it started from the center.
The hum deepened—not louder, but heavier. Like something huge had begun to breathe beneath the concrete and the earth.
Several soldiers paused mid-step, their heads quickly turning to one focal point.
Kimmy jolted in place; Yunera looked at her in surprise. Then, under her feet, the pavement trembled slightly.
"Kimmy, what's happening?"
"Something's coming out, sister," she said, clinging tightly to her clothes.
The tremor pulsed again.
Yunera glanced around. "From underground? But how? Is it another zombie? An attack?"
Kimmy didn't answer immediately. In her mind, the field shifted.
The scattered lights of soldiers remained steady. The dead... remained dead and silent.
But at the center of the sector, something else had appeared.
It wasn't chaotic nor hostile. It was structured and rapidly expanded.
Her brows slowly furrowed.
"No. It isn't them."
"Then what is it?"
Kimmy turned her head slightly.
"The soldiers aren't reacting like it's a threat."
Yunera followed her gaze. The troops nearby weren't raising weapons.
Their hands were composed. Instead, they watched, waiting for something.
"...You're right," Yunera murmured.
Kimmy exhaled softly. "It must be Hans. I can feel it. This tremor—it's too familiar."
A brief pause.
"Like before?" Yunera recalled, asking. "What is he planning to do?"
Kimmy paused before answering.
"Let's go up the rooftops, sister," she said at last. "We'll get an answer from there."
Yunera carried Kimmy and jumped high, landing softly on top of a building.
Kimmy rested her hands on the ledge. The vibrations strengthened, and in her mind, that structure gradually formed.
Yunera looked to where the Construction Yard was.
A faint grid of light traced itself across the ground near this behemoth of a structure.
Lines spread outward in perfect symmetry, cutting across dirt, concrete, and debris alike.
The soil trembled steadily.
It was as if the ground itself gave way to something it had acknowledged.
Then, it began.
Segments of earth sank by a few inches before locking into place with a dull, metallic thud.
Steel plates surfaced from beneath—clean, angular, and untouched by rust or decay.
They expanded outward, slotting into one another with mechanical precision, forming a reinforced foundation where there had been none.
"Back up!" an Engineer shouted instinctively, urging a group of soldiers away from the area.
More plates rose, locked, and aligned.
Until the ground was no longer ground, but a platform.
At its center, a circular section split open. A low mechanical whine followed.
The core soon emerged.
A cylindrical reactor module forced its way upward. Its surface was layered with thick armored rings and embedded conduits that glowed faintly blue.
Steam hissed from its sides as internal systems awakened.
The temperature in the air shifted warmly, almost alive.
"The Power Plant..." someone whispered.
The structure did not stop there.
Massive support frames snapped outward from the platform, locking around the reactor like a skeletal cage.
From behind, two large turbine assemblies rotated into position, their blades still at first before slowly beginning to turn.
From one rotation to another. Faster, louder, and scarier.
The hum grew into a deep, continuous resonance that psread across the entire sector.
Above the reactor, segmented panels lifted and separated, forming vented towers that exhaled streams of heated vapor into the night sky.
Cables extended outward from the base platform, embedding themselves into the ground like roots.
The structure paused slightly before it surged.
A pulse of energy rippled outward from the Power Plant. Lights across the industrial complex flickered, coming alive one by one.
Warehouses. Pipelines. Control panels. Floodlights.
Entire streets that had been dead for months illuminated in sequence.
The darkness retreated as the base regained power. The dead industrial district stirred.
It no longer looked abandoned, nor silent.
Behind the trembling concrete ledge, Hans observed the Power Plant's deployment from start to finish.
His heart stammered loudly; his eyes wide enough that his eyeballs would pop out.
Magnificient. Utterly magnificient!
He had always envisioned to see an in-game structure being deployed in real-life.
But imagination had never done justice to the real thing.
The turbines lowly resonated over the entire sector. Steam vented upward. Blue conduits along the reactor pulsed steadily, feeding the invisble grid that now stretched on the industrial complex.
Amidst his excitement, the system prompted.
------
[ Power output stabilized. ]
[ System Energy Pool updated. ]
[ Strategic Facilities within construction radius may now be captured. ]
------
[ Energy: 26 / 400 units. ]
------
Hans's expression tightened. There it is.
He opened the Radar map at once.
The two Industrial Refinery Complexes flickered faintly on the overlay. So did the Fuel Storage Facilities, the Industrial Storage Yards, the Machinery Workshop, and the Chemical Processing Plant.
All of them were now alive. Not fully operational yet—but awake and ready for capture.
He reached for his comms.
"Golden Eagle to all Engineer teams. Power is online. Proceed with Strategic Facility capture immediately."
The radio remained silent. Soon, replies came after another.
"Engineer Team One, roger."
"Engineer Team Three copies."
"Team four moving in."
Hans lowered his hand slowly. The base had gained power.
The next phase of expansion had begun.
Within the system panel, he shifted toward the Main Building tab.
------
[ Power Plant - 8000 Gold, +400 Energy Units (EU) ]
[ Barracks (Physical) - 5000 Gold, 50 EU, Requires Power Plant ]
[ Ore Refinery - 20000 Gold, 200 EU, Requires Power Plant ]
[ Radar Facility (Physical) - 10000 Gold, 100 EU, Requires Power Plant ]
[ War Factory (Physical) - 30000 Gold, 200 EU, Requires Power Plant ]
[ Service Center - 25000 Gold, 100 EU, Requires: Power Plant, War Factory ]
[ Airfield Base - 40000 Gold, 300 EU, Requires: War Factory, Radar Facility (Physical) ]
[ Shipyard - 60000 Gold, 300 EU, Requires: War Factory, Radar Facility (Physical) ]
[ Tech Center - 60000 Gold, 400 EU, Requires: Radar Facility, War Factory, Airfield Base, Shipyard, Rank 4 Promotion — Battalion Commander ]
------
[ Gold: 42,020 ]
------
Hans realized that the cost of the physical variation of each structure was twice that of its virtual counterpart.
That made sense.
As he scanned the Energy Unit requirements, his brows furrowed.
Do I really have to spam Power Plants like in-game again?
His gaze paused on the Airfield Base.
It was non-negotiable.
Aircraft would give him reconnaissance, precision strikes, and the ability to break entire sectors open before his troops ever stepped inside them.
Without air power, clearing Grefort City might take him more than a year.
Hans exhaled and forced the thought aside.
He was getting ahead of himself. The Airfield Base would come later.
Right now, the industrial sector already had what he needed—structures, resources, and infrastructures waiting to be taken.
Building without the resources, especially while so much stood unused around him would be wasteful.
His eyes drifted back to the radar map, recounting all the Strategic Facilities.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
The city had already built half his base for him. All he needed to do was claim it.
And once he understood exactly what each facility could offer. then he would decide what to build next.