Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse! Chapter 629 - Clips RC Cars?

They ca back a few hours earlier than I thought but they looked a little exhausted just from looking at them from my window. They didn't even exit their vehicles imdiately since they just took a short breather before the people below approached them. However, Artem and the rest of his team weren't present.

"Let's head down as well."

"Okay..."

I walked away from our spot and we stretched for a bit before we ca down, but Rin stayed behind to look after Tatiana who was currently sleeping.

As we ca unto them, Jared cleared his rifle before removing the magazine. That magazine was the only one that had a few bullets remaining because all of the mags on his chest rig were empty. Furthermore, a ton of spent brass casings were on the truck bed and each movent would make them jingle.

I waved him over, "Sothing happened? Where's Artem and--"

Jared cut off, "Yeah~ Kinda. Huge herd on the way back led by a dozen ferals but we took care of them from a distance. We didn't stop midway because another one was about to flank us. No casualties except the bullets we used. Oh, Artem and the rest just picked up Natasha from the crematorium-- Ibarra is with her still."

"Okay. And the dical center?"

Jared let out a smile, "What do you think, bro? Cleared and blocked off. What about your side-- err… Tatiana? She okay?"

I nodded as I shook my head, "Yeah, but she'll be subbing out for a few weeks up to a couple of months. Clean up and have a snack or sothing with everyone. We'll take over, for now, great job."

"Sure, sure~"

Everyone that ca back was given their much-needed rest while I took over Rin's job for the mont. Cynthia and Kaley helped take care of everything that needed to be taken care of like: placing all of the used casings in their right bucket, recording and storing everything we took back properly, replenishing the resources used from the run such as bullets, gas, and etc., and making a report about everything that happened.

Footage from their bodycams would be retrieved later and Ken would store them for review.

Speaking of my old friend, he approached right when I was about to take a seat by the pool area. With that said, I couldn't help but notice several drones flying in separate directions right when he stopped before . From the looks of it, they were flying in a pattern and they were moving without soone behind the wheel… or the controller.

Ken's eyebrows were going up and down, "I noticed you noticed what just happened."

I said in a dramatic tone, "Oh god, what have you done?!"

"Hah? Wut?"

"The robots are uprising! Didn't we have enough on our plate?! First, zombies, now rob- Ow! My toe!"

"You fucking idiot, I just made a lot of ti for myself! Can't you see they could fly independently?! Well, it's limited to the area they could go and the pattern they're coded in but I did it!"

I scratched my head, "Can't we just do that in a day?"

"Dude! I know that we could-- It's easy enough to code it once you know what to do but what matters is the conception of the idea! And no, that's not all it could do. Co with in my room for a sec."

Ken didn't even wait for to respond as he pushed himself back to his residence.

'Well, he did sound excited earlier about this...'

I just excused myself with the people present and followed right behind him. However, the first thing I noticed in his room was that one of its walls was now clad with different screens flickering into different POVs. Half of them were from the drones he released a few monts ago while the other half was for the stationary caras we placed all around our territory.

I joked, "Taking peeping to the next level, I see..."

Ken almost threw a broken hard drive at , "Heh. Shut the fuck up, dude. Look at this instead. It is easy to make roughly but to perfect it, the timing's a bitch. I've only been working with a few dozen drones and my head's hurting. It's easy for the stationary ones though... they just go on and on without issue compared to doing it with the drones."

"Oh~ Wait a sec... Timing? For what?"

"Just look at it and see for yourself!"

Aside from the monitors mounted on the wall, he had his own multiple screen setup that was showing the sa thing as the other displays do. However, I just noticed that on the left-most monitor that it was showing footage of the sa drone in two windows.

Well, I thought it was the sa footage at first but looking at it for a ti revealed that it was comparing what it captured recently to the one before it. And as soon as it was done, it would do the sa thing to the footage that the drone would capture after flying through its programd pattern.

'Hmm...'

What's happening was as soon as a smidgen of a few pixels were different from each other, it would copy the footage from start to end but if the size would be too large, it would just add a line of text on a file that contained the tistamps. It was programd to do the sa thing with our stationary caras but running the program he made on every footage we had at the sa ti would be impossible.

The only solution was to put them through in batches and manually review them later.

Ken's job made him sit around and just look at screens all day but this thing that he did would almost automate his work if it was polished even more. It was because the program he created would still clip people walking, leaves rustling, vehicles running, and etc., but it was a step in the right direction.

I nodded approvingly before I chuckled, "It's like watching porn but fast-forwarding to the parts you'd fap to!"

Ken glared at but his face twisted before he laughed uncontrollably, "WHAT THE FUCK, DUDE?! CAN'T YOU JUST THINK OF A BETTER ANALOGY TO DESCRIBE THIS?! I SPENT A LOT OF TI MAKING THIS! FUCK!"

"What? It's a complint! This would save you a lot of ti reviewing things over and over. I can't believe you didn't think of doing this sooner."

"Yeah… I kept using the sa system over and over not thinking if I could improve it. Well~ I'll just be doing different shit in the sa room anyway. With this, I could start improving the trackers we placed on those hollowed-out motherfuckers. They disappeared long ago but I think we could make sothing better. Oh! I have another idea on the back burner too! I'll need Raphael or Anthony for it but I think it'll work."

"What do you have in mind?"

"For the trackers: aside from placing them on the dead, we could also hook them up in our people and the vehicle they used. In case they got abducted or went AWOL, we'd know where they'd go. The latter's quite impossible to happen but we never know, right?"

"Hmm~ That's limited by the relays we put in place. We'd have to find a way to make the actual cell sites work so we'd have a larger coverage."

"Ah… It's not that easy to do that but that's not what I think we should focus on. How about we start making a gun turret? You know, a couple in each entrance? It's better than human guards, right?"

I almost slipped and fell, "Turrets? Are you fucking serious?"

Ken answered innocently, "Yeah. We'll start small."

I shook my head as I chuckled, "I'm telling you, dude; if we didn't have zombies, one of the people that would make the robots that would wipe us out will be you… and ."

"Hah! I guess turrets are a little too much right now. Besides, I think it'd require more engineering."

"But dude, why don't we start smaller?"

"Smaller?"

"RC Cars. Mount a cara on--"

"What? That's la..."

"Hey. It has longer battery life, quieter in most cases, and almost everyone could easily drive it in tight spaces compared to flying a drone. Do you even rember how many you had to repair when you taught other people to fly them in obstacles?"

"Hmm..."

"I'm not telling you what to do though. Just put it in a basket and decide on sothing when you have free ti--"

"Can I arm them?"

"Wut?"

"Can I arm them?! You know, a surprise shotgun shell in the foot or even a C4 if you'd give one would be nice. So with flares or with noisemakers are very easy to do too."

I chuckled as I nodded, "Sure, figure out--"

"I'd just scan the fra and print a body where it could hold--"

"Yeah, yeah. Do that, dude. But I'm not giving you any angry putty. Just make sure it could take the recoil of a shotshell first."

"Oh… right. That would be an issue. Okay, I'll think about doing it but I'd like to focus on drones more-- Oh, your elite team is arriving. They just passed by the gate at the back of the DDR Camp. Ah, they're heading to the--"

I cut him off, "The hospital. I see the sa thing as you, right?"

"Right..."

"They're probably gonna inquire about Tatiana's situation or they're gonna have sothing checked. Before they arrive, let's think of a bit more projects you could start working on."

"Sure… I thought I'd be able to have so free ti but turns out, I'd need to do more work..."

"Heh. Just like real life, right?"

Ken and I discussed a few more things in his room but what we managed to do in the small tifra we had available was to help him build another PC that would be able to help carry the load with running his creation. We still have a fuck ton of parts and components available and it wasn't difficult to make sothing almost similar to what he was currently using.

With that said, I spent more ti cleaning up his room for my sake and for my own sanity because any and all attempts of Rin and his sister to help him stay tidy were for naught. The guy had his own way of 'organizing' his things and I just needed to clean up a bit while I was there.

Aside from that, talks of tearing a hole on the opposite wall to give him more room were discussed but we'd need to relocate and convince the inhabitants first.