Doomsday Pillars

President McCord spent a few hours at the meeting before proceeding to a different area, it's on the west side of the base, the test site for the newest weapons. There were several small buildings, but they proceed to a large hall where Mark, the Secretary of Defense of the United States, welcomed President McCord and her entourage. The secretary of Defense is eager to show the results of the hard work his divisions had been preparing for the last four months. 

Mark guided them to the first area, which they called the war machine area. This was the area dedicated for research and development war vehicles. There were several prototypes parked in different locations.

The first vehicle Mark had shown them was a large armored humvee named the Punisher. It's design allowed it to carry 10 soldiers and its armor capable of withstanding impact from 7.62 mm bullets. It had 730 horsepower and was capable of running at a top speed of 95 mph (150 kilometers per hour). The Punisher was the fastest armored vehicle available they had.

The second vehicle was much bigger and unique, a giant hovercraft called the Avenger.. This colossal vehicle could navigate over water and land and could be used to transport troops and military vehicles. It weighed 621 tonnes and could carry up to an additional 150 tonnes of cargo. This incredible machine also had a weapons range of 300 miles.

The secretary of defense proudly showed off the war machines, but his face showed disappointment as he said, "Unfortunately, all of our air warfare machines are unusable. We've checked the atmosphere and the electromagnetic waves are still there."

War machines were able to affect the outcome of a fight, but it was different from winning a war. To win a war, troops to conquer the land are needed, thus equipping the land troop with the best equipment was actually more important. They presented a new lightweight armor that could withstand gunfire as well as new machine guns.

The US had been experimenting and creating high caliber weapons, but these big guns were mostly placed on war machines such as tanks, armored vehicles, planes, etc, and were mostly designed to destroy enemy vehicles. To kill any human beings, low caliber bullets were enough and there was no necessity to equip soldiers with big guns. But now that Doomsday had happened and level 2 and 3 zombies were appearing left and right, the research and development team were finding ways to equip the soldiers with high caliber weapons efficiently.

The US had actually developed a weapon back in 2010 called XM25. It was a semi-automatic air blast grenade launcher and had an effective range nearly four times that of a standard grenade launcher but was too heavy and impractical to use in the field. They also had developed MX16, which was a variation of the M16 assault rifle that used .50 cal bullets.

These two weapons failed the field evaluations in its testing phase because they had the same drawbacks. They were quite large and also its heavy weight made these two weapons unusable in the field for a long time for soldiers. But because of Doomsday, people had been experiencing an improvement to their overall strength and the peak stage mortal realm fighters were able to use it, especially earth realm fighters.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The MX16 roared as it fired the .50 cal bullet from its muzzles and destroyed a pile of stones like cracking a cookie. The bullets were also modified with explosive bullets from its usual armor-piercing pointed design. According to their test results, they estimated that this weapon was capable of stopping a black zombie.

They continued on demonstrating various types of grenades and other explosive devices such as C4 and rocket launchers in an explosion-proof chamber equipped with sophisticated measuring instruments.

After that, they headed to the new research and development section called energy weapons.

Laser weapons indeed existed in these modern times and were capable of directly damaging or destroying war machines they had in development. The general idea of ​​laser beam weaponry was to hit a target with short repeating waves of light. Currently, in the world, laser weapons could only be installed as a base defense tool or on special vehicles. This limitation was not because laser technology was so sophisticated to manufacture but because the energy required to fire such a weapon was enormous. Thus, downsizing it to a handheld rifle was absolutely impossible with the current technology.

The research and development for the energy weapons division's room were filled with scientists and engineers. Among them was an Asian woman named Rachel. She was a scientist who came along with James Randall from Indonesia because she wanted to continue her research on laser weapons. Currently, Area 51 facility has much better equipment than those prepared in Bali. It probably is the best the world can offer.

In the last two months, she had finally succeeded in replicating the laser gun James Randall brought and made some developments, making it more stable and capable of firing more frequently than the previous design. The engineers quickly produced these weapons in massive amounts.

In the test room, .50 cal bullets could penetrate a maximum of 3 centimeters thick titanium steel, while this laser gun could penetrate steel as thick as 5 centimeters. The attack power of this laser gun was almost twice that of a .50 cal bullet. The result impressed most of the audience.

Elizabeth held one of the laser guns and said, "This is very impressive."

"That isn't all that we have to offer, Madam President," Rachel exclaimed.

"There are more?" Elizabeth said, raising one of her eyebrows.

"Yes. On this occasion, we also want to show you another weapon."

One of the engineers took out another weapon. It was smaller than the laser gun they had made but this weapon was oddly shaped. It looked like a long black stone block stick with a handle and smooth surface and it had a shining engraving on the side.

"Madam President, this weapon came from the Doomsday Pillar."

James pulled back his sleeve and showed the information from his bracelet.

[Energy Weapon - Tier 1]

[length 110 centimeters, weight 22 kilograms]

[Long range rifle, requires spirit stone to shoot]

President McCord and her entourage were all amazed at the sight of the weapon. When a soldier fired it at the thick titanium steel, it also penetrated 5 centimeters deep.

Apparently, this energy weapon from the Doomsday Pillar was not much stronger than the laser weapon created in the lab, the test proved that the Research and Development team was able to create a weapon as strong as the one offered by the pillars. At least with the laser weapon, they didn't need to pay for the 3,000 spirit stones.

"Very well. Let's start mass-producing the laser weapons. How soon can we start mass production of this weapon?"

"We can only produce 2-3 units of this laser weapon per week in this location. But if we move the manufacturing to one of the fully equipped weapons factories like the Lockheed factory in Minnesota, we'll be able to equip the soldiers faster."

"Okay, do it soon."

President McCord thoughtfully smiled at the idea of how this energy weapon could be the solution to facing the challenges ahead. She knew about the countdown on the Doomsday Pillar and wanted not only America but even the whole world to be ready for it.

"Well done, everyone. Our fighting capability has doubled with this," Elizabeth said.

An old man with unkempt hair walked over and suddenly snorted. He had been part of the presidential group that just arrived at the facility today and was silent throughout the whole tour. He took a closer look at the laser gun and said, "Huh, stupid!"

His reaction confused James. However, Rachel and the scientists and engineers reacted differently.

"Professor Nikola," Rachel muttered, she recognized him.

This person was a physicist, mechanical technician, and a fairly well-known inventor. He lifted one of the laser weapons created by James' team and examined it carefully.

"Stupid, stupid. You are all stupid," he said.

James Randal's face darkened. He had heard of this person's greatness but insulting the weapons he had brought to the US affected him. The president as well as the others, however, didn't seem bothered. It looked like rumors on how this professor's personality was a little quirky and hard to get along with were true.

"Professor Nikola, could you perhaps enlighten us with your thoughts?" Elizabeth asked.

"Like always, everyone thinks that being able to produce weapons as quickly as you can and having more firepower is the greatest thing. Doesn't anyone realize the marvel of this laser weapon? It's not the firepower, but this part." Professor Nikola pointed at the laser weapon energy box. It was the part where it could turn the spirit stones into laser energy.

"Aaaa!" exclaimed Doctor Rachel, figuring out something.

"Do you get it now? Good, good. This technology is the solution to all the limitations of our current technology. The possibility is endless. Madam President, I want to be involved in developing this technology."

"Yes, Professor. Of course, you can." Elizabeth then turned to the secretary of defense and said, "Mark, I am very satisfied with this equipment. For now, prioritize mass-producing the laser weapons. Form a team and head to Minnesota as soon as you can."

The professor continued, "Madam President, I also am interested in learning the technology that can be found in the Doomsday Pillar. When do we think we can visit it?"

Elizabeth turned to James and said, "Time to meet the team then Mr. Randal."

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