Drone Commander

His fingers were drumming along the edges of the holomap in anticipation.

“Five minutes to re-entry.”

He could feel his heart race in his chest, as Zack made his announcements as they were getting closer to re-entry. While this was hardly his first time experiencing an atmospheric re-entry, it was to be his first time experiencing it while inside the MCV. From what his fellow drone commanders told him, re-entry while in an MCV was a different experience from re-entry while in a space ship.

“Four minutes to re-entry.”

Getting ever so closer now. He needed to be absolutely focused on making sure everything was going smoothly for the ride. Not an easy thing to do on your first try. As the old saying went; First time is the hardest. And sense he was here with no back-up, he most definitely needed to work his hardest on this job.

“Three minutes to re-entry.”

He steadied his breathing. No need to hyperventilate during re-entry, as that could rob him of his focus. Breathe in, 1-2-3, Breathe out. That was the pattern he remembered. He remembered the simulations of re-entry while in an MCV, but his fellow commanders had warned that the simulation could never hope to come close to the real deal.

“Two minutes to re-entry.”

Not much longer now. Soon the ship will maneuver into the atmosphere. If all goes well Zack will angle the ship at 5,000 meters above the planet’s sea level, and jettison the MCV from the cargo bay. From there, the ship will fire off its engines, and return to orbit, while the MCV dives towards the surface.

“Approaching re-entry point.”

This was it. The moment of truth. Leonard had full confidence that Zack was going to pull this off. He was an AI after all. He felt the ship shudder, indicating that they had begun re-entry. The holomap lit up, showing the path that the ship was taking in its decent.

“We’re now re-entering the planet’s atmosphere. We’ll reach the drop point in ten minutes. Please make sure your seatbelts are secured, and that your arms and legs are in the vehicle at all times.”

Leonard rolled his eyes at the last statement. Zack never was good at coming up with some good jokes. Even inside the MCV he could still feel the vibrations from the ship’s descent. It was anything but a pleasant experience. Ten minutes was not a lot of time. But when you’re descending from high above the ground, at thousands of miles per hour, ten minutes could feel like an eternity. So to kill some time, Leonard tapped some buttons on his wristband to bring up some pictures.

The first picture he brought up, was from when he first arrived at the academy. The entrance had two statues of MCVs on both sides of the door. On top of the door was the name of the place, Chris Taylor Academy. Chris Taylor was the name of a famous video director in the twenty first century. He wasn’t sure why they named it after a video game director rather than a military leader, but from what Leonard remembered, the games that Chris Taylor made were strategy games that were about building armies of drones.

The next picture he brought up, was a picture of him and his three roommates; Joshua Parks, Mateo Campos, and Bryan Fields. Bryan was about two years away from graduating at the time, and Joshua and Mateo had enlisted around the same time Leonard did. The next picture he brought up was one of the simulator Leonard was assigned to on his first day at the academy. The interior of the simulator was nearly identical to the DOCS that Leonard was currently sitting in. The only thing the simulator didn’t have was the gun cabinet that was behind him.

He swapped it with another picture. This one was of the first drone Leonard ever built. The assignment was that the students were to design their own drone, load up the blueprints into a nano assembler, build the drone, and test it out in a mock battle with other students. While the other students had made exotic, but impractical designs, Leonard went for a boring and practical design. It was just a simple tank design, but it had won him fifth place in the mock battle.

The next set of pictures he brought up was when he and his classmates went on vacation to the colony of New Bermuda. Joshua was hitting it on with a couple of colonists, Mateo was getting wasted along with some classmates, Bryan was buried in the sand, and Leonard was just standing out on the docks fishing. One of the pictures showed Leonard with that big whopping fish, which was weighed in at twenty two pounds. Rather than cut it up and have for lunch, he decided to let the fish go, as it was his first catch of the day. The last picture from New Bermuda was that of the entire class, with the General, Lauren, standing in the center of the group.

The next pictures that Leonard brought were of when he had attended his brother’s graduation into the Space Force. Since joining the Space Force, Matthew primarily served as a mechanic on board the various ships he stationed on. His job was to maintain the ships’ own unmanned drones, which were primarily designed for space combat. Leonard could eventually build his own space capable fighter craft, but that was going to require him to build a Space Port, which was going to take up plenty of resources in order to build.

“We’re a minute away from the drop point. I hope you’re ready.”

Pressing a button on the wristband, Leonard closed the pictures and turned his attention to the holomap. Soon and real soon, Zack was going to open up the bay doors beneath him, and from there he was going to be on his own. The last minute past by quickly, and the bay doors below the MCV opened up, sending the massive vehicle into freefall.

Now came the hard part.

Leonard furiously began typing in the commands on the holographic keyboard over the holomap. The commands were to send more power into the anti-gravity pods, to slow the MCV’s descent. However, he needed to get the timing right. If the pods flared up too high, then it was going to eat up the fusion reactor before the MCV could land. If the pods flared up too low, then there wasn’t going to be enough breathing room to slow down the descent. Both of these scenarios would result in the MCV crashing into the ground, and his chances of surviving the crash was not good.

And even if he did survive the crash, he had no idea what his chances of surviving on the planet were.

He kept a close eye on how far he was from the surface. As he closer and closer, he readied his finger to press the enter key to command the anti-gravity pods to flare up. The recommended altitude to launch the flare was 500 meters above the surface, though he could give the command at anywhere between 400 and 600 meters. And at nearly that exact moment, Leonard pressed the enter key, and the MCV’s descent began to slow. The slow descent took nearly a minute, but he was able to land safely on the ground.

Letting out a large sigh of relief, Leonard unbuckled himself from the seat, and stretched out his arms and legs. Once that was done he tapped the buttons on his wristband, and Zack’s hologram popped up. “Oh thank goodness you survived.” Zack said. “For a moment I thought you weren’t gonna make it.”

“Very funny Zack.” Leonard said crossing his arms.

“I know. So how are feeling right now?” Zack asked.

Leonard simply lift up his shoulders. “Eh, no worse for wear I’ll say that much.” He answered.

“Good to know.” Zack replied. “I’ve alerted the brass that you’ve began your mission. They wish you the best of luck.”

“I won’t need luck to survive this.” Leonard whispered. “Tell them I said thank you, Zack. And be sure to take good care of the ship while I’m gone.”

“I will.” Zack said before his hologram dissipated.

With that out of the way, Leonard immediately went to work. Standing by the holomap, Leonard selected Voice Commands to command the drones, than had the MCV to begin building the Constructor Drone. The Constructor Drone was a simple box design, with a mechanical arm on the top of it. The arm was actually a nano assembler that emitted a stream of nanobots that would assemble together a structure from the raw materials available to it. The amount of time it took to build one varied depending on how much resources were available, and upon the size of the structure itself.

In nearly no time at all, the assemblers in the MCV had finished building the drone. “Constructor Drone, ready for deployment.”

Every drone had a different voice assigned to it, and the Constructor Drone’s voice had a distinctive Brooklyn accent to it. “Alright. Constructor Drone, you’ll be designated as CD-1. About twenty-two meters east from our position, there’s a mass deposit right there, and I want you to build a mass extractor over it.” Leonard ordered.

“CD-1 acknowledges. Proceeding to construction site.” The back of the MCV opened up, and CD-1 backed out from the bay, and drove over to where Leonard had lead it. Once there, the drone deployed its arm, and its clamp began emitting a green beam of nanobots at the ground. From there the foundations for the mass extractor began to take form, and within less than a minute, the structure would be complete, and the device would begin extracting mass from the ground. Meanwhile, Leonard had queued up the MCV to begin construction of a fire team of eight Basic Android Troopers, along with eight scout bikes. The Troopers finished first, and the bikes followed suit, with both teams moving out once they were done. “Troopers awaiting deployment.”

“Scout bikes ready.”

“Okay. Troopers, I want you to mount up on the scout bikes.” Leonard ordered.

“Troopers acknowledge.”

While the Scout Bikes were not defenseless, they had a feature on them in which the Android Troopers could mount up on top of them to provide additional firepower. Once all of the troopers were mounted up on the bikes, Leonard sent out his next order. “Troopers One and Two, you along with Bikes One and Two will be Scout Team One. Troopers and Bikes Three and Four, you’ll be Scout Team Two. Five and Six you’ll be Team Three, and Seven and Eight will Team Four. I want Team One to travel twenty kilometers north and patrol the perimeter around the area. Teams Two, Three and Four, you will be headed east, west, and south respectively, and patrol the perimeter.”

“By your command.”

As one, each of the teams of drones went in the directions Leonard had ordered them. Once the teams would reach their destinations, they would begin circling around the area and alert Leonard of any unknowns approaching the landing zone. Looking out the viewport, Leonard saw that CD-1 was finished with building the mass extractor. “CD-1, construction complete.”

Satisfied with its construction, Leonard gave his next order to CD-1. “Alright, CD-1. Begin construction of a Small Generator on the mass extractor’s west side.”

“CD-1 roger.”

With the amount of mass being stored steadily increasing, Leonard felt that it was now time to build another Constructor Drone. Thanks to the amount of mass in his possession, the construction of the new drone didn’t take as long as the first one. “Constructor Drone, awaiting deployment.”

“Constructor Drone, you’ll be designated as CD-2. I want you to build a radar tower right next to the small generator that CD-1 is constructing.” Leonard ordered.

“CD-2 acknowledges.”

The second constructor drone rolled out of the MCV and moved towards where the first one was located. Like the first one, the second constructor drone deployed its arm, and it began emitting a green beam of nanobots right into the ground next to where the generator was being built. A few seconds after CD-2 began building the radar, CD-1 had already finished building the generator, which had automatically deployed a power conduit to the mass extractor, increasing its efficiency. “Construction complete.”

Looking at the holomap, Leonard spotted several other locations where he could extract some more mass. Rather than wait, Leonard decided to go ahead and build some more extractors. Bringing up the holographic keyboard on the map, Leonard typed in the locations of those mass deposits, and sent them to CD-1. “CD-1, I want you to build a mass extractor at each of the following locations, and build a small generator on the west side of each of them.” He ordered.

“CD-1 copies. Proceeding to the designated areas.”

As CD-1 moved northeastward to build the next extractor, CD-2 had just finished building the radar tower. “Construction complete.”

While the MCV had a radar of its own, it was very limited, only able to see within a fifty kilometer radius, but with the radar tower now up, the field of vision was now doubled to a one hundred kilometer radius. Of course, he hadn’t yet spotted any inhabitants nearing his location, but he did get a better view of the terrain around him. As he had expected, its mostly just flat deserts. Zack sure as hell knew what he doing when he dropped Leonard off here. Knowing that he was really going to need that mass, Leonard sent out his next order to CD-2. “CD-2, I want you to assist CD-1 in building more mass extractors and Power Generators.”

“CD-2 roger. Moving to assist.”

Bringing up the holomap again, Leonard queued the construction of a third Construction Drone. He had something special in mind for this one. “Constructor Drone, awaiting deployment.”

“Constructor Drone, you will be designated as CD-3. I want you to build a Land Factory about ten meters from my position.” Leonard ordered.

“CD-3 roger. Proceeding to the construction zone.”

The land factory was going to take longer to build than the mass extractors, as the land factory was designed to build larger vehicles than what the MCV could build. As CD-3 was building the factory, CD-1 and CD-2 had just finished building two other mass extractors. The additional mass being collected was keeping the construction of the factory going on at a steady pace. At the same time, the scout teams were patrolling the area around the landing zone. Other than spotting some wild animals, the scout teams reported nothing unusual happening at the edges of the field. With his expanded radar field, Leonard felt tempted to build more troopers and scout bikes to expand the patrol routes.

But now was not the time, as CD-1 and 2 had just finished building the four additional mass extractors with the fifty meter area of the landing zone. CD-3 had also just finished building the land factory. Leonard smiled at the sight of the factory. “Sweet.” He said.

“CD-3 awaiting further instructions.”

Now he had three idle constructor drones. Well, he figured he might as well use them for something. “All constructor drones, I want each of you to build an air pad right next to each other about ten meters south of my position, and build a small generator on their south ends.” Leonard had ordered.

“CD-1 to 3 rogers. Proceeding to the construction site.”

As one the three drones moved to their designated locations and aimed their nano assemblers to the ground, building the air pads. Air pads were needed in order to make sure each aircraft built would be fueled, and armed for whatever task was needed of them. As the drones were busy building the pads, Leonard queued the factory to build another constructor drone. At the same time, he queued the MCV to construct three reconnaissance aircraft.

Without the mass extractors it would have originally taken minutes to build the reconnaissance drones, but with the additional mass being given to him by the extractors, he didn’t have to wait long for them to build. When the construction of the recon drones was finished, the sides of the MCV opened up, with each drone securely mounted on a catapult. “Reconnaissance Drone, awaiting orders.”

“Okay. Recon drones, you’ll each be designated as Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. Alpha, I want you to fly to scout team one, and follow their patrols. Bravo and Charlie, you be flying to scout teams two and three respectively and follow their patrols as well. When you’re low on fuel, fly back to your designated air pads, and return to your patrols once you’re refueled.” Leonard ordered.

“Alpha to Charlie complies. Moving to patrol routes.”

All at once, the recon drones were launched from the catapults, and flew off to join the scout teams. Just in time too, the air pads had finished construction, and the drones had begun building the power generators. At the same time, the constructor drone from the factory was finished, and rolled out of the factory. “Constructor Drone, await deployment.”

“Constructor Drone, you’ll be designated as CD-4. I want you to build a fourth air pad where CD-1 to 3 had built theirs, as well as a power generator on its southern end.” He was getting quite tired of this routine of naming the drones.

“CD-4 roger. Moving to the site now.”

Leonard shot out a puff of air. He really needed to remind himself that he was going to need to get used to the drones’ monotones. Of course, even though they were monotone, he was taught at the academy to treat every drone he built like it was a person. It was considered wasteful to just build a ridiculous number of drones, and then send them off to the grinder to get destroyed. With that out of the way, Leonard queued the construction of a fourth recon drone.

At that moment, something on the holomap caught his eye. About fifty kilometers east from the patrols, there was a line that he somehow missed. A line of metal and wood, railroad tracks. What had suddenly made him notice it, was when the radar detected movement along the edge of the map a near second ago. Thankfully, his last drone’s construction was finished, meaning he could just sent it out now to recon the place. “Recon drone, your designation is Delta, and I want you to recon an area about seventy kilometers east from here. Stay as high above the ground as possible. I don’t want the inhabitants to spot you.” Leonard ordered.

“Delta rogers. Flying eastward.”

The drone was launched from the catapult, and flew towards the railroad tracks. Typing a few keys on the holomap, a screen came up showing a live video feed from Delta’s camera. As Delta drew closer to the railroad, Leonard had its camera zoom in on the train that was riding along the track. So far, the passengers seemed blissfully unaware that they were being watched. Though admittedly, that didn’t make Leonard feel anymore comfortable. As Leonard had ordered, Delta was keeping its distance from the surface to avoid being seen. However, one of the passengers, a pink equine with blue eyes was looking out the window. Almost as if it was looking directly at Delta.

That made Leonard very uncomfortable.

Another passenger, this one also a equine, but with wings, cyan fur, a rainbow colored mane, and magenta eyes, was saying something to the pink equine. Leonard couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the pink equine was clearly acting unnerved by something. The cyan equine looked outside the window, and said something to the pink one. The pink equine replied to the other equine and pointed its hoof in Delta’s direction.

Soon, other passengers were looking out the window. All of them looking in Delta’s direction. Leonard was really hoping they hadn't spotted Delta, as he was not in any mood whatsoever to initiate first contact prematurely. Feeling that he had seen enough, Leonard ordered Delta to return to base.

Little did he know that the passengers in the train did in fact spot Delta, despite being ten kilometers away from the train.