Drone Commander

A lot can happen in just a few hours.

Not too long ago, the constructor drones had finished construction of an air factory. This made it easier to build additional aircraft along with the reconnaissance drones. It also gave him the option to build light bomber craft, and interceptor craft. Currently four light gunships were patrolling around the area. They flew around in a diamond formation, each about 500 meters from Leonard’s position. When they would reach a waypoint in their patrols, the helicopters would pause for five seconds, and then move on to the next. The light gunships were only armed with a machine gun, 20mm to be exact, as they were designed to suppress infantry forces.

Holding position about 250 meters away from the helicopters, were squads of land vehicles, made up of three IFVs, one light tank, and a mortar launcher. The IFVs were armed with machine guns of the same caliber as what was on the helicopters, but held more ammo then the gunships. The light tank’s primary armament was a 75 mm railgun, with a .50 caliber machine for infantry defense and intercepting anti-armor rockets. The mortar was simply a short ranged anti-infantry artillery piece that fired shells filled with five kilograms of explosives.

Four additional scout teams were built, and sent out to fill in the gaps between the first four teams. These teams were made up of six scout bikes, with two heavy android troopers mounted on them, and four with basic troopers mounted on top of them. The first four teams were also given additional forces to join them, to match what the next four teams were made of. There were still only four aerial recon drones in the air, as Leonard felt that four was enough for now.

The constructor drones had also build storages to hold mass and energy, as the MVC was nearing its maximum capacity. Most of the excess mass and energy was used to repair the MCV from the damage it had sustained from re-entry and landing, restoring it to its previous glory. Additional mass deposits had been discovered further away from the landing zone, but only those that were within 500 meters had a mass extractor built over them. Overall, only five additional extractors were built, each with a power generator built next to them. Not all of the mass and energy was being stored on the ground. Some of it was sent to Zack, which had been used to build a satellite network, so that he could communicate with Leonard while he orbited the planet. Some of the satellites built were also used to monitor the planet’s weather patterns. From what Zack was telling him, he was picking many anomalous readings from all over the planet. It almost seemed as if the planet’s weather was being controlled. There were many experiments done with nanotechnology to control the weather. The results thus far had been mixed. While the technology was showing much promise, there was still work to be done before it could see commercial use.

Leonard took in a deep breathe, and let out a sigh. Typing in a few buttons, on the wrist band, the holographic image of Zack popped up. “Hey, Zack. Where are you?” He asked.

“I’m currently on the far side of the planet.” The AI answered. “You would not believe what I had just witnessed up here.”

“The sun and the moon rapidly changed their orbits?” Leonard asked.

Zack tilted himself in a way that made it look like an expression of defeat. “Yes. They did.” He sighed. “So what have you got down there?”

Leonard pressed a few buttons on the holomap, and a holographic spread sheet came up. “Ten mass extractors, A Land Factory and an Air Factory, A Radar Tower, Fourteen power generators, Eight Airpads. Thirty Six BATs, Sixteen HATs, Fifty Two Scout Bikes, Four Aerial Reconnaissance, Four Light Gunships, Twelve IFVs, Four Light Tanks, and Four Mortars.” He answered.

Zack ‘shook’ his head. “You’ve gotten sloppy.” He stated. “You could have built more than that in just three hours.”

“Yeah well. When my radar tower went up, I detected a train moving southward, about seventy five kilometers to the east.” Leonard replied with a snort. “I couldn’t risk moving too fast, or else I would have encountered the inhabitants. And then there’s the fact that I sent some of my resources to you Zack.”

“I know that.” Zack replied. “Still, couldn’t you at least set up an outpost somewhere?”

“Tch. And what? Spread myself out too thin?” Leonard asked. “Too risky. I want to expand my radar capabilities before I move out any further.”

Zack ‘blinked’. “Well there doesn’t seem to be anyone out within a hundred kilometers from you.” He stated.

“True.” Leonard said. “But I have no idea how far that railroad goes.” He stated, pointing at it on the map. “For all I know, there could be a town near it.”

“Well in that case, I would suggest to expand your field of vision soon. I’m just about ready to launch my last satellite.” Zack said.

“Right. Well, we’ve wasted enough time as it is. Take care of yourself up there Zack.” Leonard said.

“Sure thing.” Zack said as his hologram dissipated.

Taking a few steps up to map, Leonard noted that he had plenty of mass and energy to upgrade the radar tower. With that in mind, Leonard tapped his finger on the icons of the constructor drones. “CD-1. I want you all to upgrade the radar tower to expand its range of vision. CD-2 and 3, I want you to build another power generator on the radar tower’s west side. CD-4, I want you to assist CD-1 in upgrading the tower.”

“CD-1 to 4 acknowledges. Proceeding.”

Once the four constructor drones went to work, the mass and energy that Leonard had in storage began to decline. It wasn’t a rapid decline, as he was still producing mass and energy in sufficient quantities. Looking at the air factory, Leonard briefly considered if he should build an aerial constructor drone. As their name implied aerial constructor drones could fly as they build structures. These were required to build if Leonard wanted to build a space port, as the blasted thing was a kilometer in height. Of course, if he ever got around to building it, he was going to build it where the inhabitants wouldn’t find it.

Though right now, building an airborne constructor drone wasn’t going to be necessary, as CD-1 through 4 had just finished their jobs. “Upgrade complete.”

At that, the holomap had doubled in size, from 100 kilometers to 200 kilometers. And just as Leonard feared, there was a town within range of the radar. It was about 137.4 kilometers southeast from where he was. “Damn it. Now what?” he asked himself.

He drummed his fingers along the edges of the holomap, completely unsure of what to do now. Zack had apparently gone goofed. He had said that he picked this location because he would be far away from the inhabitants. Leonard covered his eyes with his left index finger and thumb. There were so many ways this could go wrong. For now, Leonard considered his options. He could pack everything up, and move somewhere else, or, he could upgrade the construction capabilities of the land factory to produce Improved Construction Drones. That way he could have access to cloaking emitters.

The cloaking emitter was an ingenious device that emitted a field that made everything within it invisible. It had a limited range though, as it only worked for anything within a 150 meter radius, and that was without taking in account the amount of energy it needed in order to function. And with five of his mass extractors outside of range, he was going to need to build several of them in total. Looking at the amount of mass and energy he had, Leonard figured that perhaps he could make do with the cloaking generators.

“CD-1 to 4. I want you to upgrade the land factory’s construction capabilities.” Leonard ordered.

“Acknowledged commander. Proceeding.”

Of course as the constructor drones went to do their jobs, Leonard pressed a few buttons on his wristband. He had a few words he needed to give Zack. A second later, the robot’s hologram materialized. “Contacting me again so soon?” He asked.

“Zack, I want you to see something.” Leonard said, as he pressed a few buttons on the holomap.

After that, Zack was connected to the holomap. Zack’s ‘iris’ shrunk to the size of a pinhead. “You see what I see?” Leonard asked.

Zack ‘blinked’ in response. “Yes.” Zack answered, his synthetic voice nearly a whisper. “I do.”

“You went and gone goofed Zack.” Leonard snarled. “I’m nearly 140 kilometers away from a town, that you conveniently failed to noticed.”

“I-I did notice the town.” Zack replied. “I was hoping to drop you off about two hundred kilometers away from it.”

A huff was shot out of Leonard’s nostrils. “Yeah well, you clearly miscalculated.” Leonard snarled. “I’m right now planning on building cloaking emitters to make myself and everything else I’ve built invisible to them should they ever try to come in my direction.”

Zack’s iris returned to its normal size. “Isn’t that a bit much?” Zack asked. “Because I’m pretty sure that not many would want to traverse such a large desert.”

“I’m not gonna take any chances.” Leonard answered. “If you’ve read human history, you’d know that many cultures thrived in the desert. And if the inhabitants are anything like us, then chances are they’re probably just as stubborn as we are when it comes to living in the desert.”

Zack made a sigh in defeat. “Guess there’s no stopping you then is there?” Zack asked.

“You damn right there isn’t.” Leonard stated. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a new and improved constructor drone to build.”

“Of course.” Zack said before his hologram dissipated.

During their conversation, the constructor drones were busy upgrading the land factory. There were plans in motion to allow the factories to upgrade themselves with nanotechnology, but there were still some kinks that needed to be worked out before they became available to drone commanders. And not five seconds after Leonard and Zack were done talking did the constructor drones finish. “Upgrade complete, commander.”

Leonard tapped on the icon for the Improved Land Factory, and another screen popped up. He now had some additional land units available to him now, such as the medium tank, howitzer, hovercraft, APC, mobile flak cannon, mobile shield generator, and the Improved Constructor drone. Without hesitation, he tapped the icon for the improved constructor drone, and the factory went to work nano assembling the machine. Just like with the basic constructor drones, it didn’t take long for it to finish being built, as it rolled out of the factory about fifteen seconds later. Unlike its basic cousins, the improved constructor drone had two nano emitters located on its sides, instead of one. “Constructor drone, awaiting deployment.”

“Constructor drone, you will designated as CD-V1. I want you to build a cloaking emitter next to this power generator.” Leonard said, as he pointed towards the power generator on the east side of the radar tower he built.

“CD-V1 rogers. Moving out.”

“CD-1, I want you to assist CD-V1. CD-2 to 4, I want you three to build additional power generators on each side of CD-V1’s cloaking emitter.” Leonard ordered.

“Constructor drones roger. Proceeding.”

As the constructor drones moved in to do their duties, Leonard looked at the air factory. He decided that he might as well go ahead and build aerial constructor drones. The aerial constructor drones were sphere shaped, with a nano assembler arm hanging on their underbellies. They couldn’t build as fast as their land based cousins, as they needed to sacrifice space in order to be able to fly. He brought up the air factory and queued four aerial drones. The aerial drones didn’t take as long to build as their land based cousins, and therefore were done pretty quickly. “Aerial Constructor Drones ready and waiting.”

“Aerial Constructor Drones, you’ll be designated as ACD-1 to 4. ACD-1, I want you to assist CD-V1. ACD-2 to 4, I want you to assist CD-2 to 4.”

“Understood, sir. Moving in to assist.”

Each of the drones then floated up to the construction sites, their nano assemblers emitting a green beam towards the structures that were being built. Looking at the holomap, Leonard could see that all of this construction and assistance was eating away at his resources. The cloaking emitter was taking up the most resources. Fortunately, the three additional power generators were done in moments, granting him some additional energy. Once they were done, the cloaking emitter came next. It took many seconds later, but once the emitter was up, everything within the landing zone was now invisible to the naked eye. Granted, the cloaking emitter could not protect against thermal detection, sonar detection, or standard radar detection, but Leonard figured that wasn’t going to be an issue, considering the level of technology that inhabitants possessed.

Without being in close proximity to four power generators, the cloaking emitter would have eaten up all of his energy, but with them the device’s efficiency was manageable. Now he needed to get those extractors that were within a kilometer away from him. “All constructor drones, I want you to upgrade the air factory.” Leonard ordered.

“Copy that commander. Moving out.”

All nine of the constructor drones moved in on the air factory and went to work on upgrading it. Looking at the holomap, Leonard could see that it costing him resources. Once they were done, which went nine times faster than it took to build the factory, the amount of mass and energy that Leonard had accumulated was reduced to a full third of what it was moments ago. It was a good thing that the constructor drones didn’t take a lot of resources to build, and equally good that they produced a small amount of resources, though it wasn’t as much as what the MCV could produce. Leonard then brought the air factory up, and queued it to build 5 improved Aerial Constructor Drones, along with 16 additional basic Aerial Constructor Drones. The Improved Aerial Constructor drones were somewhat bigger than their basic counterparts, but they had two nano assembler arms off on their sides, and could build a little bit faster than basic land constructor drones.

The improved air factory could also build some additional aerial vehicles, such as the medium gunship, fighter/bomber, torpedo bomber, medium transport helicopter, and the high speed reconnaissance aircraft. As much as Leonard wanted to use the last unit to recon the settlement nearby, he figured that it wasn’t going to be the best idea as the things flew at supersonic speeds, and a sonic boom was probably gonna scare the wits out of the inhabitants. Leonard was going to have to wait until he upgraded the factory to produce advanced aircraft such as the stealth reconnaissance aircraft. The stealth wasn’t as fast as the high speed, but it had a cloaking device on it to make it invisible. The cloaking device was the reason why it couldn’t fly so fast, due to the high speeds disrupting the cloak during research and development, but the brass decided that it was an acceptable trade off.

In mere moments, the new drones were finished building. “Aerial Constructor Drone, awaiting your command.”

“Improved Aerial Constructor Drones, I hereby designate you as ACD-V1 to 5. Basic Aerial Constructor Drones, you’ll be designated as ACD-5 to 20. I will be splitting you all off into teams of five. ACD-1 to 4, you’ll be with ACD-V1, as Air Builder Team 1. ACD-5 to 8 you’ll be with ACD-V2 as Air Builder Team 2. ACD-9 to 12, ACD-13 to 16, and ACD-17 to 20, you’ll be designated to ACD-V3, 4, and 5 respectively as Air Builder Team 3, 4, and 5. I want each of you to build a cloaking emitter, along with three power generators next to them, at the following coordinates. We need to remain hidden from the planet’s population.” Leonard ordered.

“Understood Commander. Air Builder Teams proceeding to the designated areas as ordered.”

As one, the five teams of aerial constructor drones flew off to build the emitters. Leonard really didn’t want to have any evidence to be found of his existence. “Patrol teams one and two, move to Mass Extractor site number 6. Patrol teams three and four, move to site 7. Patrol teams five and six move to site 8, and patrol teams seven and eight, move to site 9. Vehicle Team 1, move to Mass Extractor site 6. Team 2, move to site 7. And teams 3 and 4, move to site 8 and 9 respectively. All aircraft are to return to the airpads near the landing zone.” Leonard ordered.

“Scout teams roger. Proceeding as command.”

“Vehicle teams acknowledge. Moving out.”

“Recon craft understood. Returning to the airpads.”

“Gunships roger. Returning to base.”

On the map, Leonard watched as each of the drones did as they were told. While this was happening, the aerial constructor drones were nearly finished building the cloaking emitters near the outer mass extractor sites. In a few seconds, the emitters were up, and all of the drones within their range were invisible to the naked eye. Leonard let out a sigh in relief. Now the inhabitants won’t be able to see him. Looking at the time, he realized that he was going to need to get some sleep soon. Tapping the buttons on his wristband, Zack’s hologram popped back up. “What’s up?” the AI asked.

“I’m gonna be getting some shut eye in a few moments.” Leonard answered. “Do you think you can continue my work for the next several hours?”

“I can see what I can do.” Zack replied. “What do you want done?”

Leonard then turned to look at the holomap. “First off, I want you to avoid sending anything near the settlement.” He demanded.

Zack ‘nodded’ in response. “Alright. Anything else?” He asked.

“I’ve detected about eighty seven mass deposits all within 200 kilometers. I want you to only get the ones that are within five kilometers from my position. But set up a cloaking emitter before building a mass extractor. Use aerial constructor drones to build them.” Leonard stated.

Zack ‘blinked’ as he listened to Leonard’s orders. “Okay. Is that all?” the robot asked.

Leonard the pointed his finger at the air factory. “Upgrade the air factory so that it can build stealth reconnaissance aircraft.” He ordered.

“Is that all?” Zack asked.

Leonard looked up at the roof, before nodding. “Yeah. Pretty much.” He answered.

“Understood. I’ll be in range within a few hours.” Zack said, before his hologram dissipated.

With that out of the way, Leonard readied the MCV to transfer command to Zack. Afterwards he removed his coat, gloves, and shirt, along with his socks and shoes. His coat was hung up along the wall, while he placed his shoes right below it, and tossed the socks, shirt, and gloves into the dirty laundry mat. The young man then pressed a button on the wall, and a bed came out. Leonard then threw himself onto the bed, and drifted off to sleep for the next day, unaware that something undetected by the radar was headed towards him.