Drone Commander

by Leobracer

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Comedy, Adventure, Crossover, Human
Length: 16630

A human who commands an army of drones lands on Equus.

In the distant future, humanity's armies are made up of self replicating machines of war lead by individuals known as Drone Commanders.

Leonard Silva, a rookie Drone Commander fresh out of the academy, is assigned to set up shop on the newly discovered planet IHP-19.

However, his mission becomes more complicated when he finds out that the planet is inhabited by primitive lifeforms.

Now he seeks to find his place in this peaceful world as he awaits for the expedition to arrive to study the planet's anomalous orbit.

(Contains elements from Grey Goo and Supreme Commander, but not a full crossover.)

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-10-30 13:23:34 UTC

Chapter 1

“Hey. Wake up.”

Leonard groaned as he shifted in his sleep. At the moment, he really didn’t feel like waking up. He just wanted to spend more time in the dream world. “Leonard, we’ve arrived at our destination. Get up.”

Groaning, he grabbed the pillow that he had, and used it to cover his head, so that he could drown out Zack’s voice. Or at least try to. “Am I going to have to bring out the spray bottle?”

It wasn’t the threat that had gotten him up, it was the part of his brain that demanded that he wake up right now. Leonard rubbed his eyes as he got a good look outside of the window in his quarters. After several days of FTL flight, he had finally arrived at this planet, which was labelled ‘IHP-19’. IHP was an abbreviation of ‘InHabitable Planet’, while 19 meant that this was the nineteenth one to be discovered. Over two centuries of space travel, and of the several hundred planets discovered, only a little under ten percent were discovered to be inhabitable. And of the more recently discovered inhabitable worlds, this one was to be his destination, which was located over a hundred light-years from the homeworld, Earth.

Stretching out his arms, Leonard groaned and yawned after having to spend several days asleep in FTL travel to get here from Earth. There were other planets within the path from Earth to IHP-19, but none of them were inhabitable. Yawning once more, Leonard straightened out his thoughts and began to focus on the task at hand. The first thing he did was look around the quarters for any sign of Zack, who just so happened to be floating about in front of him. Leonard was somewhat envious of the little eyeball of a robot, as he didn’t need to sleep like Leonard did, as this allowed him to operate the ship, while Leonard slept through the whole trip. Times like this made him wish he had gotten that FTL upgrade a long time ago. “It’s about time you woke up.” Zack said. “I was afraid that I was going to have to get the spray bottle out.”

Leonard couldn’t help but snort. “Zack, you do know that I got rid of that thing a long time ago right?” He asked.

Zack ‘blinked’ at him. “Yeah I know. But I can always nano-assemble a new one in seconds.” The AI replied.

Leonard than sat up from his bed, turned around so that he could place his bare feet on the floor, stood up and stretched his arms out, letting out another groan as he did so. “Man am I glad to be up.” He said as he rubbed his eyes. “So, what do you want for breakfast?” Zack asked.

Leonard crossed his arms and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about what he was going to have for today. “Hmm, I guess two scrambled eggs mixed with white cheddar, a buttermilk biscuit, and seven slices of bacon wouldn’t hurt.” Came his answer. “As well as an 8 oz. glass of milk, and a 32 oz. glass of Coke Zero with vanilla flavoring.” He added.

“Alright. I’ll go get that ready right away.” Zack said as he floated away.

The door slide open as Zack floated out of the room and turned to the left towards where the mess hall was located, while Leonard stepped out and turned to the right, towards the shower. “Nothing like a hot shower to start out the day.”

-oOo-

After finishing his shower, Leonard had arrived at the mess hall, wearing his usual attire consisting of a red trench coat, a white t-shirt underneath, black jeans, white gloves, and white shoes. On the table was precisely what he had asked for. He then pulled the chair, sat down, and began adding salt and pepper to his eggs. As he began to chow down on his breakfast, he turned to look outside the window.

IHP-19 was only recently discovered, about a couple of months ago to be exact. It had everything a planet needed to prepare for colonization; a clean breathable atmosphere, comfortable temperatures between hot and cold, and water. Can’t have an inhabitable planet without water. Though there was one thing about the planet that was bothering everyone back at home. What had everyone scratching their collective heads was the planet’s orbit.

Or rather the lack of an orbit.

According to the reports, the planet wasn’t orbiting the sun, it was the sun that was orbiting the planet. What’s more, the sun that was orbiting the planet was way too small to even exist. If that wasn’t all, there were readings of an unknown type of energy field surrounding the planet. The scientific community pushed to send an expedition of their own to the planet, but according to protocol, a military base needed to be established first, before any kind of civilian expedition could be sent towards the planet. That’s where Leonard came in.

Leonard was a Drone Commander.

A Drone Commander was an individual who controlled Self Replicating war machines. They were the first people sent to a newly discovered planet to establish a base of operations, and secure the planet before the colonists would arrive. He was a relatively new Drone Commander, having just graduated from the academy around the time IHP-19 was discovered. IHP-19 was considered a test for Leonard to earn experience as a Drone Commander. When the military officers would arrive within a year, with the expedition in tow, they were going to evaluate on how well designed his defense lines and base of operations was built.

Of course, needless to say, not many people were thrilled with this idea. The scientists who insisted on going here first, thought that the brass was being way too paranoid about this whole endeavor, as they felt that the planet didn’t have any form of hostile life. The possibility of hostile native lifeforms was not the only reason for why a Drone Commander was always sent first to set up camp on a newly discovered planet.

Many years ago, a planet was discovered to have a still functional automatic defense network on it. The network was discovered to have been several thousand years old, and was churning out combat drones that, despite being in some major disrepair, were still deadly efficient weapons. A large portion of the scientific expedition sent to the planet was destroyed, and it was thanks to a drone commander that the ancient defense network was shut down. It would one day become known as: ‘The Nexus Incident’. After the Nexus Incident, the brass decided that from now on, a Drone Commander will always be sent to a planet first, for fear that there may be another such network, or something else entirely, on the planet.

Of course, Leonard felt that it was not a good idea to send rookies, such as himself, out first to be sent into the meat grinder. Most Drone Commanders were confident in their abilities to lead an army of drones out into the fray, but Leonard wasn’t one of them. Leonard felt that they needed for Drone Commanders to play ‘War Games’ against each other before heading out to set up shop on a new planet. While the brass had no idea what was out in the farthest reaches of space, he felt that it was no excuse for Drone Commanders to not, at least, get some last minute combat exercise before going out.

But of course, that was not his decision to make, and therefor he ultimately had to make do with what he learned at the academy.

Leonard was a fast eater, and by the time he finished thinking of everything about protocol, his food was all but gone. Having finished his breakfast, Leonard placed the silverware and the two empty glasses on the plate, picked it up off the table, and walked a few steps to his left to the sink to wash them up. Once that was done, he placed the dishes back into the cabinet and drawers before leaving the mess hall. But there was one thing he needed to do before heading out. “Zack.” He called out.

The little floating robot flew up to him, hovering right next to the door. “Yes Leonard?” The AI asked.

“I need you to find the best landing zone on the surface where I can set up shop. While you’re doing that, I’m gonna be doing some checkups on my MCV (Mobile Command Vehicle).” Leonard replied.

“Right away sir.” Just like a few minutes ago, the two went in opposite directions from the Mess Hall.

Zack was heading for the cockpit, while Leonard walked to the Cargo Bay where his MCV was located. Upon reaching the end of the hall, he pressed a button to his left, which opened up the door to the elevator that led down to the cargo bay. The elevator trip took only a few seconds, and upon stepping out of the elevator, and into the bay, Leonard was greeted to the sight of his MCV.

The MCV was the pinnacle of military technology.

The MCV was thirty feet in height, fifteen feet in width, and seventy feet in length. The reasoning for its size was so that it could built and store a small number of drones inside of it, particularly land vehicles and aerial vehicles once the nano assemblers built them. The nano assemblers ran all across the length of the MCV, and could build infantry drones, vehicular drones, and aerial drones within less than a minute. They were all powered by a small fusion reactor that was located at the front end of the MCV. The DOCS (Drone Operations Command System) was located directly above the reactor, which was where Leonard was headed for to begin his checkups.

Upon reaching the door by climbing up a ladder, which he hated doing, Leonard then pressed his hand up onto a pad, and the door slid open, allowing him to step into the DOCS. Once inside, he stepped up to the holomap, from there a holographic screen had lit up, and turned to face him. Pressing several buttons, Leonard imputed his codename and his password. Not a second later, the fusion reactor beneath him came to life, and the lights in the MCV lit up, while the holomap came online. Along the edge of the map a screen popped up that said; “Welcome back Lieutenant Commander.”

Leonard smiled at it. “Alright, let’s begin.” He said.

The next couple of hours flew by in a near instant. His first order of business was to run a diagnostic on the fusion reactor, as it was the most essential part of the MCV. After running a thorough scan of the reactor, Leonard found no anomalies within its structure and system.

After checking the reactor, Leonard than went and checked its anti-gravity pods. A digital scan of the pods, as well as a personal inspection showed no obvious signs of any anomalies in their functionality. They kept the MCV off the ground by a few feet, allowing it to move over any terrain in spite of its size. It also had a set of treads that would deploy in the event that the anti-gravity pods would malfunction. Though admittedly, the treads we slower, and less maneuverable than the pods.

Once that was done, Leonard than moved to the next thing on the list. All MCVs had hardpoints on them, from which a turret could be built upon. Small hardpoints were for anti-aircraft and anti-infantry guns, light artillery, pulse lasers, and point defense weapons. Medium hardpoints were for anti-aircraft artillery, medium artillery, beam cannons, rocket launchers, and shield generators. Large hardpoints were for omni directional missiles, which could target both surface and aerial threats, heavy artillery, plasma cannons, and larger shield generators.

Leonard’s MCV currently had eight small hardpoints, four medium hardpoints, and two large hardpoints. He couldn’t help but snort at the concept of hardpoints, as he felt that hardpoints were completely unnecessary, and that they would be better off just having the weapons built into the MCV, rather than have the Drone Commanders build them on the fly. The argument for why MCVs had hardpoints on them, was so that the Drone Commanders would build whatever they felt was needed in order for them to complete their mission, and if one thing wasn’t needed, they could simply have the turrets dissembled, and build something else in its place.

Rather than contemplate on the stupidity of it all, Leonard went ahead and tested out each of the hardpoints’ building capabilities. It took less than a minute for the small hardpoints to finish building their turrets, while the four medium hardpoints took several minutes to build theirs, and the two large hardpoint had taken all but fifteen minutes to build a turret. Once all of that building was done, Leonard ordered for the turrets to dissemble. What took minutes to build, took seconds to convert back into usable nanotechnology.

Last but not least was the fabrication of drones. While the MCV could build and store drones, it had very limited space, and only certain types of drones could be built within the MCV. At the moment, he only drones he could build were infantry drones; BATs (Basic Android Trooper), HATs (Heavy Android Trooper), RATs (Rocket Android Trooper), and SATs (Sniper Android Trooper), light vehicle drones; Light Tanks, Scout Bikes, IFVs (Infantry Fighting Vehicle), and Mortars, light aircraft drones; Aerial Reconnaissance Drones, Gun Helicopters, Light Transport Copters, only one type of naval drone; Patrol Boats, and the Constructor Drones for building structures. If he wanted to build the heavier vehicles, he was going to need to have a Constructor Drone build factories.

Of course, since his ship didn’t have the space to do that, Leonard was stuck to just having to build the drones that were available in the MCV. The Android Troopers could be built in mere seconds. This was largely because the Android Troopers were all standing at only a mere seven feet tall. The vehicles however, took minutes to build due to them being larger and more complex than the Android Troopers. Once he had each drone built, he had them scanned for any abnormalities in their design, and when all was said and done, Leonard immediately had the drones dissembled back into nanotechnology.

That was all he needed to do. Now that the checkups were complete, Leonard brought the holographic screen back up, and pressed the key causing it to shut down. As it did, the holographic screen had said; “Goodbye Lieutenant Commander.”

-oOo-

The door to the cockpit opened, allowing Leonard to step through. Zack was looking at a holographic representation of the surface of the planet. Judging by what he saw, it looked like a desert area. Barren, dry, dusty. Leonard was able to handle the heat, thanks to being born and raised in Texas, but he simply couldn’t stand deserts. Even he had his limits. Though as of this moment, there was only one possible reason that Leonard could think of for why Zack was looking at a desert. “Is this where I’ll be making my landing?” he asked.

Zack turned around. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was a robot, Leonard would have assumed that he startled him. “I’m afraid so, Leonard.” Zack answered. “There’s a good amount of mass to be harvested there. And it’s the furthest away from any civilization on the planet.”

That got Leonard’s attention. He looked at Zack, clearly startled by this revelation. “There’s civilization on the planet?” He asked.

The floating robot looked back at him, if it was able to, it would have made an expression showing how amused it was at Leonard’s reaction. “Yes sir. There’s definitely civilization down there.” Zack answered.

The holographic map of the desert faded, and in its place was a hologram of the planet. All across the planet, dots were popping up. “I’ve been doing a thorough scan of the planet.” Zack said. “All over the surface I have found various settlements, many with varying levels of technology.”

As Zack spoke, holographic representations of the cities that the dots represented began raising up from the planet. “Most cities appear to have roughly the equivalent to the early decades of the twentieth century.” Leonard nodded in response, this could prove to be quite interesting.

“Some appear to be equivalent to the late nineteenth century, and many others appear to be pre-industrial. I’ve even spotted a few that look like they wouldn’t feel out of place in ancient Roman times.” Zack then turned to face Leonard. “But that’s not the only thing that I found.”

Leonard turned his head at Zack. “What else have you found?” he asked.

“I have found that there is not one, but multiple sapient species inhabiting the planet.” Zack answered.

Leonard narrowly jolted at that, but kept a cool head regardless. “Are you certain?” Leonard asked.

Zack ‘nodded’ in response. “Yep. Take a look.”

At that, holographic representations of the various species on the planet began emerging from the planet. Leonard had pretty much recognized almost every single creature that came up. Most of them looked like ordinary animals back on Earth, but a few others resembled mythological creatures as well. There were races of equine, canine, feline, bovine, and unless Leonard was mistaken, one of the holograms was that of a dragon. There were even holograms of elephants, aquatic creatures, apes, and some animal that looked like the bastard child of an insect and a equine.

Leonard’s mind was racing through many scenarios at the moment. On one hand, he had a job to do; to set up a base of operations, and wait for the scientific expedition to arrive to study the planet. On the other hand, the planet was inhabited. Aside from some very old ruins here and there, there had never been a planet that was discovered to actually have sapient life on it. Leonard at the moment, felt that there was but one thing he needed to do right now. “Zack?” he asked.

Zack perked up. “Yes?” he asked.

“Did you send a message to the brass about this?” Leonard stated.

Zack ‘blinked’ in response. “Indeed I did.” He answered “And I got a response not too long ago.”

Leonard braced himself for the answer. “What did they say?”

“They said that we are to go ahead with the mission.” Zack answered. That was not what Leonard was expecting. “And that they’re going to be doing some changes to the expedition. Most of all, they’re going to bring diplomats along the ride within the year.” The robot added.

Leonard was fully aware of the oddities of this planet, but he felt that whatever the brass was planning was not a good idea. He couldn’t help but feel like this was going to backfire on them spectacularly in the distant future. In his mind, the brass should have just scrapped this mission, and just let the scientific expedition come anyway to study the planet. But alas, that was not his decision to make. Leonard couldn’t help but let out a huff in response. “Well,” he started. “I guess we might as well get this over with. How long until we’re in range?” Leonard asked.

The images dissipated leaving only the planet, while another hologram materialized orbiting the planet, this one being a holographic representation of the ship. In front of the ship was a line that indicated where their current trajectory, along with how much time they had until the ship was ready to make its descent. “We’ll be in range in about fourteen hours and seven minutes.” Zack answered.

Leonard nodded at that. “Very well.” He said. “I guess I’ll need to prepare in the meantime then.”

Chapter 2

The hairs on the back of his neck began to stand.

He felt a chill roll down his spine, and the palms of his hand began to sweat. He had no idea where it came from, but he felt like someone or something was either watching him, or trying to call out to him. Whatever it was, it caused Leonard to pause what he was doing, and stare off to nowhere. He had no idea how long he had paused, but when he snapped out of it, he found that his player character on his game was nearing death. Thinking quickly, he pulled the joystick back so that his player character would back up, and move behind cover.

‘A New Dawn’ was the name of the game he was currently playing. Even though he was far outside the range of the DPC (Deep Space Communication) Buoy Network, his ship, along with the ships of all other Drone Commanders had a built in DPC Buoy in it, which allowed him to play this game, as it was multiplayer only. Leonard had gotten the game on launch day ten months ago, and hadn’t put it down since then.

Once Leonard’s player character had replenished her health, he leaned on the joystick so that his player character could aim out of cover. Pressing down on the fire button, the player character shot a few burst shots at the enemy, which connected and killed it. Leonard let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding. At that moment, the communicator on his right wrist went off, the ringtone being the old song ‘Robot Rock’, meaning that Zack was trying to contact him.

Seeing as there were no enemies on the screen, Leonard set down the controller, and tapped his communicator, from which a holographic representation of Zack popped up. “Yes Zack?” Leonard asked.

“Hey. Just thought I’d let you know, we’ll be in within range in three hours.” Zack replied.

Leonard nodded in response. “Okay. Just give me a few minutes to finish this, and I’ll be done in the MCV shortly.” He said.

“Understood.” Zack said.

With that, the communicator shut off, and Leonard resumed playing. Still, Leonard couldn’t help but think about where that weird tingling sensation came from. Of course, at the moment, it wasn’t important, as Leonard still had a job to do. And he wasn’t going to let a strange feeling get in the way of his job.

-oOo-

Rubbing his finger along the checklist, Leonard needed to make sure that he had everything set for the drop.

The first thing on the list was to make sure that the food, drinks, and medicines were stocked up. That wasn’t a problem, as he had loaded the cabinets in the MCV with MREs (Meal Ready to Eat), along with the heating pouches that were needed to heat them up. He also stocked up on his bottled water, both for drinking, and for the heating pouches. He had also stocked up the medicines in the cabinet. While he was injected with nanomachines in order to keep his health in check, there was only so much that they could do, hence the reasoning for having medicines available. All in all, the amount of food, water, and medicines that he had should be enough to last the year.

The second thing he needed to make sure on, was that his weapons were fully stocked and loaded. Although the drones were built to battle at the front lines, every Drone Commander had a stockpile of weapons on them in the event of an extreme emergency. Along with an M1911 sidearm, he also had an FM-2000 Assault rifle packed up with it. For medium range and close quarters, he packed up a Saiga Shotgun, along with a P-90 submachine gun. He also came armed with an FGM-148 Javelin, though he was doubtful that he was ever gonna need it. Also in his arsenal was a Berrett M82 anti material rifle. Of course, out of all of the weapons he trained with, that weapon was the one in which he got the lowest score on at the academy. And finally, the last weapon he had on him was an M-60 LGM. Sure many of these weapons were old, but they were still no less deadly.

And finally, the third and last thing on his list was to make some last minute checkups on his MCV. While he did do these checkups earlier in the day, it never hurt to double check. Just like before, the checkups took only a couple of hours. He got the same results as before, no anomalies in the system and no defects in the units and turrets.

By the time everything was all set, Leonard tapped on his communicator, and a holographic image of Zach came up. “Hey man. How much longer until we’re ready for atmospheric re-entry?” Leonard asked.

“We’ll be in range in about sixty-five minutes.” Zack answered.

Leonard nodded. “Thanks. I just finished my last minute checkups, and I’ve made sure that everything is stocked and loaded.” He said.

“Good work. I’ll get back to you once we begin our descent.” Zack replied.

“Noted.” Leonard said as the hologram dissipated.

Now that, that was out of the way, Leonard had something else that needed to be done. Tapping a few buttons on the communicator, four holographic spheres with rings orbiting around them, one red, one blue, one green, and one orange, popped up in front of Leonard. These spheres pulsated, indicating that the ones receiving the signal had yet to pick up. It was basically a holographic phone ringing. Seconds later, each of the sphere morphed into a different person, three were Caucasian men, while one was Hispanic. Leonard lightly waved his hand at them. “Hey guys. How are you doing?” He asked them.

“Hey man. We’re doing great. How’s the mission going?” The center Caucasian, a blonde man named Joshua Parks asked.

Leonard let a light chuckle escape his lips. “I haven’t started the mission yet. I just got to the planet earlier today.” He replied.

“Really now?” The fat brunette man left to Joshua, Bryan Fields, asked. “You didn’t bother to tell us when you got there?”

Leonard just lifted up his shoulders. “Eh, I was still too tired to bother.” He stated. “Plus, I’m sure you guys are just as busy as I am.”

“You could say that.” The Hispanic, Mateo Compos, said. “I just about started setting up my base here, on UIP-747 (UnInhabitable Planet). There aint much here, but a bunch of ice.”

“True.” Leonard replied. “But I heard that it’s got plentiful resources.”

“Damn right it does.” Mateo said. “It’s got so many wonderful resources under the ice, that I wonder why they didn’t send someone out when they found it.”

“Well at the time it was discovered, it was still a little further out from edges of charted space.” The remaining Caucasian, Andrew Young, pointed out. “There were three solar systems in between it, and the nearest colony when it was found forty years ago.”

“Yeah. Though I heard that they’ve made an exception with IHP-19.” Mateo said, turning to face Leonard. “Heard that there’s like four solar systems in between IHP-19, and the nearest colony, right?”

Leonard pulled his lips over to the side and lightly nodded. “Yep. And of those four, only two have rock planets in them, while one has a gas giant with earth-sized moons, and the last one is nothing but a cluster of asteroids surrounding a star. The only reason why they made an exception was due to this system’s unusual circumstances.” Leonard answered.

“Yeah, I heard about that.” Bryan spoke. “Heard that the sun is orbiting the planet, and not the other way around right?”

“Exactly.” Leonard quickly answered. “Of course, I would have figured they’d send you out, since you’ve been a Drone Commander longer than I have.”

Bryan just shrugged. “Eh. I’m sure you’ll do fine. I still haven’t gotten that promotion yet.”

Joshua snorted. “Oh, you’ll get it eventually.”

Everyone else chuckled at that. When the chuckles died down, Leonard cleared his throat. “There’s something else I should mention, though.” He said.

At that, all eyes were turned to him. “Zack did a scan of the planet. And apparently, it’s inhabited.” Leonard stated.

The others blinked, and sent a few glances towards each other. “Does the brass know?” Joshua asked.

Leonard nodded. “Yeah. Zack told me that he alerted the brass as soon as he found life on the planet.” He answered. “And apparently, they want me to continue on with the mission.”

That caused everyone to raise their eyebrows. Andrew sent Leonard a scrutinizing look. “W-why would they do that?” He asked. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just go ahead and send the expedition team to study the planet?”

“I don’t know.” Leonard replied. “But regardless, this was not my decision to make. And I’d rather not have to deal with trying to explain to the brass why this isn’t a good idea.”

Leonard’s comment made the others sent him sympathetic looks. “Well then, I guess this means you’re gonna have your work cut out for ya.” Mateo said.

“Indeed.” Leonard agreed.

“Well, as much I like to talk to you guys, I’m afraid I still got some more training to do.” Andrew said. “Just a few more years, and I’ll be joining you guys.”

“Hope the big guy has been treating you well.” Joshua replied.

Andrew nodded. “He has. He’s tough but fair.” He answered.

A second later, Andrew turned around, looking at someone the others couldn’t see. “Right, I’ll be there in moment.” He said to the person.

At that, Andrew turned back to face the others. “I got to go guys. My next training session is in ten minutes.” He said.

The others bid him farewell, with Leonard and Joshua telling him ‘Later’, Mateo saying ‘See ya’, and Bryan told him ‘Auf Wiedersehen’, and Andrew’s hologram dissipated. The others turned their attention to Leonard. “Well I got to get back to work. These resources aren’t gonna mine themselves after all.” Mateo said.

“Yeah, I got to get back too.” Bryan said. “I’ve got a space port that I need to finish.”

“And I’ve got to set up my naval forces here.” Joshua also said.

Leonard nodded at them. “Right. And I’ve got about fifty minutes before atmospheric re-entry.” He told them. “Later guys.”

The others saluted, bid their farewells, and their holograms dissipated. There were still a few people left that Leonard needed to talk to, so he tapped on his communicator again, and this time three holographic spheres, two of them colored blue, and one colored purple, popped up in front of Leonard. Like before, the sphere pulsated for a short while before morphing. The people that the spheres morphed into were his parents, Miguel and Caryl, and his brother, Matthew. “Hey folks.” Leonard said.

“Hey son. What’s up?” his father Miguel asked.

“Just thought I’d call to let you know, that I’ve reached my destination.” Leonard answered.

“Oh hey. It’s about time.” His mother Caryl said. “How’s the mission going so far?”

“My mission hasn’t started yet.” Leonard replied. “I’ve just finished some last minute check-ups, and I’m going to begin atmospheric re-entry soon.”

“Oh, okay.” Caryl said. “So how was the trip?”

Leonard merely lifted up his shoulders. “Eh, pretty lonely.” He answered. “Had to keep myself entertained the whole way during the trip.”

“Well that’s to be expected while in FTL transit.” Matthew said. “They still have yet to find a way to communicate while in FTL.”

“I know.” Leonard nodded in agreement. “You’d think they’ve would’ve cracked it after two centuries of space travel.”

The statement got a few chuckles out of himself and his family members. Once they calmed down, Leonard spoke again. “So how’s everything?” he asked.

“Everything’s good.” Miguel answered. “Managed to sell a couple of D&D rulebooks. As well as some Warhammer 40k figurines, and several whole boxes of Magic: The Gathering.”

Leonard nodded in response. “Cool.” He then turned to his mother.

“They made me a department manager in pets and chemicals.” Caryl said. “And they’ve given me a 10% pay raise, meaning I’m now making 21.5 credits an hour.”

Leonard smiled at that. “Sweet.” And last but not least, his brother.

“The ship that I’m stationed on, is currently on route to Elysium.” Matthew started. “Once there, I’m going to transfer over to the Estellise, which will be starting its Grand Tour along with its escort across charted space.”

Leonard raised an eyebrow at that. His parents’ eyes meanwhile had widened. “The Estellise? As in ‘the Estellise’? The flagship of the Space Force?” Leonard asked.

Matthew answered with a nod. “Oh you better believe it. Me, and ten thousand lucky bastards will be boarding the Estellise first thing tomorrow morning.”

Right next to him, Caryl clapped her hands at her son’s accomplishment. “Congratulations, Matt. You’ve been given a once in a lifetime opportunity. Working on the most advanced ship in the Space Force.”

“Indeed, son. Be sure to take good care of it.” Miguel said.

“Oh don’t you worry. She’ll be in good hands once I’m there.” Matthew replied.

Leonard couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh I’m sure she will Matthew.” He said.

Matthew then turned to face his older brother. “So.” He began, crossing his arms. “Even though your mission hasn’t began, what have you found so far?” He asked.

Leonard crossed his own arms as well. “Well first off: IHP-19 is inhabited.” He said.

That got a reaction out of them. All three of his relatives looked surprised at the revelations that Leonard just said. “It’s inhabited?” Caryl asked. “By other lifeforms?”

Leonard answered with a nod. “Yeah.” He stated. “Zack told me that he alerted the brass when he found out. And rather than abort the mission, they said that I was to go ahead with the mission anyway.”

There was another pause of silence at that. Miguel was the first to respond. “They’re asking you to land on a planet with potentially hostile lifeforms on it?” He asked.

Leonard turned to face his father. “They’re actually not that advanced.” He replied. “Some of them have just started using steam power, and some even have dirigibles. So they wouldn’t be that much of a threat to me.”

“But didn’t you at least ask why they wanted you to continue on with the mission?” Matthew asked.

Leonard shook his head. “Zack said that they didn’t explain why they wanted to go on ahead with the mission.” He answered. “And ultimately there isn’t much I can do about it.”

“But at least you’re not gonna land on top of them are you?” Caryl asked.

Leonard snorted. “Nope.” He stated. “The landing zone that Zack has chosen is far away from any civilization on the planet. So hopefully, I won’t disturb them too much.”

That brought some form of relief to his relatives, but they were still uneasy about this whole thing. Leonard couldn’t blame them. There were many things that could go wrong here, and the brass was making a very big gamble with him continuing on with the mission. Still, he had a job to do, and his mission was going to begin soon. “Well, I gotta get going. I begin atmospheric re-entry in about forty minutes.” Leonard spoke up.

“Right. Be careful out there.” Miguel said.

“Be safe.” Caryl said.

“I will.” Leonard said, as their holograms dissipated.

All that was left now, was Matthew. “Godspeed out there, Leonard.” He said, saluting to his brother. “To go Far and Beyond.”

Leonard saluted back. “To go Far and Beyond.” And Matthew’s hologram dissipated.

Leonard let out a breath that he was holding. Forty minutes, and he’ll be at the mercy of whatever’s on the planet. There was one last person he needed to contact, so he pressed several buttons on his communicator, and a white sphere popped up. Like the others before it, the sphere pulsated, and then materialized into a woman. The very woman who was his mentor at the academy. When her hologram materialized, Leonard immediately straighten up, and saluted her. “General, Ma’am. It’s good to see you again.” Leonard said.

The woman, Brigadier General Lauren Faust, saluted back. “Likewise Lieutenant Commander.” She replied. “I trust your trip went well?”

Leonard nodded in response. “Other than being alone for several days, yes ma’am. It did.” Came his response.

He was about to say something else, when the general raised her hand. “I know. The brass told me everything about what Zack had found out.” Lauren stated.

Again, Leonard replied with a nod. “Okay.” He began. “Then I suppose you know how my mission has gotten more complicated?”

The general crossed her arms, and leaned onto a wall that Leonard couldn’t see. “Every mission becomes more complicated. There never really is such a thing as a ‘routine mission’.” Lauren replied, making air quotes with that last word.

“I know, ma’am. You taught me that at the academy.” Leonard said. “Did the brass explain to you why they want me to go ahead?”

Lauren shook her head. “No. They didn’t.” Came her answer.

Leonard’s eyes marginally narrowed. “But you’re one of the most respected Drone Commanders in the galaxy.” He said. “Why wouldn’t they tell you, why they want me to go ahead?”

The general sighed in response. “I tried to get some answers as to why they wanted you to continue with the mission. And I even tried to get them to abort the mission, but they wouldn’t take it. They were insistent that you carry on with the mission, so that expedition would have some form of protection when they arrive.” She angrily stated.

“But don’t they think that they’re going overboard?” Leonard asked. “I mean, it’s not like the inhabitants are a threat to us, or to me. Since they’ve barely discovered steam power.”

“That’s what I told them.” The general replied. “Their response was; ‘We’re only adhering to protocol’.” Lauren snorted at that. “Funny. I didn’t think protocol including subjugating a pre-spaceflight species.”

Leonard drummed his fingers along the holomap. “Maybe not. Maybe if I kept my distance, I won’t disturb the inhabitants. And I won’t need to bring any unnecessary loss of life.” He said.

“It’s still pretty risky.” Lauren replied. “And I’ve always told you to don’t take any unnecessary risks.”

“Because it’s a waste of resources.” Leonard quoted. “I still remember that, ma’am.”

At that moment, Zack’s hologram appeared near the holomap. “Brigadier General.” The AI spoke, immediately taking notice. “Surprised seeing you here.”

“Hey Zack.” Lauren greeted. “I trust you’re taking good care of my student?”

“Yes indeed. General.” Zack answered, floating next to Leonard. “I’d say we’ve gotten along well enough. We’re kind of like brothers.”

Leonard huffed in response. “Yeah, some brother you are. Always spraying my face with water when I need my beauty sleep.” He said.

Zack turned around and angled himself in the air to look like he was frowning. “That was just one time deal. You got rid of that spray bottle remember?” He replied.

“Yeah, but then the next day, you made another with nano assemblers, and sprayed my face the next morning.” Leonard rebutted.

Zack changed his angle to make it look like he was making an expression of defeat. “Okay, so it wasn’t a one time deal. But seriously, waking you up is not an easy thing to do.” The AI responded.

“Then maybe you should at least let me have some extra sleep?” Leonard retorted. “I work more efficiently when I’m well rested.”

“I know that.” Zack answered. “But you have a daily routine that you need to keep up with in order to stay efficient.”

“Yeah well, sticks and stones.” Leonard said.

“Okay that’s enough boys.” Lauren spoke up, her hologram getting in between Leonard and Zack. “Is there a reason why you decided to contact us Zack?” the general asked.

Zack ‘blinked’. “Yeah. I was just about to inform Leonard that we’re about thirty minutes away from atmospheric re-entry.” He answered.

Lauren nodded at Zack, and turned around to face Leonard. “Well, Lieutenant Commander. I guess this is where we cut ourselves off from each other.” She said.

“Indeed it is.” Leonard said.

“Just remember everything I taught you at the academy, and you’ll do fine.” The general said.

“I will ma’am.” Leonard said with a nod. “To go Far and Beyond.” He said with a salute.

“To go Far and Beyond.” Lauren replied, saluting back.

A second later, her hologram dissipated, leaving it just Leonard and Zack. “Whelp.” Leonard sighed. “Let’s get this over with. You know what to do Zack.”

“Right away Lieutenant Commander.” Zack replied, his own hologram dissipating a second later.

All that was left for Leonard to do, was strap into the seat right by the map, and wait for re-entry.

Chapter 3

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.

Chapter 4

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.

Chapter 5

The winds blew gently across the Cliffside.

The sunlight was warm, and the breeze of the ocean smelled incredible. In the air, a flock of birds flew on out to ocean. A group of dolphins were leaping out an about in the bay, enjoying a new day. Crabs were walking along the beach looking for a bite to eat, while baby turtles were emerging out of the sands, and out into the ocean waters. In the center of the bay, a battleship sat in anchor, ready to defend this majestic place from anyone who dared try to defile it. On top of the Cliffside, Leonard sat upon his MCV, enjoying the view.

He wasn’t alone.

On one side, Andrew, Mateo, and Joshua were playing basketball, while on another side, Matthew, his younger brother Brendan, and Bryan were playing a game of cards. His parents, Miguel and Caryl, were sitting next to each other alongside their car a few meters away. His sister, Cassandra, along with her boyfriend AJ, were on the other side with their own car as well. And a few feet away, his mentor from the academy, Lauren, stood on top of a small rock, her white trench coat flowing gently with the ocean breeze.

This was his place of peace. A place where he could enjoy life without worry, and without stress.

It didn’t last.

For a few seconds, it seemed like the whole world had gone static. This did not go unnoticed by Leonard. He quickly began to look around to find the source of the disturbance. When he couldn’t find it, Leonard tried to go back to enjoying the view, only to see several static like rifts popping up across the bay. The other people with him saw it as well. They were just as confused as Leonard was. Standing up from where he was, Leonard walked into the MCV’s DOCS, and opened up the holomap. The rifts were not being picked up by the radar.

Leonard tried to bring up the keyboard, but something was wrong. Even though the holographic keyboard was up, the keys were not responding to his fingers. Leonard then pressed a button on the side, and the backup physical keyboard emerged from the holomap. Again, he was getting no response from the keys. Leonard resisted the urge to bang his fist onto the device, when he noticed that outside, everyone was looking up at the sky. Stepping up to the window, Leonard saw that the sky had changed.

It was now completely black, save for what seemed like two massive eyelashes. The eyelashes ‘opened’ up, and a pair of light blue eyes stared down at them.

In a flash, Leonard opened his eyes up to the real world. He was sweating somewhat, but nothing too serious. It almost felt as if something was trying to get into his mind. The young man then stood up from his bed, and made his way to one of the cabinets to his right. He pulled out a twenty ounce glass that was sitting on the shelf, then he reached into another cabinet and pulled out a packet of orange flavored drink mix. Leonard then made his way to the water dispenser on the other side of the room, placed the glass underneath it, and cold water came pouring out into the glass.

Once the glass was filled, Leonard picked it up, and placed it upon the holomap. He then ripped the packet of drink mix and poured into the glass. After disposing of the now empty drink mix packet, Leonard pulled a device from out of the holomap, and held it above the glass. The device was a mixer, but not just any mixer. It dispensed nanomachines into the glass, which would mix up the molecules of the drink mix into the water. Unlike regular stirring, which would delude the flavoring, this method enhanced the flavoring. It took a few seconds, but once it was done, the nanomachines returned to the device, and Leonard returned it to the holomap.

But right before he could take a sip, something in the corner of his eye caught Leonard’s attention.

Whatever it was, it was long gone before Leonard could spot it. Glass in hand, Leonard walked up to the window to look outside, but didn’t see anything. Even though the cloaking emitter was up and active, the nanofilm in the window allowed Leonard to see everything that he built. He wasn’t sure what it was that he saw, but it had looked like a pair of glowing eyes. The young man then walked up to the holomap, and pressed several buttons on the holokeyboard. After that, the radar’s log came up, but according to the log, the radar didn’t detect anything within the vicinity in between the time he went to bed, and the time he woke up, which was only 3 hours.

Still convinced that something was out there, Leonard walked up to get his coat and put it on over his bare torso. Next, Leonard stepped out of the MCV, and walked up to the top the vehicle, and tapped on the right side of his head to have the nanomachines in his eyes change his vision into night vision, and began scanning the desert.

For several agonizing minutes, Leonard continued to look back and forward across the desert, but couldn’t find anything. He knew that something was out there. But the question was, where? That’s when it hit him. Leonard decided, against his better judgement, to look upward. And lo and behold, there was something barely visible up there. Leonard focused on the unknown that was up there, tapping the left side of his head to have his vision zoom in to get a better look. But before he could make out the unknown’s figure and shape, it vanished in a blink of light.

Leonard tapped the left side again, which restored his vision to normal range, and looked on completely dumbfounded of what just happened. Several questions were swimming around in his mind. What was that thing? How did it slip pass the radar? How did it find him? How could it see him? What was it doing here?

Leonard shook his head. He decided to dismiss this whole thing as due to the lack of sleep. “I must be seeing things.” He said to himself.

Walking back into the DOCS, Leonard tapped the right side of his head to restore his vision back to normal, finished his drink, hang his coat back up, and slide back into bed.

-oOo-

Stretching his arms out, Leonard suppressed a yawn.

Looking down at the holomap, Leonard could see that Zack was clearly busy during the night. He now had an additional 12 mass extractors that were all within five kilometers from his position. Each with a cloaking emitter to hide them. Those cloaking emitters each had four power generators feeding them energy. Zack had also saw fit to build point defenses around the most outer extractor sites, four 120mm Stationary Cannons facing outward, along with a 150mm Stationary Artillary. They even had some units protecting them. Each had 12 BATs mounted on Scout Bikes along with four HATS, also mounted on scout bikes, near them, along with six IFVs, two light tanks, one medium tank, two mortars, one howitzer, a mobile shield generator, and two light gunships on an airpad ready to defend them.

The Air Factory had been upgraded to its final stage just as Leonard had asked. The Land factory was also upgraded to its final stage. Zack had also built two additional land and air factories, with one still at its most basic, while the other was at tier two. This now gave Leonard access to the biggest units, the Omni-Directional Missile launcher, Heavy Artillary, Heavy Tanks, Tank Destroyer, Air Superiority Fighter, Heavy Gunship, Heavy Transport Craft, Heavy Bomber Craft, Stealth Reconnaissance Aircraft, and the Advanced Land and Aerial Constructor Drones. Zack had already build the Stealth Reconnaissance Aircraft as he requested, and it was now sitting and waiting on an Airpad.

Pressing the buttons on his wristband, Zack’s holograp materialized. “Good morning Commander. Do you like what I’ve done with the place?” He asked.

“Yeah, you’ve definitely have been busy Zack.” Leonard replied. “I’m amazed at how much you’ve built in the time that I’ve been asleep.”

“Thanks.” Zack said.

“Though there’s something that I need to ask you.” Leonard said. “Did you detect anything within the vicinity of our current area of operations?”

Zack ‘Blinked’ in response. “Not really. I didn’t detect anything within the area during the night. Why?” The AI asked.

“Well in the middle of the night, it felt like something was trying to get inside my head, and it woke me up.” Leonard answered. “And when I looked outside the window, for a split second, I saw what looked like a pair of eyes. After that, I went outside with a pair of thermal imagine binoculars, and saw nothing. Then I looked up above me, and saw what looked like a flying animal. But before I could make out what it looked like, it vanished.”

Zack ‘blinked’ again, and angled himself to make him look like he raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you saw something?” He asked. “Because the logs didn’t detect anything coming within the area during the night.”

Leonard let out a sigh. “I don’t know Zack.” He replied. “Even I think that it might have been a hallucination due to a lack of sleep.”

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to build surveillance drones. Just in case.” Zack said.

Leonard had to resist the urge the smack himself for not thinking about that. Only the MCV could build surveillance drones, and they were quite small. Each one was about the size of a gnat, and they even looked like a gnat too. With that in mind, Leonard knew what he needed to do now. “Thank you for reminding me Zack. I think I’ve got it covered now.” He said.

“Good luck out there.” Zack said before dissipating.

Leonard walked up to the holomap, and brought up the queue for surveillance drones. He had the thing build over ten thousand of the little drones, each one taking a fraction of a second to build. In the instant the swarm was done, Leonard split them off into smaller swarms and sent them off to the extractor sites outside of the landing zone, while the larger swarm stayed within the landing zone. Unlike the rest of the drone army, the surveillance drones did not have a voice, and did not respond to voice commands, so Leonard had to use the MDCS (Manuel Directional Control System) to divide them up and move them across the map. It was like playing an RTS game with a touch screen.

Once the surveillance drones went their way, Leonard called up the Stealth Reconnaissance aircraft. “Stealth Reconnaissance reporting in.”

“Stealth Recon, you will designated as Phantom. There is a settlement 134.7 kilometers southeast from here. I want you to fly over there, and watch over it.” Leonard ordered.

“Phantom rogers. Flying over there now.”

The aircraft took off vertically from the airpad, as it left the safety of the cloaking emitter, it activated its own cloaking onboard it, and flew off towards the settlement. It took a couple of minutes to reach it, as the stealth needed to conserve its speed in order to maintain its cloak. Once it was there, the stealth connected its camera with the MCV, showing Leonard everything that it was seeing. The settlement didn’t look out of place in those Old Western movies. The inhabitants of the settlement were clearly equine, with most of them being just ordinary ponies. He did however, notice a few that had either wings or a horn. He also noticed what looked like buffalo along with the equines, and they looked like analogs to Native Americans.

The stealth then focused its camera on a podium that was located near what Leonard assumed was the town hall. On the podium, he noticed a large buffalo, clearly bigger than the others, speaking, or what Leonard assumed was speaking, with two of the equines, one ordinary, and the other which was purple colored and had both wings and a horn. One thing Leonard couldn’t help but notice, was how all of equines had a tattoo on their hind flanks. The ordinary equines mostly had tattoos that involved gardening, while the horned ones, unicorns if he remembered correctly, had more exotic tattoos on their flanks, and the winged ones, pegasus, had tattoos that mostly involved the weather.

This made Leonard wonder what exactly did having those tattoos on their flanks represent. Though now was not the time to be contemplating about it. For the pink equine that was the train the other day was also on the podium, and unlike most of the other equines, this one had what looked like balloons on its flank. As if that wasn’t enough, the same equine… was looking in Phantom’s direction, and seemingly following it.

Just what in the hell was going on? Did it have some exceptional eyesight or something? Phantom was invisible to the naked eye, so why was that pink equine looking in its direction? Leonard decided to run some tests, so he pressed some keys on the board, giving him complete manual control over Phantom.

The first thing he did was have Phantom come to a complete stop, hovering just several hundred feet above the ground. He had the drone remain there for all but thirty seconds, and the pink equine never once moved its eyes away from Phantom’s direction. The next thing he did, was have Phantom descend and ascend from its position, the equine’s eyes seemingly following the invisible drone. Next, Leonard had Phantom move horizontally, from left to right, to back and forward, again, the equine’s eyes followed the drone with near perfect accuracy.

Leonard narrowed his eyes. The next thing Leonard did, was something he was going to regret later on. He had Phantom fly over the settlement pulling off exotic maneuvers just to see if the equine would follow it, and follow Phantom it did. From having Phantom doing a cork screw maneuver, to rapidly moving from point A to point B, to hovering just a few feet above one of the buildings, to flying right behind the podium. Not once did the pink equine’s eyesight leave Phantom’s direction. Leonard snarled. Having had enough of the little shit, Leonard released Phantom from his control, and gave out an order. “Phantom. Return to base. I’ve had enough of that little troublemaker.”

“Understood sir, returning to base.”

Leonard drummed his fingers along the holomap. Something about that pink equine was not right. Why or how in the hell was it able to follow Phantom’s movements? When the cloak was developed, the researchers made absolutely sure that the object that was cloaked was completely invisible, with no outlines, no blurs, no shifting movements, no nothing. The idea that a pink primitive dimwitted equine could see it was beyond Cthulhu levels of incomprehensible. Once Phantom got back, he was going to run a diagnostic on it, because something was clearly not right here.

Looking back down on the holomap, Leonard watched as Phantom flew back to its airpad. Along the way, Phantom spotted an orchard of apple trees. How were the inhabitants able to plant such trees in the desert, he was going to have to wait until another day to find out. For right now he needed to do some checkups on Phantom in the hopes that there was nothing wrong with its cloak.

As Phantom flew nearer, Leonard had the MCV build one of his personal vehicles. There were nine manned vehicles that the MCV could build should the commander feel the need, three for land; a hover bike, a van, and a tank, three for air; a helicopter, an air car, and a jet fighter, and three for sea; a jet ski, a fishing boat, and a patrol boat. Only three of them had weapons on them, and Leonard was right now building the hover bike. In the time it took for the bike to build, Phantom had returned to its designated air pad. Tapping a few buttons on his wristband, Zack’s hologram popped up. “Back so soon?” Zack asked.

“I sent the stealth recon craft over to the settlement, just like I said.” Leonard replied.

“Alright. What did you find?” Zack asked again.

“See for yourself.” Leonard said, typing on the keyboard.

Once Leonard was done, Zack could see everything that Leonard had recorded. From the settlement’s design ascetic, to the equines and the buffalos walking and talking together. Including the pink equine who had somehow managed to follow all of the movements of Phantom. “What?” Zack asked.

“That’s what I said.” Leonard stated. “I don’t know what the hell was going on, but somehow, that pink little devil was able to follow Phantom’s movements with near perfect precision.”

“But the cloak should have made it completely invisible.” Zack said. “How was it able to follow Phantom’s movements?”

“That’s what I intend to find out.” Leonard said as he pulled out a tablet from a nearby cabinet. “I’m going to run a diagnostic on Phantom to see if anything’s wrong.”

Zack ‘blinked’ at that. “You sure you want to go out in this heat?” The robot asked.

Leonard snorted in response. “The nanotech in my clothes will keep me cool, Zack.” He said as he typed on the keyboard. “In the meantime, keep an eye on everything while I’m gone, and report to me on any updates.” Leonard finished as he walked to the exit.

“Right. Be careful out there.” Zack said as his hologram dissipated.

With that out of the way, Leonard tapped the side of his head, to allow him to see through the cloaking fields coming from the emitters. With the exception of the insides of buildings and vehicles, the cloaking fields from the emitters made everything within their ranges invisible. And that’s what happened to Leonard when he stepped out of the MCV. Had he not changed his vision, he wouldn’t have been able to see his hands in front of himself. Carefully stepping down the ladder, when Leonard reached the ground, the bike that he build had drove itself up to him. Alongside it were eight BATs mounted on Scout Bikes, along with two HATs, also mounted on Scout Bikes, two IFVs, a Light Tank, a light Gunship, and a swarm of Surveillance Drones that was hovering just above him. No doubt Zack’s idea. Once Leonard had mounted up on his bike, he looked toward his escorts. “Let’s ride.”