JonMo said, “Wow, that was fast. They must be farther inland though.” M237B9 replied, “I am analyzing the signal we got from this first probe. It is faint, but a crashing sound like trees falling is repeating. I am going to recall that probe and send out a special one that I have been saving."
M237B9 brought out what looked like a bird and said, "That first probe was kept the at the treetops to keep it from visual recognition. This new probe behaves and appears as one of the native birds. It also has a longer range. I will send it farther inland towards the sound that standard probe just found."
They waited while the new bird probe went out on its discovery mission. It had a real-time visual of what the bird probe saw, but this was disabled to prevent a signal from being intercepted. So they had to wait. After about an hour the probe returned and dove into the ocean as this copied what the species does when feeding. Then its body folded back and the feet started to spin as propellers. It was soon at the probe airlock and M237MZ retrieved it.
"Well?", said JonMo. "Patience, young soldier. I am setting up the video on the front screen now." What the bird probe had captured was a view from about 100 meters as it circled the Intruder's site. They were cutting down trees with a large laser cutter and a crane-type machine picked up the trees and dumped them in a big grinding hopper. The hopper was attached to another machine that transformed the trees' raw material extruded beams. Buildings were already built and more were being constructed with the extruded materials. The large machinery suddenly changed to side panels and those started spitting out regularly. They assumed it could also do roofing panels.
Some large predators on Nebza did not live in the Kingdom of Exdom. One large cat's habitat must have been disturbed and it came at one of the large robots that was watching the machines. The large cat lunged at a robot, and before it could sink its teeth, the big robot grabbed it by the neck and threw it in the hopper with the tree material. The cat's anguished howl was brief as it too became raw material.
"Those are nasty robots. They have a singular focus on the work of building that nothing is allowed to impede. It appears that all of the Intruders are these large robots. Maybe they are preparing for their masters to come at a later time. They have no regard for any life on this planet” M237MZ continued, "JonMo, are you up to a reconnaissance mission? There are a few things we need to know about the Intruders. This is what I propose. Set fire to one of their structures and we will see how easy they are to burn. We need to know their weaknesses. Secondly, we need to find out if they are scanning for signals. A very small device that outputs five different signal types, one at a time, and then pauses for a reaction, should do it. There is a nearby pond with a small island in the middle of it that the bird probe picked up. That seems to be the best place to locate the device. It has a timer to set a delay time to allow you to be far from it when it starts to send. It also has a burrowing feature. It can go down about a meter every 10 seconds. I will set it to stop at a meter and emit a chemical that will dissolve it. It's a lot of effort to find out their sensing capabilities. We can judge from their reactions. We will see how fast they approach the island. Hopefully, they are lumberingly slow. You must not leave footprints around the pond or on the island. I will send a probe out to discover the best way to approach the pond and island. How do you suggest we set fire to one of their lodges."
JonMo responded, "There is a thunderstorm approaching. What if we install something that will draw lightning? That will allow us to not tip them off that it was sabotage." M237B9 said, "You will have to get close enough to install such a device. That may be tough for you. The device must also be consumed in the lightning blast to not leave any trace. I will have to work on that. I concede that is a good plan." JonMo responded, "I have been trained in stealth tactics and I believe I can place it without being noticed." "OK", responded M237B9. "If you are seen it will also give us an indication of their optical sensors and speed at which they come to apprehend you." JonMo retorted, "We shall see, but maybe we should do this together. If I am in a jam you can use your fast thinking to help I hope." M237M9 said, "First wise thing you have said. I'll construct the lightning magnet and we'll get going. You may want to eat something now as we could be out for an indeterminate amount of time." With that, they both got to work, one preparing a warm meal and the robot working very fast at his workbench.
It was an hour later when they exited through the airlock. The robot wore no water suit but JonMo did not ask. He figured the robot knew what he was doing. The ship was anchored at a depth of 20 meters. They swam towards the shore. M237B9 communicated to JonMo's helmet, "Follow my lead as I get through the waves." JonMo did and was surprised that the waves did not crash on him, though it took fast footwork to copy M237B9. They were soon on the beach. It was dark, still, JonMo marked in his mind a reference to the trees so he could find his way back to the ship.
They made their way to the pond first. M237B9 said, "Let me place the signaling device. I can get to the little island without leaving footprints." With that, the robot lightly hopped from rock to rock before taking a large leap into the water. Soon he was at the island and placing the sensor. When it was to his satisfaction, M237B9 returned as he had come. JonMo saw him lightly hopping from rock to rock back to his hiding place in the trees. "The storm is almost here, let's get that lightning magnet installed as quickly as we can," M237B9 said.
JonMo used all of his stealth tactics as he and the robot, who was very stealthy, made their way to the first structure built by the Intruder robots. When they were about 130 meters away M237B9 raised his left hand to signal a halt. "I will go 10 meters at a time. I will use my internal passive sensors to check if they have any alarms or traps along the way. I will return when I have scouted the way." JonMo waited anxiously for seven minutes before the robot returned. M237B9 said, "I have detected no alarms or sensors. Let us proceed to the structure and set the lightning attractor device. The material will vaporize with the violence of the lightning strike, so no evidence will be left. You will set the device while I watch for any movement our way by the Intruders. I will guide you as to when to set the device.
They proceeded cautiously as before and were shortly in the trees by the rear of the structure. M237B9 left to go up to the front of the building to watch out. Soon he used a thumbs up to signal to JonMo to get to work. JonMo went on his belly in the cleared area around the building and moved slowly towards the back of it. The Intruder robots were about a kilometer ahead, but they were not visible due to a slight hill between his and B237B9's position. When he was fully behind the structure he arose quietly and climbed up to just under the roof. He placed the device, which had a thin rod that extended out of it towards the sky. He quickly and quietly came down and made his way back to their close hiding place. M237B9 was there and said, "Let's get out of here as the storm is very close." They retreated to their 130-meter location and waited.
And waited. It was not until about 45 minutes later that a very wet and somewhat patient JonMo saw a brilliant flash of lightning and heard a corner of the building explode and the massive thunder a split second behind it. Orange and yellow flames erupted above the trees. Soon the back of the building was raging on fire. They both went prostrate behind some bushes as M237B9 strained his sensitive hearing to capture what was happening. "They just arrived. It has been 335 seconds or just under three meters per second. We both could outrun them if that is their fastest speed. I of course could more than double your speed JonMo, but we are in this together", said M237B9. Before JonMo could respond, they heard a resounding boom from an explosion.
"They are not fighting the fire. They are blasting the building to pieces. I think they are coming this way. We cannot outrun their blasters and we don't want to be seen. Let us climb this tree as fast and as quietly as we can. Hopefully, we can get hidden up in the branches before they get here. With that, they both scrambled up the tree. First M237B9 jumped lightly up to the lowest stout branch and then grabbed JonMo's extended arms to pull him up. They soon were up in the leafy branches and out of sight. It was not long until one of the Intruder robots arrived. JonMo and M237B9 remained very quiet with JonMo holding his breath when the menacing robot came to their tree. The big Intruder robot stopped to inspect the tree but then moved on. At that moment, the sending unit on the little island in the pond started broadcasting. The robot turned quickly toward the source of the broadcast and moved toward it at a three-meter-per-second pace. When the Intruder was out of sight, M237B9 said, "It responded to the second signal of five, which was radio frequency static. Let's take a chance and get out of here quickly. They listened for a few seconds and then quickly moved down the tree. M237B9 stood on two rocks and motioned JonMo to jump down. M237B9 easily caught him. M237B9 checked was satisfied that they did not leave any tracks.
They made it back to the ship under the water using M237B9's infallible sense of direction. It was a very high tide, so they were exposed on the beach for a brief time. M237B9 used his far-reaching passive sensors to inspect both ways before they bolted into the crashing waves.
They got back to the ship in short order. Once they got through the airlock, M237B9 said, “I am going back out to check on the broadcast device. I suspect that they did not find it, but I want to be sure. Those robots likely leave heavy tracks. I will move the ship a bit south first to get farther from their position before I exit the ship.
M237B9 took the ship to a point where the seashore curved enough to have a direct sightline down to the Intruder’s area. Then he exited the ship and made it quickly to shore. It was now dark, but his optical sensors adapted to that and he went quickly and quietly through the woods with his auditory sensors on high alert. When he arrived at the pond, all was quiet. Still, he was cautious. An Intruder robot could be setting an ambush. He decided to throw a rock into the pond and see what happened. He got as near to the pond as possible while still staying in the trees. Then he caused the color of his right hand and arm to turn black as the night. With a very quick motion, his right arm came from behind the tree and a small rock was thrown in the water. He moved back quickly and quietly. Nothing happened. He then decided to scout around the perimeter of the pond for robot footprints.
It was not until he was about 50 meters from the pond that he found incoming and then retreating footprints of one Intruder robot. Its heavy prints were very visible in the ground that had been softened by the rains.
He then went back to the pond and under water to the little island. In short order, he had retrieved the little broadcast device. It had not buried itself. That meant that it had not sensed any approach within the broadcast timing window. The robots had not found it. Back to the ship he went as cautiously as he had come.
When he returned M237B9 said, “This is what we have learned as I see it. The Intruder robots are not overly fast, but they contain substantial firepower. They only accept what is valuable to their mission and anything that inhibits that is destroyed as the big cat and the building on fire. They only responded to one of the signals from the little broadcast device I left on the island. Consequently, when that signal stopped, their search stopped. Only the low-power radio signal was received by them, and only by one robot, it seems. More than one robot should have been enough to triangulate the signal location, but that did not happen. So, they must have limited sensing abilities.”
M237B9 continued, “I am going to send out a little robotic pig like the one that you told me about in your story of how you blundered into the Outpost. This one I have onboard could plant listening bushes. I will have it plant a good many to get their roots to connect at least two kilometers away from the Intruder area. It will take about two months, but we need intel on what they are up to. The pig robot will go out tonight. It has advanced abilities to passively sense its surroundings and I will program it to stay out of sight of the Intruders. I will have it place the first bush about three kilometers away in the direct path that the Intruders are working towards. I estimate that at the pace they are working the Intruders will arrive near the first listening bush in two months. The pig will angle back through the woods to place plants in random locations that still will have their roots able to connect. I will program the plants to be very similar to a common bush there to not arouse suspicion.”
JonMo thought that two months was a long time to wait, but they needed both information and extreme caution. He would try to get M237B9 to go with him to see B127MZ in the meantime. Maybe there would be extra resources at the Outpost that would help them to defeat the robots.
Under cover of darkness, the robotic pig made its way from the waves to the woods. Just as it was programmed, it put down small plants that would grow into listening posts. The little plants began immediately to put down roots that would search out and connect to the nearest neighbor plant. The little pig robot, under cover of darkness and first checking for Intruders, left the woods and entered the waves. Soon, it was back on board the ship and stored for two months. Then it would be sent out to gather information from the plants it had planted.
M237B9 said, "Let us go to the kingdom of Exdom and the Outpost. We will enter under cover of darkness far away from settlements and as close to the Outpost as possible. We'll see what B127MZ has to say." Their ship moved to their chosen location near the Outpost.
JonMo and M237B9 came through the raging waves with JonMo again following the robot. It was still a battering, but they made it through. It was a cloudy night and JonMo was dressed in black while M237B9 just changed his skin color to black. No one noticed them because no one was around. The Outpost was about two hours away, and they got underway at a fast pace. It was a half hour before the sun rose when they were 50 meters from the Outpost. After scouting a perimeter, they made their way to the entrance that was tucked away in the woods near the Outpost. They were surprised to see B127MZ standing by the open entrance when they got there. "Welcome JonMo, good to see you have come safely back. I also see that you brought my bossy counterpart with you", said B127MZ.