Things were somber on the ship. JonMo said, "That was too close. The Intruders are more watchful than we expected." B127MZ responded, "Yes, but that is why we send a pig first. I did get some data and also something else valuable. The ship's passive sensors picked up a signal from the Intruder robot when it was in the water." Just then, they heard the airlock open. It was M237B9.
M2237B9 said, "I come over as we need to do some planning. Our rendezvous place with the big cats has been compromised. One of us should likely go back south to let them know of our new plan once we have it."
"Yes, I agree.", said B127MZ. He continued, "I was just telling JonMo that I picked up a signal from the Intruder robot. It was very faint. I can create a sensor that will search for that signal and amplify it a little. That may give us a small advantage and we should set the cats up with it. We should outfit the cats with their laser cannons and train them back at their base many hundreds of kilometers north. I will get to work on that sensor as soon as we finalize plans."
JonMo said, "We also need to decipher what we can from the poor pig's data." They all agreed and got to work on that. Several hours later they met together to finalize new plans. B127MZ explained the pig's preliminary data, "There seems to be little audible information exchanged between the Intruders. The pig did get a look though. There seem to be many more barracks created and large plots of fields have been cleared. This seems to point to one thing. Robots do not need the barracks, so they must plan to put humans in them. They must be aware of the humans in the Kingdom of Exdom and plan to enslave them to work in a large number of fields. That would infer that there are masters of these Intruder robots who are coming and they are the ones who would benefit from the food and slave labor. That would make them very nasty people indeed. If true, This does not bode well and modifies my thinking. I need to further decipher what information the poor pig gathered before it was destroyed.
B127MZ got back to work on the pig's data. The visuals were easy to interpret, yet the little communication between the Intruder robots took a while. In the end, B127MZ's hypothesis was correct. The Intruders were preparing to come capture and enslave the able people of the Kingdom of Exdom. Those not able would be terminated. The people in the kingdom were unaware that they were easy targets.
Once they discussed this a new plan was formulated. JonMo and B127MZ would go to the Kingdom of Exdom and somehow convince them to move south as fast as possible. They would need to be provided with weapons to defend themselves. The plan was to hide them in the south near the mountains and the trees, but not all in one place. Their weapons would need to be ones of last resort as the good robots and JonMo would need to put up the primary defense. JonMo said, "When the Intruders come, we need to be in the kingdom to give them a nasty welcome." They had not considered the big Intruder ship enough though.
M237B9 suggested that the big cats also come to the south kingdom to get outfitted with weapons and sensors. That was agreed upon as long as the cats could cross the south mountains. Hopefully, they knew a way. M237B9 bid them farewell and headed back to his ship to warn the cats and outfit them with the new Intruder-finding sensors. The timing was going to be tricky. JonMo and B127MZ made plans on how to get to the kingdom and convince the people of their danger.
M237B9 said, "I have a holo-projector back at the Outpost that might come in useful. We have aerial views of the Intruder operations that we could use with the projector to convince the Queen and her young grandson the King of their danger. You will need to tell them about how you found the Intruders, JonMo. Taking your climbing gear may help convince them of what they now deem impossible, crossing the Great Mountains as you did." JonMo agreed with the old robot and said, "We will need to enter the kingdom with some warning of any Intruders. If we could send out a scout other than a pig with the Intruder detection sensor onboard, that may make it safer to go on shore." B127MZ said, "I will add the sensor to one of the bird robots and make it as passive as possible to reduce detection. If we could send the bird out to connect with similar live birds in flight, that may throw off detection."
Again, they got busy with technology. They modified a bird robot to appear as the common sea birds of the area. They also outfitted it with one of the new Intruder detection sensors. B127MZ also modified another bird robot to appear as a fish. Its job was to let them know when sea birds were near so the sea bird robot could appear and join them. When all was ready, they went 50 meters below the surface of the ocean and came within five kilometers of the shore that was nearest the Outpost.
The fish robot saw the birds at a distance and quickly swam down to the bird where it waited at three meters down. The robot fish bumped the robot bird, giving it the expected signal, and the bird was soon in the sky next to a loose group of similar real sea birds. To not arouse the Intruders, the robot bird only gathered information and video passively. If something reached its audio, video, or Intruder detection sensors, it recorded it. The sea birds reached land and flew along the shoreline. Fortunately, they wheeled back out to sea after going back and forth. When they landed on calmer waters out to sea to rest, the robot bird dived below the surface and made its way to the ship. Once it was through the airlock, B127MZ took it and plugged in a short cable to download the information that it had gathered. The news was not good. The Intruders were already in the Kingdom of Exdom and they were rounding up the citizens and moving them into their ship. There was now no need to convince the Queen of their danger. The danger was upon them. All their plans were now useless.
B127MZ said, "Their base may be unguarded and vulnerable. Let us first go back there and send up the same robotic seabird to scout it." JonMo agreed and soon they were back at depth and moving south at top ocean speed. When they got there, the robotic seabird was sent up on a reconnaissance mission. In about an hour, the bird was back on the ship, and data was downloaded. One Intruder robot appeared to be roaming the base perimeter on sentry duty. All else looked quiet. Maybe it was time to test their firepower on one Intruder robot. "JonMo, man the slug thrower and laser cannon. I will fly and direct the missiles.", shouted B127MZ. He continued, "The seabird data also showed a tower in the middle of their base. You start shooting the Intruder robot and I will direct a missile at that tower, which no doubt has communication and sensors."
B127MZ frantically fed the tower targeting data into a missile while JonMo readied himself. When they erupted out of the water, the missile shot out of the ship and flew an erratic but directed path toward the base of the tower. B127MZ pushed the ship to match the speed of the missile. He kept the ship at the treetops and soon they were over the Intruder base. JonMo fired two slugs at the menacing robot. It was bringing his arms up to fire laser cannons when one missile flew close. It turned its head to look and just then the second slug slammed into it with such force that it took off one of its massive arms. JonMo fired laser cannons immediately after firing the slugs. This caused the Intruder robot to seek cover, but one laser cannon blast tore into it and it exploded.
Meanwhile, the missile hit the base of the com tower and it fell on top of one of the buildings, doing great damage. "Target their machines JonMo. We've got ten seconds before their big ship will arrive and this is a hit and run." JonMo did not speak but sent laser cannon blasts into their machines in rapid succession. The three that were nearby went up in explosive flames. "Time to go!" said B127MZ and he turned the ship towards the sea as fast as it could go. The big Intruder ship had just crested the Great Mountains and it started firing.
B127MZ dove towards the water as soon as he could as very powerful laser cannon blasts boiled the water just in front of the ship. The robot's extra fast reflexes saved them as they turned away from the blast and dove into the water. B127MZ immediately turned north and dove deeper. Searing hot blasts hit the water all around them making boiling tunnels. Fortunately, they were soon below the blasts and their northerly direction was not expected by the Intruders. That told JonMo and B127MZ that the Intruders could not detect their ship.
JonMo turned to B127MZ and said, "That ship is our biggest threat. With their communications tower down and equipment destroyed, it will take them a while to regroup. In the meantime, we need to consider the plight of the citizens of the Kingdom of Exdom. We also need a plan to destroy their ship." B127MZ replied, "You are correct in your assumptions. We also need to rejoin M237B9 and the big cats. If we are not all highly coordinated in our assault, we will surely be defeated."
JonMo further said, "I agree. I want some very powerful explosives that I can sneak up and attach to the Intruder's ship. It would be nice to have some backup from the Big Cats outfitted with laser cannons and Intruder sensors. If they could go into action at the proper time after I get the explosives attached, it would allow me to get out of the blast zone. The cats need to hit and run to prevent them from getting blasted."
B127MZ said, "That is a very risky plan, but I do believe it has merit. They are much more vulnerable without their big ship. Let's go find M237B9 and see what we can plan again now that previous plans are meaningless."
B127MZ turned the ship towards the south and went at maximum speed and near maximum depth. Time passed and they arrived at the southern border of the Kingdom of Exdom. Cautiously, B127MZ raised their ship to about 100 meters below the surface. Again the bird robot was sent out to gather information. Soon it was back and the good news it brought was that M237B9 and the big cats were helping the refugees who had streamed to the south to hide deep in the woods next to the mountains. The people quickly decided to trust the big cats. Soon JonMo was in his water suit and headed for the shore. He took some battering going through the waves but made it out on the land just after sunset. He then made the long trek to where the woods became thick and angled his way back south. Soon, he met up with a lot of scared people who were making their way into the woods under the veil of darkness. He found one of the big cats, or better said, the cat found him. After sniffing and identifying him, the cat sent a telepathic message of inquiry to him. JonMo pictured M237B9 in his mind and focused on the big cat. The cat just turned about and looked over his shoulder to make sure JonMo was following.
The big cat led him directly to M237B9 and then the cat turned back to go help the people where he had met JonMo. JonMo greeted the robot, "B127MZ is waiting out a little to sea. He wants us to meet together and form a strategy to defeat the Intruders." "That is a huge and difficult task.", said M237B9, "But we need to try. I will go with you right away after I instruct the big cats."
It was not long before M237B9 and JonMo were angling through the waves to avoid their massive power as much as possible. They both ducked under and made their way to the ship where B127MZ was waiting. Once through the airlock, JonMo removed his water suit and came into the section of the ship where there was a table. At it sat both of the robots. A third chair was there for JonMo. A serious discussion ensued.
They discussed the plan that JonMo and B127MZ had initialized. It still sounded risky, but they were sure that a direct assault with their two ships was riskier. The Intruder ship just had too much firepower. They decided to go with the plan to have JonMo sneak up on the Intruder ship and plant explosives. It was going to take some surveillance to find an opportune time to advance on the Intruder ship for this job, but not too much time as just being around the Intruder area was risky. M237B9 would go with three big cats fitted with laser cannons and Intruder sensors. A robotic bird would watch from a hidden place on a tree. It will rise in the air when it notices that JonMo is done planting explosives. That will be a signal for the big cats to come in from 100 meters out to do hit-and-run attacks on the Intruder robots.
The timing for the plan was to have the big Intruder ship explode just after dawn in three days. A robotic bird would take a high flight to discover the movements of the Intruders. M237B9, B127MZ, and JonMo would get prepared for the assault, but they would also help with the evacuation and defense preparation for the many people in Exdom who were moving south to hide in the woods.
The robots got very busy building some shielding technology that would make JonMo and the fusion bomb he would carry no more electronically visible than a tree. B127MZ and M237B9 considered this extremely important and worked furiously on it as only robots could do. JonMo worked on his camouflage suit. It was the warmer season and he knew he would sweat in it, but there was nothing for it. It was essential as well. They worked through the night. JonMo finished the camo suit and got two hours of sleep. The non-sleeping robots finished the stealth shielding tech before dawn. B127MZ left the ship and took the shielding tech in a dry bag to the land. There he activated it while M237B9 came briefly to the surface and tried to find B127MZ with all available sensors. Nothing! Their work was a success.
B127MZ came back to the ship with the tech and read the data from the robot bird. The Intruders were working hard to rebuild the communications tower and were making rounds regularly around the perimeter. It looked like it would take them a few days to rebuild the comm tower, but they could not rely on speculation. They needed to help in the evacuation of the citizens of Exdom, but their assault had to go off on schedule.
B127MZ woke JonMo. "You must rise.", he said and continued, "Too much is at stake. Let us go help the citizens in the big evacuation to a safer place. They must not all be in one place though as that would make it too easy for the Intruders to find them and round them up."
It was back to the land, leaving their ships at 50 meters below the surface of the ocean. Before they left they did send out a robotic bird to scout for Intruder activity. This bird was newly disguised as one of the larger predator types that were more commonly seen higher in the air. If the Intruder ship moved, it would break silence and warn them.
They walked for a few kilometers before they came to the gathering stage area for the refugees. The big cats were communicating via telepathy to a young woman with long brown hair. JonMo was immediately curious about her. He had never seen her before. They walked up to her to ask how they could help; she appeared to be in charge. One of the big cats sent him an image of the young woman holding hands with him, which startled him quite a bit. She received the same image and laughed at him. She said her name was Lana and she had discovered that she was receiving telepathic messages from the big cats who were directing the refugees. The big cats had been drawing arrows in the dirt and carefully watching the number of refugees assigned to each location. Big cats were stationed at strategic points to further direct groups of refugees.
That had changed when Lana confidently first communicated with the big cats. The Big Cats were delighted and started relaying instructions through her. Some of the refugees were even getting their questions answered. They had to move along quickly though as there were a lot of refugees and when the Intruders would come back was only an educated guess. JonMo and the robots split up, each going with a group of refugees as the big cats directed.
It took over an hour to reach the foot of the mountains. The big cats had scouted out canyons and caves and this refugee group was directed into a winding canyon. A big cat was ahead of the group and JonMo took the rear. There was a creek cascading further below. They were on a new trail on the left side of the creek. The going was slow as each of the refugees was carrying supplies. Water was available from the creek and water filters had been distributed to each refugee group.
It took two more hours to reach the location the big cats had scouted. The canyon split and they all went on the right branch a ways back to where the creek had created a large sandy beach. Large trees had created a shady canopy that would keep them hidden from aerial inspections of the Intruders. JonMo appreciated the thoroughness of the big cats in finding such a hospitable location for a large group. The leader big cat came to JonMo and flashed an image into his mind of two big cats on sentry duty in hidden locations behind them in the canyon. They each had laser cannons mounted on their backs with the business end above their heads. The Intruder sensors were on the side of the laser cannon harness. JonMo sent back a strong thought of appreciation. The big cat sent another image of the danger of campfires. JonMo took time to find a leader among the refugees. He picked an older lady who had a strong look of confidence and instructed her on the danger of campfires. They would have to eat their food cold. Smoke from fires would give off their location and that was way too dangerous in their current situation. Once he felt that she understood, he thanked her and she walked away.
She walked toward two big and strong men and began to give them instructions. They said, "Yes, mama." JonMo saw this and his fears of campfire smoke vanished. A big cat came over and motioned with his big head. JonMo and he began to walk out of the canyon. The big cat, whose name was StraVach, fed him images of the seven other locations where refugees were hidden. JonMo was getting better at this telepathic communication. He relayed as best he could the plan to blow up the Intruder's big ship. He detailed the big cats' part in this risky plan. StraVatch relayed that he would assign four big cats, equipped with laser cannons and sensors to this coming assault. JonMo was grateful to have their help. He now wanted to meet up with the robots and finalize plans. After that, he could give final details to the big cats.