B127MZ ushered them into the Outpost and closed the camouflaged entrance. They were all silent as they walked the tunnel to the hidden Outpost. When they were there B127MZ said, "Tell me all that has happened." JonMo looked at M237B9 and then decided to speak. "Well, I got across the mountains alive and investigated a shiny object on the beach. That's where M237B9's ship was anchored underwater about 120 meters out to sea." Then JonMo filled him in on their finding and what they had learned from the Intruders.
B127MZ's opinion was sobering. "We can assume that Intruder robots are formidable. They have serious firepower in their robot bodies. We can assume that their ship has a lot more firepower. It seems that the Centerhome people are very concerned about them due to the only message we received to beware of the Intruders. They no doubt sent a single cryptic message as a longer message may have allowed the Intruders to trace their message back to the source. All in all, I believe we have a very formidable enemy that we still know very little about."
M237B9 said, "I concur with your assessment, B127MZ. We must wait a little less than two months to gain more intelligence on the Intruders. This is your Outpost B127MZ and despite your assertion of my bossiness, I have learned restraint in my long isolation under the sea and now defer to you to suggest a plan. "B127MZ responded, "Well, the best thing I can suggest is that we convert the ship I have here in the Outpost to an amphibious vessel like yours, M237B9. We will have to get it into the sea under passive power, meaning it will roll into the sea if we push it. Underwater, it seems that our ships are undetectable. We can go far away from the Intruders on this planet and try to discover resources that may help us with this massive problem."
The next few weeks went by quickly as all three focused their efforts on converting the Outpost's spaceship to have the additional ability to work under the sea safely. The ship was already capable of being in space and as such was sealed. It did need a protective coat to prevent any corrosion from being in salt water. The coating also added protection from any sea creature attaching to the ship.
With the coating completed, they focused on adding underwater propulsion. It had to be quiet and cause minimal turbulence to keep it undetectable. Short wings were added to allow lift and maneuvering with surfaces on the back of the wings. They soon had it done though as the robots understood it completely and JonMo was always a willing helper. He learned much during this process and became more able to do complex tasks. He took charge of the added controls for underwater maneuvering. M237B9 did check his work carefully and only a couple of small changes were needed. It took a little over three weeks to complete the changes with the robots working around the clock.
B127MZ and M237B9 were happy with the results, so JonMo knew all was completed. It was time to put the ship out to sea. They waited two more nights until a darker night. A robot pig was sent out to scout the area for any members of the Kingdom of Exdom. There were a couple of hunters, so they waited until it was two hours after dark when the hunters would surely be headed home. The pig confirmed they had left the area. The move was on.
A rear hatch was opened and it was impressive as it weighed a lot with dirt, plants, and rocks as its exterior. Wheels had been fitted to a carriage underneath the ship. It took all their effort to get it out of the Outpost. It was slightly uphill. They got it turned and pointed towards the ocean and it got easier to push as it was slightly downhill. They took a route that avoided trees and that made the route longer. Finally, they reached the sand of the beach and they halted. JonMo got into the ship and the robots got it moving as fast as they could until it crashed into the waves. The momentum of the ship kept it going until the ship was completely underwater. JonMo immediately added a very small amount of thrust to keep the ship from hitting the bottom.
B127MZ and M237B9 got very busy restoring the land where the wheel tracks and footprints were. The undercarriage had been pushed back and placed within the Outpost, with their quick work, that was soon completed. Then they rushed to the sea and dived under the crashing waves. Soon they were aboard the ship with JonMo and all headed out to M237B9's ship.
As M237B9's ship was not far away, they made it to it quickly. Before they separated, B127MZ said, "Why don't we head south for 500 kilometers and then go to land to see what we can see? The Centerhome explorers did not go that far in the initial investigation of this planet. Maybe we will find resources, but if not, we can go another 100 kilometers and try that area. What we need is metal and focusing crystals to enhance the ship's weapons and also create powerful handheld weapons that can take out the robots. We will need a coordinated attack with ships and ground assault to take out their ship and robots at the same time."
All agreed this was a good starting plan. M237B9 left for his ship and both ships headed south. They figured that 500 kilometers would put them safely far enough away from the Intruders. Both ships went farther out to sea so they could travel at a deeper depth. This further prevented detection while they were closer to the Intruders.
JonMo busied himself by continuing his studies of the sciences and weapons development. He also did what exercises he could within the confines of the ship. He appreciated the thoroughness of the two robots in making B127MZ's ship capable at the depths where the pressure was stronger. There was a library of entertainment videos left by the Centerhome explorers. Sometimes he watched those. Most were of space exploration and battles with little on the Centerhome worlds. It was something else to do to pass the time, so he watched a few of them.
They finally arrived at the 500-kilometer mark and made their way to a location about 240 meters from the shore. Here a robot pig was sent out at night to scout the location. When the pig reported back the following night, it brought a video of another mountain range that was close by. That boded well for finding raw materials. The pig reported no threats except for some large cats that it had some trouble avoiding. There were only a few of them seen, so they figured they could avoid them if they stayed in the foothills of the mountains.
The next night B127MZ and JonMo took sensors, digging equipment, and weapons to the shore. JonMo again watched the robot time the waves to not get too battered exiting them. They made their way to the ever-present woods and climbed high up in a tree to get away from any roaming predators.
JonMo scouted the area with his binoculars before they went down to the forest floor. No danger could be seen. They then made their way to the foothills to begin their search for raw materials. They both had sensors that would find metals and crystals depending on the setting.
They searched low and higher in the mountains. They were successful in finding some large raw rubies embedded about a half meter in the rock. They used a handheld laser digging device to slice away the rock until they got to the raw rubies. It was a substantial find and they extracted all they thought they would need. When B127MZ said it was enough, JonMo did not argue.
They had only found trace amounts of metals and that was copper. They needed the high strength allowed by steel and that meant iron, bauxite ore, and other metals used for alloying. It was time to move on to see what they could find. Time was still on their side as the listening bushes still needed time to establish their root network.
Back to the ships they went and moved back to deep water. As planned, they moved 100 more kilometers south and repeated the process of sending the robot pig to scout the area. When all was deemed safe enough, they went to the land to use their sensors. This was a land of many lakes but not much metal of any kind, back to the ships.
They went 700 more kilometers before they found any usable metals. There were mountains and rivers in that area and it looked promising. JonMo and the two robots spread out and took their sensors to see what they could find. M237B9 was successful at first.
He had found gold and silver as well as a small deposit of nickel. JonMo was encouraged and went higher in his search and began to see the indicator on his sensor feebly light up. He was getting something. It turned out to be iron ore in abundance when he got closer to it. He used a laser cutter to remove the rock and dirt to expose the ore and soon had enough for their purposes loaded up. He looked around behind and was surprised to see a large cat sitting and looking at him. He slowly reached for his laser burst pistol when the big cat shook its head from side to side. Just then B127MZ walked up and motioned for JonMo to be silent. B127MZ turned to the big cat and directed a query, "What do you want." The big male cat talked back in a rough and deep voice. When both JonMo and B1127MZ did not respond and JonMo looked perplexed, the big cat used one claw on its massive right front foot to make a drawing on the ground. The drawing showed rough figures of JonMo and B127MZ and a line under the two figures. Then the cat drew two crude figures of the Intruder robots. He then drew an angry slash through the two Intruder robots and growled. He then pointed back to the figures of JonMo and B127MZ and emitted a deep purr.
B127MZ said, "I think he means us no harm and that we have a common enemy." B127MZ proceeded to draw the cat with a line underneath. Then he drew two Intruder robots and growled as he slashed through them. He then pointed back at the cat he drew and sounded a purring sound.
JonMo was quite relieved at the progress of these negotiations and proceeded to draw figures of him and the two robots. He was sure the cats were aware of M237B9 as well. He then drew a mountainside and showed material coming out of the mountain. He then drew a line from the material to a cylinder with a burst coming from the cylinder. Next, he drew an Intruder robot being blasted with its feet coming out from under it. The big cat studied this briefly and emitted that deep purr again. Then the cat withdrew and left them to their work. It was a strange interchange, but JonMo began to think about how this new ally could help in the upcoming battle with the Intruders. It had to be in a way that did not get them killed.
The cats had their plan. Soon the big cat who had communicated with them was back. He cleared a space on the dusty ground to make a drawing surface. He then proceeded to draw three big cats like himself. Each had a cylinder strapped to its back. Lines were drawn to show blasts coming from the cat-mounted laser cannons. The target of the blasts was the Intruder robots.
B127MZ absorbed the communication and then drew the cat, JonMo, and himself. Then he drew the Intruder camp a distance away. The cat got the question. He drew cats with wavy lines connecting between their heads. They were telepathic. This is how they communicated and this cat, far from the Intruders, had information on them. These cats saw the Intruders as a clear threat and were willing to join the fight. They wanted weapons that would compete with the firepower of the Intruders.
It took a few hours, but JonMo and B127MZ finally got a plan communicated to the cat's approval. They would fabricate the weapons for the cats and meet them at the mountain base where JonMo had descended much earlier. The ground was covered with adequate drawings. Then the big leader cat came and sat on its haunches before JonMo. JonMo looked into the big eyes of the leader cat. An image of a cave on the north side of the Great Mountains came into his mind. There they would finalize plans to outfit the cats with weapons.
It would take a while to go back north to where they could gain intelligence on the Intruders. By the time they got there two months will have passed. They had acquired all of the materials needed to create more weapons. Each ship had a tool shop with advanced manufacturing equipment. It would take some modifications by B127MZ and M237B9 to adapt some equipment to deal with raw materials, but they knew how to accomplish it.
M237B9 had joined them with the bounty of raw material he had found. JonMo focused on the group of cats that had come to say farewell to them. JonMo let his mind fill with thanks to the cats. As one, they all inclined their heads in acknowledgment. It was time now to exit to the ocean and the ships. They had work to do.
JonMo donned his water suit and into the ocean they went. It was always bumpy, but they made it with JonMo following the robots. They each had a waterproof sack with raw material that was quite heavy. Each bag was less heavy in the water, yet they made slow progress dragging the heavy bags behind them. Each bag had a pocket of air that helped to keep them from being dragged down to the bottom. The robots thought of everything.
They made it to the respective airlocks of the ships and soon had the materials stored and were on their way to deeper water before they turned north. They had several hundred kilometers to go and that would give them time to manufacture the weapons and outfit them on the ships by coming up to about 50 meters below the ocean surface. That was later though. The ships were on autopilot and M237B9 worked feverishly in the tool shop of his ship. JonMo and B127MZ were just as busy on their ship. B127MZ had gotten measurements of the cats and also worked on the harnesses and firing mechanisms for the laser cannons that would be mounted on these majestic cats. They first had to complete the upgrades to their ships. This included powerful laser cannons and advanced rail guns that would fire a slug at very high speed. Missile launchers were also prepared with missiles that had warheads of tiny fusion reactions. The missiles were small in diameter, but they packed a strong punch. Creating the hand-held laser cannons took a lot of effort with the power supply being the biggest issue. Yet, they got it done by passing information back and forth between the two ships.
When all was ready they coordinated a move to a location far out to sea. Then they moved to 50 meters below the ocean surface and got to work. JonMo was ready in his water suit. He and the robots exited their ships through the airlocks first with the laser cannons. They had already installed the inner mechanisms and receivers for all three types of the new weapons. Now they had to cut small sections of the ship's hulls to accept the laser cannon focus devices. These outward devices could also be aimed by moving the focus direction from inside the ship. Once these devices were welded in place they went back for the rail gun turrets. These were not as easy to aim so a gimbal was part of the exterior mechanism. It took up more room inside as well. Once the mechanisms were clicked in and secured to the internal parts, the exterior perimeter of the rail gun mechanism was welded into its place. The missile launch exterior tubes were short and a lot easier to install. The missiles were self-guided and only required a straight tube that started inside and extended for a short distance outside. Two of these per ship were installed.
The final part of their journey north was soon accomplished. They came as close to the shore as they could on the north side of the Great Mountains. B127MZ sent out a robot pig to scout the area when it was fully dark.
The robot pig scouted the area as programmed and also gathered intelligence from the now fully connected listening bushes. The pig, with its scouting and intelligence gathering done, moved under the cover of darkness towards the sea. As it got close to the water, a powerful laser blast violently removed its back legs. With a squeal of fright, the pig used its two front legs to pull itself into the water. There it swam with all its two-legged might towards the ships. It was not good enough though.
The big Intruder robot had followed it into the water and was catching up quickly. B127MZ had been alerted when the laser blast had hit the pig. He began to pull encrypted data from the pig and had most of it when the Intruder robot clamped onto it. B127MZ sent a self-destruct and the pig exploded and decimated the claw arm of the robot. While the Intruder absorbed that, B127MZ and M237B9 high-tailed it out to sea. They went as deep as they could as fast as they could and hoped the Intruder robot did not see them. They assumed that it did.