One month later. Two months and a half after planetfall.
4.5 kilometers north of the Base Complex Facility.
Julian calmly sat on the edge facing northside. At this height and view, he could see the entire desert plains far ahead and the zoning barrier's flickering transparent shield looming over like an umbrella.
Animals could be seen strolling along the waves of the vast desert while the birds perched on the branches, curiously observing everything in detail.
The EC-102 stood on the side, ready for further orders.
"Avina, does it ever occur to you that all of this is just a dream?", his question startled Avina, wondering what happened to the successor for asking such things.
The EC-102 shook its head, "Avina has no knowledge of what dreams are, successor."
'They are robots! How could they dream?!' Julian palmed his face, "Forget I asked then."
"But Avina do have an ambition."
Julian's interest was piqued, "Oh?"
The EC-102 raised its head and looked at the night sky. Down here, Avina could see the stars twinkling and some asteroid going about their paths.
"Avina have heard from Intellus of the Ancien Regime's glorious past, blazing through the skies and space without a match. Avina hopes that one day, Avina can glide on the skies as well, as free as the birds could have ever felt. Together with the successor and the rest of what is left from the Ancien Regime..."
Julian was dumbfounded that such an AI construct could hold dreams of their own. But who was he to blame? Aside from those dumb and dull military drones and robots who could only follow orders at best, he had not really met any other constructs who were comparably free like Avina.
Maybe Intellus was too but Julian despised his nerdy attitude. Despite his status as a star graduate, he wasn't a genius in everything, and he hated theory the most!
"So you want to conquer the skies, huh?", Julian found it amusing for some reason. He had also dreamed of taking on the stars just as his parents had done. Later did he find out how naive he was.
"Does the successor share a similar ambition?"
Julian chuckled, "Up there in the skies? I've already been up there so I don't have any reason to think about going back there anytime soon."
"But the successor did have an ambition of it once?"
"Yeah. My parents were my role models, very much the groundwork for it. If not for them, maybe I wouldn't be here now. Quite literally in the biological and role model aspect. As for my ambition right now...", melancholy flashed across his golden eyes. Such emotions were perfectly reflected on the downed MD-102.
"I was supposed to visit my parent's graveyards somewhere around last month but sadly the mission... I hardly do want to get to their resting place and pay my respects. That would be the biggest ambition I have right now..."
He brushed off that sad part and glanced at the EC-102 who solemnly looked at his face, "Why are you staring at me like that?"
The EC-102 suddenly knelt and cupped its hands together, "Avina apologizes for her impudence. Avina was unaware that the successor's progenitors were deceased and may have disrespected the successor."
Julian shook his head, "What are you apologizing for? It's nothing. I just feel bad that I can't visit my mom and dad for a while.", while inwardly cursing the Elite Terran Party for their shenanigans. Once he rebuilt this base and a powerful robot army, he was going to let them know what fear was.
The MD-102 stood up and coldly gleamed its high luminosity flashlight at the ridge below where a small mountain of dead beasts were piled up. "I can offer these beasts as sacrifices for the mean time. At the very least."
"Avina understands."
Julian turned around and waved his hands, "Let's go back. We're done clearing this area. We should be able to construct an additional resource gathering outpost safely."
Avina used the blue proto insects to harvest the mountain carcasses and followed Julian back to the nearest outpost. It was situated right above a small pit mine where two resource gatherers drilled through the earth, extracting the luthum ores hidden underneath.
Julian could hear the loud drilling operations despite being hundreds of meters away.
"Intellus, are the new building templates ready?"
The construction of network relay towers allowed Julian to access menus and communicate with his AI through the VNI without needing to be locally present in the Base Complex Facility.
"I am finalizing the template based on the terrain information given by Avina. This should take a few minutes, successor. Sending the CA-101 on your position."
Julian closed the connection and sat on a huge rock, calmly gazing at the cold and tall machine gun turret in front of him. Armed with .50 caliber ammunitions and an 8-barrel rotary machine gun boasting an explosive 8,000 rounds per minute, Julian had always seen how this guy took care of Stage 1 creatures all the way.
He was also mesmerized by the rocket launchers with one cylindrical compartment fitted on each side. He could feel the excitement from those 80mm rockets waiting to be fired upon the enemy.
Although he had to build additional AI Core buildings within each outpost to cater on the turrets' hardware and software requirements, the small cost could be said irrelevant in terms of the firepower this turret could provide for him.
The E-CONN would automatically transfer and reload ammunition into each defensive turret quickly and efficiently especially when Secturus would handle all the automated ammunition fabrication should the need arises.
A beep was suddenly transmitted onto his VNI. "What's up Intellus? Homework finished?"
"The Seismic Defense Protocol I research has been completed. The successor can now construct the Shockwave Tower and fabricate the shockwave weapon module on any combat class piloted mecha suits. Shall I notify Secturus of adapting our defenses with the inclusion of the new defense protocol?"
Julian grinned at Intellus' news. The way how his previous planetary explorations went about, underground creatures were the most difficult thing to deal with. The addition of the Shockwave Tower could easily curb off this threat.
"Do it. Just don't compromise the pit mines and underground resource deposits in the process."
"Orders received. Secturus has been notified."
"I have to remind the successor that the Seismic Defense Protocol I research is incomplete. Please find the rest of the technological blueprints as soon as possible to unlock additional technology upgrades and buildings."
"I will be integrating the seismic structural integrity upgrade to all structures once the successor finds a valuable source of these lacking materials."
His VNI received information about a synthetic material called cementrocine that requires a naturally-occurring material called sandweave. Aside from its non-newtonian properties and darker-than-usual color compared to regular sand, Julian did not garner much comprehension about what sandweave was.
"Proceeding with the Resource Gatherer Upgrade I research. ETA 100 days upon completion."
This upgrade could provide Julian the ability to extract uranium, titanium, and other special mineral deposits. If Avina could examine these mineral ores in advance with the EC-102's white proto insects, Intellus could use that data to analyze the ore's characteristics and appropriately design the resource gatherers to extract such resources, advancing the research progress by a significant percentage.
"Successor, this is Secturus. Detecting anomalies from 1 km radars. West, northwest, northeast, and eastern directions. ETA T-minus 20 minutes. Western and eastern anomalies approaching the Base Complex Facility."
"The Shockwave Towers already under prefab process. Will be deployed on areas under imminent danger."
Julian glanced at the map on his VNI and stood up, using the vertical plasma thruster to get into a higher ground. He was the least worried of the Base Complex Facility guarded by rows and columns of machine gun and rocket launcher turrets.
By cutting down the trees around the base, he had not only crafted his new PCS-MD-101 personal suit but also provided the turrets with farther vision than usual.
"Switch to thermal."
The dark environment made it hard for him to see anything. His mecha suit's visor changed, displaying all thermal activities within the MD-102's peripheral vision. He furrowed his eyes and wondered where these anomalies were.
Not long later, bundles of thermal signals flashed on his VNI. 600 meters west approaching from a slope near the canyon edge with a path leading into the resource gathering outpost.
"Secturus, are you reading this?"
"Affirmative. Crystal clear, successor."
The closer these anomalies were, the better Julian could identify them.
"Beasts. Our mining operations must have angered them. Can the turrets accurately acquire targets at that range?"
Six hundred meters at night was no joke. Julian knew that maximum effective firing range was one thing, environmental factors and gun handling were another. And a significant one at that.
"Affirmative. Adapting firing angle."
The machine gun turrets which were dumbly rotating like mindless tools suddenly faced the eastern direction and locked at the approaching targets hundreds of meters away.
"Fire when ready, Secturus."
"Affirmative. Engaging."
The barrels of the machine guns slowly spun at an incredible rate, letting out whirring sounds as it approached maximum rotation before letting out an endless burst of fire.
The new PCS-MC-101 quickly materialized a helmet and protected Julian's ears from the loud gunfire. Hundreds of .50 cal bullet casings dropped every second, being steadily replenished by ammunition transferred through the E-CONN. He could see a jump in energy usage, mostly coming from the fabrication buildings. The consumption was still incomparable to the overabundance of energy produced by the damaged advanced cold fusion reactor.
Thermal imaging did not present a very good scenery to Julian but seeing their bodies drop and fly away due to force put a smile on his dull face, observing the spectacle for a while.
"Detecting underground anomalies, northeast of your position. ETA T-minus 2 minutes."
Secturus' warning alarmed him and turned around to the eastern direction. The CA-101 could be seen flying from the south.
"Avina, ready to retrofit into the CA-101 when necessary. We have to repair any damages here at the quickest time."
He could feel the ground trembling incessantly despite being this far from the eastern perimeter.
"Secturus, I need those shockwave towers now!"
Secturus replied after a minute, "One shockwave tower completed. Deploying near your position."
The network relay tower stationed at the center of the pit mine below hummed in great motion. The digital yellow light could be seen solidfying into a concentrated area above the pit mine and right behind the concrete walls that barred the beasts from easily entering the area.
The digital outline of a tall tower appeared, with what looks like a 6-arched crown-like object on the top. Energy lines extended from each gap in the crown-shaped object heading into the tower's rectangular base.
The yellow proto insects stressfully buzzed here and there, attempting to rush the deployment of the shockwave tower before the beasts could charge in.
Half a minute passed and the tremors had come extremely close within a hundred meters from the resource gathering outpost.
At that moment, the digital outline of the shockwave tower faded and was now replaced by an enigmatic and domineering structure ready to lay waste underground.
The top of the crown-like object was actually a sensor now blinking with red light and releasing a low warning hum as energy charged into the 6 arches and quickly shifted down to the ground. The humming stopped and everything suddenly quietened.
Seismic waves travelled underground, directed to a hundred meters away on the eastern perimeter. It shook the earth for no more than a second and immediately stabilized as if nothing happened. In the count of three, multiple cracks plagued the earth as huge brown worms and burly moles with unusual large claws crawled out and wailed in pain.
The idling machine gun turrets locked on these vulnerable targets and shut their mouths forever.
When the other beasts from the east and northeast had arrived, the only thing that met them were the corpses of their mates and the unending deathly gunfire.
