"I am detecting hostile intent from an unknown creature. Analyzing possible actions."
The AMR-MD-101's purplish eyelights incessantly blinked as it stared at the forming humanoid sand not far away from its position.
The passing breeze accentuated the cold atmosphere forming in the desolate desert.
The earthen claws shone again, revealing its bloodlust to the automaton who warily stared at its unnatural transformation.
"Threat detected. Danger level is unquantifiable for the moment... Engaging at 30% power."
The AMR's thrusters boomed once, propelling him diagonally to the left. The sand elemental followed, attempting to face it head-on.
The AMR's thrusters blasted once again, halting its diagonal motion, and blasted once more, altering its direction to the right. The abrupt shifting of motion confused the sand elemental, unable to stabilize itself on time.
The AMR blasted its thrusters twice again, moving straight at the dumbfounded sand elemental. Its metallic fist passed through its coarse body, proving unharmful to the AMR's adversary.
The sand elemental swiped both of its claws and managed to scratch the chest of the retreating AMR.
"Anomaly detected. Physical impact is ineffective. The biological structure of the creature cannot be specifically identified. Danger level increased. Engaging at 50% power..."
The AMR boosted to the face of the sand elemental and punched again. Its purplish eyes blinked twice as its left forearm trembled for a moment before releasing a high-frequency EM wave on a cone-shaped area in front of it.
The sand elemental retaliated with a swipe of its sharp earth claws.
The latter was suppressed by the powerful EM wave, having most of its sand body disintegrate to the ground.
A clear hexagonal crystal was left behind the sand elemental's wake. The AMR tried to grab it, but a small section of sand rose and quickly took it from the AMR's grasp.
The AMR retreated, witnessing the reformation of the sand elemental once again.
"Anomaly detected. Hexagonal crystal in the unknown creature's body. The creature is capable of structural regeneration. Regeneration speed is moderate. Danger level increased. Engaging at 75% power..."
The sand elemental stared dazedly at the afterimage of its adversary after hearing two loud booms. Then it realized that the robot had moved to its left side, far too late for the sand elemental to do anything and react.
The hexagonal crystal core of the sand elemental trembled, sensing danger from the AMR's attack. Its host stood there idly as the AMR's left palm struck its chest.
The AMR stopped its motion before releasing another powerful EM wave that blew the sand away. It did not leave unscathed either as the left forearm produced sparks from the exposed wiring.
The AMR raised its left arm, looking at the yellow proto insects buzzing around as they regenerated the compromised components.
The hexagonal crystal floated again, immediately taken away by the AMR.
"Unidentified material acquired. Composition is unknown. Function is unclear. Retrieving for research purposes."
It backed away, afraid that the sand elemental might regenerate and snatch the hexagonal crystal. After seeing that nothing moved for a while, the AMR blankly stood in its position while its sensors picked up something in the distance.
Two chambers on its top shoulders popped up, releasing a red mist that traveled further up north.
"Anomaly detected. Northern direction, 5 kilometers ahead. Energy and radiation readings are increasing. Red proto insect count is slowly decreasing."
The small pinging red dots on the AMR's frame vanished one by one until nothing was left. The AMR's 'programming' kicked in, alerting it of the unknown danger.
"Red proto insects annihilated. Danger level is extreme. Retreating to the nearest outpost."
The AMR-MD-101 blasted into the air and left a trailless path back to the base.
...
"Did you see that Tasha?" Julian smirked at Tasha's dumbfounded face.
In front of them was a digital screen, showing the AMR's vision while battling the sand elemental.
"Impossible! How did you train this robot?!" Tasha couldn't help her face twitch in doubt.
"It's not a robot, an automaton! Automaton!" Julian raised his left index finger and corrected Tasha.
She rolled her eyes. "So what? It's still a robot. You haven't answered my question either! How come this one has good close combat fighting skills?"
"You can ask Intellus about that, but I guess you wouldn't believe him either way." he shrugged.
"Damn right I won't!" she said, gritting her teeth.
Who could blame her? Nature elementals were very strange, and rarely seen anomalies in the world.
Aside from psionics and the truly blessed ones, Tasha's memory couldn't recall any event of a "physical fighter" defeating and even harvesting the core of a nature elemental.
At least not in a realm and power level this low.
"Still keeping it up? Doesn't matter." Julian waved his hands, ignoring Tasha's glare. "Intellus, the AMR should have synchronized the data with you now. You think you have time to analyze it?"
Intellus' portrait appears on his VNI, seemingly having wider digital eyes than before.
"It is impossible to analyze the unknown material with the workload I currently have, successor, unless you will say otherwise."
Julian rubbed his chin. "Well, that thing's not of a high priority anyway. What about Hesab? Think he can do that in your place?"
Intellus nodded. "We can try, successor. He is very idle these last few days."
Julian sighed, lamenting about Hesab's light workload.
If Hesab could only contribute as much as Intellus in the field of research projects, maybe Julian would've amassed a large army of automatons backed by a dependable and stable economic foundation.
Nevertheless, the AMR's material structure regeneration, stealth capabilities, and high radioactive resistance came from Hesab's research, especially the last one which was a result of the countless simulations and re-creation of the golden scorpion.
"Oh, yeah." Julian's mind received a jolt. "I almost forgot about this. The laser and ballistic rifles, you think that Hesab can go and have a look at it? You know, maybe he could find a way to make these things perform better against some creatures..."
"That is an interesting idea, successor." Intellus' eyes flickered. "The results of these experiments could affect the progress of our ballistic and energy ammunition research projects."
Tasha chuckled on the side.
Julian glared at her, brows furrowed. "What's funny, Tasha?"
"Nothing, successor." she turned around, avoiding Julian's gaze at all costs. She did not expect that Julian would easily forget a simple thing: weaponry research.
"What's her problem anyway? Laughing like that out of nowhere."
Intellus blankly looked at his successor, wondering if he should tell this dense successor what Tasha was thinking about.
After some careful 'calculations', he ascertained to not do so. He was unsure what Tasha was thinking either, though he had a hunch that she was making fun of Julian whatsoever.
"Then I will inform Hesab of his new responsibilities, successor. Should I involve the infantry automatons as well?"
"The Tier 0s are enough. Get Tiger 3, Eagle 2, and Fox 2 squads on the roll. The rest will be on patrol, while the new Tier 1s will explore for a bit." Julian said while looking at the vast desert far north.
Despite the 75-kilometer gap between the Federation outpost and the base, he could not see the end of such a barren environment.
He wondered about the radiation anomaly that the AMR recorded earlier.
Should he explore it, or should he not?
Aside from the genetic mutations of creatures, anomalies were another random thing that anyone would encounter in their explorations.
Their presence could imply that a valuable resource was nearby, or a life-threatening phenomenon would await anyone unlucky enough to stumble upon them.
The radiation anomaly the AMR detected would easily fall on the latter one. Julian was sure about it.
"Intellus, you said that radiation resistance is an attribute that any creature has, yeah? Is there a way I can increase it?"
"That would be quite a difficult task, successor." Intellus shook his head. "To increase the radioactive resistance of a creature like yourself, I, and Unducel, would have to conduct a total body reconstruction to integrate some genetic characteristics into your being. Hesab may also need to go through several simulations to see if there is a plausible way to mutate your body positively when exposed to high levels of radiation, with little to no probability of manifesting side effects."
A research project popped up on his VNI.
There was something else too; a portrait of a digital gene icon with linked and broken bases, looking like an upside-down zipper.
Body Reconstruction I. A highly specialized research that could give Julian, or rather Hesab, Intellus, and Unducel, the means to unlock more of the mysteries surrounding the biological characteristics and structure of every organic entity.
"You're telling me that Hesab could know and do more in the simulations, and Unducel can help me reconstruct my body if I wish?"
"That would be a simple explanation of what this research can do if it is finished, successor," Intellus added.
Julian closed his eyes, thinking of reviving himself should his body be dismembered during a rough conflict.
'That is so reassuring, but it is far too early to think about this right now...'
He reopened his eyes, staring at Intellus' portrait again, "Remind me when will your current research project finish?"
"It should be finished in a month or so, successor. The Hermes spacecraft has given me breakthroughs in aerial machinery structural design."
Julian shook his head and sighed.
He wondered why Intellus took time to 'analyze' the Hermes spacecraft. To think that Intellus used it as a headstart for the Aerial Machinery I research; Julian couldn't be more impressed.
"A month, huh..." his eyes twitched.
It has been eight months since he fell into this planet and was stuck with a legacy he accidentally claimed; five months after the previous Federation patrol landed and was 'lost' somewhere around the planet.
A month later, another Federation patrol may come over; a larger, better, and stronger patrol than Captain Rooks. Then there was that other matter...
"Are you afraid, successor?" Intellus naively asked.
"Afraid? More than just being afraid. You haven't forgotten about Tasha's master, did you?"
"The Umbra Maestro?"
Julian nodded "He has not yet come now, but if the Authority spreads that one of the Lone Stars has died here, I'm afraid we won't be able to explain ourselves when the time comes."
"Her master should know that she is still alive, successor," Intellus argued. "The Federation's propaganda should not easily deceive him."
A being of that power and position should have known the danger when they sent Tasha here. For Intellus, it would be ridiculous for such a godlike existence to easily make a blundering move like that.
Julian gave Intellus a pitying look, knowing that Intellus still had a lot to learn about.
"I'm not concerned about him, Intellus. I'm concerned about the other lone stars and some interested parties... You never know how some silly rumor would become a serious note in the blink of an eye..."
"Then what shall we do, successor?"
"Just continue with what we've agreed three months ago. Warfare and economic development. Try to focus all of your resources on that aerial research. We'll need it earlier than we've imagined."
Expansion was Julian's greatest worry ever since the beginning though its progress was heavily limited by his lack of technological advancement.
Although Planet Origin remained 'unowned', that would not be the case for long.
He had to assimilate as much of the Planet's territory before the big guys would come over and take everything for themselves.
