Chapter 17: Drone

The drone stopped in front of Horizon, its blinkers glowing green, signalling that its objective had been completed. Horizon checked the storage tank in its back, a silver liquid filled to the brim. He nodded in satisfaction. This would be enough.

Again, a 3D hologram appeared in front of him, only this time it was smaller. It had two mechanical arms, attached to them a large drill for destroying rock. A laser rod was attached to the other appendage, this one used more for precision drilling. Horizon had opted for the ground type rather than the aerial type, as it would spend much less energy. It came with eight hydraulic legs for locomotion.

"Build," Horizon commanded the assembly drone.

The assembly drone sputtered into action. It rushed to the blueprint, instantly beginning to build it. Horizon watched this process. It would take a while since he wasn't personally building it. How's the analysis on mana? he asked his internal systems.

Horizon nodded. It was almost done; he may soon get an energy source. He turned back to the assembly drone, watching it assemble the miner drone. In the past, he would never bother with such common tasks, but at the moment this was all he could use.

After a while, the drone was ready, fully assembled. Horizon approached it, once again supplying his own energy as a power source. The drone sputtered, rising to its limbs. It faced Horizon, awaiting its instructions.

Horizon nodded. He turned back, sending instructions to the two drones to follow him. The drones turned and instantly began slowly following him outside the crashed ship. The assembly drone had taken apart a huge chunk of it in its mission to collect any useful metal from it.

The group walked through the darkness, Horizon leading, using his tendrils to move. The darkness was nothing to him. He looked to the night sky above him, littered with stars. Three moons shed their light on the planet. Horizon raised a tendril to the night sky, sending a signal.

This message affirmed his thoughts. It seemed that he was really far from the Omnisiah; that was the only plausible reason why he couldn't achieve communication. He needed to build that communication tower as soon as possible. This planet was too weird. Everything here seemed to defy physics—from humans conjuring fire and achieving strengths that they shouldn't be able to have due to their biology.

Horizon snapped out of his thoughts. His red eyes glinted in the darkness, scanning his surroundings. That's when he saw it. In the trees, a pack of monkeys could be seen, each staring at Horizon.

They were large, standing at around one meter tall. Grey fur covered most of their bodies, except their chests, which were bare. Their skin was black with red highlights. Their eyes were yellow in color, glinting in the night. There were around twenty of them, each hanging on trees by their muscular arms or their long tails.

Horizon swept through the memories he had collected from the adventurers he had slain. Apparently, these lifeforms were termed as golden-eyed baboons—a grade one beast. Suddenly the trees began to shake as another golden-eyed baboon appeared. It was much larger than the rest, standing at two meters tall. It was similar in appearance to the rest of the pack, only this one had a large silver mane on its neck and had four arms instead of two. It also had a third golden eye on its head—a third-grade beast.

The alpha. It seemed this was the next evolution for these creatures, Horizon thought.

The alpha began beating its chest, howling at Horizon and the two drones. It seemed they had invaded its territory. The rest of the pack began following along with the alpha, beating their chests and baring their teeth. Horizon looked at the pathetic display of dominance.

"Kill them," Horizon commanded his drones.

The night turned to life. The assembly drone, unleashing its low-caliber machine gun, flew high into the sky and began raining rounds onto the beasts. With screeches, they tried to escape, but it was futile. The missiles punctured through their bodies like a knife through butter.

The miner drone, meanwhile, focused on the alpha. It planted its eight arms into the ground. From its back, a large machine sprouted. It began to fire concentrated rounds at the alpha, who jumped into the air, dodging the incoming bullet fire. A couple of shots landed onto it, but it shrugged them off. It jumped high into the air, cupping its four fists, and with a roar, mana surged into its arms. It came at the ground with force, aiming to smash into the miner drone, which had turned into a turret.

Suddenly, before it could land, a silver tentacle interrupted, whipping its face, knocking it off-balance mid-air, causing it to crash to the ground. Before it could get up, a flurry of tendrils descended on it, impaling it multiple times, killing it near instantly. Horizon walked to it, staring at its mutilated corpse. He couldn't allow it to destroy the miner drone.The gunfire from the drones ceased.

Horizon reached into the chest of the alpha, grabbing a golden-colored fist-sized core. He immediately drained all its energy, watching it crumble into ash.

He turned to his drones, signalling them to continue to follow him. The drones confirmed, putting away their weapons. They continued forward, leaving behind a mess of bodies and bone, the pack of monkeys completely shredded apart.