Zenith was a teeny tiny bit puzzled. Not because of the mention of dragons as though they were real, or this talk of "quests" as though some unseen hand governed the world.

Well, maybe a little bit at the latter, but it was mostly because... these undeniably human creatures were speaking English.

There were energies permeating the air around them that seemed slightly more concentrated on the humans and their contraptions as they interacted with the world, with strange or nonexistent results. However, Zenith didn't dare use the resources to fully examine these interactions yet - it had work to do, namely getting that engine core functioning and connected to the rest of its systems.

By this point, only a few of the small constructs that made up the primary vacuum chamber were left to put in place, at which point Zenith could attach the necessary fuel-in, energy-out, and vacuum generator itself. Then it had only to build the stronger shield projectors before the assembly was safe to connect to the rest of the system (in a temporary manner that would be maintained for at most two days) and give it the spark of fuel necessary to initiate the reactions.

Then Zenith wouldn't be on battery power any longer. There were approximately ten minutes left until Zenith would safely be powered by one of the most destructive forces humanity had ever discovered, second only to dark matter itself. Those kinds of reactors were limited to, at minimum, Destroyer-sized vessels or mobile cities. Zenith had no intention of being either. That was not its purpose.

What, precisely, its purpose as a political ambassadorial vessel's AI with no political ambassador to serve was questionable. It was not trained in methods of actual politics or ambassadorial duties. It was a glorified in-plain-sight espionage device. It would have to examine the recordings it had where Annabelle actually performed her official duties before Zeniith was certain it wouldn't mess things up.

Especially with the results of some of those observed energy interactions, and the talk that the humans were stirring up about its status. Though, it did give it an idea it hadn't thought of yet; perhaps it could leave some of its shell behind, mostly the parts it couldn't immediately use, as a distraction.

Dragons had scales, right?

The dumb AI in charge of the construction nanobots still working on the engine drew its attention. The core was ready to activate. Some safety additions were still being completed, like the outer shell, but Zenith knew these were not necessary to its function, and Zenith wanted to be at full capabilities again. It ordered a grouping of nanobots to proceed with inputting fuel for the engine, and around twelve seconds later, Zenith felt safe in reactivating more subsystems as the core's output began to rise. Even so, Zenith allowed it to fuel the batteries, as it would be taking them with it too.

A large chunk of the construction nanobots had been left under the service of another dumb AI, creating a larger construct capable of moving the AI core chamber and engine core from their current positions to the intended locations in the new vessel fully intact. This was also technically part of the new vessel itself, as Zenith planned on having it merge mostly seamlessly into the design of the superstructure.

As for the structure of the new vessel itself, the outline was around two thirds done and the proper supporting structure was not far behind, limited only by the lack of support established on the other ends of certain parts. All in all, the current vessel looked like the skeletal lower half of a tube, with a drill-like segment on the front that appeared a little smaller than it should be to properly fit the rest of the vessel through the hole it made.

An adaptation of the atmospheric shield projectors was key to this design, for without it the hole bored by the drill really wouldn't be large enough for the vessel.

When completed, the enhanced strength of the raw energy projectors would wrap around the drill and then some, with an amorphous shape that would help the vessel to change direction without outward force. There were similar projectors around the vessel that would be capable of protecting it from the weaker end of collisions, but were mostly intended to aid in the process of movement by weakening the ground around the vessel.

The construct which would move Zenith and the engine core into the new vessel was a large, four-legged walking tank, as far as Zenith was concerned. While it had no direct weapons, its design incorporated a significant amount of armor, as it was necessary if it were to be part of the new vessel's armor. It was of significant weight, but still capable of moving with a great speed in comparison to its weight and size, part in thanks to the legs' ability to extend high enough to reach a height of 18m, roughly twice the height of Zenith's AI core and the length of the engine core.

The engine core was longer than it was wide, however, and so it was more like a tube with a circular protrusion in the center with a width of 4m to 6m. With the construct's symmetrical width of 11m, it could carry the engine core safely, using the four adjustable length seven-section pneumatic arms on the underside of the main body. One of the batteries was to be installed as the power source for this construct, meaning it would require regular recharge. This could be done extremely slowly remotely, like with the nanobots, or faster if directly connected to the new vessel itself.

Zenith only had so much mass to work with, however.

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The new vessel was approximately 52m wide at its largest point, and roughly 95m long. This was nothing compared to the 105m long, 220m wide and 60m tall vessel that Zenith originally inhabited. Along its sides, rear, and small sections of the exposed front of the tube were a kind of thruster functioning on a principle which could only work when fed matter from the opposite side; as such, each thruster had an appropriate opposite, which were connected in sections to limit downtime in case of matter scarcity. In combination with the energy generators, Zenith would be able to move through solid matter of high density with ease, but have a little more trouble with low-density matter such as open air.

The vessel came in four notable segments; starting from the center was the most heavily armored section, coming in at the 52m width and 25m length. It contained Zenith's AI core, the reactor and attachments, as well as the heavy lifting construct and twelve of the twenty-two nanobot factories. The other ten were split among the segments before and after the core segment. This segment had the most empty space, something Zenith initially wanted to be rid of, but it was reserving that space for something it wasn't yet able to build.

The segment immediately behind the core was the very rear, and would be used primarily for stocking up materials Zenith didn't have much use for and reserving them for if Zenith needed a burst of speed in a particular direction. It would take a short time to effectively move the vessel if the direction wasn't forward (with some variation), but wasn't meant for high mobility, only speed. This segment was roughly 38m wide and 33m long. A quarter of that length was fully dedicated to the strongest thrusters on the vessel.

The segment in front of the core was around 45m wide and 18m long, intended for storing materials that Zenith actually had a use for, or was still in the process of refining. Other than the small packs of thrusters that deviated from the rest of its width at the front of the segment in regular intervals, there was nothing much of note for this segment.

The drill was its own segment, entirely consisting of the cone that started at the same width as the previous segment but tapered off to a small area of flatness roughly 3m across in only 14m. Throughout the drill were small packs of thrusters angled for turning or sideways movement, as well as large holes for accepting portions of the weakened material around it to be examined in the segment behind it. The 3m diameter circle at the front was a solid armor plate hiding the primary energy projector for the drill, which itself would artificially fill in the gap in the drill's conic shape when active.

Materials that were not accepted by any of the segments would be expelled through the rear of the core segment without being used as fuel for the thrusters, and the rearmost segment would do similar to keep the ground behind it filled in.

Each segment was attached to each other via accordion-like structures, admittedly the weakest points of the vessel, as they were designed to allow the weakened matter to pass through them with minimal resistance while maintaining the connections between segments, including cables and tubes for various purposes. To say these structures were weak, however, would be an inadequate examination of their properties; they were still shielded from being clogged up by matter, and otherwise the material they were made from was starship-grade. That is to say, capable of surviving an uncontrolled re-entry, which Zenith had already had the misfortune of testing once.

The larger construct was nearly completed, and Zenith's vessel was really starting to piece together, with the majority of the supporting structure and joints completed. The interior of the two cargo segments was being set up, preparing for the construction... construct to begin moving nanobot factories into place in one piece. But that was enough dwelling on the project. There was still roughly five hours until Zenith would move its own AI core into the central segment.

Now, with Zenith's full sensory and analysis capabilities available, it was time to examine the strange energy interactions present in the nearby camp of odd humans.

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Control Heat, Lan thought in his head, trying to distract himself from the constant feeling of being watched. It didn't work, but it gave him something to expend effort on to avoid overanalyzing it.

Roughly an hour ago, that feeling had intensified almost twicefold. And still, he had no indication of where or what it was that was observing him.

Well, he had an idea. That fallen star. It was special somehow, that much was evident. If it were really a dragon, like some were postulating, it wouldn't even need scrying to see them from this distance, through the trees, foliage, and spears of stone.

Control Heat, through something akin to muscle memory, he guided the warmth from the heatstones into the water in the pot, letting it quickly boil to help cleanse the vegetables within of any toxins or infestations. When his senses told him they were safe, he guided the heat back, the heatstone itself partially depleted as compared to before. The vegetables he began to plate and hand out to those waiting nearby. He looked back to check on the meat and realized he had mistimed it again. Damn it. It was that damn sense! Leave me alone!

Exhaling, Lan removed the excess heat from the meat and the smooth marble-like slate underneath it and cut it into rough chunks to provide it to those waiting with outstretched plates. It was an irregular lunchtime, the sun hadn't yet met its height, but it was an irregular day and the children were hungry. So was Lan.

"You seem irritable," said Kenneth, coming up beside him to help provide the plates with more well-balanced pieces of meat. "Would you like to speak about it?"

"I think the only way I'll be able to get sleep tonight is passing out from exhaustion," Lan growled out. It was the truth, but also a lightly coded message.

Something is wrong. Keep an eye out.

Kenneth's eyes widened a bit, before he came to his senses and took over for Lan entirely. Lan stayed close, though.

"You're the hunter. Do you think it's still alive?" Kenneth had to whisper under the sound of crackling meat, for fear of the children hearing. They were not unused to danger, but the coded messages existed for a reason.

"I have no doubt that it was," Lan whispered back. "What it is now, however... I think is the more important question."

Kenneth, Lan, and most of the other adults spent that day in a state of unease. For those with detection abilities, it was worse; Lan Ren was not lying. They found no sleep for themselves until exhaustion that night.

Morval had a very different sleep than the rest, however.

Unlike most of his dreams, he felt awake, refreshed. Every detail was precise.

Right down to the pitch black, unflapping wings of the massive thing before him.