The trip back to the Small girls dwelling was surprisingly easy. The hardest part was getting out of the collapsed cave entrance. The hole was big enough for the bot to fit through though the uneven and large slabs of rock half buried in earth didn't make it easy to get out. He would have to secure the entrance and clear it out to make getting in and out more easily accessible. Yet another thing to just sic his ants at once he had a few idle. That wouldn't be anytime soon. Th-though if he was required to start sending armed units outside, he have to fast track the the construction. For the moment though digging down then clearing out where his first priorities. With his second priority being exploring the surrounding area. He’d have to design some sort of cheap flying unit for that, but that could wait until he had a decent supply of ants or a second fabrication bay. However, as things stood, he wo-ould have just been happy with one fully functional fabrication bay. He was pulled out of his thoughts and complaints about logistics as they reached the little ones' dwelling. To his surprise and approval, it was a small well defended village surrounded by large walls. Primitive but it would keep most beasts out. Unfortunately, an army of beasts were currently besieging said walls, and its defenders were holding them off well enough except for the flying bats. Where they bats? They were the size of a small dog. Regardless, the humans were under attack and that could not stand!

As the small girl hid behind a tree the bot charged forward once it was clear of the tree line it converted into turret mode. A small metal spike was injected from the bot’s undercarriage into the ground anchoring it. The wing cover folded up to form the turret shield. While the tank treads would allow it to spin well the spike would keep it in place and stable.

‘The bot has limited ammo, but its fusion cell can replenish its energy supply with time. So, while it still has the power to I’ll use its laser sniper to pick off the most egregious targets starting with the airborne units.’

Small bolts of focus light picked the bats out of the air one by one. A few large wolves noticed the bot and it had to turn its gun on them. Any creature that came close was systematically eliminated when it wasn't dealing with any of its attackers it was picking off air units. This took hours and was only made more annoying with the introduction of armored units. In the Form of those those giant beetles from earlier. Which explained why he had yet to encounter any of the larger ones, they were all up here trying to attack the humans. Thankfully with the turret picking off most of the air units, it allowed the defenders to start pushing the beast back. Unfortunately, by this time the bot had to be more reserved with its shots as it was running low on power. Though If push came to shove it could use its ballistic weapons.

With the humans no longer being harassed by the air units their Archers started to pick off the beasts on the ground. With their walls holding back the wolves the only real remaining threat was the beetles which the bot was targeting every time it could make a shot. Unlike the bats that could be taken down with a single shot the beetles high durability allowed them to withstand multiple hits. On top of that the larger ones could climb up the walls to attack the defenders directly. Though only the larger ones the defenders had apparently turned to using hot oil. Which not only made the walls hard to climb but cooked the smaller ones in their shells before they could make it more than halfway up. By the end of it, there was a full minute between each of the bot's shots having completely drained any form of reserved power. Thankfully it hadn't managed to get off more than six shots in this mode before the siege broke what was left of the wolves and beetles retreated the defenders’ launching arrows at them. With the bot only managing to get off two shots before they were out of range.

Once Austin was sure they weren't coming back he converted the bought back from turret mode. Mostly because he needed to catch back up with the little girl who was already heading for the village walls. What followed next was a lot of incoherent shouting where he finally got the name of the little girl Sophia. However, that wasn't all that useful when it was made abundantly clear by an arrow nearly hitting his bot that he was not going to be allowed into the village. The little girl waved at his bot before walking off the heavy wooden door of the village's gate closing with a loud thud behind her. Annoyed he pulled the bot back finding a good spot under a tree where he'd have not only a good line of sight of the village's main entrance but also a good line of sight of the direction from which the beast had retreated to. Once parked, he lowered the spike securing the bot before turning his attention back to what was left of his ship.

Several rooms had been opened back up and he had already begun emptying out the Armory and several supply rooms. Judging by the path of the sun across the sky from the time he had been outside it would probably take another day or two before he got the new fabrication bay up and running. Strangely the day night cycle on this planet was close to Earth with a twenty-six-hour daily cycle. Judging by the barely higher gravity than Earth the planet was also likely larger than Earth but not by much, well relatively speaking. Regardless of these discoveries he still needed more ants especially since he, concluded that the ship must have broken apart far worse than he had originally assumed. Even accounting for the three sections of the ship he currently could con-connect to, I be it barely. Accounted for less than one third of the original ship. Most of what he had was the reinforced survival block he had jerry rigged together to increase his chances of remaining functional in being able to rebuild in a truly disastrous scenario. He needed a proper scout unit. Not only to survey the local terrain in hopes of finding more sections of the ship but also to locate any additional human settlements. As well as the source of these creatures that kept attacking both him and the humans.

He had managed to push The Beatles out of the ship unfortunately they had retreated into some sort of underground cavern system. He had two turrets defending the hole in the ship's wall that they had come in from but there was quite a sizable drop between the hole and the base of the cavern. He needed something that could fly to not only explore the cave but also deliver units to the caverns below. Currently, his aunts were tunneling from the lowest point he had access to toward the estimated bottom of the cavern. A task that would take another week of digging to accomplish. So, he was digging through his archive trying to design a suitable unit he had plenty of aerial drones that could do the job easily enough but since it was going to be going outside it needed to resemble some form of local wildlife. He’d probably be sticking with the theme of insects as well. He wasn't really sure how that had happened. The ants as he had self dubbed them had mostly just been named as such for their function rather than their form. However, like The Beatles, they were probably going to be seen by the locals. He didn't want to freak them out with something so truly alien.

Meanwhile, inside the village, Sophia was simultaneously being praised for the herbs she had gathered and being scolded for being gone from the village for so long. As well as being interrogated for bringing back the strange Beatle that helped them fight off the wave from the nearby dungeon. No one quite knew where the dungeon was yet other than that there had to be one. Monsters didn't attack in unison like that unless they were part of a wave which also explained why there were so many monsters in the area recently. While Sophia was at first pleased to learn she would in fact be receiving a reward from the village. She was heartbroken to find out that getting her mother treatment was no longer an option. While the healing herbs would be useful, the village would be prioritizing the wounded from the attack, more importantly, the defenders first and there wasn't enough herbs to go around. She clenched her little fists and was about to start screaming when she remembered the strange metal beetle that had tried to follow her into the village. Maybe she could get it to follow her back out in the forest to gather more herbs. Though she was definitely not getting out again until people calmed down. She'd have to wait at least a day maybe more.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Before she could bring up her idea of working with the beetle to the town guards. She was informed by one of the guards that two guards would be going out with her tomorrow and if she could in fact get the beetle's assistance, she would be allowed to continue to gather herbs. This had her a little worried as if the village was willing to let her leave when it was this dangerous. They must have been really desperate to send her out to do something she knew she would be scolded for any other time.

She went to go see her mother in the healer's Hut. According to the healer she had been awake for several hours today slipping in and out of consciousness though never staying awake for long. The herbs she had been gathering were the standard herbs used for healing potions and salves even if they weren't as good as specialized medicines. Despite that even simply eating the raw herb improved one's health. She had heard stories of nobles in cities having chefs mixing the herbs into their dishes to allow the nobles to live healthy long lives with little effort. Part of her figured it had to be true but to have so much just boggled her mind. After she visited with her mother, she returned home.

Her house was small, it was one of the smallest in the village only big enough to fit two small rooms. The front was where her mother worked. It wasn't even a true shop it was a living room that had been converted into a makeshift workplace. There were several examples of her mother's handy work on display here along with many more incomplete projects. The back room held a single bed where both she and her mother slept and stored all the fabrics and products that couldn't go into the front room. The house felt so quiet and empty without her mother there. She knew that at one point she had had both a father and two siblings, a sister and a brother. She had never met her father or brother, they had both been drafted for war while her mother was still pregnant with her. She could remember her sister sometimes, but she had been dragged off in an orc raid and they never found her. Apparently, the Kingdom army had wiped out the orcs that attacked them but done little to return their stolen property. When the messenger finally came it turned out that the orcs had been smart enough only to attack human villages and the adults that ran the Kingdom cared little for the humans other than their ability as cheap labor. It was only when it was discovered that the local harvests were being impacted and could have led to a small local famine that would have affected only at least one or two of the elven cities did they act. The only reason she knew all this was because the grown ups had all been furious when they found out.

She’d never met an elf, but she knew she didn't like them, and they didn't like humans. They didn't treat humans well and the only reason they didn't keep human slaves was they thought slavery was beneath them. They might as well have done so anyway for how they treated them. Thinking about all of this just made her angrier and angrier. Since she was finally alone, she let all the fear, anger, and sadness she had been feeling for the past few days boil over. She spent the rest of the night screaming and crying into her pillow.

The next morning was met with an extremely unusual sight. Sometime during the night, a large and very fluffy moth like creature the size of a small dog had taken up residence in the tree above Austins drone. He kept getting notices about the wildlife interacting with his drone. The moth would periodically nap on snuggle and he believed tried to groom the bot this however allowed him to get several good scans of it. These moths seemed to be attracted to the high wave EMF bandwidth frequencies he was using to transmit. The signals didn’t seem harmful, it just made the moth friendly for some reason. His best assumption was the moths seemed to use them to communicate over long distances.

A few hours after the sun came up a small group of humans approached his bot. The small female child he had helped had returned along with two of what he assumed regards in crude armor. Mostly made of leather with a few metal plates to cover vital regions along with metal Pikes in hand.

When they approached the moth became defensive of his bot. Sitting on top of it and spreading its wings to look larger. He had been worried for half a second when he detected a weird energy signature close to what he had seen in The Beatles but nowhere near as powerful. He realized it was an intimidation tactic. When the colorful eye like patterns on the moth's wings had begun to glow a faint blue. Apparently, whatever this energy it was producing was not only part of its EMF communication method but was also used as a form of bioluminescence. The moth was starting to turn out to be a fa-fascinating little creature. The two guards seemed to step back but the girl gave off a similar energy spike. This had him on high alert humans couldn't do that. At at least none of the ones with his records could he had no idea how long he had been buried. For all he knew it could be a natural reaction to adaptation to their new environment he really needed a blood sample to be sure and to run several scans on the girl. As soon as the energy within her had spiked it was accompanied by a faint blue glow in her irises. Before the moth jumped onto her, it's fluffy body colliding harmlessly with her face still it was enough to knock her down. Austin almost sprung into action when he realized what it was doing was harmlessly grooming her.

A few minutes prior Sofia was absolutely baffled at the scene before her. She Had gotten a front row seat to the power of this strange beetle as it fought to its own exhaustion using its strange magic to kill beast after beast. The fact that it could use magic was another concern altogether. Magical beasts were rare outside of dungeons and it was rare for them to be able to actually cast magic.

Despite The beetle's strange and violent actions the day before, a lunar moth a creature famous for its gentle nature and healing abilities was grooming it. Lunar moth's strange magical properties gave them a supernatural ability to detect one's true nature. Allowing them to detect threats and predators in their environment. So those with violent or cruel natures they would avoid. However, those with gentle or kind natures usually young children would be let near. They were even kept as pets by some Saints and priestesses. To see the literal living embodiment of gentleness and purity grooming the armored shell of such a violent beast was baffling, to say the least. Even the guards who had been sent with her were shocked. Most people couldn't get within thirty feet of a lunar moth without them flying off. All three of them had stopped giving them room as it was considered a bad omen to scare them off or remove them purposely. After watching the interaction between the two for a few minutes it became clear despite the lunar moth being mostly nocturnal it wasn't going anywhere. She needed to try and get the beetle's assistance if she was going to be able to gather any herbs today. Plus, if the lunar moth started following it around maybe she could convince the beetle to follow her to her mother. Slowly and quietly, she took a step forward then another and another. When one of the guards noticed her and had reached out to stop her only to be stopped by the other. She hadn’t noticed this as she was too focused on the pounding of her heart in her ears. As she couldn't help but compare this whole scene to like that of something out of the storybooks the town mage would sometimes read aloud on slow winter days. Before she knew it, she found herself only a few steps away from the beetle when she saw the moth spread its wings. They began to glow but not the soft green of healing magic but a bright blue like what she saw from the town mage whenever she cast one of her spells. Wait could lunar moths cast spells she was about to bolt and run when she felt a warmness in her chest. Her eyes stung slightly as the glow in the moth's wings seemed to fade leaving the two just staring at each other for half a second. Before with a small Eep she found herself falling to the ground when the shockingly soft and fluffy ball of affection had turned on her. She heard the clatter of metal as the guards started to bolt forward only to stop when she started giggling uncontrollably. The soft fluffy limbs of the moth brushed against her skin tickling her into submission. The other reason they had stopped was made clear when the moth was lifted off her much to its annoyance though. Two strange and otherworldly arms had folded out of the beetle's armored shell and picked them up off her. She had seen the shell open when the beetle had used its strange Stinger to unleash powerful magic to save her village. This time it simply set the moth down in her lap before retracting the arms into its shell. there was a small grown from its joints as it rose to its feet. Only to sit next to her in the sun it's cool black metal shell contrasting with the warm soft ball of fluff that was the lunar moth in her lap. She simply turned to look at her two guards only to see their absolute bafflement as she began to subconsciously run her fingers through the soft fluff of the moth.

As it chittered happily at her touch she couldn't help but be baffled by just how weird her life had become.