With nothing left to fight, Max led the team back to the Cutter, and had the Android Mecha join the guard detail. Then he messaged Nico to join him to make new plans.
[Bring the Mecha inside where they won't attract as much attention. The Super Heavy units will be enough of a deterrent, and they can spread out now that we have both teams on ship defence. We might not have a solid lead on where the enemy was teleporting in from, but I think that with a bit of work, we can manage it.] He informed her.
[So, what is the final count? Did I win?] She replied, more interested in the important things.
[By nineteen kills.] Max informed her.
Nico silently celebrated in her Mecha, knowing that Max could hear her thoughts as she got the unit parked in its repair rack. Neither of them had taken any hull damage, but if they had time, they would still double-check it to make sure that there were no stress fractures, loose connections or other possible faults.
The new Titan Class units didn't have a lot of testing, and they had even less live combat time, so there was no telling where they might find an issue hidden within the design.
With the Mecha parked, the duo changed into Mobile Suits and climbed out to meet with the rest of the team to see how the data gathering by the drones was going.
The small ones were all in the nearby cities now, but the rest of the larger drones had spread out through the woods, looking for enemies to hunt. There was very little chance that they had scared away or killed everything in the region already, so Max had some hope that the drones might stumble across data that would tell them where all these warriors had come arrived on the planet.
"What's the good news?" Max asked as he walked onto the bridge of the Cutter.
"Not much so far, except that the programming for the smaller drones has an interesting glitch that might not be a glitch. We told it to prioritize the safety of intelligent and sentient species so that it would maximize the number of civilians rescued. But it keeps saving cats from the rubble before it goes for the Golden Legion civilians." The team leader replied.
Nico snickered at that, and pulled up some of the footage, including a crab drone lifting a piece of rubble off a trapped kitten before going back for the resident of the home. It even made sure to move the injured feline to a safe spot before going to the next rescue.
But the drones seemed to entirely ignore dogs.
It was a strange situation, and Nico's first thought was that the cats here might have more intelligence than the ones that she was familiar with. That would make them even more entertaining, and she quickly sent orders to bring a few of the more docile kittens back to them so they could test them properly with the advanced equipment aboard the Cutter.
Capturing one of the creatures was a simple task. They were intrigued by the drones, and happy to play with them, so when they were picked up, they rarely protested. The small drones picked out a pair of cats that weren't heavily injured and didn't attack the drones too violently. There was normally some level of attack during the play, but the drones were reasonably certain that these ones were not hostile.
The first attempt had to be aborted, as a Golden Legion security guard took exception to having his cat stolen, and was about to crush the crab when it relented and put the purring black feline back on the steps of the ruined house.
"Did you see that? That guard was MAD when he realized the drone was taking his cat. They must be excellent pets. I hope that nobody misses the one that we've got on the way back." One of the researchers noted.
"The chances of that seem pretty low, as there were no survivors in the building where it was found, but we can return it after studying it. We don't need to dissect it to scan it, so the cat won't be harmed." Nico reminded her.
"The drone has a follower." Max noted as the small crab exited the city and headed for the Cutter.
"Should we order evasive actions, or is the follower a friendly?" The team leader asked.
"I think it's a friendly. An adult male, from the Golden Legion. Unarmed and unarmoured. The video feed looks like he's just curious as to where the drone is taking the cat." Max replied.
"In that case, lure him here too, and we can talk to him about the planet and any strange things that might seem normal in this layer. The more we can learn about them, the better." Nico suggested.
"This is an adult male, correct? I don't know much about the species, and I would like to know that we're not abducting both a child and a pet from a neutral species." One of the team members asked.
They examined the scene for a few minutes and compared it to other members of the species in the city.
"Yes, it is definitely a male well past adulthood. Unusually pale, which would indicate excessive time spent in environmental armour, if not for the pudgy build and the generally terrible level of physical fitness. If his condition continues to deteriorate, we might need to send a drone to pick him up." Nico decided.
"Well, from what I know of the Golden Legion, they won't be mad if we keep the shut in." Max chuckled.
The Golden Legion was normally very proud, both of their skills and their physique, so seeing an out of shape member that wasn't injured was a rarity. Perhaps they weren't the same as Max's past life, but there was a chance that they just found some random guy who didn't fit the stereotype.
"You know what. Send a large drone for him. This is taking too long. He's sitting down to catch his breath again." Nico finally complained.
"On it boss."
