Cezar monitored James while the engineer worked on the treads responsible for his movement. The machine kept a close watch on its only potential ally in case James had been turned by the local populous and was secretly trying to figure out his weaknesses, or even worse, sabotage his beautiful frame. However, Cezar recognized that to a degree such slight deficits would be expected as James had integrated with the natives during his prolonged stay. Thus, some small missteps would have to be forgiven.
He was also weary because his processing systems were old. Despite a machine’s infinite stamina, eventually, their parts would erode just like everything else. In fact, he had been deactivated because he had been nearing the beginning of operating non-consistently. Fortunately, it seemed that the hostile presence which James had called the System was unable to infiltrate even his outdated viral defense systems that had not been updated ever since he had joined the classified retired mech list. While he had only been on it for a few years and had been in the process of being transported to long term storage before he landed here, technology evolved so quickly that he was surely vulnerable to newer exploits.
Upon being briefed of the current situation by James and reading the related files, the conditions for standing down had been met, and he had accepted James’s license. Of course, the related files had been a single page involving the discovery of new planets beyond the maps of humanity suggesting that he first contact high command before following the orders of the highest-ranked human available. While James was a mere mechanic, he was technically the only valid human… so Cezar assumed he would do. With the situation as explained by the human, Cezar’s assessed that the situation was valid and further discretion toward the hostile System was needed. With James acting as an intermediary, the [Captain] of the [Soldier]s that had been attacking Cezar since the storm had started was cajoled into letting Cezar travel to James’s base of operations.
It took three days for the storm to clear up and another week for James to finish the basic repairs required for minimum combat capabilities. Five of those days were spent rebuilding his automatic drone repair systems. Normally, these systems would be the most protected and least likely to break as they represented nearly half of his combat capability, but his arrival at this world had been chaotic and somehow shut down the systems as well as destroyed many of the parts. Nevertheless, with a bit of experimentation, James had found make-do parts from this world that could replace parts of the delicate circuitry and reboot the operating system responsible for controlling the drones. After receiving all the local maps of the area he could access and observing the overall layout of the land, Cezar escorted James and the three he kept in his company for a bit along their path while James detailed his new mission. According to Cezar’s observations, James’s closest companion was an animal-like creature that gave off a slightly unfathomable feeling. Cezar analyzed that it was a pet that performed mundane chores for James and chalked the mystery surrounding it toward the hostile System messing with his sensors. The next was another female, a warrior, although James called her a [Knight] for some reason. Cezar calculated that there was a high probability that James would breed with her, well within the 99% confidence interval. The last of James’s small group was a relative of the female according to the faint DNA tracings Cezar had tested. Obviously, James was seeking favor with the older man in order for a more proper integration with the female. Eventually, though, their paths diverged as the group left Cezar to fulfill the rituals of this strange land that would complete James’s breeding privileges with the female.
While Cezar was a bit puzzled about why the humans would undergo such trivial rites, he knew that this was common to humans even in the lands from which he came and not something worth looking into. In the end, he followed James’s instructions to travel south to where James had come from while the rest of the party traveled north.
Cezar avoided populated regions the best he could since James had revealed that there were some powerful Classers who could apparently rival top tier mecha warriors. With the modifications and upgrades of James’s blended technology, Cezar walked day and night, and on the first snow of the year, he finally escaped the No Man’s Lands and came to the border wall surrounding the Natusha Kingdom. Upon reading the message James had given the robot to deliver, they let him through without any trouble, and he continued on his journey until he came to a fortress-like wall spanning miles in each direction and served as the only conceivable entrance to the Capital. Cezar followed the directions that James had detailed to him and eventually found the shop belonging to James without more than a few confrontations with the local guards. Luckily, each time, the slip of paper James had given him with a golden crown imprinted on it had made these foolish natives bow down and get out of his way. Cezar figured James must’ve installed a modicum of fear into this native populace given his natural technological superiority. In the back, he found the garage door that James had mentioned a being called Jeffry frequently used. It was easily big enough to let him through and after inputting the gate code, the door rumbled and slid open.
Once inside, he entered standby mode, but to his surprise, something else rather small had followed him without his noticing. Aiming a turret at this blue scaled creature, Cezar reviewed the explanations James had given him and recognized this with a 95% probability as being James’s guard dog. While it was far smaller than what James had described, Cezar figured that James must’ve merely exaggerated the ferocity of this guardian as humans often did. Still, just to be safe, Cezar calculated his combat victory odds. Satisfied with the result, Cezar still kept his scanners on the creature in case any sudden action became necessary. Then, Cezar completed the orders he had received.
The special container for important packages opened on his chest, revealing a piece of hard candy, and Jeffry, the guard dog, sniffed it in joy before licking it up and curling up on the mattress, his tail hitting the door switch to close it.
Ignoring the descending garage door, Cezar continued assessing his surroundings after that. The first thing he noticed was a twentieth-century M1 Abraham USA army tank. By the look of its tracks, it too had had similar issues to what he had experienced when he first came to this world, which explained why James had known how to quickly fix the issue. Next, there was a workstation. On it were various crystals and blueprints for things, mostly mundane objects like telephones and other basic technologies. Deciding against venturing into the darkness because James had no doubt prepared traps again unwary trespassers, Cezar decided to exercise care and check all his sensors for any hints of danger. After collecting all the data he could, Cezar went to work.
