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10. Drone Hunting

It was morning, although the only way Ora could tell was because of her internal clock stating it was 7 AM. Noticing that Corby was still asleep, she climbed onto his chest and stared at his face. He didn't react to her claws poking his skin, so she supposed this meant he was comfortable with her touching him. She turned around and stared at the rest of his body, which was no longer covered by the blanket. After turning back to see his face again and comparing his body length to hers, she settled and tucked her claws under herself.

Corby opened his eyes and saw her stare down at him. "Ora? Are you trying to keep me warm?"

She spread out her wings. "No. I was trying to apply what I've learned from a book, but I ran into body compatibility issues."

"What the hell?!" He pushed her off with his right hand, causing her to land on the left side of the bed. "W-what blasted book did you end up reading?"

Before she could explain, Samuel interrupted her by arriving behind the door and saying, "Good morning, you two! Breakfast's ready!"

Corby's stomach made its presence known through its rumbling. Its owner said, "We'll be there soon, Mister Samuel!" Then he scowled, pointed at Ora, and whispered, "After breakfast, you and I will be having a serious discussion about your odd behavior and that book you've read, because I don't like where this seems to be going."

At the table, Corby and the other humans ate tomato and lettuce sandwiches. A thought came to Corby's mind. He might enjoy the fresh produce now, but he was sure he'd get bored of the food after a week of eating the same things. His home lab and his former life in the city allowed for more variety than that, and he was starting to miss both of those.

As usual, Ora watched Corby from atop the cupboard, making sure he was safe. Zoom made no effort to even acknowledge her, knowing he may as well be invisible to the blue robot.

Samuel finished his food and said, "Today is Hilarion and Nargi's turn to go look for resources. Are you going with them, Corby?"

Swallowing the last piece of his sandwich, Corby looked at him. "I want to go, but I'd like to make a suggestion in the hopes that it'll shorten the process of upping our defenses."

"Tell us."

"Since Ora can drain the Triumvirate's machines and I can control them, I could try to capture several of their drones and bring them to you. Maybe you could turn them into something that only we could use."

Samuel stroked his beard. "Those would be good to have. I've managed to turn that minotaur's arm weapons into miniguns which hopefully can be safe from getting taken over. If you want, I can give you one. I'll have to give the other weapon to Nargi, because she doesn't have any long-ranged ones."

Corby grinned. "I sure would like to be able to open fire on those scrap piles! They won't be able to drain the miniguns, right Ora?"

Ora said, "Their class 8 glowanade is unable to drain any significant amounts of power from electronics. Even if they use the old class 6, you'd still have enough power to destroy several of their machines. However, I do not know if they have managed to stabilize any of the very low glowanade classes they were aiming for. If they can use a class 2 or, even worse, a class 1 glowanade, no electronic device not equipped with an equal or lower class glowanade is safe from being drained."

Corby said, "If all goes according to plan, we'll take away all of their tech."

Vanessa had just finished eating too. She got up from her chair and slammed her hands onto the table. "Grandpa, can I go with them too, please?"

Samuel said, "But it was Hilarion and Nargi's turn today."

"They can go tomorrow," Vanessa said. "Corby could use some help from my launcher, and Zoom can keep an eye out for drones. We could bring you a lot of useful stuff if we team up with Corby and Ora."

Samuel frowned, but he knew this was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. "I just can't stop your warrior spirit, can I? Corby's plan sounds risky, but at this point the Triumvirate's forces are everywhere and they'll keep interfering with our gathering. It's only a matter of time before they discover us. We might as well take their tech and turn it against them now."

"I wish I hadn't led them to you," Corby said. "I hope I can make up for it by getting us closer to the goal. It's all I can do that'll make a big enough difference."

Samuel let out a heavy sigh before getting up from his chair. "If you really want to do this, go tell Hil and Nargi that they can stay home today."

Corby nodded at him and smiled. Then he turned his head toward the cupboard, from where his robot watched him attentively. "Ora! Let's go!"

At Hilarion and Nargirata's house, Corby, Vanessa, and Ora sat at a rectangular table with the hosts. Or in Ora's case, she sat on the table, to Corby's left. Zoom lay on the floor near Vanessa's chair, his arms tucked underneath him.

"Are you sure about this?" Hilarion asked.

"Yes!" Corby said. "If we grab everything they throw at us, we can turn the tide on them. I just need a bit of help from Vanessa and Zoom."

"We understand," Nargirata said. "Just be careful out there."

Vanessa gave her a reassuring smile. "We have powerful weapons. The Triumvirate's forces don't stand a chance against them. Oh, I just remembered that Grandpa said he has a new weapon for you, Nargi."

"I'll drop by his house later then."

While Corby discussed matters with Hilarion, Ora crawled next to Nargirata over the table and said, "Nargi, I need to discuss something from the book with you."

The gynoid took her in her arms. "I'm listening."

"Take me to the book first."

"Okay," Nargirata said, taking Ora with her into the bedroom. She put the personal assistant robot on the bed and gave her the requested book.

Ora opened the book with her claws and poked at one page. "This didn't work. Corby and I weren't compatible."

Nargirata frowned. "Not all robots were shaped to be domestic partners, but … I'm sure you'll find some other way to bond with him."

After skipping forward three more pages, Ora said. "This doesn't seem possible either. So many incompatibilities ..." She kept turning page after page until she found something that made her pin one with her right claw. "This. It might work."

"Well, maybe your claws could be used instead of hands. Although your lack of palms will make things difficult."

"I used to carry fragile glass containers with my claws with no problem. This doesn't seem too different, except no carrying is involved."

Nargirata stared at Ora with concern. "I think it would be best to just ask him—"

"Ora!" Corby called from the other room. "Get over here! We need to discuss the plan of stealing the Triumvirate's machines!"

Spreading out her wings, the blue robot jumped off the bed and flew to him immediately.

The white sun was about to be fully hidden by the forested horizon. Ten drones were scattered in the sky, each checking for movement below. Twenty one minotaurs roamed the forest in groups of three, scanning for any signs of humans while having their weapons ready.

Corby and his friends were far from their hideout, listening for any drone buzzing. He held the minotaur gun while Vanessa carried her grenade launcher. Zoom and Ora flew above the trees, being on the lookout for anything that flew within their sight range.

Two black dots moved in the distance. This caused Ora to dive back into the forest and stop in front of her owner. "Corby! The drones are approaching!"

He smirked. "Prepare to take them down then."

"I am ready to drain them."

The two drones had spotted Ora already and were heading toward where they had last seen her. Their small but accurate guns had plenty of ammunition—sufficient to turn an average human adult into Swiss cheese.

Ora hovered in front of Corby. "Two drones in range. I will drain them and pass them to you."

"Do it!" he said.

She flew up and stretched out her blue glowanade wires. Half a minute passed before she retracted them and dove between the trees. "I can't drain them! The Triumvirate took measures this time!"

Corby squinted. "You mean ..."

"They have class 1 glowanade!" Ora said. "Prepare your weapons!"

As the drone buzzing became louder, Zoom flew close to the top of the trees and peeked between the branches. He said, "They'll be here in three, two, one ..."

The two drones showed up and attempted to position their weapons to shoot at the humans below, but they weren't fast enough. Corby put lots of lead in one of them while Vanessa shot a grenade at the other, causing it to shoot at the bomb and get pierced by the resulting shrapnel.

"Well, we're screwed," Corby said. "Let's head back before their reinforcements arrive!"

They all rushed through the forest, doing their best to stay as far away from the buzzing sounds as possible. Zoom and Ora peeked between branches from time to time, reporting what they saw so the humans could plan ahead.

"It seems you've underestimated our foes," Vanessa said as she ran.

Through his panting, Corby said, "I was aware of this possibility, okay? It would have been nice if things went our way, but we acted too late."

"If you and Ora hadn't showed off your powers to them, maybe this plan of yours would have succeeded."

"I couldn't just let the opportunity of gathering scrap metal pass me by! I wouldn't even have this weapon if I hadn't taken control of that minotaur!"

"You probably could have acquired it and more if the Triumvirate's forces hadn't witnessed Ora's blue glow! But you're really bad at planning! Now I regret not obliterating you when I had the chance!"

"Then why don't you just launch a grenade at me and get it over with?"

"The Triumvirate already knows there are more people here taking down their forces. Killing you at this point would just reduce our chances of survival."

Corby continued to run with a miserable look on his face while holding the minigun in his arms.

Zoom flew past Ora, trying to outdo her at reporting. He went next to Vanessa and said, "Three minotaurs coming from your left."

Vanessa stopped running and pointed her weapon in the direction of the minotaurs while hiding most of her body behind a tree.

Corby stopped and hid behind another tree. "Should I distract them?"

"Sure," Vanessa whispered. "Might give us a better chance at surviving this."

He pointed the weapon at the closest minotaur. Just before he could press the trigger, he saw the robot bring out tendrils as blue as its eyes. Knowing what was about to follow, he yelled, "Zoom! Get away from here! They'll drain you!"

Vanessa wanted to tell Corby to shut up, but she didn't want to let her robot friend die. "Zoom! Do as he says!"

The red hover robot flew away just in time to avoid the blue tendrils. Corby opened fire and managed to shoot the chest of the closest minotaur, but the damage wasn't enough to stop it from draining the battery of his minigun with the blue wires. Looking at the now useless weapon, all he managed to say was, "Crap."

Vanessa shot a grenade at the group of enemy robots. The bomb exploded, and the shrapnel damaged the limbs of the two minotaurs in the back while destroying the head of the frontmost one. "They're unable to raise their arms to fire," she said. "This is our chance! Go!"

She, Corby, and Ora continued to head toward the hideout, stopping every now and then to check for buzzing sounds or to let Ora take a peek at the situation above. They slowed down when they saw two floating yellow lights in front of a tree near the rock pile. It was Zoom, who had been waiting for them.

Vanessa ran up to him and used her right hand's index finger to touch the tip of Zoom's right claw.

"Vanessa! You made it back!" Zoom said, his smile fully lit up in yellow.

She patted her gun. "Yeah, and I've scrapped a few minotaurs along the way!"

He brought his claws together. "I know you are quite capable of surviving on your own, but I still worry for you sometimes."

"It's all part of being friends, buddy. Sometimes I worry about you as well."

Behind them, Ora poked Corby's right shoulder with her right claw. "Flying fast drained my battery. I need you to recharge me."

He pushed her away. "Not now, Ora! I need to discuss a new plan with Vanessa."

"Can't the plan wait? My battery is at 40%."

"That's more than enough to last you until morning, as long as you don't fly everywhere in the hideout. Now let's go inside before the drones spot us." He walked toward the hideout's rock pile and removed its cover.

Ora hovered in place for a moment before looking at Vanessa. Her claws tensed while she bowed her head and formed a grimace with the blue light of her fake mouth.

Minutes later, Samuel, Vanessa, and Corby gathered at the table in the dining room of Samuel's house to discuss the situation.

Corby said, "They've upgraded their army with class 1 glow. Their machines can now drain anything that has a power source and doesn't have an equal class glow."

"I guess explosives and normal guns remain at the top of our options," Vanessa said.

Samuel frowned. "If they breach into our hideout and drain all of our electronics, we won't be able to live for long."

Corby pointed at Ora, who sat next to Zoom on the cupboard as usual. "If we can install chips with the Cereconnect paste, Ora could keep our electronics powered. They can't drain her."

Vanessa let out a chuckle. "Won't she need to drain your glow to keep powering up other things? If the enemy drains you, she won't have sufficient energy to keep them running."

Ora flew from the cupboard and landed onto the table, staring at Vanessa while spreading out her wings and elytra to the point where they blocked Corby from seeing anything past the robot. She said, "I will not let the enemy reach Corby."

"Aside from that problem," Vanessa said, "we also need to figure out how to get that paste while also blowing the enemy up."

Ora tapped the table with her right claw. "That is your problem, not ours."

"Calm down, Ora!" Corby said, taking her in his arms and putting her on his lap.

The blue robot hid her wings and went quiet. She assumed that he trusted her a lot to allow her to stay over such a vulnerable area of his body.

"About acquiring the paste," Corby continued, "we could make use of lighter weaponry like Hilarion's shotgun. Once we'll have the paste and chips, we'll even be able to set up an improved weapons rig on our fortress, and Ora and I could run it."

"I hope we'll have the walls completed by the time we get attacked," Samuel said. "Hil and Nargi have been adding some bricks to the fortress, but it's far from complete. In fact it is only at its beginning. They're working on it right now. Maybe you and Vanessa can give them a hand."

Corby nodded. "I'll go help them out. At least I can do that, since I've failed to gather anything today."

"I'll help too," Vanessa said. "I'm not going back to the surface today. It'll only get the robots closer to our home."

Samuel smiled. "If this plan succeeds, maybe they'll keep losing their forces by continuously attacking while we down them."

"Grandpa, I think that's a bit optimistic. The Triumvirate has the resources to create better tech. Who knows what they'll come up with next? Maybe they'll create glow that can absorb Ora's."

Ora flared up her wings and elytra again. "They cannot create glowanade of a class lower than 1. If they hypothetically create such a thing, it would be too unstable to be used. You are just trying to make Corby doubt my ability to keep him safe."

Corby pushed Ora's elytra down with his hands until the structures hid her wings. "No, she isn't trying to do that. She's just worried that the enemy could surprise us. Maybe not with the glow, but who knows what they will pull off next?"

"Rest assured that I will always protect you," Ora said.

He patted her on the head. "Okay, whatever you say. Let's just get to work on that wall for now."

Ora's blue grin became as bright as her eyes.

As Corby and Vanessa chiseled rocks from the cave's walls into bricks, Hilarion and Nargirata scooped mortar from a large bucket and layered the substance on top of the bricks that were already part of the fortress wall. Ora kept clawing at the rock Corby was working on, but her limbs barely left scratches on it.

"You can't make bricks, Ora," Corby said. "Your claws weren't made for this."

"But I want to help you."

He scowled at her. "Be honest now: are you trying to give me a reason to recharge you?"

"Yes."

"Well, this isn't getting you anywhere. You'll have to wait until the work here is done for the day. Then I'll take you to my room, where I can keep you out of trouble in case you go nuts again during the recharge."

She took her claws off the brick and stared at the ground, disappointed.

"I think your robot is addicted to your glow," Vanessa said to Corby.

Ora showed off her wings and elytra to her while tilting herself left and right.

"That's the last thing I need," Corby said, still chipping away at the block of rock with a hammer and chisel. "Recharging her is a chore. It's tiring me out and she's the only one getting any pleasure from it. I'd rather put her under a lamp and let her recharge there instead."

Ora lowered her wings and analyzed his words. So he truly expected her to make him feel the same in exchange. She noticed how he was starting to drift away from her and toward Vanessa most of the time. It was exactly like the book she had read said: if a human can't find pleasure from one person, it will seek it from another person. As the other people continued to work on the wall and its components, she watched Corby for two hours while scheming inside her head.

It was bed time, and Corby was about to change his clothes. He noticed Ora was staring at him from atop the bed in a way that made him feel uncomfortable, so he covered his groin area with his pants. "Could you stop looking at it like that? There's nothing extraordinary about it, so you got no jokes to make here."

"I wasn't going to make a joke about it. I was just taking notes about your anatomy."

Corby could feel the hair at the back of his neck rise. "Why in the world …? Turn around! I want to get dressed without being … examined."

"All right," she said, turning around. She thought he got over the staring. Why was he uncomfortable about it again?

"Done," Corby said.

She turned back toward him and saw him in pajamas. "Don't forget to recharge me."

He had a look of disapproval on his face. "I didn't forget. I was purposely avoiding the subject."

She raised her claws and waved them twice. "But why?"

"First of all, I'm tired. Second, your disrespectful behavior throughout the day—including this awkward incident—should be punished. So I'm not recharging you until morning. You don't like it? Go find a light source. I'm sure those claws of yours are strong enough to open doors."

She stared at her claws. Was he hinting at something more about them or was she reading too much into it?

He moved her to the left side of the bed, turned off the lights, then got on top of the bed and wrapped himself up in the blanket. "Good night."

She patted his chest with her left claw. "Good night, Corby. I'll try to make it up to you in the morning."

After saying, "Yeah, you better get your act together, because I'm starting to regret hanging out with you," he put his head on the pillow and closed his eyes.

Ora took that as a threat of abandonment. Corby was already acting very cold toward her and was warming up toward Vanessa, so she couldn't let him distance himself any further. She feared she would never feel the recharge euphoria again. It was clear to her that she had to give him a reason to bond with her before her rival—the human female—would win him over by playing on his human instincts first. The morning couldn't come soon enough.