Since the communication and beacon tower are both being installed, Sera achieved two things.
One, Planet 144 has a cell phone network. Discarded equipment in the galaxy will emit an ' I am here ' signal, which can be found through ' Find my phone ' service. Now that she has comms, she can search for all the equipment releasing this ' I am here ' signal. With each passing hour, more and more devices will be added to this list.
After all, most mecha's are on a schedule of releasing this signal. They will do it every ten minutes during the first three days of abandonment. For usually this means an injured human is nearby, they ought to be saved within golden time. After three days, they signal once every hour. They are looking for the towing teams, scavenger teams, etc. they continue this for three years. After three years, they do this once a day. This continues up to twenty years, and once a week until hundred years. After a hundred years, power goes out. Ofcourse, only if the solar recharge module is not exposed and completely damaged.
Second, Inform the government agencies in the galaxy that a student is waiting for emergency rescue.
This is a more common and expected service. All colleges pay insurance to the government for the emergency rescue. Installing a beacon tower means the student / group's condition is relatively stable, thus, you have more chances of finding a living person when rescue is done. Government agencies can not ignore this signal, even if the university gives conflicting information. This signal will be recorded in the log books of the galaxy, thus, it's easiest to verify its existence.
Many people suffer if these procedures are not followed correctly and found out.
However, Sera's true objective was to connect to the Galaxy network, X-net for short, which was essentially the internet. If she were to appear live, then no one would be able to claim she is dead, not even her overly powerful general father. For that, she needs far more equipment than one comms transmitter carried by a single mecha. She needs continuous transmitters till the point where X-net signals are reaching.
Sera was excitedly retrieving the mecha's closest to her location.
The mecha's hatch was open, the mecha's cabin was full of monster poop. The console showed signs of rust. There are signs of shrooms growing inside. However, there is one good thing about this mecha. This is made of programmable nanobots. They are right up Transformer system's alley.
Within minutes, the mecha melted away, leaving a barebones steel skeleton and machine parts. The programmable material formed various tool bits on the transformer's hands so that the parts and steel skeleton could be disassembled. These are all going to be useful material.
While Sera is out collecting, Redwood is setting fire to the dead Hyacinth fields. Sera just spread out her forcefield, made sure to keep an eye on what he is doing. For both mecha's, the details are taken care of by the systems. All Sera had to do was make the decision. Till Redwood comes back, Sera is not going to venture far.
Over the course of next week, Sera collected about thirty mecha's, and eighteen soldier tags. She lugged the mechas to the plateau she had chosen to build her base on, and the skeletons were brought to the border of the field. She planted Linden or Willow, depending on male or female, then carved the name of the dead on the tree.
Redwood had finished setting fire to all locations. The mecha confirmed that the field burned all the way through, not leaving a single root alive. Sera wanted this to be done thoroughly, for she needed to grow food in almost all the area if she needed to settle down for winter.
From the eighth day onwards, she started repurposing the machine parts. First, solar rechargers of mechas were connected together to make a solar field. The batteries are connected to make an inverter. She reprogrammed simple nanobots to make a pipe. The pipe was then inserted into the gigantic tree, collecting water from the tree into a giant tanker.
With this, she has acquired drinking water, bathing water, and water for irrigation too, if needed.
Sera woke up in high spirits on the ninth day after her refreshing bath and sleep. Now, it is time to get to the official business.
When she scanned the planet for resources, there were few places that stood out.
One, the location where more than forty mecha are gathered. Looking at the data from the nine days, among this group of forty mechas, thirty eight are stationary. Only two move to places. She does not want to go in person to verify the matter. She is too weak for a direct confrontation with a veteran.
Second - Two scrambled signals are received from two valleys. Sera scanned the valleys with force. They are full of carnivorous mutant plants. From what she read using force, these plants are no joke. It is not that she can not clear them, it's just that she needs to be very very careful, because it is right next to the nest of armored boars.
If possible, she does not want to kill armored boars. They are tough to kill, and a nuisance to fight.
She stood on the border. She held every carnivorous plant that does not have a runner with her force field, transferred life out of them. Even with her caution, she almost had an accident. A giant venus flytrap uprooted itself, ran at her full tilt, all its traps flapping threateningly. Redwood caught the plant before it could reach her.
Once individuals are cleared, it's time for the plants with runners. There is the strawberry pitcher. It has three gigantic leaves the size of a human, one giant pot of a flower, with shining magenta color. The lid hovers over the pot, inwardly curved teeth, that would pierce even an armored pigs' hide.
That is not the end of it. Inside the plant, there are still three tongues with thorned teeth all over time. Their tensile strength seems similar to beef tendon used to make bow strings.
She killed the older plants and left one young plant alone. Redwood went forward to collect the leaves and pitchers. She has an experiment in mind for these items.
Now that the plants are cleared, she ventured in carefully, reaching the place where the signal was coming from. Looking like the prehistoric looking analog transmitter, Sera was flabbergasted.
It is extremely powerful, but … to lug this into space - how is she going to achieve that ? This is turning out to be a bigger project than she expected.
Then, she moved to the next location with the other transmitter. It is equally clunky. This can function as an entire station for a region.
To even have equipment like this … someone wanted to conquer this planet !
This kind of equipment has a single purpose, costs millions. There is no way anyone other than the government uses them. Sera collected it all the same.
Yet, she never heard of any attempts made by the government to develop this planet at all.
' Is this a new arc that was never discovered by anyone ? ' Sera wondered.
All the same, she retrieved the station, moved to her base. As she neared her base, she had the strangest feeling that she was being watched.
She had both mecha's patrol multiple times around the perimeter, but she couldn't find the source of the gaze at all. So, she still ran scavenger hunts. Now, all she has left to do is collect the thirty mechas that were in the same place.
She approached the place with apprehension. She expected the people here to approach her long ago, but they did not. Now that she is coming here, it can very easily be taken as a threat, so she tread carefully.
'Sssaazzak '
An arrow pierced right in front of her foot.
Sera took a step back, and raised a white flag. She swirled it around. Then waited.
After some time, a mecha approached her slowly.
She pressed the comms button in front of her screen, but all she could see was garbage. This could only mean that their signals are too different to make any sort of connection. Unless the other mecha belongs to a rebel, such a thing will not happen.
Sera let her force field spread. The mecha in front of her was a flood light. While her force is lighter than cotton, the opposite side's force field is heavier than iron. That must be one hell of combat soldier, Sera surmised.
She raised her hand, waved it.
The next time she extended her hand, with nutritional drinks in it. The mecha on the other side took the drinks.
After some silence where mechas stood facing each other, the other party opened the hatch, got up half way through the hatch. He made the sign for peace, which was very old.
' Thank god this guy is not an enemy. ' Sera sighed.
She also got up through her hatch;
" I am Sera Dustwood. Nice to meet you. " She greeteg