It was at times like these Commander Jayce Hunter felt anxious. There was really nothing much to do. Her brother had made the right call with regard to the landing party and the crew of the Dunkerque. Rushing in to the minefield would put both the fleet and several senior officers at risk, and that was never the right decision no matter how urgent things were.

She could have taken a tour of Fury to check on preparations for the upcoming maneuvers and potential action, but her crew was trained to a level of precision nearly unmatched anywhere else in Skywatch. She knew her officers often got more than a little nervous when she prowled around, and Jayce knew it wasn’t fair to keep her people on the edge of a knife day and night. Strike Cruiser rules had to be followed, after all. Commanders belong on the bridge where the officers can bring them news when they have something to report. They don’t belong on deck 12 towering over the blameless able crewmen while petty officers frantically try to find someone of a high enough rank to ask the Commander what they can do for her.

Hunter had learned this lesson not long after taking charge of the Task Force at Gitairn Station. The moment she affixed that nine-star insignia on her collar, she became, for all intents and purposes, the Colossus of Rhodes as far as the rest of the crew was concerned. She commanded the same manpower as an infantry regiment: Sufficient men and women to warrant the leadership of a full colonel, but with about sixty times the firepower. She had to rapidly adapt to the fact she was still two big promotions away from being a flag officer, but was already flying her own flag. Regulations didn’t permit her the trappings and prestige of a Fleet Captain, Commodore or Admiral, but she still had the tonnage and gunnery to start a small war on her own authority. These facts were not lost on her crew, most of which were still decidedly junior officers with little or no line experience.

Where Jason was a shoot-from-the-hip captain, Jayce was a believer in preparation and basics. She was no doubt a “by the book” officer, but she still had the Hunter instinct and capacity for unpredictability. So far it had proven an often surprising but effective combination. Skywatch sent the brother in when they needed a touchdown and a victory dance. They sent the sister in when it was third down and a yard to go with the game on the line. The two of them together could produce either an explosive climb to new heights or total disaster.

Jayce sat at her workbench in her Skywatch Academy sweatshirt and workout pants. There were some who maintained DSS Fury was just a heavy warship built around a cybernetics lab. Watching Commander Hunter work, it would be hard to dispute that was exactly the case. The lab itself occupied nearly four thousand square feet and was equipped with shelf after shelf of well worn electronics equipment and components. Hunter’s machining facilities were frequently borrowed by her own engineering department. Tolerances on some of the more finicky mechanical components aboard ship were much easier to adjust with the right tools. Hunter used some of her heaviest manufacturing tools to build miniaturized components for her minibot designs.

Rebel, Wave and Butterfly had all been put into hibernation since their encounter on Station 19. Lunar had spent some time on Exeter having a number of serious radiation burns repaired after the battle, and Echo needed to be resupplied and equipped with new batteries after she ran herself dark resuscitating the bridge crew during the Agamemnon engagement.

Acey shook her head as she surveyed her little platoon of automated helpers. There was no doubt they had seen some serious action. She was just relieved they all came home in one piece. Each one of the little wonders represented thousands of hours of work over the years. Having them turned into burning heaps of metal wasn’t among the Commander’s aspirations. Fortunately, they were all capable of defending themselves at need. However, there was still one piece missing.

What had started out as a plan to upgrade the capabilities of the original set of five minibots had become a project to invent the next generation unit. The devices had proven themselves again and again in combat, technical trials and even as a test platform for some of Fury’s battle drills. But the one thing they had always lacked was a ground-based pursuit unit. Lunar was capable of keeping up with just about any creature, vehicle or technology, but he didn’t have any lift capability and couldn’t use his primary weapons in most planet-side atmospheres. Wave did his best, but he was far more useful in or under the water. Rebel was tough, but far too slow. Butterfly had the same problems as Lunar minus the weapons and Echo didn’t have the defenses to deal with a true combat platform.

Plans to replace or upgrade Rebel went against Acey’s engineering instincts. Slow as he was, Rebel had weapons, defenses and engines perfectly balanced. As long as the fight was brought to him, he was the perfect anchor for the team. The other minibots couldn’t be upgraded without paying the opportunity cost of the capabilities they already brought to the group. So the decision had been made. It was time for minibot six.

Ever since she completed work on Echo, which was her second career accomplishment after Rebel, her colleagues and comrades had gotten into the habit of wondering aloud why Hunter would design robots to look like tanks, ambulances and helicopters. Why not a more modern design with more flexible and more interchangeable components? they asked.

Jayce’s answer had always been the same. Her minibots were fashioned into conventional vessels for the benefit of the humans they worked alongside. This way neither Hunter nor her subordinates would be confused about what role each minibot was designed to perform. Tanks fight, amphibious units explore the water, ambulances treat the wounded, and so forth. It was for this reason Acey knew her latest creation would bring the house down, so to speak.

Before her sat a sleek, shiny little police car about the size of a picnic basket: Built to the same scale as Echo. It was black with white doors, spider-silver wheels and a polished aerodynamic blue and red lightbar on its roof. Its tires represented the state of the art in materials science. It could theoretically drive over acid or molten lava for several yards without significant damage.

It was equipped with more electronic gear than any two of the other minibots combined. Jayce had set about more than a year ago to further miniaturize her vehicles’ power systems and had succeeded to such an extent that it opened up more than 20% of her latest robot’s interior capacity for more components. With careful work and even more careful avoidance of design tradeoffs, she had managed to reduce weight, increase engine torque and horsepower and even give the little unit an advanced electromagnetic array around its base that would allow it to literally drive up a metal wall and across the ceiling.

Even Echo couldn’t do that.

The Skywatch Marines had put “chase-bots” into use forty years before Jayce had been born. Their purpose was to follow infantry maneuvers on the ground and report their readings back to base. They fulfilled a role aircraft could not in the presence of anti-air forces at about one-eighth the cost in materials. Because of their ability to hide in the underbrush, they were also practically impossible to find, even from the air.

The difference between those robots and this one was the police car was equipped with a variety of weapons. It didn’t just settle for chasing you and reporting back. It had the ability to apprehend whatever it was chasing and keep it locked up until help arrived.

One advantage of being a commanding officer was that Hunter could authorize things a subordinate couldn’t. The weapons she had installed on her newest bot were technically against regulations except at the discretion of a ship’s captain. So the little car had been equipped with dual forward Laser Activated Conductive (LAC) guns, which gave the unit the ability to deliver a lethal electric shock at ranges of up to ten yards. It could also electrify its own outer surface, making it nearly impossible to pick up or tamper with.

It was his primary defenses Jayce was proudest of. The last ten percent of his internal capacity had been set aside for something he could spend all that extra power on. The new minibot had a cloaking device. He could literally hide anywhere.

Acey had simply taken what the Marines already accomplished and incorporated the principles into a unit that could engage and pursue enemies at high speed aboard ship or as part of a landing party. She had already authorized him with all the privileges of a DSS Fury Security Officer and exchanged all of his opcodes with Echo. He even had the ship’s crest and security designator painted on his doors. If the little police car let out a yell, Echo would relay it to the entire fleet in a fraction of a second.

His headlights, light bar, tail lights and front grill flashers lit up in sequence. The lights rotated three times before his little engine started. Jayce entered the last of his higher function release commands into her workbench console and transmitted them to his CPU core.

“Report status.”

A flood of numbers, letters and symbols scrolled on the console and ended with a command prompt. That was the pre-programmed signal all systems were functioning normally.

“Acknowledge standard pickups.”

“Hi Acey!” He revved his engine. The little blue badge on his hood just under the windshield snapped on. It was the same indicator as Echo’s little red heart, and would activate whenever the unit was in communication with Acey herself. A chittery sound like an electronic bird preceded two “whoop” sounds from his siren. That was the audible signal all systems were functioning normally.

“I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, and I’m going to name you Intercept. You are now my security minibot. Affirmative?”

“Affirmative, Commander!”

Acey made a few more adjustments and was busy testing Intercept’s suspension system when her commlink lit up.

“Captain to the bridge.”