(Gentlemen, a new month had begun... so start tossing in those monthly votes!)
The little boy named Gerrick stared blankly at the mechanical creation floating between Older Sister and himself. The compact Autonomous Machine, less than half a meter in diameter, flipped through the air like a mischievous little pet. It was familiarizing itself with this strange world, altering its body structure and energy circulation methods to handle possible working conditions in the local environment. This astonishing adaptability and pseudo-evolution capability could make it an incomparably exquisite ultimate robot in the eyes of an ordinary civilization, but among the Empire's various mechanical facilities, it was merely a pipe cleaner, worth about the same as a wrench.
But apparently, its value was different to that little boy.
Gerrick's eyes went wide, as though he had never seen such a miraculous machine before. That worried me a little. Was the thing Older Sister had taken out something this Ruins World simply did not possess? We might frighten away the local we had finally managed to find. At that moment, the Autonomous Machine happened to finish its "rapid evolution." It adjusted the angles of several mechanical arms, then let out a muddled series of dudu sounds as it briskly carried out Older Sister's command: approach its new owner.
"Ah!"
Little Gerrick let out a frightened cry and fell backward onto the ground, startled by the Autonomous Machine suddenly lunging toward him. The latter immediately stopped sharply in midair. After circling its new owner twice in confusion, it let out a somewhat aggrieved series of dudu sounds at us.
These little robots Gaia made were simply too much fun.
Gerrick clumsily climbed to his feet, and the Autonomous Machine in midair immediately moved toward him again. This time, though, it had learned its lesson.