The tennis-ball-sized spherical robot unfolded its shell, extended its stabilizing struts, and planted them on the general's shoulder.
The thing had no metallic sheen whatsoever. Its entire body was a harmless pink, much like a rubber toy for children. Even the tiny cannon barrel it extended was utterly nonthreatening. It looked too small even to make a decent water gun.
But General Kaijielu didn't dare treat it as a toy.
His mouth twitched. He let go of the hand he'd already placed on his sidearm and gave a heavy sigh.
Being captured was humiliating, of course, but the Empire's culture wasn't so extreme that being taken prisoner meant social death. It was something he could endure. But being captured by a rubber ball? That was simply too much to bear.
Come to think of it, why was it so small? The general glanced at the enemy on his shoulder. Even with its shell unfolded and its cannon extended, the thing was no bigger than a sparrow. Even as a children's toy, it was clearly meant for preschoolers.
Couldn't they have sent a few big ones?
If he'd been captured by one as big as a planet, maybe it wouldn't have been so humiliating.
The thought flickered through General Kaijielu's mind. Then he clearly saw the larger spherical robots leap in every direction across the dock, moving with a speed and agility that made them almost impossible to track with the naked eye.
Their shells still looked like rubber, with none of the sheen of metal. Yet now they somehow had the aura of predators.
The soldiers around them didn't react, either. They merely stared blankly at the woman standing atop the old knight, looking from side to side in silence, utterly at a loss. It was hard to tell whether