Summers was right. They left the factory grounds and headed into the wilderness. It didn't take long for them to spot the tracks left in the dirt by the wheels, so they got in their vehicle and followed them.
The vehicle was the Iron Knight off-roader Engineer Summers had prepared in advance, one of the top off-road vehicles produced by the Alliance Development Group. It had both hover and gliding capabilities, and could even fly short distances.
The following week turned into a pursuit spanning hundreds of miles. They chased the robot all the way from Twin Peaks Town to the foot of the Qililuo Mountains. Along the way, they encountered attacks by Sandfolk bandits and starving packs of beasts. They also briefly crossed paths with a much larger Sandfolk group.
It was a band of more than two hundred Sandfolk, with people, "horses," guns, and plenty of heavy weapons. Every one of them looked tough and capable. Of course, they had no tanks or heavy cannons. After the Battle of Tulong, the Commonwealth Security Force had conducted a six-month sweep of the entire planet, seizing nearly a hundred "unidentified" heavy artillery pieces and armored vehicles. Since then, the heaviest weapons still in the hands of the Sandfolk tribes had been shoulder-fired phase cannons and rockets.
Even so, out on the plains south of the Qililuo Mountains, this was a formidable fighting force. They might even have posed a threat to Twin Peaks Town.
After the Battle of Tulong, most Sandfolk forces unwilling to submit to the Commonwealth had been forced to behave themselves. But a considerable number of tribes had fled into the wilderness and continued their defiant resistance. Of course, after a few years, these proud "freedom fighters" had gradually become little more than bandits and raiders. It