Australia's southwestern coast had the world's longest and most intact line of sea cliffs, making it look like a continent abruptly pulled from the ocean. This was where Australia had separated from Antarctica in ancient times. In the arid interior, the climate of fifty thousand years ago had kept the land from looking like a desert.
Erosion by rain and hot winds over hundreds of millions of years had rendered most of Australia barren. In the red interior, rainfall was irregular, and the infertile land and merciless weather challenged every living thing. After ten Honkai eruptions, Australia resembled a silent hell even more.
Australia's abundant mineral resources meant that Fire Moth had never abandoned this place, even after enduring ten Honkai eruptions. However, the drastic population decline left Fire Moth unable to expend manpower and resources beyond the mineral-rich regions. This gave Qin Su an opportunity. The vast uninhabited zones would become the first testing ground for the T-1 and Hunter Drones.
The T-1 tanks and Hunter Drones mobilized from Esperance in the southwest, following the coastal highway to the Radium Ore Mountain uranium mine in South Australia, two thousand kilometers away. They passed through towns, mountain ranges, and more along the way. Transport drones would also carry T-800s and T-1000s, which would conduct coordinated ground-air combat exercises with the T-1s and Hunter Drones.
The Flame Law-Ruler's flames had burned across all of Australia. Humanity had still rebuilt Australia through sheer perseverance, but the following Law-Rulers had clearly drained humanity's strength dry, leaving no desire to maintain unimportant infrastructure.
Traveling from Esperance along the main highway toward Radium Ore Mountain, most of Australia's transportation infrastructure lay abandoned. Many roads had already collapsed or were on the verge of collapse, but the T-1 could transform into a four-legged form and leap out of sunken pits.
The T-1's chassis had a four-track structure. It was not simply four tracks arranged in parallel on the left and right; rather, it resembled two tracks split down the middle into four. The purpose of this design was to facilitate chassis transformation. When the T-1 switched from track mode to walking mode, its tracks and road wheels retracted inward, allowing its load-bearing claws to climb high ground inaccessible to tracks or restore normal movement after it overturned. In conventional warfare, its fragile joints would not withstand enemy attacks, but Honkai Beasts clearly would not think that far ahead, and Law-Rulers would not care about such weaknesses either.
The T-1s and Hunter Drones traveled down the road together. Compared to the noisy engines of the Hunter Drones, the T-1s were much quieter, producing only the vibrations of their tracks rolling across the ground.
They passed many road-building settlements along the way, but without exception, there were no signs of human life. After the T-1 tanks and Hunter Drones had traveled for forty minutes, the first transportation hub to enter their view was the southern town of Norseman.
Qin Su controlled a Hunter Drone and accelerated toward Norseman. The Hunter Drone had a built-in life-sign detector. If there were any survivors, it would sniff out their location like a bloodhound with a keen sense of smell.
The exhaust from its engines disturbed discarded paper and dust in the streets, stirring up the Mortals in town. Australian buildings were generally low, and this was especially apparent in small towns. Most of the tallest buildings in the town center were hotels, while the district government office and police station were only single-story structures. The odds of finding survivors in underdeveloped towns were far higher than in cities. Honkai disasters generally occurred in major cities, and Honkai Beasts would unconsciously wander toward large cities rich in the aura of "civilization." Small towns in the wilderness might actually be safer.
The Hunter Drone swept past building after building, its engine roar making the Mortals below increasingly frenzied. Whoosh! An arrow shrieked through the air, but the Ranger Mortal's attack failed to penetrate the Hunter Drone's armor. Instead, it drew a deadly response from the 30mm electromagnetic autocannon. The cannon first gave the first Ranger Mortal a brief burst, then its subsequent controlled fire tore apart both it and its Mortal companions in the street.
Half a minute later, the rapidly spinning autocannon slowly came to a stop. No more Mortals wandered the streets. The Hunter Drone retracted its fangs and continued searching the town for Mortals.
At that moment, a group of survivors suddenly appeared in the street without warning, waving their arms excitedly.
"Hey!~" they shouted toward the sky, drawing out the word.
They were called a group, but there were actually only six of them: two girls and four children. Judging by one girl's weapon, she was a Fire Moth soldier. The Honkai energy detector quickly made a rough assessment: around a C-Class Valkyrie. That was probably why they had survived.
The prototype being used for live combat testing had no transport capacity, nor could it speak. There were no speakers in the Hunter Drone's design schematics. Its life detector and Honkai energy detector were strictly combat-oriented.
The Hunter Drone hovered in midair above them, its pitch-black cannon barrel aimed in their direction and filling them with unease. It then began patrolling the outskirts of town, with the roar of its autocannon and explosions intermittently sounding out.
The group was somewhat puzzled. The children tugged at the Valkyrie's hand. "Big sister, what is it doing?"
The Valkyrie was equally confused. After thinking about it uncertainly, she slowly said, "Maybe it's protecting us?" She was not very sure either. There was no Fire Moth insignia on the aircraft, but after only a few seconds of thought, an explanation came to her. Fire Moth is probably the only one capable of something like this now, right?
A few minutes later, the transport drone that had originally carried the T-800s arrived in Norseman. It landed on the grass, and the airflow from its rotors brushed over the green blades, making them tremble faintly.
"Please board in an orderly manner." The transport drone's announcement reached their ears. The two girls took the children's hands and entered the drone. They saw no strange robots; the T-800s it had originally carried had all become external armor for the T-1s.
They found seats and sat down. Seat belts automatically fastened around them from behind, but the iron seats and aluminum belts dug painfully into their bones.
"I wonder if this designer has ever sat in his own helicopter?" the Valkyrie muttered softly. A transport aircraft designed for robots had not given much consideration to human-machine interaction.
The little girl beside her comforted her in a childish voice. "Sister Lia, don't be mad. We were saved, weren't we?"
Lia smiled gently and patted the little girl's head. "My little Anna is the best at comforting people~"
The transport aircraft carried them north toward Europe, while the Hunter Drone escorted it. Together, they gradually disappeared beyond the horizon.
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