Page 3046

Yes, the wisest course of action was to move. Even if it was a pain. Taking all these captives across the continent would be quite the hassle. Sure, the Roberts would make it much easier than doing it himself, but still. Perhaps it would be best to just... thin the crowd a little, first.

It wasn't like he needed all of these Vannie generals, right? And they'd just become a thorn in his side the longer he left them alive, anyway.

Bah. It just seemed like such a waste of valuable resources. He'd planned to hold onto them all for years, if need be. He would've gotten around to experimenting on them, eventually. But making such a long trip with all of them would be strategically disadvantageous.

In fact, that might've been what the other Vannies were waiting for. He'd be much easier to attack while in transit and carrying so many prisoners. There was a fair chance that some of them might escape.

But surely, there had to be a way to quickly get some scientific use out of them. Something that he could take care of in a single afternoon, perhaps? He could have them fight the Roberts again, but he was pretty sure that would just end in another trouncing. Not much new data to be gathered there, if any.

And it might just give them hope of escape, too. Which'd be needlessly cruel.

Ah. But wait a minute. Of course.

There was that feature still to test, wasn't there? Yeah. The Robert Mk. VI's most recent addition.

Mk. I through V were all stable. Every piece of technology in their arsenals was now quite well-tested and reliable.

The Mk. VI, though, had a feature that he'd dubbed the Omnivore Drive. In theory, it could be his crowning achievement, greater perhaps than anything else he'd ever created.

He hadn't yet gotten it to function as it was intended, though.