Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

The "Princess" mecha was built to resemble a bee in its shape with four hands, two legs, and a tail that held the large combustion engine that would propel the entire thing. There were no wings, though.

The hands didn't have palms—instead, various tools were attached to the mechas limbs: two pincers for grabbing, a drill and a large circular saw.

The "face" was missing, instead replaced with an open cabin under a roof of the "head".

The mecha's body was built from gleaming steel and rough "living" stone, which was tougher than wood but still much lighter than regular stone or metal.

But then somebody did their best to color the entire giant construction! Not with paints—the Bee Empire didn't yet invent paint that would stick to steel and rock—but with other materials.

Countless giant scales and feathers, mostly black and yellow, were adorning the body of the mecha, imitating a suit of scale armor with a pair of very Queen-like breasts. Pieces of dyed fabric were tied over the mecha's joints—although this looked actually practical.

A pair of wooden antennae, which could serve only as decoration, were sticking out of mecha's head. Next to it was short "hair" made from entire thin tree trunks, like the ones humans would sometimes cover their roofs with. On top of the hair was a crown made of a massive piece of bone with several more scales adorning it.

I squinted at this crown some more.

'This kind of looks… like something Amby wears for celebrations… Huh.'

My shock gradually abated. I shook my head, then turned to Engine-See.

"I didn't expect you to decorate the prototype already… What if it doesn't work?"

She perked up a little.

"Then it will be a great shame to all of us after all the tests we've run, Father. But also, we can fix the mecha without interfering with the designs." Engine-See frowned a little. "Do you dislike the embellishments, Father? This is a project so grand, it felt like a crime against all the knowledge that went into its creation to not make it look beautiful. The local Artists were eager to help."

I smiled.

"No, that's alright. Just show me what it can do!"

Engine-See's eyes shone.

"Of course, Father! Now, excuse me—I must run pre-start checks."

She flew toward the mecha, where other bees were swarming already. One by one they entered it through the open face or one of the hatches hidden under scales attached to hands, feet and tail of the mecha.

Inside the control cabin in the head, two dozen bees sat at their seats and put on leather safety belts. Near some seats were various levers and buttons, while others were entirely empty.

I knew that at this moment, hundreds of bees were taking positions near each separate joint and moving part of the mecha.

It was a very complex thing to control, after all. Even on Earth, moving robots were all clumsy prototypes. Even remotely controlled robots were clumsy, because with a human range of movement, there was too much of it to program and control at once. And even simply copying human movements and transferring them to a mecha's was incredibly complicated!

Of course, the Bee Empire, which barely moved past Iron Age, couldn't create something as complex as a mecha that was piloted by just one person.

But yet again, throwing more workers at a problem proved to be a solution.

"Checks complete! Everything is in order!" Engine-See shouted from the cabin. "Ignition in three! Two! One! Start!"

The cabin immediately became a bubble of activity—but a silent one. Communicating with their 10-meter-range telepathy of baseline bees, the Researchers began eagerly pulling levers and pushing buttons.

It all looked completely incomprehensible to me, but I knew there was purpose to every movement.

First, there was a loud whir of the engine. Then, exhaust gas began coming out of the end of the mecha's tail, and the entire construction began vibrating slightly.

For another couple seconds, nothing was happening…

Then, with a loud clanging sound, the mecha slowly lifted an arm! Its movements were jerky, but sure enough that it waved me with a drill.

I noticed that I was gaping like a fool and closed my mouth. In the distance (so far that I could barely make them out), some bees from Hive One-Of-The-Best paused in their work. They were probably gaping, too.

"Oh my god, this is incredible!" I shouted. "Can you walk around?!"

Then I realized the mecha was too loud for the bees inside to hear me and doubled the message with telepathy.

Engine-See smiled a little and waved to other bees in the command cabin.

There was more activity and lever-pulling; then the mecha lowered the hand and made a slow step to the side. The heavy footsteps made the ground shake and made me feel like something in the mecha would break at any instant…

But the Princess made a small circle around the clearing with the same jerky movements, crushing small trees under its metal feet, and nothing fell apart!

I couldn't contain my applause.

Not only did these Researchers and Craftsmen make this thing, they also were piloting it—manually!

Every smallest movement of the mecha required manually pulling parts of it this way or the other. Each hydraulic motor of the mecha had a person next to it who turned it on and off by hand!

Only with telepathy coordinating all these people was possible. I knew from blueprints that the mecha had a wiring with *some* electrical signals and machinery here and there, but it also had several dozen Beehounds to transmit information *besides* all the other pilots.

Each movement of this thing resulted from a mind-boggling amount of calculations and coordination! Especially when you considered that they not only had to manually do every movement but also calculate the balance of the mecha to prevent it from toppling over itself with any movement!

And Engine-See still didn't finish her demonstration.

Following the Researcher's commands, the mecha walked toward a nearby pillar mountain (not the one with my observation platform) and raised its drill.