Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

There was more exhaust gas, now coming out of the pipe at the side of the drill, when a secondary engine inside the drill started up. With a loud whir, the drill began spinning, first slowly, then faster and faster until it became a blur of steel.

The mecha pushed the drill into the living mountain, and I had to cover my ears from the sound. Above us, a few startled dragons took flight from the tops of the mountains.

The steel drill crushed the soft stone like a piece of cardboard, sending stone shards all around! Even Tamsha stepped back.

I applauded again, marveling at the industrial might of this machine. In minutes, the drill made holes in stone that a team of diggers would need to spend hours on!

With this, new hives could be built anywhere, even faster than before! Or the mecha could drill into the ground and reach for the valuable minerals deep below.

The saw on its other arm was made for cutting wood down by entire forests. But I was sure that it could cut entire pillar mountains if necessary, too! I was giddy…

'The bee engineering is the best in the world!'

The mecha, in the meantime, drilled a few holes in the mountain in a circular pattern and pulled the drill back. As it stopped spinning, the mecha used its pincer to grab a piece of stone surrounded by holes.

There was a louder roar from the mecha's engine. The motors inside of it worked to the limit as the mecha jerked the piece of rock left and right until…

It pulled it out with a loud crack and lifted it victoriously over its head!

I was about to cheer some more when the mecha suddenly wobbled on its feet and began to topple.

The last movement was too sharp, or perhaps a pilot made a mistake in her calculations, but the mecha's balance became off and it began falling!

I stared at it helplessly like on two colliding trains, expecting about as many victims… but the mecha shifted its feet at the last moment and regained its balance.

I chose this moment to dart toward it. When I reached the piloting cabin, Engine-See was furiously giving out telepathic commands until the mecha stopped fully in a balanced position—still holding the rock.

Only then she turned to me, but even then the other bees stayed fully focused on their controls and on their lines of communications.

"Father, the demonstration isn't over. The incident was within the acceptable parameters," Engine-See said.

"You almost fell together with the entire mecha, Engine-See! What would happen if you did? This mecha *can* get up, can it?"

"Of course, Father." Engine-See looked offended. "We even included a possibility of being in active combat. The crew will be jostled, but they all have safety belts and most falls end with no traumas to the people. There's also a reserve crew in case of losses."

I let out a breath, then reached out and patted Engine-See on the head, jolting her and probably spooking her out even more.

But I needed to give someone headpats! And Engine-See could live with a fright after the fright her crew gave *me*.

"Alright, then! Continue the demonstration of what the Princess model can do. What was next?"

Engine-See showed a small smile.

"Carrying loads. This model is not made for large ones, but relatively small ones are possible, like this rock." She leaned out of the cabin and pointed at the mecha's hand. The rock the Princess held was the size of a house.

I nodded, then stepped to the side so I could hold on to the wall. My bodyguards hovered outside of the cabin, although high enough to not block the field of vision for the pilots looking ahead.

Engine-See nodded to herself and began sending telepathic messages to bees in the cabin. In an instant, the amount of telepathic noise became so loud I couldn't make out individual thoughts.

This all was quickly overshadowed by the noise of the machinery and the engine. Inside the mecha, it was much louder than outside! This was louder than even being inside Hive Supremo, where countless bees were flying and talking all the time.

The mecha dropped the rock on the ground and walked again—this time, clearly with a purpose. Tamsha walked alongside us, eying the mecha from above like he was watching over a small child.

A minute later, we reached a pile of metal and stone parts. They were massive and their shape was familiar—I immediately realized what they were.

"Are those parts from failed prototypes?" I asked Engine-See.

"Yes, Father. We had four prototypes that failed so much that we had to disassemble most of them. The humans or our workers have re-purposed most materials, but we didn't have the time to deal with these."

After Engine-See finished speaking, the mecha slowly crouched and lifted what must've been a part of a hand, except it was badly bent out of shape.

After picking another detail in its other free hand, the mecha stood up just as slowly and walked toward One-Of-The-Best, where it dropped the parts on the ground, before going back to the pile

While this continued, one of Engine-See's subordinates, who wasn't too busy piloting, shared with me the final specifications of the mecha model "Princess".

It could run on a full fuel tank for 3 hours, and its drill and saw had an individual work time of 1 hour straight. It was slightly stronger than a human child of its size, according to Tamsha, and had a cover the bees could put over the open window in the cabin to work in poor weather.

Its joints were oiled with vegetable oils and protected from the grit and sand with pieces of fabric. But if they got dirty anyway, everything could be cleaned up, sometimes even without disassembling.

And the engineering team already had plans for the "Queen" model, which was going to be twice the size and able to punch a human in the face (which was something a few especially militarist bees quietly dreamed about).

Meanwhile, I reached my conclusion about this demonstration…