1 - Mission Launch
……Initializing……
……Source Code Found……
……Powering Up Main Systems……
……Unit Designation: CW04……Codename: Shadow……
……Subroutines Enabled……Weapons Status: Inactive……
……Power Core: 100%……Motor Functions: Optimal……
……Powering Up Auditory and Optic Sensors……
……Startup Complete……
The world lit up in sharp colors and shapes as Cyber Wolf 04, nicknamed Shadow, powered up from his inactive state. Without being told anything, he automatically knew what was going on. As part of the advance scout team for the Gateway Project, he understood that the only reason he would have been activated was because the humans running the program had found a possibly habitable world. They needed him to do some reconnaissance in order to determine if the planet was suitable for human habitation and to run diagnostics of the local flora and fauna, if any existed.
Following the designated coordinates routed through his transponder, Shadow walked out of the charging station, feeling the numerous cables detaching from ports in his body as he left the mostly bare room, ignoring the eleven other charging stations and his sleeping brothers and sisters. Time was always a priority when it came to these missions, as the portals could only be kept open for a short period of time before the gate had to be closed for recharging. Only by constructing a second gate on the other side could a stable portal be opened, but that was none of his concern. The only thing Shadow had to worry about was determining the habitable or inhospitable nature of his destination, and to run initial scans on any life native to the planet that could prove useful to his human creators.
Shadow walked down the slate-steel halls of the complex, passing a few humans in lab coats as they walked around performing other tasks, although the cybernetic hound paid them no mind as he made his way to the portal room for his immediate departure. He paused at the airlock that lead to the gateway, ignoring the vibrant warning labels printed on its surface as the locks disengaged with an audible thunk. The doorway opened with a hiss and Shadow walked into the small antechamber, registering the ultraviolet decontamination on his sensors before the door in front of him opened, allowing him into the much larger portal lab as the airlock shut firmly behind him.
Built into the center of the room, resting on a raised platform with a set of stairs running up to the main generator ring, was the gateway. The massive construction was wide enough to allow a small truck to pass through its ring without trouble, although the portal itself could be adjusted to any size to save on power consumption needs. Right now, the swirling opening was only about the size of a full-grown man, hovering in the center of the gateway’s field generator ring like a window to another world. Then again, that was exactly what it was, revealing what looked like a grassy field ringed with very earth-like trees and shrubs. Shadow stepped up to the stairs and waited for his signal, the observation platform behind him sealed off from the room with a thick pane of invisicrete. The nearly indestructible yet completely see-through material allowed the human operators to observe the portal while remaining completely isolated from the chamber, rendering almost any threats posed by the gateway null and void.
The intercom buzzed as one of the scientists spoke, “Shadow, we have confirmed that the planet before you, classified as a Terran III biome, is nearly identical to the habitats we can find here on Earth. Native life has been confirmed to at least include plants, so expect some kind of herbivorous animals at the minimum during your journey. Other than that, all mission decisions are yours to make as you see fit, as long as the preservation of your processing cores and memory banks is deemed top priority. I don’t need to tell you how hard it would be to replace you, so do your best to stay alive on the other side. Estimated time until another portal can be opened is nine days, seven hours and thirty-eight minutes. Good luck, and we all hope for promising results upon your return.”
Shadow nodded, knowing full well that responsibility for everything that happened on the other side of the portal would fall squarely on his haunches, regardless of the success or failure of his mission. No cyber wolf had ever been lost while on assignment, and he wasn’t about to be the first.
“Acknowledged.” He stated in a monotone voice, “Beginning mission now.”
As Shadow bound up the steps and leaped through the air towards the portal, he caught a few last words from the scientist manning the comms system, “Good luck, Shadow. We’ll be waiting for you.”
With those final words, Shadow passed through the portal and landed square on his paws, the titanisteel digits sinking into the soil and grass slightly as he looked around his destination. The portal closed with a slight pop behind him, leaving the mechanical hound alone in the grassy clearing he had landed in. All around were large trees, reminisce of the oak and cedar from Earth, interspersed with hundreds of small shrubs and ferns. A quick scan of his surroundings revealed that the life of the planet was carbon-based, and that the air around him was almost alarmingly similar to the atmosphere of Earth, minus almost all traces of industrial pollutants. He could hear small animals moving about in the brush, and even caught the distant sounds of what seemed to be birdsong, adding yet another tally to the list of things that seemed to indicate the portal had looped back somehow and deposited him back on Earth in some random temperate location.
Just to make certain he wasn’t back on Earth by some incalculable mistake in programing, Shadow looked up at the shining star that hung overhead, performing a spectral scan of the light and coming up with a distinctive signature. Satisfied that he truly wasn’t on Earth anymore, the cybernetic wolf turned his attention to the surroundings, following standard protocol as he assigned a waypoint to the location of the portal. While it wasn’t unheard of for a portal to open in a slightly different location each time, the chances of it appearing somewhere more than a hundred yards from the original drop zone were less than one percent. Whatever could be said about the humans running the Gateway Project, they were very good about getting repeat results when it was required.
With a waypoint assigned on his internal mapping software, Shadow set off to the West, taking into account that the poles on this planet should behave similarly to the magnetic field back home. Most life-supporting planets were fairly similar in their basic design and geography, although the vast majority of them sported life unlike anything found in the Sol system. To have such close evolutionary ties to Earth was nearly impossible, yet time and time again Shadow spotted life forms that would have been completely at home sitting outside the labs in the forests of Ohio.
Yet not everything seemed to be going as smoothly as Shadow had first anticipated. From the sudden lack of animal noise to the deep vibrations he could sense in the ground, there was something big, and most likely dangerous, in the area, meaning there could very well be a predator other than himself in these woods, looking for something to eat.
……Possible Threat Detected……Weapons Systems: Active……
Shadow’s shoulder plates shifted out of the way as twin plasma cannons sprouted from within his body, the ends glowing softly in bright blue light as he turned his attention to the rustling bushes on his left. Feeling like an aerial view might help him to navigate and to better determine what he was up against, Shadow opened another panel in the center of his back, allowing a hawk-sized mini-bot to slide into the open before spreading its thruster-dotted wings. The machine resembled a falcon about the same as he resembled a wolf, although the lack of a beak and the four bright red optics took away somewhat from that comparison. The silver, mechanical raptor took to the skies with a high-pitched whine as the thrusters on the trailing edge of its wings powered it into the air. In mere seconds it was circling Shadow overhead, its scanners and other sensory arrays picking up additional data that was then sent directly to Shadow’s processors through a wireless uplink. Good thing too, because it allowed the artificial hound to see exactly what it was that had been trying to sneak up on him, and the result wasn’t looking good.
Crouched in the bushes just beyond his own visual range, was a massive feline, although the tiny bat wings and long scorpion tail quickly derailed any comparison to Earthly big cats. The titanic creature had to be a good eight feet tall at the shoulder, its massive front paws sporting six-inch claws that glinted in the sunlight as its long fangs bared in anticipation of the kill. Shadow knew in an instant what he faced was a predator, although he hoped to avoid killing any native life unless absolutely necessary. After all, he was here to research the native life, not exterminate it, although self-defense overwrote his directive to preserve alien life on all accounts.
Perhaps a show of force would be enough to scare the creature off. After all, predators usually avoided more dangerous creatures unless they were absolutely desperate. Shadow set his legs further apart and raised his head in a challenging pose, opening his muzzle and turning his vocal components up to their highest setting. Ignoring the warning signals flashing over his visual feed, he powered down his audio receptors and then let out the loudest sound he could possibly create. It was something like a cross between a howl and a roar, and the shockwave from the sound erupting from his muzzle was enough to kick up dust and rustle the leaves of the plants in front of him, the deafening thunderclap of his cry scattering birds and other smaller creatures for miles around.
At first the large feline flinched, but then issued a roar of its own that paled in comparison to his own. Before he could do anything else, the creature pounded out of the brush, killing intent glowing in its amber eyes as it barreled down upon Shadow. The wolf charged up his cannons, feeling the electrostatic pulses of the superheated matter as it warped the air around him and created a near blinding lightshow. Too late, the monstrous cat tried to slow its advance, but was unable to move out of the way as twin spheres of energy shot from Shadow’s cannons, impacting the creature in the face and left shoulder as he lithely stepped to the side. The creature’s roar of agony was short lived, the mighty feline falling to the ground as the plasma melted through the animal’s fur and flesh, turning the brain and its other internal organs into a cooked soup of roasted flesh and boiling blood. The body fell to the ground and slid past the impassive Shadow, digging a shallow trench in the grass and dirt before coming to a stop just past the machine’s position.
All of that had happened in a matter of seconds, hours by comparison to the super processors of the mechanical hound’s computer banks. A quick scan revealed that the creature was well and truly dead, although after taking a hit like that Shadow wasn’t surprised. The statistical probability of a creature being able to stand up to tens of thousands of degrees would be nearly impossible on a planet such as this, unless other regions were far less habitable than the one he currently found himself within. Pausing to take a blood sample and a small amount of the creature’s venom for further study, Shadow left the corpse behind and continued on his way, not knowing that his mighty roar had attracted the attention of more than just the local fauna.
Twilight Sparkle was having a very bad day. First Applejack had to cancel their scheduled gettogether because Big Mac had hurt his legs again, leaving the apple farmer with nopony to help her harvest the apples for the day. Then Spike had come down with a cold, meaning she had to fireproof the entire library in case he started sneezing again, and to top it all off, her experiment concerning magical transfiguration was not producing any worthwhile results.
The purple unicorn groaned in frustration as she rubbed her head with a forehoof, “Could today possibly get any worse?”
As if the world had heard her plea and decided to be vindictive about how it answered, there was a sudden explosion of sound that emanated from the Everfree forest, causing Twilight’s ears to fold against her head as the unequine roar scattered birds and seemed to make the very ground shake beneath her hooves. Twilight’s ears were still ringing as she tried to clear her head, although her headache was quickly interrupted as a rainbow contrail appeared above her and announced the arrival of Ponyville’s resident speedster.
“What in Celestia’s name was that?!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she came to a halt in front of the dazed unicorn, her wings keeping her aloft as she glanced over her shoulder at the foreboding forest, “You don’t suppose it was a hydra, do you?”
Shaking her head to clear it completely, Twilight furrowed her brow in concentration, confusion setting in as she realized she had no idea what had caused that terrifying roar. “I honestly don’t know, Rainbow, but we better check it out. Who knows what kind of damage that thing could cause if it comes into town?”
She set off at a firm pace, the cyan pegasus following close behind as she glanced down at the determined mare, “So, we’re going to just head straight into the Everfree to find the creature that created a roar that would put a dragon to shame, all in the hopes we can drive it off before it comes after the rest of the town?”
Twilight glanced up at the other mare without breaking stride, “We’ve faced worse than some Everfree monster. I’m certain we can handle anything we come across, and if not,” her horn glowed for a second to emphasize her point, “I can teleport us out of there before we get hurt so we can contact Princess Celestia and the Royal Guard.” A slight bounce found its way into her step as she beamed in anticipation, “Oh, to think, we might be on the verge of discovering a new species. I could end up in the history books for discovering something nopony has ever seen before.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes as the unicorn lost herself in her own little fantasy world, “Whatever you say, egghead. Just try not to end up in the town obituary along with the history books. I really don’t want to be known as the mare who got eaten by some crazy Everfree thing because I was stupid enough to go along with your idea.”
Twilight either hadn’t heard the pegasus or chose to ignore her in favor of her own thoughts, her mouth running a mile a minute as she listed off equipment that they might need for the trip. Rainbow sighed as Twilight continued on her self-rant as she entered the Golden Oak library, leaving the hovering mare on the front porch as the sounds of frantic packing could be heard from inside. Rainbow rolled her eyes once more before rocketing off into the sky, intent on finding the rest of their friends so that if Twilight got them into trouble, again, they would at least be able to handle the threat as a group. Although, try as she might, she couldn’t get the echoing roar out of her mind, her eyes being drawn to the shadows of the Everfree even as she sped away from the foreboding forest in search of Applejack and the other Elements.
One thing was for sure, she had a feeling this was going to be an adventure nopony was ever going to forget.
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... Okay, so if I understand it right, these scientists want to search for intelligent life and open friendly diplomatic ties with them.
And to do so, they send probes armed with enough weaponry to win a war and shape them like predators.
Wat?
Great work keep up the great work
8962933
They're scouts, and if their intent was to search for intelligent life, why didn't they send someone over as well?
Anyway, I'll follow, this seems good
im reminded of that a x l movie
I am...intrigued. Will be tracking and looking foreword to an update
I am hooked with this story already. Go on...
8962933
Shit costs money, you know.
8962982
Yeah, it's just weird to initiate first contact by pointing an aggressive looking gun at people's faces. Diplomacy 101 is not to point weapons at people you want to be friends with.
8963668
So does war. And sending what by any observation is a weapon, arguably of mass destruction, that 'deals with threats as it sees fit' , is saying "Hi, we're here to conquer you" not "hi, we want to be friends."
I mean, I hope I'm wrong, but this is already feeling like a 'misunderstandings happen and tons of ponies die' fic.
8964071
The weapons are to ensure the survival of the probes and the data they carry, they're for defense as a last resort. He even tried to scare the local wildlife off before resorting to force.
They're also carried internally, so even if he encounters inhabitants (and remember, out of a dozen worlds, none have so had any so far), and if they are at a level they'd recognize them as weapons, he's not pointing anything at them unless he decides it's absolutely necessary.
That's nonsense. You don't send explorers to an unknown world with fuck knows what kind of dangers, and then make them totally defenseless. As demonstrated by that manticore. If they're dumb enough to attack him solely because he's armed, they deserve any grief it buys them.
Please, Please, PLEASE for the love of God, don't do some sort of language cop-out. Language software or the ponies just happening to speak some derivative of earth language, while not story breaking, could make the story less interesting. I would love to see how a cybernetically enhanced wolf attempts to communicate without opposable thumbs or a common language
8964071
I look at it from this point of view: life itself is astronomically rare, and intelligent life even more so. Since the dangers of predators outweigh the slim chance of intelligent life, let alone intelligent life advanced enough to recognize a machine for what it is, the small chance of unintended aggression outweighs the chance of destruction of a multi-million dollar machine, were it not to be armed.
this seems like it may be interesting so i'll see how the next chapter goes.
8962954
Need a bag?
8964136
There's a rather grand canyon sized gulf between 'not being stupid by leaving explorers defenceless' and 'the firepower to level a city' though. One is logical, the other is going way past design intent and turning a diplomatic scout into a walking weapon platform. I mean, the entire point of sending probes instead of people is that probes are expendable. If you put enough weapons on them that they can level cities, that's no longer self defence.
8964200
It's a giant metal wolf, though. A giant walking predator.The chance of intelligent life seeing it and not reacting in either A: panic or B: aggression are rather slim. Especially since A will almost inevitably lead to B once the giant metal wolf starts chasing people. Even a world that doesn't have wolves is going to take one look at that jaw, its teeth and those claws and think "danger!"
Seriously, just look at that thing! If I'd encounter that during a walk in the woods I'd be wearing brown pants the very next second. I'm genuinely curious what went through the heads of the design commission when they decided their peaceful ambassador should look like a deadly predator even at a casual glance.
Love the cover art!
8963668
Exactly
8964489
Just think about what they must have already encountered to think they need to have it armed as such
Remember how it registered that the enviroment wasn't bad enough for the manticore to need to survive 10,000 degrees? Imagine if they met stuff that could?
This story is going to be AWESOME!!!
xd
Can't wait for more chapters.
When next AWESOME update!!!?
8964136
I couldn't have said it any better myself.
Oh yeah I can tell this is going to be a good one and if you don't update it and this is just going to be a 1 chapter thing I'm going to send you to the Bone Zone. And stuff you in my wank Shack
Any other robot animals we should be made aware of?
I was going to read this but then I saw the
and it instantly turned me off, did you have to make them mary sue levels? can't they just be cool mech wolves with advanced computers to function effectively? do they have to be able to level entire cities? can't they just work as a pack to outmaneuver and kill hostile threats? that would be so much cooler, instead of a wolf being able to wipe out a small city on its own
8964489
8964136
8964939
8966082
8964200
Thank you all for pointing out the rather outlandish power scaling I gave the Cyber Wolves in the story description. I figured it was just the doc giving them a bit of overdramatic flare but I guess I should have expected everypony to take it literally, so, I went back and changed the wording so that way they don't seem so overpowered, although I did keep the general gist of them being able to knock down most anything weaker than a fully-armored tank. I want these things to be powerful to stand up to almost any threat they could face beyond the portal, just not so powerful that they become unbeatable. Sorry for starting a mini war in the comment zone over this, but I hope everypony can agree that the new measure is a bit more balanced.
Thanks again for reading, and I hope to see you all next chapter,
Shadow Quill, Messenger of the Moon.
8966149
well, imma read this now, just not right now as it is literally midnight for me, also when you say they can take down a tank, you mean weapon wise right? They can't survive a tank shell? that would be kinda stupid if they could, not to sound insulting or anything but they seem like they would be heavily armored against conventional weapons but anything designed to take out armored targets should be able to damage them, like anti-tank rounds, explosive rounds, that kinda stuff, I imagine AP rounds could hurt a bit but not unless they hurt something vital.
so like claws and teeth can't really do anything unless they where really strong and even then they would need to hold the wolf down to be able to damage it, also what kinds of weapons do they have? I imagine, based on the description, that they use guns like it has a slot in its body than a machine gun can come out from, or maybe the gun is just locked onto its side? or maybe it has advanced tech like a pulse gun or even a sonic bark
8962933
I do agree but it might be crazy ride.
I have to agree that sending an exploration unit equipped with Internal turret mounted twin-linked PAC's is seriously overkill...
Just the energy the CW's reactor would have to be putting out to power a single fixed PAC is insane :/ ESPECIALLY since you made them AND the Raven internal :/ that means way less space for the CW's internal systems...
Honestly the Raven itself would be enough for the required mission... the CW as it is currently is more of an Mobile armored carrier for the Raven :/
Might be that you got a bit stuck on the idea of sending in a force recon scout :/ 'cause seriously? shadow's reaction to finding itself in a possible encounter with the local wildlife was to first sonic blast the creature... which would either a, scare it off or b, piss it off... a proper scout would've probably been more likely to have launched the Raven the moment it confirmed it had arrived safely in order to secure the area around itself... and it would've DEFINITELY been seeking to avoid any and all engagements until it'd gathered enough info to tell whether the wildlife posed a direct threat to it :/
but honestly the biggest issue for me would be the internal dual PAC's.... like really.... if you want energy weapons i'd rather recommend externally mounting a single Pulse Laser or something similar on it's haunches... though personally i'd have gone with either a rapid firing high powered nail-gun or a low powered MAG-rifle... especially since they're ammo based since it would've provided the CW with an actual weakness... but no matter what externally mounted :/ otherwise it'd just be so many internals having to perform WAY beyond their size in order to keep the CW operational
8975647
Your grievance has been noted, now shut the fuck up and read the book so we have enough room to point out loopholes in the book too.
I was hooked the moment i read the name of this story. And i know i wont be disappointed. 🐺
It most certainly did not "put a dragon to shame". The snores of an adult dragon alone were loud enough to be heard at the base of the mountain he was sleeping in, not to mention were shaking the mountain by the sheer force of them. Shadow has yet to display ANYTHING on the level of a dragon at all.
Who the hell is this and what has she done with Rainbow? If anything, Rainbow would be the first to volunteer to take whatever it was on. Yes she realised her error when she got scared by the dragon but all that would do is make her more cautious, perhaps provoke her to take a few clouds with her so she can bust out some lightning bolts or a small blizzard on its robotic ass. Or remember she can make tornadoes and easily weaponize the Sonic Rainboom if it really came to it.
This is making me hesitant to read on as it sounds like Shadow's going to be ridiculously OP compared to the non-alicorns, even though the likes of Twilight, Rainbow, Shining, Maud or Starlight would be a good match for what he's shown so far, not saying they'd win but it wouldn't be easy either way. Just oping you don't make the ponies look weaker than they are.
8962933
It does sound intriguing, but I agree with you that if this is their goal, they went about it in a way that can only go badly. Especially since they acknowledge the limitations in the AI being able to interpret unknown situations.
Only because the stated goal contradicts the methods. If you want to put your best foot forward in establishing relations, sending a massively powerful and prone-to-error AI on its own might not produce the result you were after.
That doesn't mean the story would necessarily be bad. Of course not. It just means that whoever was in charge of this outreach program needs to be fired.
You should've made it a robotic panther codenamed "Ravage" & "Laserbeak" for its drone--for reasons
Still, looks to be a fun read.
I have no idea why but this completely broke my immersion, all I could think of was, "Just use cameras instead of making of a fantasy substance that will never be mentioned again. That aside nice story, will continue reading.
90759
I don’t remember the authors ever saying it was used for diplomacy though, only for observation, which then the shape makes sense as you want it to be avoided
You run diagnostics to determine faults, you would need to do analysis to examine things.
I have more nit-picks but I don't want to cutter up the comment section.
For anyone who likes this story, I would also like to recommend, We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor. It's a pretty good sci-fi exploration story and a really good audiobook (which is how I consumed it).
When i read Shadow's line,s i can't help but hear Bladewolf's voice from the Metal Gear series
Ah, pre Ascension. Got it.
I'm sorry, and no offence to the author, but I just...
I just had to.
Decent opening. The main issue is that the characters' behavior feels forced. Events should flow naturally, rather than occurring because the story needs them to take place.
9334624
You to huh weird
My understanding of all this is that a shadow is looking for habitable worlds, not inhabited worlds. I don’t know what people are complaining about in terms of his armament in dealing with hostile flora and fauna.
9072215
The sound of his roar created a localized shockwave and made Twilight’s ears ring in central Ponyville from somewhere in the Everfree. I’m going to do some sloppy napkin-math here, and a whole lot of googling and make an attempt at figuring this out.
Shockwaves are, by definition, supersonic, so Shadow creating one is not caused by the actual sound, but by whatever process caused the sound. If there was a small explosion to fuel it, that would cause a shockwave (the plasma cannons would have likely had one, for example)
On to the sound itself
Fun fact! +10dB is equal to upping the power by a factor of ten and doubling the volume to our ears! So 150dB is 10,000 times more intense than 110dB, and sixteen times as loud! Remember that for later.
The loudest roar in the animal kingdom is the Lion, at ~112 dB and can be heard for five miles. Some animals are louder (whales are louder and can be heard much further but they have longer calls than a roar, elephants have louder and longer but are infrasonic (below 10Hz)) but we’re talking a roar so that’s what I went with for duration and distance. That is, I’m assuming ~five second roar and that Twilight is five miles away. Distance isn’t ever really established in canon so I’m just sort of assuming “middle of a small town” to “somewhere in a foreboding forest past the Acres on the town’s outskirts” to be five miles. For her ears to ring the sound needs to be at least 85dB, which is the level at which hearing loss occurs.
Assuming best conditions I could find at (This link here) (30C (86F) degrees at 10% humidity) at a frequency range of ~500-~1000Hz (again based on a lion roar found in This study) the sound would, at its quietest, be 112dB (8.04km X 3.4 (loss on dB/km at 500Hz) +85) and at its loudest be 154dB (8.04 X 8.67 (loss at 1000Hz)+85) .
So somewhere between a roaring lion (which a manticore has a lion’s body and most likely a lion’s roar) and a launching spaceship in terms of volume.
And that’s at its quietest, in the best conditions for sound to travel through air.
But! Since Twilight could actually feel the sound when it got to her, that means it would have to be louder. Your body feels painful compression and vibrations around 150dB (feeling like the ground was shaking was because the sound was shaking her) so using the same math as before and subbing 150dB for 85dB, at its quietest the roar would be 177dB, or just soft enough to not cause instant hearing loss (180dB) and be almost eight times louder than a spaceship taking off. At most it would be 220dB, which would actually transcend sound and be enough to melt concrete. Probably not that loud though, he didn’t kill the manticore with the roar.
At that sound and that range, the manticore would be at least in auditory, if not physical pain. So, yes. A bit louder than a dragon.
And obviously if Shadow were closer he would be quieter, but not by much, actually. If he were only one mile away it’d still be between 155dB and 163dB, so still louder than a space shuttle taking off in optimal conditions.
Neil Armstrong was from Ohio as well. What is it about that state that makes people desperate to get off-planet?
Annnnnnnnd 420th like...!
Your welcome.
9459364
Dude, it's Ohio.
This is a bit nitpicky but why is such an advanced AI needed for just determining if a planet is suitable for humans or not? At this moment I'm pretty sure we have AI that could be capable of such a task.
Excuse me if this was already suggested, especially in a later chapter.
An edit that might be fairly easy to work in:
Have this be the SECOND probe. The first one got disabled, but managed to eject a black-box sub-drone with enough data to identify the problem as being a predator. You could even make it an Ursa (even the Minor would justify this level of firepower, especially if they theorized from its proportions or other data* that it IS sub-mature. Plus they would know that IF there was civilization, it wasn't TOO nearby. Alternatively, or in addition, you could say they only have two grades of probe: "normal" and "ultra-hazardous environment"... or at least that the other hazardous environment ones can't stand up to BOTH huge teeth AND stomach acid. Maybe the wolf can't either, but it can kill the threat before melee range is reached. The only other option would be speed-based defense... the average 4x4 these days CAN go faster than a cheetah I think, it just isn't safe. The disparity between the fastest bird in level flight and even a propeller-driven plane is even more pronounced. This could be excused by pointing out that a forest isn't the best environment for scouting by air in an energy efficient way, plus keeping it quiet so you can observe the wildlife in their NORMAL behaviors.
*Radar pulse that picked up the growth-plates in its bones? Not sure if that is plausible as physics for a reflection rather than transmission such as in a normal medical x-ray.