The man continued his three day trek to the edge of the forest. Finally after a few more hours of walking, the forest was in sight -- he was thankful to see it since all he'd seen for days now was a seemingly unending expanse of flat plain.
Another half-day and he had reached perimeter of the forest. He began to visualize in his head how large an area of the forest that he was supposed to cut down, according to those who sent him. He also wondered if they really would pay him for clearing the area that they had requested.
As he continued on, he checked over to make sure that the vibra-cutter that they had given him was still in working order, along with the nets and small -- yet very capable -- levitation units. He pressed on a little farther still. A glimmer of metal could be seen in the distance. At first he thought that it was possibly another such as him; someone assigned to the same task. Instead it became quickly apparent that whatever it was was not human. It was a man of metal -- standing at the edge of the forest like a sentry.
The man approached the machine out of sheer curiosity as to why it was here and how it could have possibly gotten here.
It was now only a few meters away from him, standing an impressive ten feet tall -- silver and dirtied with mud, dust, and dried plant matter.
The robot's left eye glowed slightly -- it definitely wasn't a derelict. And as if in order to prove it, the robot spoke something to him in a language that he did not understand, followed immediately with "none may pass into the forest."
He looked startled and amazed, "You speak my language. Do you mean no human?." The machine turned its head more towards the man, "Correct."
"But, I must go in. I have work to do." The inscrutable sculpture of metal stood fast, "no human may pass; no harm shall come to this place."
The man pressed on, attempting to go around the robot. The machine moved to block his passage. He then tried to outrun the machine -- to no avail. Finally, out of frustration, he pulled the vibra-cutter and slashed at the towering thing of chrome. The cutter had no effect on the robot's armor. Its response was quick and decisive. The robot briefly shocked and then stunned the man, rendering him unconscious.
When the man awoke, he soon remembered everything. He looked up to see the machine towering above him. It was at that point that the man decided to leave -- and quickly. He had to go back; he was afraid and outmatched.

Six months later:

Lisa Fung walked into the brightly lit computer room, and presented a file for the benefit of Michael Strom. She placed the file in the drive and brought it up on screen. "I realize that your robots are the highest of high-tech, but I think you've got a problem. Take a look at this...," Lisa remarked, as she punched up classified world government documents for the planet Athea.
"Well, well... I don't believe it. You mean to tell me that they're sending a bloody coalition army against me?"
"Yeah, hell I was just as surprised as you to find out about this. I just hope that those machines of yours are as good as your engineers say they are."
Strom looked over the report with a slight air of disbelief, "It's not the robots that I'm worried about. I have to wonder about what type of weapons they plan to use, and how they'll affect the surrounding area."
"Any ideas Mike?"
"Yeah. For now, instruct the sentries to move farther from the edge of the forest. This could get ugly, but not if I can help it."