The drill is better if you can hold it on them for a while, which you probably won't be able to do unless you get it stuck. I would take the drill, but maybe keep it in the PRAWN storage or something, so if it does get stuck then you can swap to it
For locations, either the Aurora or the Dunes, whichever is further away from your seabase since Reapers can really throw you around and take the fight into completely different biomes, and you really don't wanna lead it to your base