A Robotic Overmind for a Dungeon

The first of the enemy drones to enter engagement range was a couple wings consisting of eight total hornets. The militia, which was nine strong, and I took cover behind a few of the nomads' metal fold out tents while my own hornets and scorpions lined up their shots and fired. The enemy hornets, seemingly expecting the attack, managed to dodge most of the spikes from the hornets but the scorpion beams managed to catch a few more which netted half of the enemy either temporarily stunned or dead.

The remaining enemy hornets opened fire and were able to hit and kill a scorpion and two hornets. Then the next group of the enemy drones approached, this time consisting of the pair of crabs and two groups of five hounds each guarding one of the former. They quickly surged forward and so my own hounds, which numbered thirteen in total, broke from their cover and began engaging their counterparts. I too leave my cover as I run forward, javelin in hand, to help engage the crabs while my ranged focused drones rearmed.

The militia follows suit and follows behind me, albeit more cautiously but I turn my full attention back onto my target. I heft up my javelin and take aim at the right most crab and I chuck the javelin into the air . . . just for me to completely whiff it as the javelin sticks into the ground. Thank goodness everyone's focusing on the battle and thus did not notice that absolute failu- I cut that line of thought as I hear some snickering from behind me which I unsuccessfully try to ignore.

Sighing to myself, I pull out another one of my javelins and, definitely for the first time, I throw it straight into the thin metal plating that makes up the outer shell of the rightmost crab. The crab in question shrieks in pain and begins charging past its hound escorts and straight for me. I quickly grab another javelin but instead of throwing it I hold up my blast shield and dig my heels into the ground and brace.

Right after I do, the crab's driller arm clashes into my shield and begins doing its namesake. My shield holds for long enough to allow me to peek out to my left and hurl my javelin into the crab's face. The drilling swiftly stops and a louder shriek is heard again which and just as I pull out my fourth javelin, the nine tribal militia finally reach the crippled crab and begin to stab at it with their spears to insure it stays down.

Looking back to the rest of the fight, I see that the left crab had not been slacking off and in fact had managed to cause a few of my hounds to either die or if they could disengage from the fight. This made the left side a lot less in my favor than I felt comfortable with. Even worse, another group of MAI drones entered the field, this time it was a group of four scorpions which quickly fired off into my hounds. Thankfully the hornets and scorpions have finally reloaded and thus began firing once more. My hornets manage to take down the last of the enemy hornets through pure volume of fire and so it left my scorpions time to focus down on the last crab which they began pummeling with beam fire.

As the last of my scorpions stopped firing to cool their systems, the crab came down with a thunk. Then, with the help of the militia, the hounds swiftly took down the last of the enemy and even managed to take a few captive. But as my drones began relaxing and collecting the prisoners for conversion and corpses for recycling, a low rumbling began being heard. Knowing what that entailed, I quickly ordered my drones to scatter but I soon realized that I did not warn the militia who were just standing there confused.

I just barely began to shout the warning before three moles sprung from the ground and immediately landed on top of a few tribesmen. I knew deep down that neither I nor any of my drones were close enough to get there in time before the poor robots were ripped to shreds but I still got up and began running over as did my drones. But suddenly, three quickly moving blurs rush past and pounce upon the offending moles, knocking them off the tribesmen.

As I make sense of the now stationary blurs I see that standing proudly on top of the defeated moles, was Paisleigh and her two bodyguards. I and the tribesmen threw cheer in the air at the successful defense without too many casualties. My lead hound and his subordinates congratulate Paisleigh and her guards for saving the lives of those guardsmen. Leaving the three to their basking in praise, I walked over to R5-7G. I was about to speak first but he began right as I got into conversion range.

"I am even more grateful to you for helping protect me and my tribe. You have given us hope that we may once again be able to live out a normal life in peace. For that I am eternally grateful." After he says this R5-7G bows to me along with his men.

"Please, get up. Like I said, it was no problem, any enemy of that AI is a friend of mine. Plus you guys helped quite a bit during the fight, I would have likely lost at least a couple more hounds if you guys didn't aid in the final push." I reply humbly.

"How much we helped matters not. All that does is that you helped us when we needed it and did not back down when it would have been easier to just ignore us. So from this day forward, you and your current and future friends will be our friends as well."

As they finish speaking, I get a notification stating that my relation with the nomadic tribe has increased by forty. "I'm glad to be friends with your tribe. After you leave, do know that you are welcome to come back at any time if you so choose."

"The same goes for us as well." R5-7G says before one of his tribesmen gets his attention. "Ahh, sorry but I must go now" he says as he breaks off into a jog towards the tribesmen in need.

Looking back at my drones I see that my spiders have already begun to patch up all of my injuries and a few were even repairing the prisoners. Speaking of the prisoners, my drones managed to capture three hounds, one scorpion, and a crab who was stun locked by my own scorpions. A few of my hornets guarded the crab in particular, never stopping their watch for if they did the crab could cause a lot of damage.

Walking over to the captured drones, I could see that two of the hounds who were not too damaged or currently frozen in place, unlike their other compatriots, backed away from my approaching form fearfully while half heartedly growling. I stopped advancing as I held my hands in the air, revealing that I did not hold any weapons which seemed to calm them slightly. I look over to the partially impaled scorpion and extremely beaten up hound and quickly call over a few repair spiders who hastily scuttle up to the injured drones.

The damaged drones for their part attempt to back away from the insistent spiders but after a few failing limbs cause them to collapse they eventually accept treatment. The healthier hounds seem to understand what the spiders are here to do and so they do not interfere with their work, although they still watched for any signs of danger from the working repair drones.

After the spiders finish fixing the fatal wounds, I approach the now stabilized drones who do not react as aggressive as last time although they still seemed wary of me which was fair enough. I propose the same conditions to the four drones as I did to the spiders back at the warehouse outpost but with one more option of entering Paisleighs service for the hounds if they so choose.

This time only one drone chose the violent outbreak and so they were swiftly removed and eliminated. The remaining two hounds and one scorpion then rightly decided living was the best option. One of the hounds decided to join Paisleighs force and the remaining hound and scorpion decided to sign up with me. I was about to try the same deal with the now slightly conscious crab but I quickly got a pop up stating that I was not experienced enough yet to convert large drones.

Not seeing much else to do, I walk back to the battlefield to retrieve my javelins. With the sudden influx of materials coming from the fresh drone corpses, I decided to order up some replacements for my losses and, after realizing I left my new vultures at the factory, I ordered up a wing of five vultures. As they all started ticking away, I decided to help out and so I began to help haul some of the wrecks to the refinery.

This continued for a while until we eventually ran out of available corpses but not before the fresh vultures walked off the production line. Looking over my map, I note the distance between the warehouse outpost and the final MAI outpost which was around six hours of marching. Marshaling my drones, I set off towards the hopefully under defended outpost with my drones following right behind me.

———

Around half way, one of my scouts reported that they had found something of interest. Slipping into their view, I quickly noticed what they were seeing. Ten minutes or so away from my current position were five, deactivated, hounds all sitting in a store house. Hopping back into my vessel, I quickly order the slight detour over to the storage building.

Upon entering the building I order a few spiders to check for any damages on the hounds. After a few moments, the spiders report back that they were in optimal condition if a bit rusty. I asked one of the spiders if they could bring them back online to which the drone responded by opening one of the panels and looking at me experimentally. Looking at the now exposed area left open, I see that a familiar looking port was located at the center of it.

Pulling my hand close to the port, one of my fingers transforms back into its USB looking shape which I then plug in. Right as I do, the hound flutters to life and immediately lights up into the same bluish shade which marks the drones under my command. Doing the same for the four other hounds, I exit the building five hounds stronger and with a hope that I will not have needed them.

———

Another couple hours pass before my drones arrive close enough to the outpost for us to see into it. I decided to slip into one of my vultures, who had all perched on top of some buildings alongside the hornets. Through my drones eyes I could see that the outpost was located in a run down industrial building of some kind, perhaps a water or power plant.

From where my vulture was perched, I could spot an outer garrison consisting of two pairs of crabs who were circling around the facility, a dozen hornets stationed around and atop the building, a contingent of twenty hounds who were split up and guarding the four crabs, and last but not least a small team of four scorpions stationed near what I think is the main entrance.

After concluding that there were likely a few more drones inside of the facility itself, I began to designate my drones positions for the tough fight ahead.