"And that's the last of it" I grunt to myself as I drop the final pile of scrap into the refinery with a sigh. My scouts have been occasionally feeding me updates on the incoming drones and after the most recent one, I decided to pull my drones back into the confines of the factory.

Pausing by the door I survey the now cleared-out husks of once rubble-filled buildings which have now been pilfered unrelentingly. All that remains are the many scattered and crumbling walls that mark where there once was a building. I glance over to the significant pile of concrete and other such rubble that I have no use for. A pity that all this stuff is going to waste. I'm sure I'll need it eventually but until then this junk is just going to stay there.

Looking back to my collection of drones that were mostly milling about I decided to start setting them up. Quickly counting the number of drones I split my ants into 2 groups of 5 and form them into lines on each side of the doorframe to the main room. Grabbing up my 10 spider drones, I instruct them to use their climbing ability to place them above the door. Lastly, with the final drones, I hold them in reserve so they can help where needed.

My scouts alert me to their position right outside of the factory.

Grabbing a fallen metal desk I position it in front of me as a makeshift shield. I take a deep breath to calm my nerves and then the doors burst open and the first pair buzz into the room. Immediately 4 of my spider drones drop onto the hornets with a thunderous "Thunk" in order to hold them down for my ants to finish them off. But before the ants manage to do so the next pair in line seems to have noticed the offending spiders and proceeded to impale 2 of them, freeing one of their comrades in the process.

My ants hurriedly scuttle forward and chomp down onto the downed hornet's neck, finishing it off. The ants and a couple of the hounds on the other side attempt to do the same to the freed hornet but unfortunately it seems that it had managed to fly out of their grasp. Thinking quickly I grab a nearby pole off the ground and throw it towards the escaping hornets and with a satisfying crunch the hornet is impaled by the pole and falls to the ground with a thud.

Before I could celebrate the successful throw, a spike pierces my upper forearm. I quickly recoil from the pain, although slightly duller than I would have expected, and back up into cover. Risking a quick peak I poke my head from behind my shield and just as quickly I shoot back without getting a good look as another salvo of the spikes slams into the shield. Wincing from the pain I get up and stagger to the side, before the hornets are able to rearm, over to my ants. Ordering one to grab the lacerated corpse of the hornet I open up the description for the drone.

"The Atmospheric Heavy Lancer or the AHL is a slow but powerful striker drone meant for long-ranged engagements. They were designed to be used as long-ranged support drones meant to aid melee drones from afar. Highly vulnerable to ambushes from behind or the sides and is ineffective against large mobs of drones due to long rearming times. Can be constructed in a Medium Drone Works."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Using a large chunk of my scrap I order 2 pairs of the new drones and I refocus my attention on the 3 hornets left outside. According to the scouts currently observing the engagement the hornets seem to have taken up defensive positions, content to hover around and wait us out.

Then a familiar screech pierces across the sky and in comes the large flock of robotic birds soaring straight to the hornets. The hornets turn to face the new threat and fire a volley of pikes toward the incoming swarm. But this time the swarm has learned its tricks and quickly dodges out of the way before going back to dicing for the hornets.

The flock and hornets clash and it is quite easy to see that the few hornets are no match for the substantially larger force of birds but they still put up a fight. One manages to fire off a random pike that finds punches in the lead bird's shoulder area which causes it to fall and crash down on a ruined building. do birds have shoulders?

But that's asides from the point. I grab a few spiders and place them on my still-aching arm for field repairs as I walk out of the base, not bringing any other drones in case the flock deems them a threat. Scuttling over to crash sight to maybe find a very useful blueprint I clamber my way up the rubble and the head of the lead bird immediately snaps to my position. Ducking back immediately I start fearing that it will pull itself up and I will be able to do nothing to stop it from scraping me.

But as a multitude of moments passed I experienced no such occurrence. Risking another peek I find that the bird is still staring straight at me. Gathering what little courage my little factory worker mind could muster I step out of cover towards the robotic beast. The bird continues to stare me down as I slowly inch closer to its head.

And once I reached over to the impaled shoulder of the bird it suddenly screeched into the sky. Near immediately a half dozen birds break from the flock and surround me. I quickly raise my arms to try and protect myself but strangely enough, they don't immediately attack. One of them hops down and points at me with its beak and then points to the spike in their leader's shoulder.

Hesitantly I walk over to the spike and put my hands around the spike and look to the bird for confirmation. The birds backs off, which I interpret as 'continue', and so I grip on tight and pull upwards. The spike slowly makes its way out of the drone's shoulder and the others do not attack which is the best sign that I can really hope for right now.

The spike finally slides out completely and I set it down on the ground, after which I grab one of my spiders and place it in the hole. The drone quickly gets to work and rewires most of the components inside of the appendage but seems to be unable to do much more. Picking the spider up and stepping a few paces back the lead bird tentatively pushes itself upright and experimentally flaps its wings. Seeming to find it mostly working the drone lifts off and with the rest of its flock, who have finished fighting the hornets several moments ago, off into the distance.

As I watch them fly off into the distance a new message appears in front of me which I curiously open to find something unexpected.

"Relation with the Outskirt Arial Attack Flock +5. Currently 55/100 reputation. New screen unlocked Foreign Faction Relations."