"A reputation screen?" I ask out loud to no one in particular. After a quick search on how to go to said screen I finally find that I just have to think open/close foreign faction relations. The screen that popped in front of me was what could be compared to a spreadsheet with the names of factions I had encountered, current relations along with a small bar with some marks, recent relation changing events, and a scale of relative power compared to myself.
The first on the list were the 'Tower Tribe' who were, as a whole, not too happy with me with their collective reputation sitting at 40. Under the tribe's name was a small list of sub-factions in the tribe which consisted of the 'Council of Elders' which I equated to being the leaders, 'Tribal Guardsmen', and the 'Tribal Citizens'. The council did not like me one bit with their score of 35, probably because I held one of their kids as a hostage. The guardsmen have a slightly appreciative attitude towards me with their 55 relations after I saved one of them, so that's nice. Lastly, sitting at a solid 50 tribal citizens are uncaring about me, which is alright with me for the time being.
At the very bottom of the tower tribes relation section was the lined bar, and looking from left to right, it showed the current status of the relationship. The marks went from sworn enemy to steadfast ally, and the little blue tick mark that represented the tower tribe sat around 'Uneasy Neighbors', and their relative power was 'slightly inferior'.
The next on the list of factions are the 'Outskirt Aerial Attack Flock,' whom I am going to be referring to as just the Flock. With their reputation score at 55, their scale slates them into the 'Friendly Neighbors', and their power is 'similar'.
And last but not least,'Undetermined AI Core' who does not like me one bit with a score of 10. The relation bar puts our relation at 'Adversary' and its relative power reads, 'unknown'.
*Well, that's slightly concerning. * I close the screen and walk back into the base. Looking around, I realize that I haven't sent my drones back to work, which I swiftly do. After the dust settles from all the drones rushing about, I see that the hounds, moose, and the newly constructed hornets do not have anything to do. Deciding that I do not need them anywhere home currently, I send all of them out to act as a patrol squad. With nothing to do with myself, I walk outside and start helping the drones bring the new scrap corpses into the refinery.
———
Hours later, around midnight, I get a message from my rats again. Opening it up, it reads that they have found the other AI base and that it was about a day's travel away. Along with the message, they sent a handful of pictures of the base.
The base looked like an old mining system with plenty of large drills and spotlights strewn about the area. In the pictures, there were multiple sets of patrol groups wandering around the compound. The patrol groups were comprised of hornets, which were found in squads of 4 and large 10 legged drones, whose two frontal legs were significantly larger than the others, which were always in pairs
While my scouts were unable to get much closer without risking being spotted, this was still very useful information.
Walking over to my Medium Drone Works, I order another pair of hounds and hornets along with another batch of 5 spiders. After I finish with that, I call back the patrol group and replace them with two pairs of ants with their escorts to be the new guards. With that, I now have my own attack squad, which is made up of 5 hounds, 5 hornets, and a small group of logistical repair and rearming drones.
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I set off with my newly formed group along with some emergency repair materials towards the AI mining base.
———
A half day goes by, and the rat scouts ahead of me that are, well scouting, inform me that a pair of those other 10 legged drones and accompanying hornets are incoming. Looking around my current surroundings, I decided to set up my own hornets on the top of the nearby buildings and hide my logistics team far away from where combat will occur. With my canine squad, I moved into a building on the right, which was a little bit behind the hornets' sniper positions.
Ordering my hornets to hold fire, I sat down on a nearby chair that I thought could hold my weight and began to wait for the enemy to come to me. The chair could not infact hold my weight and broke after 5 minutes of sitting.
———
Another 15 minutes go by until my hornets on the roofs notice the incoming group. Momentarily, I hop into the closest one's view to get a better look. The enemy hornets were slowly buzzing their way forwards around the height of the second story of one of the buildings, which was comparatively low to the current position of my hornets.
The grounded drones slowly stomped its way forward, and zooming in, I could now get a good look at one. They were about as long and tall as a car but were twice the width of one, including the legs. The front legs, which were positioned slightly upright so as not to scrape the ground, were quite thick and could likely crush me. On the right frontal leg was a drill with the width of a small yoga ball at its base. The other leg was what looked like a jaw with blocky and thin teeth, which could probably fit one of my spiders quite easily. Now that I think of it, it looks quite like a crab.
As the group moves closer and closer to my position, I order my hornets to aim for the flier and fire in 3 . . 2 . . 1 . . FIRE. The metal spikes quickly pierced 3 of the 4 enemy hornets, but the last one managed to dodge the spike that was aimed at them. Quickly, I hop back into my vessel's view and order my hounds to attack the crab walkers. I and my drones burst through the door and begin to wale on the closest crabs legs bringing them down to the side.
The crab quickly reacts to the sudden loss of its right legs and uses its right frontal leg as a support to keep balance. While it does that, the remaining enemy hornet fires a spike and nails one of my hornets in the abdomen, disabling the poor drone. The crab on the left decides to help his buddy by climbing behind the first and uses its left leg to grab onto one of my hounds and crushes it. The other crab then activates its front right leg, causing it to begin willingly and attempts to strike to the closest hound but misses by a few feet when my hound realizes what is happening and dodges.
As all that was happening, my 4 remaining hornets were rearmed and fired once again at the remaining hornets and one of the crabs. The hornets manage to take the opposing hornet down and land 2 spikes on the previously undamaged crab body. Two of the hounds quickly took this opportunity and punced on the impaled crab with righteous fury, scurrying into the insides of the crab from the holes the spikes made and ripping up its insides. The remaining hounds continue to tear the downed crab apart, and I use my fists to crack open part of the drones' shell.
And with that, the ambush was over. Calling for the logistics team to patch up that one hornet that got hit, I also scanned the crab and pulled up its description.
"The Industral Mining Excavator or IME are designed to strip mine long shafts of excavation sites and deliver the resources to specialized drones While ment for menial labor, they are still incredibly strong and could highly damage even military grade drones. The one weakness for the IME is that it is only armored enough to handle loose rocks falling on it instead of direct combat. Can be constructed at a Large Drone Works."