After a few hours, the preparations were finished. All of the hornets were in their sniper nests with plenty of spare spikes if they are to ever need them. The squad of attack hounds are prepared to begin the assault with their hastily cobbled together scrap armor. And lastly the pair of moose and I are ready to ignite the battle.

In front of me was the largest piece of rubble that I could find and could drag over to the ledge near the mining base. With it already placed in position, I patiently wait for the right moment to strike. And then it comes when the last of the 4 excavator crabs drops off the last of its load and begins to crawl its way back into the mineshaft as the moose drones begin to galop off into the distance.

Ordering my moose drones to begin to push the large piece of rubble, I dig my feat into the ground and begin to do the same. While the help from the pair of moose and the immense strength afforded by the metallic body of mine, the rubble was still massive but did eventually gave way and with that it began to roll down the cliffside. Peering down to get a better look, I watch as the rubble smashes down onto the crab that was entering the mineshaft.

Quickly ordering all combat drones to engage, I begin to run down the hill to aid in the battle. Looking around while running, it seems that my hornets have already fired. Evidently, I see about half of the enemy's hornet division has been shot out of the sky. Reaching the current engagement between the hounds and the enemy scorpion drones, I finally get a good look at the latter.

The enemy drone would have looked like a regular scorpion if it was not for its tail. The drones tail was sparking with streaks of electricity jolting back and forth between coils around the drones tail. And then, suddenly, the scorpion drone's tail began to spark even more violently before a beam of energy violently impacts the side of one of my hounds, causing it to spasm frantically before going limp.

Note to self, don't get hit by one of those. Pulling up to the battlefield and quickly assessing the situation, I find that the fight is not going in my favor. 2 of the hounds downed because of the electric beams and the fact that they have taken down only 1 of the scorpions. Quickly calling over the 2 moose drones for reinforcements, I run over to the closest scorpion, who is facing the hound on my left, and crush its abdomen in.

half of the remaining scorpion then quickly turned to face me, clearly realizing the true threat in this engagement. Well, lucky me, I guess. Then I begin to hear a faint whirling coming from the pair of drones. Ducking and rolling to the side, the beam blasts the area where I stood just a moment before.

Getting back on my feat, I rush forward before the pair could recharge and fire again. Grabing the left most scorpions claw, I begin to bend it backward with all my might until I hear a "CRACK" as I stumble back. Twirling my newly acquired club, I spring back towards the pair and slam it down onto the undamaged scorpions head.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

On the edge of my vision, I see that my hounds have managed to take down another one and are both attacking their last one.

Continuing to wail on the scorpion, I briefly hear the familiar wirling coming from the other one. Dodging out of the way of the beam, the scorpion that I was engaging in melee takes advantage of my sudden retreat and takes at swipe, which lands straight on my chest.

Reeling back from the pain, I stomp onto the dammed drone with all my might, crunching their head to the ground. Backing up for a moment, I rush behind some nearby boulders while calling my hornets for some fire support. Another beam hits the boulder that I was using for cover with a thunderous crash.

Then I hear the satisfying "Thunk" of a spike from one of my hornets. Peaking out, I see that the battle is turning slightly in my favor with the remaining pair of hounds, duking it out with one of the scorpions and the reinforcing moose holding the other at bay. Limping out from my hiding spot behind the bolder, I move over to the scorpion fighting my moose.

With the scorpion fighting the moose, it does not notice me immediately. I definitely noticed me when I smashed one of its legs with allies dismembered claw. Once that one was down and for the count, the moose pair runs off the help the other fight. But as I am about to join them, I hear a rumble. And then another. Soon, a third adds itself to the chorus.

Off in the distance, I see that the rubble blocking the mineshaft has begun to fall away. Then a drill pops out from the pile, still active. I quickly order my hornets, which I unfortunately only have 3 left of, to turn towards the mineshaft and prepare to fire while I walk over to repair teams. Shortly after I make the small distance to the spider drones and place one on my chest, I hear the last of the rubble fall to the side as the 3 ramemaining crabs walk out of the mineshaft

My hornets fire their rounds toward the enemy, and I can hear the spikes rip through the light armor of the crabs. But it is not enough, as the first one took 2 of the spikes before going down, and the 2nd crab was still holding on. I tell my moose and hounds to rush in and buy time for the hornets to reload before running in myself.

The moose were the first to get to the crabs and took the brunt of the damage as one of the crabs started to drill into one of them. My hounds were second to make it to the crabs and started to focus the left one by chomping down onto its right legs, which was our left. I was the last to make it, so I dove underneath the crab on the right and grabbed onto the hind legs of the drone, slamming it with the scorpion claw.

This was apparently enough for the crab to grab me up with its scooper claw and hold me up in front of it while I tried and failed to squirm out of its grasp. Then it pulled up its driller claw and plunged it into my stomach, and began to spin it up. Realizing that repairs weren't going to fix the predicament I was in, the spider drone who was slowly welding my chest together hopped off of me and started to chomp at the driller arm. This seemed to annoy the crab enough to have it drop me to the ground as it crushed the spider with its claw.

I curled up from the excruciating pain coming from my now once again non-existent stomach and waited for my inevitable death. But none came as the hornets fired the next volley of spike, all aiming for the one right above of me, which was getting ready to drill me to peices.

Then, a notification sprung up in front of my eyes, "Vessel Drone has taken significant damage. Transferring AI conscience to the nearest core for stabilization."

As my mind faded back to that familiar darkness, I noticed the other crab collaping to the ground in the background, and I smiled inside, knowing my drones were fine without me.