Decisions, decisions. On one hand, accepting the request would be a great boon for relations with the Flock. On the other hand, I am already strapped for resources, and I need to finish with the drones currently on queue. Although they did mention that the Flock would give me a large supply of materials that would indeed bolster my stocks.
Right about when I was ready to make my decision, a pop-up appeared in front of me.
"Fabrication Quest: Construct a wing of 25 ASL drones. Rewards: 100 units of fabricator alloy and the blueprints for ASL drone. Do you accept? Y/N."
Choosing yes, one of the birds in front of me pulls out a blueprint of what I assume are the ASL drones and 25 bars of metal. The front-most bird also pokes one of its claws into the tablet and, after a few seconds, shifts it over to the drone I still inhabit.
"The rest of the resources will be distributed once our drones are complete and their controls are transferred to us."
I have my drone nod in understanding, to which the birds reciprocate, and I pull up the description from the blueprint.
"The Arial Swarm Lancer or the ASL are small but fast drones meant to attack in large groups by flying at high speeds and piercing their target with the spiked beak of the ASL. Cheap and quick to produce, they are often used as distractions or suicide squads to take down larger opponents. Can be constructed in a Small Drone Works."
I guess I shouldn't have expected to get one of the larger bird designs right off the bat. Hopping out of it and drifting over to my drone works to order up those new drones. As I get there, I see that the 2nd hound squad and a few of the reinforcements for the hornets are also complete. I send off the hounds to the Outpost like the others, along with 2 of the hornets, while leaving the other to guard the base. I order up the large group of requested drones on the small drone works before floating around the base, looking for something to do.
I pass the time by watching my hornet buzz around and occasionally scaring off the random group of hounds. As I do this, I also check on how the ants and spider escorts are doing and the progress on the path clearing project using the map that displayed a rough outline of the terrain. Looking at it now, my patrol drones have stripped about 1/10 of the string of roads that connects to the Outpost of loose rubble and wrecks of rusted cars and other such vehicles.
Checking back on the production line, I see that the description was not lying when it said quick to produce because it has only been around 3 minutes, and the 2nd drone is already finished. They were about twice the size of a brick, and with their disproportionately sized beak, they occasionally tip forward before pulling back up. They kind of remind me of pterodactyls if they were considerably smaller and thin.
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Going back to wandering around to make sure that everything is still running smoothly I realize that even though I'm now running around and expanding my territory, I still have some factory to explore in the other wing. I grimace when I remember that flamethrower thing in one of those rooms.
Looking around, I see that I do not have much of anything protecting my home base at all. There was only one of the patrol groups, one of the hornets with 4 more on the way, and around 6 other spiders that were working around the factory insides. Deciding that I should at least wait until more drones are available to start exploring, I begin waiting once again.
———
About an hour later, the last of the quest drones finished and so I marched them over, in one of the ants again, to the group of 3 birds who were sitting perched onto a nearby building frame. As I moved close, a notification appeared in front of me asking if I wished to transfer ownership of the 25 drones to the flock. Answering in the affirmative, I felt their presence drift away and their blue hue faded, replaced by a light gray matching the flocks colors.
After they fully transferred, the frontal bird singled to one of its compatriots, and they dropped the rest of my reward onto the ground. Then they flapped their wings and flew off with the smaller lancers following in tow. A notification pops up stating that I had completed the quest, and my relation has increased by 10 with the Flock. Nice.
Moving back to the production line, I ordered the finished hornets to join their sister drone in guard duty. Along with the hornets, my vessel drone was finally being conducted, so I hopped in, happy to be back in a physical body of my own direct control again.
Once again, walking out of the factory walls, I survey the current condition of the guards of my base. Currently, there is a pair of ant drones with their spider escorts and a squad of five hornets buzzing around from roof to roof. Maybe I should go and clear out the rest of the factory segment that I have been kind of ignoring.
Picking up the ant patrol group and two of the hornet snipers, I start moving in the direction of the factory segment. But before I get too far, I remember that this would be a perfect time to test out the scorpion drones. Hopping out of my vessel for a moment, I get jerked back into the base's influence and see that one of them has just finished fabricating. Ordering them to meet up with the rest of the exploration group, I link back into my vessel.
Upon reaching the double doors that lead into other segment of the factory, the scorpion that I called for managed to catch up with the group faster than expected. Moving my other drones back, I ordered my scorpion to fire on the doorframe. The hum coming from the scorpion steadily became more and more powerful before the blue beam blasts forth and hits the door . . . doing little to push the door back. Instead of the large blast I was expecting, along with the door being caved in to allow easy access, I got a mostly intact door with an insignificant dent on it.
Well, that was underwhelming, I think, but as if reading my mind, the scorpion shrunk down to the ground and let out a sad whine.
"Aww, I didn't mean it that way." I was just expecting something else." My attempt at comforting my drone was unsuccessful, only rewarding me with another whine.
Sighing internally, I walk over to the door and grab hold of its handles, but as I do, I feel a surge of static electricity course through my chassis. I stand immobilized for a few moments before the effects wear off.
Turning back to my scorpion friend, I pat them on the head. "I think I found a use for you, little guy."