After waiting a few moments, I poke the double door once again to check if the static electricity has finally faded away. Thankfully it had so I grabbed on to the door handles and with a wretched scream emanating from the door being pulled open. As I did this, some rubble collapsed through the opening and fell down onto my feet.
Finally, after many chunks of debris fall onto me, I am able to create a hole large enough for my drones and I to fit through after we move the rest of the rubble out of the way. After we are done with that, I have the ants go in to make sure that there are no enemies in the vicinity. After they signal that the room is clear, my drones and I, save the hornets due to their larger frame and wings, walk in.
Looking around, the room was in complete shambles with holes in the ceiling leading to the second floor, various burn marks along the walls, and a few piles of slag which I assumed were previously drones of some kind. There were two side rooms and another pair of doors opposite of the entrance doors. Moving to the room on the right, I found a small room filled with containers of various sizes. Looking through them, I found that most of the containers held some fabricator alloys and a handful of electronics.
Making a mental note to come back for those supplies, I walk over to the other room and open the door to find a still functioning small drone work. Just by looking at it I could see that the drone works was recently used from the fact that dust on the top has just begun to settle. As I continue to examine the machine a new notification appears on top of it.
"Convert Small Drone Works away from Ratling Scout Platoon. Y/N."
Convert? Wait ratling scout platoon? Is that where those rats came from? Deciding that I would not mind gaining a free production structure I converted it to my control. As I do this I hear scuttling from the ceiling and then a large group of scouts drops on top of one of my ant drones. They are quickly dispatched by the spider escorts thankfully but I wonder why they decided to attack after I took their base, assuming that the one drone works was their only one.
Walking over to the pair of doors opposite of the entrance doors I pushed them open and greeted with a hallway. Moving down it I find a familiar room that was where my scout rats once crawled out of the vents and discovered the medium drone works. Continuing on to the next set of doors I reach the room with the flame shooting beetle.
Keeping close to the edge of the room I have my drones set up facing the fire spitting beetle. Ordering my scorpion to do its thing I get ready to sprint forward. The hum from the charging scorpion beam comes to a halt and then the beam of energy blasts out and hits the beetle right in the side. As it gets hit, the flame thrower part of the drone retracts into the safety of its carapace.
Rushing forward with my ants following close behind I grab a chunk of concrete from the ground and slam it into the midsection of the fire spitter. This knocks the drone back and seems to slightly lessen the effects of the stun beam and it seems to gain some control of its many legs as it clamps down onto the concrete floor.
Smashing it once more I realize that the armored shell of the beetle was incredibly resilient and that I have only made small dents in its carapace. As my ants reach the beetle they also find much difficulty in damaging the droid as many of their bites were struggling to find purchase on any part of the drone. The beetle attempts to fight back against the ant assault by having its flame thrower part peek out and it fires a few bursts of flame before retracting again to avoid the flurry of chomps that come soon after.
Looking around for something to help deal with the surprisingly stubborn beetle, I see a crowbar leaning on a nearby wall. Quickly grabbing it, I wedge the, well, wedge of the crowbar in the small gap between each pair of legs. Pushing as hard as I could, I managed to dislodge the drone and topple it over.
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One of my ants quickly rushed over to the, now upside-down, drone and opened its mandibles to get ready to chomp down. But then I heard a short burst of beeps which caused me to quickly jump out of the way and into the cover of some support pillars. Right as I do this, the beetle drone explodes violently and unfortunately one of my ants and its spider escorts were caught in the blast. Peeking out from cover after the dust settles all I can see the burt chassis of my poor ant and spiders along with the shell of the now evidenly fire spitting and explosive beetle.
Sighing to myself I start looking around the room for anything that might be useful. After a quick check around I only find a few bits of metal and components so I start moving up the stairs to the next floor. Glancing around the room I could not find much of note inside of any containers. There were two doorways, one on the left side of the room and one on the right. Since right is always right I open that door first which leads to the collapsed walkway connecting to the main segment of the factory. Moving over to the left door I open it to find a small room with a few scattered chairs and a desk along with a computer sitting on it. Around the floor of the room was the occasional hole as I made a mental note to walk carefully in that room.
I try to lighten my steps as I slowly walk over to the desk with the computer on it. Thankfully I make it there without falling through the floor and so I first check the drawers. In the first few they were mostly barren asides from the piles of collected dust that have likely not been touched in years. In one of the last drawers I found a blueprint snuggled under some various blank papers and empty folders. Stuffing the blueprint between my left arm I check the last of the drawers before making my way back outside of the room. I decide to grab the blueprint and pop open the description of the likely new drone.
"The Self-Detonating Plasma Sprayer or the SDPS is a small, heavily armored, flamer/kamikaze drone meant to burn away small swarms of enemies and to detonate if overwhelmed. Due to their armored carapace they are incredibly hard to damage once deployed, although they are very slow due to the same reason. Also, most of the blast when detonated can be directed downward to the base of the drone which makes them excellent at breaching armored vehicles and or inplacements. Can be constructed at a Small Drone Works."
Well that will certainly be useful when I reach MAI's other outposts or even their main base. Walking back to the main base I order to have three of the beetles to be constructed on my new drone works on the way back. When I do get back to base I also order up ten of those swarm lancer drones on my other small drone works.
After a quick look around to make sure nothing else needs anything else to be looked at I decide to take the three new scorpions with me as I start making my way over to the mining Outpost. As my drones and I marched, I could see some of the woodpecker drones that I made for the Flock fly around in the sky.
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A few hours of walking later, I see that the sun has nearly reached the horizon. Deciding that now would be a good time to find shelter for the night. Although my drones nor I may not need to sleep we still can be ambushed, doubly so during the night.
Taking refuge in a nearby, mostly intact, building I begin searching around the structure to see if there is anything of use. Not finding anything of note, I head back to my scorpion in the main room, who are all sitting down in a circle. Taking a seat in the middle I order my drones to guard my body. And with that I hop out of my vessel drone and snap back over to the factory. Looking at the drones that have been completed I order the lancer woodpeckers to carry the explosive beetles and once daytime arrives to fly off to the Outpost.
Speaking of which I hop over to the Outpost to see what is going on over here. After a quick inspection it seems that nothing much is going on. The hounds and hornets are still patrolling the area and keeping the spiders safe and the spiders have decided to start trying to dislodge some of the looser chunks of ores in the mineshaft. Not really going to complain, any passive resource gain is better than no gain.
Hopping back into my vessel drone I look around to see that my scorpions are still fine and are continuing to guard me. Not really seeing much to do I just sit there not really thinking about anything in particular. I close my eyes and remember even with my ability to go days without sleep it is still a good idea to get some rest if you can.