The discussion lasted for quite a while, with me throwing random ideas while the obviously more tactically inclined either shot them down and on occasion implant them into the battle plan. The actual discussion part of the planning phase took longer than it should have due to the apparent lack of advanced vocabulary of our resident parrot translator but it was manageable enough to get the general points across. Actually the lead vulture seemed to be able to understand me just fine, the opposite was not true.

The end result of the multi hour planning session was that first, my own hornets would ambush the enemy and hopefully take down a half dozen. They then shall fall back and as they do the woodpeckers would split into two groups and begin to flank the enemy hornets and draw their fire. Lastly, while the hornets are distracted the flocks forces will swoop in and engage the hornets along with my hornets which will act as fire support.

The plan was solid enough but it relied on two things. First of the two is the hope that the hornets do not significantly outnumber us which will not be determined until or even if my scouts get a look at the hornet swarm. The second thing is that the hornets will get distracted by the woodpeckers and not immediately switch to the much larger and thus easier targets that are the flocks vultures.

After the plan was established, I summoned all of the hornets and woodpeckers that were at the factory along with the available spider drones. The number of drones amounted to fifteen hornets, five of which were the guards defending the factory, and a total of twenty woodpeckers. Along with them were a repair team of fifteen spiders and a transport moose which barely had the space to carry them all and the accompanying materials.

As they all started making their way to the nesting grounds, my rat scout team in charge of locating the hornets alerted me of their findings. The hornets numbered at a strong forty and they were formed up into four orderly squadrons of ten each. One of these squadrons seemed to be armed with a special type of ammunition as their traditional metal spikes have been replaced by what looks like a cannon barrel.

While my first worry of potentially being completely outnumbered has been thankfully snuffed out, I am slightly concerned about the strange armaments of the special hornets. For all I know they could fire a laser beam that will cut a building and absolutely decimate me and my drones. Making a mental note to myself saying that I should have my hornets focus fire on those special drones first I break off communications with my scouts to relay the news to my avian allies.

———

A few hours later all of the drones are in position and the incoming hornet swarm is only a few minutes away. I am currently looking through the eyes of one of my hornets who are currently landed inside a few buildings in the path of the swarm. The enemy hornets quickly come into view as they fly over a line of buildings and my hornets quickly pick their targets from the back most squadron which is composed of the special hornets.

They all hold their fire as the swarm slowly drifts over and passes my hidden hornets. My hornets steadily take aim and fire into the enemy with their backs turned. My hornets do not look back as they stream out of their hiding spots and split off to the sides and take cover behind buildings while retreating back to their predetermined fall back points. The enemy hornets are about to give chase but then they see as an opposing swarm of exactly thirty-eight swarm lancer woodpeckers sweep across the air towards them.

I switch to the view from one of the woodpeckers and the sight is nauseous. The constant twists and turns the many woodpeckers are forced to do inorder to evade incoming fire is astounding. The swarm of woodpeckers smash into the first of four hornet squadrons and quickly inflict heavy casualties. The enemy hornets being swarmed three to one on average seemed to be too much for them.

Unlikely for my woodpeckers, the initial shock wore off quickly as enemy hornets quickly assisted their comrades by firing into the dogfight that was occurring. Strangely enough the four special hornets left did not fire into the mob which only served to unnerve me for whatever reason. Thankfully my uneasy feelings were quickly pushed to the back of my mind as the vultures from the nesting grounds finally arrived with the lead vulture at the tip of the spear. They all come crashing into the unexpecting hornets in melee.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

As the swarm of woodpeckers finishes off the last of the first squadron my eyes quickly burst into pain as my connection is severed forcefully. Quickly pushing through the pain I hop back into the still functioning eyes of a nearby hornet giving supporting fire to see what had just happened. My eyes fill with horror as I see that the special hornets had fired some sort of small EMP at my woodpeckers and that more than a quarter of them had been knocked out of the fight.

I order all of my hornets to focus all fire on the special drones before they can get another shot in. My hornets quickly obey my command and all fire off another salvo which takes down another several drones, three of which were the special variety which leaves one left. The current count of enemy hornets left on the field numbered about eighteen or so.

Unfortunately while taking down the prior twenty two the flocks vultures have taken eight casualties, only three of those managed to fly away back to the repair teams, and the swarm of woodpeckers looked to be down to half strength. Thankfully we were still winning the melee fight but that was only because our drone selection is slightly more adept at it compared to the hornets.

This fact was not lost on the enemy hornets who seemed to have gotten desperate and decided to fire one of their EMP bombs into their own units. This caused four woodpeckers, a vulture, and one hornet to fall from the sky. The fight continued without pause but it was obvious to the hornets that they were losing and so a handful of the hornets pulled up their claws in surrender.

This did not go well with their more loyal brothers as they immediately struck at their traitorous counterparts. This however made them quite easy targets and were taken down considerably easier. A few other hornets decided now was a time to break rank and fly away in the wake of the dying down chaos but were quickly shot down by my own recently reloaded hornets.

The remaining seven hornets stook to their decision and kept their appendages up and their unloaded stingers pointed downwards. My own hornets begin taking the surrendering drones in custody while the flocks of vultures and the remaining woodpeckers begin to fly back home for repairs and check on the fallen for any signs of life left in them. Fortunately more than a few of those downed drones were only temporarily stunned by the EMPs but the rest seems to have fried the inner circuitry of the rest.

I send over my hornets to aid in the recovery effort and let the still damaged drones get some repairs back at the nesting grounds. Speaking of the nesting grounds, I hop back into my vessel and walk down the flights of stairs over to the makeshift field hospital/repair shop. The first of the injured vultures and woodpeckers have just landed and have already been sorted by least to most damaged with the latter being repaired first by the majority of my spiders.

With nothing much else to do I walk over to the spiders who were repairing a vulture who's been shot at the base of their right wing. I grabbed the poor drone's wing and began to hold it in place as my swarm of spiders began reconnecting circuits and welding replacement plates together. With the majority of the spider repair team all working together, it only took around twenty minutes.

As my spiders began focusing on the next drones, the only slightly damaged leader vulture approached me along with the remaining vultures not being repaired immediately. Then they all suddenly lean down and get into a position that looks to be their equivalent to bowing. The translator parrot then speaks up from the side of the land vulture.

"We are eternally grateful for you and your drones assistance in protecting our homes. So as show of our gratitude, we would like to formally declare our allegiance to you and your efforts." The tiny parrot says with an eloquence than I thought the drone could muster.

Then a new screen appears in front of me that reads, "The Outskirt Aerial Attack Flock has offered their undying support. Do you accept their support and officially become allies? Y/N."

I immediately answer in the affirmative and as I do the joints of all the Flock drones turn from glowing a dull gray to a vibrant blue which closely resembles my own blue glow. Then another notification appears in front of me.

"You are now allied with the faction designated as the Outskirt Aerial Attack Flock. You now have the attached blueprints for their designated unit(s). New drones: The OAR."