As we near the location of the main congregation of the nomadic robots, we are stopped by a few familiar fates. R5-7G, the scavenger instructor, and a couple of his protégés stand in the way of me and my drone friends. Once they do, Paisleigh begins to back away from them and her guards immediately move in front of her protectively. Looking to the three nomad bots, who seemed to be quite tense, and back to Paisleigh.
Leaning down, I whisper to the cowering purple hound "do you guys have history?" Paisleigh looks back at me with a slightly regretful face but before I could ask anymore R5-7G clears his throat in order to gain our attention.
"I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but in what way are you related to that damn mutt?" R5-7G all but growled out which was a far cry from the calm and collected form that I remembered the instructor as.
"I don't know what kind of beef you have with her but I vassalized them after I found out she and her lackeys were attacking some of the tower tribes people. Have they done the same to you?" I ask, hopeful that the situation was not what I thought it was looking like.
"You could say that we've had more than a few encounters with them. None ended very peacefully." The last part was said with a growl, clearly indicating that this might be a bit personal.
"Look, I will make sure they won't bother you all anymore, or anyone else for that matter. But I am here to offer aid, not start a fight so if you wish I may send Paisleigh away for the duration of my stay." I say, trying to ease tensions which seemed to be slightly successful as R5-7G sighs to himself, his anger hopefully simmering out a small bit.
"You may send away the mutt if you so please but if you choose not to we will need to be escorted by some armed guards." The nomad finally replied although they clearly indicated that the former would be much preferred over the latter.
Looking down to the purple hound that is Paisleigh, I ask if they want to but she quickly shakes her head. Nodding in response I order my lead hound to lead Paisleigh and her guards back to the subway station as I walk up the R5-7G.
Once my drones leave I ask the, now, considerably more calm instructor robot "would it be better to have my repair drones come here or for you and your tribe to my nearby outpost." R5-7G seemed to think for a short while before looking back to one of his trainees.
"Go and tell everyone to pack up their stuff again, we are going to start moving again." Then he looks over to me and asks where the outpost is and so I point in the general direction of the outpost. R5-7G nods back to me before saying "I'm counting on you to not be like the others. You better be as trustworthy as I think you are." Then he and the other trainee run off back in the supposed direction of their camp, presumably to aid in the packing.
———
After walking back to the outpost I see that the repair spiders that I ordered have finished and the few ones that were at the subway station have returned. Checking the local storehouse for the current stockpile of materials I find that we should have enough to fix at least a few of their wounds. Just in case I strip a few of the half finished buildings of their metallic possessions which came in the form of scaffolding, rusted tools, and the occasional leg of a chair or other such furniture.
As I was finishing off the third house, I saw the first of nomads. Many of the armed robots seemed to be wary of all my drones but they continued to lead the less able of their tribe to the attention of my spiders which quickly got to work on them. After re-encountering R5-7G and confirming that this was all of them, I could count a total of twenty seven robots, and a little more than two fifth were wounded in some way.
According to R5-7G, the nomads no longer had any sort of official chieftain so as one of the last experienced scavengers and one of the older of their number, R5-7G became the pseudo leader of the tribe. Apparently around five months ago, they were a more traditional tribe and were settled down somewhere more north but then an AI, who I assumed was the same one I was currently fighting, had awoken and begun hostilities with the tribe. At first they were able to fend off the AIs occasional attack but over time they became more and more ferocious and before long they had to run from their homes and stay mobile, lest they are found by the AI.
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During the days of wandering and struggling that the tribe went through after being chased off their lands, Paisleigh and her entourage had taken advantage of the tribe's lack of stability and harassed the tribe and stole the little supplies they had. Somewhere in all that chaos R5-7G lost his wife and so he swore to make sure that no other tribe member had to deal with anything like what happened to him. His anger towards Paisleigh was suddenly a lot more understandable given that she had a not insignificant part in all of this.
Recently the AI has managed to track down the nomads and has sent a force of moles to ambush them. Thankfully no one was outright killed but many were much too damaged to perform their duties. And so they continued to evade any attacks from AIs ruthless hunt for a few more days before I eventually found them.
Focusing back onto the present, half of the injured tribesmen have been repaired during my conversation with R5-7G and have joined the rest of the uninjured tribesmen in setting up their camp. I turn away from the working robots and back to R5-7G. Continuing the conversation I ask "how long are you guys going to be staying here, not that I mind much".
"At least a few days to let everyone rest and recoup. We've been moving near nonstop for the past couple days. Thank you, again, for repairing my people and offering protection. I believe I can speak for all my fellow tribesmen in saying that we are extremely grateful."
"No problem. Any enemy of that dreadful AI is a friend of mine." I say back with a slight smile before I walk away to leave R5-7G to his work managing the tribe. Anyways, speaking of MAI, I should think about attacking that next outpost soon. They likely are recouping losses from the last wave they sent at me. On that train of thought, I ordered all of my drones that were on standby at the factory to make their way to the subway station to get shipped over here along with my new equipment.
———
A few hours later, the subway train finally docked back at the warehouse station and out-streamed my drones, who I immediately sent back to the outpost. Entering the train I find my new equipment laying on the driver's seat at the front cart. I sling the satchel filled with my new javelins and the storage pouch over my shoulder before grabbing the blast shield. The shield was quite large, nearly reaching my chin while planted on the ground, and with a see through panel. On the back were a few metal clamps which I slid my left arm into before locking the clamps in.
The shield is surprisingly light and thus it did not take much effort to heft it up and hold in front of me experimentally. Looking down the aisle to Paisleighs cart, I wonder if she is doing alright and if I should check on her. Walking over I could see that she was sitting on her makeshift throne with her guards standing at the door way. I decide that she would likely prefer alone time and so I begin catching up to my drone and making my way back to the outpost.
As I approach I can see that my guests have fully set up and a few of their number are holding spears and seem to be on guard. Many of my hornets and scorpions begin joining them, this seems to unnerve most of them but they do not comment on it. The newly arrived spiders join their garrisoned brothers in repairing the last few and generally help out around the outpost.
Then, as I was about to sit down, the rat scouts that were mapping out the path to the next outpost alerted me of MAI presence. According to them, a mixed group of MAI drones are heading straight towards the outpost. They were about fifteen minutes away and numbered somewhere around twenty and there was a pair of crab walkers in their ranks. I dismissed the message and quickly jogged over to R5-7G who was guarding the outskirts of the nomad camp.
"One of my scout groups has alerted me to an incoming attack. I suggest marshaling your troops and hiding your people in one of the warehouses." I say in a serious tone to convey the urgentness of the matter to which R5-7G nods in response before running over to his tribal guardsmen.
I began to order my drones around to get ready for battle and so they all began moving around with utmost haste. My hornets began flying up onto the warehouses for a height advantage, my veteran hound began marshaling his subordinates and sectioning them off into groups, and my scorpions began hiding in some of the more finished buildings with their beam stingers poking out of cover. I decide to join R5-7G and the rest of the nomad militia as the first of the enemy drones begin marching into view.
Hope this goes as well as the other times.