After a little preparation, all my drones were set up and ready for battle. My hornets were in their usual spots except I had them hide on the highest floor so they did not get spotted by the enemy hornets. I had my vultures set up as close as they could and to get ready to lift off and attack the remaining hornets after my own barrage. The remainder of my force, that being my hounds and scorpions, are all concentrated on one side of the facility so that it will force the rest of the enemy patrol to walk completely around the facility.

Now that everyone is in place, it is time to start the action. I order my hornets to begin firing as my hounds, scorpions, and I begin advancing forward to the confused looking patrol group. My scorpions immediately fired into the first of two crab walkers while I threw my first javelin into the other. The enemy hounds seemed to react quickly as they snapped out of their apparent surprise and charged my own hounds who did the same.

As I am grabbing my next javelin, I spot my vultures sweeping across the air towards the remaining hornets. Focusing back onto the fight in front of me, I see that my scorpions have stopped firing due to overheating but they managed to stun the right most crab walker into a crawl. My first javelin on the other hand only seemed to have angered the other crab as it had begun charging for me. A few hounds see this and break off from their fight to begin chomping on the crab walkers legs which seem to stop the charge momentarily.

But it was more than enough time for me to chuck my next javelin into something important as the crab's four left legs immediately seized up and faltered, causing the crab walker to slump to the ground where my hounds pounced on to finish it off. The rest of the hounds seem to be doing quite alright with the other hounds' absence and have managed to take down the last of the enemy hounds. Looking at the stunned crab, I decided that this battle is going to take too long to try and capture prisoners and so my hounds swiftly end its misery.

With this patrol taken care of, I decided to begin moving around the facility counter clockwise or in simpler terms I decided to go to the right. After a few minutes of walking around the facility, my drones and I find the entrance guarded by the scorpions stationed here. I quickly think up a plan before running out of concealment and attracting the scorpion's attention with my blast shield in hand.

The scorpions reacted about how I expected them to, which was immediately firing upon my cowering form behind my blast shield. The blast from four scorpions all at once was not to be understated as I was practically shoved back but my shield, being true to its name, absorbed the majority of the attack. Then my hounds enacted the second and last part of the plan and charged forward to mop up the now recharging scorpions. Hefting my shield to the side I begin to think, Huh, that went surprisingly smoothly I wonder if the rest of this will be that eas- before a sharp pain explodes around where my hip should be.

Looking down to my side, I see a familiar looking spike which is currently stuck in my hip and stomach area. Shit. A few of my drones begin to help me limp over to the facility walls where I hopefully can not be hit again but a few other drones also get shot in the process. I came to the realization that the remaining enemy hornet must have gotten tired and decided that we were a lot better targets than my own hiding hornets or my vultures who were either already taken out or causing havoc.

Calling over my repair teams, I look up and begin scanning the roof for where the enemy hornets shot me from. After a quick glance, I spot one standing on the edge of the roof and so I begin shuffling a few of my scorpions forward and order them to fire on it since I doubt I could hit it with my javelins no matter how hard I throw. My scorpions fire off their beams which seem to be less effective due to the distance of their target, but nonetheless they manage to force the hornet to seize up and fall over and down to the ground.

Not long after, the repair team finally arrives and my spiders immediately hop off their moose rides and begin to patch up my drones and I. And, to my dismay, the other patrol group finally arrived as well and upon spotting us, they began to charge forward. My un-injured hounds spring up and begin charging and my scorpions begin to fire off their beams although they quickly have to stop due to the fact that they had not fully cooled down after taking out that hornet. I begin to limp forward, javelin in hand, while a couple spiders cling to my torso while doing what they do best.

The two lines of hounds are the first to clash and for a few moments my hounds seemed to have the advantage, likely due to my slightly higher troop count. But that quickly changed as the first unhindered crab joined the fray with the half stunned crab following close behind. I quickly chucked my javelin at the non-stunned crab in hopes of distracting it, which did seem to work as it began to clamber towards me. This time my hounds were too deep in melee for any of them to break off and help which left me alone to deal with it.

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Quickly grabbing another javelin, I rush forward with my shield razed to protect against the very deadly crab drill. I shudder as I remember what it did to me last time. Seeing that the crab was about to swing its drill arm, I tried to dodge to the side but due to the fact I am still injured I did not quite make it far enough and so the drill clipped my shield and a little bit of my shoulder. I ignore the pain as I quickly slide under the crab and begin to stab its underbelly with my javelin.

The crab did not take kindly to that and so raised its chassis up into the air only to slam it back down. I would have been pulverized if I did not prop my shield up to take the majority of the blow, although that shield would likely never be usable again as it was nearly compressed to half its prior size. I quickly return back to repeatedly stabbing at the crabs underbelly, lest the drone lives long enough to crush me fully.

Thankfully it does not come to that as I hear a few familiar thumps in the distance which were quickly followed by the many of the nearby hostile drones screeches. It seems my hornets finally got around to lending some fire support. Taking advantage of the slight break in action that was afforded by the barrage, I punch upwards into the shredded underbelly which causes a sizable indent but more importantly it gets me closer to the more vital systems of the crab. I then proceeded to sink my javelin deep into the guts of the crab and finally the crab faltered and fell . . . with me under it.

After a few heaves, I managed to shove the majority of the corpse off of me and after a few quick glances I saw that first, my repair spiders that were still on me were fine and second, the hornet barrage had turned the battle into our favor. With the crabs downed and the enemy hounds in tatters my own hounds managed to sweep through the remaining hostiles without incurring too many more casualties. I send over a few of the undamaged hounds to guard against any hostiles exiting the facility while my spiders do some much needed repairs.

———

After a few dozen minutes I and the rest of my drones have finally been released from the firm grip of my spider drones who have all seemed to take the personality of medical workers. My vulture had lost two of their number but they managed to take two enemy hornets for every one they lost. My hounds had lost nearly a half dozen troops which only left eight who remained under my command. My hornets and scorpions had not taken any casualties for obvious reasons which was nice, less drones to replace.

Grabbing my javelin satchel, which had been restocked by a few of my drones who retrieved the ones I threw, I walked over to the entrance to the facility with my hound and scorpion drones following close behind. My scorpions prepared their beams as I pushed the doors open but thankfully there were no enemies in sight. The room was quite simple, just a desk with a rusted down terminal and some stairs on its sides leading to a higher platform with a door at the end.

A few of my hounds push forward in front of me as we sweep through the room, checking every corner for any hiding drones. I walk over and attempt to turn on the terminal but to no avail, although I did spot a faded out logo on the back of it. The logo looked like a trident with "Poseidon Industries" on top of it. I guessed that Poseidon industries dealt with water or maybe ship building but seeing as I have not found an ocean yet I chose to believe the former.

My drones do not find any hostiles in the room so, the rest of my hounds, scorpions, and I walk up the stairs to the next door. Preparing the same procedure as the last door, I swing the doors open to unveil a corridor with a steel grating walkway and dozens of pipes and cables streaked along the walls.

My drones and I form up with my hounds in the front, me in the middle, and my scorpions supporting from the back. We begin to slowly advance through the walkway, our feet clink against the metallic floors. The trip was quiet to say the least, nothing but our own footsteps to drown out the silence, at least until it was not. Out of nowhere a pair of moles punched through purposefully thin sheets of metal masquerading as the walls and quickly began attacking my hounds.

They were swiftly put down but they managed to take two hounds with them, only one of which was still alive to be repaired. I sent a request for some of the repair team to drag the injured hound before pressing forward once more. After continuing forward for another few minutes we come up to another set of doors. Being extra cautious for any surprises I quickly kick the doors open and duck back as my scorpions fire off into the room, hitting three hounds who would have pounced on me if I had not been as careful. My hounds swiftly end their counterparts before advancing into the room.

Following them, I could see a collection of machinery all sitting around in more or less functioning condition. I saw the familiar small and medium drone works and basic refinery but the last three machines illuded me. After a closer inspection I recognized the hydrogen generator which was hooked up to a large container which I presumed was filled with water. Looking to the second to last machine in the room I noted that it was significantly larger than everything else in the room. Walking over to it and popping its description up, I see that it was a large drone works.

Finally, I can make my own crabs!

Walking over to the final machine in the room, I inspected it to find that it was a modification designer station. I begin to think of all the potential upgrades I could do to all my drones, at least until the lights flickered out.