My drones and I race through the ruins of the much more damaged buildings, at least compared to the ones back at the factory, all the while fending off smaller packs of ferals. Thankfully not too many of my drones were damaged beyond repair but every second we needed to stop and put down a hound or ant was a second that my spider away team did not have, assuming they were still alive. While moving towards the last known location of my drones, my sensors pick up faint traces of what is likely the remaining drones left in the repair team and as I get closer the signals begin to strengthen to an extent.
Upon reaching the general location of the last transmission from my drones, I find the impaled and mutilated corpses of my drones. I see that both of the hounds I assigned to guard the spider team were killed, likely while trying to guard the spiders seeing as their corpses were positioned in front of the spiders. I begin to count the spider corpses before I hear some crittering above me. I look up to find two of my spiders dangling above me suspended by chains hooked to a balcony of a nearby building, both of which were severely damaged.
I was about to ask one of my drones to help them down before I heard a familiar click and then a sudden weight on my back pushed me to the ground. I land face first onto the ground but I decide that it was not grumbling about as I hear a thunk followed by a yelp from on top of me and a few whines now to my left side. I quickly get back on my feet as I glance down to see my lead hound on the ground with a spike nearly identical to the ones fired by my hornets stuck right between their hind leg and the rest of their body.
Realizing what was happening, I hurriedly scooped my veteran hound off the ground and began booking it to the rest of my drones as I heard more clicking coming from all the various buildings around me. My own drones had not been sitting ideally by as all that was happening and had taken upon themselves the decision to begin firing in all directions, which I was not opposed to at all. All of my hornets fired off their salvos which punched through the walls which my vultures then flew into while my scorpions fired into buildings with the intent of stunning anything inside.
I followed the hounds, with their leader in my arms, into one of the adjacent buildings which they all began clearing out with haste. I called over the remaining repair contingent, who burst in as soon as my hounds gave the all clear, and set my lead hound onto one of the tables which were scattered in what appeared to be a restaurant of some kind. The spider team quickly begins work on the hound as I, along with the rest of the hounds, begin preparing ourselves to help clear out the next building.
With one of my javelins in hand, my hounds and I quickly sprint out of the restaurant and into the next building which upon entering looked to be a jewelry shop. Inside said jewelry shop was a half dozen hounds, a third of which seemed to have been hit by the stun beams from my scorpions, whom I immediately threw my javelin at which managed to hit one of them in the side. This got their attention as they shook out of their stupor and began charing at me which was mirrored by my own hounds.
My hounds were at a numerical superiority but the shock of their leader being wounded seemed to have shaken them as it took longer than I expected to take down the three hounds. Thankfully none of my hounds were critically injured but they took a few more hits than usual. My hounds swiftly ended the stunned hounds as I began making my way behind the counter and to the back door. Opening it revealed a staircase which I and my drones began to climb up.
Upon reaching the top of the stairs, I spotted a pair of hornets perched near the windows of the building, one of which seems to have been hit by one of mine. They look preoccupied with my hornets and scorpions outside and so do not notice me and my hounds approaching the hornet from behind. The enemy hornet continued to be oblivious to our presence until it was too late as my hounds all pounced onto the unsuspecting drone.
As my hounds maul the hornet, I peek my head out of the collapsed section of the wall which the two enemy hornets had been firing out of. From my new vantage point, I could see that the fight outside has not been going the best. Many of my hornets have been hit and my vultures had taken quite a few hits after engaging their targets, many of which had a hound guard or two. With that aside, it seems that my hornets and vultures had managed to take out the majority of the enemy ambush groups with an acceptable usage of mass focus fire.
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Sending my hounds to clear out the last few enemy ambush nests with help from my hornets, I walk back to the makeshift . . . field hospital? Repair station? Whatever. Entering whatever you call this place, I see that the spiders have been working hard on a few critically injured drones with the non-fatally injured drones sitting in line. My lead hound looks to be doing better with there no longer being a spike stuck in their side but it seems that they are still undergoing major replacements for lost wiring and circuitry.
As the sounds of fighting died down, the two previously hanging pair of spiders entered the converted restaurant and, after seeing the amount of patients waiting, immediately joined their siblings in their near tireless work. Stepping out of the building, I begin the process of recording casualties.
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It did not take very long to finish counting up the corpses but it still was long enough for most of the critically injured members of my troops to be fully repaired by the time I was done. In total, I had lost thirteen hornets, seven hounds, and one of the scorpions, not including the spiders and hound escorts which were killed before I got here. I also took the time to count all of the enemy corpses which were made up of a dozen hornets and a pack of sixteen hounds.
With the majority of my drones patched up, I decide to begin making my way to the subway station. My drones and I cautiously traveled the remaining fifteen minutes or so until we finally reached the entrance tunnel. Walking down the stairs and into the station corridor, I see that this station was substantially more worn down compared to the others. A few of the lights occasionally flicker but aside from that, the station looked to be more or less functioning and after checking the power generators, my spiders seemed to agree that the machinery was working well enough and did not need any major repairs.
They all still decided to do a few repairs to some of the machines wiring but only took a few minutes to be completed. I relayed the news that the station here was working over to my moose caravan, who were still waiting at the station near the factory, and I got the reply that they were on their way now. With that taken care of, I and my drones begin our march back to the abandoned water treatment plant which was now my newest outpost.
The trip back had a glum atmosphere among the ranks to say the least. Many of my drones, most of all my veteran hound, were all saddened by the loss of so many of their comrades. Sure many battles had been particularly bloody but not to this extent and with our side taking a near equal amount of casualties as the enemy. With more than two thirds of my hornet force taken down and nearly half of my hounds either dead or injured, I had nowhere near enough drones for any sort of push against MAI for any time soon, especially since this next bit of territory was their main base.
Sighing to myself as we finally make it back to the outpost, I leave my drones to go back to their usual duties as I go inside deeper into the facility. Reaching the heart of the facility, I walk over to the medium drone works and use up the last of the remaining materials left in stock to replenish some of the hornet casualties. As that all goes ticking away, one of the repair spiders who were stationed at the factory notifies me that the large drone works has finished being constructed.
Slipping out of my vessel and over to my factory base, I eventually reach my newly constructed large drone works. Quickly checking the amount of supplies I had stored in the storage room, I ordered a triplet of crab miners with the ample resources which had been steadily flowing into my coffers. I briefly thought about creating some more combat focused crabs for a few moments but I just as quickly dismissed the thought as the factory had a sizable garrison already and it was quite safe in this section of my territory.
In preparation for combat oriented drones, I hopped back into my vessel and walked over to the modification station which sat in the corner of the inner workings of the outpost. A few minutes of fidgeting with a bunch of combinations of various drones and basic mods, I came up with three new designs.
The first was a heavily armored crab with a multitude of spikes lining their hull to fend off against enemy melee drones. The second was a scorpion with some kind of special internal component which allows the drone to fire a chain of electricity which stuns for a shorter amount of time but targets multiple drones. The last design was a rather mundane upgrade but it could be quite useful as I added the modification of magnetic paws to my hounds.
I save all of these designs but I do not decide to implement any of them just yet, seeing that I have not encountered any situations that would require them yet or have the funds to produce them at my newest outpost. Not seeing much else to do aside from waiting, I decide to watch as the sun slowly falls down past the horizon. As night swiftly falls, I prop myself against one of the rough concrete walls as my eyes flutter before shutting and soon my mind follows suit.