My drones that were caught out in the open were quickly swarmed by a large number of hounds and some kind of six legged drone which looked like a termite with sparking mandibles and glowing hot coiled abdomens. I could see enemy hounds quickly tearing my poor drones to shreds while the new termites locked their mandibles onto them and, with a short buzzing noise, the drone slumped to the ground.

My other drones quickly halt their patrols and begin bolting their way to the fight while my air wings of woodpecker lancers and hornets scramble to get off the ground. My fire beetles were some of the first to reach the battle front, as they were delegated to reserve most of the time, and so they began spewing flames across the battlefield.

This seems quite effective on the termites as a couple of their coil filled abdomen seems to overheat and malfunction and shock the termites which killed many of the ones who were hit by the flames. Unfortunately this success was short lived as they seemed to wisen up to the danger of my beetles and so halted for a few moments as metal spikes shot out from newly arrived enemy hornet reinforcements which numbered around a dozen and a half.

The hornets only managed to hit a couple of my beetles due to the drones small size and glancing hits pinging off their reflective shell. My own hornets who were stationed, realizing the danger their hostile counterparts could pose, quickly began firing upon them to minimal effect due to the sheer number of them. My few remaining beetles, realizing that staying put would only get them killed, decided to make the ultimate sacrifice and charged towards the mass of enemy drones while spewing fire in every direction.

The tiny beetles were not very fast but were soon aided by a half dozen woodpeckers who swooped in and collectively picked up the skittering beetles and began flying towards the main body of MAI drones. The hostile hounds and termites seemed to realize what was going on and began spreading out and backing up but they were just a little too slow as the woodpeckers dropped their live payload which, upon reaching optimal range to maximize damage, exploded in a fiery mess of shrapnel and slag which destroyed another half dozen hostiles.

This left the enemy ground units disoriented and separated but that did not stop their hornet support to get off another volley which slammed into a few of my hounds who were gathering up for a counter attack. Then, a loud series of rumbling which was soon followed by the mining team of moles bursting through the ground who all began attacking the distressed enemy ground troops.

While that was happening, the last of my woodpeckers have taken off and so they began pestering the enemy hornets with dozens of tiny needles slicing in every direction, occasionally hitting something critical, while my own hornets reload and fire off another salvo which was much more effective due to the woodpeckers distraction. Unfortunately, several woodpeckers were cut down by the hornets mandibles which snatched up the occasional woodpecker who stayed in one spot for two long.

Thankfully they would not need to keep this up for long as the last group of patrol drones had finally assembled and quickly rushed to battle and aid the moles who were fighting tooth and claw to keep the enemy hounds and termites occupied. With the new reinforcements of about a dozen hounds and with the crabs slowly on the way, the battle began to turn into my favor.

That is not to say I was not taking any casualties, far from it, nearly a quarter of the reinforcing hounds were taken down immediately upon reaching melee distance with the enemy hounds and termites who had just finished reorganizing. Thankfully my hounds were just as quick to take down their opponents as they bore down on any hostile drones who broke formation.

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The hounds, combined with the moles who were attempting to take the brunt of the attacks, managed to hold out long enough for the cavalry to arrive. My crabs, while not being the armored variant I had concocted, was still a formidable force on an open battlefield as their claws had a considerable reach and thus allowed them to pretty much outright kill a drone or two from behind the relative safety of my line of hounds.

I say relative because with enemy hornets in the air, nothing is completely safe. Speaking of which, own hornets fire off another salvo into the enemy which manages to pick off another couple enemy fliers but they quickly find themselves on the other side of the barrel as the enemy hornets decide enough is enough and ignore the ever-present buzz of my woodpeckers and shot out a volley of cold hard steel, leaving my own hornets decimated.

My woodpeckers took advantage of course but it was too little too late as the enemy hornets now had nearly complete air superiority and thus could fire down upon my ground units with near impunity. Then I spotted a dozen silhouettes in the sky, racing towards my outpost. Reinforcements! My drones just need to hold out for a little longer.

I began ordering my hounds and moles to run back into the mine shafts as it was the only place the enemy hornets could not reach them. My crabs were left to slowly trudge backwards and hold the rear guard to which they performed admirably, taking down any hostile hound or termite that dared to go after my hastily retreating drones.

Unfortunately, the enemy hornets were not slacking off while my drones fell back and as the first hound reached the mouth of the mines, the hornets fired two salvos which were split between two of my crabs. Both of the crab's internal systems were done for but with their sacrifice, the rest of my drones managed to retreat back to relative safety.

The enemy ground units seemed content to take stationary positions watching over the mine shaft opening and now I could see why. Nearly two dozen transport moose stream out of the woodwork and begin filling their containers full of the alloys that I had been storing. Each moose joined an orderly queue as they, one by one, filled themselves up to the brim and ran off to begin their journey back to their main base of operations.

From the speed of the incoming airborne reinforcements, the majority of the moose would have already left by the time any more support arrives and with the enemy hornets aiming their sites down the mine shafts, it would be suicide to try and take them on by themselves. With the amount of alloys they would get away with, they could fund another wave and a half of the same magnitude that they used on me and still have a bit left to spare.

All I could do now was sit back and watch as they plundered my storehouse and wait for the soon to arrive reinforcements. As the reinforcements came into visual distance, I could see that they were a wing of vultures from the flock and led by the head vulture himself. It seems that the enemy drones have noticed the incoming drones and have begun pulling back the few moose who did not manage to fill up.

I was tempted to send my drones out to try and hit a couple of their ground units but they seemed to guess that I would and left the hornets to guard their rear. And as a final, "Screw you," they decided to fire a final salvo into my refinery and small drone works before flying off to join the rest of their comrades.

My drones exit the cave just before the reinforcing vultures land on my now corpse littered outpost. The vultures bow at the not so sight of my invisible form before a familiar parrot speaks up.

"Not good. NOT GOOD. Arrive too late we did. Apologize we must. We do better next time. Yes. Better." The parrot rattles off in a distinctly Yoda like speech pattern.

"No, no. It's not your guy's fault. I should not have assumed this place was safe just because it's so far from the front line." I say, not entirely sure if they could hear me now that they were part of my . . . faction? Team? Whatever.

It seems that they can as they nod in understanding. The lead vulture squawks something to his parrot who relays that the vulture wing will stay here and guard the outpost until replacement drones can be arranged.

Acknowledging the two drones with a simple nod, I turned around and began the lengthy process of counting up the dead.