A few hours later and the last few reinforcement drones set off for the mining outpost which has finally begun producing once again, albeit at a fraction of its previous rate due to many of the mining drones being destroyed. But now with the resources slowly flowing back in, I begin to save up for a replacement crab and a couple more moles.

Speaking of moles, the rats have been slowly crawling through the dozens of winding tunnels which have been discovered around and below the subway tracks. On occasion, my rats report hearing scuttling or digging from farther in the tunnels but by the time they reach the noise, the source had already disappeared.

I decide to divert one of the spare scout teams patrolling around the main factory to head down into the tunnels to lend a hand. I hesitated for a few moments when sending down the rat scouts because it would leave the factory without an advanced warning system in the case of a large scale attack but I eventually convince myself on the grounds that it would take some time before MAI could mount another attack due to the sheer distance from their main base and mine.

That is, assuming they do not have a secret base or something. I order up another rat team just in case, they are cheap enough to spam out.

Anyways, filling over to the mining outpost, I see the newly reinforced outpost slowly getting back to normal. The hornets have begun patrolling around in the hounds, stead while the miner drones all stepped back into the mines for the vital resources needed to bring this place back to full operational capacity.

The process has significantly slowed but the moose caravan has arrived back at the outpost and has begun shiping the newly dug up metals back to the factory which will likely become more miners to dig up more materials for more drones. But anyways, the few remaining miners and the little support the spiders could provide were slowly churning out ores. With them all doing their thing, I shift my conscience back over to the water treatment outpost which has been weathering the constant waves of feral drones.

Checking around the outpost, I see that the outpost garrison has managed to fend off the ferals without too many losses, only losing a ant or two every few large waves, which were quickly replaced after the battle using the amble resources salvaged from the dozens of drone corpses. Using the remaining materials from the salvaged corpses, I order up a half dozen hornets for garrison duty before completing the last checkups for the outpost.

Floating over to the warehouse outpost, I see that nothing much has happened while I was away. The outpost has been probed by the occasional feral which is either swiftly taken down or runs away. Honestly I should probably do something with the outpost since it has a generator which would allow me to make larger drones here and make it a fortress.

That will have to wait until my mining outpost gets back to full production but it is not a bad idea to beef up the defenses here. Anyways, slipping back into my vessel drone back at the water treatment outpost, I decide to go check up on Paisleigh at the nearby subway station.

I decided to take a few hounds to escort me over to the station but thankfully the trip was uninterrupted and so we quickly arrived at the subway entrance. I give the guards who were stationed around the entrance a quick inspection and find that they are all mostly in good condition, although a couple looked to have more than a couple fresh scars.

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I send the hounds who had escorted me back to the outpost, lest a feral attack happens while they are away, while I walk down into the station proper. Looking around the station, I could see a couple spiders near the waiting benches currently patching up a hound who had a nasty gash on their leg.

Leaving the spiders undisturbed, I ask one of the few indoor reserve guards for directions on where I could find Paisleigh to which they point in the direction of the employees only room. Walking over to the door, I hear a symphony of squeaks and squawks coming from inside. Lightly knocking on the door, I hear a drone or two spring up and scurry around before one of Paisleighs guard hounds opens the door and lets me in.

Entering the room, I am immediately greeted with the sight of Paisleigh sitting haphazardly on her makeshift throne, my lead hound standing at attention and looking straight forward not shifting in the slightest, and Paisleighs other guard who had a couple squeaky toy in their mouth which they must have gotten from one of the nearby apartment buildings. Looking into the room further, I see that there are more of the toys which look to have been hastily hidden for some reason.

"Am I interrupting something?" I ask nobody in particular. My lead hound does not move an inch. Paisleigh looks slightly embarrassed. One of the bodyguards squeaks a toy.

"Anyways, I'm just here to check on you guys since I've been away for a little while." I wait a couple seconds for one of them to respond but none do. "I'm just going to guess that now's not the right time," I say before exiting the room and closing the door behind me.

Not seeing much else to do, I sat down on one of the many benches and checked on where my one functional subway is currently. It does not take long to pinpoint one of Paisleighs hounds who were currently riding the subway train as permanent escorts in case the station that they stop at turns out to have been taken down by ferals and the like.

The subway train seems to be docked at th-, a repair spiders had snuck up on me. I questioned the spider for what they needed, to which they pointed at my satchel containing a few bars of metal. Handing a bar over, the spider quickly scuttled off back to their siblings and they swiftly went back to work. Anyways, the train looks to have docker at the station closest to the factory and has decided to stay there for the time being, seeing that it might hinder the scouting operation currently happening in the tunnels.

I briefly pondered on whether I should check in with the scout team again before I am pulled from my thoughts as I hear Paisleigh clear her throat. Turning over to the purple hound, I begin to ask if they are done with whatever they were doing but she cuts me off.

"Sorry you had to see us indulging with our more instinctual desires. It is entirely improper for you to see subordinates like that."

"Oh, no. There's no need to excuse yourself, it was quite amusing if I do say so myself. If you want, I can pretend I never saw that." Paisleigh nods her head in a plea.

"Anyways, what are you here for? Is there anything you need from me and my troops?" Paisleigh asks while slightly leaning her head to the side.

"I was just here to check on you to see if anything had gone awry while I was away doing other things."

Paisleigh nods in understanding and says that nothing of note has happened aside from the occasional attack. Then she speaks up again.

"What were you doing? Did I miss something?"

Then with almost perfect timing, I get a message from my rat scouts that says they found what was making the tunnels. Moles, a whole colony's worth of moles all digging around. I just hope they turn out as well as the last two did.