Not long after the fight ended the two dozen spiders stationed at the compound rushed out and began treating the wounded. As usual, the most dire of injured were taken care of first which were then followed by the non essential repairs. As much as my drones did not like it, I had my spiders repair the captured enemy drones who were near death before they could move on to repairing the many minor injuries found on my drones.

Slipping back into my vessel, I see that the train was nearly at the station and so I got up from my seat and began lumbering over to Paisleigh and my lead hound. I find them in Paisleigh's throne room discreetly playing with the rubber balls they found a while back. Deciding not to embarrass them again, I quietly walked backwards a few paces before walking much louder than I normally would and knocking at the door before entering.

Finding the resident hounds bow lounging about the room, I walked up to my lead hound and quickly relayed the situation to them. While they definitely understood that there was nothing they could do to help with the battle now that it was finished, they still looked like they wished they could have been at the front lines. I give them a big pat on the head for their commitment to their job before feeling the train begin to slow.

Once the doors opened up, I walked out of the train and up the stairs to be promptly greeted by the half dozen drones guarding the station entrance. While they could have proven crucial in the battle, I had decided not to pull them off their duty due to the fact that just because MAI was attacking it would not mean that the feels would stop as well. Thus the various guard drones looked at me with worried faces which expressed their distress over the outcome of the battle.

Before I could answer, my lead hound did it for me and began barking and howling in whatever language all drones seemed to have in common. Leaving my hound to explain the situation to the worried guardsmen, I begin walking off towards the outpost and ordering my lead hound to catch up once they finish.

The trip was generally uneventful aside from the usual curious drone or scurrying feral scrounging up scrap for whatever reason in the distance. Arriving at the outpost, I could see dozens of my drones all doing their own things all around the compound. My spiders were obviously tending to the long queue of wounded, some of the more intact of my drones were ferrying corpses into the refinery which was spitting out alloys and components, and many of my hornets, who were largely unaffected by the battle, stood or rather hovered guard over the nearly dozen and a half or so captured drones.

In total, I had managed to force the surrender of seven hounds, four ants, three termites, one crab, and two scorpions who were all clumped together in the middle of the open road with three fourths of my hornet squadron on watch over them. Walking up to the mass of drones, I offered them a deal. Now I was not crazy enough to foolishly offer to take them in as my own drones, however I was not going to waste an opportunity to bolster my forces just a little bit more.

I gave them two options, the first being to stay captive and possibly be forced to work as haulers in the mine shafts and the latter option was to join my newly established penal legion where if they survived for a indeterminate amount of time they were allowed to leave peacefully or to join my ranks as a full drone citizen. Because service guarantees citizenship. . . I do not know why I expected any of them to understand the reference but I was disappointed regardless.

Anyways, four of the hounds, three of the ants, and one termite decided that the penal legion was the better of the two options and were promptly assigned their section of the line along with a few hornets to act as good old fashioned commissars, you know, just in case they are not holding the line hard enough. I decided to send a few hornets to escort the remaining captured drones to the subway station where they will be shipped over to the mining outpost to begin their service, save the crab due to the fact that they cannot fit into the subway train.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I decide to wait until I can replenish my losses before sending off more of my drones on escort missions. Speaking of losses, after a quick head count, I calculated that I had lost about two thirds of my hounds, half of my ants, both of the hastily constructed beatles, a seven dozen standard hornets, two EMP hornet, one scorpion, and one of my vultures during the battle. Checking the stockpile of the outpost, I found about enough materials to replace all the hornets and scorpions as well as all the ants.

And, considering the sheer numbers of corpses, I reckoned that I could scrounge up enough materials to replace several of my hounds at least. Ordering up said replacements, I decided that my first direct order to the penal brigade was for them to begin hauling the dead corpses into the refinery. Now, I can see that this was a bit cruel for their first assignment to recycle their dead buddy's corpse but hey, it could be worse. I could have them purposefully crush the corpses to truly drive home the message that I am in control.

But that would be a waste of resources, and mama told me to never waste anything. Anyways, it looks like my lead hound has taken upon himself to command of the penal legion and has already begun whipping them into shape. While it probably is a bad idea to have my penal warriors becoming well trained incase they decide to jump ship or mutiny. However, I trusted my lead hound not to train them too well and thus did not object.

Anyways, now that MAI had expended what I assume was the majority of their force on their failed attempt at taking my outpost, I decided to order a nearby squad of scout rats to check just how many drones were left to guard their main base. With the outpost more or less stable, I float over and back to my spiders in the mole colony.

This time, instead of linking to a spider mid-climb on the massive support beam, the spider who now hosted my consciousness was currently grabbing more materials to weld onto the support beam. Looking around, I eventually spotted the timer, which marked how long was left until the support beam was finished, which currently displayed that it would take another several hours before it finished.

It also seems that some of my drones from the factory had dragged the worm corpse based on the trail of where a worm corpse had been dragged. Speaking of which, I do not think I have properly inspected the corpse and thus have not acquired its blueprint. Floating back to the surface and over to my factory base, I see that my drones had left it on the ground of the main room near the refinery.

Inspecting the corpse, the familiar status screen appears slightly above the worm's limp form. According to the description, the Subterranean Tunnel Bore or the STB was a large drone which was originally constructed to clear out areas before other specialized drones could begin construction, mainly subway tunnels. Due to the STB's limited usability outside of its chosen field, the drone was built to be able to work in quick bursts of activity in-between regular rest periods.

Well I guess I can find a use for it, I suppose it could help in the mines as a quick way to create new strips of mineshaft which my moles and crabs can pick through. Speaking of the mining outpost, they have been making good headway in my previously depleted stockpiles and should be allowed to taste the fruits of their labor.

Using all that new ore, I ordered a few more moles to help with the drilling, a group of fifteen hounds for perimeter defense, and a wing of five hornets to fend off anything big which my hounds would rather not have to fight. I am less worried about another attack coming from MAI now that they have just lost their main force but I am not going to get overconfident just yet. Hopefully the garrison will only be there to fend off the occasional feral and not another full scale attack.

With that aside, I inform a nearby spider that it is alright to scrap the worm corpse to which they nod before scurrying off, likely to go find someone who was actually big enough to scrap the whole thing. I was about to leave to slip back into my vessel drone before I heard a knock on the gates. Floating over to the noise, I find none other than R5-7G and the rest of his nomadic tribe.

Slipping into one of the backup vessel's which i had made earlier, I walked over to the gates and said "Fancy seeing you all here, what brings you over?"

"We were looking for a good place to settle down now that we've left the reach of that damned AI, no offense, and when we heard that there was a friendly AI near here we were guessing it was you" R5-7G replied. "Now then do you happen to know any good spots to set up a village by chance?"