As the ground shook, I urged my drones to move just a little farther but the shaking was making it ever more difficult to get proper footing. Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself off the trembling ground and managed to grab one of the nearby drones and hurled them past the entrance to the shaft. This however caused me to lose balance and I fell over again.

This miraculously saved my bacon as my now hostile worm burst through the wall to my left and flew right over me. In a perfect world the worm would have lost all of its momentum and crashed into the next wall. Then it would violently explode. This however was not a perfect world and thus the worm snatched a drone which was on my right before drilling back into the right side tunnel wall.

Thankfully the blow which the ant on my right had taken was not immediately life threatening as the worm was slowing down considerably compared to its initial velocity. I presumed that it had not fully recharged before the flesh thing took control of it. That does beg the question of how the thing actually hacked my drones as flesh and metal do not usually mesh that well together.

That however was thought for another time as the thing was catching up to us and the possessed worm was beginning to prepare itself for another charge. My drones hurriedly made their way out of the cave now that the worm induced tremors were no longer a problem and upon reaching the surface I immediately began ordering my hornets to take off into the sky and to prepare firing solutions for when the thing exited the tunnel behind us.

I also ordered my beetle to get on top of the tunnel's entrance and for them to get ready to hose the thing with fire if the initial barrage was not enough. With that taken care of, I order my remaining drones to spread out and prepare to engage the worm when it emerges from the ground again. Hefting my blast shield and my mace, I brace myself for the next attack.

We had to wait for a little longer than expected, the fleshy thing was quite slow actually and the worm was still mustering reserve energy, but more when the thing emerged from the tunnel my hornets quickly gave it some nice new holes. However they were just that, holes, and now seeing that the hornets bolts were not cutting it, my beetle began frying it.

This elicited a much more adamant response and swung two of its stingy appendages and gripped the beetle's metal plates. My beetle however was not having it as, before the thing could begin turning into static, my beetle self destructed right in its grasp. From the thing I could hear a faint gurgle of a scream emanating from its core before it flashed in color and charged at me.

Quickly backpedaling, I desperately dodged and weaved around the multitude of strikes swinging towards me. Well it was more running away and blocking with my shield when I could not but it still counts. I managed to get a whack or two whenever possible but aside from that the battle was not going particularly well for me. I could not keep this up forever and no other drones I have left available are capable of significantly damaging it.

As my hopes were waning a blow knocked me off balance causing me to trip and fall on my back. Thankfully my blast shield was still in front of me as a torrent of strikes slammed against me like an ever moving river. Then, as the thing was rearing up for a heavy attack, a large chunk of rock slammed into its side and knocked it over.

Taking advantage of the distraction, I pulled myself to my feet and found that a hornet wing had realized that if their spikes were not cutting it, a large rock would. Evidently they were correct in that assumption. With the thing still recovering from its fall, I charged with my mace and began pounding away at its squirming form which did not do much more than force the thing to devote its attention to blocking my strikes rather than actually getting up.

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That was until, my mace found contact with something solid within the things frame. My strike against that object caused the thing to redouble its efforts on pushing me away as it began sending blow after blow at me which was met with my shield. Deciding that I was no longer worth targeting, the thing charged towards my infantry drones in a rush to convert as many as possible to their side.

My drones worked to evade the oncoming beast by splitting up and spreading out further, buying time for my airborne drones to land another hit on whatever got the thing worked up on. Unfortunately an ant or two was captured by the thing and was swiftly put down by a scorpion or hornet shot before I was able to get close enough to slam my shield into its side.

This brought its attention towards me nicely and was further enraged when I chucked a javelin into it, just because. With my distraction enacted the thing did not realize it when another large chunk of debris was hurled at it, this time by my vulture, with a dozen or so hornet spikes followed right after. The rock slammed into the thing like its predecessor and likely damaged whatever the thing was so adamantly protecting.

However, unlike the last rock, the hornet spike salvo that came after pelted the thing and pinned it to the ground with the spikes acting as nails, pricing the thing's flesh. The monstrosity wriggled and writhed in a desperate attempt to escape its predicament but now that it was pinned, I moved forward to deal the final few blows. Yet as I got close, the thing let out a shrill shriek which reverberated across the compound.

The shriek was quickly followed by one originating from somewhere underground and the rumble of drills began once more. The tremors quickly grew in magnitude and quickly realized that the possessed worm was the problem and quickly raised my shield and ordered my drones to spread out and prepare to repel the worm. Just as the rumbling came to a crescendo, it paused. Then the worm busted through the ground and leaped at my back.

I only barely swung myself and my shield I time to allow my blast shield to take the majority of the impact. The worm still managed to create a deep gouge in my side as my shield deflected it from my stomach. As much as the later blow would have hurt more and that my vessel was considerably less sensitive than a normal body, it still hurt like all hell.

Since my hornets were still reloading, my scorpions quickly took the place of my airborne assets and fired off their stun lances at the worm which, while slightly less effective than usual, put it thoroughly out of the fight. With that last threat taken care of, the only thing left was the still pinned flesh monster who was in the process of dislodging one of the spikes.

In my current state, I was not in the best of conditions to properly finish off the thing so I ordered my hornets to finish reloading and to aim directly at their centerpiece that was now slightly exposed as the flesh containing it tore off at some point. Now that it was no longer chasing or attacking me, I could now fully take in the sight of the monstrosity in its entirety.

The thing was bulbous to say the least and had several main tentacles which sported a few minor tentacles to boot. The point at which the major tentacles sprout minors is where a small round bulge exists and its purpose I can only assume is one similar to a joint. The 'skin' of the thing was a deep black with dark and bold red crosses dotting across its form, most often found on the joints and central body.

In said body was a, slightly dented, spherical object about the size of a basketball with the same color as the red crosses located at the midpoint of the things torso. I would presume that it was important and I was swiftly proven right as more than a dozen spikes pierced it and the thing immediately ceased struggling. My drones and I still refused to touch it.

I would rather not have this thing and what I can only assume is its residue inside of my newly conquered compound and so I ventured into the tunnels in search of a drone works in order to construct a beetle. Before I go, I order my drones to make themselves busy by moving all the tainted drone corpses,the thing, and any residue inside of the compound into a nice flammable pire in preparation for the beetle.

Eventually I did find a small drone works which was not overrun by the things residue but it was a close thing as this was one of the last machines left to check. However, upon accessing the machine's terminal, I began feeling an odd sensation. One that I could not fully put my finger on. That was until I heard another voice inside my mind.