The voice was not one of a person, but rather sounded to be a set of instructions playing on repeat in the back of my mind. The instruction said that "Disengage contact with this device. The device is contaminated with a contaminant designated as Rot. Recommend complete purge of all nearby affected entities."

Upon listening to the first two lines of the message I shot my hand back as I realized what the rot was obviously referring to. I take note that since whatever was speaking had a name for this rot stuff then this was not an isolated case. Lastly, part where it stated that it should be purged disappointed me somewhat as I would like to have claimed the compound and its pre-built infrastructure to alas it was for the best.

Sighing to myself as I walked out of the tunnel, I found a small nearby building which I leaned back on before shifting out of my vessel to order some fire beetles back at the water treatment plant. Ordering up a half dozen beetles for the purge team and began the wait as they began fabricating. It did not take very long for them to finish and their trip was made much quicker with my hounds acting as rides.

Once they arrived I immediately ordered them to begin the cleansing to which they hastily obeyed. Streams of purifying flame swept across the mound of rot flesh my drones and assembled, incinerating all that it touched and soon all that was left was embers. While it still pains me to have my drones destroy all of this free infrastructure, it had to be done so I gave the order and they began burning it all down as well.

It did not take long but the entire compound was scored with scorch marks on every available surface. With all of the pre built machinery destroyed and there not being much ore left in the tunnels, the compound was now of no use to me. Sighing to myself I ordered the march back to the nearest outpost. At least the fight is over.

Once my drones and I reach the outpost we all immediately disperse and begin tending to their tasks or wounds. Many of my drones were faced with some sizable damages from the berserker and infected worm attacks and the only reason more than a couple of my drones were still with us is because of the quick fried repairs done by the spider contingent.

Laying down on a section of concrete, I slip out of my vessel as a spider begins the process of putting my drill wound back together. Giving a quick head count, I order up replacements for all the lost drones along with a couple more spiders to speed up the recovery process. Not that we were much in a hurry now that the MAI has been destroyed.

Actually, now that I am no longer at threat, what should I do now? I could spend my time building up and preparing for the next disaster just in case. Another thing I could do is to devote my resources to making sure the nomads are doing well. That would not be much of a bad idea. An errant thought of turning the com station on top of the factory flickered across my mind for a moment before common sense took hold and snuffed it out.

The last time I had used it, MAI showed up at my doorstep and made an attempt to destroy me. I reasoned that I would only use the com station once I had adequately prepared myself for the worst and then some. Eventually I decided that there is no harm in doing all three now that I was safe for the moment. First things first is the mole colony's progress on the support beams.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Slipping out of my vessel, I floated over and into one of my spider drones who was working at the colony. Looking around, I see that the last of the support beams are getting the finishing touches made to it and a couple of my spiders have already begun working on properly repairing the reactor. Checking on the drones working on the generator, I see that it would take a full day and would require the mole colonists to fetch some specific materials from the mines.

They all did not mind of course, more power meant they could worry less about suddenly shutting down and soon the required materials were prepared for implementation. Leaving my drones to their work, I decided to move over to the mining outpost to check on how the new workers were doing.

Once there, I could immediately spot the imprisoned drones as they were now brightly colored red. I do not know where or more importantly how one of my drones found that bucket of paint but I was not complaining, it certainly would make keeping track of them easier. The prisoner drones were all hauling the ore from the mineshafts and to the refinery then back again.

While none of my drones were outright terrorizing the prisoner drones, they certainly gave the red painted drones the side eye, especially the few drones who had survived the ambush as they had lost many good friends in the battle. As a direct result of this, the prisoner drones stuck together like glue and were almost never found to be without at least one buddy.

This did not concern me, as long as they do their jobs they can be with whom they please. Speaking of their work, checking on the storage room, I could see that the mines have returned back to its former glory as the storage room was bursting from the seams with various alloys and metals. My caravan of moose have been working overtime to disperse all of the newly minded out resources to my various outposts and vassals.

Speaking of which, I zipped over to the Flocks home base to see how well they are doing. After arriving and giving the area a quick sweep, I could see that their vassalage had done wonders to their numbers as they swelled up to around four dozen vultures with another three dozen smaller woodpeckers. Infact, due to the increase in numbers, the flock has expanded their nesting grounds to include some farther off buildings which could also double as early warning systems for potential attacks.

Sticking around to watch the vultures do practice flight maneuvers for a few minutes, I eventually slip away to go check on the not so nomads and their newly set up village. Upon arriving over there, I could see that the nomads had set up the majority of their equipment inside of the school walls. This included a few dozen battery packs, a couple work stations for what I'm guessing is salvage disassembly, and a small repair station with a small collection of common tools.

While I'm sure they would not mind receiving a small shipment of metals to help get them set up with soon better equipment, I eventually decided against it in favor of letting them develop on their own unless they really need it. With them all sorted out, I move on to the last of my allys, that being Pasileigh and her wolves who are the most spread out of all my vessel's.

This would likely be due to all of the subway stations which they are the main defenders of, although my own personal drones do supplement them, and the few that are permanently stationed as the wardens of the subway train. Paisleighs hounds have been flourishing now that they are the guardians of my entire transportation array.

With the resources from my outposts, Paisleighs hounds have been steadily increasing their number in order to disperse themselves across the half a dozen subway stations under my control. It also helps that some of my veteran hounds who have survived a battle or two often get transferred over to the hound garrisons guarding the subway trains as newly fledged drill masters. With their care the subway garrisons have become a formidable force.

Not that there's much left for them to fight now that the MAI is no longer a threat. With nothing much left to do, I decided to spend my time simply floating around my various outposts and compounds, waiting for the next disaster to show its face.