Switching to my scout rat's vision, I could see that inside of a large building was the feral drone works. Nearby said drone works were dozens of very simplistic looking machines which seemed to be designed with utilitarianism in mind. To this end, the robots also seemed to be working off of a set pattern as they did not pause or deviate once while performing their tasks.

Those tasks included resource gatherers who were basically just a mining drill on tracks and a hauler which was ferrying the minerals into a decrepit looking refinery. Those resources were then inserted into the drone works and out came a new feral drone after a couple dozen minutes later. There was no longer a doubt that this was the reason for all the feral drones.

I order my scouts to continue observing the drone works and to find the power source while they are at it. While they were doing that, I switched my conscience back to my vessel inside of the water treatment outpost and began marshaling my non garrisoned troops. Among those troops number was the penal legion which had passed one or two of their number in the battle with their former leader, MAI.

Perhaps after a couple more battles I'll let them free. Maybe. For now though, they would be taking point in the next attack in order to bear the brunt of the injuries from the various ferals who would no doubtably stand in my way from disabling their drone works. Speaking of which, I wonder who made those. I doubt that they would simply appear out of nowhere.

Perhaps another, or possibly already dead, AI created those and the androids which operate them but eventually lost control of it and let the ferals take it over. My thoughts were cut off as my drones finished assembling and were now waiting expectedly in formation. Walking into the middle area of the formation, I order my drones to begin the march towards the feral drone works.

While following the path set by my scouts beforehand, me and my drones begin to encounter more than the usual amounts of random feral raids. They were much more organized then normal as well. An example of this was when a team of three hounds charged out of a particularly tight alleyway and slammed into the first of my drones they could see which just so happened to be a penal drone.

And then, while my drones were distracted by the group of attackers on one side, another larger team of several drones made up of hounds and ants came out of nowhere and caught my drones by surprise. The rearward charge did enough damage to disorient my drones and in the confusion the first team slipped away having only lost one of their number in the process as my hornets tagged one of them as they escaped.

With them gone my drones turned the majority of their attention to the larger group and leapt upon them with a fury although they did leave a few drones to ensure no attack would be coming for their unshielded behind again. While we were able to fend off that attack, more than a few of my drones had lost their lives already and we were only around halfway to the feral drone works.

Deciding that speed was less desirable compared to survival I ordered my drones to go on an extra cautious stance and went back to slowly advancing towards the drone works. It was slow but no other ambushes did anything other than uselessly throw themselves into the waiting maw of my drones or became moving targets for my hornets.

Soon enough my war party encroached on the drone works however by the time we reached there the ferals had managed to marshall a small army of around forty assembled drones of various make. I could see hounds, ants, scorpions, hornets, termites,and moose who were all standing defiantly against my drones.

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My drones and I keep an eye out for any sort of ambush while my hornet contingent prepares for the opening salvo however it seems that the ferals were one step ahead of me this time as their own hornets and scorpions opened fire upon my drone lines. The penal drones took the brunt of the scorpion shots but my hornets were hit more than once by their feral counterparts.

Soon, my hornets reformed back into formation and unleashed their barrage against their opponents who had a much lower chance of dodging because my hornets' spikes had formed a blanket of sorts which cut off all possible escape routes for the feral drones. This resulted in a massacre which assured my complete aerial dominance.

While my hornets were doing that, my infantry drones were advancing towards the feral line when a half dozen hounds jumped out from all sides and immediately began attacking my drones. This was immediately met with a definitely equal retaliation from my drones most close to the ambush.

The ferals quickly began taking advantage of the slight disorganization of my troops which the ambush inflicted and charged into my drones. Thankfully my drones were prepared for it this time and most were able to properly brace themselves in time to absorb most of the impact. Soon enough the fight simply morphed into a giant brawl and I was in the thick of it.

My mace slammed into one drone after another but they simply rotated their more damaged drones to the back of their blob and me and my drones had no such luxury due to the ambushers forcing my drones to stay where they are. This meant that more than a couple of my drones were taken down in circumstances where they could have fallen back which was less than great. Thankfully the ones who could get behind another, more healthy, drone were able to make their way into the center of my blob and subsequently were treated by my spiders.

While my drones were holding the line, my small vulture wing winded up and charged straight into the backs of the ferals which wreaked havoc on their lines. This allowed my drones for a few moments of recuperation before they began pushing the ferals back with renewed vigor.

Then came the next volley of hornet and scorpion fire which ended in the usual few killed and stunned drones along with the counter barrage which took down one or two of my own. Thanks to my aerial fire support, my drones and I were able to push that much harder into the quickly crumbling feral lines.

Suddenly the ferals break and begin fleeing the battlefield and soon my drones had free rein to chase down their retreating counterparts which netted me quite a few captured ferals which I quickly conscripted into the penal division which had taken significant losses recently. Then, while my spiders begin the long process of repairing all my damaged drones, I walk over to the drone works and the automatons working them.

The first thing I noticed was that the automatons were acting as if I did not exist at all and continued to complete their task even when I swung my mace at them before stopping just short. The mining automatons did this as well, blissfully ignorant of my presence as they brought up boxes of unrefined metal which the haulers pick up and dump into the refinery before leaving the box for the next miner who needed it.

The speed at which the automatons gathered was impressive, however I really did not need another five medium drone works just laying around. Deciding to keep the automatons, I order my spiders to dismantle the drone works and just in case the outposts garrisons are unable to reach all the at over here, I order a couple of my drones along with some of the new penal legionnaires to protect the automatons from now on.

While my drones work on dismantling the drone works, repairing the injured, or anything else they need to do, I sit back on a nearby ledge before I spotted a faint glimmer a few blocks away on top of a building. Zooming in, I could see something metal reflecting off a glimmer of light before darting away from view. I send out my rat scout squad in that direction to see if they are still there, however I doubt it.

It seems I'm no longer alone again.