The thin figure then gestured towards a couple of their dragonflies which promptly took off and started buzzing towards my scout rats position. Some of my rats started asking for permission to run but my lead scout ordered them back into formation, however I could see that they were also concerned but did not let their subordinates see that. While I did agree with their reactions, MAI certainly was not friendly, I still ordered them to stay put and too see what they want.

It did not take long for the dragonflies to reach my squad of scout rats and once they arrived my scout rat began chittering at the drones in their collective language which it seems all drones and robots share. While I could not understand what they were saying, I could certainly feel the tenseness of the conversation.

Thankfully, the negotiations seemed to be successful and my drones were thus spared from the unwinnable fight that would have occurred if they were not so lucky. With that my scout rats sent me a message which explained what had been discussed. The message said that the dragonfly drones and their AI administrator were not hostile and were inviting me to a meeting site where we could fully discuss things in person.

It calmed my nerves slightly, knowing that I was not going to be pulled into another all out brawl once again and while I was still recovering from the last. However I was less than eager to meet in person with the new AI due to the fact that dying, even if it was not permanent, still hurt like hell and I was not set on going into a potential trap.

On the other hand, denying the invitation would not exactly foster good relations with my newfound neighbors. Eventually I just settle on taking a small contingent of honor guard just in case, hopefully this new AI can understand my excessive paranoia. Slipping into my vessel at the water treatment plant, I begin gathering my lead hound and their most veteran subordinates along with a couple of my crackshot hornets who were some of the oldest drones left in the attack party due to the fact that fighting from a distance is a lot safer than rushing into melee.

Eventually my honor guard assembled and my scout rat returned from the new AI’s outpost and we set off towards the set coordinates somewhere in between our two outposts. The trip took no more than two dozen minutes and we eventually entered the vicinity of the coordinates which looked to be situated in the ruins of what seemed to be a marketplace plaza.

In the middle of said plaza was the new AI and a small entourage of drones which included a couple familiar hounds, some of those dragonflies, and a couple new drones which I did not recognize who were patiently waiting for my arrival. Walking to the center of the plaza as well, the size difference between our two vessels was made evidently clear as I could now see that I was almost one and a half heads taller and twice as wide.

I could also now see that the new AI was, as expected, slightly put off by the fact that I had brought nearly a dozen combat ready drones to a diplomatic meeting. Regardless, upon me offering my hand in greeting, they shook my hand and began speaking.

“Hello there, I have not detected you here before, you must have come online not too long ago. And, based on your vessel of choice, you seem to be an industrially based AI.” The figure said while analyzing my vessel circling around me and inspecting my various limbs and modifications with a curious enthusiasm.

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I clear my non-existent throat with an “ehem” which seems to remind the figure that they were in the middle of a diplomatic meeting and promptly stopped their examination while apologizing, “I’m terribly sorry, that must have been quite uncomfortable for you. Ah yes, I apologize for my rudeness, I am P1N9 or otherwise known as Ping. What is your designation?”

Relaxing slightly now that they were no longer in my personal space and the fact that they were talking in a nice, informal tone. I respond with a “My name is James and I apologize for the,” I gesture to my honor guards, “extra security, I'm not quite sure you would not be hostile and I did not want to take any chances.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve never seen an industrial AI who is not at least a little paranoid and obsessive over contingencies. Speaking of which, there used to be another infected AI around here somewhere, do you know what happened to them? I have been avoiding this area for some time now and I was wondering why there were drones with new colors in the region.”

“Ah, about them, I more or less incinerated their core room after I found it filled with rot. Hope that’s not too much of a problem.” I said while hoping that destroying a core was not some kind of taboo or something. Ping, however, did not seem to mind and actually commended my thoroughness because if I had not gone to such a measure to eradicate the area, then the rot might be able to infest again.

Eventually the meeting came to an end with Ping and I agreeing to stay out of each other's way and to keep in touch by using the radio tower since Ping’s main base was actually a run down radio/radar station and would be able to contact me back which was nice. I also took the time to look at the two drones which I did not recognize from Ping’s entourage while they did the same with my hornets.

The two drones looked like a bat and a snake in general shape while the bat had large radar dishes for ears and the snake had some kind of special vision which seemed to be focused on looking for sources of heat which might be helpful for finding things like rot infestations and large numbers of drones since they still give off slight amounts of heat.

Unfortunately, I could not acquire the blueprints for their drones but I could likely trade for the blueprints eventually once the mole tributes start rolling in and I find a decent subway stop to let my caravans arrive closer to their outposts and mainbase.

Regardless, I considered the negotiations to be a resounding success as now I had a new trading partner and a friendly neighbor meaning I could reasonably rule out any hostile ferals coming from their direction. For the most part, I was looking happy with my general situation now that I did not have to worry about any active threats.

With that being said, I was beginning to get reports of increased activity over at the tower tribe and my drones were starting to worry that things might boil over and might cause hostilities. While I'm confident that my drones would be more than capable at defending against the tower tribes warriors I understand their hesitancy.

Many of the tower tribes guardsmen seemed like pretty alright guys and my drones would rather they not get caught in the crossfire. To that end, I decided to order up a couple scorpions back at the factory base who could incapacitate rather than outright kill which would help ease my drones worries.

Once the drone works began to churn out the scorpions, I slipped into my vessel and walked up to the top of the factory. Upon reaching the rooftop, I saw a couple of my spiders moving around and making various repairs and generally maintaining the solar panels which lined the floor. Walking past the solar panels, I eventually reached the radio tower and began hooking it back up to the power grid.

The radio tower slowly bagan booting up and eventually a panel lit up which began displaying a list of known radio stations which was currently empty. Plugging my finger into a port on the side of the panel, I transferred the coordinates of where Pings radio base was. This caused the panel to display a loading screen for a few moments before a new entry to the list manifested itself.

With that completed, I resigned myself to managing my various outposts as I waited for the next interesting event to rear its head.