Eventually, I got the notification that the servers over by the warehouse outpost had just finished being constructed and now my drones were awaiting orders. Floating over to the outpost, I see that the compound had transformed from a quiet and generally undisturbed area into a bustling base with drones moving to and fro. It seems that the outpost has been defending against an increased level of feral incursions, likely due to the sudden activeness of the outpost.
Checking the warehouse where I had ordered the construction of those servers, I saw that the first cluster had finished and was now being powered by the local generator. I briefly considered ordering the construction of more servers but I think better of it and decide not to after figuring that more ferals may be attracted to it and since I did not require more drone capacity just yet.
With my newfound drone administrative capacity, I decide to order up a fresh batch of scout rats and vultures to send off into the unmapped areas around my various outposts and bases. I almost forgot that vultures are also made for reconnaissance purposes and not only for battle like I have seen and used them for.
With them on the way, I begin generally beefing up the various lacking garrisons with some of those termites which I had not got around to building until now and a couple of extra moles to expand the mining outposts resource output. Speaking of which, I should probably send a couple moles to my various other compounds to see if there were any particularly dense pockets of minerals or anything of the like since the mines at the mining outpost are beginning to show signs of drying up.
The outpost will still produce more materials than if I were to have my drones mine out some random spot on the ground but the constant mining is going to decrease the effectiveness. Oh well, I suppose quantity over quality holds true in this situation although I am a bit saddened by the decrease in efficiency. Oh well, at least the first mole colony tribute has arrived and it was a pretty decent amount, enough for at least a dozen medium sized drones if I stretched it a bit.
Seeing that I had an excess of available materials, I sent over a message to Ping asking if they needed some and what they would be willing to trade for. They reapond soon enough stating that they could use some and that they were willing to trade me some leftover drones they had along with their blueprints for a decent chunk of metals. Checking for which drone I was trading the materials for, they said that they were willing to trade the blueprints for those dragonflies as long as I was willing to buy a couple of them as well, which I agreed to.
Ordering one of my moose caravans which were not doing anything to begin gathering the trading supplies, I began making guesses on what the dragonflies were made for. Based on my previous encounters with them I would guess that they were going to be some kind of scout since Ping was using them to spy on me when I first encountered them.
Then again, from what I can remember from those old animal films I used to watch when I was a kid, I recall that dragonflies were proficient hunters that could fight above their weight class and most if not all of the drones I have encountered so far have had traits similar to their real life counterparts. I suppose I will not know until I get my hands onto it.
Soon enough, my caravan swiftly set out to the nearby subway station and I began marshaling a bit of an escort over by the water treatment outpost.
———
Once the caravan arrived at the outpost, I rounded up a few hounds and a couple hornets and I sent them on their way towards Ping’s base. I decided to follow along since I did not have anything better to do anyways, so off we went towards the same meeting point. Once at the meeting spot, I saw that Ping had once again gotten here before I had.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Sending my moose over to begin offloading the materials which they had been hauling all the way here, I approached Ping. “Hello again, do you have the goods?” I ask while opening my hand expectantly.
“Ah yes, here you go.” Ping said while handing me the blueprints for the dragon flies along with ordering the ones which she said I needed to buy with them towards the rest of my escorting drones. “By the way, you said that I am an industrial model last time we met. I was wondering what kind of AI are you?” I ask, genuinely curious.
“Oh that’s easy, I am a communications and reconnaissance AI and my vessel is tailored to those designations. While yours is built to be bulky and strong, mine is made to be quick and have adequate sensors for scanning the area around myself.” Ping said in a chipper tone, clearly more than happy to show off their special traits.
That would definitely explain the radar systems which seemed to sprout from every available surface. It also brought the question of if Ping could contact other AI’s since they clearly know and have interacted with others and so I asked as such.
“Ah, yes I can contact some others, although most if not all of the other AI’s are isolationists to the core. The exception being me since I am programmed to want to contact others and I suppose you as well since you don’t seem to mind talking with me.” They say with a shrug.
With that the conversation seemed to slip into an awkward silence before I eventually said, “Welp, thanks for the blueprint,” before leaving with my caravan and its escort a couple drones stronger.
A half hour or so later, the caravan and I arrived back with the new drones flying above them. Upon ordering them to land they do as told however they seemed extra skittish and stressed for whatever reason. I asked one of my spiders to communicate with the nervous drones, my spider reports that they have a couple programming defects that caused them to be more than a little panicky which was odd.
SIghing to myself, I grabbed the blueprint which my moose had dropped off before moving back to the subway station and began reading out its purpose. The Rapid Aerial Superiority drone or the RAS were designed to be able to deploy as fast as possible of a drone their size and to be able to take on anything their size in the air with minimal effort. They were much less useful on the ground due to their vulnerable wings however they are a great threat in the air with their incredible maneuverability and reinforced mandibles which can effectively tear through other drones.
They seemed quite powerful, I am sure they make a great addition to my roster although I am not too sure about the defective ones. Their panicked programming would make them a hindrance during a straight up engagement. Perhaps I could use them to rescue damaged drones and bring them back to the spiders but aside from that I can not think of anything else they might help with.
Sighing to myself, I suppose I got what I asked for, Ping never did specify why they wanted to get rid of them instead of simply sending them to a garrison or something. I asked my spider if they were able to fix up their programming and was given a response stating that they were made for repairs not programming which should have been obvious to me. Oh well I guess I’m stuck with you guys. At least it was not a total waste of resources. I now had a new toy to play with.
Ordering a couple of them to be constructed in a couple of my outposts, I sent off the ones which I had bought from Ping to go and help the spiders with the heavy lifting which they swiftly did. As I watched them fly away, I got another concerning message from my scouts who were over by the tower tribe. They said that some of the tribesmen from the tower tribe who had friends arrested were now asking if I could break them out of where they were keeping them.
I did not expect for them to ask for help, I knew that things were going less than well in the tower tribe but I did not think that things were bad enough to warrant leaving entirely. I order my scout rats to discreetly ask why they want to get out and whether or not the majority of the tribe is alright with this because I was not going to start conflict with the leaders of the tower tribe just because a couple unruly tribesmen wanted out.
With that being said, I do not really mind helping out the tower tribesmen, they seemed like nice people last time I saw them. Then again, where would I put them? I do not doubt that my factory can sustain such a population, however I would rather not have a bunch of robots walking around in my main base and it would make it slightly more difficult for my drones to move around quickly. Perhaps I could just dump them onto the nomad tribe and to compensate for the increased people which they would need to support, I could send over some materials or something.
Nevertheless, this will not matter until I get a response from my scout rats so I simply watch over my various outposts while I wait.