Spidertron unit 04 did not truly have any thoughts, it had a series of directives and priorities, currently this spidertron was marching alongside 9 of its brethren, its orders were to avoid hostiles and establish a series of outposts a few hundred kilometers away from the main base.
This roaming pack of spidertrons was currently only 123 kilometers from the main base, over half the distance they were meant to march. When they entered into their first fight, the spidertrons passive control was soon given to one of their superior brethren.
With their brethren coordinating the spidertrons and their accompanying drones the attacking bug force was soon decimated, the bugs were significantly weaker out here, and a volley of missiles was largely sufficient to cull large numbers of the hordes.
This is not to say that the bugs here were weak, compared to the first encountered bugs, these were significantly tougher, but compared to the 20 meter plus behemoths assaulting the main factory? These bugs were insignificant.
With the momentary distraction dealt with their brethren's attention and control left the spidertrons and they once again continued their march, they soon came upon a river, their coding indicated that water should be avoided whenever possible, so the spidertrons diverted around the river, they had been walking for a few days now, only intermittently being checked on by their superior brethren.
Still the spidertrons were now about 200 kilometers from the main factory. This was considered an acceptable distance to begin searching for an appropriate place to construct the first and main outpost for this region, one of their brethren had coded them with the blueprints and ideal parameters for a location to build this main outpost, and so the spidertrons split into pairs to search for the right spot.
Spidertron unit 04 was paired with spidertron unit 05 for this search, and while they found numerous adequate spots, some with higher quantities of minerals but no source of nearby water, others with an abundance of oil but no other resources, none of them were sufficient for the main outpost, only lesser suboutposts, still the locations were marked and they continued their search.
About 2 days after the search had begun pair 07 and 09 found a suitable location, with adequate water minerals and oil for an outpost, it was roughly 37 kilometers from unit 04 and 05s position and they began the long trek there, there was a minor bug hive on top of the ideal location and all the spidertrons were being recalled to deal with it, this far from resupply any damage was fixable but a drain on limited resources, so overwhelming force was preferred where possible.
It was the dawn of the next day when all 10 spidertrons arrived, and once again direct control was seized by their brethren, who quickly exterminated the bugs before leaving them to build the blueprint.
The spidertrons had no construction equipment themselves, but they could charge and control a large swarm of construction robots to build for them, and with this large swarm building the main outpost only took a day.
With their main mission fulfilled unit 04s orders changed, it was now to go out with unit 05 and was to begin establishing sub outposts at previously scouted locations, then they were to run supply lines between the main outpost and sub outposts, it soon left the main outpost after resupplying with ammunition and began its march to the closest suitable spot.
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The spidertrons worked ceaselessly for a week before the first major attack came. And had managed to construct several sub outposts.
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Spidertron unit 09 was guarding a new sub outpost when the attack arrived, its drones were constructing the bases walls and defenses when unit 09 spotted the bugs, the spidertron unloaded volley after volley of missiles into the horde, this desperate offensive barely served to slow the the horde down.
The bugs soon arrived at the spidertron, and while its lasers and missiles tried to cut into the horde, these bugs were undeterred, they seized spidertron 09 by the legs and began to pull, the shields make it so that a unit cannot be broken, but its limbs can still be moved, and with its legs restrained and its missile silos jammed the spidertron could do nothing as its shields were hacked apart.
When the spidertrons shields fell there was nothing to stop the bugs from pulling it apart, its last act was to detonate its inbuilt nuclear reactor. This reactor was small though and so this only somewhat thinned the horde of bugs, who proceeded to hunt down and destroy every last drone building the factory before destroying the outpost itself. This “battle” lasted less than a minute. If the spidertron had been able to think it might have wondered where its brethren had been, but the spidertron cannot think and so it did not, and so it died, alone and without witness.
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The first time spidertron 04 would have noticed something amiss was when spidertron 09s communication ceased, but spidertron can not think and so it noticed nothing, merely continuing to scout for a new location to build another outpost.
If spidertron 04 could have thought it would have been worried as one by one more outposts and spidertrons stopped sending information, it would have been worried that its superior brethren were not sending it new orders to group up and deal with this threat. But spidertrons cannot think and so it found a spot to build an outpost and started constructing one.
If spidertrons could think unit 04 would have been terrified as unit 05 went silent, not sending a distress or even reporting combat, as 05 was only 3 kilometers from unit 04s location.
Spidertron 04 detected a bug attack at the same moment its communications shut down, the bugs were larger than any in this area, and there was significantly more variety of them, spidertron 04 noticed none of this, and began unloading its missiles into the nearest bugs while retreating away from the horde, its outpost had barely begun and would offer no defensive positions.
The missile barrage killed few of the bugs, and its laser killed less. Still a spidertron cannot think, and so it cannot despair and knew not of fear and so it fought. The bug horde numbered in the hundreds and spidertron 04 only had a few dozen combat drones, even less now that they were being destroyed by the bugs, and so this battle was hopeless even discarding the massive bug behind the horde, measuring 90 feet long and 50 feet tall, seemingly surveying the battle from the rear and directing the bugs, as its superior brethren once did for unit 04.
Still spidertron 04 was not like the other spidertron, it had been built directly by the maker, and so it was more durable, with stronger shields and lasers. These alone would not be enough to stop this bug horde, and would not even faze the behemoth in the back.
But that was not all the maker had given spidertron 04, no the maker had given spidertron 04 a nuke, and that….. Well that would certainly put a dent into a bug horde
Spidertron 04 was set to only be able to fire a nuke into the attacking enemies if its destruction would happen within a minute, and with its other missile silos running dry this situation seemed to meet those parameters.
Spidertron 04 did not know what a nuke was, as it could not know anything, and as a spidertron 04 was without a greater intelligence guiding it, the nuke was just another missle to be fired at the closest enemy, just one with special conditions needed before it could be fired. So spidertron 04 took aim at the closest bug and fired its last missile.
The earth shook as the sky went white with a blinding bang, 100 meters of earth were turned into molten stone and the spidertron and horde of bugs were incinerated, with one exception.
A massive shape began to crawl out of the crater, its exoskeleton cracked and leaking ichor, with crunching steps the massive bug began to walk back towards its hive, as the remains of its shell fell off and a new thicker and stronger shell began to grow in its place. The bug, now 95 feet long and 52 feet tall, could however think, unlike the spidertrons, and knew it would be more careful around the weird metal bugs now. They really hurt.