Rylo's head tilted slightly. "What do these little guys have to do with tunnels?" He asked with confusion painted on his face.

"They'll have rudimentary programming when compared to the RG's." Coda indicated with his hand toward the RG standing by his side. "But they'll be fast-moving orbs that can manipulate their black matter into tendrils or tentacles to attack and maneuver in tunnels far more efficiently than ground troops can."

He started scanning the document himself to find what he was looking for.

"No... Not that either... Ah, there it is." He turned the document over to point at a specific page. "Page three, one of the delivery systems I thought up for it."

Rylo and the others flipped to the page and started reading before Vii spoke up.

"This is rather gruesome. Forget the HKZ's, the delivery system kind of makes them redundant doesn't it?" He asked with slight hesitation.

Coda chuckled as he waved one of his hands in front of his face. "No, no. If you read a little further you'll see it has retro thrusters. It won't cause massive damage on impact, or at least shouldn't. In theory."

"In theory?" Vii asked again, albeit with an unsure tone. "Firing one of these could cause catastrophic damage if it landed on a populated city, you do realize that?"

With a serious expression, Coda answered. "I do. That's why we will never fire it at one." Vii let out a breath at his answer before Coda continued. "As you can see, they're meant to be dropped on top of tunnel systems. Then they'll start drilling until they discover a cavity and deploy the payload. Of course, they should work in ship to ship combat as well."

As Coda and Vii conversed back and forth Rylo was absorbed in the document in front of him. It depicted something similar to a missile, except the front wasn't smooth. It was like a drill bit followed by a slightly armored hollow section then a thruster. There were multiple small retro thrusters sprinkled in there along with four air brakes by the thruster itself.

Nodding robotically as he read he spoke up suddenly, breaking the two from their conversation. "This is... Clever. Though the payload will be rather limited won't it? I mean, it only has room for four HKZ's."

Before Coda could respond Beatrix answered his query. "We can scale up the missile, it's essentially just a drop pod that doesn't need to worry about its passengers."

"Harsh, but fair," Coda said with a rueful smile. "I never was a weapon designer. I just used them." He finished with a shrug.

"It's a clever droid design to be sure. But putting other zones of battle aside is tunnel warfare really so difficult to warrant manufacturing a whole new line of bots?" Rylo asked out of sheer curiosity.

Coda cupped his chin as we glanced towards the ceiling. "It isn't about the difficulty. It boils down to the fact that I'd rather not send living soldiers or expensive RG's into tunnels where we can expect fortified positions and local soldiers with the home-field advantage when we could just send in a horde of cheap bots. Cheap being relative of course."

Vii cracked a small smile. "I can agree with that notion. They also have the added capability of going Boom when they need, I'm glad I'm on your side."

"Hah!" Coda laughed, drawing everyone's eyes as he sat there chuckling. "Maybe I should have called them Banelings." He said, shaking his head.

They all tilted their heads slightly as Beatrix answered. "That would have been an apt name My Lord."

As Trilla was watching the two of them with slight confusion Vii and Rylo shared a glance before shrugging.

Coda composed himself before continuing. "Anyway. Write down any suggestions you have for those two when you have the time, we won't be able to start making them before we set up shop and deploy the forge anyway so there's no rush."

Rylo was about to ask a question when Coda held up his and spoke with a wry smile. "Another time Rylo, I can show you later ok?"

Scratching the back of his head Rylo just shyly nodded.

"Now for the next thing on the docket we've got a biggun!" Coda said with zero effort to mask his eagerness. "The Rev-T series, now these guys are going to blow your mind. You see..."

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Ava had woken up a little time ago and had finished breakfast with her brother. They were gathering up their camp with soldiers milling around packing things up and taking care of the Gnoss. Ava walked up to the gnoss she had been given when she was young, even when it was young like her it had still been larger than two men. Now it was the size of a small home, with red pigment on its scales.

The Gnoss was a very special species found in their world. They couldn't be tamed and they were quite docile, they resembled lizards as they had scales, four feet, and a tail. Not that anyone with half a brain would call them a lizard unless they wanted to find new employment as a snack. They could eat almost everything as well so they made good partners to anyone lucky enough to be chosen by them.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

What made them special though wasn't any of that. No, what made them special was they somehow remembered their ancestors' experience. What that meant was that their lineage taught them and that made them downright intelligent. A lesson learned ages ago when a now dead kingdom decided to try and enslave some of them, only to have it brought down once they bread too many of them. The lesson was that they hold a grudge. Forever.

Now though they coexist with them as they also have lost so much to the scourge. As Ava stood next to the gnoss deep in thought it snorted at her, bringer her back to the present.

Ava smiled and rubbed its head. "Sorry Scarlet, I just woke up so I guess I'm still a little out of it."

Scarlet responded with a pointed look before nodding it's large head slowly.

"What's that supposed to mean huh?!" Ava said with a pout.

A mirthful voice suddenly came from behind Ava. "I think she means you're always a little out of it little sister."

"She does not!" Ava said as she spun around to see her brother. "She wouldn't do that!" She said pointing at him.

Samuel just smiled wryly. "Is that so?"

Ava's brows furrowed as she turned around. "Do you?"

Scarlet looked up and turned her face away making a sound that sounded like whistling.

"BETRAYAL!" Ava shouted. "I'll have your head for this you traitorous wench! No more meat for a week!"

Scarlet abruptly stopped before she quickly spun her head back with a low whine.

"Never! You gnoss aren't the only one with a good memory! I'll remember this!" Ava said as she stormed off.

Samuel and the soldiers around all smiled as they saw this scene. Morale was usually high when Ava and Samuel were apart of the dispatch.

"Don't worry Scarlet," Samuel said in a low voice. "I'll have the men sneak you some goodies."

Scarlet bared her teeth in an attempt to smile, though they usually looked incredibly menacing when they did this, people knew what it meant.

An hour later they were all packed up and ready to go when a rider on a creature that resembled a horse came speeding towards them.

A captain made his way to stand in front of him. "Halt! What business do you have here rider!?"

As he stopped both him and the creature struggled to catch their breaths. "I'm...A messager... Duke Ezra..."

Before he could continue Samuel showed up. "Get the man some water, and take his stark to rest."

The captain bowed right away. "As you wish your highness." He then handed over his water skin to the rider after helping him down and took the reigns, leading the creature away.

After the messager gulped down water as his life depended on it he kneeled in front of Samuel. "Your highness. I was sent by Duke Ezra, I bring urgent news!"

"Go ahead soldier, tell me," Samuel said with furrowed brows.

"The breach your highness. It's about to widen, and the scouting tower spotted another horde approaching it from beyond Titan's rest. He asks you to march as fast as you can before we lose our chance to reinforce it." The soldier explained with evident fear.

Another tier two breach?! This is too fast! "Of course. Good job soldier, find a wagon and get some rest." He said as he helped the soldier stand up. Turning around to address the general that went with them. "We make haste towards Duke Ezra's territory right away. If we don't get there in time the consequences will be catastrophic."

The general saluted by bringing his right fist to the left side of his chest. "Yes, your highness!" Before storming off and screaming orders, bringing a flurry of activity to the camp.

Samuel turned to look at where the rider came from. Please let us make it in time...

"Brother." He heard from behind him, prompting him to turn around. "Is it bad?" Ava asked worriedly.

Nodding slowly he responded. "Yes. Potential tier two, and we haven't even set up defenses yet." He said in a low voice.

A sharp glint could be seen from Ava's eyes. "Then we must hurry. Let's go brother."

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The meeting had come to an end and Vii along with his men were headed for medical to start their procedure. Coda sat there with Beatrix and the RG from engineering.

"So you think you can whip it up before they come out of medical?"

Looking over the paper in his hands and running through what they'd just talked about he answered. "Yes my Lord. But why did you not decide to go with them for the procedure if I may ask?"

"Of course you may, free speech and all that jazz," Coda said. "The short answer is, mechanical objects inside a force user's body is in most cases a big no-no. The suit will be enough for me. They need it or I'll break them when we start training. Of course, they'll get a lot out of it other than that." He said innocently.

Beatrix smiled wryly. "Of course my Lord." The other RG just shook his head with the same type of smile.

It then asked. "But what made you think of something like this? It seems a bit... Well, medieval."

Shrugging, Coda answered. "Apart from it shoring up a weakness I have, I've been having strange dreams lately. Strange rocky humans, giant lizards, and zerg like creatures. Good times."

Beatrix's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure they're just dreams my Lord?"

Looking over at Beatrix Coda tilted his head slightly. "Yeah. I'm fairly certain. Why, do you think they're some kind visions or something?" Coda asked with a scoff.

Shaking her head she answered. "I dare not say. It depends on the frequency of the dreams in question I suppose." She answered as in deep thought.

"Even if they were, if I can't do anything about it I choose to ignore it," Coda said with a smile before standing up. "I'm going to go find Trilla and Sev' and do some training. It's gonna be a few days before the boys wake up."

Just as he exited the door he suddenly returned into the room and addressed the other RG unit. "Before I forget, Do we have a large empty hangar somewhere we're not using?"

Beatrix and the RG both looked at him as it answered. "Yes, I believe so my Lord. How large do you need it to be?"

Coda tapped his chin. "As large as possible as long as it isn't getting in the way of our day to day. On a completely unrelated note, how much extra black matter do we have laying around that we don't need?"

Beatrix answered this. "We have a fairly large supply, but I'd rather not squander it if at all possible."

"Excellent. I've had a terribly good idea." A dark chuckle escaped his lips. "Though I do have a feeling that the boys won't appreciate my creativity. Ah well, no matter."

They saw him mumbling as he exited again. The RG looked over at Beatrix. "I don't know what our Lord is planning but I almost feel bad for them."

"Almost." Beatrix nodded.