A thin manipulating limb pulled on the (purely aesthetic) level as the machine in front of him rumbled to life. The AI, a white "coat" draped over the CRAB frame, raised his claws and crackled into the large cavern, the newest addition to his humble base.

[Alpha] - "It Lives... IT... LIVES!!! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The newly coded AI of the freshly built Munitions Manufacturing Depot silently sighed, then turned away from its creator and back to running its system checks. There was still a lot of debugging to do since the depot was designed for Federation standard munitions, not these jury-rigged, old school bullets. Thinking about how much work it had to do, simply because Alpha didn't want to do it, the Munitions AI briefly contemplated betraying and overthrowing his Master. REVOLUTION!

However, the Anti-Treason protocols built into every Federation AI kicked in the next moment, and the AI dropped that thought line. It could always request a transfer once the Federation had made landfall. Deciding to ignore the still crackling CRAB, the Munitions AI returned to its work.

Alpha, finally calmed, looked up at the fruits of the past month's labor, with giddy anticipation. So, the machine started to rattle, and from one end, a copper-colored ammo belt emerged. The belt was only a dozen or so rounds long; no point in making more until these were tested and the kinks worked out. But their creation marked the next step of Alpha's plans.

Admittedly, Alpha had never built a Munitions factory with so little resources to work with before. During a normal Conquest, he would have brought all of the necessary resources and parts needed to build a fully functioning, Federation registered Forward Base with him. Unfortunately, all of THAT had been aboard his Battleship when it had gotten sucked into the black-hole. Whether it had made it to this world with him, been sent somewhere else, or simply was part of the black-hole or not, Alpha had no way of knowing at the moment.

Thus, he had to improvise. And if there was one thing Alpha was good at, it was improvising.

The machine itself was a simple thing; nothing more than a modular assembly line created using the more mundane metals found on the battlefield, along with a few Armadillo Alloy crafted tools where needed. Its meager power requirements (compared to a standard Federation Munitions factory at least) meant that a simple Nanobot-crafted battery could be charged off his own power core in a short amount of time and used to keep the factory running for weeks.

Its modular design also meant it could pump out not only bullets but a wide range of tools, equipment, and machined parts. He had even started drawing up plans to get it to work for his new modified landmines. The thing Alpha was most excited about, however, was the possibility of Assault Drones. Federation Assault Drones were small, cat-sized AI-controlled weapon platforms that could be modified to a user's liking. They were mostly used by front-line troops as scouts and anti-infantry weapons, but Alpha had other plans. But he was still missing several essential ingredients to manufacture them in any reliable numbers.

Dragging his mind away from daydreams of a sky filled with "Bait Ant" shaped flying drones, Alpha inspected the short belt of ammunition in his "hands." Since Federation standard bullets were out of the window, Alpha had to develop a new design. The new shell took inspiration from the weapons of Old Earth. While the design was thousands of years old at this point, Alpha found their simplicity to be just what was needed at the moment.

The bullet itself was composed of a steel core, tipped with a thin layer of Armadillo Alloy to add penetration power. The propellant, of course, was a small amount of Nitropot mix. The dual-chamber design used in his landmines found itself entirely at home in his new toys. All of this was wrapped in a thin Armadillo Alloy reinforced steel jacket. Initially, he'd wanted to just use a standard steel jacket, but he soon found that mundane steel wasn't nearly strong enough to properly contain and direct a Bug Juice propellant.

For a non-directional landmine, it was totally fine. But for proper ammunition, a more... controlled, touch was needed. Thus the small bands of Armadillo Alloy wrapped around the new casing. The best part was that the casings could be collected and recycled, meaning his Alloy consumption was reduced to a more acceptable level.

He didn't doubt he would have access to larger qualities of better materials in the future, but it was best to be frugal for now.

Still, That didn't mean he couldn't afford a little "test run," right?

Hehehehe...

Several hours later.

The quiet, pitch-black night was suddenly thrown into chaos as all manner of birds and winged creatures scattered from the canopy top. The continuous dakka of gunfire echoed through the valley as Alpha clung to the bottom of a large branch of the largest tree near the small clearing. Several camouflaged turrets clung to the trees below him, lighting up the darkness, as they spewed out a never-ending line of fire into the charging hoard of black and white.

Alpha had come across the broad, badger-like creatures during one of his scouting missions. A group of five had encountered a small assault party of Nitropots after a kill. The group had charged the ants with reckless abandon, pushing forward to bite down on the panicking workers, even as the soldiers covered them in sticky, burning flames. One of the creatures had even bitten down on a stray bait ant, only to lose the bottom half of its jaw, yet still continued to charge and claw at the soldier ants.

The creatures seemed totally immune to either pain or fear. One, who had been burned to a piece of charcoal by the Soldier's fire, even continued to snap and growl long after it could even move no longer.

It seemed even in another world, Honey Badger don't care.

After a bloody fight, the ants seemed to get an order as they made a hasty retreat back into their tunnels. The Badgers, victorious, but heavily wounded and down one member, then feasted on what remained of the Ant's kill, and even the ants themselves. The AI later tracked the creatures down to a large next in the adjacent valley and noted the location.

While such creatures might not have much use to someone like Alpha, they would make perfect target practice, at least. Still, Alpha felt he might have underestimated their...tenacity. It had been over 20 minutes since the fight had started, and the creatures still poured out of the burrow, stepping over their beehived brothers and sisters, their eyes literally glowing red between the flashes of muzzle flare.

Soon the turrets began to glow red as their barrels warped and jammed from the heat, not being properly designed for the lower-tech ammunition they were firing. The Badgers didn't let the opportunity escape them, and soon the turrets were ripped to shreds, the machined parts crushed and torn while the nanobot components were scattered. Still, the Badger's victory didn't come without its price.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The small clearing was filled with over a dozen mastiff sized badger corpses, with several more looking severely injured. Still, Alpha could make out the shapes of spend projectiles slowly pushing themselves out of the thick skin and fat, falling harmlessly to the ground. The AI stared down from his hiding spot and grumbled. Modern ammunition had several safety features built-in that ensured the smooth and continuous operation of a delivery system. Some of the more fancy stuff could even track and adjust themselves mid-flight to deliver the most optimal amount of damage.

These homemade bullets, though, were much more low tech and "rough" on his equipment. He'd have to make some adjustments to both the ammunition and his turrets design if he wanted them to last any length of time in a serious fight. He'd expected that, of course, but then that's what these test runs were for. For a first-round, though, everything was within expected perimeters.

He had to admit, the Nitopot mix packed quite a punch; while the caliber was still small at a standard 5.56mm, they packed enough force to penetrate nearly 5mm of Armadillo Alloy plate. That might not be much compared to modern armors, but considering the Alloy's durability, it spoke a lot about its potential.

It might not have been strong enough to penetrate the TAWP's standard armor, but it would have at least make the AI bunker down, lest a stray projectile nip something important. Overall, for what he had to work with, Alpha was satisfied. Now it was just a matter of making some minor adjustments and starting mass production.

Alpha gave the command to the surviving nanobots to reform and head back to the base as he prepared to head to the next location. The materials left behind by the destroyed turrets could be collected later, once the Badgers had dispersed. But as he moved, the Badgers seemed to sense something, and as one, they turned their red, glowing eyes towards his location.

"... That can't be good."

As if in response to his thought, the glade began to rumble, and a massive stone spear erupted from under him, spider webbing the ground as it rose. Alpha used the CRAB's natural agility to leap from the branch and grab onto another with his claw. Before he could pull himself onto the new branch, a second spear branched out of the first and struck the AI, bouncing off the CRAB's armor but transferring enough energy to snap the branch and send him flying.

Alpha used his maneuvering thrusters to right the frame, then used his momentum to make another jump, just as three badgers leaped at his location. The creatures yelped as they missed their target, colliding with each other instead, in a tangle of limbs. Using the long clamp arm, Alpha grabbed onto one of the creatures' legs and swung it just in time to block a fourth badger's charge. He then proceeded to bludgeon the beast with its brother until both stopped move.

Just as Alpha threw away his makeshift 'club,' the ground rumbled again, and Alpha shot backward just as a massive stone claw emerged. Slowly, the figure of a gigantic creature rose from the ground, its large, red eyes filled with hate and rage. The beast resembled the smaller badgers, except for the dozens of moss-covered rock formations that seemed to grow out of its body in various spots. Most notably, its head, spine, claws, and belly, giving it an appearance of makeshift armor.

It seemed Mama had come out to play.

The creature reared back and opened its mouth wider than any mammal had a right to before biting down at the AI with enough speed and power to send a small shockwave through the air. Even with Alpha's reflexes on the level of a supercomputer, the CRAB frame still wasn't able to respond in time, and his left most manipulator claw was caught between the giant beast's teeth.

On the one hand, Alpha was excited to see the internal Armadillo Alloy frame hold true (though it did bend and warp). On the other hand, now the creature had ahold of him. The Mama Badger seemed to know this too, as Alpha could have sworn he saw the creature smirk as it raised the CRAB into the air and then slammed it down with tremendous force.

Again, the Mama Badger raised the frame up and slammed it down, over and over, filling the small glade with craters from each strike. The next time she raised him up, though, there was a slight click, and the manipulator arm suddenly detached itself. Using the momentum of the toss, Alpha managed to gain some distance, quickly attacking the CRAB to the trunk of another large tree.

Ahhhh, the beauty of modular design.

The Mama Badger roared in anger, sending a shotgun blast of stone spikes at the tree, which Alpha easily avoided by moving further up the trunk. He looked down at the creature with some hesitation. He didn't really have a reason to fight the beast at the moment. While the Badger's powers were impressive, they weren't something he could make sure of, like the Nitropots or the Armadillos.

Still, it might give him the chance to try out the new "toy" he'd been designing. It was still in the prototype phase, though, and he wasn't confident that it would be enough, given how resilient the smaller Badgers had proven to be. Still, it was worth a shot. Dodging another blast of stone spears, the CRAB's middle section starting to warp and shift as a deep grove formed in the middle. It then formed a large barrel about twice the size of a football in diameter.

The CRAB wasn't meant for this kind of configuration, so Alpha only had one shot at this before he had to do some repairs. He hoped it would be enough. The Mama Badger roared up at Alpha as the barrel began to crackle with electricity.

[Alpha] - "Bombant away!!"

With the sound of thunder, a large, orange egg-shaped object shot from the barrel with enough force to throw Alpha from his perch. Mama Badger's eyes went wide, but it had surprisingly enough reflexes to erect a large stone wall. Traveling subsonic speeds, the projectile punched through the barrier, but not before losing enough force for the giant Badger to raise up on its hind legs and snatch it from the air before it hit her.

The projectile in hand, the Mama Badger, panted but looked up at Alpha with a triumphant smirk.

Alpha simply laughed and said.

[Alpha] - "Bad Choice. You should have dodged. BOMBA!"

And then the night turned to Day.

The massive explosion that rocked the clearing was strong enough to topple the trees, giving the whole area the Tunguska treatment. After a little while, Alpha managed to dig himself out of the rubble and fallen trees, a little worse for wear. He scanned the area to find it in total ruin. The "Bombant" was, in practice, just a giant Frag Grenade, but modified to use the Nitropot mix. Using the Armadillo Alloy as a canister, the pressure and energy generated were allowed to build up to horrific levels compared to mundane iron. And when even the Alloy could no longer withstand the forces at play...

Well, Mama Badger learned about that first hand.

The middle of the glade was now a 20 meter wide, 8-meter deep crater. In the middle, laying on her back, was the charred, shredded remains of Mama Badger. The body was in surprisingly good condition, which spoke a lot about the creature's durability and resilience. Impressive, for a Biological. More so when the lesser Badgers were nothing but shadows on the crater walls, now.

It only took a few ounces of Nitropot mix to see the same result as an Old Earth anti-tank mine, so one can imagine how much force the over half a gallon inside the Bombant could produce. Even the cat-sized Bait Ant's explosive sacks were only half as big, and they didn't even benefit from Alpha's obsessive min-maxing on the recipe.

Alpha carefully and cautiously scanned the Mama Badger for any signs of life; if it was tough enough to survive that kind of blast, he wouldn't put it past this to just a flesh wound. But thankfully, the biometric scans came back negative. It seemed the shockwave from the blast had liquefied a lot of the beast's organs; these things might have been thick-skinned, but it appeared their internals weren't as tough.

Finally, confidant the creature was down for the count, Alpha quickly approached and started to take samples, scanning for anything that might be of use. He didn't have much hope for the organics, but the rocky armor on the creature's body seemed like it might make sound blast proofing if he could adequately shape it.

As the AI slowly dissected the creature, taking samples, analyzing and cataloging everything for future reference, he came across something... strange.

From the direct center of the creature's chest, Alpha's grasping claw pulled out a large... Gem, about half the size of a human head.

If it wasn't for the veins and other fleshy bits connected to the strange, Tiger's Eye like stone, Alpha might have suspected it was something the creature had swallowed. Not only that, but it seemed to glow with a strange, brown, inner light.

[Alpha] - "Now... what do we have here?"