I got the elven knight inside the Gate. He paused at the sight of my Construction crew.

Oh right, the Gloomrunners' verse lagged behind in the robotic area. More than made up for it, with magic, if you ask me.

The construction bots were standing by. They were to repair the walls if needed. Though the priority was on the turrets.

I had no worries, on that front, Meowser knew what to do by now. My Mob was now a grizzled veteran of conflict. Plus, the server in the C&C room had a lot more processing power, and more space for him to grow. He would be a true terror soon. Heh.

"We are expecting foul company shortly." I spoke up, and broke him out of his momentary confusion. "As I wasn't expecting nor prepared for the company of other organics, we are short of amenities at this time. I will rectify this once the troubles pass."

He had focused on me, and was again shocked. Right, Giant. I took my helmet off. So he could see I was flesh. He already knew I was an Elf.

The Blood sang. It would be a good thing to never meet the older and stronger types of Elves or Alfar, I'd never have a clear thought. They'd dance circles around me as I am.

"By the First Trees, you are enormous Lord Victor. No offense intended. I was unprepared ourselves. The offer came without warning." Sir Rathiel intoned. More formality. It would likely be a while, if ever, before I could get him to loosen up. Should I even try? A good question.

"No offense taken. I know I am oversized. It is a normal reaction." I waved it away, showing my ease. "As it is, I have no idea were you would fit in my plans right now. So, we are all in a learning phase."

I gestured toward my defenses, "The Bots and turrets should be able to handle, whatever foes are coming. So for now, sit back and see how it unfolds. Aid where you feel you can, without risking yourself." I could see his face carried signs of both eagerness and worry.

Getting dumped in a new World will have that effect.

I had the Fabricator print out a few chairs, before going back to ammo. The small construction bots swarmed around us in their task to run finished ammo to the storage.

I grabbed the chairs and he fell in behind me, like we'd be doing this for years. We headed up to the roof, setting up, then settling in to watch what would happen.

"Tell me about yourself, while we have a moment. I would welcome something to take my mind off of this." A minute or two of conversation.

"Not much to say, really. I was raised to be a Mage, and worked hard to qualify to be considered for Knighthood. These pursuits took 30 years of my life, little else concerned me. Since I come from a line of Mage-Knights, my parents pushed me toward it. Not that I needed much convincing, I saw my first tournament when I was but a small thing. The Knights dueling captivated me. Now, I was to lead my first command with some fine brave scouts but I ended up here, on our first patrol together. I hope they are well."

Sir Rathiel sounded both wistful and troubled at the same time. Something deeper there, but hell we've only just met.

I know Gloomrunner Elves can lie somewhat, there are paths they can follow that would make it less likely. Such as the Knighthoods. But that path can also contain political vipers, and almost all Elves living in the Kingdoms of that setting are racial supremacists. Being really fast and really attractive tends to do that, I suppose.

The Kingdom of Idaho, was also know as Tir something or other. A culture mish-mash of Celtic themes and Americanisms. A dash of militia attitude and isolationist outlooks.

Hopefully, I could find the time to get to know him. So I knew where he stood in that nest of ideas.

[ Incursion is being rolled. 67. ]

The three Portals were at the edge of my lands, but I had no trouble spotting them. They were much larger, than any I had encountered to date. They began to disgorge a entangling mass of bugs. Giant fucking bugs. They began to surge forward.

Oh, these guys. Hmm. Seemed to be the movie version not from the books. I found the movie amusing, but it had little to do with the books.

Voidship Troopers was a great series of books from before my time. The movie was a campy parody of them, but it found it's cult following. Still the bugs weren't really that threatening in and of themselves. However, their numbers might be a problem, and maybe I'd be worried if some of the plasma bastards come through, but I could probably handle them.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

My new companion was rattled, but after the Xenos these fucks were small potatoes to me.

I shrugged. I wasn't worried. Rathiel saw my lack of concern and calmed a little. "Have no fear. The Emp...wrong script. These bugs are a minimal threat. Maybe if we had to take a planet they had infested, but in this scenario, we should come out on top."

It came down to a simple formula. Our tech was better, our guns were bigger, our bullets made of better alloys. Sure, I don't have nuke grenades or rockets, but that shouldn't matter.

A lot of the trouble in the movie was caused by human panic and lack of coordination. (AN: Also Plot) My Bots wouldn't break in fear and had perfect synergy, and excellent aim.

Here come some flamer bugs. Those were bigger and all but short ranged. Still not worried.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The Anti Infantry turrets opened up as the first bugs crossed the 2 miles mark. Woo. I underestimated their rate of fire. The sound of the turrets was a solid thing, it pressed on the ears hard.

Also their raw damage, any bullet that hit pulped that bug and the three or so behind it. I chuckled. I'll take Real Physics over movie bullshit any day, even when it's working against me. This time it was very much in my favor.

One of the Anti Vehicle Turrets sounded off, and a flamer bug disintegrated from two rounds. Heh.

Entrenched automated defenses, the bane of most swarming types of enemies. Bring it.

Still, if they had a Leaderslug it would probably get them to dig, and I don't have an answer to that right now. I couldn't see any of those little Workermite things.

Masses of bugs would cross the line and the Turrets would ring out and then they were pushed back.

"Give me a mindless enemy any day." Sir Rathiel muttered. Truth.

"Sadly they have minds. They are just not here yet. These creatures have strict biological castes. We probably won't see a Leaderslug today, thankfully." I pointed out the basic fighter caste the flamer caste the flying scythe caste. I told them about the Plasma caste the Worker caste and the Leader caste. Since there always seem to be twists to the things the Guide conjures up I kept my eyes on the Portals.

The Bugs paused and their swarm built mass, this time they managed to push all the way to the one mile line. I saw the Bots getting ready to add to the barrage, but it wasn't necessary. The new offensive fell apart.

This pattern continued for another five minutes, when their supply of bodies slowed to a trickle and after a minute more ceased.

The Giant Portals winked out.

[ Incursion has been repelled.

World Integration is at 26%. ]

Hmm. The Random encounters counted for 2% each and the Incursion counted for 20%? That was my working theory for now. So maybe three or four weeks until full Integration. I wouldn't be stuck in just this world for too much longer.

[ You have completed the Daily Quest

You get 57 GC, 50000 NBs. ]

I watched the loot roll in. At some point, I really wanted to buy more knowledge but I also would like the time to sit and think about the options first. Since I needed to keep focusing on building up the base and my forces, I felt too pressured to choose properly.

I shouldn't complain, I'm the one pushing to gain more and more options as fast as possible. I wondered if having a companion would help ground me. Probably not.

We had a week until the next Incursion so plenty of time to build up the wall, then maybe a secondary outer wall. The turrets worked better than imagined, and I know the abilities of the Bots. Right now my biggest unknowns are Rathiel and whether I should get new living troops.

"Give me a moment to order the tasks for the Bots. Then we can discuss what's next for you." Never hurts to be polite or to keep your own people informed. Until it does.

"I await your pleasure milord." Sir Rathiel gave a seated half bow. His discipline was perfect, it was almost but not quite creepy. It probably came down to differences in culture.

I got another Bedroom/Bathroom setup like mine going on the second floor for Sir Rathiel.

I also started a Barracks (Elven) a new option that popped up. This out building would include individual rooms for squad leaders and communal rooms such as a Kitchen, Bunk, and Bathing. It also had it's own Armory and Training pells and ranged targets. It could support up to 50 troops.

The benefit of this building to me was that it reduced the cost of purchasing elven units and allowed me to purchase unlocks for new types of elven troops. Sweet!

I had the new team of 4 Razior Bots sent to patrol the edges of my territory. The Old Team would occupy the Walls.

The Large and Medium Construction Bots were first to clear the bodies then go back to mining materials. A team of 4 Small Construction Bots would be working on aiding the new projects that had just been queued up. Another team of 4 would be expanding the underground footprint of the basements to increase the volume of food production. 2 would continue to act as material loaders and haulers.

I would need new power options, we weren't running up to the edge of the Solar Panels production nor the backup generator, but I knew this would be the major choke point for expansion. all other problems could be solved with enough power.

The Base Options had a repair option for the big Generators. It cost 100 GC per. I lingered over that one.

In the end it was was a major investment, requiring more consideration.

I checked with Meowser. I had Messages from Saul. He had a line on Lenny, and also had sourced some excellent plants and trees for me but they were expensive. That wasn't much of a concern now, 3 million NBs transferred and my Grove would soon be a reality.

Lenny, I really wanted a word or two with Lenny, but that could wait. He wasn't going anywhere. My attitude towards Lenny was a stark contrast to the next message.

The best news was Joshua got me a location on Molly. My fists clenched, and my teeth ground into each other. Rathiel got up and started looking around. Ah, he could feel my Rage.

"Calm," A word said as much to myself as to them. "A person who wronged me has been found. Two in fact. I do not know your policies on revenge, but I have no desire to share a World with those that wrong me."

"That would be considered a prudent policy, milord. Those of our Kingdom would suffer no insult, and pay in blood those that trespassed against us." He nodded his understanding.

"Good." I stood. "I shall show you the Base as it stands. Then we can discuss options for expansion, once supplies allow it. After that we can head into Beltway City so you can get a feel for things. The first order of business, however, let me explain the differences between this world and your own."