A Robotic Overmind for a Dungeon

Drifting over to the main room, I checked up on the drone works and found that the drone works was just about two thirds of the way to completing the third drone in the batch of ant’s and should begin the finishing touches within a minute or two. Floating over to my impromptu spider liaison drone who has been interacting with GW-3N the most out of all of my drones, I ordered them to inform GW-3N that we may have some company soon and that it might be a good idea to find somewhere to take cover and hide. As my spider drone scuttled away to inform GW-3N of the potential danger, I began checking in with my scout rats to see just how much time I have left before I would have to marshall my drones and prepare to repel attackers.

My scout rats quickly notified me that they still had eyes on the incoming group of robots approaching from the tall tower and that I still would have a few minutes before they arrived meaning that my third ant should be able to finish production right as they arrive. Curious as to what the incoming robots looked like, I slipped into the scout rat and opened my eyes to look down on the group of robots quickly approaching my little factory base. I could pretty much immediately see that they were walking in a disunified scattered formation if one could call it that and at the very front of the group, I could see a distinctive and familiar bulky red painted robot leading the mass of robots. Red was leading the mass of disorganized robots in the direction of my factory base and the other robots seemed to be following their orders with the same apathy that I recognized from the faces of my colleagues and I as we followed the nonsensical instructions of our supervisors.

As they walked forward towards my factory, I took note that most robots seemed to be carrying various improvised weapons like pieces of rebar and thick metal plates rather than Red’s more purposeful club which looked to be spiked now. I also made note of the varying color schemes of the robots moving about on the street below my scout rats as nearly every robot had a different color from the next, although robots with the same colors seemed to be grouping together. Perhaps they are part of the same family. Wait, can robots have families? I mean they can talk to each other now so I guess nothing is out of the realm of possibility. Shaking that thought away and out of my head, I focused on the three quadrupedal drones which my scout rats had pointed out earlier. They stood atop four thin stick-like legs and had a set of large antlers which sprouted out of their head ready to impale someone if they got too close.

They have moose drones? Seriously? What is with this place and having animals as robots? Putting aside my confusion for later, I focused on the sharp and sturdy looking metal antlers and hoped that my ant’s armor would be able to take a hit from one of those mooses or else they were going to have a really bad day. Deciding that I have spent enough time looking at my encroaching enemies, I slipped back to the factory before gathering up all of my drones and began placing them in the entrance room in various defensive positions. Positioning my ant’s near the door to hopefully tank most of the damage and keep the attention away from my significantly more fragile spider drones who I ordered to take up positions above the door with the idea of having them drop down atop the hostiles and hopefully sow a bit of chaos.

With the positioning taken care of, I decided to float over to my small drone works and order up a couple more spiders into the queue with the hope that by the time that the battle was done they would be able to help out with repairing the inevitable damage that my drones were sure to take. Hopefully they finish quickly, I wouldn't want one of my ants or something to shut down completely because I didn’t have enough spiders to repair them in time. With that all taken care of, I and the rest of my drones waited for the moment that the enemy robots would burst into the factory and begin the battle, only pausing to let the third ant take up their position in the formation as they finished being fabricated. Waiting for what felt like minutes but was probably just a few dozen seconds, the silence was suddenly cut as a chorus of bellows and roars before two of the three moose burst into the factory and promptly slammed directly into my ant’s who pushed back just as hard.

Now that I had a few ant’s to compare to the moose drone’s height, I was able to recognize the sheer difference in height between my ants and these mooses as they practically loomed over my arthropods as they locked antlers with my ant’s mandibles and began a test of strength. However, despite the size difference, my ants began steadily pushing the moose back out of the factory which was only punctuated by a few of my spiders who decided that this was a good enough target as they dropped down from their place on the wall and onto the backs of the moose drones before beginning no chomp down on the enemy drones neck. This quickly caused the moose drones to panic as they began backing up quickly and swinging their heads about as they attempted to shake my small but persistent spider drones. This state of affairs was not to last unfortunately as the third moose quickly ran up behind the two moose and quickly bit down on my offending spider drones with a swift crunch.

Thankfully in that time, my third ant was able to swing over to the side of one of the moose drones before charging forward, positioning their mandibles around the neck of one of the moose before clamping down and snapping off the neck of the moose with a crack. The deceased body of the moose quickly crumpled down to the ground as my other ant quickly disentangled themselves from the dead moose’s antlers right as I heard Red shout something from outside the factory. Not long after I heard this, two robots carrying those improvised weapons rushed through the door before stopping their charge as they spotted my ants standing over the remains of the moose drone which they had just taken down. I could faintly hear the muttered “what the” from one of the robots before the rest of my spider drones dropped down from the wall and onto the two robots.

Said robots quickly started yelling nonsensically and attempting to scrape off my spiders who clung to their bodies fiercely with a couple even managing to bite down on the robots legs causing them to fall over face first into the ground. As my spiders did this, my ants charged forward and quickly teamed up on the mooses and brought them down with some effort and a fair few stab wounds from those antlers. Regardless this left the entrance to the factory open which allowed me to order my drones to charge out and begin the counter attack which they quickly complied to as they rushed out of the factory and towards the enemy robots standing around confused and panicking.

As my drones charged out, I slipped into one of my ant drones to properly see the action as it unfolded outside. As I did so, I heard one of the robots yell out “RED! You didn’t say this place had ACA’s!” This was followed not long after by a shout from Red containing a, “There wasn’t! Don’t look at me, focus on the drones in front of you! Go on, get them!” As this most eventful conversation was taking place, my drones quickly charged out from the factory and slammed into the disorganized and confused ranks of the enemy robots Red had brought along with them to disastrous effect. My ants tackled robots to the ground where my spiders quickly disabled them from resisting before moving on to the next closest robot.

Upon seeing how quickly their numbers were falling, a few of the assembled robots began backing off before breaking out into a full retreat, chief among them being Red to practically shoved robots behind them as they fled. However my drones would not let them get away that easily as my ants swung their body around and chucked a few spider drones at the fleeing robots who were knocked down to the ground upon impact. Sure a couple still managed to get away, however the bulk of the robot force had been captured with Red being one of them which I felt was a pretty good outcome all things considered. Ordering my ant’s who were not significantly injured to begin dragging the captured robots into the factory, I began delegating my spiders to begin administering repairs to all the injured drones and, as a sign of mercy, any of the robots who were critically wounded.

It did not take all too long for my drones to transfer all the robots into the hallway in the factory where they were lined up against the wall while a couple of my spiders who were assigned to patch them up tended to their wounds. I made sure to have my ants watching over the prisoners in order to ensure none tried anything while they were under my care and watch. This seemed to be more than sufficient in keeping the robots in line as none attempted to escape or harm my spider drones although they did seem hesitant to let my drones repair their injuries which I suppose is fair enough, they had been fighting them not a minute ago. As I drifted over near them, I was able to overhear a couple of robots who shared paint colors mumbling to each other about something.

Floating closer to the group of robots who were discussing something, I was able to make out what they were talking about under their breaths. One of the robots was looking to a couple of their buddies to their left and panicky whispered “What are they going to do with us? Are we going to be scrapped for parts? I don’t want to die.” It was clear to see that the robot in question was scared to death and obviously flinched when one of my spiders began checking over their wounds to determine whether or not they required repairs. After my spider assessed that the robot in question was sufficiently intact and moved on to other robots in another section of the line, one of the robots who the first was talking to spoke up. “I’m sure we’ll be fine kido. We haven't been destroyed completely yet and it doesn’t look like they are in the mood to chuck us into a refinery at the moment which is a good sign.”

That seemed to calm down the first robot a touch as they seemed to stop shaking as much and began darting their eyes around marginally less which was better than nothing. A desperate person is a dangerous person. Another robot, which had the coloration of green further up in the line gumbled “I for one did not sign up for this. I was told that we were here to take on a few feral spider drones and find some nice scrap to take back to the tower, not get our asses handed to us by ACA’s.” This statement was met with a few agreeable gunts from a few other robots along the line and a fourth drone spoke up as well. “I heard a rumor that this was all so that the prick of a chieftain's son could get GW-3N back because he got rejected so hard that she ran away.” Huh, so GW-3N is a girl, I kinda guessed that they were given that they were slimmer than Red but I guess that confirms it. I’m not even going to question how sentient robots determine their gender.

“Don’t say that, he’ll have you scrapped for parts if he hears that!” was the warning from the first robot as they quickly turned around and glanced over to the other side of the line of robots where Red was sitting at the end. “And how is he going to do that? It’s not like he’s free to leave here either. He’s stuck with us until by some miracle these drones release us or the chieftain gathers enough of the guards to break us out.” As the robots continue to converse with each other, I received a notification from my medium drone works which pulls my focus away from the prisoners. Over at my drone works, the mystery drone had just finished being fabricated and now there was a notification hovering in front of my nonexistent face asking whether or not I would like to enter my freshly constructed vessel drone.