A Robotic Overmind for a Dungeon

I motioned to Paisleigh to wait a moment before slipping out of my vessel and quickly floating over to the rat scouts who had found the moles. Peering into the lead scout's vision, I am immediately met with the imposing form of a pair of moles who looked to be guarding the entrance to an expansive cavern.

One of the moles spits out a cacophony of chirps, snorts, and squeals which my rat host seems to understand as they nod their head. Then the two moles begin to walk into the cavern with my rat squad leader and his charges flowing right behind.

The cavern looked to be a small underground town purely based on the amount of drones buildings strewn about. On the streets were at least a dozen moles all staring at my drones as if they had never seen a drone not in the shape of a mole. Actually that might be the reason why they are all looking at us strangely.

But before I could ponder it any longer, the two mole escorts suddenly stopped, causing my scout rats to skid to a halt as well. Then, the two mole guards stepped aside and revealed a frail and rusted looking mole who seemed to be revered by all the bystanders as they all bowed their heads in respect.

"Excuse my rudeness but what business do you have here? I would rather not have to deal with more top-siders." The elder mole questions with its crackly voice.

My scout host chitters something to the mole who responds with an "Ah, so you're the ones who reactivated the tail network. Yes, yes I'll tell my people to stop digging in that direction."

Huh, so they noticed when I got the subway train working, I wonder how long they have been here for. I mentally request my scout rat to ask what is this place which the drone dutifully translates to the elder mole.

"Hmm, well my data banks are not what they used to be but from what I can recall, this cavern was once a hub station for the local mining operations in this sector. Around a half dozen months ago, I powered back online for whatever reason. It took a while but after a few months, I was able to scrounge up enough scrap to repair the generator to barely functioning levels which brought a few more of my comrades back until eventually," the elder mole jesters to the all the other moles around themselves, "We managed to get all of us powered up and moving once again."

I suppose this being a mining hub is about the most reasonable place to have a sizable mole colony. I wonder how many moles are here exactly, there are already nearly two dozen here and more could be elsewhere. I began to do a quick mental headcount before a loud rumbling sounds out from every direction.

My host and their squad of scout rats all begin to look around frantically before faintly hearing cracks coming from the ceiling of the cavern which was around thirty feet above its base. The moles around the scouts also seemed to look slightly panicked and begin shuffling into some of the nearby buildings.

I quickly realized why as small chunks of rock fell down from the cavern roof and smashed down near my rats who began skittering around in search of cover. The elder mole quickly motioned my drones to get under the roofed area which they were currently hiding under and so my rats all bolted in that direction.

Thankfully, with only a few close calls, all of my rats managed to make it under the protection of the roofed area. Without needing to be prompted, my scout rat host gives the elder mole a questioning look and chitters probably something along the lines of "what the heck was that?"

The rusted mole in question sighs and says, "I suppose I should have told you earlier. Due to me and my people's activity, the cavern has become less and less stable over the last few months, now all that is left are the four metal support beams located at the four corners of the cavern." The elder mole sighs, "unfortunately me and my kin are not well suited to repairing things, hell, I barely managed to connect two lines of wire together to bring one of the reactor cores online with my claws."

I mentally glance at my maintenance spider blueprint and begin to think on how much resources I could milk out of the mole colony for repairing those support beams. Probably a lot since the collapse of the cavern ceiling would likely mean the destruction of their generator which I assume would also mean the powering down of any mole who could not find a new power source in time.

Now, taking advantage of someone's dire circumstances is not the most morally right thing I could do but it would be better than the alternative so who cares

I nudged my scout to ask how much the mole colony would offer if I were to fix the support beams. After a few moments of back and forth chattering from my drone and the elder mole, they eventually agree to give me a portion of minerals that they mine in exchange for the repairs done to the support beams which I gladly accept.

Sliding back up to the surface and into my factory base, I tell my spiders and a couple ants to go down to the mole colony for a field trip while ordering up a few more spiders to take their place while they are gone. With all of that under way, I slip back into my vessel drone back at the subway station near the water treatment outpost.

Slipping into my metal form, I faintly hear Paisleigh and my lead hound discussing with each other about something. "How does this not disturb you? His body hasn't moved one inch. It's been twenty minutes!" My lead hound barks back a remark which I still can not understand.

"Oh, don't give me that. I know he's an administrator or whatever but it still creeps me out whenever he does this." Paisleigh responds, not quite noticing the fact that I had stood up and was right behind her.

"I mean what kind of being could just leave their body? It's entirely unnatural. Come on agree with m- why are you looking at me like that?" She asks confused before she jumps three feet into the air as I give a quick tap on her shoulder.

"Oh My God." Paisleigh exclaims before quickly spinning on a dime to face me, "You spooked me there."

"Heh, if it is any consolation I don't like being out of my vessel any more that you do, it's just part of the job." I say before explaining where I was going and ordering the subway train to start moving to me once my spiders make it down into the cavern.