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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Aware-Material507 on 2024-11-03 23:53:54+00:00.

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As my drones and I made our way back up to the inner walls, I watched as a handful of Churns drones split off from the rest of their unit and made their way over to me and mine. It would seem that Churn is also rather curious as to what the fortress had in store for them which I suppose was warranted. While my drone company had undoubtedly done the most damage overall, Churn’s forces were still the ones who took the brunt of the damage throughout the battle with nearly two thirds of the aid station dedicated to treating Churn’s drones. Reaching the gates to the inside of the inner walls, I saw that a few of my allies’ drones were already making sure that the turrets would not be firing against us ever again. While I was of the mind to try and repurpose the turrets and use them ourselves, Churn’s drones seemed to be dedicated to disassembling the turrets fully which meant that either it was not worth the trouble or there was something stopping them from doing just that. Entering the inner walls proper, I began making my way over to one of the little under a dozen or so crates that were strewn around the command building.

Looking down to the ground, I quickly picked up a crowbar that looked to be older than I was at death, which then again could be possible given how this section of this hive city had been apparently abandoned for at least a handful of decades according to that terminal in the supply drop with the marauder. Prying the lid off of the crate was easy enough and once the thing came off, I and Churn’s envoy of sorts were able to get a good look at the contents of the crate. From wall to wall the inside of the metal container was filled with metal sheets and bars ready and waiting to be used for the construction of drones and buildings. And these crates were not small, they were about as large as moose pulled carts that my caravans employ which was a considerable amount of resources. Checking the other crates, they were also filed to the brim with metals, concrete materials, and various components that were all waiting to be taken. Leaving the bounty of processed resources to be divided up later, I and Churns excitedly entered the command building proper which, after a little bit of stumbling, I soon illuminated by plugging the power back in once I found out that the remaining functional turrets had been disabled.

Walking through the hallway before descending down the stairwell into the basement floor of the command building, I swiftly opened the door to reveal what I had been hoping for, a storage room. Inside of the room were a couple more crates likely continuing more base resources, however what dominated the attention of myself and Churn’s envoy was the large and faintly glowing machine sitting in the middle of the room. Imbedded into the ground, I suspected that we had found the machine responsible for the minor earthquake that had so damaged my worm sabatures. The machine was fairly large, no more than the size of a moderately tall car with a fairly spread out base and many circular pipes running from the ground back to the central section of the machine. In said center was a strange glowing rod like object which hovered just far enough in the air to not touch anything for one reason or another. It was also completely encapsulated by a glass wall which stopped my immediate instinct to grab the rod. Walking over to the machine in question, I quickly located the terminal connected to it before sliding my USB finger into the plug in port.

Reading through the description that the terminal began displaying, I found that it was called a seismic disruptor and my suspicions were confirmed as it stated that it was built to cause small semi controlled earthquakes in order to disable and destroy drones inhabiting the underground. The description also stated that the glowing rod was one of the critical components of the machine and that it was never to be touched lest it spontaneously combusts and destroys everything in a twenty foot radius. I looked hesitantly at the floating rod for a moment before going back to reading the description which thankfully stated that once the machine had been deactivated, the rod returned to a dormant state making it safe to handle. Suppose that answers the question if it would be possible to take and move this machine to other locations. Relaying what the machine was to Churn’s envoy, I switched my focus onto the many shelves that lined the walls of the room’s remaining space not taken up by the rather large seismic disruptor.

Opening up one of the small containers which was about the size of a repair spider, I was delighted to see the bright blue hue adorning the folded piece of paper. Pulling the blueprint out of its container, I saw that there were two data chips sitting under it which I left in their container for now so that I would not accidentally drop them. Unfolding the blueprint, a smile crept up on my face as the blueprint outlined two figures that closely resembled what was likely my most favorite animal in the arthropodic animal kingdom. Bees! I can make bees now! On the blueprint was the silhouette of two distinct drones that looked just like the bees that I had grown up adoring back when I spent my time lazing in front of the TV when the nature channel was airing. The first and significantly larger drone type was what the diagram called the Synaptic Hub Controller drone or the SHC which looked like a rather large queen bee about the size of a moderately sized bus or a small freight truck. What made the queen bee look a bit odd was the fact that the abdomen section was unreasonably large, accompanied by similarly large hind legs, and the fact that the abdomen looked to be the actual hive of the colony.

I suppose the queen is acting as the carrier for the rest of the bees. I wonder if I could build them an actual hive and have a bunch of bees flying about my factory. That would be nice. Pulling myself back into the present and away from storming up ideas to create a bee utopia, I went back to finishing up looking over the queen bee diagram. The abdomen looked to have a dozen hexagonal slots built in and at the very back of the hive section was a medium drone works that would seem to be specifically tailored to fabricating the second drone in the diagram. Before moving on to said second drone, I checked the description and was relieved to see that it’s specifications were just barely small enough to fit within a large drone works. Going over the smaller bee diagram, I found that it actually had multiple different modification presets which explained the data chips. The first of three variations listed as the Standard Repair and Support variation which I personally dubbed the worker bee was a fairly frail looking drone. It looked to be, as the name suggests, the standard variation given its lack of any prominent features, however it looked to be rather adept at repairing damages and good enough at defending themselves even if they looked rather easy to damage. Having medium sized drones capable of patching up casualties would be a great boon for fourth platoon as their aid would be invaluable in speeding up the process for medium and large drones.

Looking at the second variation, named the Rapid Assault Brawler variation which was quickly categorized in my mind as the soldier bees. They looked to be much more armored compared to their worker counterparts but other than that they looked to be pretty underwhelming, simply decent aero fighters that could get stuck in if needed but otherwise ordinary. Looking through the description, I was happy to see that they would not die after they hit a drone with their stinger unless the drone in question had particularly tough armor and even then they could simply return back to the queen and get it repaired. This eased my worries that my poor drones would end up like my suicidal beetles and be used once before needing to be discarded. It would seem that they would not be as agile as my dragonflies or be able to travel far from the hives like my vultures however they would serve their purpose as decent aerial shock troops if need be. As I began to think of how they would fit in with the rest of the infantry drones, I began wondering if I would eventually get a queen ant for my ant drones. I suppose that it would be possible, however until then queen bees will have to do.

Looking over the last drone variation in the diagram, I was met with a similar sight to the soldier bees. The third bee variation was called the Close Ranged Defender variation which was significantly larger than the soldier bees and I could see that they were much more armored than them as well. The name Pretorians immediately came to mind as I looked at the diagram. Reading through their description, they were heavier and stronger versions of the soldier bees and their sole purpose was to defend the queen. Due to their increased weight flying anywhere farther than a dozen or two feet from the queen would take more time than it would be worth, however in exchange for their speed the pretorians gained the strength to tear medium drones apart and fend off larger drones in groups. It would seem that they were just about the best option in terms of defending the hive itself, however asides from that they were impractical to use in…

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