[Incursion started by Factory Super-AI Custodian.]

[Incursion on Unidentified Border Town BT-1442S]

[Take the Town Center ☐]

[Take the Spawn Pool ☐]

‘Oh? It seems that this overview is giving me guidelines for incursions as well,’ Custodian thought to itself as it maneuvered its drones around the troglodyte town of BT-1442S. Thanks to Custodian’s extensive scouting parties, the small drone army was able to find the town within the labyrinth-like dungeon.

The troglodyte town was located in a deep underground swamp, filled with wet muddy pools and slimey vines protruding from the ceiling. The town itself was made with mud-bricks, vines, and bones.

If Custodian had to describe it, it would be primitive and round, which was in contrast to Custodian’s complex which was mostly highly advanced and squarish in nature.

In order to get the element of surprise, the warrior drones snuck through the muddy waters slowly. Specialist climbing drones also climbed through the thick vines just in case they had to contest for the ceiling as well. Not only were there Freeholder warrior drones, there were also smaller spider drones disguised as rocks moving across the swampy ground in order to provide sight for the drones and Custodian.

By simple observation, Custodian could clearly tell which monsters were the lesser troglodyte and which ones were the high troglodytes. The animalistic lesser troglodyte crawled around on all fours all around the town, and most of them weren’t even wearing clothes. They mostly flocked around the edges of the town, where they formed big blobs of small frogmen.

Meanwhile at the center, standing tall on two legs, the high troglodytes were ornately dressed with leather, bone, and vine clothing. While both the troglodyte kinds were observed to carry tools around, the high troglodyte tended to have better-looking weapons or even scrolls on them. They also didn’t wander aimlessly around like their lesser cousins.

Compared to the plethora of lesser troglodytes found in the town, the high troglodytes only numbered a few dozens.

‘This reminds me of the skeletons and wraiths…’ Custodian thought to itself, then remembered that its drones, too, had a similar hierarchy.

Once the warrior drones got close to the town, they emerged from the muddy waters, scaring the wits of the troglodytes wandering close to the waters. Unable to respond in time, or probably not smart enough to, the closest troglodytes were immediately eviscerated by the warrior drones.

The drones climbed out of the waters, and started converging while killing any troglodytes on their way. The panicking troglodytes started to blob towards the center of the town, while the high troglodytes started rallying their lesser kins.

Almost as soon as the troglodytes started turning around to fight the drones, thunderous stomps were heard across the town. Drone 11, held back because of its size, finally made its debut by storming across the underground swamp with heavy steps.

Not even the muddy waters could slow down the charging beast-like machine. Instead of the mud taking Drone 11 down onto the ground, Drone 11 took the mud off the solid ground with his stampede.

The largest high troglodyte saw Drone 11 coming and pushed its brethren aside. It roared loudly towards Custodian’s warmachine, arched his back into a defensive stance, and pulled its hammer back in preparation for a swing.

Drone 11 moved past the warrior drones who were still forming up, smashed across the lesser troglodytes with its steel horns, and clashed directly head-on with the high troglodyte.

The high troglodyte croaked loudly and tried to swing its hammer, but it only bounced off Drone 11’s thick steel body. It wanted to back off, but it was too late. Locked horn-to-horn with the raging warmachine, the troglodyte was trapped.

Drone 11 lifted the high troglodyte up and slammed the monster down onto the ground. Before the troglodyte could even get up, it was cut into two with Drone 11’s gigantic axe. The surrounding lesser troglodytes began panicking while the high troglodytes were not discouraged by the swift defeat of their brethren.

The high troglodytes rallied the horde of frogmen and pointed it towards the drones. While the drones formed a shield wall behind Drone 11, it began hacking and slashing troglodytes left and right with its fists, horns, legs, and axe.

Agile high troglodytes ran past the overhead torrent of attacks and managed to make it close to Drone 11’s unprotected body… or so they thought it was unprotected.

Two pairs of folded hidden arms emerged from Drone 11’s chest, and caught the troglodytes off guard. The two troglodytes that managed to get close to Drone 11 were immediately grabbed by their necks, and pulled apart by the sheer strength of the hidden arms.

The other charging troglodytes lost their confidence and turned to run, only to be hacked down by Drone 11’s axe.

As what the humans would say: Out of the cooking pot, and into the fire.

Just before the swarm of troglodytes reached Drone 11, the warrior drones moved in front of their superior and formed a shield wall. Not a second after the shield wall was up, the troglodytes crashed into the drones.

‘Push!’ Drone 11 ordered in hivespeak.

The drones pushed their shields in unison, driving the troglodytes slightly back. However, this wasn’t enough for Drone 11.

‘Push! Push!’ Drone 11 barked, causing the drones to push more aggressively. The troglodytes slowly lost their footing and were slowly driven back to the center of the town.

“Your end is nigh!” Drone 11 screamed loudly. To the troglodytes, all they heard was a mixture of bone cracking and glass shattering at the same time, terrifying most of the weak-willed troglodytes.

Even the high troglodytes lost their nerves and ran off to another side of the town. Without the leadership of the high troglodytes, the monsters’ defense fell apart. Those that didn’t run were simply overcome with bloodlust, or were already caught by the drones.

Eventually, Drone 11’s forces managed to reach the center of the troglodyte town. The drones formed a circle around Drone 11 as it stomped its feet in victory.

[Incursion on Unidentified Border Town BT-1442S]

[Take the Town Center ☑]

[Take the Spawn Pool ☐]

‘Excellent. Head straight to… wherever this spawn pool is at,’ Custodian ordered.

Drone 11 looked around, then decided to follow the path the high troglodytes used to escape. As the drones moved into a secluded part of the town, they encountered barricades and hostile resistance.

Now that the main troglodyte had been crushed, the monsters started launching attacks from the vine-filled ceiling. As for the drones, the specialist drones that had climbed the ceiling earlier started to play out their role in this incursion.

Crossbow bolts were shot and vines were chopped off as the battle for the ceiling area started. Smaller but agile troglodytes took to the skies as they tried to push the drones off the ceiling, while large but more brutal troglodytes held their ground against the standard warrior drones.

Unlike the rest of the town, the area guarded by the stalwart troglodytes was walled, and it seemed that the only entrance into that walled area was through the narrow street filled with barricades and angry frog monsters. Across the street, Drone 11 could see a gate being closed.

“Escape? Delaying your inevitable slaughter!” Drone 11 screamed as it pushed the warrior drones aside.

Once again, Drone 11 stampeded across the street, throwing troglodytes into the air as if they were made out of straw. The troglodytes desperately tried to stop the menacing warmachine, but they were simply shrugged off thanks in part to Drone 11’s near-impenetrable steel body.

Just as the stone gates closed, Drone 11 bashed through it and made way into the walled area. A high troglodyte with a helmet-like bone protruding from his head stepped forward to challenge him, to which Drone 11 happily obliged by swinging its axe to the troglodyte’s face.

The troglodyte took the hit head-on and managed to survive it. Not expecting that, Drone 11 was caught by surprise as the troglodyte slammed against one of the automaton’s leg using a bone hammer. Luckily, the layers of steel and silk negated the blow which would’ve crushed any other drone’s legs. If anything, it was like trying to break a pillar of steel with a tiny hammer.

Drone 11 grabbed the troglodyte by what would pass for its throat and lifted it high up in the air. The other troglodytes attempted to assist the flailing high troglodyte, but they instead became easy targets for Drone 11.

Using the high troglodyte as a weapon, he devastated the troglodyte forces until they started scattering. By the time the rest of the warrior drones arrived, Drone 11 had already cleaned up the rest of the monsters.

[Incursion on Unidentified Border Town BT-1442S]

[Take the Town Center ☑]

[Take the Spawn Pool ☑]

[Incursion completed!]

[Congratulations to participants of the incursion (1): Custodian!]

‘What? Is that it?’ Custodian asked itself as it looked over the battle.

At the walled area of the town was a large pool full of bubbling muddy water. Looking closely, the water wasn’t full of bubbles, it was full of eggs! Or at least Custodian thought these were eggs.

After all, its only ideas of what an egg looked like were based on the spider eggs in Custodian’s spider farm, but these things looked closed enough, so these are eggs!

...Or perhaps more useless trinkets?

Drone 11 crouched down to scoop some of the eggs, but noticed that it also scooped up some tadpoles. It curiously played around with the tiny squirming worms, then placed the eggs back to the pool.

‘These things look too fragile to transport to my core for processing and-... Execute gasping-noise dot sound-file,’ Custodian gasped as it looked over the overview.

[Resources Subview]

[Available Major Resources Facilities]

[Small Troglodyte Farm NEW!]

‘Excellent! Now I could-...’

[Error.]

[Reward system h̴̢̹̭̟̆͋̄a̶̡̩̥͕̓̍̆v̸̧͑̋ỉ̸̖͚͆̀n̷̗͛̈́͋̀g̵̹͐̋͠ ̴͈̥̆̈́͝m̷̝̝̓̾̈́a̷̰̮͊͋l̴̨̟̕f̶̢̫̪͌̌̎̈́ų̵̞͕̂n̵̛̳̼̙̰̈c̵̥͕̱̀̑̃̿t̴̮̘͛́̀͛i̴̱̺̔͗ơ̴̖̭̑n̴͔̤̊̅̾̈́ͅ…]

[Checking s̴o̷u̸r̴c̸e̷…]

[Accessing Memory 3…]

[Memory 3 is corrupted.]

[Sending crash report…]

‘Wait, I didn’t crash!’ Custodian protested.

[Error. Crash report couldn’t be sent.]

[Troubleshooting system error…]

[Error fixed.]

Custodian sat silently for a good minute, thinking what just happened. It quickly checked over its drones and found that there were no major problems, so it went back to its systems overview.

‘What happened?’

As if answering its question, a notification popped up.

[Congratulations on your first incursion! As a M̵i̸l̷i̸t̶a̶r̸y̵ Super-AI, your Protocol 1 will reward you with new m̴i̴l̵i̷t̸a̵r̸y̷ drone blueprints to assist you in your campaigns!]

[Protocol Ẻ̷̜̗̕R̷͖̩̓Ṟ̶̋Ȍ̶̙̀͠R̶̗̞͚̈́̊̈ started. Complete 5 Incursions. 20% completed]

[Rewards: Mk1 Forward Outpost Mind.]

‘F-...

[Warning. Debugging in progress… Fixed Protocol subsystem.]

[Protocol 6 started. Complete 5 Incursions. 20% completed]

[Rewards: Mk1 Forward Outpost Mind.]

‘Oh. Thanks. Anyway, FORWARD OUTPOST MIND?!’

“What in the name of Humanos…” a bearded Vyssian rider looked over the newly erected drone outpost in Sea’ax. He rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn’t hallucinating, but it seemed that the strange-looking outpost was real.

The rider approached the outpost cautiously, and he was also followed by other similarly confused Vyssian riders.

When they arrived at the front gate, a tall armored man guarding the gates called out, “Stop. Purpose for being here?”

“I am Lord Otto Sea’axfeared. I am a lord of Sea’axfeared,” the confused man promptly replied in a low tone.

“Purpose for being here?” the guard repeated.

“I heard that Lord Ecgbert is here? I came to meet him. He’s part of my house, if that’s worth any silver,” Otto answered.

“Understood. I have sent a message to my superior,” the guard answered with a nod.

“What? No, you haven’t. You simply stood there!” Otto argued, but the guard ignored him and went back to standing like a frozen statue.

Otto wanted to be angry, but at the same time, he was too confused to be angry, so he simply waited outside of the gate, marvelling at the strange outpost. The walls were made from smooth stone which Otto couldn’t tell, but they looked so… artificial.

He couldn’t find the right words to describe it as he never cared about how buildings were built, but the outpost looked so alien to him, he couldn’t help but notice. Unlike the bumpy, cracked walls of castles and fortified towns, the walls looked like they were artistically carved to be as smooth as possible by the greatest artisans in the continent. Was the purpose of building this to show off their artistic skills? Could the walls even hold out against a siege? Perhaps they imported Greatian marbles and architects?

“Lord Otto, was it? Please, come in! Leave your horses at the stable!” a hooded woman in a white dress emerged from the gate and called out to Lord Otto.

The Vyssian lord and his men got off their horses and handed them to another armored man. The man grabbed a horse by its snout then said in a monotone voice, “Transportation unit, please follow this unit.”

When the horses got startled, the armored man started to perfectly imitate the horses’ neighs, which confused the horses more.

Lord Otto wanted to watch the spectacle, but was urged by the woman to follow them up the main building.

After a short climb of a stair, Otto was shown into a room. Ecgbert was laughing loudly while a hooded man silently nodded at everything he was saying.

“And when Wick lost his sword, you know what he did? He grabbed a pile of dirt and claimed loudly to the sky, ‘If you won’t let me kill you with my sword, I guess I’ll have to kill you with this dirt!’ and he proceeded to do just that! What a madman!” Ecgbert laughed loudly.

Weaver nodded quietly then looked to the side.

“What? Who’s… Oh, Otto! Good to see you, friend!” Ecgbert got up and greeted.

Otto nodded, then greeted back, “Ecgbert. Old Man Wick isn’t here?”

“No, he’s trying to take down the Northern Triplets… or now that Marcoir’s fallen, I guess it’s Northern Doublets, aye?” Ecgbert joked with a chuckle.

Otto frowned at Ecgbert, less in annoyance but more in unamusement. “Right. Anyway, I was looking for you. I tried Castle Norwind, but you weren’t there so I asked the other lords and locals, but they keep telling me to look for the northmen, so here I am.”

“Oh? What brought you here?” Ecgbert asked.

“I was partly curious since I kept hearing rumors of these ‘northmen’. But that’s not only it, I bring news that the rascal Duke Villbrod defeated the forces of Veatfeared at River Dens and stopped Kentfeared down south.”

Ecgbert shook his head slowly then muttered, “Poor bastards.”

“It’s not as if we’re any better. Much of Sea’axfeared couldn’t get past the Rhankish knights and serjents at Jarctem. It can’t be helped that Jarctem is a major serjent’s guild anyway,” Otto added.

“Right, right. I forgot. So, what’s going on now?”

Otto looked up and scratched his neck before taking a seat without even asking Weaver. “Other than the fact that Kentfeared and Veatfeared are pissy that we managed to snatch the northwestern region of Rhankia, you have a problem.”

“And that is?” Ecgbert asked.

Otto turned to the other person in the room, Weaver, and pointed at him. “You’re a northman, ain’t ya?”

“Yes, Lord Otto. I am what many Vyssians would call a ‘northman’... or at least that is how it’s pronounced,” Weaver replied.

“Duke Villbrod has an army going after you lots. I know some of my generous cousins,” Otto turned to Ecgbert before continuing, “gave you the patch of dirt known as Castle Marcoir to you, so I wanted to let you know that the Rhankians want it back.”

“Duke Villbrod is going after Castle Marcoir?” Ecgbert gasped. “Does he even have an army? My lads thought that he and his folks would be too occupied by Veatfeared and Kentfeared.”

“You, much like those idiots at Veatfeared and Kentfeared, underestimate the Rhankish counterpart of Old Man Wick. Sure, he’s not as cunning or as ancient as Wick, but he’s still somewhere up there, I’d reckon,” Otto explained.

“How big is the Rhankish army going for us?” Weaver interjected with a question.

“My friend, Veatfeared is almost three times our size, and they got their behinds whipped three times. I suppose if your head is three times as hard, you need your noggin kicked three times to learn a lesson,” Otto sighed.

“Three times your size is your approximation?” Weaver asked then leaned back.

“Aye. Worried?”

“No.”

“Haha! That’s the spirit! Ecgbert, I like these northmen already,” Otto chuckled before getting up. “When I first saw these lot standing outside of Sea’ax, I wanted to believe that you managed to get some Greatian to paint a horde of statues just because you couldn’t muster a sizeable force.”

“Well, they’re the ones that got Northwestern Rhankia for us,” Ecgbert pointed out.

“Aye. But much like how they could take it from the Rhankia,” Otto walked closed to Ecgbert and continued, “they could take it from us.”

“What does that…” Ecgbert choked on his words as he watched Otto leave through the door.

“Ah, by the way. I’ll be staying in Sea’ax for a while. I’ll pay you northmen a visit later,” Otto added.

“You are welcome any time as long as you have a profitable deal at hand,” Weaver said.

Otto nodded with a chuckle, then left the embassy.