Chapter 50 – Spider Stuffing and Surprise Operations (Patreon)

Talia spent the rest of the afternoon meticulously planning the operation, doing her best to cover every detail and what each unit’s specific role and purpose would be, as well as an action plan for how they’d approach the site. One thing that became clear was that they would need to hurry, or the Blues could begin to sabotage the module, or… even start to execute the spiders if they were feeling vicious.

When the next wave of resources arrived, instead of sending the twelve CRD-X9s out to gather more, she got up and began to do maintenance on each vehicle. Her multi-tool set to a wide beam was able to clean away built up grit and sand, while detecting any serious erosion damage or possible build up.

Not that the vehicles had experienced massive wear and tear already, they were rugged vehicles. But prior experience had taught her not to skip the maintenance list, and a look over after a half dozen hard runs was on it.

She turned her attention to the resource haul; it was more than enough to meet the needs of the new infantry robots. The only issue was that with the large number of new CRD-X9s, the Durasteel deposit was going to be the first object of depletion. The HEM would last…pretty much forever. Meanwhile, the jungle had plenty of trees; more than she could realistically use, even while being selective. It was just the travel time increase that was going to be an issue.

She’d solved the problem the CRD-X9s had been having deeper in simply by directing them to harvest from along the jungle’s edge instead of going deeper. The jungle followed the rivers in the region for hundreds of kilometers, according to her aerial recon from the Seeker-H7.

It increased the likelihood of some issue happening far away and out of communications, but the amount of resources being brought it by just pushing forward and ignoring the risks had more than compensated already. Even if several of the resource drones were lost to attrition, eventually.

This issue was most definitely going to be the Durasteel first. She’d need to locate a new deposit…

[Notice: Pegasus APC unit has completed fabrication.]

Finally. She had been waiting for that all day. The Lynx that had already started fabrication had taken a considerable amount of time. She stood up and stretched and headed over to the stockpile, drawing the attention of Dusky and Dapple. They’d grown used to her going to the stockpile, then were always excited when the modules would start printing.

So far, she had put together that the spiders loved the concept of ‘making’ even if their own attempts were…rudimentary. Thinking back to how their clan…tribe…nest-group had reacted to her, she felt like they seemed to value those who made things. And a laser printer making something appear from almost nothing was probably the epitome of that value to them.

“Neo, can you make a video showing them how to get inside the APC?” Talia asked.

[Affirmative: Generating instructional video now.]

While Neo did that, she went off to find them. They had been playing around earlier, but now they were out of sight, so she headed down the ramp to their underground nest. She caught them on their pebble bed, legs entangled and both sleeping up against each other.

They looked peaceful, and blissfully unaware of anything but their nap. She almost felt bad for having to wake them up. “Dusky. Dapple.”

Dusky was awake first, hopping up and dancing at her excitedly. Dapple followed that example, albeit more slowly and with less dancing. They both let out a happy chirp. They loved it when she gave them personal attention, but Talia felt a small lump of fear of whether she was doing the right thing, taking them into what would be a pitched battle. Even with their new personal shields and harnesses, she was worried about them.

“Follow me,” Talia said before turning and heading back up the ramp.

The spiders followed eagerly, Dusky skittering past her and reaching the top of the ramp first before turning and hopping up and down. As soon as the spider saw they were heading toward the Pegasus, it ran forward and jumped on the roof of it.

Dapple looked up at her fellow spider, knowing better. Talia suppressed a little laugh, then pulled out a small block of High-Matter Energy and that worked to get Dusky down in a hurry. Both spiders stared at her expectantly.

She cleared her throat. “We are going on a mission to rescue the other spiders the Blues captured. But before that we need to practice riding in the new APC. So we are going to go to the big HEM deposit with all the CRD-X9s and gather as much as we can before coming back.”

Gesturing toward the Pegasus, Dusky almost jumped on the roof again, but halted when she held up a hand. “This is our new ride for today’s mission, but we aren’t going to be riding on the roof, but inside of it. That way, the metal shell can protect us from harm, which will be important during the rescue mission. Do you understand?”

Both spiders continued to stare at her. Dapple let out a chirp while Dusky could barely contain herself.

Talia sighed. “Neo, can you play the video?”

[Affirmative: Utilizing suit projection system.]

A port on her forearm shot out a holographic projection, causing the spiders to shrink back in surprise before eagerly examining the blue-shaded 3D scene. Two spiders were shown, along with Talia and the APC. The rear hatch of the vehicle opened, and Talia went inside. Then the two spiders followed her.

For the first time, Talia felt a bit of trepidation. She’d be inside a cramped space with two giant alien spiders. She swallowed her concern and blocked out the part of her brain that said that was supposed to be scary. Dusky and Dapple were… were cute…and friendly! Nothing to be afraid of.

There was silence as the instructional video finished playing for the third time and winked out. She wasn’t sure if they understood, so it was time to test things. She had to duck to enter the APC’s hatch, although it wasn’t nearly as bad as the Panther once she was inside. There was enough room to spread her arms out, even.

Reaching the front of the vehicle where the operator’s seat was set in the floor, she turned to check on the spiders. They had inched closer, and their faces poked inside to look, but they remained outside.

“One at a time, guys! You can’t both get in at once,” Talia said.

The spiders both let out questioning chirps, but they seemed uneager to come inside. That was probably because of how small the hatch was. They were quite big, and it was going to take some folding of their legs to get inside.

“Come on. You can do it,” Talia coaxed. “I know it is a tight fit, but it will keep us all safe during the mission.”

Dusky and Dapple looked at each other, then back to Talia. Dapple seemed to gather her courage first, then slowly inched her way forward, folding her legs and scooting into the space. Talia realized they were going to have to consider how long it took for the spiders to get in and out of the vehicle. It certainly wasn’t suited for the spider’s anatomy.

As soon as the spider reached her, Talia gave Dapple another one of the HEM treats. They both turned and looked at Dusky, who finally decided to join them. Talia had to suppress a giggle. Dusky would do absolutely anything for one of the energy treats.

Dapple picked the treat awaiting Dusky out of Talia’s hand, then handled it to the other spider who took it and began to nibble on it before chomping down.

“Okay, now we need to close the hatch,” Talia informed them. They looked at her curiously, and then the hatch automatically slid shut. Dapple didn’t seem to mind or care, but Dusky let out a panicked shriek and began to shake. Talia started to get another treat out, but Dapple immediately began to chirp and console the upset spider.

It seemed to work, and Talia let out a tense breath. There certainly was no way they were going to get any of the LIRU units inside the APC with them, despite the vehicle being rated to hold ten troops. “Neo, let’s get the convoy organized and rolling out. Also, can you play a video for them so they can watch where we are going?”

[Affirmative: Transferring optical camera to internal monitor. All CRD-X9, Panther X-1, and Raptor vehicles are prepared.]

The Pegasus APC began to rumble beneath her and the spiders as they moved out. Talia kept a close eye on them as the new sensation filled the vehicle. Dusky seemed to have calmed down significantly, and Dapple appeared unfazed by the closed space. Both had their attention riveted on the monitor feed showing the outside world, and Talia realized they understood what it was showing them… or at least she thought they understood.

It was a lot more cramped than she would have liked, but it would serve its purpose. As the vehicles rolled out, she turned her attention to the AI units rapidly forming up around them in a massive convoy of over twenty vehicles and air units.

She activated her voice comm and began to transmit to every unit. “Alright, team,” Talia said. “Let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. We need to move quickly and efficiently. Our goal is to reach the HEM deposit, gather as much as we can from the mine, and then return to base safely. Keep an eye out for any ambush by the Blues and report any issues or developments immediately.”

It felt strange addressing a bunch of AI units, but as Neo had reminded her, they were smarter than a plain old program, even if they were super-specialized for their primary task. It would be best if they learned to operate and understand her orders, and Neo’s explanation of how they acclimated and built unit-cohesion wasn’t lost on her.

She needed them to be cohesive with her command as well as working with each other.

The convoy pushed through the desert landscape without issue, following the same path she’d blazed previously. The lack of rocks helped keep the slower units moving.

They were limited to the CRD-X9s maximum speed, but the Raptors blazed patrol paths in small squads of three all around, search for enemy activity. The Panthers took up positions in a bullet formation with two units in the lead, while the rest covered the flanks. The pair of Lynx M3s covered the rear, remaining about half a klick back from the trailing CRD-X9 unit.

The sun began to dip below the horizon, and the vehicles’ night vision and thermal optics kicked in to avoid the need for headlights. She wasn’t sure what type of optics the Blues had, or even if they saw in the same wavelengths as humans did, but blasting bright lights across the open expanse of the desert seemed like an unnecessary risk.

Looking back at the spiders, a momentary blast of panic hit her. Dapple was crumpled on the floor, and it took her a second to realize that the spider had just gone to sleep and wasn’t hurt or dead. Dusky was still glued to the monitor, one of his legs pawing at the screen, flipping the picture between night vision and thermal vision periodically.

The spider saw her looking and let out a little chirp.

“Yeah, we are almost there. You two are doing great,” Talia replied.

As they neared the HEM deposit, Talia couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of anticipation. The operation was a crucial test of how things would go on the rescue mission, as well as a valuable learning experience for the spiders.

Suddenly a warning bleep erupted, and a red priority message appeared on her HUD. The main screen flipped to an enhanced view of the little mining depot that she had left behind from their first extraction run.

[Warning: Blue presence detected at mining outpost. Excavation and mining operations seem to be in progress.]