On a field of melting snow, men gathered around small campfires while they cozied themselves, just as they had done so in the past few weeks. Some of the men were geared with the heaviest and best armor, some were just wearing a patchwork of cloth with a low quality metal helmet.

From mere peasants to noblemen, they were all there for one reason: to starve out Castle Kilothar. The men were already in high spirits since they had made great gains in Northwestern Rhankia, and they became more ecstatic and envious when they heard that their northmen allies took the biggest of the Northern Triplets, the supposedly impenetrable Castle Marcoir.

Close to the camp, men were returning with their meager hunts, and the Vyssian soldiers were preparing for lunch. A tall man wearing a thick fur coat and nasal helmet walked up to the center of the camp, readying for another day of siege.

“Lord Hambleot, we caught some rabbits this morning,” a Vyssian footman reported as he raised a dead rabbit for the Vyssian lord to see.

“I’d rather have deer, but I suppose beggars can’t be choosers,” Hambleot groaned.

Just as Hambleot was about to grab the rabbit, a rider entered the camp with a frantic look. When the rider found Hambleot, which wasn’t hard given how tall the Vyssian lord was, his horse surged forward.

“What’s with you, lad? You got bad news? Bad enough to disturb my lunch?” Hambleot calmly asked.

“Lord, I deliver news that Lord Eoforwic has taken Castle Enfoir yesterday. I came here to tell you that he’s coming to help you now,” the rider reported loudly, not just for Hambleot, but for the entire camp to hear.

The men roared with cheers and celebration as a Vyssian takeover of Northwestern Rhankia might actually be possible. Sure, the region might not be much, but more farming and living grounds were always good.

Meanwhile, the noblemen that flocked around the Central family of Eoforwic and Ecgbert were finally seeing some fruits of their gamble. Some of the nobles were lesser ones which sought to conglomerate around stronger minor nobles, while some saw opportunity the moment they heard that Ecgbert and Eoforwic took Castle Norwind.

Hambleot was one of the latter, who hoped to get Castle Enfoir for himself once the lords complete the conquest for the region.

“Old Man Wick doesn’t disappoint, eh? Let us feast well, lads! If we’re lucky, Wick will come and bash down this Humanos-forsaken castle down!” Hambleot announced which garnered more cheers from the weary men.

Just then, Hambleot heard shouts from the edge of the siege camp.

“Lord Hambleot! Scouts from the forest!” alarmed one of the watchmen.

A tattered and bloodied Vyssian horsemen appeared from the forest shouting, “RHANKS! RHANKS ARE COMING!”

As if the horsemen brought the proof with him, a band of armored men riding on horses rushed from the foliages of the forest.

“To arms, men! We fight under the eyes of Humanos!” Hambleot shouted.

Of course, the soldiers didn’t need Hambleot to tell them that. Archers were already forming up at the front, and were readying their arrows.

“Ready!” a Vyssian noble commanded the archers.

The archers were experienced hunters, but years of hunting for food doesn’t really help with building up military discipline. It took some time for the archers before they could organize themselves, which meant that the riders were able to close the gap without much opposition. The archers took an arrow from their quiver, then waited for the command.

“Pull at pheasant’s worth!”

The archers pulled their arrows while aiming at a trained angle, and held.

“Loose!”

Arrows rained upon the Rhankish riders, doing some damage, but not enough to stop the incoming charge. The Vyssian archers let loose a few more volleys before falling to join the shieldwall that was forming behind them.

Unfortunately, it seemed that there wasn’t enough time for the Vyssians to form up, and by the time the Vyssian scout reached his own lines, so did the Rhankish riders.

The first Vyssian casualties got thrown onto the ground as Rhankish riders tore people apart with either a sword or spear. Javelins were thrown from both sides, the Rhankish riders attempting to take advantage of their speed while the Vyssians were trying to dismount the horsemen.

Vyssian skirmishers kept their distance while hurling stones with their slings, and the Rhankish riders tried to circle around the heavily armored Vyssian nobles. The helpless levies tried their best to get to the safety of the main shieldwall, but most were cut down.

“Get off our lands, you bark-scoffing pig-heads!” someone shouted in Rhankish.

“If you want us off, get down here and fight me, Kojan-licking cur!” Hambleot shouted back in Vyssian.

As the time went by, the chaos started to die down as most of the Vyssian had formed up into a shieldwall. The riders kept their distance close by riding in a circle around the shieldwall, not risking the charge into it since they did not have the number.

“What are you going to do now, Rhank? Run away while you can!” Hambleot taunted.

The leader of the riders laughed, then pointed at Castle Kilothar. The gates of the castle were thrown off, and the defenders started charging towards the siege camp.

“Boys, we’re in luck! We’ll be facing a shieldwall today!” Hambleot cheered.

The men repeatedly pounded the back of their shields in unison as the Rhankish shieldwall formed in front of them. Most of the riders also dismounted since it would be useless to flank their enemies if the front collapses immediately, but the elite warriors stayed on horseback to exploit any weakness they would find.

“Forward!” Hambleot ordered when most of the riders had already joined the Rhankish shieldwall. After all, only a fool wait for their opponent to be fully ready.

The Rhankish shieldwall was on a disadvantageous spot so they were left without a choice but to move forward and match the Vyssians.

The riders cautiously followed, but remained at a distance as the Vyssians kept shooting them with arrows, javelins, and rocks. It was only until the two opposing shieldwalls crashed against each other did the Rhankish riders renewed their attacks.

Many Vyssians and Rhanks fell as the battle intensified. No matter how heavily armored one was, Death was only a knock away in such a close combat. Such was the case when a helmeted Rhankish rider was knocked down by Hambleot.

He was dismounted when Hambleot threw a smaller but thicker shield at the Rhankian, and he struggled to get up from the ground. The combination of the pain from the fall and the impact of the thrown shield was jarring, yet the fallen knight still kept his consciousness up lest he risked getting a sword through his throat.

“Well, truly unfortunately, Rhank! You fought real nicely, lad, so I’ll give you a quick death!” Hambleot declared as he raised his sword.

The Rhankish knight raised his hand in vain, not knowing what to do. His sword fell too far, and he was still recovering from the fall.

Hambleot swung his sword down… and never connected with the knight as he was thrown to the ground when a large horse crashed against him. The rider of the horse pulled his helmet up, then shouted, “Lorferd! What are you doing on the ground?! We have housenappers to kill!”

The fallen knight sighed then said, “Sorry, Count Marcoir. The grass looked so nice to nap on now that the snow had melted away.”

Marcoir threw a short sword next to Lorferd then chided, “This isn’t the time to nap! If you nap, I’ll put you to a permanent nap, you hear?!”

“Yes, mi’lord.”

As a Vyssian footman approached Marcoir, the count swiftly changed his swordhand to cut the footman with one elegant move. “That is how it’s done, you see?!”

“Yes, yes,” Lorferd groaned as he slowly got up from the ground. Seeing as his knight was no longer slacking, Marcoir rode away to fight somewhere else.

Lorferd stretched his back then checked his surroundings. He noticed that the Vyssians were being pushed further and further away, and the Rhankish riders were doing quick work of the slowly increasing number of routing Vyssians.

Lorferd clumsily walked to where Hambleot crashed onto, then shook him up. “Are you alive, friend?”

With a quick check, he found that the Vyssian lord was alive but unconscious, so he decided to start tying him up.

“Lorferd! What are you doing?! You loot the dead after the battle, not during!” Marcoir appeared out of nowhere again to chide his knight. Lorferd was beginning to suspect that Marcoir had supernatural abilities to appear out of nowhere to berate his own men.

“Count Marcoir. It seems this Vyssian lord is still alive. Do you think we could interrogate him about the northmen?” Lorferd suggested.

“Ah! That sounds like a plan! Tie him up and bring him to the castle!” Marcoir exclaimed as he threw a coil of rope to Lorferd.

“Lord, I already have ropes-... Never mind,” Lorferd sighed as Marcoir left without warning once more.

As he watched Marcoir jump back into the heat of battle, Lorferd couldn’t tell if he was lucky or unlucky to be under Count Marcoir’s lead. Well, he was alive, so he could at least count that as a blessing.

Funny smell.

Funny touch.

Funny noises.

That was all the blob of a frog-monster could feel as it was held up by a strange-looking creature. The creature had human-like arms attached to a headless torso on top of a spider’s body, and its skin was made out of metal. Could this ‘creature’ be even alive? How was this creature even able to see without a head?

Of course, the troglodyte didn’t understand it all. All it knew was that this metal being was holding it up uncomfortably, so all it could do was croak in discomfort.

After a few more croaks, the metal being handed the monster to a bigger metallic creature which looked… slightly more familiar.

The troglodyte pulled its head back in nervousness as it was inspected by its new holder. The new creature made some ringing noises which the monster tried to mimic with little success. Whether it was out of curiosity or something else, the troglodyte’s holder used its huge hands to poke at the troglodyte’s forehead.

On the other side of the receiving end, Drone 11 was examining the horn on the troglodyte’s head. Out of the hundreds of new spawn, only one of the troglodytes emerged with a horn. Without a doubt, this was a baby high troglodyte, which could be key to understanding and opening communications with the troglodytes… or find new ways to farm them.

‘Are you done yet, Drone 11?’ Custodian asked.

Drone 11 pinched the horn once more, then handed the baby high troglodyte to a pair of worker drones. It would be interesting to experiment with the baby, but that would be a task for another one of Drone 11’s brethren.

‘Yes, Master Custodian. I march,’ Drone 11 replied.

Without shouting an order, Drone 11 marched forward, and its army of warrior drones and armored troglodytes followed him. As promised, Drone 11 was given scrap armor to equip the new troglodyte auxiliaries.

Leftover rags from production, tattered clothes from dead humans, and low quality metal smelted from the disappointing human-made tools were patched together to make some kind of armor to protect the troglodytes.

Though it looked like there was some kind of gap between the average warrior drone and the auxiliaries, Custodian wasn’t willing to invest in the troglodytes too much unless it saw that its losses could be recouped. After all, equipping hundreds of frogmen within a short period of time wasn’t cheap.

Nevertheless, Drone 11 was satisfied enough to march on the first border fortress.

[Incursion started by Factory Super-AI Custodian.]

[Incursion on Unidentified Border Fortress JC-VR10S.]

[Take the Outer Gate ☐]

[Take the Inner Gate ☐]

[Take the Courtyard ☐]

[Take the Hall ☐]

The outer gate would be troublesome to take. It was just a narrow tunnel leading to a closed off gate made out of stone, mud, and other materials that the troglodytes could scrounge up. Though primitive, it would be effective at halting any unprepared assault.

Two smaller doors were built on the sides of the gates which flooded the smaller lesser troglodytes onto the field. It would be risky to experiment with the armored auxiliary troglodytes right now, so Drone 11 sent its warrior drone to quickly dispatch the cannon fodder.

As the warrior drones cleared the way, Drone 11 studied the gate. After a few attempts at pushing it, the drones decided to go for Plan B.

‘Send in the mining drones. We’ll take the gates,’ Custodian commanded.

Small spider drones with drills on their front scuttled to the gate and began work on whittling it away. As the warrior drones held the troglodytes away, the spider drones kept digging and replacing their steel drill bits.

As soon as the first sign of breakthrough was clear, the troglodytes on the other side of the gate panicked and started plugging the holes with stones and other troglodytes. Drone 11, thinking that the drones didn’t necessarily had to mine the entire gate down, brought in ram drones.

A pair of Steadfaster drones carried a ram to the half-destroyed gate, then started bashing it down. The gates, already suffering a lot of damage from the miner drones, fell with little resistance as it was bulldozed with pure brute force.

The drone forces swarmed into the outer gate, and slaughtered the defenders with ease.

[Incursion on Unidentified Border Fortress JC-VR10S.]

[Take the Outer Gate ☑]

[Take the Inner Gate ☐]

[Take the Courtyard ☐]

[Take the Hall ☐]

Once again, the troglodyte fortress was built inside a large underground dome the size of a small stadium. The inner walls were about two Drone 11s high, and the ceiling was filled with vines.

Climber drones and troglodyte auxiliaries began scaling the vines in order to compete for the ceiling while ladders were brought forward to contest for the walls. Meanwhile, the ram drones moved towards the gate to begin bashing it down. The inner gate was slightly similar to the outer gate, but it was defended through murder holes in the troglodyte fortifications.

Boiling water was dropped from the top of the inner gate, but the ram drones weren’t bothered by the water and they continued to relentlessly bash down the gate. Troglodytes burst forth the sides using hidden tunnels in order to take out the drones by surprise, but the auxiliaries pushed the defenders back.

In fact, they even started competing for the hidden tunnels to climb through and attack the inside.

On the walls, the attackers were struggling to take control as larger and stronger high troglodytes put up a stalwart resistance against the drones. Compared to the fragile troglodytes which the warrior drones could kill by the dozens, it took tens of drones to take down a single defending high troglodytes.

As Drone 11 was too big to climb the ladders, thane drones were sent to deal with the threats.

Thane Alpha-Alpha-One began ascending one of the ladders, but before it could even reach the top, its head was caved in by a club. The high troglodyte on the wall smiled savagely as he heard the large crunch, but the smile disappeared when Thane Alpha-Alpha-One grabbed the club.

The troglodyte started croaking in fear and tried to pull away, but it was too late. The drone had gotten close, and as pay back, the troglodyte’s skull was ripped into two with a steel axe.

Thane Alpha-Alpha-One, even with its head semi-crushed, immediately rushed towards another high troglodyte. The thane’s new opponent slashed two warrior drones with his mighty claws, then turned to face the half-headless drone. The monster was surprised that Thane Alpha-Alpha-One was still moving, but shrugged he off as he remembered that these were iron demons.

The high troglodyte threw an uppercut, then feinted it with a blow to the side. His follow-up attack was blocked by the thane’s axe but the high troglodyte quickly recovered to start a new set of attack.

Thane Alpha-Alpha-One only had one functioning eye so its vision was hampered, but as more drones got on top of the wall, it got a better view of the chaotic battlefield. It was able to see its opponent’s move from different angles, allowing it to expect feints and incoming attacks.

The thane drone dodged a thrusting attack, then spun around as a lesser troglodyte tried to claw it from behind. The lesser troglodyte was quickly dispatched with an axe blow, but that gave opportunity to the high troglodyte to hack at the thane.

The high troglodyte grabbed one of Thane Alpha-Alpha-One’s arms, then ripped it out of its body. The thane calmly kicked off its assailant then jumped back to make a gap between it and the troglodyte.

Thane Alpha-Alpha-One unsheathed its short sword from its hips before making agile sidesteps. Instead of being at a disadvantage, the drone took the opportunity of its lighter weight to go for faster and more direct attacks.

The troglodyte used his claws and the drone’s arm to defend himself, but the thane was attacking in the most unexpected ways. The drone flipped, spun, and danced around the angry troglodyte, getting small cuts in while suffering some damage in the process.

At last, Thane Alpha-Alpha-One found the chance to end this. It charged openly towards the troglodyte with short sword raised up ready to hack the monster down.

All the troglodyte could think was that the drone had given up and was throwing its life away, but unfortunately, he forgot that they were in the middle of a battlefield.

Several spears skewered the troglodyte from behind, and the corpse of the formidable monster was thrown off the ramparts. A squad of huskarls had breached through the ramparts and were now causing havoc among the defenders. Not only that, climber drones jumped down and started to cause chaos on the other side of the inner gate, further demoralizing the defenders.

‘Thane Alpha-Alpha-One, return to base for repairs,’ Custodian ordered.

‘Affirmative,’ the thane replied then hopped onto the ladder, forgetting that it was missing an arm as it fell down.

‘Huskarl Squad Phi-Tau-Three, recover Thane Alpha-Alpha-One,’ Custodian sighed.

[Incursion on Unidentified Border Fortress JC-VR10S.]

[Take the Outer Gate ☑]

[Take the Inner Gate ☑]

[Take the Courtyard ☐]

[Take the Hall ☐]

The objectives list was updated as soon as the gates were bashed down and Drone 11 came in crashing. Several troglodytes, lesser and higher, were simultaneously hacked down by the mighty drone’s axes, and the defenders dispersed.

Not wasting any more time, Drone 11 led the main assault into the courtyard. Several troglodyte auxiliaries who were rushing ahead were immediately doused in flames as the troglodytes brought in their trump card - sorcerers.

Three high troglodytes covered in vines thumped their bone clubs against the ground, spewing flames out of their hands which engulfed the auxiliaries on the front with fire. When the sorcerers noticed that the warrior drones were still approaching, they used magic to take chunks of rock from the surroundings and threw it at the incoming drones.

It was obvious that meager chain armor won’t do anything against a pile of flying rocks so dozens of drones were knocked out of action. Drone 11, with the help of huskarl drones, charged ahead.

Drone 11 was large and resilient enough to deal with the rocks, while the huskarl drones moved behind their rampaging brethren for cover. The troglodyte mages weren’t dumb enough to wait for a minotaur-like demon to skewer them, so they scattered in different directions.

“After them!” Drone 11 howled which caused both enemy and allied troglodytes to be stunned momentarily.

The huskarls split up in two directions while Drone 11 went for the last one. Rocks were hurled every time the sorcerer thumped his club against the ground so Drone 11 learned to anticipate an attack every time the troglodyte mages would do that.

Unfortunately, it seemed that magic could also be feinted so Drone 11 would dodge out of the way even though no rocks were hurled, slowing its chase.

[Incursion on Unidentified Border Fortress JC-VR10S.]

[Take the Outer Gate ☑]

[Take the Inner Gate ☑]

[Take the Courtyard ☑]

[Take the Hall ☐]

It seemed that the defenders had retreated deep into the hall, which was where Drone 11 was heading towards.

‘All drones, converge to the hall,’ Custodian ordered.

‘Huskarl Squad Theta-One-Zeta reporting success in hunting down High Troglodyte,’ a report came into hivespeak.

‘Where is the other one?’ Custodian asked.

[No signal found.] x3

[Huskarl Iota-Theta-Three critical damage.]

[Huskarl Delta-One-Eight critical damage.]

…

‘Drone 11, the other huskarl squad was eliminated. I advise caution,’ Custodian said.

‘Not a problem,’ Drone 11 responded as it hacked through a wave of troglodytes trying to defending the fleeing sorcerer.

The sorcerer reached the end of a hall, then stopped as he finally reached a dead-end. It seemed that the troglodyte wasn’t able to cast any more spells and he raised his club in anticipation of an attack.

However, as soon as Drone 11 got close, something slammed the drone against the wall. Pushing its attacker aside, Drone 11 noticed a high troglodyte almost as big as it. This must be the one that destroyed the huskarl squad.

The troglodyte’s horns formed what seemed like a crown, and his entire body was head to toe was covered in some kind of bone armor. Unlike every other troglodyte, this crowned troglodyte was armed with a mace with a metal head.

The crowned troglodyte croaked deeply, then pointed his mace at the drone. Drone 11 responded kindly by swinging its axe at the troglodyte’s face. The drone’s attack was blocked, but its hidden weapons plunged forth from Drone 11’s sides.

One of the stabs hit the flat side of the troglodyte's bone armor, causing no damage, but the other one went through a gap. Blood started to pour from the gap slowly, and the crowned troglodyte kicked Drone 11 away.

Disregarding his wound, the troglodyte swung his mace overhead, then feinted it with a thump against Drone 11’s head with the butt of his mace handle. In revenge, Drone 11 punched straight at the troglodyte’s jaw, but this left the minotaur-like drone vulnerable.

The sorcerer troglodyte smacked Drone 11 with his club from behind, and the crowned troglodyte grabbed the drone’s horns. The crowned troglodyte repeatedly smashed Drone 11 against the wall before throwing it far. What would’ve killed any other monster was merely a minor nuisance to the steel-packed warmachine.

Drone 11 got up slowly, then roared loudly, temporarily stunning the two troglodytes. The drone grabbed the ‘crown’ of the bigger troglodyte, then kneed the monster’s face into oblivion. The other troglodyte was already lying on the floor dead by the time Drone 11 decided to stop introducing its knee to the crowned troglodyte’s face.

“You. Why are you here?” Drone 11 asked as it turned to the one-armed drone in the room.

“I was ordered here,” Thane Alpha-Alpha-One mechanically turned its body and replied.

“You were ordered to go back to base for repairs.”

“I was?”

“Yes.” Drone 11 pointed to a group of approaching huskarls.

“Thane Alpha-Alpha-One. Follow this unit,” the lead huskarl ordered. With its objective completed, the thane followed huskarls without argument.

[Incursion on Unidentified Border Fortress JC-VR10S.]

[Take the Outer Gate ☑]

[Take the Inner Gate ☑]

[Take the Courtyard ☑]

[Take the Hall ☑]

[Incursion completed!]

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

It seemed that the last sorcerer, along with the remaining defenders, were slaughtered by the rest of the drones as they converged towards the hall. Only a few drones and auxiliaries remained, and most of them were huskarls, thanes, or very lucky troglodytes.

‘Reporting that Border Fortress JC-VR10S is captured,’ Drone 11 said.

‘The losses are big but still acceptable, improvements have to be made,’ Custodian noted.

‘The organics are damaged. Is it possible if I could use some holy water to repair them?’ Drone 11 requested.

‘I suppose I might as well analyze the effects of holy water closely. Also, the organics did bring me victory so it would be a waste to lose them now. I will bring a small barrel up to the front,’ Custodian replied.

[5 Incursions completed. Protocol 6 completed. Blueprints for Mk1 Forward Outpost Mind imprinted into databank.]

[Protocol 6A cannot start without completing prerequisites!]

‘What prerequisites? Tell me, Foreman!’ Custodian begged. After a few seconds of silence, the A.I. quickly gave up on the thought then went for the brighter side of things. ‘Let me see the new blueprints!’

[Mk1 Forward Outpost Mind

Non-thinking unit used to anchor to a spot to create an outpost far from the reaches of the mainframe. Capable of low tier chip production. Used in conjunction with a logistics unit.

Produced using 5 Type 1 Steadfaster Mind processors and 3 Thane Mind processors.]

‘Drone 11,’ Custodian called out.

‘Yes?’

‘It’s time for you to get a name!’