I finally accepted that I would not be able to sleep tonight. I made up my mind and decided to start the roughly 3-hour hike back to my home village. While I was hesitant to do so, out of fear for what I may see, I checked the Status of the Mobile Suit Golems in the Hangar.

What is this ‘Fanatical Loyalty’ and how do I deserve it? Sure, I made them, but is that really worth such devotion? Well, at least for the present I don’t have to worry about a Robot Uprising. Judgement Day has been Terminated, at least for now.

After about an hour of walking I begin to smell smoke on the wind. I wasn’t aware that there was to be a bonfire tonight. No, wait. There is something else. Something familiar.

Then it hits me. Blood. This is the smell of blood and charred flesh. How could I forget?! It was literally just a few hours ago that I experienced the same stink! Worse yet, it is being carried on the wind from the direction of the village! One word springs to mind immediately; Bandits!

Based on the thickness of the scent, it must be really bad over there. It will take me a while to get to the village by foot (hopefully not too long) so I decide to Upgrade the Zaku Is and Zaku I Commanders into their Zaku II counterparts and hurry back to the village. About halfway there I get a notification that the Upgrades are complete. I immediately summoned my army of Mobile Suit Golems and tried divvying up newly available equipment, only to discover that they already were fully equipped. On closer inspection of my Status I discovered that all my MSG abilities had leveled up. Now my Mobile Suit Golems didn’t have to worry about running out of ammunition and equipment as the Hangar automatically generated it in excess. They could easily re-arm themselves and repair their damage by simply getting out of active combat and automatically transitioning into the Hangar by themselves and waiting 5-30 minutes depending on the severity. Now my army of Golems was even more unstoppable!

Still, all this equipment lying around is bound to cause problems if it were to be found, taken and used by some enterprising bandit, so I send it to the Hangar which now has a stockpile of over 2500 extra 12 mm Machine Guns. Oddly enough the Production capability of the Hangar doesn’t seem to draw from my Mana Pool. Did I train myself to be able to fully arm and equip my army for nothing?! I decide that I will spend my excess Mana on building an even larger force from now on. Or at least until the ‘Fanatical Loyalty’ skill goes away. At which point I will panic and never again summon this army into existence.

I have one of the Zaku II Commanders carry me while leading the rest towards the village. This time I will make sure to instruct them to spare those that surrender or can no longer fight unless I directly tell them otherwise. I will also tell them to avoid using explosive weapons if they can help it and to avoid civilian casualties if possible. I don’t want the village to hate me for accidentally killing someone in the crossfire. As for this Zaku II Commander, I might as well give it a name so that I don’t keep calling it ‘that Zaku II Commander that carried me to the village’ all the time.

How about a classic?

I will name him Ramba Ral.

While carrying me, Ral starts to shine, to the point that I can’t look directly at him… it… him? I’ll call it a him.

When the glow finally dies down, Ral is sporting the iconic colors of his namesake and feels a lot more powerful. He now has a presence befitting a commander of men.

While hurrying to the village I start a naming frenzy. I wonder how this will affect the growth of my army?

…

We’ve reached the outskirts of the village and, from what I can see, there are no survivors. Worse yet, the damage done to everything and everyone does not look like a random bandit raid. There is no way that a rag-tag group of marauders could have mages powerful enough to turn the wooden palisade into ash and to reduce the stone church to rubble. Not to mention that in the village square, or what’s left of it, there are well over 1000 adult men. Some of them are wearing heavy plate armor and are seated on warhorses. No bandit group has that kind of money.

The nail in the coffin is the royal banners of Prince Edwin flying in the streets and what I assumed to be the Prince himself defiling the headless corpse of a woman.

As I look out over the burning remains of my home and count roughly 800 unarmored combatants, 150 heavy infantry (knights), 60 Heavy Cavalry (Mounted Knights) and degenerate prince who is wearing robes and other finery. This should be a cakewalk.

“Sir, what are your orders? Should we make a full assault?”

I think for a minute. If I walk away, these bastards get off scot free and I lose everything. If I attack and kill them all, I become the enemy of the Kingdom and have a permenant stain on my Status.

Decisions, decisions.

“Full attack. Kill them all but leave that one alive. I want to deal with him separately.”

“Understood! Full attack! Wipe out this scum!”

The 100 Zaku II Commander Golems, including the named ones start directing the 900 Zaku II Golems with the skill of veteran soldiers. Perhaps they have some sort of ability that lets them easily command others? I decide to check them out and sure enough, they have an ability.

Commander Aura (Radius = 40m from self) – All allied units within the area of effect have a 10% buff to ranged and melee evasion, melee attack force, physical defense, movement speed, target tracking, weapon range, explosive weapon yield, reload speed and accuracy. Units in area of effect act as single unit. Does not stack. Only effects up to 9 allies at a time.

“…”

That’s got to be a bug. At least it’s a good bug, so let’s keep it. My army is in position, all avenues of escape for our foes are sealed. Unless they suddenly sprout wings and fly, this will be their final resting place.

These assholes want a slaughter? Well, I’ll give them a slaughter. They will learn full well that they aren’t the biggest fish in the pond soon enough. I just hope that my Mobile Suit Golems are stronger than them, or else I will be up shit creek without a paddle…

Just to be safe, I'll summon a couple thousand more Zaku IIs and pray that I don't lose too many veterans, if any.