[/Drones_are_under_attack]

[/Initiating_Salvage_protocol]

[/Nexus_reporting: Hirudocrystallus reserve critically low]

[/Initiating_Combat_Nanite_production_protocol]

Pioneer quickly goes through the reports sent by Nexus and the satellite colony's Data Processing Facility and gives new orders to them in the midst of battle, the Battle Drones are doing their best to hold back the attacking Evolved Hiveravagers and Hiveravagers with their Tactical Light Ordnance Modules and lightning rods. The base has suffered some casualties, however, the casualties are only minor setbacks that can be recovered quickly as the drones can be salvaged and repaired by the General Purpose Drones and Mobile Nanite Construction Drones to bring them back to life and continue their fight on the frontline.

Pioneer also made some changes to their weapons to cope with the shortage of Hirudocrystallus, instead of filling the shells with high explosive material that is extracted from Hirudocrystallus, Pioneer decided to fill them up with Combat Nanites to turn the big 40mm shells into Nanite delivery system, they were much less effective than the high explosive variant, but it was still better than inert solid cores that deal very little damage to the big bugs.

Pioneer watches the drones fighting on the front line with all they got for a moment before it decides to leave the satellite colony's command to Nexus and turns to the border outpost behind the front line. The Magical Energy Sensor Facility reported some odd signal reading earlier, and the Data Processing Facility there also requested Pioneer's guidance to deal with a new situation there.

Faster than Pioneer 0 could ever run, Pioneer 1 quickly relocates itself from the satellite colony to the outpost by using the newly and hastily built highway path that connects the two small bases together, the 45 minutes trek is reduced down to 28 minutes thanks to the smooth and flat highway, perhaps Nexus was right to build these roads to improve the supply route quality, it's quite expensive, but since it only cost Viricrystallus which the colony has plenty of, the highway is certainly worth the price.

"Aaa..."

"Ugh....uh..."

Pioneer listens to the painful groans right after it arrived in the outpost, the core is semi-confused as it wonders why the outsiders are in the outpost instead of on the other side of the outpost. The core quickly inquires the Data Processing Facility as it orders a General Purpose Drone nearby to keep an eye on the wounded adventures near the wall before it quickly continues its way toward the Battle Drones.

[Pioneer 0 has leveled up]

[Pioneer 0 is now level 25]

[Pioneer 0 received 1 unallocated point]

The machine has leveled up again, but like before, the core decides to leave the detail aside as it focuses on the conflicts at hand. As Pioneer reaches the Battle Drones' location, the core immediately notices a battle is already going on, an odd battle that the core finds itself familiar of, the adventures are teaming up with the brutally efficient Battle Drones to push back the Hivewarriors and Evolved Hivewarriors attacking the outpost. It seems like the bug attacked the adventures from behind as they used a different path to bypass the colony, surprised by the sudden attack the adventures are forced to dessert their position and evacuate to the 'safe' side. They were lucky enough that the Data Processing Facility put the bugs as a higher priority threat and ordered the Drones to fight them first and ignore the fleeing adventures for now.

After succeeded in getting the wounded to safety behind the 1m tall wall and the Battle Drones, Erika persuaded everyone to disarm the wounded and those who did not want to fight to make sure the unliving beings would not recognize them as threats once the bugs had been dealt with. She also the one who first stood up against the charging bug after they breached the Drones defensive line, her action allowed the General Purpose Drones to extract the damaged Battle Drones back to the outpost for repair and return to their duty as soon as they could, for this action, the Data Processing Facility temporary removed the threat tag from the adventures and ordered the drones to focus on pushing back the bug as their primary objective.

After the core receives the detailed report from the Data Processing Facility, it is quite surprised that the facility could process that kind of information, maybe Nexus has tampered with the Data Processing Facilities to improve it during the expansion session and unknowingly upgraded this one through the passive nanite reconstruction service provided by the Nanite Hive Factory nearby. The core takes note of this event and saves it in its data drive before it quickly moves in to help as well.

"Spirits of the void, heed my calling, grant me power and take my mana, shroud me in darkness and strike down my enemies!. Ethereal Accel!"

Pioneer observes Erika performing multiple high-speed maneuvers and attack moves that seemingly impossible for a girl like her to performs as it records the process and repairs a downed Battle Drone. The battle here is getting very close and personal with melee focused attacks and parries, a range that the Battle Drones are not very efficient at because of its lacks of arm structures to swing around and armed with ranged weapons only, the only thing it can use at short range is the lightning rods to zap fry the bugs and its strong front legs to stomp them down to bits.

"Tch, there have so m- Wha?. When did you come from?"

Pioneer orders its two reduced size temporary bodies to step up while the Battle Drones push the adventures around it slightly to fall back to the rear line behind the wall. It wanted to make sure the lifeforms helped its drones won't get hurt as it hunkered down and started releasing a large swarm of Combat Nanites, from the eyes of the adventures it looked like a river of death and destruction being materialized before it crashed down on the bugs and killed them one by one mysteriously.

The Combat Nanites proved to be highly effective against the weak Hivewarriors and Evolved Hivewarriors as they quickly targeted their brain and nerve systems to wreck havoc on the frenzied bugs. However, the high power consumption and low effectiveness against stronger opponents made them less of a favorable choice when it came to designing a standard multipurpose weapon, perhaps the core will also try improving the nanites too.

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 defeated Evolved Hivewarrior | +900XP]

[Pioneer 0 has leveled up]

[Pioneer 0 is now level 26]

[Pioneer 0 received 1 unallocated point]

"...That's new..."

Erika whispers quietly as she watches the eerie scene in astonishment while other adventures seem scared and somewhat terrified of the sight. The mysterious black mist just simply hovers around the two 4 legged golems as the ferocious bugs keep dropping left and right without much of a resistance as if it is some kind of powerful poison or a curse even.

As the remaining bugs begin falling back after knowing that they are not strong enough to overwhelm the outpost, Pioneer orders the Mobile Nanite Construction Drone in the outpost to build a higher and thicker wall, Pioneer wants to block the area off completely with the wall as it orders the two temporary bodies to move back a bit and help the drone to construct the wall while the Combat Nanite cloud keeping the bugs at bay and General Purpose Drones picking up as much dead bugs as they can and bringing them back to the colony for processing. The machine makes sure no bug will be able to penetrate the wall and attack the outpost, and it's the bugs the one who will pay the construction fee with their dead brethren.

As the unliving and tireless army of 4 legged beings move back and forth to do their given works, the surviving adventurers gather around and take care of each others' wounds under the tight surveillance of Battle Drones standing near the group, they are still afraid and frightened of what just happened and what is happening around them, perhaps only Erika and a few experienced ones are able to stay calm in this situation as they carefully watch the 4 legged beings' behaviors and their actions.

"So is this the thing in your stories, Erika?"

"No...Not like this...This thing is much more active...Greater Appraisal"

"...How is it?"

"It has changed...A lot...It's a Forerunner..."

"A Forerunner?. Like the Emperor of Azuria Empire?"

"Maybe...I don't know..."

Erika whispers quietly to an experienced Mage nearby while watching Pioneer working with the wall. But then, the two reduced size bodies of Pioneers suddenly leave the half-finished wall and run out of the outpost for some reasons, the adventures don't know why, but they all know for something to make such a nightmare inducing creature to leave the area in a rush like that have to be something much more dangerous than the bugs they fought.

"What have I gotten myself into..."

Erika asks herself quietly as she watches the two 4 legged golems quickly leave the area before turning her attention back to the wounded adventurers and the drones guarding them.

Pioneer has just received an emergency report from Nexus, there have no Hirudocrystallus left to product ammunition and the new batch is not ready to harvest yet, the Drones are going melee against the much stronger bugs which some of them are completely new and have never been seen before, the battle is getting worse and worse for Pioneer's Drones.

The core needs a plan, a way to push back the bugs and keep them at bay long enough for the Hirudocrystallus to become large enough to be harvested, it considers building another wall like the outpost if it hold the bugs back long enough or orders Nexus to start producing lightly armoured Battle Drones to cut down the cost and rely on number alone. Both are time and very resource consuming, the two things that Pioneer doesn't have right now.

[You have 11 unallocated points]

The core looks at the figure quietly as it decides to look into the skill status screen once again, perhaps it's time for Pioneer to upgrade its skill just as planned in the log and see what power will it get.

[/Console_debug_input: Upgrade 'Lesser Magic Sense']

[Warning: You are about to spend 10 unallocated points to rank up Lesser Magic Sense, are you sure about this?]

[Y]

[Lesser Magic Sense has advanced to Advanced Magic Sense]

[Requirement met: Due to effects of Advanced Magic Sense and Advanced Evolution Core, Energy Dominant has evolved into Energetic Heart.]

[Requirement met: Due to the effects of Energetic Heart and Limit Break, 2 new skills have been unlocked: Electron Barrage, Energetic Star Artillery]

[New Title unlocked: Pioneer of Electron]

[/Warning: Reactor output overloading]

[/Warning: Power production grid overcharging]

[/Warning: High voltage stasis field detected]

[/System_shutting_down]

[...]

[/Reboot_completed]

[/Optimizing_system]

[/Continuing_objective: Hold the line]