The Last Guardian

Battle and Moths?

The trip back to the Small girls dwelling was surprisingly easy. The hardest part was getting out of the collapsed cave entrance. The hole was big enough for the bot to fit through though the uneven and large slabs of rock half buried in earth didn't make it easy to get out. He would have to secure the entrance and clear it out to make getting in and out more easily accessible. Yet another thing to just sic his ants at once he had a few idle. That wouldn't be anytime soon. Th-though if he was required to start sending armed units outside, he have to fast track the the construction. For the moment though digging down then clearing out where his first priorities. With his second priority being exploring the surrounding area. He'd have to design some sort of cheap flying unit for that, but that could wait until he had a decent supply of ants or a second fabrication bay. However, as things stood, he wo-ould have just been happy with one fully functional fabrication bay. He was pulled out of his thoughts and complaints about logistics as they reached the little ones' dwelling. To his surprise and approval, it was a small well defended village surrounded by large walls. Primitive but it would keep most beasts out. Unfortunately, an army of beasts were currently besieging said walls, and its defenders were holding them off well enough except for the flying bats. Where they bats? They were the size of a small dog. Regardless, the humans were under attack and that could not stand!

As the small girl hid behind a tree the bot charged forward once it was clear of the tree line it converted into turret mode. A small metal spike was injected from the bot's undercarriage into the ground anchoring it. The wing cover folded up to form the turret shield. While the tank treads would allow it to spin well the spike would keep it in place and stable.

'The bot has limited ammo, but its fusion cell can replenish its energy supply with time. So, while it still has the power to I'll use its laser sniper to pick off the most egregious targets starting with the airborne units.'

Small bolts of focus light picked the bats out of the air one by one. A few large wolves noticed the bot and it had to turn its gun on them. Any creature that came close was systematically eliminated when it wasn't dealing with any of its attackers it was picking off air units. This took hours and was only made more annoying with the introduction of armored units. In the Form of those those giant beetles from earlier. Which explained why he had yet to encounter any of the larger ones, they were all up here trying to attack the humans. Thankfully with the turret picking off most of the air units, it allowed the defenders to start pushing the beast back. Unfortunately, by this time the bot had to be more reserved with its shots as it was running low on power. Though If push came to shove it could use its ballistic weapons.

With the humans no longer being harassed by the air units their Archers started to pick off the beasts on the ground. With their walls holding back the wolves the only real remaining threat was the beetles which the bot was targeting every time it could make a shot. Unlike the bats that could be taken down with a single shot the beetles high durability allowed them to withstand multiple hits. On top of that the larger ones could climb up the walls to attack the defenders directly. Though only the larger ones the defenders had apparently turned to using hot oil. Which not only made the walls hard to climb but cooked the smaller ones in their shells before they could make it more than halfway up. By the end of it, there was a full minute between each of the bot's shots having completely drained any form of reserved power. Thankfully it hadn't managed to get off more than six shots in this mode before the siege broke what was left of the wolves and beetles retreated the defenders' launching arrows at them. With the bot only managing to get off two shots before they were out of range.

Once Austin was sure they weren't coming back he converted the bought back from turret mode. Mostly because he needed to catch back up with the little girl who was already heading for the village walls. What followed next was a lot of incoherent shouting where he finally got the name of the little girl Sophia. However, that wasn't all that useful when it was made abundantly clear by an arrow nearly hitting his bot that he was not going to be allowed into the village. The little girl waved at his bot before walking off the heavy wooden door of the village's gate closing with a loud thud behind her. Annoyed he pulled the bot back finding a good spot under a tree where he'd have not only a good line of sight of the village's main entrance but also a good line of sight of the direction from which the beast had retreated to. Once parked, he lowered the spike securing the bot before turning his attention back to what was left of his ship.