Austin was starting to wonder whether or not anyone was coming, as another week came with no contact from the outside world. Austin had considered, and then vetoed, producing larger aerial drones to send out to explore beyond the valley. But with the sheer number of beetles still in the air, anything he sent out would need an escort and a decently sized and armed one at that. Alternatively, any practical attempt to launch a small scout unit would have to be launched some distance from the fighting. And the only way he could achieve that distance was probably by digging more underground tunnels. While he was no stranger to underground construction, having hollowed out and used many asteroids before for various reasons. Austin was starting to find planet side construction far more problematic, especially since, with the village now more or less secured and safe, he could no longer neglect his attempts to limit environmental damage. He could not completely forego it as, due to his current limited military assets, the use of firebombs as propellant and similar such means was a necessity, not a luxury. Though he was desperately gathering biological samples and building up a basic seed vault to replant once everything was said and done.
Austin watched as the guards loaded another stone ball he had printed from the waste rock into the trebuchet. As 4 larger laser turrets, we're currently sitting on raised platforms around it to defend it, 2 of which were currently and slowly burning their way through sections of the exposed nest. The lasers weren't powerful enough to carve their way through the valley wall, not without spending hours and an excessive amount of energy. So instead, Austin had decided to go with a much more low tech solution and smashed it with big rocks. He also had two fireball payloads ready and waiting, if they could blow a big enough hole in the valley wall for one to hit.
However, while the nest or dungeon was somewhat exposed, allowing him to take shots at it with his lasers, he was having a very hard time doing any lasting damage. Mostly, the lasers just kept the dungeon from sealing the wounds back up. It couldn't fully regenerate the valley wall, but it could cover any hole he blew into the wall with some form of black stone.
He suspected it was something similar to Obsidian. As Obsidian was just super heated impure glass. The material was likely the cheapest and strongest thing it could make with what it had on hand.
His laser could somewhat slow it down but eventually they would need to stop to cool down, and inevitably the wound would heal over.
In an attempt to widen the gap, a second and third trebuchets were going up and would likely be ready in a day or two. Meanwhile, Austin had begun salvage operations to retrieve the gun he found in the caverns. Though how he’d get the thing to the surface and then the village after he got it operational again was still beyond him, but that was a problem he'd solve when it became a problem. Austin began to review what other options he had available. He had considered just tunneling underground and sending his forces against the dungeons and while a viable tactic. Even using shield walls and turret emplacements, he'd likely make very little progress. On top of that, one minor failure would be extremely costly. That being said, he had already begun to dig the tunnel.
As the biggest threat to his assets was their aerial advantage, despite the enemy's only aerial units being the scrap shell beetles. And while not all that hard to kill and kill on mass, their larger numbers made it harder for him to keep his units from getting overwhelmed. The tunnels limited their aerial advantage and would likely be his best bet for an assault.
That said, he needed a way to make a real nuisance of himself on multiple fronts if he was ever going to make any progress.
Thus, the trebuchets and lasers attacking the outer wall, and the two large units currently in production. The first he was calling the earthworm. It was… OK he had no good way of putting it, it was a piece of crap, slap together jury rigged and just downright ugly. He had used a few of his limited supply of shield emitters to create a force field that could be opened and closed at various points and angles. He then placed it on the front of a metal skeletal frame that resembled a cargo container with two sets of tank treads on each side. Behind the emitters in the 1st ring was a set of lasers. He did not have the facilities or capabilities to make the type of lasers he wanted. So, he had pulled apart several of his mining drones and used almost the last of his military grade laser lenses to make small turrets that could fire both military and mining lasers.
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The main difference between a military laser and a mining laser was that a mining laser was very short range with a very wide beam. A military laser was a very thin high intensity beam. It was more meant to burn small holes than melt entire objects like the mining laser.
Behind this were several arrays of mechanical arms, molecular disassemblers, and one absolutely massive tractor beam emitter. The second compartment behind the 1st use the same cargo container size frame with tank treads on each side but was a foundry that he had compacted as much as possible. And while it was not super fast, it could convert anything that, for lack of a better word, it consumed into resource units. Then, using a tractor beam pipe, which was essentially a set of ring emitters that would push items through, set in a line. It would pass through the 3rd compartment, which housed 3 miniature reactors, and into the 4th and 5th compartments. The 4th compartment was an onboard assembly Bay. Its primary purpose was meant to be producing any components to repair and maintain the worm might need.
However, it would likely also allow him to produce units for incursions at a very slow rate. It would likely be faster to get resupply from elsewhere, but it was at least somewhat effective. The last compartment was basically just an empty storage unit. This unit was basically just the cargo container with tank treads on its sides and an open door on one end, however. It had a small capacitor bank and a drone receiver, allowing it to separate from the main unit and drive back up the tunnel. However, he was hoping to set up various tractor beams to funnel the resources out of the storage unit and back up.
The worm was costly, but other than the lenses needed for the lasers and shield emitters, it was a relatively easy unit to make and took less than a day to put together once all the necessary resource units were gathered. That said, Austin had no shortage of raw resource units, but he heavily lacked the ability to process them. And while he was heavily aware that just seeking a bunch of tractor beam ants on the problem would be faster. The worms were far safer solving most issues he had with tunneling into a dungeon. On top of that, they converted any material they dug through directly into resource units instead of adding them to the piles of unprocessed material filling up every storage room and empty space he had available.
The worms worked by digging an initial shaft and setting it in place. Once inside the laser would carve away anything the tractor beam couldn't suck up. And if it found anything hostile, its shield array would slam closed a good five feet in front of it, allowing the military grade lasers to carve its way through its opponent. Even if the dungeon tried to seal over any hole he dug, the shield should be able to expand forward and hold it open. If not, the mining laser could easily cut back anything it tried to grow over it.
Unfortunately, he wasn't planning a direct assault, as according to the village leader, it was illegal to destroy a dungeon core unless absolutely necessary. Certain mages could communicate with it and through that communication, they could make it sign a magical contract limiting what it could and couldn't do. Essentially, shackling it so they could then start using it for resources. This meant killing the stupid thing was a last resort. So he had to find other ways of restraining it until such time as whoever was supposedly coming to help them arrived.
At first, he considered starving it, but just leaving it be wasn’t an option, and any attempt at forcefully containing it would be costly. Thankfully, he had no shortage of resources. His efforts in the valley were a start, but it was already firmly established outside of the valley. So, at this point, his best option was to tunnel underground to the valley wall and then set up several smaller bases up there. He wasn't willing to manufacture another worm for that idea, so he had to just start dumping the mined material into the village. Once outside the valley, he’d use his beetles and combat ants to start hunting its gathering parties.
While he currently lacked aerial surveillance to truly check if the valley was clear. But with the constant bombardment of the valley wall where the dungeon lay. He was easily able to incinerate anything that tried to enter the valley. And while the scrap shell beetles themselves were still able to cause problems. He was constantly trying to thin their numbers with his anti air. He was still working on new aerial combat units, just at a lower priority. the first of which we're just starting to join the fray.
His last and most impressive, in his opinion, project was a scaled up version of his beetle bot. Though this one would have to be a drone, as he did not have the capability to program anything smart enough to run something this large. It would essentially be a large tank sized beetle bot, though. It had 2 up armor Ford laser turrets, and with the armored plow. It looked like a cross between a rhinoceros beetle and a triceratops. It still had the censer packet like the original did, with the two turrets badly resembling secondary horns. Despite its new additional weaponry, Austin had also scaled up the original turret package. Instead of a plasma mortar, it had a tri barrel plasma launcher. Instead of the standard laser, it had one of the larger lasers he was currently using to carve into the valley wall. And instead of a standard machine gun, it had a rail cannon. It was slower, he would admit, but it had far more stomping power it also had four of the last remaining shield arrays.
When it was complete, he would have his beetles and combat ants hunting outside the valley walls with the village providing support and artillery fire. With his new beetle tank on mobile heavy fire support and at least one worm, as he really couldn't afford to build another at the moment. Tunneling through the underground and performing small incursions, Well if this thing had wanted a war against him, that was fine. Let's see how well it handled being sieged.
