The Hypertintellect watched the advancing Pechemvarian troops and legionaries through its network of reconnaissance drones that covered its land. So far, in three battles, their combination of elite melee troops and powerful long ranged troops using chemical propellant weapons had shredded its border troops.

  A force of heavy tanks, tripods, and Subjugator-class infantry drones were already massing between the army and the central mountain ranges. The Hyperintellect looked away-meaning it changed the data sources to another general section of drones-and focused on the war as a whole.

  In the south, the Canastans continued their rapid advancement across the plains, totally vaporizing skirmish force after skirmish force.

  In the west, the heavy mounted knights and dragon riders of Maduwan and Cusson were seeing less success, but they still pushed through its drones and especially succeeded in sieges which often totally stumped the Canastans. The legionaries saw the least success overall, their massed infantry evenly matched with the heaviest troops available to the Hyperintellect.

  Generally, the united forces of man were falling into its trap. It wasn’t particularly complicated or hard to see, just something that all forces had to fear since the first days of organised warfare: the doom of armies, overextension.

  ————

  Almin and his team watched from a forested cliff as a force of drones gathered below. The region was covered in valleys and steep cliffs, great for snipers like themselves to take out casters and disrupt supply lines behind the enemy's back.

  Lining up his scope on the crystal covered shield caster drone, he steeled his sight. With a jerk of his finger, the rifle barked and kicked into his shoulder. In the distance, nary a second later, the drone exploded in a flash of purple light. The surrounding guards were instantly vaporized, and the camp of drones sprang into action like a kicked anthill.

  While he was ejecting the spent round by slamming the bolt backwards, Thea and Birgen similarly killed their choice targets in the camp. Other caster drones exploded in similarly brilliant fashion, devastating the camp.

  After quickly packing their guns away, they marched away through the forest back to the forward operating post of the scouts. “That was easy. Shockingly so.” “Ach, lad, didn’t anyone ever tell you not to say things like that?” Birgen immediately pulled out his break-action pistol and scanned the trees around them.

  Coming upon the campsite, the dwarfs' worries were all but confirmed. A battle had taken place here, with the corpses of the scouts strewn about the ground alongside some new kind of drone. The new variant seemed like a smaller combat drone, but instead of having mandibles for weapons, they simply used their razor sharp legs to gut the scouts in the camp.

  The three of them immediately circled up and scanned the treeline with their Hunter 12mm pistols. As they approached the radio set in the command tent, a crack echoed out in the forest.

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  Instantly the three of them turned to look at the noise. But as they waved their handguns about and scanned the brush, Almin heard rustling behind them. Charging from the bushes, a damaged stealth drone raised its blades and sliced at them. Almin jumped onto his compatriots and knocked them out of the way before quickly letting loose with all four of his barrels on his pistol.

  The bullets pierced the armor and struck the internal runic circuitry with the crackling of broken mana channels. Birgen too emptied his gun into the drone, but Thea luckily noticed the second one charging in and riddled it with holes as well.

  It was a brilliant plan by the drones. One would break a stick in the woods in front of them to get their attention while the other charged them from behind. Thankfully, their guns had the stopping power needed to kill the drones in time.

  Off in the distance, more gunfire and screams rang out, including the characteristic deep pounding booms of the Hunter quad-barrel pistol. Other groups of scouts were similarly under attack by the drones. The Scourge had finally gone on the offensive.

  ———

  Kyle attended the 23rd meeting of the campaign so far. The de-facto head of logistics, a short and portly man named Davin Jahn, gave a report. “Supply lines are steady, although we’ve had all trucks start moving in convoys since the stealth drones became common. Cascetta has nominally joined the war, they’ve sent expeditionary forces to the easternmost regions of the scourge.”

  “Very good. What have the scouts reported about the force massing ahead of us?” Carkh answered that time. “It’s a force of some 20,000 drones. But they’re not the real strength of the force ahead-dozens of devastators and intimidators are also present. Not to mention the large force of caster drones accompanying them.”

  Kyle stood up and began gesticulating with his hands. “Here’s my plan. The terrain around here are sparsely forested hills, which we can use to our advantage. We’re going to form a huge battle line to wipe out the large force of drones as efficiently as possible. With our replenished forces of, now 11 thousand I think, we can surely output enough fire to kill them off.”

  “What of the enemy superunits, lord?” The assembled officers muttered in agreement. “The Maduwanian Dragon Knights will summarily take care of them. They’ll hammer them with aerial fire alongside the Sky Destroyer, and the mortar corps will finish them off.”

  “Splendid. When will the adjutant from Maduwan arrive?” “Later tonight, and we’ll begin the assault in two days. Meeting dismissed.” The officers filed out of the tent, and Kyle relaxed in a chair next to his armor while it continued to chip away at the satellites full encryption.

  ————

  Marquis Fenta?il de Narcan was a short and portly man, with thinning brown hair and brown eyes. The adjutant from the Royal Army of Maduwan, he was a famed Dragon Lancer who had served in places as far away as the campaigns against the blood elves or nathurbin in the frozen north.

  Kyle found him slightly annoying. Although he seemed capable enough, he cared for his social image too much and strictly followed the various chivalric codes famous in his homeland.

  His dragon was a sleek black beast, nearly 65 feet long from head to tail named Desomorifine. Supposedly smarter than a human, it could breathe a sort of black mist that could vaporize solid matter if it stayed in contact with it for too long. Kyle had asked for samples, but the great Dragonflights of the southern kingdoms only worked with humanity on the condition of protection from studying. He had been politely declined.

  In any case, the reinforcements would be put to the test in the upcoming battle.