Beginning Part-20

“Shut the fuck up, sir. You keep that shit to yourself! I don’t want to know....”
Wethers stumbled away, trailing mud and dirt and specks of blood. The doors they had entered were provided for human traffic and the corridor beyond was narrow and lined with a series of doors and lockers. A bit further to the north, however, stood a series of much larger portals, which could easily admit heavier traffic.
The corridor ended in a rail and a sideways stair, which descended into an impenetrable gloom. Wethers searched for and found a control panel, marked in the foreign language of their enemy, which the corporal apparently understood. Presently the compound came alive with light.
They went to the rail and stood in awe. Row upon row of lethal machines lined the floor. The M-Series autonomous combat drones. Ten thousand of them in this single bunker, alone.
They stood a bit taller and broader than a man on a sturdy quadruped base. Each had four manipulator arms, tipped with lethal weapons and dexterous claws. Each was as heavily armored as a small tank and as capable and lethal as the finest human soldier. Further, each was equipped with the latest high speed biotic processors, which utilized software that rendered them all but human in their decision processing characteristics. These machines could learn from their mistakes and take the initiative wherever this might be required. They could formulate their own strategies and tactics, and could collectively plan, coordinate and execute the most complex of attacks and defenses. Up to this point they were uniform to the finest degree, utilizing all the same basic hardware for structure, power and drive train. Yet each could additionally carry an individual, customized set of weapons. Most were armed for close inter-personal combat, but several hundred were armed with very heavy guns and beam generators, of the type employed against the most lethal armored or air-borne threats.