"Could you bring a message from me to your Forest King, then?"

"Outsiders can not talk to the Forest King!"

"Does that count if you're the one doing the talking?"

The spokesmachine emits a series of beeps and its spherical head twists in its socket. "Processing..."

"Outsiders can not contact the Forest King!"

"Can I contact you, and you give a report about me contacting you?"

More beeping. Also its head is beginning to emit steam.

"Cause I mean, if you relaying my words - or even just the general topic - to your king counts as a prohibited act of an outsider contacting your king, then that would imply it's prohibited for you to report on this conversation at all, which seems to run contrary to a soldier's basic obligations with regards to reporting critical intelligence - "

The beeping transitions to a high-pitched whistling and the steam grows more intense. Its head rolls faster and faster until-

-it explodes! And the machine lifeform's body slumps to the ground, now a machine deathform.

The other machines take this as an act of aggression on Bellona's part, by the way they level their spears and get set to charge.

OOPS.

Yeah she's not talking her way out of this one. Instead she claps her hands together and slams them on the ground in front of her, quickly raising an earthen wall.

"For the Forest Kingdom!" they cry in chorus, accompanied by the pitterpatter of metal feet on the ground.

Also accompanied by the sound of machines being reduced to scrap by A2's blade in the background.

Bellona vaults to the top of her wall, quickly forming spears spiking out from it and the ground, impaling any unwary enemies.

The machines do seem to have a problem with jumping, so provided she's out of reach of the spear tips, gaining height is an effective tactic.

Yep! She's well out of reach.

And between her focus and A2's blade, they mop up the group easily enough.

She hops down from the wall. "That was interesting."

"Really?"

"I actually got a chance to evaluate the machine's cognition!"

"Cognition is an optimistic word for it."

"It wasn't just randomly making noise, though. I kinda wanna talk to this king now..."

"And then kill it too?"

"Only if it attacks us first."

"So, yes."

"Don't know for sure until we try!"

"Should scout around and see if there's a trail deeper, then."