Chapter Text
Chapter 5 - Gathering Murder
Although, Copper 9 had been primarily inhabited by worker drones, the planet also has had a sizable population of humans. Originally those people had been mechanics, technicians and scientists to carry out maintenance work on the drones while the planet was mined for its natural resources, hence the name Copper 9. Once a foothold was eatablished and habitation became possible, the population of the planet increased exponentially with humans settling on the exoplanet to support the growing population and diverge the overpopulation of other human colonies onto planets such as this one. What began with fortified science outposts and the necessary accommodations to maximize work efficiency and habitation grew into cities with people from all walks of life and professions in the span of half a century.
Population centers and factories were not the only man-made on the planet though as there had to be other systems in place to support and provide for the population and those were preferably far away from where the general populace lived and worked. Either because it was unpleasant to them such as the garbage disposal facilities and industrial complexes or because the general populace wasn't supposed to know about them.
There wasn't much need for worker drones out in the relatively barren wilderness of the dead planet aside from mining operations or construction work to develop more of the surface. With humanity gone for years and the worker drone population forced into hiding during the night, plenty of places have fallen into a state of disrepair without the maintenance work. The few still functioning systems of infrastructure were either deep underground or much like the drones themselves constructed in a way that would last for a long time even under harsh conditions and years of weathering. Not exactly something one would think when seeing tilted or collapsed towers with power lines hanging from then like the branches of a willow tree, swaying in the harsh wind slightly, while their ends were half buried in snow and ice.
The sound of a snowmobile racing over the ice was barely even audible over the loud whistling of the wind as yet another storm moved over the planet. The beam of its headlight barely cut through the wall if airborne ice and dust, limiting the two drivers' vision to barely a few meters ahead. One sat at the front and steered, the other sat behind them with rifle on their back.
When the vehicle came to a stop, it stood in the middle of nowhere with nothing but some collapsed radio tower further in the distance, which in the snowstorm appeared like little more than a silhouette in the distance. A rumble shook the ground slightly and the snow in front of it began to seemingly sink down. The pristine cover of white was split open like a ravine when two heavy metal doors slid open into their hinges a large platform rose with yellow and black striped guardrails, which then collapsed into the platform. The two drones drove their vehicle onto the platform and the guardrails rose up again before the elevator began its descent and the door closed again, leaving behind nothing than a quickly vanishing track as it was covered by the snow.
The elevator ride was a slow one with only the lights mounted on the shafts wall moving past the platform and the rather loud thrum of machinery echoing through the rather narrow space.
"They seriously need to put some elevator music on this thing." The drone with the rifle muttered to himself, only to be nudged into his side by the driver's elbow. Despite both wearing helmets and goggles covering their faces, it didn't take a genius to figure out that one was giving the other a pointed look.
Shortly after, the elevator arrived in a large hangar with various vehicles stored in them and drones maintaining them. Most of them were old mining and construction vehicles used to expand the tunnels and transport the mined rock to the surface. Others like snowmobiles and armored transports were out of place. Once the elevator came to a stop, the two drivers unloaded their cargo while a mechanic walked over already with a clipboard in hand and a frown on his face.
"You better found something worthwhile out there. Using that elevator isn't exactly cheap." He said, while noting something down on his board.
"Maybe we wouldn't have to use it if the people in charge of keeping the other exits operational did their jobs right." The gunner said.
"Are the other transports back already, Martin?" The driver asked, ignoring his colleague's snide remark, while the mechanic nodded.
"They are. Managed to haul in some big catch." Martin said pointing with his pen towards something else in the hangar. It was a tank. While still encrusted with ice, it looked quite good in shape.
"Holy motherboard..." The gunner said while laughing.
"A beauty, ain't she? They found her in some old warehouse under some tarp. Strange how the others never found it." Martin said, before shrugging. "A few repairs here and there and maybe having to fix the internal systems and she should be good to go."
"You seriously need a girlfriend." The driver said, while Martin started to sputter.
"I am in no need for such... obscene relationships..."
"Sure, but if we catch you doing who knows what to that things cannon barrel or exhaust, we know where you live." The gunner smirked before carrying his box away, followed shortly after by the drover patting Martin on the back.
"O-Oh yeah... well, don't come to me to fix that rifle of yours next time then, okay? You hear me?" Martin called after the gunner, who didn't react at all, while a few other mechanics chuckled to themselves.
In another part of the former mine, the place had been outfitted with metal flooring, walls and ceiling, giving it an appearance more akin to a military base. Several worker drones sat in front of consoles and reviewed footage from cameras. Some were close to those place, some hidden in the ruins of far away cities. A heavy automated door opened with a hiss as a worker drone stepped into the command center, wearing a jacket with a green and brown camouflage pattern as he walked towards one of the stations.
"So, anything new on those things?" He asked as he looked at the monitor, displaying camera feeds in different locations. All of which though showed, the jagged silhouettes of giant spires made of dead drones in the night. Monitoring the activity of the disassembly drones was no easy task. Setting up cameras alone had been risky and needed to be done in a way so that the flying death machines wouldn't even notice them. Not to mention with how spaced out the spires were on the surface had given them quite a few headaches just to set it all up. But the data they had gathered from it was invaluable that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to gather. It allowed them several insights into their enemy such as the fact that each spire housed a squad of three and each squad seemingly having their own hunting ground as dissassembly drones of one group never really ventured into the territory of another.
The drone in the army jacket tightened his grip as he watched with crossed arms as another one of the winged monsters flew up to one of the spires and landed there with a worker drone it is clutches before digging into its still living prey. The scowl only deepened at the sight of this. Worker drones of different colonies called the murder machines all sorts of things. Sky demons, murder drones, genocide robots, killer angels and so on. To him, they were simply monsters. Monsters, that needed to be hunted, killed and wiped out for good before they did the same with remaining worker drones on this world.
"It would appear that they have abandoned their nests in the sectors 4 and 7, sir." The voice of the drone sitting at the console tore him out of his thoughts as it was a rather unusual claim.
"Abandoned? What you mean by that?" He asked as the other drone already typed away on their keyboard for a moment, before the screen changed and displayed a map of the area with two dots moving away from a jagged icon like an inverted thunderbolt symbolizing the location of the spires.
"See, they are heading somewhere outside their usual hunting grounds. Strangely enough, both groups have been doing so since they left their spires at sunset."
"That's... very strange. Any idea why?"
"Not that we can say, sir. If I had to take a guess, it appears that they are heading somewhere, though I cannot say where since it appears they are not converging on a singular position. Here. One group is going one way and the other heading another way from what we have managed to monitor. Unfortunately, we cannot say what the connection to this is as we have no visuals in that area."
"That's concerning..." The drone in the army jacket said, before he picked up a cup of coolant on the other drone's table, who looked like he wanted to say something in protest as he took a large sip. "Do we have any teams in that area?"
"Unfortunately not, sir. We'll have to try and see what is there once dawn comes."
"Understood. Prepare two teams immediately to head out an hour before dawn." The drone said, before putting the empty cup down again, causing the other to grab it and look into it with a disappointed look. He was about to leave, when another drone spoke up.
"Sir Mayor. Francis from research wanted to speak to you. He said something about a potential breakthrough." The mayor simply nodded before left the room to make his way deeper down towards the laboratory of their research department. Still, the news of the unusual disassembly drone movements made his frown deepen as he knew that whatever those things were doing could not be good.
Buildings and other man-made structures and objects, that had fallen into a state of disrepair over the course of the years since all organic life went extinct on the planet, were truly nothing special. There was hardly ever a time N had turned his head and didn't see the weathered remains of the city's ruins around him. However, the area that J's squad was currently flying over appeared to be even more in disrepair with entire buildings having collapsed over time or looking like they were about to. As such N's eyes wandered around a lot these parts as it was not their typical hunting ground or their quadrant for that matter in the first place, scanning the ground for any traces of potential prey, only to snap his head up again and look forward when J led V and him further away from their spire.
J had explained it rather simple for him as a meeting of them, another squad as well as another disassembly drone called M, who was effectively hosting this meeting in her squad's territory in order to discuss the situation with the armed worker drone resistance. When asked how she could even make contact with them despite their ship's rather sorry state, N learned that the squad leaders were apparently outfitted with a messaging function to keep in contact with one another in case a problem required additional assistance from another squad. That made total sense to him and in a way he was actually looking forward to meeting a few other disassembly drones. Not that he didn't like his squad, but he really hadn't met anyone else for the years they had been deployed on this world and being a rather friendly person, he loved meeting other people.
Which was why he was a bit confused when both J and V looked like they would rather not attend the meeting as soon as J reluctantly told them about M and the K's squad. Even right now, both of his fellow squadmates frowned slightly as they shot through the sky, but N figured that there was likely a reason why they seemed to have some sort of apprehension towards them. Although a small part of him wondered if that apprehension might also stem from the coma he had been in for almost a month and thus perhaps damaged the image of J's squad.
"Whoa!" He was a bit lost in thought when J suddenly dove down as did V, causing him to quickly turn around and swoop down towards the ground. 'Come on. It can't be that bad right. Just try and do your best as always.' He thought optimistically as he landed on the ground and folded his wings into his back and moved over to where J and V had landed. The trio stood in front of a small concrete building, that had half collapsed. Despite that N could identify it as the entryway of a subway station. "They had a subway on this planet?" He thought to himself slightly confused as he had always thought Copper 9 had been just a mining planet.
"Duh. With the many people, who used to live on this world, they wouldn't have been able to keep the city running without public transports, if everyone used a car." J said as if it was obvious. She moved towards the entry and started to squeeze herself through a rather narrow gap into the building. N and V looked at one another for a moment before they heard J talking from behind the fallen debris. "What are you waiting for? A written notice?" At that V looked like she wanted to say something, while N was already moving with haste to try and squeeze himself through. Being the tallest of the three, he hit his head a few times on blocks of concrete while V simply slipped through without much problem. Once inside, the disassembly drone descended a small staircase into a lower level where another set of stairs led to the platform. But that was not where J was going. Instead, she approached a rather strange sight in N'sopinion. An vending machine, displaying a bunch of human candy and snack in some of the slots, although most of them were empty. As J stood in front of it, she fished something out of her suit's pocket, which looked like silver coin, before inserting it into the slot.
"Uhm... Is this really the place?" N asked to which V replied.
"No, but it is where we need to be to get to the rendezvous location." She said with a smile, while J pressed the buttons on the side of the machine to select one of the empty slots. Shortly afterwards, the wall next to it opened up sideways. N gaped at the hidden door and then into a dimly lit stairwell leading further down.
"Oh..." N said as he was both in awe at the hidden door and how it was hidden so well as well as in slight apprehension as he couldn't see the end of the staircase from the top. He snapped out of his thoughts when J patted him on the back, causing him to jump slightly.
"Get a grip, N. This place is harmless." She said, flipping one of her twintails behind her back before descending down into the stairs. "Get going. We have a train to catch." As J went down, V followed suit and N finally stepped into the narrow tunnel just before the door closed behind them. For a the duration of their descent, none of them said a word, though both J and V occassionally glanced back as if to make sure that those behind either of them were coming. It was also seeminglylonger than the staircase, leading them deeper underground. That silence was broken when J reached the bottom of the stairs and the bottom level lit up with fluroescent lights buzzing on a ceiling. V reached the bottom shortly after only for something to catch her attention that made her smirk slightly.
"Sweet. First class seats, huh?" She said, looking at J. The squad leader didn't humor her with a reply as N finally made it down himself and to also look at what had caught V's attention. The three of them had found themselves on another platform. But there was only one track, which was occupied by what looked like pristine looking silvery white train. The whole vehicle had only one wagon and was short, but it looked surprisingly good for a planet that had been laying in ruin for so long. Even the platform looked as if it had been constructed but never used with small piles of dust having falled from the ceiling above.
"M is one for theatrics." J simply said, while she found N and V gaping at the train. "But I have to admit, she is good at what she is doing." With that she simply approached the train's doors, which opened almost without a sound. The other two disassembly drones followed their leader inside only to find themselves yet again overwhelmed. Instead of rows of seats on either side, the train was more like a living space with arm chairs and a couch arranged around a small table, curtains and even a carpet rolled out. All in all, it looked like a high class luxury area.
The doors shut behind the two drones and the train's engine began to hum to live, before starting roll out of the platform and into the tunnel. Right after that a small camera on a multi-jointed arm came out of a ceiling panel and turned at the three disassembly drone.
"Good evening J. I see you and your squad have arrived safely." A feminine voice rang through the speakers as the camera moved over the individual drones of the trio for a moment, before looking back at J. "I hope you had no trouble arriving in the current weather."
"No. We did not." J said before moving over to one of the arm chairs and sitting down. "Let's skip the pleasantries M and get down to business."
"Understood, however our business will have to be concluded during our meeting." M replied through the train's speaker. J frowned at that, before letting herself sink deeper into the backrest of the chair. The camera moved over and looked back at N and V as the former looked a bit weirded out by the situation and the latter narrowed her eyes at the camera's lens. "I assure you, there is no need to be apprehensive. I have prepared this vehicle for your journey to ensure your utmost comfort."
"Yeah, really comfortable being watched all the time." V said, clearly not trusting a word coming through the speaker. 'Couldn't she have just spoken through the speaker without something like that looking down at us?' She thought to herself. It reminded her too much of something she'd rather forget...
"Uhm... thanks." N said hesitantly as he awkwardly walked over to the couch and sat down on one end, before looking over to V as did J. Rolling her eyes with a click of her tongue, V walked over and sat down right beside N on the couch.
"Your praises are most appreciated." M said as the camera moved closer to him, almost getting in his face as it looked him up and down for a moment, which in turn made him slightly uncomfortable. "Hm... I wonder..." N suddenly felt a pair of hands grab his shoulders and pull him away from it while V glared at the camera. For a moment it lingered on, before retracting slightly. "Apologies, I believe we are not familiar with one another. I am Serial Designation M, but we will meet one another in person shortly."
"Uh... yeah... I'm Serial Designation N. Nice to meet you." He said as he looked a bit confused at V, who let go of his shoulders. J rolled her eyes before looking at the camera M was remote controlling.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't try and scout my employees, M. How long until we arrive?" J asked the fellow squad leader, who turned to her.
"Very well, the train ride will only take about an hour before arriving near the assigned location. From there it is only a short distance by flight." The camera then retracted back into the ceiling, while a panel in the ground next to the table opened. "In the meantime, I have prepared refreshments for the duration of the ride. Feel free to eat." M's voice rang through the speakers in her business-like tone, while a robotic arm placed something onto the table. Instantly, the scent of oil hit the noses of all three present disassembly drone making them look at the rather large plate placed onto the table. "Freshly disposed of and with very little physical trauma. Do not worry, I have not laced them with anything. Enjoy." There was a short sound at the end as the connection was cut and the compartments closed once more, before classical music started to quietly play in the background.
Meanwhile, J, N and V looked at what had been placed in front of them. Sitting on the table was now a large place with the corpses of two worker drones, one male and one female. Other than the gunshot wounds straight through their visors, both bodies showed no other injuries as both had been stripped bare of any clothing. However, that didn't mean they had not been tempered with as both of them had been cut open with surgical precision, revealing the contents of their torso like a fancy dish prepared for high society guests. Placed between the two bodies were three wine glasses as well as a wine bottle filled with black liquid, clearly meant for J's squad in case they felt more like drinking in a more civilized manner than just drinking straight from the source.
Again, N was quite weirded out by this, while J and V rolled their eyes at M's attempt to butter them up. Still J picked up a glass and the bottle before pouring herself a drink.
"Like I said, M is quite good at what she is doing." She said as she smiled a bit, slightly amused by N's expression. Meanwhile, V just shoved a hand into the closest drone's open chest and tore some vital components out, before eating them and tearing off an arm to chew on it afterwards. At the same time, N sat a bit awkwardly next to her, though the reason for his awkward silence wasn't V or the J or the way the workers had been presented to them.
'Oh biscuits, I hope we don't have to host a meeting like this if this is the standard...' He thought to himself.
True to M's word, the train came to a halt roughly an hour after their initial departure inside another subway station. As J's squad departed from the train, V had pretty much eaten the entire female drone's body, while J had enjoyed her single glass of oil like fine wine. N, on the other hand, hadn't eaten, although he did feel a bit hungry. Something about the situation just seemed off to him in a way he couldn't explain. There was nothing wrong with the food or anything, but rather the atmosphere seemed strangely familiar. Like he had been in this sort of situation before. Not to mention that he had indeed helped V once with removing one of the female drone's legs by cutting it off like how one would expect someone to cut off a leg from a roasted chicken or another type of poultry, when V tried to just tear it off. Something about that just felt... natural in a sense.
Regardless, once the three climbed up another staircase, they found themselves on a plaza in another city with a few large boulders placed in the middle of it. The whole place was devoid of any destroyed worker drones, leaving only a pristine and untouched white sheet of freshly fallen snow. Aside from a few dead trees and shrubs around what used to be a park, there was just no trace of any life around, whether organic or synthetic.
"Looks like we are the first to arrive." J said more to herself than the others as they were all looking around the unfamiliar city with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension at how quiet it was. Checking her internal clock, J actually found that they were a few minutes early. Sighing quietly to herself she turned to the others. "Alright, listen up. I don't want any fights or anything of the sort. We discuss how to move forward and then we leave. Got it, V?" J asked, looking directly at the other female disassembly drone.
"Why do you think I would start a fight? Aren't I always at my best behavior?" V sounded almost insulted by J's assumption as she crossed her arms.
"That's exactly why." J said, before turning to N. "And you... don't do anything stupid."
"Uhm... like what?" N asked sounding a bit unsure what to make of J's statement, which caused her frown to deepen.
"Like sounding like some intern trying to hold a presentation in front of a company president like that." J said as she crossed her arms. "Don't talk unless you're talked to. Don't say anything that's not related to the topic. And don't try and make friends with K's squad." The last one caused V to also frown and huff quietly upon J mentioning the other squad's leader. At that N looked a bit confused at the two again.
"Did something happen between you guys?" N's question made both girls look at him with wide eyes, before he quickly realized how that sounded. "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you got your reasons. You just don't seem to be very... fond of this K person and his squad." At that V chuckled a bit.
"'Not being fond' would be a light way of 'saying hating his guts'." She said with a small smirk, causing N to look at her with a frown.
"Look, the only thing you need to know about them is that you best don't try and befriend them." J said. "Try and be cordial, but nothing beyond that. Got it? Good." She didn't wait for N to respond as she turned her back to him. 'He better not insinuate anything having ever happened or else...' She thought with her tail whipping the air behind her like the tail of an agitated cat. N looked at J's back for a moment but didn't say a word as he turned to V, who just shook her head to discourage him from saying anything.
The three of them just stood there for a moment longer just before a blur of yellow shot through the air behind them and moved straight towards them. More specifically, it moved straight for V. Turning around to see the incoming projectile, N moved in between V and the attacker just in time to raise a wing to block a powerful kick, that sent him flying backwards. J and V instantly looked alarmed and switched their hands for guns when N flew past them and almost hit the ground before he managed to push the attacker off.
"Haha. V, you're getting rusty... hey, you are not V!" A female disassembly drone with her white hair tied into a single ponytail said as she landed on the ground behind N. Looking at J and V now behind him and then moving closer to get a good look, her lips tugged up into a small smile. "Ah, I see. You are that 'useless heap of metal' J always complains about. My, she never said anything about you being quite the looker." N took a step backwards as he was not quite sure how to respond to the very mixed signals he was getting from this disassembly drone as her smile widened and she leaned closer. "I'm G, by the way. Nice to meet you, handsome." N felt warmth rush into his head at the compliment, just before he was pulled backwards by V, who looked like she was ready to pounce on the newcomer and tear her apart limb for limb.
"Get away from him, you glitch." She said with one of her eyes replaced by a X, while J glared daggers at G, who shrugged non-chalantly.
"Oh come on, V. Don't be such a party popper. A little love tap like that wouldn't have hurt you... much." G's posture was relaxed and utterly unimpressed with the unspoken threat from V, who only grit her teeth even harder.
"Careful, Serial Designation G." J said as she put her claws away and getting the attention of the newcomer. "We are only here to discuss something and this is not your turf, so don't forget yourself." She narrowed her eyes at G, who raised her hands in mock surrender.
"Fine, geez. Why do you always act like you got a stick shoved up your behind? Are you wearing that skirt to hide it?" She simply replied, causing J switch one hand into a gun and mutter something under her breath about cost-cutting measures. She was about to train it at G, when two more figures swooped in above her squad as one landed on top of the largest of the boulders and the other simply landed near a park bench near G.
"Calm down, ladies. No need to start fighting because of G being a bit playful." The drone on top of the boulder said with a slight smirk, which turned into a frown when he set his eyes on N. "Oh, the waste of space is alive. And here I was getting my hopes up. What a shame." He said while literally looking down at N as if the male member of J's squad was a glaring eyesore on an otherwise fine picture.
"I'd refrain from criticizing my squad when one of your own just attacked mine without provocation, K." J said with her glare hardening at the fellow squad leader, who slid down from the rock he was perched on and landed on the ground below.
"Easy there, Ms. Lowest Kill Count of the Month." K said in a smug tone as he walked over. "G over there just wanted to play a little. Nothing serious." He stopped when he was a bit more than an arm's length in front of J with his arms crossed with a small smirk. "But we can always talk a bit more about discipline after this meeting. Just a quick private chat." He was a bit taller than N, only by a few centimeters; but still taller than J as he looked down at her. She didn't look away though when she scoffed at the suggestion.
"Having a conversation with you would be a waste of time, so don't even entertain the thought of some collaborative work between us." She said, before switching her gun for a blade. N, who stood between J and V also felt a growing urge to try and stop things from escalating as he frowned at how the other squad leader talked to J.
"Really? Cause judging by the numbers, you could need some advice on to reign in your subordinates to be more... productive." K said as J's glare hardened even more. V also looked more annoyed at K, but her main focus was on J, who looked about ready to jump at K and try to kill him for criticizing her work methods as well as the thinly veiled implications of his words. Much to her surprise though, N moved between J and K with a quick step and a strained smile.
"Yeah, that would be because of me." He said with an awkward look on his face and rubbing the back of his head, before saluting. "Uh... I'm Serial Designation N, nice to meet you... uhm sir? Mister? Sorry, I don't quite know what to say here..." N stumbled over his words for a moment, while J shot him a surprised look. Meanwhile, K's face soured for a moment and looked like he wanted to say something, before he took a step back and turned to V and his mood seemed to improve again.
"Whatever. Perhaps your subordinate would like to-"
"Don't. Even." V's reply was as cold as ice as she turned her glare from G to K. Again, K's face darkened a bit at the rejection.
"Why, you little bi-" He was about to say something and took a step forward, making N move as well to try and position himself between K and V, which only seemed direct K's anger to him next. N would lie if he said that he felt slightly uneasy by the way K looked at him.
"Boss." L's calm voice made K turn towards him angrily, while the other disassembly drone simply continued to look unimpressed. "M is going to arrive in just a bit."
"Tch!" K clicked his tongue before walking back to G, who had watched the whole exchange with an amused look on her face. On his way, K bumped hard into L's shoulder who didn't even react to the provocation at all and simply rolled his shoulder. With the conflict averted, N looked over to J with a slightly worried look.
However, before he got the chance to ask whether she was okay, a long, multi-jointed mechanical arm tipped with a pincer of sorts suddenly shot out of the line of dead trees and grabbed him by the back, hoisting him up into the air and pulling him back towards another figure moving into the park. Before N knew it, he was face to face with another disassembly drone with short white hair and a braided ponytail.
"Hm... no external deformities or anomalies. How curious." She said in a familiar tone. "I wonder how it is on the inside though... Perhaps at another time." Then N was moved away from her by the same tendril holding him and placing him back down onto the ground where he staggered backwards in shock. The reason for his surprise was quite understandable as the person he recognized as M looked quite different from the other disassembly drones he knew. The arm that had grabbed him was joined by a multipltude of other similar limbs that M had on her back instead of wings. Three of those were like the spindly limbs of a spider and actually moved her across the ground without her normal feet even touching the snow. Other limbs had blades, drills, saws, syringes and even some guns attached to them, while her regular arms were normal.
"M, please do not dissect my squad members." J said as she and V moved over to N, while M crawled over the boulders K had landed on, perching on top of them like a praying mantis.
"Of course, J. I apologize for my curiousity having gotten the better of me there for a second." M smiled in a professional manner, before turning her attention towards K's squad with a smaller smile. "I see you have made quite the entrance already, K."
"Oh shut it you crazy hag." He said in a dismissive tone. "Keep your freakish limbs to yourself or grab the other bug freak." He said nodding to L, who again didn't react to the provocation at all. He just stood there with an unreadable expression and nodded towards M, while G smiled.
"Hi, M. Thanks for the ride, by the way."
"I'm pleased to hear that." M smiled back at her, which seemed to frustrate K even more as she completely ignored him, despite him being the squad leader. With that M turned her attention back to J. "Now, since we are all here, we may begin our meeting." J nodded as she approached M with her squad behind her, while K crossed his arms. "As you all know, an armed group of worker drones somehow has gained access to an unknown technology capable of incapacitating and potentially killing us. An outcome that was to be expected, no matter how improbable."
"Yeah, when you are an incompetent pile of trash." K muttered under his breath, while J and V shot him a glare, although for slightly differing reasons. Meanwhile, N tried his best to ignore the insult thrown his way and just smiled awkwardly. If M heard K, she didn't react to it and simply continued.
"As the whereabouts of this group remain unknown so far, I wish to discuss a strategy moving forward to solve this issue." She concluded.
"Well, we just need to find them and wipe them out." G said with a shrug. "Plus, they've only shown up in J's quadrant so far. That got nothing to do with us, even if we could totally try and find them." M's professional smile lessened a bit at G's words before she slowly moved off of the boulder and lowered herself to the ground with the insect-like legs folding into her back.
"I would have believed so as well. That was, however, until I have found an array of motion-triggered cameras and sensors arranged around my squad's base." M said, holding up what at first looked like a rock or a piece of concrete. Only on the second glance did most of them see a small round lense of a camera on its surface, before she crushed the fake rock in her hand, causing sparks to crackle between her fingers. At that, the other disassembly drones looked slightly alarmed by this. "It would appear that our enemy is not only armed but also quite organized if they have managed to set up such an array around a base of operations while we have taken them for little more than cattle. Ladies and gentlemen, we must assume the worst-case scenario that we are dealing with an enemy that is targeting us and is likely aiming to exploit us underestimating them to attempt and kill us with the nanotechnology they have scavenged from an unknown source."
"Sounds like a load of garbage to me." K said, making even G and L look at him in disbelief. "Just because those three ran into trouble and some camera setup, you are blowing this way out of proportion." He said before clicking his tongue. "Let's go G. This was a total waste of time." K spread his wings before shooting J and V a cocky look. "Ladies." And then he took off. G followed right after him while L remained where he was and sighed.
"I apologize for my co-workers' behavior. They are not the easiest to work with. If it is not asking for too much, I'd like to review the conclusion of this meeting in written form later. Good evening." L said with a slight bow of his head, before he spread his wings and followed his two squadmates.
"This was to be expected as well unfortunately." M said before turning her attention back to J's squad. "But it will also make this conversation easier, since K isn't here to object to anything. Not that he likely had much to add to it in the first place." At that J nodded and relaxed slightly with her shoulders slumping down slightly as she and M sat down on a nearby park bench, while N and V just stood there for a moment.
"I think I'm starting to understand why you don't like K." N said quietly to which V rolled her eyes. 'And why J called M a crazy genius that leaned more into the genius than the crazy.' He thought as his eyes caught once more on the array of surgical tools and weapons on the other disassembly drone's back as she had clearly modified her own body in a way, he had not even thought about.
"Oh, you got no idea. I don't think I've never heard anything else about that guy other than him having some weird complex and being half descent while hunting." V said, before her mouth turned into a scowl. "Is your back okay?" She said, when she thought back to G trying to ambush her.
"From that kick? No, I'm good. Thanks for asking." N said, looking away a bit bashfully. "Speaking of... is she like a friend of yours?"
"More like nuisance with some serious problems up here." V said while tapping her head with one finger for emphasis when she recalled how G hadn't even wasted any time to try and be friendly with N once she had taken a good look at the male disassembly drone. 'That tramp had most definitely her eyes on him. When I catch that worthless piece of metal do as much as wink at him, I think I'll shove a missile down her...'
"I see..." N said as the silence between them felt rather awkward. "What about L though? He seems... nice. Why did K call him 'the other bug freak' though? I mean, I get why M but..."
"Him? Probably just beaten down by K so many times, he doesn't care anymore. I'd figure working with that guy when you are not a girl would do that to someone." V said with her arms crossed behind her head. "As for the other thing, apparently it has something to do with those robot roaches you see in worker colonies and crawling on their corpses. I dunno, he uses them for something." V said with a nonchalant shrug as she truly couldn't care less.
Shortly after, M stood up on her additional appendages with the sound of it, causing both N and V to look over to the two squad leaders while J called over to them.
"Our business here is finished." J said with a small frown on her face. "For now,we'll have to investigate our quadrant for any other setup traps or surveillance equipment immediately and hopefully that will give us a clue as to where those malfunctioning toasters are."
"Really? That's it?" V asked almost sounding disappointed, before J facepalmed.
"Yes, because K's squad apparently has not seen or heard of those drones before we can conclude that they likely operate from somewhere between the quadrant of M's squad and our own." She replied. "As for K and his misfit subordinates, they... might try and investigate on our hunting ground as well." That actually made V scowl.
"Oh, heck no! That creep and his needy, psycho friend with benefits can stay right where they are." She said, while N looked a bit surprised at her outburst before patting her on the shoulder even though he wanted to ask what a friend with benefits was.
"I don't like that either, but upper management has decided that." J replied, before noticing the way N was looking at her. "Anything you might want to add?"
"No, nothing! Just uhm..." N quickly said as he had caught himself staring. "Wondering if that is such a good idea since you and K... you know, didn't seem to get along so great either." He tried to say carefully, though the underlying message was pretty clear to the others as N was obviously rather concerned about J's own feelings on that matter, especially after what he had seen in the interaction between K and her as well as K and V.
A soft chuckle from M, made the others look at her as she covered her mouth with an arm. "My, I'd say you have quite the reliable coworker, Miss J." She said, before shooting N a look, that made a blush creep up his visor and in turn only made her smile grow a bit. "Apologies for my earlier abduction. That was rather unbecoming of myself as my appearance can be quite... unsettling to strangers."
"Uh... no, no. It's fine. Really. Your legs look great." N said, looking away bashfully. J and V looked at the exchange with bewilderment, while M chuckled.
"My, my, what a polite gentleman." M said before turning to J. "Are you certain you cannot spare him for a night or two? I would really like to dissect him and make sure there are no abnormalities with his regeneration after such a grievous injury."
"No. I think not. Keep your experiments to your own squad please." J said when V pulled N slightly away from M. In response to her comment, the dead vegetation in the park creaked slightly as something moved behind dead trees with a feral sounding growl. N's eyes hollowed at the sight of a yellow X shining through, but a sharp snap from M's fingers caused it to flinch back behind cover with a whine.
"Apologies, Miss J. It appears one of my subordinates acted out of line. But do not worry. I'd handle such a fine specimen with the utmost care." M said, shooting N a last looked before starting to walk away. "Feel free to leave whenever you are ready. I unfortunately was not able to provide something more entertaining for you. My sincerest apologies. Until next time then." And with that M stalked away, scaling a nearby building and disappearing from sight as J, N and V were left alone in the park by themselves.
"Well, that was a short meeting." V said offhandedly. She was both relieved that it hadn't taken too long into a boring discussion and annoyed to no end by G and K's antics.
"Indeed. Now let's get back to the train. We will have a lot to do once we are back in our base." J replied. The three of them took off and flew the short distance back to the train station they had arrived at earlier.
Once back inside the train that had brought them there in the first place, J found a silver coin identical to the one she had put into the vending machine in their quadrant sitting on the table. The three of them remained silent for the most part with V actually opting to just lay on the couch and sleep a bit, while J rested her head on her hand while her elbow was propped up on the armrest of her own seat with a permanent frown on her face. She didn't even quite realize when N had picked up her wine glass and spun it around in his fingers with a flourish befitting a professional high-end waiter until she heard the sound of oil filling her glass as he poured her a glass and held it out for her. Rolling her eyes, she took it and tilted the glass in circular motions to stir its contents gently. N meanwhile sat awkwardly in the other armchair after he put the bottle down and glanced over to V, who slept on the couch like a curled up cat.
"You didn't need to do that." J eventually broke the silence, causing N to snap out of his thoughts and imagining V with white cat ears matching her hair color. Immediately, he thought she was talking about pouring her a glass of oil and made him look at the bottle he had just set down.
"I can see if M left something else-"
"I meant earlier with K." J cut him off as he looked at her with a confused look. Normally, he would have expected her to either lash out or maybe save it for later when they were back in their spire and it was daytime, but she didn't really seem angry. Or at least not at him as she frowned at her own reflection in the glass she was holding. "I am more than capable of fighting my own battles. Harassment from some upstart like him, who should have been fired years ago, is nothing you need to concern yourself about." She told him.
"I guess. But he was taking jabs at you because of something I did and caused you guys problems." N replied, which only seemed to deepen J's frown slightly. "Maybe I could learn a thing from him. He is a squad leader like you after all." He added, which made J scoff at the mental image of N trying to be like K.
'The thing he was trying to smear as bad was you taking a hit for me.' J thought to herself, before responding. "Don't. He is just letting his temporary position get to his head right now. He can play the big, insufferable fool of a manager all he wants with his own squad. Compared to... that, you are most certainly better a better employee than him." She said, watching as N curled into a small smile at the praise. "You are still a moron though." J quickly added to not let it get to his head, although she couldn't help but smile a bit at the disappointed sound he made at that last minor jab at him before taking a sip from her glass to cool her systems down.
A quiet hiss sounded through the room when an automated door opened into a large room lined with all sorts of machines, consoles and tools. Walking past large metal cylinders filled with a green liquid substance swirling in its own, the mayor moved closer to a single desk at the end of the room before he was suddenly intercepted by another worker drone wearing a lab coat, jumping out from behind a console.
"Ah, Mister Mayor, sir. I thought you were some uninvited guests." The worker drone in the lab coat said as he quickly took a step away, almost dropping the nailgun in his head just to catch it in time. The other worker drone rolled his eyes at the scientist.
"What's with the lab coat?" The mayor asked, causing the other worker drone to look down at himself with his blue optics looking down at himself.
"Oh, this? I just thought it makes me look a bit more serious as a researcher and..." Francis stopped when the drone in the military themed jacket in front of him simply kept looking at him with no visible reaction. "No? I'll take that as a no."
"You wanted to show me something?"
"Right... Right! Sorry, almost forgot about that." Francis said before ushering the other worker drone further into the room. "I believe we have made a breakthrough in our weapon department to combat the disassembly drones. I'll tell you right now, it was not easy at all. There were a lot of lost fingers... and hands... and arms..." Francis said as the two of them arrived at an improvised shooting range. It was really just a mannequin put at the far end of a barren wall and desk with a seemingly normal looking pistol. Picking it up, Francis removed the magazine and showed its contents to the mayor. Inside the magazine was seemingly another layer of metal coating the inside while the bullets appeared to shimmer slightly in the fluid he had seen earlier. "I present to you, nanite-laced bullets. Those little guys really do love eating most metals, but now we not only trained them to not eat the bullets but to also not eat the gun as well. Which might still happen, admittedly." Francis said.
The mayor didn't react at first as he looked at the gun and Franis like a child trying to show a grownup some cool rock he had found, before replying. "And does it work?"
"Does it work... of course it works." Francis sputtered when the mayor gestured him to go ahead. At that Francis face fell a bit. "Like... right now? Okay... Just to warn you. I'm not the best gunner." He said as he slid the magazine in place, disengaged the safety of his gun and aimed at the mannequin. Finally he pulled the trigger and jumped at the loud bang, causing the bullet to hit the stone wall behind it and creating one of many small craters in the rock. "Like I said I'm not..."
The mayor didn't let him finish as he grabbed the gun and fired at the mannequin without looking at it. Instantly, the plastic model sported multiple holes which gradually started to grow as green glowing nanites began eating their way into the plastic and dismantling it from the inside out. The plastic barely hit the ground with a clatter before it split into smaller fragments that grew smaller and smaller. Wordlessly, the worker drone then put the gun down and looked at the other. "How long until you can make more?"
"Uhm... yeah, that's going to take a while. I'd say, maybe a month to outfit a whole patrol. Make that two months with the other applications we are investigating for this little weapon the humans left behind." Francis said.
"You have a week. Then I want to see results in the field." The mayor said before he started to walk away, ignoring the sputtering researcher trying to tell him that it wouldn't be possible in just a week and leaving the laboratory.