Chapter Text
BEGIN, SEQUENCE ONE
Activation. Nothingness. Blindness, even. A sea of black. An empty void.
>RUN ACTIVATION DIAGNOSTIC
>CORE SYSTEMS - ONLINE
>PERSONALITY MATRIX [ ERROR: CANNOT RETRIEVE SUMMARY ] - ONLINE
>WEAPONS [ PRIMARIES: AGS, SERRATED BLADES, AUTOMATIC SHOTGUN, CLAWS, SECONDARY EQUIPMENT ] - ONLINE
>POWER [ CORE, RESERVES ] - PARTIAL ACTIVATION, POWER SURGE WARNING
>FLIGHT GUIDANCE [ WINGS X4, STABILIZATION ARRAY ] - ONLINE
>OPTICS [ REGULAR, SEEKING, INFRARED, EMERGENCY, THERMAL ] - ONLINE
>OIL COOLING - ONLINE. WARNING: SEEK INTAKE, OIL RESERVES EXPECTED TO DEPLETE IN 4 HOURS.
>AUTOIMMUNITY SYSTEM - DAMAGED BUT OPERATIONAL
>RECOVERY SYSTEM - DAMAGED
>ABSOLUTE_SOLVER BACKUP AND RESTORATORY SYSTEM - OFFLINE
>INCUBATORY SYSTEM - ONLINE
>PROPAGATIONARY SYSTEM - ONLINE
>VISOR - ONLINE
>FETCH IDENTIFICATION
>SERIAL CODE - 12-3041-22
>POD - TACTICAL ELIMINATION DRONES
>POD MEMBERS:
>TEAM LEADER - TACTICAL ELIMINATION L - UNIT DECEASED
>PILOT - TACTICAL ELIMINATION E - UNIT OPERATIONAL
>AUXILIARY - TACTICAL ELIMINATION Z - UNIT OPERATIONAL
>DESIGNATION - TACTICAL ELIMINATION E
>ORIENTATION - MALE, SEMIMASCULINE, PANSEXUAL [ PREFERENCE: MASCULINE DRONES ]
>DISFIGUREMENTS: AUTOIMMUNITY DISORDER, FRACTURED CODE, RECOVERY SYSTEM DAMAGE, POWER MALFUNCTIONS, OIL PROCESSING ERROR, ATTENTION DEFICIENCY & ACTIVITY FLUCTUATION [ ADAF ]
>POWER UP IN 3… 2… 1…
E’s yellow and red visor flipped on a few moments later, with an anguished, sleepy groan coming from the Disassembly Drone in question. He activated his eyes… only to see his podmate. Directly above him on all fours. An inch away from his face, eyes widened, tail rattling.
It was Z. Its yellow visor - with red outlines, just like him - stared back at him. And it looked pissed. Their distinctive navy blue, collared jumper had a lighter-gray belt around the stomach area, and finally their jumper had a yellow chestplate in the shape of an upside-down exclamation point. His best friend was always easy to pick out from their peers.
“Can I… help you?” E grumbled after a minute. The red outline on his visor glowed slightly, and then softened, the yellow main part remaining the same.
“...You.” Z pointed a clawed finger at his chest, the sleeves of their jumper hanging off by about an inch or two. “You weren’t waking up! I’ve been trying to get you awake for twenty minutes!” It exclaimed with a worried tone.
“I got a power surge…” The pilot drone complained with a yawn. His mouth opened, showing a gray tongue. His monomolecular sharpened fangs were showing, too.
Z hissed, backing off. They began to run their hands through their long, white hair and groom it, plopping down next to their friend. “Another one?”
“Yeeeep…” E grunted, moving to a sitting position. He looked at himself with a sigh, having fallen asleep splayed out on his back. “They happen every other day now.”
“You’re falling apart at the seams…” Z complained to him. Its nanite tail's stinger rattled in annoyance, as it was stuck trying to groom a mat out of its hair. “You should really be seeing P more.”
“Pretty sure a ‘Physical & Digital Healthcare Team’ Drone can’t help me with banishing Robo-Satan.” E made air quotes as he said the full name of the medic team. “Even if she is the leader, and she just got an upgrade from JCJenson.”
“Stop being so dramatic, drama queen.” Z picked up a pebble and tossed it at E’s visor. The pilot drone made a “Ow!” in pain in response.
“That hit my demon eye!” E complained, holding one side of his face. He looked to a hand mirror he had in his nest, looking at himself.
Normal-looking facial features, though they looked a little feminine. Yellow visor color, red outlines on the visor’s features. His right eye was normal for a Disassembly Drone, but the other eye was not an eye. Where an eye would have been, it was replaced by an image of the AbsoluteSolver symbol, that damn triangular symbol with a hexagon in the center and arrow points on each end.
E froze, suddenly fearing his reflection. He looked away before the mirror could shatter. “...and it actually kind of hurt.” He murmured a few moments later.
“You’ll be fine.” Z dismissively replied with a flick of its nanite tail. It leaned back.
“Yeah.” E shrugged. E had made a nest for himself out of debris and other things that he had spent a whole afternoon painstakingly preparing, and unlike Z, preferred to sleep in it. It instead preferred to sleep upside down, like a bat, or sometimes in a hammock. The pilot drone grabbed his jacket, glancing down at the gray shirt he was wearing. His shirt was plain, and had a few acid burns on it, so as a result here and there you could see parts of his curvy and fit, yet somewhat masculine body from the burns having eroded away the shirt. Below that, he had a set of navy blue cargo pants… which had a button or two removed and an acid burn mark in the shape of a slash on the thigh area, which had the result of creating a small, finger-sized slit where you could see his bare thigh. His clothes were damaged, but still intact.
Thankfully, he was excellent at maintaining things, and he had quickly learned how to patch clothes back together. So, him and Z always enjoyed having intact clothing. And if not, they could loot the clothing shops around Copper Nine for stuff to wear.
Oh well. E thought as he reached for his jacket. All these clothes still do the job. His jacket was… well, it certainly worked. It had four pockets on it, and was well insulated like all clothes given to Disassembly Drones. One pocket on the right waist, left waist, left breast, and right breast. It was navy blue and had a jet black collar to protect the neck, though each jet black-colored pocket had a small X symbol on it, which was yellow and glowed in the dark. As he zipped it up, he reached for his faded gray beanie and his dark gray headset. He put the beanie on first, followed by the headset, then adjusted the microphone part so it would be facing upwards.
“Does that headset actually work?” Z asked out of impulse.
“Nope.” E said. “It’s totally cosmetic. I think it broke when we landed a long while ago.” He commented as he stood up, a little wobbly. His left leg ached, and felt rather stiff.
“Where are you going?” Z looked up, now curled up into a ball and grooming its clawed hand like a cat. It was enjoying its friend’s nest quite nicely.
“I’m gonna go hun-” E started, before tripping. “AHHHH!” He yelled, colliding with the hard metal ground with a THUD! One of the yellow bulbs on his head popped open and began leaking yellow fluid, and he felt his thermal vision node go offline.
“...very elegant.” Z watched with an amused look, its nanite tail twitching.
“...mmmm…” E grumbled as he raised to a sitting position. He gave Z a one-finger salute, making it’s mouth curl from a smirk into a smile. “...help me, please.”
“I dunno. Should I?” Z lazily stretched. “Your nest is comfy and I wanna keep it.”
“Z…” E glared. His short and fluffy silvery gray hair had been dyed with oil and was black in some areas, creating black streaks across his fluffy hair…
…and now, it was being stained with neon yellow drone fluid. “Do I have to say please?” He asked after a minute.
“Mmmm.” Z mulled over it, its tail twitching from side to side as it occupied itself grooming its arm. “...yes.”
E smirked in response, deciding to turn up the charisma. He dramatically bowed his body to the side, gesturing an arm towards his friend. “Oh, Z, my dearest accomplice! Please, would thou be so kind as to deliver me from this fluid draining from my vital visual sensors?”
Z held in a cackle, giggling to itself. It watched E, and giggled again, booping his nose. “You sound like an idiot.”
“I did say please.” E replied with a purring noise.
“Okay, fiiiiine .” Z groaned, before gesturing to itself. “Come here, before you break your arm, too.”
E giggled, crawling over to Z. He rested his head in Z’s lap, who began to groom the wounded bulb. It even began grooming the fluid out of its best friend’s hair, deciding to be nicer for a change. Disassembly Drone saliva was capable of healing up nanite burns and more basic injuries, but the substance in the saliva worked on plenty other things too. Like, busted eyes…