Chapter Text
Snow. Rain. Murderous Robots. These things do not concern this small pod.
It has a simple mission: Protect the unmoving Drone inside.
This Drones features look quite similar to the beings already on this planet, although with a lot thicker arms, and dressed in a sleek white hoodie.
Quite uninteresting to the low power computer.
Vrrrrrrr. Hmmmm. There is only one notable object. The origin of these noises come from a heavy metal box.
Although it looks made for travel, ‘it’ doubles as a chassis for a much more advanced computer system, boringly named ‘Backup’.
This is the only thing able to command the pod.
Currently, this ‘Backup’ has other things to do.
The pod doesn’t know what. There is no need to know.
It only knows that its job is to not let anything interrupt.
A minute passes.
The time is 26:57.
This planet rotates slower than earth does.
The computer system was forced to adjust the clock of the escape pod to account for the extra time.
It was deemed non-vital, but ‘Backup’ was insistent on knowing when night falls.
It would soon be midnight.
27:00 is the darkest hour.
An order comes in: ‘Scan surroundings for danger’.
The camera on top starts spinning.
Movement? None.
Heat signatures? None.
Electromagnetic activity? Acceptable.
The ship gives the ‘all clear’.
...
Something is moving.
Inside it.
Like an adult waking up on the weekend, the discombobulated Drone starts spewing words:
“Ughhhhh, Backup? Where are we? I’m having a hard time remembering why we are here… did something mess with my core?”
A little robotic arm, with optic sensors on the end, slithers partially out of the casing.
It seems to speak.
”Reporting! Location is archived as planet Copper 9. The scout has been restored to the previous System version 102.10.3, all files have been replaced with previously available data, any unrecognized files have been deleted.”
“Ah, a full reset...”
At least his core didn’t get overwritten.
“Copper nine, huh?”
The door flies away, a cold embrace of an endless white wasteland stretches out before him.
Lots of buildings paint the landscape to his right, a few trees covered the rest of the horizon.
“We’re quite out in the open here. How long since we’ve touched down, Backup?”
“It has been 6 years since- “
“Six years!?”
He covers his mouth… there's nothing dangerous near them, right?
“How did no one notice us here? You’d think something would have after so long.”
“Correct, multiple potential threats were spotted but avoided by activating cloak.”
“Ohhhh, cloak is such a boon. You did take pictures of whatever you’ve seen right? Ordan’s ship should have a camera.”
He takes his time removing Backup from the less-ship-more-small-pod. Sadly, the calming hums and buzzes faded away too as Z unplugged his friend.
“Pictures found. Even in low light conditions, a total of 8 unique characters were identified. Significant features are consistent with Disassembly Drones.”
He’s definitely aware of what those are.
As such he gets out of the safe (disabled) ship, standing comfortably in the wide open.
“Right, Disassembly Drones... those are for…”
Z could almost hear the frustration coming from his monotone companion.
“Created for the purpose of: Killing, murder and indiscriminate speciocide.”
“Ahh, thanks for jolting my memory… Backup? Did you only have outdated Memories to work with? Why did you have to tell me in the first place?”
No! Focus. There might still be danger around, considering the ‘Eight’ threats Backup spotted.
“Transfer the rest of the data to me, next you get the chance. I need those pictures, please.”
Another arm reaches out and starts projecting a green hue, showing images in front of Z.
The first shows a similar looking drone to Z, although much taller, with wings and claws, their eyes replaced with a simple X, topped with an admittedly great looking pilot hat.
“Why is he here?... Next picture.”
The other samples did little to clear his confusion.
“Did we land at the same time? Why is it only the three of them in newer pictures?”
The inhabitants of this planet must have managed to kill so-
His curiosity is heard. A shockwave strong enough for the air to shake in terror answers.
Ground level does not give good vantage for scouting, but the remnant of some green beam is impossible to miss even from this inopportune height.
“I-is that a regular occurrence, Backup?”
“Negative, no seismic events were recorded where data is available.”
Might be a good place to start exploring…
Well his own safety isn’t important, but Backups is, any potential risk must be kept to a minimum.
But, damn, he wants to see what caused that…
“Backup, direct us to where the pulse came from… Uhhh ‘Travel mode’ I think it was.”
‘Deep-sea creature’ would be a way to describe the multiple robotic appendages sprouting from Z’s backpack. Six new ‘Legs’ push Z and his companion into the air, one after another pulling them towards whatever managed to draw Z’s attention.
Heavenly Friend
“That’s not what I’d call normal.”
A gigantic metal tower. It dwarves many of the surrounding buildings.
From far away, you could confuse it with a crude metal pillar.
Not that far from the truth.
The Spire holds an amalgamation of destroyed and mutilated drones.
“Minor activity detected in this area.”
“Some of our friends might be here then... set me down. I want to approach them as casually as possible.”
Despite avoiding it before, Z is now willingly waddling through the admittedly shallow snow.
With heavy steps he attempts to sneak up on the spire as quietly as possible.
Despite avoiding it before, Z is now willingly waddling through the admittedly shallow snow.
With heavy steps he attempts to sneak up on the spire as quietly as possible.
While his reaction speed isn’t the slowest, his companion is still first to act as two shadows fly towards the spire, soon followed by two different ones leaving.
Backup can’t keep his maker invisible forever, even with his internal batteries.
The computer allows the cloak to fizzle out, exposing the scout to the horrible world again.
“Get a battle staff ready, Backup. In case things turn bad.”
The Backpack emits a slight hum, signifying the assembly process.
The scout manages to get to the spire without any further surprises.
There he glances at two figures, ones who appear suspiciously similar to two other people he knows.
They look at him.
Z ducks further into cover. They didn't spot him already, did they?
“Follow the blockhead. I’ll take care of that small fry.”
With a cackling laugh ‘V’ fly-jumps away while ‘J’ changes her hands into two guns.
J talks like normal? He never heard such a laugh from V though…
Maybe he can talk to J. He could initiate contact now.
Or maybe he has to.
“Heyyy J... long-time no see- AAAaaah!”
In front of his face now files a still spinning bullet only halted by Backups claw and quick reflex to protect his maker.
“D-don’t shoot at me, J! I want to talk.”
“Now, why would I want to talk to a worker drone? Especially one stupid enough to approach me.”
…is this really J?
Just talk.
J loves to talk.
“So, you do not remember me- AAAah!”
Now two times where Backup had to intervene. ‘J’ doesn’t want to end this with words.
Plan B is harder to execute, but if that thing doesn’t want to co-operate it is still be useful decommissioned.
“Battle staff, Backup. I’ll need Protocol Silverpoint active as well.”
Out of the backpack dispensed comes a highly conductive metal rod.
His hands charge in turn, ready to zap anything into a coma.
Catching the staff in style, Z takes a stance.
J responds in kind by swapping her gun hands into two singular blades.
She dashes in. Swiping at the scout struggling hit anything other than his staff.
Her second blade comes in as well, a claw shooting out of the scout’s backpack stops the attack.
A follow-up hits J straight in the face.
The electricity flowing through her upper torso and towards Backups claw isn’t enough to do any damage but is enough to keep her down as she rolls across the ground.
“Nice.” The combat data Backup saved from earth is coming in handy.
Getting back on her feet J switches to missile hands and starts unloading on Z.
He closes the distance.
Despite Backups effort, the shrapnel still pierces his hoodie.
Throwing his staff, Z attempts to break J’s shooting stance.
She dodges easily, including Z’s follow-up grapple.
An counterattack from of her tail provokes danger.
Taking the extra second to swap her guns for two sets of blades.
The former is interrupted by Backup with his claw hand, which tries to pull her closer.
Seeing the drone readying another high voltage shock, she seemingly aims for his head.
Backup pulls her tail into the air hopefully disrupting her stance, while Z closes in to grapple J.
…
J’s posture isn’t suited for striking at his head…
Only too late he sees, the attack on his head being paired with a raised leg.
A second later he lands on his back. “Ugh-“
He can’t get up.
He usually focuses on getting away from these Monsters but now it has him pinned to the ground.
His partially cut scalp does not help in the slightest.
She readies her gun hand and prepares to land the finishing blow.
“You were quite feisty for a worker drone, no wonder company wants you things gone.”
Talk. Now!
“...s-some company you work for! When was the last time you had time off?”
As he asks this seemingly inappropriate question, Backup turns a mechanical arm invisible, slowly snaking it behind J.
“It doesn’t matter how many hours I have to clock in. I’ll always do overtime for the greatest company: JCJenson!”
“Wait, you think JCJenson sent you for work? Just how much do you remember- I mean! Damn, I didn’t know JCJenson is your employer! Please tell me all about the amazing products they sell!”
“Ohh! Interested, are we? Well as a Drone by JCJenson I was programmed to love all our products equally, but our currently best-selling product would be the branded pen!”
She now holds a pristine and genuine JCJenson branded pen.
“Wow it’s... beautiful... anyone would love to have one, including the worker drone behind you!”
“I’m not falling for that, scrap metal.”
She lines up the shot.
A tap on her shoulder sends her spinning the opposite way, firing wildly, sliding her stilt looking foot off the uneven drone.
“What?” Turning back to the worker drone “What?!” How!?
In its place J saw a lot of Ultraviolet light, which is emanating from the spot where her target was at a moment ago.
The gentle moonlight masking this light with aid of the snow would have made it a very good attempt to hide.
She did notice something weird wiggling past her while she was busy with her awesome victory speech.
How dare this piece of junk tries to trick her.
J charges with her blade pointed at the ignorant light.
“AAAAHH!”
Metal shavings fly off of Zs face.
His best ability doesn’t work against her.
The scout darts towards his staff and hits the rampaging drone again.
Even with her slumped on the ground, there is no better option than running away.
He’s still dead once she recovers.
“We need a plan! She might injure you otherwise!”
“Disengaging considered viable as long as opponent is temporarily held up.”
“No. She’ll easily close the distance...”
J is incredibly stubborn, following him until the end of the world wouldn’t be unusual for her…
“Backup conserve your battery at all costs.”
“Warning: High risk of permanent shutdo-“
“I know. Keep insomnia active and we’ll be fine.”
J stands again, charging at Z with her blade.
Closing in.
First strike. Blocked.
J: “Hrrraaahahahaha!”
Second strike.
Missed.
Third strike.
Scrapes his shoulder.
Z: “Ghhaaa!”
Fourth strike.
Hits.
Z falls to the ground, his screen split open.
“That’s over… can’t say I always liked your yapping.”
J diligently cleans her weapon, ensuring it presents her appearance as confident and proper.
After, she fly-jumps away with a sulking expression.
As soon as she’s out of sight the Backpack starts Vrrrring.
“Trial: ‘Fireflies’ active. Insomnia repair procedures initialising.”
Loyal robotic arms report for duty.
A claw cleans up the damaged screen.
The soldering iron undoes the mess left on the inside, followed by a thin welding tool closing the opening.
The scratches on Z’s arm get smoothened out as well.
After a few minutes his hardware is functional again. A few parts are carried out of the backpack to replace the damaged screen.
With his maker back in working order, Backup delivers a small electrical sho- “GGAAAAAHHGGG!”
Terrible pain. But the drone finds himself alive again.
“YES! You did it!”
“Trial: ‘Fireflies’ successful.” Z goes in for a hug on his saviour. “Rec-om-men-da-tion: Avoid dangerous encounters, next time.”
“Sorry, Backup. But I couldn’t see a better way out. J being able to see through our cloak makes things a lot more complicated.”
It’s one of his trump cards.
Even the old guy ‘Ordan’ back on earth couldn’t figure out how he did it, primarily because the coding process and hardware needed both require an incredible amount of time to set up.
But now it’s useless, not even a day into his mission.
How in the f*** did the disassembly drones not cause him any issues before?
Were these ones modified to deal with his one and only ace?
She didn’t figure out a way to circumvent it, did she?
…
Either way, no plan B for him...
The cold snow provided little comfort for Z’s motionless body.
“You... did see where she went right?”
“Direction unit J continued in appeared consistent with the location of a presumed Worker drone colony. It is ill-advised to...”
“We’re going to the colony!”
“Denied!”
“Overruled! We can’t just sit and wait for her to come back. She seems to be after those ‘worker drones’. We might as well try to find more weaknesses we can exploit, especially considering we might have to go up against the others...”
“...Understood.”
“Good. Let’s get moving.”
The duration between pictures increased the longer it has been since landing.
Only N, J and V showed up in the later pictures.
Maybe the worker drones did manage to kill some…
An old intermission
He hears lots of footsteps behind Door Two. Must mean his daughter is back from taking measurements of Door One.
Better make a good impression. Good pose? Good pose. Opening the door now.
“Pretty nice hydraulics, huh? …Wh-What have you done?”
The old drone looks at his daughter only to see chaos and devastation.
A Disassembly Drone jumps in to separate the two of them. The purple drone prepares her weapon.
“This time, I won't miss!”
The monster chuckles.
“I'm sorry. I really enjoyed our time together, but I can't have you shooting V with that thing.”
Those things can speak as well?!
“Bite me! Dad, get down!”
“You brought a murder drone here?! They'll kill us all!”
“Now is not the time! I messed up, in the same way I'm about to fix it! Move, dad!”
The only response his body can muster was incredible shaking.
His daughter gets grabbed and pinned against the wall, dropping her rail-gun in the process.
“Dad… Point and shoot… trust me…!”
His body acted before his brain. The button to close the second door gets pressed.
“Dad…?”
The old drone falls to his knees… now his daughter too.
He contemplated opening the door again and going for the rail-gun.
He would only meet the same fate as her.
…
“Have to evacuate the others…”
Birds fighting Dragons
“Looks wide open...”
Z arrives at the entrance. Based on Backups scans this should be where the worker drones live.
Or ‘lived’ maybe, the sight in front of him is anything but pleasant.
An assortment of drone bodies, mutilated in all sorts of different ways, lay about.
Some still seem powered to an extent.
“Do they not have any defence capabilities besides those big doors? I guess ‘worker drones’ wouldn’t be made for fighting... doesn’t explain the green light we saw, it couldn’t have been a Disassembly Drone weapon...”
“Neither the question of: Why the population has been reduced.”
“Maybe something else took them out? Or they created a defence drone of sorts and only our ‘friends’ survived... hmmm... no matter. Start a high temperature nanite acid bath. Make a separate metal storage as well. Specifically for copper or gold, J ate through a lot of your supplies.”
Detaching, the little machine expands well beyond its original backpack size.
Growing large enough for Z to barely fit inside.
While Backup heats up the soup, Z gathers some of the more intact bodies carrying them to the hot tub.
A foul odour fills the hallway. A slightly bubbling acid bath at the perfect temperature to dissolve any drone’s material.
…
“How long do you think?”
“Processing time remaining: 12 minutes and 9 seconds.”
“Ech...”
Waiting.
Waiting and listening to the peaceful bubbling of the corrosive nanite acid.
… but through the consistent bubbling is another type of noise.
Metal on metal.
Repairing drones makes the same noise.
But this is different, less consistent. More violent.
“Are people fighting in there?”
What would have the worker drones in such a rucku- He smacks his own head.
“No, of course there’s fighting, the Disassembly Drones are in here.”
How do the Worker Drones fight against these murder machines?
“Backup, catch up with me once you’re done... digesting, okay?”
“Protest!”
That’s new. Did Backup reviving him put his helper into a bad mood?
“I... I know you’re worried, but I’ll be careful.”
“Excuses!”
The two stare at each other.
“Backing down.”
“Thank you. Join me as soon as you’re done here.”
Perhaps not the cleanest conversation he’s had with his companion, but this opportunity can’t be wasted.
His death is quite unlikely with all the potential cannon fodder to shield him.
The small hallway opens up into a gigantic room, supported by multiple pillars in the middle.
N and V are zipping around like a duo of mosquitoes further up in the air.
The pictures were accurate at least…
Why would they be fighting each other?
The scout gets closer, hiding behind one of the large supporting pillars.
There is a Worker Drone fighting his previous playmate.
She seems to be doing better than him-
Wait.
J has an EMP arm?
Why didn’t she use it against him?
He might not have made it out if she used it. Technically he did still die but…
The bomb fires.
Z is out of the blast radius, but the small Worker Drone battling J is a lot less lucky.
“Hey you hid-“ “AAAAhh!” “oh, sorry ...uhm.. you hiding here, too?”
The scout struggles to respond to this random drone who may have been standing behind him for a while now.
“You want a snack?”
He offers Z a set of batteries, held in a popcorn bag.
“...T-thanks?” Z grabs one of the snacks, staring at it as if he had accidentally accepted a party invitation.
Looking back at the stranger, he is shoving multiple batteries into his mouth, nervously watching the action happening beyond their hiding spot.
“You’re welcome! *Monch* These never fail to calm me down, and *Monch* right now I’m pretty scared. Ha ha!”
“Right…”
“I’ve never seen you before, you from our colony?”
His origins are being questioned! Quick! Make something up!
“Y-yeah no I’ve never been here. I’m more of the wandering type. Going from colony to colony.”
“Whooaaa that’s so cool! Brave too, the Murder Drones are damn terrifying!”
“I do have means to keep myself safe… or rather someone. Although he’s currently busy-“
Dissolving your dead friends… He can’t say that!
“You, okay?” the worker drone asks, along with a confused look.
“Uhh, uhh. Busy… guarding the entrance to this colony! Gotta make sure no more bad things enter… right?”
Another loud BOOM thankfully cuts the conversation short.
Perhaps the fighting has concluded?
The purple drone stands over an obliterated corpse.
Z: “She beat J?!” All the worker drones slowly come out to celebrate, including his previous interlocutor.
Another piece of comfort climbs up Zs back.
“Do not get killed.”
“And I didn’t! But I’m glad you’re back with me. Let’s see what those drones are doing.”
Backup is strapped in. Now to join the crowd.
“Holy hell, Uzi, that was insane! And you too, uh...”
“Huh? Oh! N! I’m an angsty, rebellious disassembly drone, now.”
Out of the crowd an older looking drone stands somewhat saddened. He tries to offer a hug, but the small drone starts unloading words onto him.
The amount of father issues condensed into every word she says is sickening.
Maybe Z can remedy his disgust by pressing his previous hiding buddy for questions.
“Hey, who’s the purple one?”
“Oh, hi again! Her name is Uzi. She loves tinkering with electronics, made that awesome rail-gun thing. Don’t know much about the other guy, although him showing up stopped the other two from killing me, I’m sure he’s nice.”
“Let’s go, N. Everyone here can bite me!”
The group of interest leaves.
“Uzi, huh?”
“It’s hard to get to know her, but she’s a good person. I’m sure someone like you could easily get along with her... dude?”
He turned around but the stranger is nowhere to be seen.