Chapter Text
Uzi let out a sigh as the Bunker doors shut behind her. She had successfully snuck out for the second time this week. Why was she sneaking out? Well, she needed a specific part for her pet project. A single fusion cell was all she required to finish her Sick as Hell Railgun. She had tried to find one on her first excursion, and she had managed to find one… the issue was that it was in the Murder Spire, where the Murder Drones lived. She had gotten so very close, but one of those damned Disassemblers had returned from hunting, and Uzi didn’t have a way to fight back, so she had to give up and flee before she became an easy meal. This time however, Uzi had come prepared. She had stolen a combat knife and a Glock 17 from the Bunker’s armory. While she would’ve preferred to have some more firepower, but this was the best she could manage until she got that fusion cell. Once she finished her railgun, it would be game over for the Murder Drones. The pistol and knife were entirely for a last-ditch self-defense situation and would hopefully be enough to dissuade any hungry MDs. Hopefully…
The Emo made her way towards the Spire, trudging through the knee-deep toxic snow that covered the surface of Copper-9. It wasn’t long before she could see the twisting tower of corpses. It stood out from the destroyed buildings and ruined streets that surrounded it. Its architecture was both alien and macabre. The structure was an abhorrent mass grave, made up entirely of unfortunate victims of the Murder Drone scourge that plagued the planet. It was at least a hundred feet tall, and the mere sight of it sent shivers up and down Uzi’s robotic spine. She took a deep breath and turned the feelings of unease into grim determination. She would run in, grab the fusion cell, get out, complete her railgun, and blast all of the MDs straight to hell.
Pushing through her initial apprehension, Uzi marched her way up to the Spire and peered in. Upon seeing that there were no Disassembly Drones inside, she went inside and began looking for the fusion cell. She had spotted it by the strange pod that sat in the middle of the oddly empty space in the center of the Spire. The cell was fairly easy to spot thanks to the faint green glow it emitted. With her target spotted, Uzi quickly made her way over and went to grab her prize, but before she could, a voice from above suddenly spoke out, frightening the purple-haired Worker.
”What do we have here? Back again, I see. I thought you would’ve learned to stay away after the first time I scared you off, but maybe you just thought I hadn’t seen you. Or maybe you’re just a special kind of stupid.” A saccharine voice said from above, a hint of sadistic mania adding a very dangerous aura to it. Uzi threw herself backwards, narrowly avoiding the savage claws of a Disassembly Drone as they dropped down, landing right where Uzi had just been standing.
”…You again.” Uzi spat as V slowly stood up and glared at her with that violent yellow cross on her visor, a too wide and violent smile completing the monstrous look of the Murder Drone. This was the same Disassembler that had chased off the Emo Drone last time.
”Why in the world would you come back here again? It’s almost like you want to get torn apart.” V laughed as she got ready to pounce on Uzi.
”That’s none of your business.” The defiant Worker said as she drew her knife and unholstered her pistol, ready to fight. She refused to let her fear and uncertainty show, but it was there, nonetheless.
”Oh, you wanna fight? Hahahahahahahahaha! Now this should be fun!” V shot forward at surprising speed, with Uzi barely managed to roll out of the way to avoid being bisected. The mauve-haired girl fired a trio of shots at her attacker, but the bullets were blocked by the Murder Drone’s bladed wings. V retaliated by switching her claws out for her SMG and firing a burst of rounds at Uzi, who dove behind a pile of frozen corpses. The Worker flinched as bullets tore into the cover she was hiding behind and whizzed over her head.
’I just gotta get the cell and get out!’ Uzi thought to herself as she sprinted out from behind the pile, firing at the MD as she ran. Except V wasn’t where Uzi thought she was. The MD had repositioned to be closer to the pod, and Uzi all but ran right into her clutches. V used her tail to trip the Worker before dropping down and pinning her, knocking the pistol out of Uzi’s hands.
”Looks like I got you now!” V gloated as she and Uzi began to wrestle, with the smaller and weaker Worker being at a clear disadvantage. The Emo girl dodged a strike from the acid equipped tail that had been aimed at her face. She could feel the air rush past as the dangerous appendage stabbed into the ground next to her head, causing her eyes to hollow in response to the close call. Thinking quickly and frantically, Uzi bit the tail as hard as she could, managing to completely sever the end of it.
V let out shriek of pain and momentarily weakened as she was caught completely off guard by the bite attack. Seeing her opportunity, Uzi shoved the murderous girl off of her and stabbed V in the stomach with her combat knife. Unfortunately, she couldn’t pull the knife out in time before the Disassembler swiped at her with her claws. Uzi had to leave the knife in V to avoid the strike, the Worker instead opting to get her pistol. She stood up quickly while V was still reeling from the bite and stab combo.
Uzi snatched her pistol out of the snow and ran towards the fusion cell. She hadn’t even gotten four steps away before V tore the knife out of herself with an animalistic snarl and launched it at the purple toaster with enough force for the knife to break the sound barrier. It hurtled past Uzi, missing her by a millimeter, taking some of her violet locks with it as it struck the pod handle-first, the force of the impact denting the side of the pod significantly.
”Holy shit!” Uzi exclaimed as she staggered off to the side. She turned and quickly fired the rest of her magazine at the Murder Drone, but her aim was sloppy, so she missed most of her shots as V rushed towards her and attempted to amputate her legs with a low strike. Uzi flipped over the attack as if she was the MC of some anime. V scowled as her attack was evaded in such an over-the-top manner. The MD jumped up and onto the pod so she could a brief respite to let her wounds heal a bit.
’This little shit is actually putting up a pretty good fight.’ V thought to herself, both impressed and incredibly pissed off.
Uzi reloaded and grabbed her, surprisingly undamaged, knife. She only had one more mag for her gun, so she would have to make it count. She looked around, trying to find the fusion cell. It wasn’t where it had been mere seconds before. Where had it possibly gone? She continued looking around in a panicked and aggravated manner as she knew that this reprieve wouldn’t last for much longer. This was her chance to grab the all-important item, if only she could find it!
”Looking for this?” V asked provokingly as she stood up and held out the fusion cell in a taunting manner as she looked down at Uzi with a sneer. Her wounds had almost entirely healed already, and she was ready to make some Worker filet.
”What the-?! Oh, God damn it…” Uzi grumbled as she saw that V had not only completely regenerated, but also had the very thing she was after. ‘She must’ve plucked the cell up when she ran past me. She definitely noticed I was focused on grabbing it. I can’t win this fight if she can heal mid-fight, especially not if this just becomes a game of keep away.’
On top of Uzi’s previous worries, a new one made itself known. She could hear the metallic sound of Disassembly Drone wings approaching. Once more, it would seem she would have to return home empty handed. But that was better than getting cut to pieces by two Murder Drones. With a frustrated huff, Uzi turned and began running away. V let out a laugh as she launched up off the pod, soaring high into the air before diving after her prey like a falcon.
”Bite me!” Uzi shouted as she fired off multiple shots back at her pursuer. All but one missed their mark, but the one bullet that hit V had clipped the base of one of her wings, causing her to lose control and begin plummeting towards the ground. The Disassembler managed to turn the out-of-control descent into a graceful roll as she hit the ground which left her kneeling instead of face down in the snow. V retracted her claws as she watched Uzi escape with narrowed eyes. While she wanted to chase the Worker down and pry her open like a sardine can, she had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last she would she of the feisty drone.
At least she knew what toaster had been after. The fight had been the most fun V had experienced in a long while. Maybe she wouldn’t get rid of the cell, but instead use it to bait her new rival into another duel. But for now, V wanted to get away from the Spire. She recognized the distinct sound of J’s wings nearing the Spire, and she didn’t feel like explaining how she failed to kill a lone Worker, or why there was a sizable dent in the pod now. What was that knife made out of anyways? It was completely fine after being absolutely beamed into the side of the pod at Mach fuck…
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Uzi let out a deep sigh of disappointment as she entered her house. She had been so tantalizingly close to getting the fusion cell. But now, she might not get another chance to get it. The Murder Drone had figured out what she was after and would probably destroy it or hide it far out of reach. The Emo quietly opened the door to her father’s room and placed the keycard she stole back where it belonged before slinking off to her room.
Despite being back inside the Bunker where it was safe, Uzi was still on edge after that fight. That was the closest she had ever come to dying, and the stress of that was still fresh in her mind. She couldn’t even hope of going to sleep like this. She needed to calm down, and the young Worker knew exactly how to do it. She haphazardly dropped her weapons on her desk as she plopped herself down into her comfy chair, switching on her custom-made PC and her high-end monitor as she did. With a practiced motion, Uzi took her wireless headset and put it on and then booted up one of her favorite games: Helldivers 2.
Once she loaded in, she made her way over to the map-table and selected a random Terminid planet. She was close to getting all of the ship upgrade modules, all she needed now was a few more Super Samples and she’d be set. She selected a difficulty 7 mission and exited out of the map table. While Uzi was good at the game, she wouldn’t be opposed to having some help on this higher difficulty mission. Unfortunately, she had literally no friends to play with.
While the mauve-haired girl knew it was a waste of time, she did wait to see if someone might join her. She had her lobby settings to public, and higher difficulty missions tended to have people join you… Or at least that’s how Uzi thought it worked anyways. She doubted anyone would, and if anyone did that they would stay if they recognized her username or voice. But the smallest bit of optimism deep in her soul gave her pause and demanded that she simply wait a moment and see. Maybe, by a miracle, someone actually would join.
And lo and behold, someone did! The notification that someone joined her game shocked Uzi.
’V!olent-Viol!ns has joined the mission.’
’Interesting username…’ Uzi thought to herself as she read the notification. It seemed that the person was taking a while to load in… Bad wifi perhaps?
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A few minutes ago, with V
V had left the Spire and made her way to her secret spot. It was a location only she knew about, meaning it was the perfect place to get away from her squad. What was this secret place? It was a small apartment in one of the dozens of apartment complexes that littered the city. What was special about it, was the near impeccable condition it was in. It was clean, the windows were intact, there wasn’t any snow on the floor, it even had electricity, but most importantly, it housed a fully functioning high-end gaming rig. A very expensive custom PC sat in the bedroom of the apartment, along with two large monitors that were at least 4k, maybe even better.
Why did V care about that? Well, besides an intact set up like this being impossibly rare, it also allowed the female Disassembler to steal the previous owner’s Steam account and have unlimited access to their game library. After a small bit of totally expert level hacking, V had managed to change the username from the old one to V!olent-Viol!ns. It was nice to have a personalized username, even if there was no point for it since there wasn’t anyone to play with, as none of the other Disassembler squads had access to a computer. Whenever V wasn’t playing games, she was watching the seemingly endless amount of anime she had access to, thanks to the many streaming services, legal and illegal, that were on the computer. There was only one thing V liked nearly as much as tearing apart a hapless Worker Drone, and that was getting away from her insufferable squadmates, sitting down and playing a game or watching anime, and relaxing after a long night of hunting.
V slipped into the apartment, shutting the door behind her as she flicked on the lights. While most would consider the fairly small living space cramped, V found it cozy and pleasant, especially since she didn’t have to pay exorbitant amounts of rent for it. With a few strides, the Disassembly Drone crossed the room, opened the fridge, and grabbed a nice cooled can of oil. With her beverage secured, she headed to the bedroom and sat down in the comfy gaming chair. Her tail, very carefully, clicked the power button on the computer. A short while later, the monitors automatically turned on and displayed the desktop.
”Hmm… What to play, what to play?” V wondered aloud as she looked over the many games presented before her. Normally she would try something new, but tonight she was feeling like playing something more familiar. So, she immediately launched Helldivers 2. She quickly loaded into the game and went over to the map table to select a planet and mission. The Bugs were the most appealing to fight right now, so she selected one of the Terminid controlled planets and went to choose a mission when she saw something she hadn’t in the 100+ hours she had put into the game. An open lobby she could join. There was only the host in it.
’Did someone from another squad find or make a PC?’ V thought to herself as she hovered over the join option. It was the only thing that made sense to her. Curiosity spurred her forward, and she joined the lobby. She swiftly grabbed the headset that rested on the desk next to the mouse and slightly cringed. It was probably the cheapest headset ever. The headphones on it were decent, but in V’s experimenting, she found the microphone to be about on par with an Xbox 360 era mic. But at least it would let her easily communicate with whoever this other player was, even if they would be hearing her in the auditory equivalent of 144p quality.
It took a bit for her to load in, a slightly concerning amount of time. Either her Wifi was absolute dog water, or she was trying to join someone who was inside a literal bunker. Probably just her wifi.
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Back to the present, with both Uzi and V this time
Finally, after at least a minute, the V!olent-Viol!ns person loaded into Uzi’s lobby. While she had been waiting, the Emo girl had quickly switched on a voice changer. It wasn’t much, all it did was deepen her voice slightly, just enough to be somewhat unrecognizable. She was using a voice changer because of one particularly bad experience she had a while ago. Someone from her class had joined her game, and upon recognizing her voice, instantly left the game. It kinda hurt her feelings, not that she’d ever admit that.
”Hello?” V asked once she finally loaded in, a small pang of nervous anxiety ringing in the back of her mind. She hoped the other person had a mic so it wouldn’t be a one-sided conversation. That’d be awkward. Uzi had to keep herself from laughing when she heard the horrible quality of V’s mic.
”Yo, why’s your mic so bad?” Uzi asked with a laugh after she flipped her own mic down.
”Hey! It’s the best I have! Besides, you can’t be making fun if me with a username like DarkXwolf17!” V retorted with a snicker. She hadn’t noticed the username until now, and wow, it screamed ‘I made this account when I was eight’ vibes so hard.
”Well, uh, I made this account when I was like twelve! Bite me!” Uzi tried and failed to come up with a comeback, but failed, so she resorted to her usual catchphrase. There was something about this person’s voice that sounded familiar to Uzi, but she couldn’t decipher what it was because of how bad their mic quality was.
‘Mmm, Twelve, not eight. I was close though.’ V thought to herself. Something about this person seemed familiar to V, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She just shrugged it off, wanting to actually play a few missions before she inevitably had to head back to the Spire.
”As much as I’d love to keep talking shit, how about we actually start the mission?” V asked as she walked over to the Hellpods.
”Yeah, let’s get this started.” Uzi also went over to the Hellpods and they got in. They quickly chose where they would land, made their loadouts, and started the mission.
They landed on the desert planet and immediately called in their equipment. There were no enemies around, meaning they had some time before the chaos started. Uzi called in and collected her Guard Dog Rover (the laser one) and flamethrower, while V called down her Commando launcher and Shield Generator backpack. With their stuff called in, the duo quickly surveyed the area. And much to Uzi’s surprise, they had landed within eyeshot of the infamous rock where the Super Samples spawned.
”Huh. That makes things infinitely easier.” Uzi ran over and collected the precious samples necessary for the last upgrade she so desperately wanted.
”Now we just gotta complete the mission and get them all the way to extract. Easier said than done.” V said as she marked the nearest Bug nursery they had to destroy.
The first two objectives were surprisingly easy to complete thanks to the incendiary grenades and Orbital Gas Strikes they brought specifically for the Bug Breaches. They were mostly lucky that a Bile Titan had yet to spawn, as that would no doubt be a bit of a problem. After only twenty minutes, they had taken out most of the nests on the way to the third, keeping the number of bugs attacking them relatively low, but it wasn’t enough. As soon as they started on the third and final Nursery, all hell broke loose.
”Oh shit! We have a massive wave!” Uzi called out with some worry as she began mag dumping into the large horde of Hunters, Warriors, and even a few Brood Commanders that had spawned a short distance away.
”We have two Chargers and I only have enough in my Commando to kill one and I still have a minute left before I can call in another!” V reported as she narrowly dodged one of the Chargers as it rushed towards her. ‘How come they’re all on me?’ V thought sourly as most of the horde was bearing down on her as she fought desperately to survive.
”Make that three Chargers! This is some bullshit!” Uzi complained as she was forced to run away from the objective as a large squad of hunters were after her plus the third Charger that was now on her as well.
”Oh, and that’s a Titan! Great- WHY’S IT AFTER ME!?” V screeched as the freshly spawned Bile Titan began chasing after her alongside almost everything else that had spawned.
”Lead them away and I’ll finish the objective!” Uzi ordered as she used her flamethrower to melt the crowd that was after her, dodging the Charger as she killed it mid-charge, the body nearly crushing her.
V killed one of the Chargers and called in another Commando, making sure to throw the beacon far away from her as she called in an Orbital Gas strike right on top of her position. She cleared the area before the strike came in, landing right amongst the throng of bugs. Unfortunately, it did little to the remaining Charger and the menacing Titan, but the gas easily killed everything else, which gave V some much needed reprieve so she could deal with the heavy units.
With only the Charger and Bile Titan remaining, V dashed towards the new Commando she had just called in. She grabbed the launcher, narrowly dodged an attack from the Titan, and blasted the Charger to hell. The Titan attempted to hit her with a ranged attack, giving the Disassembler the perfect opportunity to call a Precision Strike on it. Just as the Titan was about to blast V, the Precision Strike hit it, killing it instantly. Meanwhile, Uzi had managed to get to the terminal and start the Nuke countdown thanks to V’s efforts as a distraction.
”Well, that was intense. I’m surprised we haven’t died yet-“ Uzi jinxed herself and was immediately punished for her hubris. Just as she was running out of the blast radius of the Nuke, a Stalker appeared and sent her flying back just as it exploded. The objective blew up and Uzi was absolutely atomized. She was stunned into silence by the event. V on the other hand…
”BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” V was dying of laughter. She had never seen a funnier death in a game, and likely would never see one nearly as good as that every again.
”…What the fuck was that?! That’s some bullshit!” Uzi complained angrily as V called her back in. Luckily, the samples had landed safely nearby. The Emo girl immediately killed the Stalker and went and grabbed her stuff.
”That was fuckin’ perfect, that’s what it was.” V said as she finally stopped laughing, “You gotta be the unluckiest person ever, Darkwolf.”
”Yeah, don’t I know it…” Uzi muttered sourly, “We are definitely destroying the Stalker nest before we call in extract. I hate those bastards…” Her initial frustration faded as she also chuckled at her ridiculous death.
The duo found the Stalker Lair and destroyed it, along with a Spore Spewer that was a little too close to the extraction point for their liking. The extraction was fairly uneventful, at least for the difficulty they were on, and Pelican-1 arrived quickly. But before Uzi could get on the ship, V meleed her which caused her character to ragdoll.
”Last one on the shuttle is bad at the game!” V called out in a sing-song voice as she boarded the shuttle.
”Oh, that’s how you wanna play?” Uzi asked as she pulled out a grenade and threw it into the ship, burning V to death while she couldn’t move.
”What!? I didn’t know you could do that!” V was absolutely flabbergasted as she was completely helpless to prevent her death.
”Hah! L bozo!” Uzi laughed as she extracted, not even respawning her comrade before she did.
"Man, fuck you.” V laughed light-heartedly. She actually found that quite humorous.
Uzi and V continued playing for a few more missions, enjoying each other’s company greatly as they did. They were both good at the game, meaning most missions went well which allowed them to prank each other and goof off a bit, but when things got intense, they could both lock in and deal with the threat. Usually, V acted as bait, luring away the enemies while Uzi completed the objectives and collected the samples. But, as it was getting late (or early, cause it was like 5 AM), both girls had to log off.
”It was fun playing with you, Violins. We make a good team.” Uzi sighed as she stretched in her seat before reclining in her seat.
”Yeah, that was a lot of fun! We should do it again sometime, Darkwolf.” V agreed as she finished off her can of oil.
”Oh, uh, here let me friend you then.” Uzi said, trying her best to not sound too excited. Was she actually going to have a friend? Sure, it would only be online, but that didn’t matter to her. Uzi sent V!olent-Viol!ns a friend request through Steam. It took a second, which definitely 100%, for sure, didn’t freak Uzi out a little, but V received it and accepted it.
”There we go, friend request accepted.” V said with a nod, “Well, I’ll talk to you later.”
”Yup! Can’t wait to play again!”
They both exchanged their farewells and logged off. Both of them were excited at the prospect of having a friend. Uzi was excited that someone didn’t find her mere presence annoying, while V was glad to have someone to play games with. She didn’t mind playing by herself, but it was more fun playing with someone else, especially someone who didn’t get on her nerves. They were both genuinely looking forward to playing together again. But little did they know, they would end up seeing each other in person before they would get to play together again…
Ultra dramatic “Dun dun dun!!”