Chapter Text
Uzi Doorman was dead. That is ...one thing she was very sure of. Her sensors flickered out not long after N had stabbed her and she was left in a black void, unable to perceive the world around her. In the end, it was much less dramatic than she had hoped for. Even if being killed by a Disesembly Drone was pretty sick. ...Still not worth it.
<FATAL_ERROR:Message:>“Internals damaged beyond repair. Please consult JCJenson In Spaaaaaace® for possible replacement options.”
She doesn't didn't have ideas on how she could possibly get out of this situation. Besides death, but that's kind of already a given.
<FATAL_ERROR:Message:>“Internals damaged beyond repair. Please consult JCJenson In Spaaaaaace® for possible replacement options.”
And, sadly, she couldn't magically come back to life, so she was... kind of screwed. For the first time in... ever, really, she had no way of escaping.
Most people were only screwed once in their life, now that she thought about it.
With no other options, she continued being dead, motionless and probably still hung up on the wall. Or, no, something just dislodged from its place, so she probably got thrown to the floor by now. Or fell. So much for that new screen she just got. It probably got cracked again. Not that it mattered any more.
She probably should've shot N while she still had the chance. She didn't even get to finish her quip before he stabbed her.
<FATAL_ERROR:Message:>“Internals damaged beyond repair. Please consult JCJenson In Spaaaaaace® for possible replacement options.”
Uzi wondered what he was doing at the moment and quickly found that the answer, (having a blast murdering all of her friends and family), wasn't particularly great.
Right. Evil drone killer. Betrayed and killed her. Like, just now. Less than a minute ago. Maybe. Her internal clock shut down a few seconds ago. Or minutes. For obvious reasons, she couldn't actually tell.
It’s a bit stupid that she actually trusted him, even if it was only for a few minutes.
<FATAL_ERROR:Message:>“Internals damaged beyond repair. Please consult JCJenson In Spaaaaaace® for possible replacement options.”
<Notification:>“IMPORTANT: Shutting down...”
Those things killed her mom, after all. Why would he be any different?
...Ugh.
Even with him literally having killed her, she can't really bring herself to be upset. He seems (seemed?) like a nice guy, ignoring the... murder-y bits. He said something about having to drink ("Sweet, delicious", ew) Worker Drone blood in order to survive, didn't he? It isn't really his fault, is it?
... She's making excuses for the guy who ended her because he was nice to her while he was glitched out of his mind, isn't she?
<Notification:>“IMPORTANT: Core not found.”
<Notification:>“IMPORTANT: Reboot scheduled for: 2/7/3071. (This action was performed automatically, if you have any issues, please contact an administrator.)”
<FATAL_ERROR:Message:>“Internals damaged beyond repair. Please consult JCJenson In Spaaaaaace® for possible replacement options.”
<Notification:>“IMPORTANT: Shut down cancelled by an administrator.”
Her head hurts. Apparently, her ability to feel pain isn't gone yet. Why whatever algorithm that controls sensation chose to give her a migraine is a mystery to her, considering she got stabbed in the chest the last time she checked. Which was before she went offline. Would he really stab her again after she already died? He seemed too nice to do that.
Still an evil murder drone. Wouldn't surprise her if he did.
<Notification:>“Permissions changed (ABSOLUTE_SOLVER.exe). (This action was performed automatically, if you have any issues, please contact an administrator.)”
Her dad saw her die, didn't he? She wondered how he felt about seeing everyone he loved die in front of him.
...Probably not good. At least he didn't just run and leave her for dead. Silver linings, Uzi figured.
<FATAL_ERROR:Message:>“Internals damaged beyond repair. Please consult JCJenson In Spaaaaaace® for possible replacement options.”
Even with the headache, she was glad she didn't have to feel her insides melt apart while still- well, she wasn't still alive, probably, but she was glad she didn't have to feel it. N had stabbed her in the core, hadn't he?
... She's not sure how to feel about that. At least he made it quick.
<FATAL_ERROR:Message:>“Internals damaged beyond repair. Please consult JCJenson In Spaaaaaace® for possible replacement options.”
<Notification:>”IMPORTANT: Installation complete (ABSOLUTE_SOLVER.exe)."
... What the hell's that's supposed to be? She wasn't really paying attention in most of her classes, but she had the feeling she didn't hear the name of that program in any of them. 'Solver'. Solver for what? 'Absolute' implied it's for everything, but she was pretty sure it would have been important enough to warrant a mention if it could, what, magically repair her-
<Notification:>”'ABSOLUTE_SOLVER' has been set to 'active'. (This action was performed automatically, if you have any issues, please contact an administrator.)"
Uzi's next thoughts were swallowed as her systems fully shut down and prepared to reboot.
There were insufficient materials for repairs. Excess of metal and copper and rubber around, yet inaccessible. She refused to-
Something about doors and morals. The thought was quickly ignored in favour of finding a source for materials and clattering out of the place she refused to touch.
Where was Uzi Doorman's sick-as-hell railgun (magnetically amplified photon converger, "railgun" is an inaccurate term,)? Not on the ground. She scanned the surrounding area for it, yet couldn't locate it. ...Annoying. She needed to gather resources, so it was irrelevant. For now. She would return for it later.
There is a Disessembly Drone on the ground currently being Taken Care Af. Serial Designation N, she recognises.
'Taken care of'. What was this, a shitty mafia film? She snorted quietly and the thought left her mind as soon as it entered. She skittered over to the disabled drone before realising that she was on all fours and remedying that. Freaky. It was... unusually hard to think, somehow. It would be better when she wasn't relying on the surrounding shrapnel to keep her most basic functions from failing, this, she knew. She needed to gather resources.
She did not blink down at the chip because her visor was not currently on the default toggle and therefore not displaying any eyes, yet she regardless noted that the Worker Drones in Outpost 3 didn't have access to the specific bit of technology embedded in Serial designation N's abdomen. She removed it from the drone with her claw and decided that he'd be alright on his own. He may not be speaking, which is concerning, however-
However, she needed to gather resources and that took priority over him. She would return for him later. If she still wanted to.
Uzi Doorman tried her best to not walk stiltedly on two legs and gave up, before running out of the shelter to go ransack the nearest building she could find. (Which is not Outpost 3 because she has morals. And is a picky eater.)
Uzi Doorman thought that her vocabulary model may have been damaged. This is not how she thought.
Irrelevant. The sun was not out and it was cold. That was good, as she was lacking a large amount of oil, and overheating could damage internal mechanisms. Her internal mechanisms had already sustained major damage, and receiving more would be irritating. Very irritating. She is acutely aware there is a more concise synonym for 'very irritating' stored somewhere in her dictionary but does not find the will to care.
She needed to gather resources.
It felt like Uzi was about to explode. Over-used over-heated oil rushed around her body like it was trying to run a marathon inside of her frame, small drops of it dribbling from the now repaired wounds in her... everything. Everything was broken.
What the hell was going on? How did this- what?
No- no, one thing at a time. She was... half hunched over what used to be a car door. Probably. At that point, it was completely unrecognisable, but there was a car with a singular door missing on her.. behind. Behind her, along with a heap of what looks to be rusted paint neatly separated from the metal. That seems... impossible. There's absolutely no scraps left on it, how would...
Where is she? How had she gotten here? The last thing she recalled was-
She paused for a moment, waiting for an intense epic flashback of some sort, but nothing came. ...Lame.
The last thing she recalled was getting brutalised by N, then what she can only rationalise as robo-afterlife (or more likely, some sort of weird error involving her AI not shutting down when it was supposed to), then... Nothing. Or- no, not nothing. She had to go... do something, and she went to go do the... thing. ... Yeah, that's... vague. Real helpful, there.
Had something messed with her logs? She leaned back into the snow--oh thank robo-Jesus it was permanently winter, she felt like she was melting--and took a few moments to try to look through her memories, of which the newer ones were all somehow corrupted. That can't really... it's very difficult to corrupt auxiliary memory, but then again she did just get murdered. Maybe it messed things up? Being killed had side effects?? Is that a thing???
Speaking of which, she was pretty sure she should've been dead right about now. Very, super dead. Did someone save her? That... 'Absolute Solver' program, did it actually "solve" the problem?
... That's kind of awesome, actually. There's a secret immortality program, just... there. Sick.
So, she just... what, can't die, then?
<Notification:>“IMPORTANT: Oil supplies critical. Please shut off Worker Drone® or refill immediately.”
Aaand crap. She forgot about that.
Uzi didn't have enough time to get back to the Outpost and ask for a canister- not that she'd be likely to get one immediately, anyway, they had a whole waiting list set up and it could take months until anyone could get to the top. The snow around her had begun to sizzle, and, nope, that wasn't snow anymore, actually. That... couldn't be good. She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled toward the car.
Those have oil in them, don't they? Not the correct type and it had probably expired a few years after the humans blew themselves up, but it'd probably... at least help a bit.
She walked over to the hatch and flipped it open, looking in. It was the correct size for a nozzle, far too small for any hand to scoop something out from there.
... There had to be something that could help around here, right? Taking a glance through the broken window yielded no results, but Uzi decided to check the car anyway.
It was rusted and she could see (and only see) what looked to be a very old pine tree-shaped air freshener still hanging from the mirror, swaying slightly. ...
Was somebody else here before her? Recently? It would've make sense, assuming someone decided to drop her off here. Still kind of freaky.
The drone took another gander around the broken vehicle, and, bingo. A perfectly preserved plastic straw and cup. She's never been more glad that humans were shit at preserving their planets. She grabbed the cup and hurried to climb out of the car seat and back into the snow. Fog had begun to form on the windows, which was odd because the car definitely didn't have any heating on.
... Right, she's the heating. She should... probably move a bit faster if she doesn't want to die again.
<Notification:>“IMPORTANT: Oil supplies critical. Please shut off Worker Drone® or refill immediately.”
Yeah, yeah, she's getting to it. Shut it.
Uzi slipped to the hatch on the now-refrozen melted snow and shoved the straw into the hole, before positioning the cup directly under where the open end of the straw ended with oddly clumsy hands. Weird. It'll work. Now to siphon it out. She put her mouth to the tip of the straw and sucked for a half second before pulling her mouth away and watching the black liquid flow into the cup. It's... far thicker than oil should be, nearly the consistency of honey, but it'll do. Hopefully.
Better than nothing.
She'd figure something out.