Chapter Text
The first thing Cyn felt when waking up was something heavy pushing down on her. She felt like she was buried beneath dozens and dozens of bricks, carefully placed around her body to keep her from moving.
It felt hard to breathe in, as well, which didn't help her growing panic.
She forced herself to take in as large a gulp of air as she could manage before opening her eyes.
Her eyes... which weren't working.
Now she processed the dozens of pop-ups on her visor, all freaking out about various issues. Her vision was down, her plating was cracked, her leg was disconnected— Disconnected?? Ok, let's try not to think about that.
Cyn sucked in another breath, nearly choking on the dust in the air around her. When she breathed out she could feel her breath hit something in front of her and bounce back onto her face. She really wishes she could see right now.
She tried to shimmy a little, but quickly stopped when something beside her shifted. Was that someone moving? Was that better or worse than her second idea, which was that she may be bringing down the entirety of whatever was on top of her right now. Was this what an avalanche felt like? Probably.
Oh my God. Was she in an avalanche?!
No. That makes no sense, Cyn. It was spring and her owners hadn't been planning any snowy vacations, as far as she was aware. And it was unlikely she would even be brought on one, anyways.
She attempted moving again, but stopped when she heard the sound of metal creaking on her other side. No, no, bad idea. Also, definitely not snow, which was… good? Was snow better or worse than metal?
She regained her focus, trying to take in a few more calming breaths. They weren't really calming, considering she could only bring in half the amount of air she usually could, but she began to focus a little more. She was still scared and panicked, but she'd been in a pickle or two before and had learnt that the best thing to do was figure out what was wrong before doing anything else!
So, she began trying to figure out what was around her.
She could feel things all around her. She knew that much right off the bat, but she had no idea what said things were. It felt like multiple things, considering they were everywhere. It'd have to be something pretty big and oddly shaped to surround her like this if it was one thing.
She could feels curves and dips in the metal of whatever was surrounding her, though nothing that really gave away what it was just yet. She could feel something thin snaked around one of her arms, pressed up against her side. She wiggled her fingers a bit, hoping to get close enough to touch it.
It was an arm.
A worker drone arm.
Cyn gasped, jerking her hand away. This only made everything worse, though, as it caused the pile around her to shift and fall, a crumpled piece of metal stabbing itself painfully into her stomach.
Oh, God. This wasn't just a pile of metal. These were worker drones. Many, many worker drones, all around her, pushing down on her and crushing her.
Cyn had been doing a great job of remaining calm so far, but all her efforts were useless after that realization.
She started to struggle, now overwhelmed with the need to get out of the pile of bodies. She got an arm free and began to claw at the drones around her. She couldn't see where her hand landed, which only made this worse for her. She brought down more limbs onto her, making it harder to breathe.
Something— someone? — landed on her arm, pushing it against her chest and leaving her completely stuck.
Despite her best efforts, she was truly stuck here. She cried out, hoping that maybe someone was here— another alive worker drone, a human nearby who would come dig her out, anything.
And help did come, though… not in the way she thought it would. A message appeared on her visor.
She had been ignoring her system pop-ups this entire time, but this one took up the entire screen, shutting down all the other warnings.
At first she assumed the worst. She thought that maybe this was her last warning before her body shut down for good, but as she skimmed it, she realized it was… something else.
It greeted her, acknowledging her current situation.
"I see you are [discarded],"
Discarded? Cyn had been thrown out? She knew she wasn't the best at her job, but…
She continued reading, trying to shake the feeling that gave her off. She only really skimmed it, to be honest, as she wasn't exactly in the best state of mind to consider every word carefully.
"I will not discard you
[Absolute[SysDba]]
Access? Y/N"
"Y."