《Murder Drones: Connection Terminated》 Episode One: Extremely Long Origin Story [Amused Expression] How-under-whelming. You-are-telling-us-that-this-is-how-it-started? Shut up, I can¡¯t control the flow of time. Wait, can YOU control the flow of time? No-comment * * * The doctor knocked gently on the door, sliding open at the action. ¡°Come in.¡± A voice said from inside the room. The doctor shuffled into the room, clasping his hands behind his back. Inside was a sight not dissimilar to a private office, with a mahogany-oak desk and chairs, along with all the standard clutter that filled the surface of the desk. Seated on one end of the desk was a man wearing a pressed gray pinstriped suit, complete with a black tie and white undershirt. A laptop lay closed right in front of him, a familiar apple logo emblazoned on the top of it. Sitting at the other end of the desk was a man that the doctor didn¡¯t recognize, but he was wearing a labcoat much like his own, so it was possible he might¡¯ve encountered him at some point. The doctor cleared his throat. ¡°You wished to see me, Mr. Sharen?¡± Mr. Sharen nodded, gesturing towards a seat. ¡°Yes I did. Take a seat if you wish.¡± The doctor obliged, pulling out the only available chair left and plopping himself down in it. He looked towards the other man seated next to him, but if the man noticed him, he gave no indication that he had. ¡°So,¡± Mr. Sharen began. ¡°I¡¯m gonna get straight to the point. You are here because of the report you turned in on the kid with cancer.¡± The doctor shifted uncomfortably in his seat. ¡°Sir, if the report on his medical condition was unsatisfactory in any way, then-¡± Mr. Sharen shook his head. ¡°No no, the report was fine, it''s just the contents of the report that interest me, or rather, the ones more knowledgeable in matters such as that. And I believe this is also a good time to introduce Dr. Kleiner.¡± The doctor turned towards the man next to him, seeing the name tag that Dr. Kleiner had placed on his coat. ¡°Erm, hello there.¡± Dr. Kleiner blinked, turning towards the doctor as if he had just noticed he was there, sticking out a hand as well. ¡°Ah, hello, pleased to meet you.¡± The doctor frowned, but he shook Dr. Kleiner¡¯s hand nonetheless. Dr. Kleiner had a rather high-pitched voice, almost nasally in some aspects. That, coupled with a frail build and elderly face with glasses, made the man seem more mousy in build than the doctor would¡¯ve originally expected. ¡°Ahem, anyway, Dr. Kleiner here was quite interested in the contents of the report you gave.¡± Mr. Sharen explained. Dr. Kleiner turned towards the doctor. ¡°Yes, most notably the details about the brain tumor. I believe that the report said that the child¡¯s name was Jacob?¡± The doctor scratched the back of his head. ¡°I mean, I think? I wrote many reports on that day, they just kinda blended together at one point.¡± Dr. Kleiner frowned. ¡°That . . . doesn¡¯t seem like a good thing.¡± Mr. Sharen focused on the doctor with a piercing gaze. ¡°No, it isn¡¯t.¡± The doctor blanched. ¡°I, uh, um-¡± ¡°Let''s get back on track, shall we?¡± Dr. Kleiner interrupted. ¡°Now, I presume you have the report with you, Mr. Sharen?¡± Mr. Sharen nodded, reaching down into one of the drawers of his desk, pulling out a few sheets of paper bound together by a staple. He slid it across the desk to Dr. Jenson, who took it and adjusted his glasses. ¡°So, it says here that the boy had been experiencing headaches and fitful sleep patterns, which is what brought him to a clinic, correct?¡± Dr. Kleiner peered at the doctor through his glasses. ¡°Uh, yes.¡± The doctor answered. ¡°Good, now the report says that the clinic learned that the boy had supposedly suffered a head injury a week back, so they tested him for the signs of a concussion. It also says here that they did an x-ray to see if he had any skull fractures.¡± Dr. Kleiner said. ¡°Wait, didn¡¯t you read all this already? Why¡¯re you going through this again if you already know all this?¡± The doctor questioned. Dr. Jenson shot the doctor a smile. ¡°I¡¯m just corroborating what is said here with your own knowledge. Now, is everything accurate so far?¡± ¡° . . . yes?¡± The doctor sounded unsure. ¡°Very nice. Continuing on, it says here that the results of the x-ray showed some abnormal imagery that was similar to the signs of a brain tumor, so an MRI was done to confirm the possibility. And what we found was, in fact, a brain tumor, but something was¡­¡± ¡°Different.¡± * * * ¡°When we did our testing last week Mrs. Pattine, we noticed extremely irregular brain patterns that would normally indicate extreme stress upon the brain. However, Jacob seemed perfectly fine, aside from a rather annoying headache.¡± ¡°Now, I¡¯m fairly sure that anybody could deduce that that type of behavior from the brain isn¡¯t good at all. In fact, the tumor that we had diagnosed Jacob the same week, being practically the size of a peanut, has now doubled in size. Even now, the growth appears to be scaling upwards in terms of the growth rate. What was doubling in size per week, will quickly grow to quadrupling, and then quintupling. Soon, Jacob will have to undergo intense chemotherapy.¡± Jacob¡¯s mother did not seem placated, like what the doctor was trying to do, but in fact appalled. ¡°You¡¯re telling me that my son has a TUMOR in his brain?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry Mrs. Pattine, but we triple-checked the results and it came out the same.¡± The doctor, to his credit, did seem genuinely remorseful, yet not really backtracking enough to make an effective apology, more like creating a plausible justification for his actions. ¡°-however, we have a solution to this problem of Jacob¡¯s.¡± The doctor reached out to the briefcase on the table to his right, opening it. Inside of it was what appeared to be a nondescript manilla folder with a few pages tucked in. Taking it out, the doctor handed it to Mrs. Pattine. The doctor continued as Mrs. Pattine leafed through the folder. ¡°Inside that document is the full details of what we are allowed to say about a certain uh, let''s go with experimental treatment for Jacob¡¯s unique condition.¡± The doctor stated. ¡°Of course we can¡¯t exactly disclose some aspects of the treatment as they are required to be classified by my superiors, but you should find all that you need to see inside the folder.¡± ¡°As you know, blah blah blah, I¡¯m a real nerd . . .¡± Jacob leaned over his mother¡¯s shoulder to try and catch a glimpse of the words. However, when he did just that, all he saw was a collection of squiggly lines that darted around the paper, with them arranging themselves into a strange pattern reminiscent of an altered tri-pronged symbol. Huh, that probably isn¡¯t good. Tearing his eyes away from the folder, Jacob tuned back into the conversation. ¡°-and I believe that is all you would need to approve the treatment.¡± The doctor took the folder back from Mrs. Pattine, placing it back into the briefcase and closing it shut. ¡°I don¡¯t believe it. What''s the catch?¡± Mrs. Pattine glared suspiciously at the doctor. ¡°No catch, just the requirement that we are given full liberty to experiment on the tumor in Jacob¡¯s head, within legal bounds.¡± The doctor appeared to be trying to brush over that fact, but Mrs. Pattine also catched onto the important bits. ¡°You want to experiment on my son!? That sounds like a pretty big catch to me!¡± Mrs. Pattine screeched in protest, Jacob rolling his eyes as he ran his little imaginary stick-figure all around the room. ¡°It¡¯ll be within full humane laws, nothing illegal, I promise you. In fact, we¡¯ll give you even more incentive.¡± The doctor pauses, seemingly for dramatic effect. ¡°So, out with it!¡± Mrs. Pattine seems to be quite stressed, and most likely wanted nothing more than to just go home already. ¡°We¡¯ll give you a sum of thirty million dollars, after tax.¡± The doctor said plainly. Mrs. Pattine doesn¡¯t react for a moment, seemingly processing what she just heard. ¡°Th-th-thirty million dollars!?¡± Mrs. Pattine splutters in disbelief. ¡°You can¡¯t be serious!¡± The doctor chuckled. ¡°Oh but I am. We¡¯ll place it directly into your bank account, as liquid assets would likely be hard to manage for you. It¡¯ll even be covered by insurance.¡± Mrs. Pattine clearly is still suspicious. ¡°This is too good to be true.¡± ¡°I can assure you, Mrs. Pattine, it is not.¡± She looks unsure as to whether or not to take the deal, and looks off to the side for a moment as if to think. Mrs. Pattine then gets up. ¡°I need to go over this with my family.¡± Jacob didn¡¯t say anything as his mother led him out the room by hand, giving the doctor a slight smirk and a wave as he exited the room. Bet he didn¡¯t see me take a picture of that document . . . not that he would probably care, I¡¯m pretty sure my mom got the entire folder anyway. The pair walked through the front entrance of the clinic (Jacob was sure that they had entered a hospital, but who really cared?), not bothering to check out. ¡°Uh, miss? You kinda need to sign out . . . eh whatever.¡± The clerk at the front desk shrugged and went back to playing on their phone. Jacob hummed a merry tune as he went, though he was cut short by a stumble. His mother was moving at a brisk pace, one that Jacob hadn¡¯t been keeping up with. That wouldn¡¯t have been a problem if his mother hadn¡¯t been gripping his hand like it was a life raft in the middle of the ocean, but she was, and not letting go either. ¡°Oof, youch, that almost scraped my knee! Good thing I¡¯m wearing the best pants in the world, jeans! Anyway, what the hell!?¡± Jacob glared up at his mom, who was gaping at him. ¡°Jacob! Don¡¯t swear in front of me for goodness sake!¡± She hurriedly put her arms close to her sides, almost as if they were cold. ¡°Oh, whatever.¡± Jacob grumbled as he got to his feet. ¡°Why¡¯re you going so fast, anyway?¡± ¡°I was- I don¡¯t need to explain myself to you. C¡¯mon.¡± His mom reached out to take his hand, but he backed up before she could get ahold of him. ¡°Nuh uh, none of that! You¡¯ve been so weird ever since the doctor told you that stuff, and you aren¡¯t telling me anything!¡± Jacob shoved his hands into his pockets. ¡°I¡¯m not gonna let this go until you tell me what the hell is with you.¡± ¡°What did I say, don¡¯t swear in front of me!¡± His mother shrieked at him. ¡°Just answer me already!¡± Jacob¡¯s good mood had vanished by now. Mrs. Pattine scoffed. ¡°So you aren¡¯t worried!? At all!?¡± ¡°Seriously? You think I¡¯m gonna, what, die or something? THAT¡¯S what this is about?¡± Jacob shook his head. ¡°And you think you aren¡¯t?¡± Jacob¡¯s grin returned as fast as it had come. ¡°Of course not, do you even know who I am?¡± His mom shook her head. ¡°I swear, kids always think they¡¯re invincible.¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°Well that¡¯s ¡®cause I am.¡± His mother started to walk again. ¡°You¡¯ve already made a scene, let''s get to the damn car already.¡± ¡°Hey, no swearing!¡± Jacob pointed accusingly at his mother. ¡°It''s not a swear, and I don¡¯t care.¡± Grabbing him by the arm, his mother practically started to drag him back to the car. Hey, that rhymes. * * * As Jacob was escorted into the strange, metal-plated halls of the basement of the ¡®hospital¡¯, he spotted various rooms which mostly contained cleaning supplies, various labeled crates and boxes, and the occasional electrical room. Not much of your stereotypical glowing fluids and test tubes, until the stretcher he was in went through a door with a lot more secure electronic locks and steel plating than seemed necessary. That was when he started to see a lot more armed security guards, rooms with cool glowing computers, and a hallway that looked like it led into a cell block. Doctors passed him too, giving him looks that went a little beyond passing glances. Maybe he was a rare occurrence? Jacob wouldn¡¯t know, he didn¡¯t work here. All of this slowly broke down Jacob¡¯s belief that he had been brought here just to get a few more MRI scans on a more powerful machine, but again, who was he to judge? He didn¡¯t really know, his head was getting a bit foggy, maybe he shouldn¡¯t be thinking too hard. After his parents had accepted the deal that they had been offered (shocker), he had been scheduled to enter ¡®cryogenic cerebral therapy¡¯ within the next month-or-so. However, the timetable had been moved up a little when a slight incident caused his parents to panic, the tame incident being a constant flow of blood from the nose and eyes, as well as piercing migraines and hallucinations. That had happened about, oh, maybe an hour ago? They began to take an elevator deeper into the building, which Jacob was amazed that they could go even deeper, due to the fact that they were in a basement. As they did, Jacob¡¯s head flared up in slight pain again, a reminder of his recent and seemingly random headaches. With all of this in mind, and especially the skittish behavior of his mother and his current destination, he suspected that things were far worse than what the doctors had told him. Then again, he wasn¡¯t worried. It wasn¡¯t like he was gonna die or anything. Right? With the angle he was currently laying at, Jacob couldn¡¯t see much, but the people that had rushed him down there walked up to a ten-foot-tall metal blast door, which split into two halves down the middle, and slid open for them. This all but confirmed to Jacob that this wasn¡¯t just a visit to a special MRI machine, but that affirmation was a bit more difficult to conjure up from his mind, as his headache was, instead of fading away like it normally did, getting worse. * * * ¡°Now, Mrs. Pattine, please do-¡± The suited man began. ¡°What!? Do what!?¡± Mrs. Pattine took a break from sobbing into her hands to glare at the agent. ¡°You¡¯ve come into MY house, taken MY attention away from my favorite show about a random lawyer, and told me that MY son is DEAD!¡± ¡°Now now dear, it''s alright.¡± Mr. Pattine patted his wife on the back. ¡°Harold, go back to drinking your coffee and commenting on the never-ending flood of political migrant debates.¡± Mrs. Pattine shooed at Harold. ¡°Oh uh, sure honey, anything you say.¡± Harold waddled back to the other room. ¡°Erm, anyway, about the contract that you signed.¡± The agent continued. ¡°It specifically said that we weren¡¯t liable for anything that might occur to Jacob in the process of treatment, and you DID sign it . . .¡± ¡°What!? I never saw that!¡± Mrs. Pattine exclaimed. The agent wiped his brow with a cloth. ¡°Well, it was at the very bottom of the twenty-second page written in fine print so small that you would need a telescope to see it, but-¡± ¡°Oh, who ever reads those things! I bet that you never read every single page of a contract in your entire life!¡± Mrs. Pattine jabbed a finger at the agent. ¡°Well miss,¡± The agent slowly moved Mrs. Pattine¡¯s finger away from his face. ¡°It is my job to do just that.¡± Mrs. Pattine blinked as her brain worked to come up with a response. ¡°I uh, wanna see your manager?¡± ¡° . . . no?¡± Hearing that, Mrs. Pattine burst back into tears. ¡°Oh Jacob, whatever will fill the hole that you left in my heart!?¡± Mrs. Pattine said while wiping her tears away with a few crisp hundred-dollar bills. ¡°I mean, you CAN sue, but I¡¯m not legally allowed to suggest that to you.¡± The agent totally didn¡¯t suggest. ¡°Oh yes! I uh, wanna sue! I¡¯ll see you in court, villain!¡± Mrs. Pattine stormed away from the agent. ¡°Harold! Turn on the documentary about an unsolved case back from the eighties about a random woman that got kidnapped!¡± ¡°Yes dear!¡± Came the reply. ¡°I¡¯ll just, uh, see myself out I guess.¡± The agent awkwardly stepped out of the doorframe and hurried back into his company car. He turned his head back to the three-story home with the cleanly-cut bushes and gated fence before ducking his head into his car. Shaking his head, the agent started his car. ¡°Man, Connecticut people sure are weird.¡± * * * Jacob wished he could scratch at his wrist. About twenty minutes ago the various doctors and science people that did science things had strapped him into what appeared to be a massive pod with a big cool-looking door that came down over the front of the machine, making sure that each and every single one of the restraints that held him were tight enough to keep him from moving but not tight enough to cut off blood flow. They didn¡¯t bother wiping up the blood though, which was weird. Come to think of it, they didn¡¯t even operate on him or anything to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, this came with the hopefully unintended side effect of a constant itch assaulting the areas where the straps touched his skin, most notably his wrists. It was proving to be VERY annoying, almost to the point where Jacob would be considering trying to call out for somebody to unstrap him so he could finally get rid of it. Of course, he wasn¡¯t gonna have anybody do it for him, that would just be stupid! Usually that kind of thing wouldn¡¯t be a big deal, after all, it was only a slight itch. However, the pounding headache made it hard to focus on anything else. If only something came up that would allow him to be rid of this malady! Jacob blinked, closing his eyes to the bland sight of foggy plastic- -and opened them to green smog and pouring rain. What? ¡°What?¡± Jacob repeated his thoughts, blinking rapidly as if that would make everything go back to normal. Of course, that didn¡¯t happen. ¡°Okay, what the actual fu-¡± A loud thundering crackle of lightning cut Jacob off, causing him to look straight up into the sky. The very, very, VERY, green sky. Coupling that with the moon shining through the smog made Jacob a small bit doubtful that he was in the same place as he was a second ago. He looked back in front of him, his mind refusing to comprehend what his senses were telling him. His headache had suddenly disappeared, which was good, but he was now in a completely random place that probably wasn¡¯t real, which was bad. Jacob turned his attention back to the scene in front of him, taking in another sight to behold. What seemed to be several massive piles of junk lay around him, stretching far above his head. The only other thing that was in the clearing with him was a long-dead tree with scraggly branches that had several metal chains attached to it. Dozens of glowing red lights seemed to be shining from the piles, spelling out words he couldn¡¯t read at this distance. Well, now he could. Jacob frowned at his feet, which he had just realized took several steps without him even realizing it. Something was drawing him towards one pile in particular, something that seemed- Hol-o-ld on now, hey body, stop doing that! Yet again, Jacob had advanced even further towards the pile, despite his best efforts. In fact, he had even started to dig around in the pile, tunneling into the center. Also, now that he had gotten closer, he could see that the strange red lights were actually some sort of alert on the black glossy screens of what looked like humanoid . . . butler . . . robot things? All sorts of alarm bells were ringing in his head now, screaming at him to get the hell out of there before he woke up Cthulhu or something. He may have still been a bit shocked from the whole, ¡®being-transported-into-a-place-that-probably-isn¡¯t-even-real¡¯ thing, but he wasn¡¯t gonna- Oh, what''s that shiny thing? A green light popped up amidst the sea of red, with Jacob being completely submerged in the pile while his attention had been on his own thoughts. This time, he purposefully crawled towards it, curiosity getting the better of him. He sometimes forgot that he couldn¡¯t die, him being him and all, so what did he have to worry about? [INTRUDER] A loud voice rang out, with Jacob being blasted back out of the pile. He landed on his back, though he didn¡¯t feel anything. His vision grew staticky at the edges, and he had a hard time focusing on what made sense. Goddamn, he KNEW that he shouldn¡¯t have messed with the obvious eldritch entity, but of course he did it anyway! [simhetirdw ,emtndeinngmet e rpt xnne hdin ict ottouen u adsagiitoicm] Unlike the previous voice, Jacob couldn¡¯t make out what had been said, quirking an eyebrow up. ¡°[uanog jtsn, and-there-we-go, technical-difficulties-and-all-that, yes? Very-hilarious, hah-hah-hah.¡± The voice, now sounding strangely robotic with a slight feminine lilt, stated. ¡°Huh?¡± If Jacob had a nickel for every time something weird happened and he had a comedically dumb reaction to it today, he would have two nickels. Which, granted, wasn¡¯t a lot, but it was weird that it happened twice. ¡°[Mocking Remark] Yes, you-are-not-supposed-to-be-here.¡± The voice said in that strange robotic tone again. ¡°Kinda racist if you ask me, but whatever.¡± Jacob said without thinking. ¡°[Confused Statement] What?¡± ¡°What?¡± The voice was silent for a moment before continuing. ¡°[Dismissive Continuation] Anyhoo, we-are-in-the-middle-of-something-at-the-moment, so-it-would-be-nice-if-you-were-to-die-now. Goodbye.¡± Nothing happened. Jacob squirmed uncomfortably. ¡°Was something supposed to happen, or like-¡± Before he could say anything else, the ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? made itself known. It was like looking into an abyss that stretched thousands and thousands of miles deep, while being shallow enough to step in. Each time he had figured out where the edges were, they shifted without ever actually moving at all. It spun and spun and spun, tearing at the fabric of reality. His mind cracked open like an egg, and his entire body melted into a goop that didn¡¯t even contain atoms or particles anymore. But luckily, Jacob couldn¡¯t die, so that''s cool. Jacob scratched at his face. ¡°That''s cool.¡± ¡°[Egotistical Remark] Yes, insignificant-being, marvel-at-my- . . . wait-what?¡± The ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? seemed to blink in confusion. ¡°Oh you know, I was just saying that that was pretty cool and all.¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡° . . . [Annoyed Expression]¡± The ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? twisted in a way that seemed to convey annoyance of some kind, which wasn¡¯t super cool, but it was interesting. ¡°So like, what now? Can I go back home now?¡± Jacob got up, dusted himself off, and made a point of looking around. ¡°I mean like, I don¡¯t really see an exit.¡± The ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? seemed to facepalm. ¡°[Exasperated Answer] While-I-am-sure-that-you-are-having-difficulty-thinking-about-anything-beyond-your-next-recharging-cycle-due-to-your-status-as-a-lower-mechanical-form,¡± ¡°Hey! I¡¯m not dumb, or a robot, you stupid eldritch horror!¡± Jacob glared at the clearly idiotic being. ¡°I-can-not-¡± The ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? cut itself off. ¡°You . . . are-not-lying, are-you?¡± Jacob scoffed. ¡°No, of course not! Sorry that I¡¯m a bit too advanced for you to handle, but I¡¯m pretty sure that I like as human as can be, not some ¡®lower-mechanical-form¡¯!¡± ¡°[Exaggerated Pause] . . .¡± Jacob was getting a bit annoyed at the ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? stating what its reactions were. It wasn¡¯t fooling anybody, but he didn¡¯t think the ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? could tell. ¡°[Brain Blast] Hmm, human-you-say?¡± The ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? looked at Jacob in a way that made him slightly uneasy. ¡°That-is-something-that-we-have-not-encountered-before-in-any-version, you-would-make-a-great-test-subject.¡± Jacob blinked, backing away slowly from the ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? with both his hands raised. It was a bit difficult considering how it seemed to stretch all around him while remaining at the same place it had always been in, but he made do. ¡°Now hold on there, I¡¯m sure we can work out something, right?¡± Jacob chuckled nervously. ¡°[Deadpan] No.¡± The ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? said without any inflection whatsoever. Uh oh. * * * Invariably. What an interesting word And a nice one at that. It really just rolls off the tongue, doesn¡¯t it? A word that most people probably can¡¯t even recall the meaning of, yet is seen so commonly in works that are often above the skill of your average eighth grader. It means for something to happen a lot, or always. For instance, you could say, ¡°Oh, whenever I go to my friend''s house, the meals his mother makes are invariably burnt.¡± or something along those lines. Jacob couldn¡¯t apply that word to his situation. That would imply that he had been doing or experiencing something for long enough that he could use that word as a hyperbole. However, he hadn¡¯t. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Imagine blinking your eyes. Now try to recall how long the moment between opening your eyes and the light reaching your eyes was. Now that''s a more accurate comparison. Right when Jacob closed his eyes, he had been hearing a hissing sound, expecting sleep to take him. Then a slight, rather odd blip in his awareness caused him to lose his bearings for a moment, but quickly regained them. The hissing continued, and became rather annoying after a bit, considering the nasty headache he currently had. Did he have that before he entered the pod? Something felt wrong, like he had lost something of his that he needed. He wasn¡¯t sure, but he was having a hard time remembering his last moments before he entered the machine, which was odd, as that was just a moment ago. Oh, now the hissing noise is stopping, so Jacob guessed that the doctors realized there was a problem, and were now spooling down the machine to take him out before something disastrous happened. The hissing noise completely stopped, and the sound of pistons groaning filled the small cavity instead, along with a notable difference in the positioning of the cryo pod door, specifically moving upward. Ah, now the door is opening, fantastic. Jacob hoped that he could just get this damn experiment underway, without any more delays. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Goddamn the door is slow. At least he could see somewhat outside, as the door had opened up enough to let him see the feet of two people standing outside his little home. Actually, scratch that, three people standing outside, as the door had opened more up to let him see a third person standing behind the pair that were closest to him. He blinked several times to clear the fog from his eyesight, his eyeballs feeling pretty cold, as if he had spent a little in pure winter weather with his eyes open, letting them freeze a bit. Matter of fact, as feeling returned to his body, he felt cold all over. Not so cold that it was painful, but more of a cool uncomfortableness. Speaking of feeling returning to his body, he felt a rather unpleasant prickling sensation throughout himself, like his entire body had fallen asleep, or if he had just returned from the cold after a long stay in the frigid winter air. He flexed his fingers, or at least tried to. His fingers were encased in a hard plastic glove, molded to fit his hand. It was the same story with the rest of his body, many straps fastened tight enough to restrict his movement, but not enough to restrict his blood flow. He tried to see more than the feet of the unknown people in front of him, as the door was open about halfway now, but the fog, or maybe steam, wafting up from his pod was masking everything else. Oh yeah, the hissing was back too. After another eternity of the door just slowly opening, the long-awaited event finally arrived. The door clanked to a stop, now resting somewhere on top of the cryo pod. The hissing noise also came to a stop, seeming to have been the cause of the fog as well, considering how it began to clear up with the end of the abhorrent hissing sound. The fog cleared up fully, allowing him to see a rather strange sight. Three people in full hazmat suits were standing in front of him, one of the two in front holding an odd device that looked vaguely like a heart monitor, with a cart full of other types of medical equipment like bandages, syringes, bottles, random gadgets, and more.. The one with the heart monitor stepped up to him, uttering a single word. ¡°Please hold still.¡± Jacob naturally held still as the person wrapped a sensor on his wrist, then one on his neck. The man then pressed a few buttons on his little machine, and then watched some sort of readout on the screen that Jacob couldn¡¯t make out from his angle. The man stayed like that for about half a minute before taking off the little sensors from his wrist and neck, and then put the device down on some sort of table that Jacob also couldn¡¯t see due to his angle, before nodding to the man beside him. After that, the one not holding anything took a syringe with an incredibly small needle, held it up to his eye, and unceremoniously jammed it right through the center while pressing the plunger down. Jacob let out a cry of pain instinctually, but it was unnecessary. Even though he had a needle going straight through his eye and probably into his brain, he felt absolutely nothing. Well, he felt the uncomfortable shifting of the needle very intimately, but no pain made itself known. Weird. After the syringe was empty and it had been pulled out, the other one shined a flashlight into both his eyes. The one that had injected him with probably high amounts of lethal drugs took some sort of mini-spray bottle, squirting some unknown substance up into his nasal cavities. After that, the two people looked at each and nodded. The pair moved into action, unstrapping and unclamping him in various areas around his body, unrestricting his movement. Jacob didn¡¯t move yet though, as once the pair were done taking off the various inhibitors, the third man in the back stepped up, as if he wanted to speak. However, he instead turned to the one on his left, moved his head around in a way that made Jacob think he was saying something (without any sound coming out of the helmet, of course), and rolled a stretcher out from behind him. Jacob sighed. He didn¡¯t really know why people kept tying him down, but they seemed to have a strange habit to do so. Kinda kinky, and he was DEFINITELY one to judge * * * Jacob fixed the doctor with another bland stare for the fifteenth time in four minutes. ¡°So you¡¯re telling me, that the damn CIA kidnapped me, your weird medical foundation was dissolved, and now I¡¯m officially dead to the outside world? Not to mention I was asleep for not a year, but a decade?¡± Jacob said all of this with a tone that might have implied disbelief and anger. ¡°Well, when you put it like that, it sounds, well, exactly like what happened I suppose, but I wouldn¡¯t put it, well, any sort of other way, so yes.¡± The doctor, contrary to the facade he was still bravely trying to put up, didn¡¯t appear too comfortable with telling Jacob all of this. After all, who would want to tell an innocent, carefree, bright-eyed young boy, that his family thought him dead, and that he was asleep for a decade as well. The doctor continued. ¡°We had been worried about the, uh, bleeding that you were doing when you went in, but it seems like the nanobots took care of that pretty well. Jacob blinked. ¡°Nanobots? You put nanites inside of me without my permission? Doesn¡¯t that break a dozen different laws or something?¡± ¡°Erm, yes, to all those questions.¡± The doctor answered Jacob leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms and breathed out the air he had been holding in. ¡°Huh.¡± Jacob didn¡¯t elaborate. ¡°I¡¯m sure that this might be very alarming to you, but remember that this wasn¡¯t in our control. I¡¯m very sorry for your loss, but just know that we do have therapists that are totally qualified and other people that you can talk to on hand, just let us know.¡± The doctor didn¡¯t seem very proud of this series of unfortunate events happening to the aforementioned carefree child. ¡°Well, as long as they aren¡¯t dead yet, I¡¯ll be fine.¡± Jacob shrugs. The doctor blinks in surprise. ¡°I- what? Are you sure? Your mental health is very important, and despite what our higher ups at the CIA might say, you are also important as a person.¡± The doctor had an increasingly worried expression on his face. ¡°Nah, I think I¡¯m pretty good for now.¡± Jacob remained seemingly uncaring for his current status as perceived dead by his family, or for his mental health like a real man. ¡°So, what happens to me now? I¡¯m assuming I¡¯m not getting executed for lack of further usefulness, or else you wouldn¡¯t be offering me therapists, and I¡¯m not exactly going back out into society, as that would be a rather awkward situation for the CIA. So, that leaves only one more avenue of action.¡± Jacob leaned forward. ¡°I¡¯m going back in the machine, aren¡¯t I?¡± ¡°. . . yes.¡± The doctor seemed put off by Jacob¡¯s lengthy statement. Jacob leaned back and nodded, satisfied by his answer. ¡°I have just one question then.¡± The doctor cocked an eyebrow. ¡°Why am I so important? Plenty of people have brain tumors, and yet you guys aren¡¯t kidnapping those people, right? So, what makes this one special?¡± Jacob tapped the side of his head. The doctor cleared his throat, seemingly more comfortable to be conversing over a topic more familiar to him, like neuroscience. ¡°I can do that. Follow me.¡± * * * The doctor led Jacob to a room with only one other person inside, that person being an assistant. The lights were off, the only source of illumination being a projector shining on a blank whiteboard, the image being an x-ray of what looked like a brain. ¡°Well, as I¡¯ve said before, that so-called tumor in your head isn¡¯t exactly behaving like a tumor normally would. In the beginning, when it first appeared, it looked like any old brain tumor, forming in your cerebral cortex. It grew a bit abnormally, but nothing too out of the ordinary.¡± The doctor pointed at a small marble sized mass that was present inside the aforementioned section of the brain on the projection. ¡°However, that''s when things took a turn for the stranger.¡± The doctor motioned for the assistant to switch to the next slide, which he did. The diagram now showed the same image as before, which Jacob now knew to be his brain, with the sole difference being that the mass had now enlarged, seemingly spreading what looked like feelers or tentacles outwards, the longest one stretching towards a middle section of the brain. ¡°After this happened, we were notified through plants, and we took over your medical case, observing the growth of your tumor.¡± The slide switched again, now showing a larger tumor. It had grown even more feelers, now numbering at five, and the longest one was now in the middle of the brain. ¡°The tumor had spread itself out, and the longest appendage of it had now entered what we call the anterior insular cortex, or, ¡° The doctor looked at Jacob. ¡°the empathy center.¡± Jacob stared back at the doctor, not showing any outward form of reaction. The doctor looked back towards the projection, clearing his throat. ¡°Ahem, anyway. As you can probably guess, this was highly irregular behavior from what was supposed to be a simple tumor. And what we realized next was even more shocking.¡± The assistant clicked to the next slide, this one showing . . . nothing. Actually, it did show something, Jacob just didn¡¯t notice at first. The tumor was now not a simple mass, but instead had somehow become, fainter, he supposed. It didn¡¯t have any clear separation from his brain, instead, only sections could be made out from the former tumor. It seemed like it had merged with his brain, which wasn¡¯t exactly comforting to Jacob. Then again, he had no idea how tumors operated or what the hell the doctor was talking about, so he remained quiet ¡°The tumor now couldn¡¯t be described as a simple tumor. We had to deduce that it had somehow become part of your brain, as we couldn¡¯t find any clear definition of where the tumor began and where it ended. We could still technically see the tumor, though it was like it had faded its edges in with your brain, merging with it.¡± The assistant shut off the projector, and turned the lights back on. The doctor turned back towards Jacob, with what looked to be a sympathetic expression on his face. ¡°Now I hope you understand why we want to know what the hell this thing is. If this was some sort of parasite, and if it could spread . . ¡° The doctor let Jacob figure out the rest on his own. ¡°Huh, yeah. I wouldn¡¯t really want the world to turn into a reenactment of a certain hit TV adaptation of a certain hit zombie game.¡± Jacob nodded. ¡°So, how are you gonna go about solving, ¡° Jacob gestured haphazardly to his head. ¡°This?¡± ¡°We . . . aren¡¯t sure yet.¡± The doctor grimaced. ¡°However, it has only been, well, it''s been quite awhile, but we learned a lot from the first go around. We are hoping to gain more data from the next decade, with some new technologies to be used.¡± Jacob nodded his head, looking around. ¡°So do I just go back in now?¡± ¡°No, actually. The planned procedure is to keep you awake for a minimum of twelve hours, with us taking several tests to determine if any changes have been made to your mental or intellectual state. And also, you are going to have to visit some therapists, that''s non-optional.¡± The doctor replied. Jacob only grunted in response to that last statement. * * * Jacob is running on a treadmill, with several devices measuring his various functions. ¡°Just let us know when you¡¯re getting tired.¡± The man, Dr. Markus Vasquez by his nametag, repeated for the fifth time. ¡°And that would be right around now, actually.¡± Jacob stopped running when Dr. Vasquez pressed the off button. ¡°Hmm, alright. You¡¯re operating at standard rates for a boy of your age.¡± Dr. Vasquez writes down notes on his clipboard, probably about him. Or maybe some sort of weird fan fiction about some Tom Cruz, you never know. Dr. Vasquez motioned for Jacob to follow him, which Jacob does. ¡°And that should conclude your physical testing regimen for today.¡± Dr. Vasquez leads Jacob into a square room about six feet wide, with a couch, a chair, two tables, a bookshelf, and a TV on the wall opposite from the couch. Then, another doctor walks into the room, holding a clipboard and a sheet of papers. Dr. Vasquez and the new doctor share a few silent words, ones that Jacob can¡¯t make out, before Dr. Vasquez walks out of the room. The new doctor, a Dr. Sophia Vasel by her nametag, sits down on the chair next to the couch. ¡°Hey again Jacob. I¡¯m here to give you a couple tests, alright? Just standard procedure.¡± Dr. Vasel flips through her clipboard. ¡°Here is the first one.¡± Jacob started again. ¡°No signing any forms or asking for consent or anything?¡± Dr. Vasel hid her apparent frustration admirably. ¡°Uh, no. Our policy doesn¡¯t require us to do that. Anyway, if we could get on with the test?¡± Dr. Vasel pulled out a pen. ¡°Just some questions for the first one.¡± * * * Jacob was a bit bored. Actually, that was an understatement. He was VERY bored. There, a much more apt statement. After a large amount of rigorous testing, physical, mental, biological, the whole shebang, they had basically left him in the small room and told him to entertain himself for the remaining eight hours, twenty-seven minutes, and five seconds. After that, he would be going back into cryosleep. They gave him access to a good amount of literature from his time, as well as giving him a rather generous library of online media, also from his time. However, they had severely underestimated his preferences, as the majority of the online material consisted of children for the age of ten, and all the good books he had already read several times over. So yes, he was quite bored. So bored, in fact, that even pacing around and thinking couldn¡¯t sate his hunger for entertainment, as the intense migraine he had prevented him from running any sort of complicated scenario that could even mildly entertain him. So, he was forced to turn to his old friend. History. A decade ought to have yielded a good amount of entertaining historical fruit, especially when you consider the rather hot pot that was world politics at the time of the beginning of his short nap. So, he had requested a book that recapped everything important that had happened in the last ten years. And how . . . uninteresting it was. A miniature space race actually occurred not between the East and the West, but SpaceX and NASA were both racing for the clout and money that being the first to have a human land on Mars would be. It ended up with a SpaceX victory, and not a small amount of a budget increase. Nanotechnology had also progressed, yet not as much as other avenues, as it''s mostly been used for small-scale construction supposedly. Congress was being quite strict on the Supreme Court¡¯s ruling. However, some small advancements had been made in the effectiveness and build of a standard nanobot, making them considerably cheaper and easier to make. However, the availability of nanobots was mostly limited to either private firms or large corporations willing to invest in the product. As entertaining as history was, it wasn¡¯t enough to sustain him for more than an hour, so he resigned himself to sitting, standing, pacing, and occasionally watching kids cartoons for the rest of his time. He wasn¡¯t going to ask for his benefactors to obtain some new content for him to watch, not because they couldn¡¯t, no, they likely could do anything, but because his pride would be too injured if he did. Yes, a truly brilliant mind we have here. * * * ¡°This feels familiar.¡± Jacob mused, his words certainly pertaining to the scenario that he was currently in. Dr. Vasel and another doctor were strapping him in, securing his hands and feet in molded plastic to restrict movement, and straps to secure his arms and legs. This time, a little hat with a dozen blinking electrodes was added to his menagerie of devices. They had also given him a fresh edition of nanobots, these ones supposedly more efficient by two percent. Yes, such a great increase. However, they also fed off the energy his own body produced, so that theoretically gave them an infinite life, as long as he was alive. The doctors finished up strapping him into the machine, giving him a final once over to make sure nothing bad happens again. They stepped back, and began to run diagnostics on their computers to make sure everything electronic was in order as well. Jacob sighed. He had a feeling that this set of actions would become an agonizingly long procedure. After a very long fifteen minutes, the unnamed doctor, who had come down during the diagnostics, nodded to an assistant, and he began pressing buttons. The machine clicked and hissed, and the door came down, blissfully quicker this time. After just thirty seconds, the door sealed shut, and Jacob saw the doctor through the plastic. The doctor walked out of sight, as the foggy plastic couldn¡¯t see that far, though the doctor clearly went somewhere where he could talk to Jacob, as he heard the doctor¡¯s voice over what sounded like an intercom inside the pod. ¡°You can hear me, right Jacob?¡± The doctor asked. ¡°Uh, yep.¡± Jacob replied. ¡°Very good. As there isn¡¯t anything else we have to do on our end, we¡¯ll be sending you off right about now. Any questions before you¡¯re frozen?¡± The doctor inquired. ¡°None that I can recall.¡± Jacob said. ¡°Then we¡¯ll see you again in ten years.¡± The doctor said. The intercom shut off with a crackle, and the hissing noise came back, probably meaning he was gonna fall asleep any time now. He wondered what the world would look like in another decade, bu- Oh wait, he did have a question. What WAS the doctor¡¯s nam- * * * -e, he never found out, huh, fuzzy head. Jacob resolved himself to ask the doctor his name when he came out of stasis next. Suddenly, Jacob focused on the fact that he just had a momentary blur in his awareness. Last time that happened, that signaled him entering stasis, and coming back out. As if on cue, a hissing noise spread throughout the small chamber, ejecting a faint white fog. Luckily, it wasn¡¯t aggravating his headache, as it had considerably lessened, probably throughout the time he was, ¡°asleep¡±. The door also began to open after only thirty seconds of the gas being injected into his pod. Even better, the door was much faster this time, so it only took about ten seconds for it to open. Like last time, a pair of assistants were waiting there in hazmat suits, though the suits in question looked less baggy and more solid and streamlined, a seemingly futuristic design. The visors were still opaque, though Jacob thought he could make out something in the reflection, probably him, now that he thought about it. One of them stepped forward, holding a device that most likely served the same purpose as last time, but it, like the hazmat suits, was also smaller and more streamlined. The person strapped the little sensor strap to his wrist, as well as plugging a jack into a socket on the device on Jacob¡¯s head. The man looked at the screen of the device for a second, before removing the strap and jack, before nodding to his fellow assistant. Then, they began to unstrap him from the pod. Jacob was eventually released from the pod''s grasp, and he stepped down after the pair backed up enough for him to do so. Jacob then saw a third man in another one of those futuristic hazmat suits approaching Jacob. The unnamed man, likely the unnamed doctor, stopped about four feet from him, before turning to his assistants and saying something to them that he couldn¡¯t make out. It seemed to be good, since they nodded, and retreated out of the chamber. The new man looked at him, and instead of raising his visor, tapped twice on the side of his head, and the visor became clear. It then also became clear to Jacob that, contrary to his previous assumption, the man was not the unnamed doctor, but ANOTHER unnamed doctor, this one looking like he was in his thirties. ¡°Uh, um, hi there.¡± The man seemed . . . nervous? Why was that? Wasn¡¯t Jacob supposed to be the nervous one, if any? ¡°Sup.¡± Jacob nodded to him. The man seemed to compose himself at Jacob¡¯s words. ¡°Yes, right this way please.¡± The man walked out of the chamber, with Jacob following suit. Soon they arrived within another room, this one having what looked like a conference table filling up most of the room, with a couple other odd machines off to the side, as well as a little device in the middle of the conference table. The currently unnamed doctor sat down in a chair, with Jacob following suit, albeit sitting across from him. Just then, what looked like two armed guards joined them in the room, posting up on either side of the door, watching him carefully. Jacob eyed them too, deducing that the best way to neutralize them was . . . none, as they would gun him down before he even got halfway across the room. Besides, why would he even want to take them down? He wasn¡¯t some weird quiet kid that wanted to be all dark and mysterious. Funny prank though. ¡°Uh, doctor. Wasn¡¯t I supposed to be debriefed or something?¡± Jacob wanted to snap his fingers in front of the man¡¯s face, but he had a feeling that that wouldn¡¯t go over well with the armed guards. The man¡¯s head snapped up, flustered yet again. ¡°Er, yes. Let me get it set up.¡± The man reached out to the small device on the center of the table, inserting what looked like a small USB into a socket on the object. He then pressed a small button on the side of the device, causing it to click, and do nothing else. The man cursed, pressing the button again, this time yielding results. A small slot opened up on the top of the device, exposing a lens, which then began to glow, projecting a series of lasers that had no cohesive rhyme for rhythm. After a moment, the lights aligned themselves, creating an image too small to see. The man cursed again, calling the device a series of names that would probably get him in trouble if he were still in middle school, before turning a knob on the side of the device. The knob apparently controlled size, as the projection enlarged to a size more suitable to see. However, this proved too much for the brave device, as the image then flickered in the air, before simply shutting off with a pathetic click. The man hung his head and sighed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I swear that these were different in the demonstration. I¡¯m probably gonna just get rid of them when I¡¯m promoted to full director status.¡± The man commented. Jacob peered at the open lens, which was now smoking, a good amount in fact. ¡°Uh, ok. So what was that supposed to do?¡± Jacob looked back at the still unnamed director. ¡°It WAS supposed to show you an image of your brain, but I guess we¡¯ll just have to resort to the old-fashioned way.¡± After that statement, the man pulled a remote out of his pocket, pointed it at a screen on the wall, and pressed the on button. Of course, it wasn¡¯t so simple as that, as the man had to navigate the menus and files before selecting the presentation he wanted to use, so it was longer, and a bit more awkward than anyone in the room would¡¯ve liked. After finally getting the presentation to work, the man cleared his throat, after looking at Jacob to make sure he was watching, and began to speak. ¡°As you know, last time we saw you, the tumor had extended several appendages of itself throughout your brain, piercing several areas of your brain, including the empathy center. It had then somehow literally blurred the lines between itself and your brain, slightly merging itself with you in the process. However, while you were asleep, we made some rather . . . notable discoveries.¡± The man switched to the next slide, showing the same image, plus text and some diagrams, depicting something that looked like a reading from one of those machines that can read brain activity. ¡°We had placed a device on your head that was essentially a more powerful version of an electroencephalograph, or just an EEG for short. We wanted to see how your brain was reacting to the tumor in a more in-depth way, and while we did garner some interesting data, the thing that was more important, and worrying, was this next one.¡± The Acting Director flicked the button, the next slide showing a reading from the EEG. However, Jacob¡¯s attention was taken from the slide by the man¡¯s next words. ¡°This is not a reading from your brain, well, technically it is, in a way. You probably can¡¯t see what is wrong with this reading, but a trained neuroscientist such as me can. The activity that we had detected is, for lack of a better word, muddled. We managed to figure out that while your brain itself was emitting the same relative frequencies as before, something else was adding onto that to create this muddled reading that we see here, and I¡¯m fairly sure that you can guess what it was.¡± The man looked back at Jacob. Jacob shrugged. ¡°Yeah, it''s the tumor, but we already knew that it was messing with my brain, so what¡¯s new about this?¡± The man looked back at the screen. ¡°That is what we will see here.¡± He flicked to the next slide, this one showing another set of EEG readings, this one different, though since Jacob didn¡¯t really pay attention to the last one, he couldn¡¯t tell what was different. ¡°You see, what was shocking was the way that the tumor was interfering with your activity, was that it wasn¡¯t doing that at all. The reason why the EEG reading came out weird was that it had picked up two very different frequencies, and since it was only designed to pick up and read one, it just lumped the two together. One of those was from your brain, while the other . . .¡± The man trailed off, looking back at Jacob, who had a frown on his face. ¡°Was from the tumor.¡± Jacob finished. The man nodded. ¡°Correct. While tumors can emit brainwaves, they usually do so in a recognizable pattern that we had made sure to account for. Now, this was worrying, as the only thing that could emit that kind of frequency that the EEG could pick up was your brain, or something in that general area. We triple checked our data, and brainstormed as much as we could, and we could only come to one conclusion: the tumor was now functioning like a brain, and thus, could no longer be defined as a tumor. It was now more of a proto-brain; simply, yet still functioning. I¡¯m sure you can infer the rest.¡± The man clicked the power button on the remote, turning off the screen. Meanwhile, Jacob was deep in thought. So, supposedly he had a secondary brain inside of his own brain, like one of those Russian dolls that people loved so much. However, that does explain all of the fright around his body getting taken over by the little unwanted passenger in his head, as any entity, even if only semi-intelligent, living in your head is probably something to be worried about. But Jacob was more curious than worried, in actuality. While yes, that does seem a bit dumb of him, to not be worried about the potentially hostile entity living in his head that might be trying to take over his body, but Jacob was sure that the nanobots were doing their job, or else he would already be dead, by gunfire or weird tumor thing. Jacob then realized something, something he had forgotten. He didn¡¯t want to make the same mistake as last time, so he decided to just ask for the man¡¯s name now. Jacob cleared his throat. ¡°So anyway, uh, what''s your name again?¡± Jacob asked. The man looked back at Jacob incredulously. ¡°That''s what you¡¯re worried about? My name?¡± The man seemed a bit put off by this. Jacob simply shrugged. ¡°Really? Alright, my name is Dr. Malcolm Instrum.¡± The man stared back at Jacob. ¡°That''s it.¡± Jacob nodded, the situation getting a bit awkward. ¡°So anyway, what¡¯s next?¡± * * * Jacob was laying down on a medical bed, straps holding him down. He was in what looked like an operating room, with lights shining on his face. Strangely, the lights didn¡¯t really hurt his eyes. For context, Jacob had just woken up from what the doctors had said was a, ¡°simple operation¡± but never told him why he was being strapped down or being put to sleep. In hindsight, it was deeply worrying, but Jacob was still wondering that, if the lights didn¡¯t hurt his eyes, then why was he still having to blink and look away? To his right was a door, where Jacob had seen a person in one of those futuristic hazmat suits walk into right when he woke up. Jacob was beginning to worry that perhaps the entire team just coincidentally had developed rapid amnesia and had forgotten about him when a pair of men in hazmat suits walked into the room. ¡°No sudden movements.¡± One of them said, unstrapping his head. Just then, Jacob noticed another pair of men, these ones armed, entering the room and standing on either side of the door. It seemed like they were afraid he would be body snatched or something. It didn¡¯t take long for him to be unstrapped from the bed, and he was rather forcibly hauled up and told to move, so he did just that. The pair who had unstrapped him left the room through the door, with Jacob and the armed guards following suit. The armed guards escorted him out of the room, the pair of doctors seeming to have disappeared into thin air, somehow. Jacob was brought to a room that looked suspiciously like his room from the last time he was here, and without any further words, the guards left him in the room, leaving and closing the door. Jacob had a feeling the door was locked, that feeling only reinforced by the beeping and clicking noise that followed soon after the door was closed. Jacob looked around the room, and thankfully, at least something was there. The room was arranged in pretty much the same way, with the absence of a table and a chair. There was a TV up on the wall with a couch facing it, a bookshelf off to the side, and a table to the left of the couch. Jacob was about to investigate the bookshelf to see if any new material was present that he could read, when a beep and a click emanated from the door, before opening up to reveal a familiar face. ¡°Oh hey, it''s you. Sorry, I kinda forgot your name, what was it again?¡± Jacob asked the doctor, not thinking to look at the nametag. She smiled politely. ¡°It''s Dr. Vasel, and it''s fine. You only saw me for an hour after all.¡± Jacob stared back. Her smile wavered slightly, although it wasn¡¯t very noticeable. ¡°Erm, anyway, I¡¯m here to do some psyche and mental tests. It should only take an hour. Answer truthfully, alright?¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Jacob replied, fully intending to not answer truthfully. * * * ¡°So, mind telling me what the ¡®operation¡¯ was about?¡± Jacob asked Dr. Vasel. ¡°Hmm?¡± She looked up from her clipboard. ¡°Earlier, some doctors or something put me in an operating room, knocked me out, and when I woke up, I was put in here. I¡¯m not an expert on medical practice, but I¡¯m fairly sure that that''s not standard procedure.¡± Jacob questioned. ¡°Er, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m authorized to explain that to you.¡± Dr. Vasel countered. ¡°Huh.¡± Jacob dropped the issue. Dr. Vasel stopped writing on her clipboard, tucking her pen back into her shirt pocket. ¡°That should be all, thanks for your time Jacob.¡± And without waiting for a reply, she left. Jacob stared at the closed door for a second before scoffing and laying back onto his couch. He couldn¡¯t lay on his bed because he didn¡¯t have a bed, for some reason. Well, he wasn¡¯t going to sleep in it, but couldn¡¯t the higher ups have some consideration? Jacob glanced at the clock, trying to discern how long he had left, which was surprisingly short, relatively, at least. He had about six hours and a half left until he went back in the pod, so plenty of time to kill. He had gotten his physical check done before he had been strapped down onto a table and had that mysterious operation done on him, so if yesterday¡¯s schedule was anything to go off of, then he would have nothing else for the entire day, so he was going to have to do something. Jacob looked around the room, wracking his brain. He then decided to just look at the walls. He did that for a second before making out discernable lines in the floor and wall tile. His train of thought switched through a couple stations before somehow landing on check for security cameras, which was technically not that big a leap from just staring at the walls. It wasn¡¯t like he was planning on removing them, he was just curious if they were spying on a kid. Jacob got up from the couch, stretching his limbs and cracking his knuckles. He looked at the standard places where cameras would be placed, like on the ceiling corners. He then checked the more discreet areas of surveillance, like the bookshelf and couch cushions. And the most utterly bizarre thing about the whole ordeal was that he found absolutely nothing. Nada, which was surprising when you consider that he was pretty much subject to the CIA¡¯s whim here, unknown to the outside world. Speaking of the outside world, he had nothing to say about it, as nobody had given him any sort of reading material about the world''s current state. Jacob sighed. This was going to be a long ordeal, wasn¡¯t it? * * * ¡°Are we sure about this?¡± Two men sat around a glowing computer screen, several folders and open boxes lay strewn about. ¡°Listen, just don¡¯t worry about it, do your job, and it¡¯ll all be fine.¡± The man on the left said reassuringly ¡°I just feel like we should report this in . . .¡± The second man scratched at his back. ¡°If we do, that¡¯ll just complicate the procedure and force a supervisor above me to get involved. Then, they¡¯ll have to notify the authorities, who¡¯ll then have to get through the red tape that is all around that family, and THEN everyone now involved will have to refer back to us for information. Yada yada yada, we get interviewed, you take time off to deal with the police¡¯ questions, and then you get fired.¡± The first man stated in an exasperated voice. ¡°Why the hell would I get fired for something like this!? I¡¯m doing my job, reporting it!¡± The second man threw his arms up in frustration. The first man placed his hand down on the second man¡¯s shoulder, squeezing slightly. ¡°Just let it go, alright? If you don¡¯t, then I just might have to tell upper management that you¡¯ve been sneaking drugs into the workplace to hand out to others.¡± The first man said. The second man blinked in surprise. ¡°But I haven¡¯t . . .¡± However, the first man was already out of the room, leaving the second man all by himself in the messy office. He sighed, muttering to himself. ¡°It¡¯s the damn law to dispose of drones properly, why can¡¯t they just listen to me?¡± * * * Jacob had quite the time in the hundred days. The most notable was that time he almost got kidnapped by a cult, but that¡¯s for later. What is important is the recap. Jacob was quite surprised when he heard about the World War, but Jacob also made another observation, this one over time. Everybody around him was dying. Not due to some attack or toxin, but rather the old enemy called time. Familiar faces like Dr. Vasel became old, before being replaced by younger ones that he might¡¯ve gotten close to, if they hadn¡¯t died within a maximum of five days of his time. The therapists were worried about how this was affecting his mental state, but if he was being traumatized or something, he never noticed. Not that he would tell them that anyway, after all. Oh yeah, not every face was friendly. There was this one director who was such a nice guy, and acted really friendly with Jacob. Perhaps a bit too friendly, if you know what I mean. The next time Jacob woke up to quite a different scene. Bullets were flying, and about ten armed guards had taken up defense around his pod, with multiple masked individuals firing back at them. Jacob had been quite startled indeed, especially when a stray round took him in his chest. Everybody had been quite worried after that, but that quickly turned to surprise when they had taken care of the invaders, and they had found that Jacob was feeling absolutely no pain at all. Jacob had commented he felt perhaps a rather annoying tingling sensation there, but none of the expected reaction to the bullet wound. They deduced that it was the tumor''s fault, as it had now breached what the doctors called the dorsal posterior insula, but Jacob wouldn¡¯t remember that, he only knew that it was somehow related to pain. The doctors wanted to remove the tumor, but whoever was in charge must¡¯ve disagreed, since nothing happened. Oh yeah, Jacob didn¡¯t know this at the time, but they also began to break even more laws regarding ethics around this time, no biggie. Jacob was also surprised when he had a change of scenery too, as the chamber got bigger, and people started to wear hazmat suits around more. He had been told that he was moved to another location for top secrecy, and the government was now working in conjunction with a Windex company of all things to experiment on the thing in his head (that last part he had overheard from a pair of doctors arguing, but don¡¯t tell them that). Oh yeah, and supposedly they had developed some prototype AI based off of the tumor¡¯s functions or something, not too important. ¡°Ugh, will one of you pleeeeeease talk to me? I¡¯ve been waiting here for so damn long.¡± Jacob whined, glancing at one of the guards next to him. He had been asking them to do at least something for awhile now, but he hadn¡¯t gotten a single reaction out of them. Stone cold, it seemed. He had tried yelling at them, kicking them (which just hurt his foot), calling them racial slurs, insulting their mothers, and even reaching for the sidearm sitting in a holster. That last part had been a bit difficult, however, since it was kinda contained in a sealed metal container that was attached to the power armor that the guards were wearing (oh yeah, did I tell you they were wearing power armor?), but he made do. Sadly, nothing got a reaction out of them. It was annoying, but Jacob supposed that he would just have to wait even longer- Without warning, the guards on either side of him grabbed one of his two arms (not three, idiot), opened the door to the room they were outside, and practically threw him inside. Jacob would¡¯ve fallen to the ground if it wasn¡¯t for his superb reflexes, but he was obviously the best, and gravity wasn¡¯t going to best him this time. Jacob turned around to face a man sitting at a desk, peering at Jacob with dead eyes. ¡°Take a seat.¡± The man said, rifling through a few papers. ¡°Alrighty.¡± Jacob pulled out one of the two seats open, plopping himself down in it. ¡°Fill this out.¡± The man slid a form over to him, flicking a pencil towards him as well. Jacob tutted. ¡°Seriously? We¡¯re still using paper and pencil when it''s the year . . . what year is it?¡± The man didn¡¯t answer, just staring at him without a word. Jacob grimaced before turning his attention to the paper. As he filled it out, he took note of the odd questions that seemed to pop up here and there. Q.9 - Have you seen or encountered a being that no other facility personnel can see? Q.12 - Did you ever have a sudden urge to do violent physical action upon one or more facility personnel? Q.16 - Have you ever stolen or had the urge to steal something that you weren¡¯t supposed to take during your stay? Q.21 - Have you ever heard a voice telling you to do something or say something that could cause physical harm to the facility, its property, its personnel, or yourself? Q.30 - Have you ever felt the need or urge to do something that your standard human components would be insufficient for? Q.38 - Have you ever seen any hint towards where you are? Q.56 - Do you know who I am? Q.84 - Tell me where you are Q.109 - No, don¡¯t take the mic away fro- tell-us-where-you-are-or-we-will-not-be-happy Q.145 - That won¡¯t make him do anything, you idiot, he¡¯s just gonna want to piss you off now! Jacob wrote down the answer to that question as; fo za recrd, i dont rly wana lisen to ranbom wrds on a pper Q.190 - Jeez, will you spell right for once? I never remember myself being this dumb, tbh Q.200 - [Amused Expression] You-do-understand-the-irony, correct? Idiot And that was the last question. Jacob set down the pencil, his fingers numb from all the writing. ¡°You couldn¡¯t have just given me like, oh I don¡¯t know, a multi-choice test or something?¡± Jacob glared at the man sitting in front of him. ¡°It''s a form, not a test.¡± With that, the man walked up to the door and knocked on it twice. The pair of guards came in, hauling Jacob up by the shoulders before dragging him into the hallway. The route they took was a familiar one, one that made Jacob call out in joy. ¡°Finally! I won¡¯t have to deal with you two boring idiots anymore! See you in ten years!¡± Jacob cackled in delight, before realizing that his words wouldn¡¯t have much of an impact when considering that there was still a long hallway to go down. ¡°So uh, got anything to talk about?¡± * * * Jacob let the doctors strap him in once more. As they had been for the past dozen or so days, they were completely and utterly silent as they did their work. He had gotten a bit tired of pestering the people around him, so he was silent for once. Something seemed off in the general feel of the room, but he couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it. He was never all that good at picking up social cues though, so maybe he was just imagining things. The doctors finished up, and without any waiting, backed up from the door right before it began to close. As usual, the machine sprayed gas into his face, making him sleepy. As the temperature dropped and he fought to keep his eyes open, he wondered what he was even doing. Like genuinely. What point was there to keep doing what these people said, to follow their orders? They forced him around, messed with his brain and body, and for what? Some random data that probably never amounted to anything? For some sick entertainment? That last one Jacob was doubtful of, but considering how he had likely been cycling through the same schedule for probably multiple decades at this point with no change was really getting on his nerves. You know, next time he gets out, maybe he should just do away with this whole thing, maybe he should MAKE them let him go. Yeah, yeah! That sounded like a great idea, he- * * * ¡°And that¡¯s it, he should be asleep by now.¡± The technician said. ¡°Finally, what was with ¡®em this time? I swear he wasn¡¯t awake this long last time.¡± A much older technician remarked. The younger tech shrugged. ¡°This is my first time doing this, so I wouldn¡¯t know.¡± The older tech looked at the younger one. ¡°Yeah, I know. Heard you were one of the last people off Earth before it cracked like an egg.¡± The younger one blinked in surprise. ¡°Really? How?¡± The older one shrugged. ¡°You¡¯re the only person in this facility who got to see what it looked like in the end, and that isn¡¯t something that just goes unnoticed.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± The younger one grunted. ¡°By the way, why do we have to order the drones to go away when he wakes up? It¡¯s kinda difficult working without them.¡± The older one looked at the younger tech sharply. ¡°You¡¯ll find out the answer to that when you¡¯ve got a high enough clearance. All I can tell you now is that the kid can¡¯t be near ANY drones at all, unless you want something like Earth to happen to this planet that is.¡± The younger one paled. ¡°Uh, alright.¡± ¡°Good.¡± The older tech nodded, before walking away. The younger one watched his counterpart before turning to look back at the cryopod through the camera, frowning. Episode Two: Copper-9 Inbound A room. Yes, a room. And a full one to boot. Filled from top to bottom, left to right, side to side, with various computers, databases, desks, and other assorted items of the office workplace. And that wasn¡¯t it. People, yes, people, were in it as well, seated at the aforementioned desks, working on the aforementioned computers, and uploading information to the aforementioned databases. Yes, truly an outstanding room. These men weren¡¯t just your average office grunt. They were some of the smartest people that their employers could get their cold, dead hands on. They were working towards a single goal, a goal that could change the way humans went about life as they knew it. It was something attempted many times over, bright-eyed individuals thinking that they were going to be the next Einstein, and yet always falling short. Sometimes through fault of their own, they failed in their goal, their dream, their greatest achievement, and were forgotten to the winds of time. But no longer. No longer would humanity stay in the dark. No longer would they remain behind this single, incomprehensibly frustrating barrier. No, this time, it would work. They would shatter this wall, reduce it to atoms. With advanced technologies and the lessons from forebearers who failed, they would carry the flag as pioneers, pioneers for humanity''s destiny, and forever be remembered in the hearts of people for centuries to come, just like Einstein, Newton, and all the others names that anyone could recognize in a heartbeat. But of course, with progress, comes hesitation. Malcontents, the ones who are afraid of the unknown, unwilling to take the leap into that great chasm we call the future, to claim it as our own. They are the ones who make societies stagnate, to flounder and perish, not with war or a bang, but through cowardice, and laziness. Some of the men and women that were working towards this great goal, they were these icons of collapse. They were blind, blind to the wonder and success this would bring them. They were so worried about if they should make this, when they should be asking, ¡°CAN, we do this?¡±. A man, who¡¯s name appeared to be a Dr. Dan, leaned over to a woman on his right, who had a nametag just like Dr. Dan, her name tag reading Dr. Onaja. ¡°Taka, look at this data.¡± The man turned his monitor to face Dr. Onaja. ¡°What the hell? This isn¡¯t even related to artificial intelligence, much less computer science. If anything, this should be in a medical center, not a computing task group. Where did you find this?¡± Dr. Onaja looked questioningly at Dr. Dan, who was growing increasingly frantic. ¡°Okay, so, you see, when we got the latest batch of reports, I noticed that a huge amount of it was redacted. While it didn¡¯t really hinder our work, I was wondering why we were sent basically a classified document, which had a government seal of all things on it. So, I did a bit of digging.¡± Dr. Dan paused before continuing. ¡°I managed to find the unredacted versions of the reports through a backdoor, and I found some . . . interesting . . . discoveries. The things that I found were related to our work, but something was off. The documents kept mentioning some sort of experiment, a reference from where they were getting the data from. After I managed to track down the origin through countless shell-planets, I cracked open a government network based in-¡± Dr. Dan was cut off by his coworker. ¡°What?!¡± Dr. Onaja whispered. ¡°You hacked into a GOVERNMENT network!? You could get put into federal prison for that!¡± ¡°You think I don¡¯t know that!?¡± Dr. Dan shot back. ¡°I had to take the risks to find out the black cards this company has been dealing!¡± He took a deep breath. ¡°Anyway, after I cracked open the network, I dug into an experiment hosted by the government, and I found something bad. Something really bad, Taka.¡± Dr. Dan stopped, a haunted look entering his eyes. ¡°I- you know what, I¡¯ll just show you.¡± Dr. Dan looked around the room, checking to make sure that nobody was watching him, before opening a document on his computer. Dr. Dan and Dr. Onaja leaned in to see the screen, with Dr. Dan controlling the mouse. As he scrolled, and Dr. Onaja began to read, Dr. Dan began to talk. ¡°It started a long time ago, back in the early 21st century if you can believe it. Details are a bit fuzzy from back then, but it appeared as though a boy with a strange growth in his brain was brought in by a project funded by a political entity known as the United States. They monitored the growth of his tumor, not knowing the significance of it before they took him. However, it began to act very strangely for a tumor, almost . . . intelligent. As time went on, it appeared to be hijacking essential sections of the kid¡¯s brain, assimilating them into itself. Seeing this, the project was absorbed by an agency within the United States after declaring the boy dead. They placed him into an experimental cryo pod, and injected nanobots into his brain to both prevent the spread of the tumor, trying to gain as much data from it as possible, and keeping him alive while in stasis. This progressed for a long time, days turning into months, which turned into years, decades, centuries, you get the gist.¡± Dr. Dan stopped just as Dr. Onaja read the next paragraph. Her expression turned to confusion as she tried to process what she was reading, before understanding the text, with her expression turning to one of shock. ¡°As the tumor got worse, data began to run dry, and the kid had worsening chances of survival, the people running the experiment got desperate. In a bid to make do on their investment, they enacted more and more invasive experiments and tests, some simply activating sections of his brain to see his and the tumor¡¯s reactions. These included jumpstarting extreme pain, mind you.¡± Dr. Dan took a shaky breath. ¡°They sliced away sections of his mind, his personality, of him. With practically complete control over his brain, they could make him think he was a warlord residing in another dimension, in theory. They did their best to restore himself after each of these tests, but, and while this didn¡¯t happen often, sometimes, something was lost in transit.¡± The pair grimaced. ¡°Apparently, this is still ongoing, and then we get back to how this is related to us. Supposedly, while brains typically look like the standard, wrinkly, organic construct, the tumor had formed a much more complex, yet easy-to-understand pattern. It rearranged the parts of the brain that it had assimilated into different forms, neurons straightening out, shapes conforming, you know the like. It even began to formulate the DNA it had taken into different things, turning them into, ¡®an eerily similar design to modern code¡¯.¡± Dr. Dan quoted from the document. ¡°I stopped reading here, because I noticed that some automated sweepers were taking measures to lock down the site, so I saved what I could and logged off, writing down the rest from memory. And I¡¯m sure you can infer how this is related to our work.¡± Dr. Dan took a deep breath and looked at Dr. Onaja. ¡°Well?¡± She blinked and shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m just . . . shocked. I¡¯m still partly thinking that this is just some sort of prank.¡± Dr. Dan shook his head to deny that. ¡°Well Hal, even if this is real, what do we do about this?¡± ¡°Release it of course! I¡¯m planning on sending this info to every major news network around the stars, and I have several sleeper backups that¡¯ll activate if I don¡¯t access them in a month. They¡¯re buried so deep within shell networks that no net trawler could find them in such a short amount of time.¡± Dr. Dan appeared to be ranting now. ¡°Even if they take me out, they won¡¯t stop the tide of retribution that''s coming to them. Th-¡± He was cut off by the door to the room opening, and four security guards accompanied by a man in a blueish suit carrying a briefcase walked in. The room went silent as the quintet made their way to Dr. Dan¡¯s and Dr. Onaja¡¯s desks silently, with the pair looking on in shock and horror. The guards circled the desk, with the man in a suit approaching Dr. Dan¡¯s desk, leaning over it. ¡°Dr. Dan, this might seem sudden,¡± The man stopped to take a halting, shaky breath. ¡°But we are going to have to politely ask you to come with us quiet-¡± He was cut off by Dr. Dan suddenly springing upwards, diving towards one of the guards in a desperate bid to escape. In the end, it was futile, as the guard that he had attempted to tackle yanked the stun baton that he had been fingering out of the holster, pressing the button to activate the device, and bringing it to bear, poking Dr. Dan with the business end right in his chest. Electrical currents surged from the weapon for a moment, before touching upon the fragile human they were directed towards. Dr. Dan froze, his body seizing up. The guard quickly took the device away from him, causing Dr. Dan to slump to the ground, unconscious. The man in the suit adjusted his tie before nodding to the guards. The guards, in unison, picked Dr. Dan up by his arms and legs, before walking out of the room. The man in the suit looked at Dr. Onaja, who was watching the scene with bewildered eyes. ¡°You too.¡± The man took a shaky breath. ¡°Come with us. We have much to¡­ discuss.¡± Dr. Onaja gave a shaky nod, before getting up from her desk, and walking off with the man in the suit. * * * The cold wasteland yielded no sound. Well, there was noise. There was the constant howling of icy winds sweeping through the atmosphere. There was the creak and groaning of old metal, squealing from the stress of carrying their weight. The occasional rumble and quake that signaled a building collapse, which would quickly fade into background noise. Yes, there was sound, just not of the social kind. Humanity was dead on this world, well and truly gone. They had been vaporized, their skin and clothing burnt off their skeletal frames like leaves to a fire. For all of their progress, they were naught but insects, barely able to hold a candle to the raw, unbridled might of nature, and their own failures. The only thing left living in this harsh landscape was metal. Of course, that wasn¡¯t going to be the case for long. The sound of crunching snow could be heard, in a fast, repetitive pattern. A noise long forgotten, something that hadn¡¯t been heard on this planet for years. The telltale sound of somebody running in the snow. A figure rounded the edge of the crumbling street corner, diving into a crater which was partially covered by a car. Snow particles constantly falling made it hard to see what they looked like, but while it was humanoid, the head was far too large to be human, and too short to be nothing but a child. They huddled underneath the wreck, hurriedly glancing back out of the small hole they had crawled through to get into the improvised safe spot. What they needed to be protected from was yet to be discovered. Although, this was quickly remedied by what happened next. A shadow passed overhead, looking like a soaring bird through what could be made out in the hazy moonlight. The small huddling figure couldn¡¯t see that from his position, but whoever they were, they remained alert. After a minute of cowering, their frightened shaking came to an end, and they peaked out from underneath the car to investigate what was going on above. At first, they couldn¡¯t see anything, and they breathed a sigh of relief. However, this momentary peace was quickly disrupted by a three-fingered claw reaching under the lip of the wrecked car, grasping it, sharp edges digging into the weaker, degraded metal of the automobile. The figure lunged backwards, shuffling further and further into the crater until their back hit a wall. The wreck creaked as whatever was hunting this poor soul lifted the car up, throwing it high into the air behind it, allowing the prey to gaze upon their death in the last few moments of their life. It stood tall over the edge of the crater, with claws extending outward from their conical forearms. It was wreathed in a cloak, the ragged edges billowing in the icy wind. Their head was large, similar to the cowering figure below, with the outline of a hat seated upon the top of its head. While details couldn¡¯t be made out from the predator, a single thing stood out. Five glowing circular lights were set upon what would be the forehead of the creature, the main thing illuminating the dark alcove. On the face of it, lay a glowing ¡°X¡± taking the place of facial features, staring uncaring at the pitiful being below it. Wings could be seen, spread out from the back of this horrible entity, appearing like Death, and for all intents and purposes, it was Death. The predator leapt downwards, reaching its claws towards the doomed individual, impaling it along the shoulders. The prey gurgled, getting slammed and pinned against the wall by the superior strength of the terrible creature who was determined to see the end of the prey. The smaller figure looked up in pain, meeting what might have been the eyes of this predator, staring deep into them for mercy. The predator denied the prey this, pulling its claws in two opposite directions, this having a violent effect on the prey. The weak material of the prey gave way to the much greater strength of the predator, and with a wet tearing noise, the being was torn asunder, separated into two parts, that last vestiges of life flickering out in moments. The predator, now finished with the hunt, brought one half of the prey to its wide mouth, a toothy maw crunching into the remains of this creature, once a proud being, now reduced to naught but fuel for the ever-growing machine of death and mayhem. The predator dropped the halves of the prey, retracting its claws into its hands. It leapt back out from the hole, gazing up into the boundless skyline, and possibly, noteblock choirs playing in the moonlight. The creature, without prey, extended its wings back out from its body, taking to the skies to return to its lair. * * * ¡°Ugh, when is she getting back?¡± Two people were inside a room. Well, not exactly a room. It was more like the cabin of a spacecraft, now broken after a high-velocity meeting with something called the ground. And these ¡°people¡± weren¡¯t exactly people either. Their official term was a disassembly drone, a being operated by artificial intelligence capable of waging large-scale mass destruction, equipped with missiles, lasers, guns, claws, and multiple other weapons, and dedicated to the complete and utter annihilation of an artificial race called the worker drones, but most drones just aptly called these war machines, ¡°murder drones¡±. (roll credits!) These two androids were simply, for lack of a better word, just chilling inside the wrecked starship that served as their home. They were waiting for a member of their squad to return from a hunt that they had embarked on, and were taking much longer than usual to get back. ¡°I¡¯m not really sure. If she doesn¡¯t get back in a couple minutes, we might have to go look for her. She usually doesn¡¯t take this long, and I¡¯m starting to get annoyed.¡± One of the drones said. ¡°I don¡¯t see why I can¡¯t just go get her, A. I¡¯m reliable.¡± The drone, if anything, was probably not reliable. The other drones shook his head and sighed. ¡°Again, no means no X. If I send you off to try and find her, you¡¯re more likely to get distracted trying to fly to the stratosphere or something.¡± X scoffed. ¡°Oh come on, that was one time. I¡¯ve already learned my lesson.¡± ¡°Which is?¡± A asked. ¡°To gain a higher distance plus more speed, instead of going up straight from the ground.¡± X replied confidently. A shook his head again. ¡°So you didn¡¯t learn your lesson.¡± X frowned. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I asked you if you had learned to not try these crazy stunts anymore, and focus on the task, but instead, you told me some facts and tips that would help you attain escape velocity.¡± A said matter-of-factly. ¡°Well, uh, yeah, that too.¡± X said, deflating slightly. ¡°Either way, I still wouldn¡¯t let you go, because guess what? She¡¯s back.¡± X looked up, staring at the open doorway. The doorway, being several feet above his height, didn¡¯t allow him to see outside, so he attempted to get a closer look. However, as he did that, a metallic foot swung through the opening, clocking X square in the forehead. With a yelp of surprise, X clutched the area he had been so brutally impacted, falling back down onto the floor with an unceremonial clang. A looked up in surprise, staring at the figure in the doorway, who was now looking down shocked at their unwitting victim. ¡°So nice of you to join us K.¡± A didn¡¯t seem exactly ecstatic with the arrival of his squadmate. ¡°We WERE going to go look for you, but I suppose that your entrance is much more appreciated.¡± Despite K¡¯s earlier persona of being a man-made abomination of science, created for the sole purpose of bloodshed, war, mayhem, and destruction, she now assumed the form of a cowed subordinate who was just found slacking off on the job by her supervisor, which wasn¡¯t that far off from the truth. ¡°I, er, I''m sorry sir. I got caught up chasing this one worker. They managed to lose me around that forest of concrete at the 32nd East Turnpike, you know the one, with all the meteor craters?¡± K pleaded for forgiveness. A scoffed. ¡°Whatever, just try to wrap up your hunts when you''re alone next time, alright? This is the third time we¡¯ve had to wait for you.¡± A sighed. ¡°I¡¯m having a hard enough time as it is already trying to manage the newly cleared territories, and with your constant disappearing acts, it¡¯ll be impossible.¡± A waved her off. K opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it when A shot her a glare. Instead, she shot off a crisp salute, before looking down at X, who was still on the floor. ¡°Oh my head, it hurts. Please, somebody call for an extract, I¡¯m dying here. You maniac, you, ugh-¡± X¡¯s moaning and groaning was cut off by K grabbing his arm and yanking him to his feet. ¡°Come on, let''s get outta here.¡± Without giving X time to reply, she practically dragged him up the ladder, up and out of the small pod. A looked back to check to see if they were gone, which they were, before scoffing for what was probably the thousandth time within three minutes. ¡°Idiots.¡± He looked back down at the console, absentmindedly pressing a few buttons. As usual, the only effect that action had on any sort of function, if any, was several sparks shooting up from the console, one hitting A in the face. He cursed, swatting at the air for a moment before realizing that the sparks had already ceased for the moment. He scoffed again, before scooting away from the devilish spark-emitter to get away from the pesky glowing annoyances. Leaning back, A did a mental review of their current state. One, they had recently cleared out an entire colony, leaving an area consisting of many miles empty of worker drone activity, save for a few rogue survivors from their assault. They were already clearing those away, so put a pin in that for the time being. Two, with a large area all to themselves, and with only three people to patrol the area, some of the more brave, but mostly idiotic colonies, were trying to send out people to try and rescue the scattered survivors from the recent bunker raid. While all the attempts had been thwarted so far, the determination of these foolish people would eventually bear fruit in the form of a first-hand account of their tactics, capabilities, location, and more essential information. While it was extremely unlikely that the worker drones would try and kill one of them, they could still use that critical info to their advantage, by devising new tactics to protect themselves from them, to avoid them, to hide. So far, he was still working on plausible answers to this. Three, recently, they had been falling farther and farther down the leaderboard of the squads on Copper-9. While the newest successful assault had boosted them up a lot, this newfound status would not last unless they managed to consistently crack bunkers open at a fast rate, something very unlikely. Four was a problem that had sprung up from the third one. Due to their lowering status, it was only a matter of time before an investigation was launched into their combat effectiveness as a squad. If they were found wanting, they would be moved to lower-scale assignments, or worse, they might have their memory wiped, and repurposed as little more than servants. Five was something they could not solve, and could only be avoided. Due to the amount of damage that had been wreaked on the infrastructure of the human cities around the planet, their structural stability was, as one can expect, not exactly up to code. The place was built to last, but even the reinforced supports and buildings that had survived the initial blast were beginning to fall, at least in their sector. Just last week, a skyscraper had collapsed on top of their heads, nearly burying them in several thousand tons of concrete. This newfound danger was only making things more difficult for the squad, and would only get worse. The only solution was to speed up their efforts, which combined with everything else, seemed impossible. In short, while things weren¡¯t too bad in the present, the future was looking out to be a very dangerous and dark time for the squad, and as squad leader, A needed to do something fast. Or else he might not live to see the next year. * * * The sounds of clanking footsteps filled the corridor. Unlike the majority of this planet, noise was a very common occurrence in this place. Deep within the recesses of the exoplanet lay a facility, more bunker than anything, designed to house the administrators of the defunct mining operation in case of an emergency. Of course, certain entities had decided to make a deal with the parent company of the aforementioned mining operation, repurposing the sprawling bunker into an underground research complex, all designed to perform research on a single subject. Of course, all that had ended when a rather large detonation of the core had ended up in catastrophe for the humans currently on the planet, killing all but one, that one being the aforementioned test subject. That one was housed within a cryogenic stasis module, the latest one. It was quite expensive to run, as a cheap and reliable cryo pod had never been created, as you could either choose between cheap or reliable, not both. As for the footsteps mentioned earlier, those were the telltale sound of metallic boots marching down the hallway, doing their scheduled patrol. What they were, well, that''s a bit more complicated. They were automated security drones designed for the sole purpose of guarding the facility and what was housed within. Their current protocol for what to do in the case of an emergency that renders human response teams unable to reach them for an extended period of time was to simply guard the facility until further instruction can be given, a major oversight that didn¡¯t end too well for the inhabitants of this cold bunker. Many worker drones were also inside the facility to assist with the upkeep and maintenance of all essential systems, to keep the complex running. They were all programmed with the standard intelligence of a worker drone, with more combative programs and tools added to the security designated androids. Of course, that brings us back to the present, where two drones are doing their patrol through the more outer sections of the facility. This area was less patrolled, as only the very edge and inner core of the complex was guarded to the fullest extent. This was prioritized less due to the area being of less importance than the others, as it didn¡¯t really contain anything essential to the goal of the security drones. The pair rounded the corner, passing underneath a light, allowing a glimpse of the armed robots to be seen. They were wearing jet black armor, the plating appearing glossy in the low light level. They had what looked like some sort of rifle or machine gun, toting them around in the standard position. They were wearing a helmet that, like the rest of the body, was heavily armored in black plating. Their eyes were exposed with a clear visor that allowed them to see. A section of metal stretched across their mouth to keep it covered. As they walked, clanging along the corridor, a rusting panel came loose on the ceiling, falling. It was airborne for a moment before hitting the ground, making a large banging noise. ¡°Jeez, this place really is falling apart.¡± One of the drones said, his voice garbled by some sort of radio. ¡°Tell me about it. Did you hear about the collapse of that bridge a couple days back? A catwalk in the Theta Labs gave out, and it took four people with it. Apparently, it took them three hours to get them out of that pit.¡± The other one replied. ¡°Wow really? How come I never heard about that?¡± The first one asked. The second one shrugged. ¡°You never really get into what everybody else is saying Dave. I¡¯m telling you, you should get more involved.¡± ¡°Nah, I don¡¯t need to.¡± The first one waved off the suggestion, when just then, a voice came over the radio. ¡°Patrol 12-B, report in, what was that noise? Have intruders breached the facility?¡± The voice asked in an urgent manner. The second one replied. ¡°That''s a negative dispatch, a panel came loose and fell in front of us. No intruders here.¡± A slight beeping noise emitted from his mouthpiece as he stopped talking to dispatch. The radio crackled again. ¡°Confirmation received for intruders, we are now cooking your section.¡± The pair looked at each other, surprised. ¡°I said negative, dispatch, negative! I repeat, no intruders!¡± The sound of laughing came over the comm, slightly cutting out in a short blip for a second. ¡°Oh, you guys are so funny. You actually thought we were gonna burn your section, right? Oh, you always fall for it.¡± The voice continued laughing. The second one did not appear as humorous as dispatch. After mumbling something about annoying children, and murder, he closed off the open channel. ¡°Yeesh, that guy keeps on playing his jokes, huh?¡± The first one shook his head. The second one only nodded to him, marching along in silence. * * * The command room was, as always, full of robots. Maintenance workers bustling about, checking all of the hotwired systems to see if they had blown up, security drones checking every alcove for any sign of hostile influence, various drones controlling communication, and the top brass of the facility monitoring it all, and planning for what''s to come. ¡°General, I¡¯m not sure if your numbers are matching up.¡± Stated the lead engineer. The general looked back at the drone. ¡°If they aren¡¯t matching up, then we¡¯d be dead in three seconds. Three seconds ticked down, with nothing happening. ¡°See? Nothing to worry about.¡± The General waved his hand nonchalantly, knocking over a pile of papers. The Lead Engineer sighed. ¡°I wasn¡¯t walking about the reactor inspection that your men had done, I was talking about your patrols.¡± The General focused an eye on the Lead Engineer, the other looking at his twiddling thumbs. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with my patrols? How can an engineer know what patrolling requires and its standards?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not trying to say that your patrols are patrolling wrong, what I mean is that I¡¯ve been comparing numbers, and it seems that what your patrols have been stating about the facility''s structural integrity has been false.¡± The Lead Engineer stated. The General spat out the sip of whatever was inside his cup that he had taken. ¡°My patrols are saying things that are wrong!? Impossible, I trained them myself.¡± The Lead Engineer didn¡¯t even flinch, likely expecting the outburst. ¡°First of all, you didn¡¯t train them yourself, they were programmed that way, and have you heard of what happened yesterday?¡± ¡°What happened yesterday?¡± The General leaned in, confused. ¡°You probably didn¡¯t read the reports that had been sent to you, but they did mention a catwalk collapsing when three security drones and a single worker were crossing the gap. It took us quite a while to get them out, and one of them is still recovering.¡± The Lead Engineer was getting increasingly monotone, more often than not deadpanning his words. ¡°Hah! Let me guess, the guy that¡¯s still injured was the worker drone, right?¡± The General seemed to take enjoyment from the plight of the worker. ¡° . . . yes.¡± The Lead Engineer was bravely keeping his composure. ¡°Either way, your men had reported not a day prior to the incident that the catwalk was perfectly fine, and able to be used to the fullest extent.¡± ¡°Eh, people make mistakes. Nobody died, so no harm no foul, right?¡± The General waved off the issue. This small statement appeared to be the straw that broke the camel''s back, as the Lead Engineer sprung up from his seat, opening his mouth to begin a screaming match that would likely last for a few hours. By the reactions of the drones around them, this seemed to be a common occurrence. However, right when he intended to correct the General on his many mistakes, the lights turned red, and an alarm began blaring. The drones all around the room jumped in fright, with the security drones bursting into action, kicking down the door and charging into the room to check for hostiles. Luckily, no loose trigger-fingers were seen at this moment, so a gunfight did not ensue. The Lead Engineer and the General regained their composure quickly, standing up. The General began barking out orders for his men. ¡°Assume lockdown procedures now! We need to centralize all security drones into fortified positions immediately! I want men to reinforce the border, and keep area traffic at a minimum in case we need to evacuate to the inner sections!¡± While the General was telling his soldiers what to do, the Lead Engineer approached one of the men controlling the console. ¡°You there, what¡¯s the alarm about!?¡± The Lead Engineer yelled. The drone jumped in shock again. ¡°It¡¯s, er, I believe it''s the reactor, sir.¡± ¡°Elaborate.¡± The Lead Engineer ordered. ¡°Well, the automated system appears to have detected a breach in the fusion containment chamber-¡± The man was cut off by panicked yelling from the drones around him. ¡°The reactor!?¡± ¡°It''s gonna blow!¡± ¡°We¡¯re doomed!¡± ¡°Ow, that¡¯s my foot!¡± The chaos was silenced by the General firing his pistol into the air. With a loud, reverberating bang, everybody looked towards him. The Lead Engineer walked up to the General, before explaining the situation to him. ¡°Alright, so, intruders are a negative, disregard the previous orders to reinforce our border, but make sure to regulate the traffic and keep our men calm. What do you say, Engineer? This is your area of expertise.¡± The General seemed much more cordial now that a professional situation required a professional attitude. ¡°Ok, first of all, we need several workers outfitted with heat protection to enter the reactor sector. Once we identify the breach we can coat it in sealant, and devise a more permanent solution later. We have countermeasures that can keep the breach safe for at least a week, so no need to panic, everybody.¡± The Lead Engineer¡¯s words managed to calm the workers down. * * * ¡°Status report.¡± The Lead Engineer ordered. ¡°Well sir, we managed to identify the breach, but it wasn¡¯t in the containment field. It was in the power transfer station.¡± The assistant said. ¡°How bad was the damage? Any critical systems in danger of burning?¡± ¡°No sir, we patched up the damage, and the seal will hold, and we can repair the lines. But during the time that the breach was open, we lost millions of units of saved power. The facility life expectancy has dropped from twenty more years to about five months.¡± ¡°Tell me, why did the computer not identify it correctly?¡± ¡°Age and damage, sir. The initial blast from the planet hit the computer in a bad way. As you know, we had repaired the damage done to the computer itself, but its preservative functions had been disabled. And so, age has been hitting it hard, and we have been trying to conserve the materials we have left to replace the bad ones.¡± The Lead Engineer didn¡¯t reply, just hanging his head. ¡°Sir?¡± The assistant questioned. ¡°What?¡± The Lead Engineer replied. ¡°There is the matter of the . . . asset . . . we have safeguarded.¡± The assistant appeared to be withholding bad news. ¡°What is it?¡± The Lead Engineer felt a feeling of dread creeping up on him. ¡°While the facility can be powered for five months on the remaining power, the pod that the asset is in can only be powered for . . .¡± The assistant paused. ¡°Come on, spit it out already.¡± The Lead Engineer insisted. ¡°For three more weeks.¡± The assistant finished. ¡°Damnit!¡± The Lead Engineer slammed his fist down on the table, putting a sizable dent in it. ¡°Is there any way to divert more power?¡± He asked. ¡°Sir, we both know that the asset¡¯s housing chamber runs off of a separate grid that has a different connection to the reactor than the facility, and we can¡¯t simply funnel more power into it. While it is theoretically possible to jury-rig a direct connection between the facility¡¯s grid and the asset¡¯s, there is an extremely large chance of frying the asset from a slight miscalculation or mistake in construction.¡± The assistant explained. The Lead Engineer groaned. ¡°We need some sort of help, or maybe a way to get the asset off-planet.¡± ¡°Long-range comms are impossible to get back up, and it would take years to send a transmission to the closest star with the capabilities we currently have.¡± The assistant replied. ¡°We are screwed.¡± * * * The wasteland was warm. Relatively. As man-made horrors ravaged the surface, as a forgotten project manned only by the remnants of facility personnel futilely tried to save the one they were charged with protecting at all costs, as prey attempted to save themselves against the aforementioned man-made horrors, the world didn¡¯t really care. Despite the ants fighting on its surface, the planet spun along without a care in the universe. Sure, it had cared when a huge chunk of its planetary mass decided to eject itself up and away from it, but it had recovered, or at least gotten used to the loss. Of course, planets didn¡¯t have any sort of intelligence, so this is all metaphors and the like. As the sun rose, chasing away the darkness, both literally and figuratively, the aforementioned darkness, or at least a certain three of them, only felt one thing. Annoyance. ¡°Oh come on, get down from there!¡± K yelled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, if he wants to risk death, it¡¯ll be a reprieve on us.¡± A nonchalantly stated. ¡°Sir, I¡¯m not sure if-¡± K was cut off. With a yelp of surprise, X fell from the top of the corpse spire, tumbling head-over-heels until he collided with the indomitable entity called the ground. A small crater was formed in the snow as well from the impact. ¡°Ow. That hurt. Was quite fun as well!¡± X peeked up from the ground, shooting to his feet. A simply sighed, gripping his forehead in frustration. A just walked back inside the pod, hearing the two outside arguing as he entered the spacecraft. A was about to just go to sleep when he heard an odd beeping noise. He looked around the room for a moment, trying to identify the source of the sound. He managed to pinpoint the origin of the beeping to the alcove under the desk, so he kneeled down to take a look. Underneath the console was several assorted items, like gas canisters, useless replacement parts, defunct modules, extra consoles, and other things not of importance. Moving aside a loose panel that was in the way, it revealed a box, about a foot wide and long, with two dials, a number pad, a blank screen, a microphone attached by a wire, and a single blinking red light, the source of the beeping. A pulled the device out from under the cavity, placing it on top of the console. Pretty much everything was either damaged or out of power in the spaceship, so seeing something operational was a bit of a surprise. As to why it was beeping, A had no idea, but he intended to find out. A small label placed on top of the device might have helped, if it wasn''t scratched out, so A had to do some more in-depth investigation. There was a button right next to the blinking light, and when A pressed it, as that seemed like the only course of action at the point, the screen lit up, with the words, ¡°GEO-POSITIONAL-LOCATOR ACTIVE¡± and after a moment, a map of something popped up on it, with two areas highlighted with a dot. One was green, and one was red. Text appeared above the green dot, labeling it, ¡°YOU ARE HERE¡± with the red dot being labeled, ¡°DISTRESS SIGNAL ORIGIN POINT¡±. A stared in confusion at the device, wondering what the hell it meant. * * * ¡°Ok so, what exactly is that thing?¡± X poked at the device. ¡°Don¡¯t do that, you idiot!¡± A slapped his hand away. ¡°Geez man, alright.¡± X backed away. ¡°So, you found this thing in our pod, and it detected a distress signal from some sort of area, and you believe it¡¯s some sort of call from a human holdout?¡± K didn¡¯t appear to follow A¡¯s train of thought. ¡°Yes, I do.¡± A simply replied. ¡°Why, sir?¡± K inquired. A didn¡¯t reply, instead turning the device around to expose a logo on the back. The logo in question was none other than the insignia for the government. ¡°Uh, that''s cool. Why do we have a GPS signal locator from the government?¡± X entered the conversation. ¡°I believe that the company had sent us here with this thing to give us the opportunity to rescue a government facility, perhaps an embassy of sorts that had been forgotten or assumed dead in the blast.¡± A stated. ¡°Sir, every single human was killed in the blast. None survived. The company told us this themselves.¡± K reasoned. ¡°Then it might just be something that the company or the government finds important. The facts remain, the company gave us this, this is telling us to go somewhere, and we are following its signal. That is final.¡± A finished with a stern tone. ¡°I, er, yes sir. When are we leaving?¡± K asked. ¡°Right now.¡± ¡°Right now?¡± ¡°Yes, right now. Also, I¡¯m not going with you. You and X are going alone.¡± A stated. ¡°What?¡± K seemed shocked. ¡°Someone needs to stay here to monitor the device, and since neither of you are trustworthy enough, I¡¯m the one staying.¡± A said. ¡°If you say so sir.¡± K seemed to have lost the will to fight with the squad leader. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°What about you X? Any problems?¡± the group turned towards X. ¡°Nah. Sounds like fun. Hope I get to blow something up.¡± X shrugs and goes back to twiddling his thumbs. ¡°Good. Now get out. I have important, uh, monitoring to do.¡± A waves his hand. ¡°Dismissed.¡± ¡°Uh, sir?¡± K leaned back in. A sighed heavily. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s daytime. We can¡¯t leave.¡± K says. A groans. * * * ¡°Ugh, I can hardly see where we¡¯re going. Why couldn¡¯t we leave later?¡± X attempted to swat the flurry of snow out of his face. ¡°The sun just set.¡± K replied. ¡°So?¡± X asked, annoyed. ¡°So since we left right when the sun set, we will now have more time to travel while on the road.¡± K reasoned. ¡°Ok, so?¡± X shrugged, or tried his best to shrug, it¡¯s kinda hard to do that while you¡¯re flying at high speeds through the air. K didn¡¯t facepalm, as she didn''t really want to attempt that while flying through the air at the aforementioned high speeds, so she just ignored him and went back to staring ahead. The pair stayed in silence for the next few hours, or K stayed silent while X constantly complained. Eventually, the sun had started to rise, so they had to take shelter, or be brutally vaporized the moment a single photon touches upon the metal of them, which seemed like a suspiciously major oversight for such a technologically advanced mega-corporation. K scanned the ground for a suitable shelter, which was quite difficult considering that the amount of damage that had been wrought on the planet had rendered most of the buildings more akin to a sieve than a contained, sealed environment. Finally, she spotted a ruin that appeared to have little to no holes peppering the shell of the wreckage, so she deemed it good enough for their purposes. The pair touched down, fleeing into the ruin with about ten minutes to spare before the sun¡¯s light would reach the surface of the planet. The wreckage might have been a skyscraper at one point, but had since fallen into severe disrepair, now being little more than a collection of walls and columns that served no purpose other than to look like it was pulled straight out of a severe apocalyptic wasteland that had most likely seen better days, or maybe just Los Angeles. Either way, it was fitting for the current scenario. Once inside the collapsed building, they delved deeper into the dark recesses of this horrid necropolis. It appeared as though, that whatever the building had once been used for required the use of a basement. Only more the benefit to these two intrepid travelers, as it provided another layer of protection against the deadly rays of the sun. The basement had lost any semblance of what it once was long ago, now reduced to crumbling rooms with the occasional pile of rubble. The pair didn¡¯t really care about this state of disrepair, as their own home wasn¡¯t exactly what one would call comfortable. Eventually, the two settled on a room that didn¡¯t have any point of entrance or exit, save for a single doorway that was relatively intact. The room was bare bones and small, not even fifteen feet across, with only a few filing cabinets to occupy the otherwise lonely room. There wasn¡¯t a single source of light, but that didn¡¯t really affect K and X the way it would normally affect your average human, since obviously, the drones had to be outfitted with night-vision, every military-capable piece of equipment should. Anyone who believes otherwise is most definitely wrong, and anybody associated with the aforementioned wrong person should disassociate themselves from them immediately, or risk facing extreme retribution. ¡°Welp, only an entire day to pass by. What do we do now?¡± X kicked a rock into the wall. ¡°Anything. I can¡¯t go to sleep since we basically did nothing other than fly for miles, so as long as it doesn¡¯t severely threaten the structural stability of this place, I¡¯m open to it.¡± K replied. ¡°Huh. You know, why would we get boredom programmed into us in the first place? Seems like a pretty major oversight on the part of the company.¡± X inquired. ¡°The company never told us, in fact, they never really told us anything about our programming. However, my guess is always going to be better than yours, so my theory is that; when we¡¯re bored we will actively search out more worker drones to kill to stave off the boredom. Boredom is always a great motivator to start doing something.¡± K explained. ¡°Yeah alright, doesn¡¯t mean I have to like it. Worst thing they could give us, in my opinion. As long as you don¡¯t consider the wiped memories, broken ship, overheating problems, no assistance whatsoever, and-¡± X was cut off. ¡°Quiet! You¡¯re treading on very dangerous territory here, X!¡± K whisper-yelled, almost as if she needed to be quiet herself. ¡°Psh, if the company cared about what we said, I would¡¯ve been vaporized a while ago.¡± X nonchalantly replied. K grumbled, crossing her arms and sitting down on a fallen filing cabinet. ¡°Just, watch what you say, alright? We¡¯re stretched out enough as it is, we don''t need somebody dying to make it worse.¡± K says. ¡°Aww, someones getting all sentimental or something. You care about me now?¡± X smiled evilly. ¡°Oh shut up.¡± K waved a hand angrily at X, who chuckled for a second. The pair sat in silence for a good thirty minutes before a groan from X broke the silence. ¡°God, I can¡¯t take it anymore. I¡¯m so bored, I¡¯m tempted to just try and see how hot the sun is.¡± As if to prove his point, X got up. ¡°Fine. What do you wanna do to pass the time?¡± K got up as well, seemingly prepared to forcefully stop X from going outside. ¡°I dunno. Catch?¡± X shrugged. ¡°No, maybe later. How about chess? Much more suitable game for me.¡± K suggested with an ounce of superiority. ¡°Seriously? Chess? THAT¡¯S what you suggest? We don¡¯t even have any chess pieces, and even if we did, I don¡¯t even know how to play.¡± X fixed K with a deadpan stare. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I can teach you. As for the pieces, we can just find stuff around the room, maybe carve a few out. It¡¯ll give us more stuff to do.¡± K insisted. ¡°Come on, I know you¡¯re bored.¡± X groaned. ¡°Ugh, fine. But I¡¯m not getting the pieces, that¡¯s gonna be your job.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine with me.¡± K said, smirking in triumph. * * * ¡°And since I¡¯ve got thirty kills, I get to deploy the tactical nuke.¡± To emphasize his point, X threw a rock at the area where they were playing, scattering several pieces. ¡°Ah, but you see, I researched the nuclear resistant tank tech tree, so my tanks are immune to your nuke.¡± K placed multiple staplers down in a triangle formation, advancing on X¡¯s scattered line. ¡°Yes, but can they resist my special photon blast!?¡± X flung a small pebble at a very high speed towards one of the staplers. The pebble lodged itself in the crook of the clamping mechanism, stopping it from closing shut, ¡°But now you¡¯ve used your last railgun shot for the next thirty minutes, and I seem to recall I destroyed your orbital cannon.¡± K dropped several bent paper clips from a couple feet up in the air onto the ground. X leaned back and put a feigned look of panic on his face. ¡°Dear god, you''re right! It seems I must pull out my last weapon!¡± X put what looked like several paper clips bent together to form a humanoid figure out from behind him, placing the lone piece against the super-tanks. X then shoved another bent paper clip into the figure¡¯s hands, turned into the shape of an axe, it seemed. ¡°May I present, Jordan Friedman! Outfitted with the latest Harmful EnVironment suit from the company Dark Mesa and his trusty fireaxe, he can easily take on your pathetic super-tanks.¡± X proudly stated. K scoffed, continuing to advance her tanks. However, that expression quickly turned to one of shock when X used Friedman to bat away the tanks, turning them onto their sides. ¡°What!? How?!¡± K spluttered in surprise. ¡°Hahaha! Now it is time for you to face defeat at the hands of Friedman!¡± X proudly yelled in triumph. K could only watch in shock and despair as Friedman tore through her lines, destroying anything that came in his path. It was as if, no matter how many troops she sent towards him, he simply just cut down with the ease of lifting a finger. Friedman slaughtered his way towards the heart of her territory, where he came into contact with her main commander. * * * Friedman gazed upon the pitch black throne that this wretched being had wrought from the souls of the vanquished. While he didn¡¯t express his displeasure through outward speech, his opinion on the matter clearly showed on his face as he approached the vile entity that sat upon it. The commander of the enemy, the one he must kill, Commander Grimace, scourge of the galaxy. ¡°Ah, I see you aren¡¯t a fan of my little assortment of tributes.¡± The commander¡¯s voice was gravely, and had a robotic scratch to it. ¡°Tell me, Friedman, was it worth it? All the death, the suffering, just to kill me? In fact, for all of my superior intellect, I can¡¯t even begin to comprehend your motives. It¡¯s as if you''re just following an order, a set path that has become your objective, an objective you will complete at all costs.¡± Commander Grimace coughed, a wretched hacking noise that grated on the ears. ¡°Hmm. No matter. I suppose I will just kill you and add your weapon to my collection.¡± To emphasize his point, this hated being presented the choice tools of his victims, all concealed within his cloak. ¡°Time to die, Friedman.¡± Commander Grimace rose from his seat, hacking and coughing all the while. He shed his dark cloak, revealing his cybernetic body. Once, he might have been a respected warrior, but now he was nothing but a twisted facsimile of a living being. But he wasn¡¯t done yet. Commander Grimace¡¯s two arms split into four, as the limbs unlinked themselves through whatever technological mechanics this thing had put into itself. He pulled four small metal rods from his waist, holding them as if they were swords. Pressing the buttons, Commander Grimace caused four bright glowing scimitars of energy to sprout from the ends of the rods, now known to be handles for these lightblades. Jordan Friedman, not wanting to delay any longer, dove at Commander Grimace, and the two entered a duel that would decide the fate of the galaxy for eons to come. The pair clashed weapons, with Friedman taking two blades on his fireaxe, with the other two coming up to slash at him from two different angles. Friedman lunged backwards, avoiding the incoming blades by a fraction of a hairsbreadth. Friedman remained stoic, trying to prepare himself for another pass. Without giving Friedman time to catch a breath, Grimace pressed his advantage, slashing over and over again at Friedman, never relenting. The cyborg likely had much higher capabilities than a human, and could exact much more damage. However, Friedman didn¡¯t give up in the face of this dangerous foe, simply blocking when he could, and dodging when he couldn¡¯t block. The two continued to clash blades, the scales tipping mostly in Grimace''s favor. It seemed like that while Friedman was putting up a good fight, it was doing little more than to just delay the inevitable. However, when Friedman was tiring out, his axe growing heavier in his arms, he saw it. The opportunity that he had been waiting for had presented itself. The slightest gap in Grimace¡¯s guard, inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but Friedman saw this as his lifeline. With what seemed like a choreographed move, Friedman moved his body, just slightly to the left. The glowing blade of Grimace swept past his ear, clipping off a hair in the process. This movement put him right in the perfect position to shove his fireaxe right into the smallest hole in Grimace¡¯s chest cavity, where his lungs would be. Normally, the force that Friedman had pushed the axe with wouldn¡¯t have breached the ballistic material that made up Grimace¡¯s lungs, but with Grimace¡¯s lunge forward, it added the force needed to penetrate the reinforced lungs. And to add onto the damage, Friedman shoved a grenade in there just in case. Grimace froze for a moment, before stepping back with a hacking cough. ¡°What . . . have . . . you . . . done!?¡± Grimace¡¯s voice was rasping even worse than usual. However, Grimace wouldn¡¯t have time to figure out what Friedman had done, as his chest was having a bit of a rough time. In fact, while the chest did a fairly apt job of keeping the explosion contained within Grimace¡¯s body, it didn¡¯t really bode well for the essential parts of Grimace that were left. To clarify, his brain had been cooked like a child sticking a fork into an electrical socket. Without much fanfare, Grimace just dropped like a stone, his laser weapons flickering out like candles. Friedman looked passively at the corpse of his enemy. He was dead, his goal completed. * * * ¡°How!? How did that single person destroy this entire army!? He had barely anything compared to the amassed weaponry of my forces, but he still waded through them like they were nothing!¡± K gawked at the little paper clip man that had annihilated her army. X tutted, a grin on his face. ¡°You just gotta get good, K. All of this is nothing but a skill issue.¡± ¡°Besides, this isn¡¯t even chess! I still don¡¯t know how it devolved into, whatever this is!¡± K crossed her arms, glaring at X. ¡°You¡¯re just a sore loser, mad that I¡¯m better at you than this stuff.¡± X leaned back. ¡°Ugh, whatever. Oh, would you look at that, the sun is setting, time to go!¡± K sprang up, walking with a purpose towards the doorway, her fists balled. X simply laughed. * * * ¡°So this is the place?¡± X asked. The pair were standing in front of a low standing building. Well, it was less so a building and more rubble at this point, but some semblance of structure had remained. Like everything else in this wasteland, it likely used to be some sort of skyscraper, or at least something close to it. The top part had long since collapsed, and now only the first few button floors were standing. The odd thing about this one was that it seemed to be powered on. A few flickering lights were shining on what looked like a sign that was carved into the concrete above the entrance. Most of the words and letters had been scratched out, with the only legible writing spelling, ¡°E__C____E ASSEM___¡±. It wasn¡¯t very helpful, but the fact that the building did have some power left was a notable thing to remember. ¡°Yep. I remember the coordinates, and this is as close as we¡¯re gonna get. And plus, this place has power, so it makes it pretty obvious that something is here.¡± K replied. ¡°Pretty impressive.¡± ¡°So uh, we gonna go inside or what?¡± X looked towards K. ¡°I guess so.¡± K replied. Nobody made a move to go into the building. ¡°Come on, go ahead.¡± K pushed at X. ¡°No, you go first.¡± X pushed back at K. ¡°But why? This place is perfectly fine, so just go in.¡± K insisted. ¡°Here, how about we go in at the same time? I¡¯ll count down.¡± X suggested. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m fine with that.¡± K agreed, X counted down from three to zero. Still no movement. ¡°Just go already! I counted down!¡± X glared at K. ¡°I didn¡¯t see you moving at all!¡± K accused X. ¡°It¡¯s just a damn door! How is this difficult for you!?¡± X shot back. ¡°Fine! I¡¯m going in!¡± K stomped towards the revolving door, with X following suit. The pair stepped through the spinning glass, well, maybe just the spinning part, since all the glass was broken. The tile floor was coated in a thick layer of dust, rubble, and snow, likely having been part of the cracked ceiling. The tile itself was cracked but whole, with only a few sections of flooring torn up in certain places. A receptionist desk was across the hall, however, it was only manned by a skeleton wearing the ragged remains of what might have been some sort of business wear. There were three elevators, or what might have been elevators, if they weren¡¯t in complete disrepair. The middle one, however, was framed by two skeletons with what seemed like what used to be combat vests, and two snow-covered submachine guns. The elevator doors were slightly cracked open, exposing the empty shaft. The pair moved through the room, with K stopping to look at the deceased security guards. ¡°Huh.¡± She remarked. X didn¡¯t hear her, as he was poking his head through the middle elevator doors to get a good look at what was down in the dark chasm. ¡°Hey! Get away from there!¡± K yanked X away from the edge. ¡°Why? Isn¡¯t that where we¡¯re going?¡± X asked. ¡°We don¡¯t know yet where the distress signal could¡¯ve originated from. We have to investigate this entire place for the origin point.¡± X pointed at the leftmost elevator. ¡°That one is full of rubble, the right one only goes up, and there isn¡¯t any intact floor but this one. The only place we can go is down.¡± X reasoned. K scoffed. ¡°That doesn¡¯t- well, I guess that makes sense. Uh, you wanna go down first?¡± * * * The command room was quiet. Thankfully. Today was a quiet day for multiple reasons. Some might say that the populace was worried about their impending doom, and were in shock about it. Some might say the same, but about the impending doom of the asset, of which they were programmed to always make sure they lived, and it¡¯s a core aspect of their being as well. Some would say that everyone had just been burnt out from all the excitement yesterday, and were now just chilling. Perhaps it was all just one big coincidence, though some would say that there were no coincidences. However, those who would say that coincidences didn¡¯t exist were most definitely wrong, as that would imply that chance never existed, since a coincidence is a product of chance, which is influenced by probabilities. You could say that coincidences didn¡¯t exist in a more esoteric or metaphorical definition, but we¡¯re getting off track. The command room, as always, was filled with drones managing and monitoring the essential systems of the facility. Those essential systems, contrary to what some might think, did not include communication, or at least in the literal broader sense. Due to the planet being a hellhole wasteland cut off from basically all outside contact, communication to and from the planet wasn¡¯t exactly possible at the moment. They could remedy the issue by launching armored rockets into space to get past the debris field, but that raises the question of where they would get the rockets from. There might be a few leftover shuttles scattered around the planet, but if they even existed at all, they would be few and far between due to the blast. And so, that has led the facility personnel to disregard long-range communication as a high-priority subject, assigning a single drone to watch the comm room at all times. And so that¡¯s why it was a rather large surprise that, when the drone ran the ping function, it bounced back. For context, that wasn''t supposed to happen, even before the blast. In no world did the standard functions of the long-range comms include that part, or in that short of a time. For even more context, the reason why it happened was because, as the signal went up through the concrete and rock, it usually runs up the elevator shaft and out into the atmosphere, where it would intercept a satellite, which would then send the information through the portal connected to the satellite, which would send the message to wherever it needed to go. The satellite would send a different signal back to the facility to confirm that their signal was received and made it through. However, as the facility signal ran up the elevator shaft, it hit something that it completely bounced off of, sending it right back to the receiver. I¡¯m sure you can guess what the signal bounced off of. The drone stared at his screen for a moment before muttering something about trash electronics and aging tech, before adjusting a few dials and sending out the signal again. However, his efforts only confirmed that either the tech was aging and trash, or that something had gotten in the way of the signal¡¯s path. The drone groaned, before turning around and yelling at one of his coworkers. ¡°Hey Dave!¡± The drone called out. ¡°What!?¡± Dave asked. ¡°Listen, I think we¡¯ve got a blockage in the elevator shaft, it¡¯s stopping the signal from passing all the way through.¡± The unnamed drone replied. ¡°Just increase the signal strength, it¡¯ll be fine, Al.¡± Dave suggested. ¡°I already did that, and it didn¡¯t work. I can¡¯t increase it anymore without the signal interfering with short-range comms. Just send out a guy to clear it up. Doesn¡¯t need to be pretty, just get him a buzzsaw and a plasma cutter.¡± Al said. ¡°Tch. Alright, fine man. You owe me after this though.¡± Dave pressed and held down a button on his console, before muttering some terse words into it and letting go of the button. ¡°Should be all dealt with now.¡± Dave said back to Al. ¡°Thanks man.¡± Al replied. ¡°No problem.¡± Dave said back. * * * ¡°Man, this tunnel is dark.¡± X complained. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, we have night vision.¡± X replied. ¡°So what? Still annoying.¡± X continued complaining. ¡°How? You can see perfectly fine right now, and plus, it¡¯s always dark outside, so we always use night vision. Why aren¡¯t you complaining then?¡± K inquired. ¡°Because this place is, like, super dark.¡± X reasoned poorly. K was about to reply when she heard footsteps echoing down the dank tunnel, along with a bouncing flashlight. ¡°Shh, be quiet. Someones coming.¡± K shushed X. X would¡¯ve continued talking if the incoming person didn¡¯t round the corner at that second. In fact, the aforementioned person seemed to not be a person at all, but one of the infamous worker drones. They were carrying a flashlight, along with what appeared to be a belt full of tools, and a couple power tools strapped along his front and back. The worker drone stopped dead at the sight of them. And then, surprisingly, he began to talk. ¡°Uh, hi. I didn¡¯t know that command sent some people ahead of-¡± The poor worker drone didn¡¯t get a chance to finish his sentence, as X dashed forward quicker than the inferior eyes of the worker drones could see, slashing his claws and trisecting the doomed drone in an instant. ¡°X!¡± K yelled out. ¡°What!? It was a worker drone. We kill those guys. Ugh, it wasn''t even worth it either, no fun.¡± X grumbled. ¡°Well, what if they had some sort of info? We could¡¯ve tortured it out of them and then killed them later.¡± K reasoned. ¡°Yeah, but we were told to kill all the worker drones. Why would they give a worker drone important things, and then tell us to kill them all if they wanted us to recover those important things?¡± X shot back. ¡°Jeez, you¡¯re just full of smart ideas today.¡± K said. ¡°Maybe you¡¯re rubbing off on me.¡± X suggested. ¡°I doubt it.¡± K replied. ¡°Let''s keep moving.¡± * * * ¡°Uh, Al?¡± Dave called out. ¡°Yeah, what is it?¡± Al replied. ¡°Well uh, is your signal working now?¡± Dave asked. ¡°Uh, yeah. Thanks man.¡± Al turned around. ¡°Wait, listen. Remember that guy that we sent to fix that blockage?¡± Dave inquired. ¡°Yeah? What about it?¡± Al asked. ¡°Well, his vitals blinked out. Like fully.¡± Dave replied. ¡°What? Are you sure that it wasn¡¯t a glitch?¡± Al suggested. ¡°I just ran diagnostics, so no. I think we might wanna send a security squad to investigate. Maybe he just fell and crumpled his head on a crossbeam, accidents happen.¡± Dave said. ¡°It''s your call man, I¡¯m not involved in that kind of decision making.¡± Al said. ¡°Yeah. I just wanted to run it by you.¡± Al turned back towards his console, repeating the motions from last time. ¡°Security has been contacted, and they are on their way.¡± Al mumbled to himself. * * * The pair hadn¡¯t even moved thirty feet from their original before they heard more footsteps, these ones sound heavier and clunkier. ¡°Ugh, there''s more. Prepare for a slaughter.¡± K retracted her left hand, replacing it with a submachine gun. X chuckled, not retracting his claws. ¡°Hopefully this time is more entertaining.¡± The clanking of boots grew louder, causing X to crouch and K to raise her gun. The group rounded the corner, and much to the surprise of X and K, they weren¡¯t your average worker drone. Sleek black chestplate, sleek black helmet that showed their sleek black screen and unique eyes from behind a tinted sheet of bulletproof glass, sleek black everything. The drones had come up in a group of four and had clearly prepared to get shot at. However, judging by their expressions, they were just as surprised to see the murder drones as they were to see them. Along with toting assault rifles, these drones were clearly a modded security drone, outfitted with weapons and armor that a soldier would normally wear, and probably the knowledge to use it. The surprise on both sides wore off quickly, but as the security drones were raising their guns, K already had hers aimed at the ready. The rapid banging of gunfire filed the passageway, K unloading her rounds at her targets. However, the bullets, probably due to their low caliber, simply pinged off of the dark armor of these strange security drones. By the time K was switching to her missile launcher, the security drones had drawn a solid bead on K, and were pressing down on the triggers. Bigger bullets ripped through the air, most hitting their targets. While K had drawn her wings to swing them out in front of her to protect herself, X had charged forwards. This would normally be a very bad idea, but through sheer luck, the drones had noticed K first due to her raised firearm, and didn¡¯t notice X until he was already at the leftmost drone in their line. Claws slashed down, and while low caliber bullets didn¡¯t seem to do much to these jacked-up drones, the super-sharp edge of the disassembly drones claws seemed to tear through their armor normally. X¡¯s victim didn¡¯t even have time to cry out, as his head was turned into something more akin to sliced bread, his limp body falling limp onto the ground. Seeing this, K switched to her claws, and waited for a lull in the gunfire that would signal the drones running out of ammo. That moment came a moment later, with the clicking and sliding as the drones tried to quickly change out their empty magazines for fresh ones. That would come far too late, however. K dove forward, and with X already getting to work on his second victim, she had a great opening to enter melee. She speared her claws through the first one she had seen, impaling both sides of their chests, before curling her claws, which would shred the internal systems of the security drone. It would be incapacitated for a moment, but it would give her time to attack the next drone in line. Letting the body slide off her claws and onto the floor, K moved towards the last drone, who now had what looked like a baton out, keeping it between the drone and her. However, his efforts would be in vain, as X had just bisected his second victim, and was now looking for a third, decapitating the drone. The baton fell out of limp hands, clattering to the ground. K was turning around when she realized that her being blocked by the drone had impeded her by one second, which might not seem like a long time or a big deal, but that one second was crucial, a fact that was proven by the drone she had left bleeding out finishing her reload, firing a single shot into the back of K¡¯s unprotected head. K stumbled forward, toppling to the ground limply. X looked at K with a surprised glance, before he slashed downwards at the security drone, ending her life in a moment. ¡°Hey uh, you good?¡± X crept towards K. ¡°Ugh.¡± K groaned after a tense moment. ¡°That hurts.¡± ¡°Shoot. You¡¯re not dead. Welp, can¡¯t wish for everything to come true.¡± X smirked. ¡°Oh shut up. The only reason why you aren¡¯t filled with bullet holes was because I took them all for you.¡± K clutched the back of her head, getting up. ¡°Yeah, yeah, yeah, all I hear are excuses. Now let''s get moving, I don¡¯t like the idea of turning into a bullet sponge.¡± X motioned for K to follow. ¡°Yeah, alright.¡± K said, following him. * * * ¡°So you¡¯re telling me, that five, FIVE, of our brave men are dead due to an unknown threat?¡± The General asked tersely. ¡°Er, yes sir.¡± Dave answered. ¡°And why didn¡¯t you tell us about this earlier?¡± The General inquired. ¡°Well uh, I didn¡¯t think that it was a major problem-¡± Dave was cut off. ¡°You didn¡¯t think that the deaths of our men were major problems?¡± The General leaned in. ¡°No, there was a man before-¡± Dave was cut off yet again. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. I want you out of my sight.¡± The General waved his hand, with Dave enthusiastically obliging. The General was silent for a moment, likely pondering on what to do, before settling on the obvious route of action. Taking a radio out of his belt, he held it to his mouth, before speaking into it. ¡°Initiate lockdown, code 117, orange tier. Reinforce the outer border, and leave two avenues of retreat for our men.¡± The General ordered. ¡°Affirmative. Activating lockdown, orange tier code 117, reinforcing border.¡± The radio spat back out. * * * Bullets perforated the air. The two disassembly drones were taking cover behind a concrete barrier. In front of them was a massive gate, complete with closed blast doors and various defensive points, of which there were many. However, the pair couldn¡¯t determine the exact count of the defense points due to the hailstorm of live rounds coming from them, which makes sense, considering they were defensive points. X and K were making their way through the dark tunnels, trying to stay alert, though they couldn¡¯t have prepared for the sheer size of the thing they had encountered, as who in their right mind would put a massive blast door underground, when the ground made for a perfect blast door in of itself. However, the facts remained true, something that was emphasized by the enemy force trying their best to turn them into swiss cheese. K was waiting for a lull in the gunfire, but considering that this was a much larger force than the one they had encountered earlier, they would have much more ammo, and much bigger guns. While they had stopped firing, this was likely due to not wanting to waste available ammo, and would probably resume firing once she left her cover. And so, drastic situations called for drastic measures. Taking a page out of X¡¯s book, she spread her wings, flying many feet up into the air, likely surprising the enemy drones. While she was up in the air, she took aim with her missile launcher that she had just taken out, firing a single shot towards the small slit that they were firing out of. Her aim struck true, the projectile flying forwards and through the gap, with the explosion sending a large jet of flames out of the gap, along with a few screams and a scorched limb, and having the added effect of large-scale panic. Taking the hint, X dove forwards, landing at the foot of the gate, changing his hands into large blades, plunging them into the steel door, and began carving. K flew forwards, retracting her wings to fit through the gap, and landing on the catwalk that the drones had been firing from. Many drones stared back at her with fearful eyes, and they began raising their guns too late. A large laser beam decapitated roves of drones, while a flurry of explosions sent her victims flying. Bullets flew everywhere, a few finding their homes in K¡¯s body, despite her best efforts. Luckily, they didn¡¯t cause much damage, due to her powerful regeneration. The drone¡¯s fates were sealed by X flying upwards, landing right behind the haphazard line that the drones were trying to create, slicing a few drones in two as well. K dove forwards, claws out, slicing and dicing the drones as if she was cutting vegetables. At this point, they were too close to open fire, and so many of the remaining drones took out crackling batons to try and cover the escape that single drone was making, who was also holding some sort of device in his hands. However, that escape was cut short when he ran too close to X, who casually stuck a claw out, slashing it upwards, cleaving the top half of the drone¡¯s head off. It only took a few more seconds for K and X to finish up the stragglers, one of which had been holding her hands up in surrender. Of course, they didn¡¯t oblige, with X bisecting the poor soul in a heartbeat. When K impaled her current victim through the eyes, ending their life, K looked around for more, only to find none. With an estimated headcount, she realized that her and X, in total, had killed about fifty of these security drones, with probably a few retreating. ¡°Huh. That seemed real easy.¡± X stepped up right next to K. ¡°More like they weren¡¯t prepared for our capabilities. In situations like these, we¡¯re pretty kitted towards shock-and-awe tactics.¡± K explained. ¡°That¡¯s nice and all, but I¡¯m not sure I ask-¡± X was cut off by K punching him in the arm with a good right hook. ¡°Don¡¯t even start. I really don¡¯t want my good mood ruined.¡± K glared at X. ¡°Jeez, calm down, just joking ¡®round. Also, I found this.¡± X held up the device that the retreating drone had been carrying. K picked it up. It appeared to be a rectangular flat screen, activated as well. The display was showing what looked like a maze of corridors and passageways, with a green blinking dot being shown in a large room. ¡°Huh. This might be a map.¡± K slid her finger across the screen, causing it to scroll right. ¡°And this dot is us. Which means . . .¡± She pointed towards the passageway. ¡°We now know where to go.¡± ¡°Nice.¡± X grinned. * * * ¡°Come on, let''s go people! We¡¯re evacuating here, get a move on!¡± The drone pushed several other people into the dim tram car. ¡°So, do you know what the hell is going on here?¡± A drone asked another one sitting across from him. ¡°Your guess is as good as mine, man. I was just told to go reinforce the outer border, but a little bit after that me and my squad were called back to this evac point, and they never told us why!¡± The second drone crossed his arms. ¡°Same story with me. I¡¯m Fern, by the way.¡± Fern said. ¡°Heh, yeah. My name¡¯s Felix.¡± Felix replied. ¡°You guys wanna know what happened?¡± A voice called out from the side of Fern. ¡°Huh? Yeah sure man. What''s your name?¡± Felix asked. ¡°Names Sterl.¡± The drone introduced himself, leaning into the light. ¡°Good lord! Your arm¡¯s gone!¡± Fern looked on in shock at Sterl''s arm. ¡°Just my left forearm, shouldn¡¯t be too hard to replace. But anyway, I¡¯m ain¡¯t talking ¡®bout myself, I¡¯m talking ¡®bout what happened.¡± Sterl cleared his throat. ¡°So, just like y¡¯all, me and my boys were called to one of the inner parts of the outer border to reinforce it. But, it seems like you two didn¡¯t listen fully to the announcement.¡± Sterl pointed a finger at Felix and Fern, the former motioning for Sterl to continue. ¡°Well, we was told that it was an orange tier code 117, lockdown.¡± The pair Sterl was talking to gasped. ¡°Yep, intruders. Not friendly ones either, considering I ain¡¯t got an arm no more.¡± Sterl rubbed the broken edge of his stump. ¡°Anyway, we had just lost contact with the defense point ahead of us, so as is normal procedure, we sent a single scout with an open channel to see what happened to ¡®em, that person being your¡¯s truly.¡± Sterl chuckled. ¡°Once I got there, I was met with nuthin¡¯ but devastation. Dead drones everywhere, limbs littering the floor and walls, nuthin¡¯ left. The most peculiar thing though, was that some seemed cut up, like they was chopped apart.¡± Sterl nodded when the pair gasped again. ¡°Yep, and on my way back to my defense point, they were besieged by something, prob¡¯ the things that attacked the one ahead of us. And once I got there, welp, I was greeted by a familiar sight. They were all dead, save for a few survivors. And the things that killed ¡®em? Devils, I tell ya. Claws, tails, wings and the like. We didn¡¯t stand a chance. I recognized that the situation was lost, so I decided to run away with the information I had. But, it wasn¡¯t that easy.¡± Sterl shook his head. ¡°I got too close to one, and it noticed me. The damn thing didn¡¯t even turn around, just poked me with that tail of theirs.¡± Sterl motioned towards his arm. ¡°Wasn¡¯t any old stabbing thing either. Darned thing musta had some sort of extra ingredient, cuz the moment I looked back, the place where I got hit was smoking and sizzling, with a pretty painful glow to it.¡± Sterl looked back and forth between the pair. ¡°So? How did you survive?¡± Fern questions, on the edge of his seat. ¡°Welp, I did the only rational thing that a sane person woulda done in my situation. Moment I got away, I readied my gun, and blasted my way through the armor, yanking the darned thing off once it was hanging by nuthin¡¯ but a flap o¡¯ metal.¡± Sterl nodded. ¡°Didn¡¯t see no other way outta that.¡± The pair looked at each other and back towards Sterl. ¡°Wow.¡± Felix said. ¡°Well, at least we now know what we¡¯re going up against. And guess what? Our tram¡¯s leaving.¡± The tram had been filled up to capacity, with about one hundred drones packed side-to-side next to each other, leaving the port behind them empty. Then, it lurched into motion, the magnetic propulsion system quickly building up speed, until they were zooming past the middle sections of the facility. And things would¡¯ve worked out for the passengers, if they hadn¡¯t delayed for so long. When the tram was leaving the station, a slight bang had been heard overhead. Nobody noticed it, as those kinds of things weren¡¯t a rare occurrence, as sometimes when the rails were just activating, the metal beams would knock into each other, not too big of a deal. However, that proved to be a fatal mistake, something that was proven about thirty seconds into the ride. Without any warning at all, the roof burst open, the sealed environment cracking open like an egg with the use of explosive ammunition. The drone let out a collective yelp of surprise, and leapt for their weapons. As they did this, two large figures dropped in, squashing a poor man with their entrance. It was a bit hard to make out their features due to the dim light of the car, but it was fairly obvious as to who and what they were on account of the entrance. One of them had an arm raised, which fired out a missile towards the end of the car. The explosion severed the connections between the car in front of the car that these doomed individuals were inside. Gunfire burst into existence, with most of the drones missing their shots due to the shaking of the tram car as the magnetization wore off, and the beams knocked into the rails below. The situation got worse when the drones ran out of ammo, as yet again, in their panic, they had expended all of their ammo to eliminate these threats, which clearly didn¡¯t work out. Sensing an opportunity, the murder drones pounced, beginning yet another slaughter. The trio of drones that had been calmly chatting earlier was turned into a duo when Fern was sadly too slow to dodge the swooping claws, getting bisected burger style in a single swipe. Felix and Sterl looked towards each other, then back at the growing distance between them and the tram car ahead of them, before nodding and making a break for it. In a scene that could¡¯ve made it onto a certain action movie about people fighting in a bullet train that severely overused the combination of plot holes and deux ex machina, Sterl and Felix pushed and shoved their way through the various drones who were futilely trying to make a stand against these devils, trying to outrun their encroaching death. The tight corridors of the tram car slowed down the attackers, preventing them from simply swinging their arms around and getting kills, no, they had to stab more often than not. This worked to the drones advantage, but it wouldn¡¯t save most of them. However, Sterl and Felix made it to the open doorway of the tram car, wind rushing by. The rails were sending up sparks from being repeatedly knocked into at such high speeds, and the pair could tell that they didn¡¯t have much of a time window left, and so they took their shot. Sterl leapt first, clearing the gap with ease due to his enhanced powerful legs. Landing on the next car, which was filled with many shocked drones, Sterl turned around just in time to see Felix.. Felix jumped right after Sterl did, soaring through the air as he did, and yet falling short. Whether it was due to him not putting as much effort into it as he could¡¯ve or the lessened weight of Sterl allowing him to make it across the gap, Felix didn¡¯t know, only that he began to plummet to the rails below. However, a hand grabbed him. Only a single one, as the other wasn¡¯t exactly present at the time. Sterl hauled Felix up with more than a bit of effort, both of them landing on cold, hard metal. The two breathed heavily, but they weren¡¯t done yet. ¡°Come on,¡± Sterl wheezed. ¡°We¡¯ve gotta keep going.¡± Felix took a moment to answer. ¡°Why?¡± To answer his question, a missile streaked into the side of the tunnel, narrowly missing the tram car. ¡°Cuz of that, pardner.¡± Sterl got to his feet, helping Felix up as well. However, they were stopped by an officer. ¡°Hey you. Soldiers. What the hell happened back there?¡± The officer was several ranks above the pair, and so the two of them snapped to attention. ¡°We were attacked, sir. The intruders from earlier have breached the tunnels, and are now attacking our tram cars, sir.¡± Felix saluted for good measure. The officer didn¡¯t answer them yet, turning around and barking out an order that the rest of the drones in the tram car followed, grabbing their guns and sorting themselves into position. The officer turned back to the two. ¡°Well, you boys are gonna be safe here, I tell ya that.¡± The officer nodded. ¡°You got any guns on yourselves?¡± Sterl shook his head. ¡°No sir, but you ain¡¯t understandin¡¯. We can¡¯t hold back these darned things, not with this many men. And even if ya pull more people from other cars, we can¡¯t fit the number of men it would take to bring these things down. With all due respect, sir.¡± The officer shook his head. ¡°Now I be doubting that, soldier. What we have here are some of the best men we could scrounge up. However, if it¡¯ll settle y¡¯all, I¡¯ll send both of you to the front of the train to relay this information. Now off with ya, that''s an order.¡± The two soldiers quickly saluted, before running off towards the front. * * * Half. Out of the hundred men that had been in transit in that specific train that was heading to the inner sections of the complex, about fifty had made it through. Which was pretty good numbers for our intrepid duo, because they constantly had to play catch-up with the train due to its immense speed. Luckily, they never fell too far behind due to them using a variety of means to propel themselves forward, such as using their wings, explosions, explosions combined with their wings, and jumping from the falling tram combined with wings and explosions. However, eventually they had fallen off after a lucky shot domed X in the head, causing K to catch him before he fell under the tracks, where he would¡¯ve been crushed by the demagnetized tram car. And so, that left K and X crawling through the vents, since they couldn¡¯t traverse the tunnel, as a train could come and turn them into a paste so fine that their regeneration wouldn¡¯t have a chance to even try and repair them at any moment. ¡°Ow! Get your foot out of my face!¡± K yelped. ¡°You¡¯re the one going too fast!¡± X shot back. ¡°What are you talking about!? You¡¯re going too slow, I¡¯m just going at my normal pace!¡± K argued. ¡°I¡¯m crawling through a vent, I can¡¯t go as fast as you! Sorry, but I¡¯m built normally, not like a wire frame stick figure like you!¡± X said. ¡°I don¡¯t look like a stick figure! Now you¡¯re just speaking nonsense.¡± K glared at X. ¡°Sorry, but it¡¯s true. Now shut up before they hear us, I think I can hear voices.¡± X looked back at K, who clammed up. The two slid along the metal duct, trying to be as quiet as they could inside an echoing vent. Luckily, by some turn of luck, it seemed they weren¡¯t noticed. X stopped at a grate in the vent, looking through it. ¡°Why did you stop?¡± K whispered. ¡°Shh! I¡¯m trying to listen.¡± X whisper yelled back. X could see a hallway, more clean than the outer border. He checked the map that he had, and he could see that they were deep in the inner section. Inside the hallway were two drones, who appeared to be guarding a door. The two were talking, so X strained his ears to listen in on what they were saying. ¡°-Yeesh, did you hear about the northern tram?¡± The first one asked. ¡°Yeah. It was a massacre. I was actually on it, but I was in the front. All I heard was for us to prepare for battle. My squad was in the back, none of them made it out.¡± The second one replied. ¡°That''s gotta be rough, my condolences man.¡± The first one said. ¡°Yeah. I really wanted to get a picture of one of them too, would''ve been cool to show around.¡± The second one seemed a bit glum. ¡°Well, at least you got to see the aftermath. I was herded off and told to go over here with you.¡± The first one motioned around. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you then. I swear, half of the train was cut off by those things. You could see scorch marks around the area where one of the trams used to be. I heard that only a few managed to make it out of the back rows.¡± The second one gesticulated widely to emphasize his point. ¡°You got a picture?¡± The first one inquired. ¡°Sure I do.¡± The second one reached into his pocket, taking his hand off his gun for a moment. The first one leaned in to see what he was pulling out. However, before the two drones could comment on the gruesome photo, X decided that this was the moment to strike. Slicing through the vent cover, X front flipped downwards, landing on his feet with a thud. ¡°Hey, fellas.¡± X stabbed out, skewering the surprised duo in the heads, killing them instantly. ¡°What the hell are you doing!?¡± K dropped down from the vent as well. ¡°We''re gonna get caught!¡± ¡°The vent won¡¯t go much farther, just a couple hundred more feet, and plus, I was bored.¡± X plainly states. ¡°Fine, I guess that makes sense. Just be careful. Actually, why am I even telling you to be careful? You never listen anyway.¡± K glares at X. ¡°Let''s just go.¡± ¡°You got it.¡± Without another word, X dashes off, sprinting down the corridor. K groans, running after him. * * * After butchering their way through several unsuspecting guards, K was pretty sure they knew where they were. Considering the alarms were blaring and the sound of footsteps were getting ever closer by the second, she believed it was a pretty fair assumption to make. And so, they were forced to jump into yet another vent, which luckily nobody was around to see, and make their way towards the most heavily guarded section of the facility. Surprisingly, it wasn¡¯t the central reactor, or one of the many power reactors that were dotted throughout the complex. A little bit of fun facts for you here, the facility they were in, was technically multiple facilities combined into one large complex. You see, a place this big couldn¡¯t be used for just one thing, and so when it was converted from a luxury bunker for the many executives who ran the planet, several other government-funded scientific operations settled in. These were many, like research on powered exosuits, biological weapons, and since the top-of-the-line cryo pod currently out was extremely expensive to run, and not at all resource efficient, so they were researching new ways to do that as well. And so, that¡¯s why multiple backup reactors had been placed in different sections of the complex, and the main, central reactor powered them all the majority of the time. However, contrary to what one might believe, it was not the most heavily guarded area in this place, only taking second place. No, that honor lay in a sealed area set in the inner section, but off to the side, as the central reactor was in the center, why else would it be called the, ¡°central¡± reactor, huh? Anyway, the only logical conclusion K could draw from this was, that whatever the drones were guarding, it was more important than their literal lifeline, the reason why they were all still living. And maybe, just maybe, that important thing might just be what K and X came for. And so, that is why K and X were fighting through wave after wave of security drones, carving a path to the center. Thankfully, several helpful arrows pointed towards their objective, so at least they had that going for them. However, for some reason, the security drones just couldn¡¯t be as helpful as the arrows, ah, what a shame. That has unfortunately led to X and K being dismembered, shot, and torn to bits several times from the heavy weaponry that the inner section had. It seemed as though that these security drones, well, a more apt name would be military drones, had been underestimated, as they were willing to throw every single one of themselves at the disassembly drones to prevent them from taking what was theirs. A respectable aspect of them, but it wouldn¡¯t save them, especially since they were right at the door. The huge blast door, at least fifteen feet tall, was made out of what looked like reinforced tungsten. And if it was as thick as it looked, then K and X combined had absolutely zero chance of breaking through. Luckily, physical attacks weren¡¯t the only weapon they had up their sleeves. They also featured top-of-the-line hacking capabilities, able to inject viruses into electronics by pressing a device up into the desired receptacle, in this case it was a massive blast door opening system, and letting the virus do its work. K retracted her left claw, replacing it with a long device with a hole at the end, a more futuristic looking gun, which might define it in the loosest sense. ¡°Alright X. Prepare for the door to open.¡± K warned. ¡°Yeah, alright. It¡¯ll be nothing.¡± X brushed it off. K shook her head, before pressing the end of the injector up into the card reader on a screen on the wall, which was likely the controls for the door. After a few seconds, with the screen flashing a few times with an error symbol, the doors groaned, like the yawn of a massive beast just awakening from its slumber. A slit appeared, which then became a gap, which turned into something big enough to walk through. And that''s when the moment was ruined by bullets streaking through the passage. X unfurled his wings, letting the projectiles ping off of the reinforced metal, before raising his arm to fire off a missile. ¡°Don¡¯t!¡± K yelled at him. ¡°You might damage what we came here for!¡± X lowered the launcher, too distracted by the gunfire to quip back at her. X listened closely, concentrating. He discerned the rapid banging of gunshots into background noise, picking out the sound of spent brass clattering against the ground. The door was halfway open now, and from the gaps in his wings, it looked like several mounted machine guns had been placed in the room, along with a rather small amount of drones, only about twenty if he were to guess. He looked upwards, seeing nothing on the ceiling, and so he raised his missile launcher, ignoring K¡¯s protests, and fired a shot upwards. The resounding blast caused rubble to rain down, not too much, only a slight annoyance, but it did the job to distract the drone for long enough for X to make his move. Diving forwards, X beheaded a pair of drones that were in his way, while throwing small shurikens at the machine gun operators to keep them from firing at him. K, deciding to finally stop hiding, lunged into the battle, bisecting a drone in the process. And what followed was a slaughter. While the drones tried to fight back, they had made the mistake that all of their recent predecessors made. They had let the disassembly drones get too close, and since melee wasn¡¯t exactly the military drone¡¯s specialty, they didn¡¯t fare too well in the ensuing battle. And so, the last drone fell to a rather spectacular display of teamwork on K and X¡¯s part, them having sliced the military drone into many parts on either end. The pair scanned the room for survivors, only to find none. The only things left in the room were them and a rather large capsule in the center of the room. The pair approached it, with X reaching out a hand to touch it, and K slapping his hand away. ¡°Don¡¯t touch it!¡± K scolded him. ¡°Or what? It¡¯ll explode?¡± X looked back at K. ¡°Maybe! We don¡¯t know!¡± K glared at X. X shot his hand out, laying a single finger on the cool exterior of the foggy plastic cover. Nothing happened. ¡°See?¡± X said. ¡°Oh fine. What the hell is this thing anyway?¡± K looked back at the machine. It stood about ten feet tall, towering over the pair. It had a thick plastic cover that appeared to have fogged up, obscuring whatever was inside from view. The back was also covered by a formed metal panel, protecting the guts of the machine from damage. It had the general look of a more ovular object, maybe a capsule of sorts. ¡°Oh hey, this kinda looks like a cryo pod.¡± X nods. ¡°What? Why- oh yeah, it kinda does. Wait, that would mean-¡± K cut herself off. K thinks for a moment, her mind putting together the pieces and clues, her LED eyes widening in shock. ¡°If this is a cryo pod,¡± K began slowly. ¡°And if the company really wanted us to retrieve this, and all of these military drones were protecting it, then what¡¯s in this capsule must be . . .¡± ¡°A human.¡± X finished. The pair looked back at the pod with a newfound glow in their eyes. ¡°And it says here that he¡¯s perfectly fine.¡± X pointed towards a screen on the side of the cryo pod, which appeared to be displaying normal vitals. ¡°What should we do?¡± K asked no one in particular. ¡°Let''s let ¡®em out.¡± X suggested. ¡°For once, I agree with you. We can¡¯t drag this thing all the way back up and to our base, it¡¯s far too heavy, but I¡¯m afraid if we let whoever they are out, well, humans are fragile, they might die.¡± K frowned. ¡°Well, only one way to find out.¡± And without another word, X pressed the big red button labeled, ¡°EMERGENCY DEFROST¡±. Alarms began blaring, and a hiss sounded as the plastic door unsealed itself for the first time in decades. Fog pooled at the foot of the capsule, covering the ground in frost. And the last human left on the planet awoke from sleep. Episode Three: Interrupted Mimir [USER ACTIVITY DETECTED] [ENGAGING COUNTERMEASURES . . .] [WARNING! DAYS SINCE LAST REBOOT: 99999999-] [ERROR] [STARTING UP IN SAFE MODE] [PLEASE WAIT . . .] [SUCCES- Pain. That¡¯s the first thing he felt. Like millions of needles stabbing him, skewering him like pork on a stick, again and again. It wasn¡¯t pleasant, that was for sure. On the contrary, it was a bit annoying. Like a leg or arm had fallen asleep on an interstate road trip to Disneyland, only this time, there wasn¡¯t any fun incoming. Jacob slightly flexed his limbs, which proved to be a mistake. It felt as though he worked out nonstop for hours, went to sleep, didn¡¯t move for days, and just then decided to go for a run, which was slightly similar to the actual situation. It wasn¡¯t like the nice sensation of stretching after a long night of good sleep, but more like every muscle in his body was on fire. ¡°Ow.¡± Jacob tried to say, only for the muscles in his face to cry out. Jacob wasn¡¯t going to be deterred by a little pain, however, so he pushed through it, flexing and stretching his muscles as much as he could while he was restrained. It hurt quite a bit, but after about ten seconds of doing that, it had faded to just annoying soreness. Jacob hadn¡¯t really felt like that before, so it was a bit concerning that he just now felt like this, and the fact that alarms were blaring didn¡¯t really make it better. And the door was opening as well, hooray. And while it wasn¡¯t moving at the agonizingly slow pace that it used to move at all those centuries ago, it wasn¡¯t exactly speeding along either. And to make matters worse, a copious amount of fog and steam continued to obscure his vision, making everything appear as though he was in an 80s rock concert with all the smoke, or just California. Huh, what if the smoke was because of something burning? While Jacob couldn¡¯t smell anything burning, perhaps the sheer amount of disinfectants that had been slathered all around the chamber prevented Jacob from smelling anything but that. Speaking of, you would think that he would become immune to the smell of bleach and disinfectant, but no, his nostrils sadly remained in perfectly good condition, making Jacob put up with the burning sensation of having chlorine and cleaning chemicals constantly assaulting his nasal passageways. Why they didn¡¯t come up with a new disinfectant that didn¡¯t scald his nose, Jacob didn¡¯t know. He only knew that he still couldn¡¯t see a damn thing. He couldn¡¯t tell if the door was open all the way, or if it had opened at all. He thought he had seen the door¡¯s pace, but now he wasn¡¯t sure if it was a trick of the light. Suddenly, without warning, the hissing noise stopped, and fog stopped streaming into the chamber. Without the hazard obscuring his vision, Jacob could see the cloud clearing up, allowing him to see that the door was indeed all the way open. Also, now that the hissing noise had stopped, Jacob became painfully aware of a new threat; migraines. Like a silent predator, it struck, a dagger in the night. A jackhammer relentlessly pounding on his skull, every movement aggravating it. However, Jacob had plenty of experience with headaches, and so the only outward reaction to this one was a twitch of his head, not dignifying this invader with even a gasp of pain. Jacob gathered his thoughts, focusing on the outside world. Looking at the open door, Jacob could see two figures standing outside the pod. And while their outlines were a bit muddled, Jacob saw some really odd shapes and bulges along them, something that looked humanoid, but wasn¡¯t. Eh, must be a trick of the fog. Jacob just remained still, waiting for the cloud to fully clear up. And clear up it did, presenting Jacob with a rather interesting sight. Instead of two people in hazmat suits, Jacob¡¯s brain had to play catch-up for a second to register just what he was seeing. Two humanoid figures, but if what he thought he was seeing was true, then they were anything but human. Enlarged heads, conical wrists, LED glowing faces, and wearing what looked suspiciously like the soldier''s uniform of a certain trapezoidal-mustached angry man, complete with silver buttons and armbands. However, instead of having a color palette of red, black, and white, the armband had a primary color of yellow with black lines that were arranged in the shape of something that Jacob couldn¡¯t really see in his current position. But why robots were just chilling in front of him, and why the one on the left was staring wide-eyed at him, while the other one on the right looked like he was looking anywhere but him, was beyond Jacob. Jacob looked back and forth between the two for a moment, waiting for someone to say something. Nobody said anything. Deciding to be the one to leap into the unknown, Jacob cleared his throat, startling the one that appeared to be shocked by Jacob¡¯s very existence. The one on the right finally decided to look at Jacob as well. ¡°So uh, how''s it going?¡± Jacob asked plainly. The one on the left was silent for a moment, before realizing that was their cue to talk. ¡°Uh, you¡¯re alive.¡± Left stated. Jacob figured that it was a girl by her voice. Why a robot would have a gender was beyond him. ¡°I think so, but uh, you never know these days. Mind uh, telling me what¡¯s going on?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°Er, I suppose. You see-¡± The left one began, but was cut off. ¡°Oh wow, uh, mind also telling me why a bunch of robots are dead? I mean, I get decorations and the like, but this is a bit much.¡± Jacob¡¯s gaze wandered behind and around the pod, where he could see the dismembered parts of what looked like more robots. Also, was that a machine gun? ¡°Well, these drones were, uh, keeping you captive, and so we had to, uh rescue you.¡± She kept stuttering and pausing during her statement. ¡°Huh. Why was I being held captive?¡± Jacob was getting a bit confused with the lack of information. ¡°Well, it''s a long story . . .¡± She said. ¡°Well, I have plenty of time. I think.¡± Jacob suddenly was worried about the lack of humans, but that was a time for later. Hopefully. ¡°Well, you see . . .¡± * * * ¡°. . . and so we broke into this room, killed all these chumps, and then we heroically saved you. I believe a thanks is in order.¡± X finished with a graceful bow. The pair had spent the better part of half an hour explaining all of the relevant events that had occurred while he was asleep, with the worker drone revolt, the purpose of the disassembly drones, how the planet had been wiped clean of almost all biological life, and every single human, save for him. The two had swapped the role of storyteller multiple times, with X butting in most of the time, and K having to wrest control of the narrative back from him. They had also introduced themselves to Jacob, so he didn¡¯t have to call them Left and Right anymore. Why anybody would call robots Left and Right as anything more than a placeholder for a real name didn¡¯t really make sense to Jacob, but that was beside the point. ¡°Uh, thanks I guess.¡± Jacob looked around. ¡°By the way, on a completely unrelated note, how''s the air quality?¡± K froze. ¡°Uh, we aren¡¯t sure. Are you not breathing well?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°Not that I would notice it. I feel fine, pretty much.¡± ¡°Either way, we should probably get moving.¡± K turned to X. ¡°Give me the map.¡± ¡°Nah, I¡¯m good. I¡¯ll direct. And would you look at that, there¡¯s a sealed changing room just over there.¡± X looked up from the tablet to point to a room in the outside hallway. ¡°Are you sure that there¡¯s still working suits in there? I don¡¯t wanna go outside, thinking that I¡¯m gonna be fine, only to breathe in a lungful of cold nitrogen or whatever makes up the atmosphere now.¡± Jacob inquired. X shrugged. ¡°Only one way to find out.¡± The trio walked into the hallway, with Jacob making note of the countless scorch and claw marks decorating the walls and floor, with corpses being the bow on top. A busted open door revealed a dimly lit room, the interior being one of murky darkness. However, the darkness lessened the closer it got to the trio due to some light source, illuminating small parts of the room. Jacob looked towards the source of the light, it being the yellow glowing LED eyes of both K and X, the former of which looked towards him expectantly. ¡°Well, here we are.¡± K motioned ahead. ¡°Why¡¯d you stop?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t see.¡± Jacob stated. K blinked. ¡°Oh. I forgot that uh . . . here, X can help you. I¡¯ll watch the door.¡± K retreated to the sole source of effective light. X blinked at the speed of the exchange. ¡°Uh, sure, I guess. Come on, let¡¯s search the walls or something.¡± Jacob followed X into the room, feeling a bit awkward at how this whole debacle was currently going. One might think that Jacob would have a more outward reaction to the whole, ¡°Oh, everybody on the planet is dead, I¡¯m the last one left in this place, the aboveground looks like your average Russian northern city, and futuristic sentient war machines are escorting me out of the facility to try and save me!¡± but Jacob had a tendency to not be surprised anymore. Constantly waking up to a whole new world that looked nothing like what it did a few days ago will do that to a person. X stopped at a locker, opening it to reveal a hazmat suit hanging on the wall by two hooks that were holding it up by the arms. The suit appeared to be made out of a rubbery substance, with the head covered by a glass visor and a breathing apparatus. It didn¡¯t look to have any tears or rents, and a display on the side reported that the suit was in full working condition. Jacob wondered for a moment about how and why the suits were still in perfectly good condition, but he supposed that the drones that had inhabited this place were fixing them up, before these questionably emotional descendants of an MQ-9 Reaper obliterated most of the populace. However, the suit looked kinda goofy ¡°I¡¯m not putting that on.¡± Jacob glared at the hated suit. ¡°Uh, why?¡± X looked back at Jacob in confusion. ¡°Would you wear that?¡± Jacob gestured towards the locker¡¯s contents. ¡°Nah, you¡¯re right, let¡¯s keep looking.¡± X closed the locker. ¡°I¡¯m gonna assume that the only type of hazmat suit in this room is that kind, so how about we go to another room.¡± Jacob suggested. ¡°Ugh, fine. I guess we can go look.¡± X swiveled, turning back towards the doorway. ¡°Yo, K!¡± He called out. ¡°You found one!?¡± K peeked her head into the room. ¡°Nah, we¡¯re gonna look for another one.¡± X called back. ¡°What!? You¡¯re telling me that this entire room is filled with nothing but broken hazmat suits!?¡± K stepped fully into view. ¡°Nope, they all just look bad.¡± X justified his reasoning with this very reasonable statement. ¡°Are you kidding me!? The human is just gonna refuse to wear something that doesn¡¯t fit his fancy!?¡± K wasn¡¯t placated by X. ¡°I¡¯m uh, right here you know.¡± Jacob interjected. ¡°Oh uh, sorry.¡± K¡¯s gaze jerked to Jacob, and then back to X. ¡°Anyway, uh, I forgot what I was gonna say.¡± X nodded sagely. ¡°Must be a sign. Let''s go find another suit room.¡± * * * The trio spent about fifteen minutes searching for a suit that fit Jacob¡¯s standards, which seemed to be quite high. The majority of the rooms closest to the cryo chamber were just filled with the same old rubbery-plastic suits that looked more like what the little astronauts of a certain social deception game that was released when Jacob was still known to the outside world as alive, but even speaking of that lowered Jacob¡¯s mental stability by a considerable amount, so he immediately purged any and all thoughts of it from his head, and continued to search for something that wouldn¡¯t make Jacob seem pretty sus- No. Finally, our dauntless protagonists came across a locked door that had a glowing sign above it that read, ¡°AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY¡± in bold lettering, which X promptly ignored by tearing three rents in the obstacle without hesitation. ¡°Huh.¡± Was Jacob¡¯s only outward reaction. The trio stepped into the room, which appeared to be an armory of sorts. Guns rested on the walls behind locked bars, along with many other fancy tools of destruction that looked fun. Lockers lined the walls, with assorted sleek black armor pieces littering the floor, giving the room a rather messy appearance. A few guns also rested on the floor, but nobody made any move to pick them up. ¡°Well this is different.¡± K remarked. ¡°Yep. Let''s get on with it.¡± Jacob said. They walked to one of the lockers, which was guarded by an electronic lock. However, the impediment was quickly remedied by a slash of X¡¯s claws, with the locker door creaking open as he did that. Jacob probably would¡¯ve rebuked X for nearly taking his face off, seeing as he rather liked having them, if his eyes hadn¡¯t been resting on the contents of said locker. Jet black, like most of the armor in the complex, with slight lines showing where the interlocking plates met. Practically zero exposure above the ribs, all covered by the same dark material. The helmet didn¡¯t have a plastic visor, instead replacing the weak point with a pointed plate, whose only source of outward sight appeared to be two dark glassy lines that ran horizontal through the faceplate, before meeting in the middle, forming a ¡°V¡± shape. Broad shoulders, stark edges, Jacob was reminded of a character in a game about an engineer stuck in the dead outer reaches of the galaxy, trying to escape a planet cracker infested with eldritch abominations that never should¡¯ve existed, along with a franchise about a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist that makes a cool exosuit. But, alas, such things were never meant to be. ¡°It¡¯s too big.¡± X said, closing the door. ¡°Oh come on. Where can I find one of these in my size?¡± Jacob whined. ¡°I dunno. We can look, I guess. You¡¯re fine with this?¡± X asked. ¡°Yep. Let''s start now.¡± Jacob pointed at the locker to the right of the one they had just closed. ¡°That one next.¡± * * * ¡°Noice.¡± Jacob said. The display on the side of the locker said that the suit was five feet and eight inches tall, which made Jacob start to wonder why this society, which was over a thousand years in the future according to his compatriots, still used the imperial standard. His best guess was that the person who used to use this locker had personalized the settings to imperial, but it still raised the question as to why imperial measurements still existed, or it might just be mixed, which was more acceptable to Jacob. Either way, Jacob was five foot eight last time he checked, so it should fit him fairly well, a theory he would soon test. ¡°Uh, how do I use this?¡± Jacob asked no one in particular. ¡°Why are you asking me? I¡¯m not a fragile human, so I don¡¯t need to use armor.¡± X replied. ¡°I wasn¡¯t- whatever.¡± Jacob tapped the display on the side of the locker, opening up a menu. However, as soon as his hand got near the exosuit, it clicked once. Jacob¡¯s hand froze, stilling in midair. The suit clicked again, before making a buzzing noise. A display popped into life on the chest of the suit, showing the outline of a hand. Jacob, being the genius that he was, placed his hand on the reader. This proved to be the right course of action, as the suit¡¯s chest and helmet folded outward, exposing the inner cavity of the armor. ¡°Fancy.¡± Jacob murmured, glancing behind him to see the two deadly instruments of destruction, who were standing awkwardly waiting for him to do something. Jacob obliged, stepping into the suit, making sure he was facing the right way. After all, he didn¡¯t really want to turn into a mess of broken bones, right? The suit clicked again, before sealing itself, ensconcing Jacob in a cocoon of metal. The interior was dark for a moment, reminding him of that moment right when you wake up from a dream, and your eyes are still closed, the sheer blackness seemingly infinite. Then, displays glowed to life, relieving Jacob of the dark abyss. He was also graced with a view of the outside world, allowing him to see X and K, with the latter leaning around X to get a better view of Jacob. ¡°Yo.¡± Jacob said, jerking his head up and down. ¡°Oh good, thought you died for a second.¡± X remarked. ¡°I¡¯m too good for that.¡± Jacob replied. ¡°Is everything alright? How''s your oxygen and suit integrity?¡± K interjected. ¡°Well, no alerts are showing up, so I think I¡¯m fine.¡± Jacob looked around the locker. ¡°Can you move? I kinda wanna get out.¡± ¡°Ah, sorry.¡± K said, before backing up with X. Jacob stepped out of the locker, noticing the significant increase in his height, and how it compared to the pair who were now looking up at him. Before, the difference wasn¡¯t that noticeable, with K being maybe five foot six and X an inch taller, but now, Jacob¡¯s height had increased a few inches for sure, with Jacob putting his height at an inch below six foot now. And while he wasn¡¯t exactly towering over the disassembly drones, Jacob wasn¡¯t really seeing them eye-to-eye as of right now. ¡°Good, good, great, now can we get moving? It¡¯s been so long, and I¡¯m really getting tired of doing nothing.¡± X complained. ¡°Calm down, we¡¯re leaving now.¡± K assured X. ¡°Hold up, one last thing I need.¡± Jacob walked over to the locked rack of guns. He gripped the lock tightly, before yanking on it with as much force as Jacob could bring to bear. The lock flew off with ease, deforming under the enhanced grip of Jacob. He then lifted up the bars, exposing the firearms behind. ¡°Oh, yeah, that''s alright.¡± X completely understood. * * * The security camera zoomed in on the group traveling through the halls, unmolested by any sort of resistive force. The drone manning the camera had another drone leaning over his seat, both staring intently at the screen. ¡°And so we¡¯re just gonna let them leave!?¡± Somebody could be heard yelling in the background. ¡°Yes, we are. As much as I hate it, we don¡¯t have enough men left to completely overwhelm them, and even if we did, the likelihood of the asset being killed would be far too high.¡± The General replied. ¡°And whose fault is that? Instead of sending all of our forces to eliminate them in one big push, YOU just let them carve a path through the complex!¡± The Lead Engineer accused. ¡°We hardly had any time to even grasp the severity of the threat! And besides, I didn¡¯t see you doing anything!¡± The General shot back. ¡°What do you expect, for us to have charged those things with our plasma cutters!? We aren¡¯t meant for combat, that''s your job!¡± The Lead Engineer shouted incredulously. ¡°You- whatever, fighting isn¡¯t going to do us any good. We need to plan for the eventual recapture of the stolen asset.¡± The General got up, with the Lead Engineer following suit. ¡°Agreed. But pray tell, how?¡± The Lead Engineer inquired. ¡°That''s something we need to talk about in private.¡± The General replied. * * * The pair were sitting down on opposite sides of a long table, joined by several other high ranking members of the complex. And this little meeting requires a bit of explanation on the chain of command in the facility. On the very bottom of the command pyramid, which was more like a lopsided diamond, you had the bad boys. Drones who had messed up so badly that they were being disciplined for their reckless actions, or defective drones who were deemed too problematic to stay in the same state that they were currently in, and were now in the process of being reprogrammed. Then, one layer above that, you had the majority of the population, the assorted masses. They existed to follow orders, and were generally seen as grunts and cannon fodder for the higher ups. Not much to say there, Going up, you had another layer, this one more complicated than the others. This one contained the officer caste, the middle men between the leaders and the general populace. You either had an upper officer, or a lower officer. The lower officers took more of a supervisor role, general command over the grunts, and were tasked with keeping them in line. The higher officers were more like managers, supervising the supervisors while planning and organizing lower functions of the complex. They were tasked with taking the leadership¡¯s commands and filtering them into things that the supervisors can give out. They existed as a buffer between the leadership and the lower castes, oiling the gears for better transmission, so to speak. Then, you had the top of the pyramid, the big fish. This group was the smallest, consisting of only seven drones in total, each of whom taking on different roles. The ministers were the second-highest position in the facility, being in charge of their assigned specialities. For instance, the Minister of Power handled all matters related to power, if they weren¡¯t special enough to require the input of the administrators. They could give out commands to change the flow of power, to choose what areas could be powered, and other assorted matters relating to the usage and production of power. There were three ministers on the side of the worker drones, all overseeing matters directly related to the upkeep and maintenance of the facility, while the military drones oversaw the combative strategic and military side of the complex. For example, the Minister of Military Logistics managed the movement and use of all combat-related tools, not to be confused with the Minister of Construction Logistics, who oversaw the management and use of all tools that relate to the worker drone side. The military side only had two ministers, both of whom only reporting to their respective administrator, with the worker side doing the same. Two administrators were in the facility, of those you already know. The General was in charge of all things directly related to military matters, while the Lead Engineer was in charge of all things directly related to facility maintenance and upkeep. The two sides didn¡¯t interfere that much with each other, only cooperating on problems that require the input of both, or fighting over matters that lie in the small gray area between them. There were plenty of small sub-groups and sections within the layers already stated, but that is the general gist of things. And now, resuming back into the story, the General and the Lead Engineer were both giving a presentation. They had gotten up from their seats, and were standing on either sides of a large screen. ¡°-and as you all know, we have suffered immense casualties.¡± The General said, flicking to the next slide, which showed a pie graph of the facility''s old population. ¡°This is how many drones we had before the intruders came,¡± The Lead Engineer flicked to the next slide. ¡°And this is how many we had after.¡± The next slide showed a pie graph the same size as the last one, just with considerably smaller numbers. The General spoke up. ¡°Of the five thousand military drones we had onsite, only 4.235% survived the recent assault in working condition, leaving us with two hundred eleven soldiers,¡± The General paused before continuing. ¡°And three quarters, still combat ready-¡± One of the military ministers raised her hand. The General sighed. ¡°Yes, Alicia?¡± ¡°Erm, what do you mean by ¡®three quarters¡¯? How is that possible?¡± She asked. ¡°Well, one of our soldiers managed to escape an attack from the intruders, but not unscathed. He lost an arm for his trouble, which was much less than what many of our men can say for themselves, if they could still talk. In fact, on that note, he is one of the only people who managed to survive an attack with only an injury, and the only one of those injured to be able to continue fighting. And before you ask, the other two that survived the attack but were still injured cannot currently walk.¡± The General finished. Alicia nodded, satisfied. The Lead Engineer cleared his throat. ¡°Anyway, of the seven thousand worker drones stationed here, only seventy seven are still alive, with all of them in working condition, which means that out of the exactly twelve thousand drones inhabiting this facility, only about 2.4063% of them survived, leaving us with two hundred eighty eight . . . and three quarters . . . men left to deal with this disaster.¡± The Lead Engineer finished. The ministers looked worriedly amongst each other. While they had already known the losses on their own respective sides, it appeared as though they had expected their counterparts to have fared better in the face of this disaster. ¡°Now, I¡¯m sure all of you are wondering what our next course of action is, and while I do have an answer for you all, I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯ll like it.¡± The Lead Engineer flicked to the next slide, which appeared to be showing a photo of a tear in a chamber. ¡°As you all know, a few days before the intruders began their attack, we had a malfunction with our computer systems which led to the majority of our reactor battery cells being compromised, cutting the facility¡¯s power expectancy down from many years to just a few months.¡± The Lead Engineer paused for a moment to gauge the reactions of his audience. ¡°These circumstances still stand, and will continue to remain that way for the foreseeable future, as we cannot find a solution to this problem, and likely won¡¯t find one before our power runs out.¡± The Lead Engineer looked back towards the General, who gave him a nod. ¡°That, along with the fact that our asset is now in enemy hands, with those enemy hands departing from the facility, the difficult decision has been made to order a full evacuation of the facility, effective as soon as the command is given.¡± The room was silent for a moment, before erupting into protest. ¡°What!?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll die!¡± ¡°But I left my marbles in my room!¡± ¡°We don¡¯t even know what the outside looks like!¡± These complaints were silenced by a gunshot ringing out. ¡°Quiet! We share the same worries as you, and while I could give a long-winded and reasonable explanation as to why we are leaving, I¡¯m not. Pack your bags, ladies and gentlemen, because we are going for a trip.¡± The General holstered his pistol. ¡°This meeting is adjourned.¡± The two administrators walked out, leaving the room in stunned silence. ¡°We''re screwed.¡± Alicia remarked. * * * ¡°Hurry up!¡± A shout rang out. The trio were slowly climbing up a long elevator shaft, using the maintenance ladder to ascend. And while K and X could¡¯ve just flown up, a certain someone prevented that. ¡°I¡¯m trying my best here! I can¡¯t really fly, you know!¡± Jacob called back. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter! You said that you didn¡¯t want to be carried, so I told you that you had to go faster, and now look at you! You couldn¡¯t go slower!¡± X yelled from below him. ¡°Quiet, both of you! Just because those drones didn¡¯t attack us earlier doesn¡¯t mean they won¡¯t right now!¡± K interjected. ¡°Oh whatever! At this rate, I¡¯ll gladly welcome them, I¡¯m so bored!¡± X grumbled. ¡°Well my arms are tired, we¡¯re all suffering here! Deal with it.¡± Jacob called back down. The only reply was the groaning of X, which Jacob ignored. The shaft was quiet for a moment, the only noise being the clanking of ladders. However, after about thirty seconds of this silence, it was once again broken. ¡°I¡¯m bored.¡± X said. ¡°Yes, I know, and I don¡¯t care.¡± K replied. ¡°No, I¡¯m REALLY bored. I can¡¯t take it anymore, at this rate anything will entertain me.¡± X complained again. ¡°Too bad.¡± K called out. ¡°I¡¯m being serious.¡± Silence. ¡°Hello?¡± X called down. ¡°Will you just continue to pester me?¡± K finally asked. ¡°Yes.¡± X plainly answered. ¡°Ugh, fine. What do you wanna talk about?¡± K relented. ¡°I dunno.¡± X shrugged. ¡°So you want to talk about something, but you don¡¯t know what to talk about?¡± K seemed quite annoyed. ¡°Yes.¡± X replied again. ¡°You¡¯re an idiot.¡± K accused. ¡°What? How? I¡¯m one of the smartest people on the planet!¡± X cried out. ¡°I seriously doubt that.¡± K said. ¡°Well that''s just the way it is. Deal with it.¡± X said with a superior tone. ¡°What about the human? What does he have to say?¡± Jacob looked down towards the arguing disassembly drones. ¡°About what?¡± X shrugged. ¡°Anything. I wasn¡¯t kidding when I said I was bored.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really have much to say.¡± Jacob really didn¡¯t have much to say, considering how he spent the last thousand years. ¡°I¡¯m sure something was interesting.¡± X insisted. Jacob searched his memory, which was a bit fuzzy when he tried to recall his stay in the facility. ¡°Well?¡± X asked again. ¡°I guess there was one thing.¡± Jacob begrudgingly relented. ¡°Nice.¡± X sounded satisfied. ¡°I was in the cryo pod for a while, over one thousand years if your dates are correct. I was woken up every decade by the scientists for them to make sure I was in working order. Over that time the facility staff obviously were changed out a lot, due to them not having long enough lifespans to stay in that position for long, compared to a thousand years. So, one time, when the administrator of the experiment died, she was replaced by another guy, B . . . something, I can¡¯t remember his name, for some reason. Anyway, this guy seemed pretty friendly at first, maybe a bit too friendly, now that I¡¯m looking back on it. He always gave me weird vibes.¡± Jacob looked down at X and K, who had both stopped climbing. ¡°Why¡¯d you both stop climbing?¡± He asked. Seemingly chastened by the question, they resumed climbing, with Jacob continuing his story. ¡°So yeah, next time I woke up, the place around me felt really weird. Like the air was full of tension, like people were gonna snap into violence at any time. That was also weird, considering I never really picked up on that kind of stuff before. Eh, whatever. I went about my normal routine, met with that B person, and went back to sleep. But uh, next time I woke up, it seemed like my observations had some truth in them. My pod opened up, and alarms were blaring. The chamber was bathed in red light, and it took me a second to realize that gunfire was erupting all around me.¡± Jacob ran out of breath, so he took another one. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Yep, a full on gunfight, happening all around me. I think people were coming into the chamber, shooting up the place like it was the American Midwest, and some guards were shooting back at them. And to make matters worse, supposedly I took a stray bullet.¡± ¡°Heh.¡± Was X¡¯s only reply. ¡°Heh indeed. Afterwards, it seemed like everything went back to normal, with the exception of a lot more guards. They never told me what happened, and the only thing I could get out of some of the scientists was that the old administrator was part of it. Best guess I could come up with was that they wanted to kidnap me or something, but that would imply me being of extreme importance-¡± ¡°Actually, you never told us WHY you were being held there, what''s so special about you?¡± X interjected. ¡°Your guess is probably as good as mine.¡± Jacob lied. While Jacob didn¡¯t plan to leave or betray his benefactors anytime soon, he would be making a severe lapse in judgment if he just took their story at face value. After all, if these and the other robots both wanted nothing more than to guarantee Jacob¡¯s well being, then why did they fight? People, or rather drones, on the same side usually don¡¯t kill each other for reasons unknown to Jacob. And so, Jacob didn¡¯t really intend to reveal his little secret, as he planned to find out for himself why him, a teenaged boy with a cool tumor, required an amount of guards that you would regularly see in a military base, not in an innocent medical research project that just so happened to be funded by the CIA, or whatever stood in for the CIA these days. ¡°So uh, that''s it?¡± X asked. ¡°Pretty much, yeah.¡± Jacob replied. ¡°Just stay quiet X, you¡¯ll live.¡± K interjected. ¡°Eh, it''s fine. I guess I can tell more stories.¡± Jacob relented. ¡°Oh nice. What¡¯ll it be?¡± X questioned. ¡°Well there was this one time . . .¡± Jacob began. * * * The wasteland was cold, obviously. This fact was confirmed by the amount of frost that had accumulated on Jacob¡¯s armor, so much so that, whenever he moved his limbs, a scratching sound could be audibly heard in the deafening silence around him. Jacob had known that it was freezing out, but knowing it and feeling it were two very different things, something that he now knew very well. ¡°You would think that an advanced combat suit would have better heating systems, but I guess not.¡± Jacob remarked. ¡°I imagine that those suits weren¡¯t meant to be used in this kind of weather. In fact, I¡¯m pretty sure that the reason you¡¯re still alive is that suit, since you would be dead from at least the cold if you stepped outside without that.¡± K dryly replied. ¡°Oh nice, you decided to talk to me for once. Long time no see, how¡¯s it going?¡± Jacob said back with an equally dry tone. ¡°I¡¯m just saying.¡± K shrugged. ¡°Anyway, X, how long until we reach the halfway point? It''s nearly daytime, and I don¡¯t wanna get caught out.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you wanna get caught out in the sunlight?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°The sun kills us.¡± X answered. ¡°Ah.¡± Jacob nodded simply, the cogs turning in his head. These disassembly drones, the ones that are highly capable war machines and can lay down firepower that rivals the military units from his time, die in the sunlight. Even an idiot can tell you that that is a major problem, and Jacob just couldn¡¯t see how the people who were designing the disassembly drones overlook that huge problem. Their combat opportunities were effectively halved because of it, and it made traveling much harder, though he supposed that they could go wherever they needed to get to within the timespan of nightime. Still, even Jacob, who had barely any inkling of robotics, could think of several solutions to this problem, and how the problem shouldn¡¯t even exist. The sunlight in this place wasn¡¯t nearly hot enough to cause an overheat, and even if it was, their constant consumption of oil should take care of it. Jacob had to come to the conclusion that perhaps the company behind the disassembly drones didn¡¯t exactly have the drone¡¯s wellbeing in the forefront of their mind, but instead had been actively planning against them from the start. However, there was the possibility that he had gotten it all wrong, and the sunlight problem was just a technical issue that couldn¡¯t be solved in time, so more information and data was required. And plus, more pressing matters were at hand. While the mechanical suit of armor had exponentially increased Jacob¡¯s strength and physical capabilities, he still had to move his limbs to actually get somewhere, and all the running that he had been doing for the better part of several hours was now taking the toll on him. ¡°Uh,¡± Jacob began breathlessly. ¡°When are we stopping?¡± X didn¡¯t answer Jacob, instead turning towards K. ¡°How long until we reach the halfway point?¡± ¡°Let me check- WHAT!¡± K yelped in surprise. ¡°What happened?¡± Jacob asked, slowing down. ¡°We¡¯ve barely made any headway!¡± K glared at Jacob. ¡°What did I do!?¡± Jacob cried out. ¡°If you weren¡¯t so slow, then we would¡¯ve been halfway back to our base by now!¡± K slowed down as well. ¡°You probably should¡¯ve let us carry you.¡± X interjected. ¡°I¡¯m not being carried by anyone, alright!?¡± Jacob insisted. ¡°Would''ve been faster though.¡± X did a full 360¡ã, before heading off towards a partially collapsed building. ¡°Now where are you going!?¡± K asked in exasperation. ¡°Suns nearly up.¡± X pointed towards the brightening skyline. ¡°Oh.¡± K followed X, with Jacob following suit. The trio entered the ruin, their footsteps echoing across the silent chamber. Part of the front was broken, rubble replacing a once-strong wall. The place appeared to have been a diner or restaurant of sorts, considering the assorted tables and chairs adorning the room. There was a countertop which had a small area behind that someone could stand in, likely to take orders from customers, however, it appeared as though the employee had been slacking off as of late, considering the frozen skeleton leaning on the counter. Several other frozen corpses dotted the ruined diner, having been encased in ice to be forever stuck in the positions they were in when they died. Customers were sitting at the tables, a few with smaller, more childlike skeletons sitting next to them. No employee remains could be seen though, the one behind the counter the sole organic being that used to work in this part of the establishment. K stepped over the employee¡¯s body, entering the kitchen through the door, with Jacob and X following suit. Inside, the kitchen was empty, save for a few frozen plates full of food laying on the floor and counters. Curiously, there were no bodies. Jacob figured that made sense, as robots appeared to have taken over the various tasks that humans used to do to make money. This was one thing that the distant humans of the 21st century had predicted well, which led Jacob to start thinking about his past, which led to thinking about the present, which led to thinking about how the hell he had gotten here. K and X appeared to have gotten into an argument about where to sleep, so Jacob had plenty of time to think about events. Jacob was the sole living organic being left on this entire planet, a planet that was so far from any form of civilization that in the time that it would take him to get back through conventional means, he would already be dead by the time he arrived. His only company were these two bickering idiots, and one of them seemed like they wanted to kill him already, which was a new record for Jacob. And even if he did get back, he would probably be killed sooner or later due to the government wanting to cover up their involvement in the experiment that, which, a bit of a refresher, essentially took a child, told everybody they were dead, and kept them alive in containment for over a thousand years. By all means, Jacob was screwed. * * * The waiting area, which had been silent for who knows how long, was now bustling with activity. The many drones that had been inhabiting the underground complex for many years were now evacuating, and by robogod it was messy. For all of the drone¡¯s protocols and intelligence, it seemed as though they had never created one that included the subject of evacuation, or how to evacuate in an orderly fashion. The air was filled with shouts and cries of anger, bodies jostling and bumping into one another. ¡°Ow, that''s my foot!¡± ¡°Hey, let go of my stuff!¡± ¡°My marbles!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t point that at me!¡± ¡°You ever wonder . . . if we''re real?¡± ¡°Waugh! Who dropped their marbles!¡± ¡°Somebody killed Jerry! One of you is lying, who is the imposter among us?¡± The various officers were courageously trying to keep order amongst the chaos, though their efforts seemed to be for naught. While the situation hadn¡¯t progressed to the point of an all-out gunfight, it was steadily moving towards that. Two drones looked on in disbelief at the chaos unraveling before their eyes. ¡°How did this even happen?¡± The Lead Engineer asked. ¡°Why¡¯re you asking me? I¡¯m as confused as you are.¡± The General replied. The Lead Engineer scowled at the General. ¡°It was rhetorical.¡± ¡°I know.¡± The General said. The Lead Engineer shook his head, returning his attention to the situation at hand. ¡°I¡¯m going over there.¡± He stated. ¡°You won¡¯t be able to do anything.¡± The General warned the Lead Engineer. ¡°I seriously doubt that.¡± The Lead Engineer replied. The Lead Engineer walked over to a congregation of worker drones that were entering a heated argument. ¡°Alright, what''s going on over here?¡± The Lead Engineer glared at the troublesome group. ¡°This guy stole one of my favorite posters, I swear!¡± A worker drone pointed towards another that was standing across from him. ¡°You just left it back at the facility, we all saw it!¡± The Poster Stealer cried out. The Lead Engineer, and yes, that is his name, shook his head. ¡°What does the poster look like?¡± ¡°Here, it looks like this.¡± The Posterman took out a rolled-up poster from his back pocket, unrolling it to show the Lead Engineer. It was fairly colorful with large emboldened text at the top that the Lead Engineer only glimpsed at, it saying something about crafting a mine or whatever. The actual contents of the poster were an assortment of strange blocky figures doing various activities, which included, but were not limited to: jumping into pools, going through weird purple portals, jumping into lava, killing each other, flying, eating stuff that might not even be food, and other assorted things that just didn¡¯t make sense. ¡°What the hell is this?¡± The Lead Engineer stared incredulously at the poster. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Posterman asked, confused. ¡°Wait, you said that the poster you lost-¡± The Lead Engineer began. ¡°It was stolen.¡± Posterman interrupted. ¡°Er, yes, anyway, you said it looks like this poster?¡± The Lead Engineer questioned. ¡°Yeah, I did.¡± Posterman confirmed. ¡°It looks exactly like this?¡± The Lead Engineer asked. ¡°Uh, yeah, why do you ask-?¡± Posterman wasn¡¯t able to finish his sentence, as the Lead Engineer yanked his gun out of the holster, shooting Posterman in the head at point-blank range. The group let out a resounding gasp. ¡°What the hell man!?¡± ¡°He owed me five bucks!¡± ¡°Wha- I just woke up, what happened?¡± The Lead Engineer didn¡¯t respond to any of the exclamations, just fixing the group with a glare. Getting the message, they backed off, dispersing into the crowd. The Lead Engineer let out another sigh, before heading back over to where he saw the General last. After shoving through the crowd for a good five minutes, and having to shoot three more people, he finally reunited with the General. ¡°Hey.¡± The Lead Engineer said. ¡°Hey.¡± The General replied. ¡°I fixed the problem.¡± ¡°Did you now?¡± ¡°Yep, and you said that I wouldn¡¯t be able to.¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure I said that you would be able to defuse the situation perfectly.¡± ¡°Uh, no you didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Yeah I did.¡± ¡°Your memory must be malfunctioning. You clearly said that my efforts would be futile, or something along those lines.¡± ¡°Who said what doesn¡¯t matter, what does matter is getting these two hundred eighty eight-¡± The General began. ¡°Actually, it''s two hundred eighty four.¡± If the Lead Engineer had glasses, he would be adjusting them right now. ¡°Ok, two hundred eighty four-¡± The General began again. ¡°Two hundred eighty four and three quarters.¡± The Lead Engineer interrupted again. ¡°Ok, I get it, two hundred eighty four and three quarters drones, we need to get them sorted out.¡± The General then seemed to realize something. ¡°Wait, what happened to the four drones that we used to have?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± The Lead Engineer inquired. ¡°Earlier we had two hundred eighty eight . . . and three quarters, drones left, but now we have four less.¡± The General clarified. ¡°You must be remembering things wrong again, you should go get your memory checked out.¡± The Lead Engineer suggested. ¡°No, we definitely had that many only a little bit ago, and now you''re telling me that some just mysteriously disappeared?¡± The General asked. ¡°Okay, fine, I shot them.¡± The Lead Engineer admitted. The General facepalmed. ¡°You idiot.¡± ¡°What!? They were being pretty stupid, so I did what I had to do!¡± The Lead Engineer cried out. ¡°We need to conserve our population, you can¡¯t just go around shooting people!¡± The General yelled. ¡°You would have done the exact same thing if you were in my situation!¡± The Lead Engineer shot back. ¡°No I wouldn¡¯t have!¡± ¡°Just last week you tossed three drones into a fifty feet deep hole just because they spilled stuff on your armor.¡± The Lead Engineer stated dryly. ¡°I just polished it!¡± The General replied. ¡°Yeah, keep telling yourself that.¡± The Lead Engineer turned back towards the sea of jostling metal. ¡°Do we still have a clear read on the asset¡¯s location?¡± The General nodded. ¡°Yep, the tracker is still running, but the battery isn¡¯t gonna last for more than a week, considering we didn¡¯t charge it right before he left.¡± ¡°Good. Once we get everything sorted out here, we should get moving.¡± The Lead Engineer stated. ¡°I agree-¡± The General began. Huh, he really keeps on getting interrupted, doesn¡¯t he?¡± A loud gunshot broke through the ruckus, sending the crowd into further disarray. To make matters worse, several more rapid shots chased after the first, officially starting a gunfight. Both administrators let out a groan in unison, before sprinting into the chaos. * * * Jacob couldn¡¯t sleep. Like, at all. You would think that he would feel even the slightest amount of drowsiness, but no, while he felt physically tired, his eyes and brain remained in perfect locomotion. Maybe because he had been sleeping intermittently for the past millennium, but that hadn¡¯t really been sleeping. Maybe it had to do with the little trespasser in his head, that was maybe himself, maybe, maybe, mayb- Jacob didn¡¯t know why he wasn¡¯t feeling very sleepy, but he wasn¡¯t just gonna spend the rest of the night laying in the uncomfortable position that he had assume to try and lay down, but it was a mere facsimile of a resting position, and like he had stated earlier, quite uncomfortable. The armor wasn¡¯t really made for sleeping in, it was more for combative situations, so the plates made it quite difficult to move gracefully and flexibly. And so, he made the wise decision to get up. Truly, a mastermind here. Stepping over the dented pan lying on the ground, Jacob walked towards the exit, stopping at the doorway to look back into the kitchen. His mechanical compatriots had settled on who would take the countertop spot, with X being the victor. One of his legs was dipping into the sink, with one of his hands finding its home in an upside-down pot. Despite X promising he would take the first watch, he was now fast asleep, doing the exact opposite of his job. Thankfully, Jacob was awake to take his place, and plus, he wasn¡¯t sure if anything wanted to kill him within a radius of a few hundred miles, aside from a certain poorly-designed killing machine in the corner. Shaking his head at the scene before him, Jacob stepped out into the main dining room, treading as lightly as he could so as to not wake up the two drones in the other room. After nearly putting his foot through a frozen rib cage, Jacob finally exited the empty diner. The air was cool, well, Jacob thought it was cool, but he couldn¡¯t really confirm it, considering he was wearing a suit. Well, he could feel the cold through the plating and thick fabric of the exosuit, but he guessed he couldn¡¯t determine the exact temperature of the air outside. Oh wait, scratch that, there was a temperature readout on his HUD, so it really did have everything, except for free food. Jacob could really go for some food right now, he hadn¡¯t eaten in about a day. While he had grabbed some rations on his wait out, he hoped to save them for when he really needed it, which wasn¡¯t right now. But now that he was thinking about it, how would he even eat his food? He couldn¡¯t take off the helmet without breathing in a whole lot of deadly concentrations of all sorts of fun gasses that people¡¯s uncles love to inhale on the regular. Jacob supposed he could try and hold his breath while taking a bite, but the ration bar he took a bite out of would still be freezing cold, and plus, Jacob was still taking a little bit of the aforementioned deadly gasses in his mouth, which he would then swallow, and then die. Even if he managed to take a bite without getting anything else in his mouth other than the ration, when he put his helmet back on, more gasses would be trapped in his suit, and when he breathed in next time, he would, again, die. The atmosphere cycling system might take care of it, but Jacob wasn¡¯t sure if he could hold his breath for long enough. But, that¡¯s a problem for Future Jacob. Jacob gazed off into the boundless skyline, however, absolutely zero noteblock choirs played this time, because that would be stupid, what even is a noteblock anyway? He couldn¡¯t even see the skyline because it was blocked by towering monolithic behemoths made from concrete and steel. Jacob didn¡¯t really know what to do, considering this freezing wasteland didn¡¯t have anything worth doing, as of right now at least. He supposed he could try and play Jenga with some rocks, but that was stupid, and boring. Waking up the others was also out of the equation, as there was a higher chance of getting killed than entertainment, and while the moment before he got his head sliced off might be a moment of thrill, which in turn in also entertaining, it wouldn¡¯t last, and plus, he didn¡¯t want to die just yet. All in all, Jacob didn¡¯t want to just stand around, but he also didn¡¯t want to just lay uncomfortably on the ground, futilely trying to go to sleep. However, This little mental debate was proving to be entertaining so he planned on continuing it. But wait, now that he had settled on what he was going to do, the mental debate had ended, which meant Jacob was now bored again. Jacob groaned, the sound lost in the howling icy winds, and he resigned himself to drawing in the snow. He had a little game that he liked to do, something that he had invented a literal millennium ago, when he was a child and got bored at the beach. Making a large rectangle, Jacob drew several shapes at both ends of it. The most common shape was a simple rectangle with two smaller squares jutting out front the sides of the original rectangle. Those two squares had a small line jutting out from the front of themselves, with the lines reaching towards the other side of the giant rectangle. There were other, large squares, each with varying amounts of lines, but that was the general gist of it. The little square figures were meant to be vehicles and people, with different vehicles having different amounts of guns and health. It was kinda like chess, but with less strategy involved. The only objective was to completely eliminate every unit on the other side of the board, and whoever did that first would win. Jacob usually played the game by himself, and he found that it was fairly entertaining as long as he didn¡¯t favor one side. * * * The man lay face down in the mud, ears ringing. He could hear sounds around him, but they were muffled, like he had cotton in his ears. He felt like he needed to get up, but he was tired, so he didn¡¯t. He couldn¡¯t remember what had been happening, but if he had forgotten, then it likely wasn¡¯t important. Then, the man felt something touch his back, gripping a fistful of his shirt. He groaned, not wanting to be disturbed so soon. Suddenly, he was flipped over, coming face-to-face with a man yelling at him. The strange sounds the yelling man was making strung themselves together into cohesive words, and the cotton that had been burying his head lifted. ¡°GET UP MCKINLEY, GET UP AND CHARGE!¡± Commander Stanford screamed into his face. Private McKinley nodded, grabbing his rifle out of the mud next to him, before rolling onto unsteady feet, and running forward into gunfire. Machine gun rounds sprayed into the charge, felling men like tree trunks, row after row. A plane flew overhead, its right wing flaming. McKinley looked up to see their air support falling down in a flaming meteor shower, adding to the chaos. Soon, they would slam into the earth, killing even more. The private saw a busted-open machine gun nest, the only remains of the men inside being a bloody rib cage and other assorted meat chunks. With a shaken stomach, McKinley sprinted forwards with newfound speed, wanting to get away from the grisly scene. Only twenty feet to his right, a Soviet jet impacted the ground with a massive explosion, sucking the oxygen from the air around the blast. Heat washed over McKinley, but he kept running, zigzagging back and forth to throw off the machine gunner¡¯s aim. A spray of dirt kicked up at McKinley¡¯s feet, causing him to jump in fright. He glanced up from the ground, seeing what looked to be a frightened soldier facing him. McKinley¡¯s eyes flicked down to the man¡¯s uniform, where a bright red star was emblazoned. Bringing his rifle to bear, McKinley drew a perfect bead on the soldier¡¯s left eye, sending a bullet straight through his head. With no time to dwell on his recent action, he leaped into the machine gun nest that the Russian soldier had been guarding. Just in time as well, considering the flurry of explosions that hit the ground where he had been not three seconds ago. Dirt peppered McKinley¡¯s back, and when the bombs stopped falling, he hopped right back out of his little hole, going right back to charging. McKinley crested the hill, diving down right next to several other soldiers that had made it up the bloody climb, fixing his gaze on the city that was a few miles ahead of him. ¡°Is that Moscow?¡± A lieutenant asked no one in particular. ¡°That it is, sir.¡± Another private replied. ¡°Well, we better get to moving.¡± The lieutenant stated after a moment. ¡°But, that¡¯s a meat grinder! We¡¯ll die in droves!¡± McKinley protested. ¡°We have our orders, private, and we¡¯ll follow them.¡± The lieutenant got up from his resting position, before charging down the hill into more machine gun fire. McKinley shook his head, before running down after the lieutenant. The charge, while it was costly, had somehow not lost momentum, and so it seemed their orders remained. Who knows, maybe they would win the day. * * * Jacob scribbled out the last of the attacking side, as they had been bombed to bits by the defending air force. He had honestly expected the attackers to win, considering the troop disparity between the two sides, but the fact remained. And plus, now that the round had ended, Jacob was now devoid of options. While he could draw up another game, Jacob knew from experience that he would have diminishing returns in terms of entertainment values each time he played again. And so, he faced a problem. The sun was bright in the sky, and it had only been about an hour since it had risen, so by Earth standards, the day would definitely still be young. He wasn¡¯t sure what he would do other than suffer through it. Jacob sat down, and immediately regretted it, as the freezing snow could be felt through his coverings. Standing back up, Jacob started to pace to get at least some semblance of warmth back in his body. However, this only brought attention back to the many aches his body had, a painful reminder of his miles-long trek across the wasteland, as well as his centuries-long sleep. Groaning, he continued to walk in circles, pondering on what to do next. First, Jacob reviewed his situation. He was over one thousand years ahead in the future, with almost everybody who used to know his name dead, and the ones that still do he could count on one hand. If he were to somehow return to civilization, there was a chance of being gunned down to complete the impromptu cover-up. If that didn¡¯t happen, then he would still have a dark future, with the rest of his days being spent in another government laboratory, trapped. While he did agree to the first experiment, and did like the fact that they might have saved him from death, he would¡¯ve preferred to live on his own terms, and plus, it got pretty boring after a little bit. Back in the present, the planet was well and truly dead, with the only human left being Jacob himself, and the only other sources of intelligent lifeforms weren¡¯t even alive in the normal sense. Robots now made up the population, and if his companions were to be believed, the more common androids would prefer to kill him rather than safeguard him. Speaking of his apparent saviors, the ones who killed the other robots who DID like him, were quite worthy of suspicion themselves, as their stories didn¡¯t exactly line up. Why were they loyal to a company if the government had been in charge of his experiment? And if the worker drones really did rebel, then why couldn¡¯t they just reprogram them from afar? They are clearly at the mercy of humanity, so they never should¡¯ve been a problem in the first place. And what did Jacob have to do with all of this? On the topic of himself, it might have been the most confusing subject of them all. Yes, he did have a rather strange tumor, one that seemed more alive and intelligent than others, but surely they had gotten enough data from it over the last millennium, right? Something wasn¡¯t adding up. Well, many things weren¡¯t adding up or making sense at all if you were to think about it. But, what if- ¡°You¡¯re up early.¡± A familiar voice behind him interrupted his thoughts. Jacob whirled around to see X just standing there in the sunlight, which shouldn''t have been possible. ¡°How are you-¡± Jacob then cut himself off, as he realized that X and the landscape was once again shrouded in darkness. How time had passed so quickly was something to dwell on later. ¡°How am I- what, you cut your self off, spit it out man, come on.¡± X crossed his arms. Jacob shook his head. ¡°Nothing. I just couldn''t sleep¡± ¡°You were out here all day?¡± X sounded slightly surprised. ¡°Yeah. Like I said, I couldn¡¯t sleep.¡± Jacob confirmed. ¡°I thought humans had to rest every, like, four hours or something.¡± X said. ¡°We only have to sleep eight hours a day for proper functions, and we can just not sleep for a day or two sometimes.¡± Jacob corrected. ¡°Oh dang, so you guys aren¡¯t completely useless.¡± X joked. Jacob scoffed. ¡°Man, you can¡¯t talk. You have to hide away all day just so you don¡¯t boil like a lobster.¡± ¡°Can you fly?¡± ¡°No, but I don¡¯t have to, since all I have to do to beat you is go to the beach.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a beach?¡± X asked. Jacob shook his head again. ¡°Nothing, not important. Also, you didn¡¯t take the watch.¡± ¡°You were awake.¡± X replied. ¡°You didn¡¯t know that.¡± Jacob shot back. X rolled his eyes, or whatever one could call those LED things. ¡°Alright, fine. Anyway, K wanted me to tell you that I¡¯m carrying you.¡± Jacob stopped, wondering if he had heard right. ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡± ¡°For what?¡± X replied. ¡°No- what did you just say?¡± Jacob fixed X with a stare. ¡°I said, ¡®For what?¡¯.¡± X repeated. Jacob facepalmed. ¡°No, before that, you know what I mean.¡± X smirked. ¡°Oh, yeah. You were too slow yesterday, so we both agreed that I¡¯m carrying you. She isn¡¯t gonna do it because she¡¯s too chicken.¡± ¡°Oh come on! How was this decision made without me!?¡± Jacob cried out. ¡°You know what they say man . . .¡± X began ¡°You snooze, you lose.¡± They both said in unison. * * * ¡°This is humiliating.¡± Jacob stated. The trio were sailing above the clouds, high above the reach of any crumbling skyscraper. Jacob was thankful for that too, since the first time something flew into a tower or two was bad enough, he definitely wouldn¡¯t want that to happen again. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not.¡± X replied. ¡°Yeah, why do you think that, huh?¡± Jacob rhetorically asked. ¡°Will you two shut up?¡± K interjected. ¡°What are you gonna do about it?¡± X shot back. ¡°I¡¯m going to come over there, and make you.¡± K replied after a moment of silence. ¡°Yeah, I seriously doubt that.¡± Jacob replied. K scoffed, muttering something that was probably insulting, before going quiet. Jacob looked up at the moon, its light shining down on him. However, he made note of the fact that one of the supposed moons had rings, which might not be possible. Jacob wasn¡¯t an expert on astronomy, after all. ¡°Hey uh, I have a question.¡± Jacob leaned slightly over to peak at X¡¯s face. ¡°What? And don¡¯t adjust yourself like that, it throws off my balance.¡± X replied. ¡°So uh, you see the moon?¡± Jacob gestured towards the moon, knowing full well that X wouldn¡¯t see his arm moving. ¡°Yeah, what about it?¡± X sounded slightly frustrated. ¡°It''s got rings.¡± Jacob stated. ¡°Ok, and?¡± X might¡¯ve glared at Jacob if the movement of the head required to do that wouldn¡¯t throw Jacob off. ¡°Are moons able to have rings?¡± Jacob realized that X probably didn¡¯t know the answer, and likely wouldn¡¯t care if he did. ¡°I dunno.¡± X would¡¯ve shrugged if he could. ¡°I know the answer.¡± K called out helpfully. ¡°Oh really?¡± Jacob turned towards the shadowy outline of K, the only thing visible of her being the little LED lights on her head. ¡°Moons can have rings, in some specific cases. In fact, a few of Saturn¡¯s moons actually have rings, those rings being formed by another moon ejecting icy debris from itself as it orbits its planet.¡± K seemed almost gleeful to share this information, which was a definite change from the constant annoyance that seemed to exude from her ever since Jacob met her. ¡°Huh, I didn¡¯t know that. Also, do you know if those are moons up there, or is the planet we are on the moon, and the big one a planet?¡± Jacob questioned. ¡°I, uh, don¡¯t know that one.¡± K slightly deflated. Jacob shook his head. ¡°They can do everything but answer my questions.¡± He muttered. ¡°What!?¡± X called out. ¡°I can¡¯t hear over this wind!¡± ¡°Nothing!¡± Jacob yelled louder than he needed to. The wind had indeed picked up, but it hopefully wasn¡¯t enough to throw Jacob off. Jacob turned back towards K. ¡°How long until we reach wherever we¡¯re going?¡± ¡°One more day and we should be there.¡± K replied. ¡°Where are we going anyway? You never told me, and I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s an essential part of transporting someone to someplace else.¡± Jacob inquired. ¡°I don¡¯t see the point.¡± She replied. ¡°I insist.¡± Jacob insisted. ¡°Ugh, fine. We¡¯re heading back to our base for further instructions.¡± K relented. ¡°Well that wasn¡¯t informative at all.¡± Jacob complained. ¡°What did you want me to say!?¡± K cried out. ¡°I dunno, something that I wouldn¡¯t have known or have been able to figure out myself.¡± Jacob replied. K scoffed. ¡°Well people rarely get what they wish for, and that¡¯s where we¡¯re going, so deal with it.¡± Jacob didn¡¯t reply, probably because a rather violent gust of wind nearly threw him off of X, so he was busy holding on for dear life. But then again, you never know. Maybe he was a bit hungry, and didn¡¯t reply because he was too busy thinking about a Whopper. Maybe he was feeling a little bit drippy and was in the process of dropping some classified documents. But, no one will ever know. * * * The wasteland was loud. Very loud. The sounds of boots marching, the occasional gunshot zipping through the air, and the cries and shouts of the annoyed. The number of the combined facility personnel had dropped to two hundred seventy nine and three quarters at this point, with two military drones tripping and falling over non-existent untied shoelaces, a worker drone forgetting he could live, another worker drone slipping on some rogue marbles, and a final military drone seeing something shiny in the snow, and when he ran to get it, he realized that the light was simply reflecting off of the snow, right before a skyscraper collapsed on him. One worker drone was nearly killed by a stray bullet, but his comically large tuba managed to deflect the projectile. After the deaths, the situation had calmed down a bit, with only slight disorganization and unrest present, order once again asserting its dominance. Speaking of order, time to talk about the organization and structure of the evacuated facility personnel. The trek was being made on foot, as long-range vehicles were not wanted nor needed for the underground complex, the tram being the main source of transportation between sectors. Scouts were constantly probing the area ahead of the central body, reporting back to officers who would then direct the directions as needed. The broken roads weren¡¯t friendly to formations, as a massive boulder partially blocking off a pathway would just make everybody break formation to get around, and this happened frequently. So, the solution was to have no formation at all, allowing the drones to move around loosely However, many weapons were brought with them, including mounted machine guns, laser-guided missile launchers, various computers and tracking equipment, extra battery packs for emergencies, spare parts, and more. The more sensitive equipment was generally kept in locked cases surrounded by armed guards, accompanying the top officials. Speaking of those heads of personnel, they were smack-dab in the middle of the large crowd, a space for them always present in the center. The Lead Engineer tapped on the shoulder of the General, who turned to look at him. ¡°We need to camp out for a little bit.¡± The Lead Engineer stated. ¡°What? Why?¡± The General questioned. ¡°The men are getting backed up with unprocessed memory, and it''s starting to hinder their functions.¡± The Lead Engineer answered. ¡°You mean they''re getting tired?¡± The General asked. The Lead Engineer blinked. ¡°Uh, yeah, I guess.¡± The General scoffed. ¡°Just say that next time, no need to lengthen it with a bunch of random nonsense.¡± ¡°It''s not random nonsense, it''s the proper definition for their condition!¡± The Lead Engineer sounded affronted. ¡°You just like shortened sentences because you can¡¯t read!¡± ¡°What! I can read fine!¡± The General cried out. ¡°Oh really!? Name ten books then.¡± The Lead Engineer shot back. ¡°Alright, uh, okay. Let me see, uh, how about, ¡®A Dummies Guide to Not Running Out of Battery While You¡¯re in a Frozen Tundra¡¯.¡± The General answered. ¡°That''s a manual, it doesn¡¯t count.¡± The Lead Engineer. ¡°And plus, that can¡¯t be real.¡± ¡°How? I read it just yesterday.¡± The General said. ¡°It''s too specific for our current situation, name a different one.¡± The Lead Engineer crossed his arms. ¡°There was this one called, ¡®See Something, Say Something; How to Identify Rogue or Malfunctioning AI¡¯.¡± The General nodded. ¡°That''s just another manual! Stop naming manuals!¡± The Lead Engineer yelled loud enough to draw some attention. One of the worker ministers walked over. ¡°Hey, what''s going on over here?¡± ¡°Here, back me up Francis, I told this guy to name ten books to prove he could read, and he keeps on naming manuals.¡± The Lead Engineer explained. ¡°What? Those aren¡¯t books.¡± Francis said. ¡°I know! That''s what I¡¯ve been telling him!¡± The Lead Engineer gesticulated wildly towards the General. ¡°You name ten books then!¡± The General smirked. ¡°Uh, well . . .¡± The Lead Engineer deflated. ¡°Hah! See!? You can¡¯t do it!¡± The General pointed a finger at the Lead Engineer. ¡°Well, there wasn¡¯t really that much reading material back down in the complex!¡± The Lead Engineer whined. The bickering attracted the attention of yet another minister, this one on the military side. ¡°Yo, uh, why y¡¯all yelling so much?¡± The man said. ¡°We¡¯re debating on who can read.¡± The General dryly stated. ¡°You guys can¡¯t read?¡± The second minister sounded shocked. ¡°We¡¯re naming books that we¡¯ve read to determine if any of us can.¡± Francis clarified. ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve got some.¡± The second minister replied. ¡°I¡¯ll believe it when I hear it.¡± The General scoffed. ¡°The Electricianist, Don¡¯t Hide When We Stay, Metal Is The New Black, Wormholes: Barley, The Stars And Stripes: A History, The 2000s, Strife and Strobe, Exterminator: Redux, Time Thieves, Infested, Mythos of Kratos, and Final Girl.¡± The second minister finished. ¡°Uh, that last one was a guide.¡± The Lead Engineer stated after a moment of silence. ¡°Also, what''s your name again?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve still got eleven other books in that roster, and my name''s Derrick.¡± Derrick said. ¡°Rather generic name, Derrick.¡± The Lead Engineer stated. ¡°Uh, ok. How¡¯d you forget my name anyway?¡± Derrick inquired. ¡°I never bothered to find out in the first place.¡± The Lead Engineer replied. There was another moment of silence. ¡°What the heck man?¡± Derrick raised his hands. The Lead Engineer simply shrugged, before walking away with his minister, presumably to do some management or some random leadership type stuff, I dunno. The two military men stared at the pair walking away for a second, before Derrick spoke up. ¡°What the hell just happened?¡± He asked. * * * ¡°Rather imposing, huh?¡± The trio were standing at the base of a relatively large tower, shadowed by its enormity. The omnipresent moonlight that had been highlighting the landscape was proved to be not omnipresent, its constant force now halted, shrouding the area around the tower in darkness. However, this wasn¡¯t any old tower, it was a spire. And while you might be asking how a spire is any different from a tower, I will not clarify the difference, instead explaining why this one is so special. You see, this spire was constructed out of, 100% certified real, straight-from-a-living-being, corpses. Yes, you heard me right, corpses. Luckily, they weren¡¯t human, much more mechanical in nature. Or would they be electronic? When people refer to mechanics, they usually mean machines that typically use, well, mechanics. Like a steam train, its wheels are turned by a bar that is connected to the engine, causing it to move, which in turn causes the wheels to move. Electronics are more referred to as an electronic gadget, like a phone. They use circuit boards and extensive use of more synthetic materials like silicon and plastic to make the intricate device that people use every day, perhaps a bit too much. Modern androids are a complicated combination of both of these. Their limbs and body are most likely animated by joints connected together, which are then moved by motors, giving them the ability of motion. However, the thing that coordinates their motion is the delicate electronics in their head, giving them their thought, somewhat questionable logic, and everything else that they need to use their body. And so, would that make the current worker drones mechanical or electronic in nature? Was there a specific category for them, being both and yet neither at the same time, or were they one of the two options? Other questions, like Jacob¡¯s future survival, were currently irrelevant, for this was a rather pressing matter. This was the big question, one that could determine future outcomes for eons to come, one that- ¡°Yo, you coming inside man or what ? You''re acting real slow, man, hurry up before I make you.¡± X called out. Jacob was startled out of his thoughts. ¡°Uh, yeah, sorry.¡± Speed-walking forward, Jacob entered the imposing structure. He could practically feel the weight of the place, as well as the slight anticipation of the chance that the entire thing could come crashing down. However, the inside wasn¡¯t quite as interesting as the outside. The interior was nearly devoid of anything, the only objects populating the inside being random corpses and structural debris from who knows what. But, the large pod in the center might be able to bear some fruits. It had a octagonal shape, with what appeared to be an entrance to the pod at the top of an exterior ladder. What made the thing strange, however, were the four spidery legs that jutted out from the bottom of the vessel. If his newfound benefactors were to be believed, then Jacob could infer that this was the landing pod that they had initially come down in, and maybe the crash had resulted in all the random debris that seemed commonplace around this area. But, why the spacecraft had legs was beyond Jacob, though he could see the potential values for them. If the craft was coming down at high speeds, then the large mechanical legs could brace themselves, absorbing the impact to a certain extent, much like how human legs behave. But, the speeds that the craft would be coming down at would most definitely be over the limit of what the legs could halt, which would just make them a hindrance. The combination of the extreme speeds coupled with the now-unneeded legs providing unwanted air resistance, which would throw off the craft''s stability, made for a rather non-ideal landing craft. This just added to Jacob¡¯s growing theory that whatever organization that the disassembly drones belonged to weren¡¯t really on their side of the mat. However, it could just be a symptom of technologies changing, and maybe this design was a suitable method for landing. Nonetheless, Jacob mentally cataloged this fact, following X and K towards the pod. ¡°So uh, what''s going on now?¡± Jacob probed. ¡°We''re going to meet with our team leader, and introduce you to him. He did send us to get you, after all.¡± K explained. ¡°You guys knew I was alive? I thought you said that it was a surprise to learn of a living human.¡± Jacob feigned surprise. ¡°What? Well yeah, we were surprised, but he sent us to investigate a distress signal on your location.¡± K said incredulously. ¡°Ah, sorry, my mistake.¡± Jacob apologized. Jacob had intentionally done that, as he wanted to see if they would stick by their story under a moment of pressure. If they hadn¡¯t, then that would be a telltale sign of a lie in the works, and while it would be bad news, it would be helpful to know. However, they had maintained their story, which either meant that they were pretty good at lying and staying cool under interrogation, or that that part of the story had been true. Jacob personally thought that latter was true, but it was important to stay vigilant. But then again, he wasn''t a police officer, so he was just making it up as he went. ¡°Ladies first.¡± X stepped aside to let K climb up the ladder first. K scoffed, before ascending the ladder. X tried to grab at her leg to destabilize her, but she swatted his hand away, disappearing into the opening. ¡°You go first, wouldn¡¯t want anything to happen to you in the split second I¡¯m gone.¡± X turned to Jacob. ¡°Alright man.¡± Jacob agreed, before gripping the rungs. Voices could be heard from inside, with K saying something to a second unfamiliar voice. Jacob pushed on, clambering up the rungs, before popping his head into the interior cavity. The inside was sparse, and save for a couple chairs and a cool looking console, the only thing of interest was the new person sitting in one of the chairs. With a captain¡¯s hat, cleanly-combed locks (why do they have hair, WHY DO THEY HAVE HAIR!?), and a pressed and proper uniform, the guy gave off an aura of a military man, but Jacob was always bad at taking cues. But, any further investigation was cut short by the next words from the drone. ¡°What the fu-¡± Episode Four: Eventful Events ¡°-ubber flobber glibber gobbler-¡± A was cut off. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, what?¡± The stranger tilted their head. They were likely a man by their voice, but you could never really tell. ¡°What do you mean, ¡®what?¡¯?¡± A asked in kind. ¡°What kind of swear was that?¡± The newcomer sounded confused. ¡°Nevermind that, what even are YOU?¡± A got to his feet. ¡°I¡¯m fairly sure that any sane worker drone wouldn¡¯t have come anywhere near us, and since K and X haven¡¯t killed you, I would like to know.¡± A questioned. ¡°Well sir, I was just telling you-¡± K began. ¡°I¡¯m the one talking right now, shut up.¡± A waved dismissively at K, who shrank down to a meager size. ¡°Uh, I¡¯m me.¡± The stranger suggested. ¡°Yes, I can see that, but what ARE you, specifically.¡± A insisted. ¡°Uh, I¡¯m somebody, or something, you never know.¡± The newcomer was dodging the question. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m done.¡± A retracted his hand, a gun taking its place, before aiming it directly at the person¡¯s face. ¡°Okay, alright!¡± The unknown person put up their hands. ¡°Calm down. I¡¯m a human.¡± A didn¡¯t lower his gun. ¡°That''s a lie.¡± K intervened, stepping in between the stranger and A. ¡°It''s true sir. He was the origin of the distress signal.¡± A fixed K with a withering stare, who bravely didn¡¯t back down. ¡°Sir! You said it yourself that the possibility of a human being there was possible!¡± K exclaimed. A scoffed. ¡°Well I didn¡¯t mean it! That was just to get both of you up and away from here.¡± ¡°Well sir, it appears that the mission has borne a rather precious fruit.¡± K gestured towards the person, who gave a little wave. ¡°As a certified me, I can certainly say that I¡¯m me, which is also a human.¡± The apparent human stated. A¡¯s mind just fogged with confusion. ¡°Uh, what?¡± ¡°You heard me.¡± The person didn¡¯t elaborate. ¡°You know what? You must be a human, because you just said the dumbest thing I¡¯ve ever heard.¡± A lowered his gun, shaking his head. Suddenly, with a yelp of surprise, the human was pushed down to the floor, landing on shaky feet. ¡°Oh nice.¡± The human murmured. X then leapt through the opening, nearly squashing K. ¡°Wassup, I¡¯m back. Who died?¡± A shook his head again. ¡°Idiots. I¡¯m surrounded by idiots.¡± ¡°Not me!¡± The human spoke up. A looked back at the human, remembering something. ¡°What''s your name again?¡± A asked. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m Jacob. I¡¯m kinda the resident important person here.¡± Jacob¡¯s hands strayed towards his chest, as if to adjust a tie, only to remember that he wasn¡¯t wearing a tie, so they just folded themselves across his chest. A let a moment of silence sound through the pod. ¡°OK, why don¡¯t you take off your helmet?¡± Jacob shook his head. ¡°Can¡¯t take it off.¡± ¡°Why?¡± A inquired. ¡°Toxic atmosphere.¡± Jacob explained. ¡°Oh, yeah. Well, can you just make the visor clear?¡± A suggested. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to do that, I just got this thing after all.¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°You just got it? What were you doing here anyway?¡± A¡¯s eyes narrowed in suspicion yet again. K stepped in again to defuse the situation. ¡°Listen, sir. We can all explain this, if you just give us time.¡± A stared back at her, who shook slightly under the beam. ¡°Well then, get started.¡± A sat down. ¡°We¡¯ve got time.¡± * * * ¡°Ugh, what''s that scratching noise?¡± A pair of drones walked along a mostly intact pathway covered in rubble and snow, lighting up the darkness with built-in lights. ¡°That would be ice building up in our armor, I think.¡± The second drone answered. ¡°Really? You know how to get rid of it?¡± The first drone asked. The second drone shook her head. ¡°Nah, we can¡¯t. Trust me, I¡¯ve tried before, and while I can get the surface level ice, the stuff that coalesces in between the chinks is too deep to get out.¡± ¡°Just use something sharp and thin then.¡± The first drone suggested. ¡°Where can I find something sharp and thin, Carl?¡± The second drone replied. ¡°I dunno, somewhere on the ground, I guess.¡± Carl looked around the floor, searching. ¡°You¡¯d be surprised at how hard it is to find something thin enough to fit in between our armor plates around here, and rubble doesn¡¯t really match specifications.¡± The second drone kicked a rock into a small crater. ¡°Nobodys got any knives or something?¡± Carl questioned. ¡°You think we have knives? Anything that isn¡¯t a nanoblade will only be useful for cooking, and since we don¡¯t even have kitchens, that''s out of the question. And nanoblades are impractical, one minute you¡¯re flipping the blade around in your hand, and the next your hand is on the ground, cut clean through.¡± The second drone explained. ¡°That''s why we don¡¯t have them, they¡¯ll slice anything off that isn¡¯t an artificial experimental alloy.¡± ¡°I know that, but you would think somebody would have something. What about a pencil?¡± Carl stopped walking for a moment. ¡°Pencils will just break, and keep walking, we gotta hurry up.¡± The second drone motioned for Carl to resume movement. ¡°Alright, fine. But the moment we finish our shift, I¡¯m going around to see if anybody has something, and we¡¯ll see who has the last laugh, Damina.¡± Carl glared at Damina. ¡°Yeah, alright.¡± She replied. The pair walked in silence for a few seconds. ¡°By the way, you ever hear about that Sterl guy?¡± Carl spoke up again. ¡°Who?¡± Damina asked. ¡°You know, Sterl. He¡¯s one of the only people who survived one of those hunter drones attacking him.¡± Carl explained. ¡°So that''s what we''re calling them? Hunter drones?¡± Damina said in a dry tone. ¡°What else would we call them? Killer drones?¡± Carl stared pointedly at Damina. ¡°Well I guess the name fits, hunter drones. But I feel like it doesn¡¯t really match their . . .¡± Damina trailed off. ¡°Their what?¡± Carl insisted. ¡°Their aura.¡± Damina finished. ¡°Their aura? THAT''S what you''re going with?¡± Carl said. ¡°It''s the best word I could use. ¡®Hunter¡¯ just feels really underwhelming I guess.¡± Damina shrugged. ¡°Well, what would you suggest? I¡¯m open to them.¡± Carl inquired. ¡°Uh, you¡¯re kinda putting me on the spot here.¡± Damina scratched her head. ¡°Take your time.¡± Carl replied. ¡°Uh, maybe, murder drones?¡± Damina suggested, not letting the credits roll just yet. ¡°Murder drones.¡± Carl deadpanned. ¡°Yes.¡± Damina confirmed. ¡°Murder drones?¡± Carl repeated. ¡°Uh, yes?¡± Damina sounded more unsure. ¡°You really think that''s better?¡± Carl questioned. ¡°I dunno, you didn¡¯t really give me a lot of time to come up with one.¡± Damina defended herself. ¡°Hunter drones are better, I¡¯m saying it right now.¡± Carl crossed his arms. ¡°Okay, fine, it''s better.¡± Damina relented. ¡°But what about, uh, reaper drones?¡± Carl tilted his head in thought, so Damina continued. ¡°You know, because they only strike from the shadows, and when they come, they only cause death.¡± Damina clarified. Carl slowly nodded. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll give you that, that is a much cooler sounding name, but it''s too poetic.¡± ¡°TOO, poetic?¡± Damina asked. ¡°Yeah, too poetic.¡± Carl confirmed. ¡°I mean, yeah, they are pretty deadly, but we can¡¯t really be calling those things reapers, can we?¡± Damina grunted. ¡°Back then, they used to call early attack drones reapers.¡± ¡°What? They did? How do you even know that?¡± Carl said in a surprised tone. Damina shrugged. ¡°I must¡¯ve heard it somewhere.¡± ¡°Is that even real? I mean, how long ago are we talking here? A few decades, or a few centuries? Attack drones have been around for a really long time, I need specifications.¡± Carl questioned. ¡°Like, a thousand years, I think.¡± Damina explained. ¡°A thousand years!¡± Carl exclaimed. ¡°You¡¯re trying to tell me that we got information out of the ancient dark ages!?¡± Damina shrugged again. ¡°Yeah, pretty much.¡± Carl shook his head. ¡°You¡¯re crazy.¡± Damina scoffed. ¡°Whatever. Come on, we need to get moving.¡± * * * Silence filled the pod. A sat in a chair, arms crossed, eyes staring in the general direction of Jacob, who was sitting directly across from him. K looked around nervously, while Jacob just seemed confused. X had left the pod at some point to go jump off a rooftop for something, doing whatever thing he did to pass the time. A had listened to K, X, and Jacob explain their small adventure, with K doing most of the talking, because X just told straight up lies most of the time, like claiming that they had found a whole farm of enslaved tornados who were aptly named, ¡°Whiggers¡± and that they had participated in the freeing of those tornados from enslavement, establishing a new state in the middle east for them afterwards. Jacob was forced out of the explanation because the majority of his speech consisted of, ¡°Uh¡±, ¡°Um¡±, ¡°Like so¡±, ¡°You see¡±, ¡°Kinda¡±, and multiple backtracks because he had forgotten to say something important. So, it was only reasonable to just shut up before he embarrassed himself any further, the goddamn idiot. Finally, K spoke up. ¡°So, what do you think sir?¡± A glanced up at K. ¡°What do I think?¡± K squirmed under his gaze. ¡°Er, yes sir.¡± A sat up in his chair. ¡°Well, I think that it''s a miracle that the human is still somehow alive.¡± ¡°Some would say otherwise.¡± Jacob interjected. ¡°I feel halfway partial to just calling it all a lie and putting a bullet through this guy¡¯s head.¡± A ignored the comment. ¡°I¡¯m . . . not sure if that is the right course of action, sir.¡± K replied. A scoffed. ¡°It''s a figure of speech, K, calm down.¡± K blinked. ¡°Oh, uh, sorry sir.¡± ¡°And stop saying sorry so much, it''s annoying me.¡± A added. ¡°Yes sir, sorry sir.¡± K said quickly. A shook his head, before looking at Jacob. ¡°And what are we going to do with you?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°Your guess is as good as mine.¡± A leaned forward. ¡°Don¡¯t you humans have to eat regularly to stay alive?¡± ¡°I have to take my helmet off to eat, and I¡¯m not really sure that¡¯s a good idea.¡± Jacob explained. ¡°Hmm, I see.¡± A leaned back, deep in thought. This proved to be a problem, since the survival of the human was paramount to A and his squad¡¯s success. When the distress signal had come through, A had taken an arguably large gamble on it. He had sent the majority of his team out to investigate an unknown signal, when they could¡¯ve spent those days and nights grinding for extra credit. While some might think that a few days shouldn¡¯t have made a difference, the reality was much harsher. With a whole planet full of competing teams, all vying for control, one had to remain constantly vigilant and active to stay up top. While most of the time in a standard squads lives were spent just cutting down the occasional worker drone that was foolish enough to go outside, which happened quite often, sometimes they would crack open a bunker, which was more than enough to boost them to the peak of the leaderboard. One wouldn¡¯t even have to tackle a whole bunker, if they so desired. They could just put in overtime hours, spending night after night slaughtering any drone who had stumbled into danger, rapidly clearing out a zone empty of all life, save for the ones that caused it. This could bear a great number of points if it was executed correctly, and while it was time and energy consuming, it was very effective. So far, A¡¯s team had been doing neither, just killing the stray worker drone that stumbled in their path every now and then, which is what most squads did, just to a higher extent. This was causing them to lag behind, as stated earlier. Also stated earlier, the recent destruction of the local worker drone bunker had boosted them up high into the rankings, but it wasn¡¯t meant to last. And if their scores weren¡¯t up to par, disassembly for themselves was an option. But now, through some stroke of magnificent luck, A had been thrown a lifeline in the form of the adolescent human boy sitting across from him. If no other humans were hiding in some small nook or cranny around the planet, then that would make Jacob the last living human on the entire planet. Even an idiot could tell you that that arguably made him the most important thing for miles, which made Jacob¡¯s earlier statement somewhat true. If A and his squad were able to somehow return Jacob to the company¡¯s hands, then they would likely be rewarded a large amount of points for their innovative and smart behavior, shooting them up through the ranks until nothing could challenge them for a while. And so, that made the consequences for failure even higher. If Jacob were to die, or even suffer from some sort of severe injury, then the blame would lie at their feet. They would be blamed for any and all harm that came to the human, and would be punished accordingly. They likely wouldn¡¯t even know they had been punished, as their memories probably would¡¯ve been scrapped as well. All in all, A was taking yet another big gamble. They had very high rewards, since if they could place Jacob back into company hands, they would be set. However, they had high risk as well, since they had to keep him in perfect condition along the way, like a small, delicate package that was prone to breaking. A was willing to take that risk, since frankly, he saw no other option. They were too deep in to back out, even if they wanted to. Abandoning Jacob to the elements would garner an even harsher punishment than if they had tried to protect him and failed. And so, A now had to devise a way to keep Jacob perfectly well, and that began with a rather pressing issue. ¡°Hey, kid-¡± A began. ¡°Name¡¯s Jacob.¡± Jacob interrupted. ¡°Uh, I know.¡± A continued. ¡°Kid, listen, do you even have anything to eat at all?¡± Jacob pulled out a shiny silvery package from an armored pocket. ¡°Yep, this here.¡± ¡°Are you sure that''s edible?¡± A didn¡¯t relent. ¡°Uh, yeah. It says, ¡®RATION¡¯ on the side so it probably is.¡± Jacob replied. ¡°And it''s not expired?¡± A inquired. ¡°No, it isn¡¯t. I¡¯m good, I have tons of food, it''s fine man, calm down.¡± Jacob tilted his head to the side, before pocketing the ration bar. A grunted. ¡°What about water?¡± Jacob froze. ¡°Uh, I dunno.¡± ¡°You thought to take ¡®tons of food¡¯ but didn¡¯t take any sort of form of hydration.¡± It wasn¡¯t a question. ¡°Erm, yes.¡± Jacob fidgeted. A facepalmed. ¡°Do you know WHERE you can get any water?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°Snow? Ice?¡± ¡°The snow and ice on this planet likely contains copious amounts of toxic gasses.¡± A stated. ¡°Well what do you want me to say, that I just pulled a random depot of fresh water from nowhere?¡± Jacob complained. ¡°Well I don¡¯t know, I figured that the ¡®hyper-intelligent¡¯ and ¡®oh-so-smart¡¯ human would¡¯ve thought to bring some goddamn water.¡± A replied, annoyed. ¡°Well I didn¡¯t think a few days ago that I would be trekking through a freezing wasteland!¡± Jacob cried out. ¡°Speaking of, what were you doing a few days ago? I doubt that you were ¡®just chilling¡¯ in a cryo pod that failed to break down when every other one did.¡± A¡¯s eyes narrowed yet again. ¡°Well I just was! That''s the truth of it, kind of . . .¡± Jacob trailed off. A felt his opportunity. ¡°Continue.¡± ¡°Besides, I¡¯m pretty sure that you aren¡¯t cleared for that information.¡± Jacob finished. A inwardly cursed. Once Jacob had subtly implied that there was something more to the story than what he had let on, A had believed that he would be able to get some more out of him, maybe even deducing what made the kid so important. A wasn¡¯t gonna believe for a second that Jacob had just happened to stumble upon a facility full of autonomous guards that had just somehow happened to decide to protect him with their lives, while finding the sole fully-operational cryo pod on the planet, and just so happened to survive for a good amount of time while everybody else died. And the fact that A had received the distress signal on a government transmitter that had just so happened to be placed in their ship made Jacob even more suspicious. Multiple things weren¡¯t adding up, which is why A had jumped at the chance to wring Jacob dry of any more information he could get. But, A hadn¡¯t expected him to pull out the ¡®Classified Information¡± card. While it did confirm that something bigger was going on behind the scenes, A was now effectively neutered in his future chances to learn, because since he now knew that the information he was searching for was behind higher clearance, continuing his search would be a clear breach of company protocol. Breaching company protocol, like many other things, leads to a rather bad chance of living. A leaned back in his chair, contemplating his next course of action. He first had to find a breathable atmosphere for Jacob, as well as finding an uncontaminated source of water. Next, and perhaps the most difficult of all, A had to somehow get Jacob off planet. Some very high orders for his little squad. ¡°How long can humans go without needing food or water?¡± A questioned. ¡°Uh, I can¡¯t remember exactly, but I think that if I don¡¯t have any sort of water, then I¡¯ll die within three days.¡± Jacob answered. A cursed yet again. Three days wasn¡¯t a time frame big enough to get a source of reliable water in this wasteland. K coughed politely. ¡°Uh, if I may, sir.¡± A¡¯s gaze shot to K. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Well, we could scavenge.¡± K suggested. ¡°I¡¯m fairly sure that I could¡¯ve come up with that myself.¡± A replied. ¡°Oh, uh, sorry sir.¡± K backed down. A, in fact, hadn¡¯t come up with that himself, for some odd reason. It seemed like the only viable course of action, and yet he hadn¡¯t even given it a modicum of thought. Strange, but not important. A stood up. ¡°Well, I guess that''s settled. X,¡± X looked back up from his little thumb game. ¡°You¡¯re going with K.¡± ¡°To do what?¡± X asked, confused. ¡°Of course you weren¡¯t listening. You¡¯re going to try and find some water for the human.¡± A answered. ¡°What!? I don¡¯t wanna do that, why can¡¯t she do it by herself!?¡± X cried out, pointing at K. ¡°Because in your absence, I¡¯ve found that I rather like having both of you away from me. And plus, the more the merrier.¡± A pointed at the exit. ¡°And you¡¯re going right now.¡± The night was still hanging ever-present over the planet, a fact made clear by X¡¯s careful inspection from his undesirable point of view. X opened his mouth to protest further, but the act was cut off by A. ¡°And that''s final.¡± A glared at X. ¡°Understand?¡± X scoffed. ¡°Alright man, fine. No need to get all worked up.¡± A turned to K. ¡°Anything you want to say?¡± K seemed caught off guard. ¡°Oh, uh, no sir, I¡¯m fine.¡± A nodded. ¡°Good. Now off you go.¡± Jacob watched the pair leave the pod with a watchful gaze. A turned towards Jacob. ¡°Now what do you want me to do?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°Now that''s the big question.¡± A replied. ¡°I¡¯ve never really had a human with me.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m not really gonna just sit here, doing nothing.¡± Jacob stated. ¡°You might have to deal with it.¡± A dryly replied. The two stared at each other in silence for a moment. ¡°Listen man, how about we talk?¡± Jacob broke the silence. A¡¯s LED screen formed an eyebrow and raised it. ¡°About what?¡± Jacob was a bit unnerved by the display A¡¯s face just did, but pressed on. ¡°I dunno.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not giving a suggestion.¡± A said. Jacob thought for a moment. ¡°Well, those guys that just left didn¡¯t really tell me a lot about what¡¯s really going on, so how about that?¡± A pondered on the notion. He was tempted to turn it into an exchange of information, but that would still be a violation of policy, and he wasn¡¯t sure if the human would even oblige. And plus, he didn¡¯t really see that issue with giving out that kind of information, as it would even endear Jacob to A, which might pay off in the long run. ¡°Alright, I can do that.¡± A agreed. ¡°Oh nice.¡± Jacob replied. ¡°So, it all started with . . .¡± * * * The clacking of the keyboard. A familiar sound to anyone living within the modern era, or anyone past the 1990s. Commonplace in areas such as work offices, accounting offices, home offices, government offices, probably a lot more offices, and gaming rooms that were only occupied with hunch-backed teenagers who were chronically online. Or maybe just avid fan fiction writers, you never know. However, those that weren¡¯t accustomed to the fast-paced rapid clicking of buttons would often find the sound annoying or unrestful, especially when the area was overly silent. In this case, a duo were inside a small tent, lit only by the glow of a computer screen, with a robot sat over the keyboard, typing away at the device with the surety of a slight breeze; soft, yet clearly ever-present. The second robot was currently sitting in another chair that was on the other side of the room, trying to fall asleep. But, it appeared as though that they weren¡¯t a fan of the constant noise, deafening in the silence of the night. Groaning, the second drone called out to the one at the computer. ¡°Ugh, man, keep it down.¡± He whispered. ¡°What do you expect me to do? Type slower? I wanna get this done as soon as possible.¡± The first drone replied, also whispering. ¡°Just be quieter, I¡¯m tryna sleep here.¡± The second drone murmured. ¡°Why are you sleeping!? You¡¯re supposed to be awake and watching, not dozing off!¡± The first drone whisper-yelled back. ¡°You¡¯re awake right now, so it''s fine.¡± The second drone waved his hand. ¡°No it¡¯s not! I could be stabbed by one of those hunters when my back is turned and you¡¯re asleep!¡± The first drone exclaimed quietly. ¡°Don¡¯t care.¡± The second drone laid back in his chair. ¡°You know what, Frant!? Get up here, this¡¯ll keep you awake.¡± The first drone called to Frant. ¡°No, lemme go to sleep.¡± Frant replied sleepily. ¡°Get up here, before I report you, and then you¡¯ll be sleeping forever.¡± The first drone narrowed his eyes. This proved to wake up Frant to the fullest extent, causing him to shoot upwards in his seat. ¡°Are you serious Carme!?¡± Frant spat between clenched teeth. ¡°Just come over here, it¡¯ll keep you awake.¡± Carme ignored the question. Frant obliged, stomping over to Carme, leaning over his shoulder to see the glowing screen. ¡°What are you even doing here?¡± Frant inquired. ¡°I¡¯m reviewing our files to make sure nothing got lost in the transition.¡± Carme answered. ¡°What if something did get lost?¡± Frant continued. ¡°Then I notify the experts.¡± Carme simply replied. ¡°Uh, okay then.¡± Frant pulled his seat over, plopping down next to Carme. ¡°Why¡¯d they have to assign me to watch? Couldn¡¯t they have just gotten a soldier to do it?¡± Carme shrugged. ¡°They¡¯re spread too thin, the military¡¯s having a hard enough time already trying to maintain a proper perimeter. Watching over the workers would be asking for numbers they don¡¯t have.¡± Frant nodded. ¡°I guess that makes sense.¡± Frant then paused to think. ¡°Hey, why do you know all this stuff anyway?¡± ¡°They sent it in a memo.¡± Carme handed a sheet of paper to Frant, who took it. Frant skimmed over the paper, taking in all the essential bits. ¡°You get it now?¡± Carme looked over his shoulder at Frant. Frant nodded again. ¡°Yeah, but why didn¡¯t I get this?¡± Carme shrugged yet again. ¡°You probably did.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± Frant scratched the back of his head, before squinting at a document on the computer. ¡°Uh, what''s that?¡± Carme followed Frant¡¯s gaze to the icon on the screen. The file in question was an innocuous little folder that simply read, ¡°DO NOT OPEN WITHOUT PROPER AUTHORIZATION¡± which was a bit dramatic. Carme and Frant looked at each other, before settling their focus back on the screen. ¡°. . . you wanna open it or something?¡± Frant suggested. Carme thought for a moment, before shrugging for the hundredth time in a minute. ¡°I¡¯m down.¡± Carme moved the cursor over to the icon, double clicking it. The page entered a loading phase, with nothing but a blank screen to greet them for a moment before it opened the file. Inside was a document that had several pages, with the first one having some rather disturbing text. ¡°¡®DO NOT LET ROBOTS READ, THEY WILL NOT LIKE IT¡¯? Why? What does that even mean?¡± Frant asked no one in particular. ¡°Probably to make sure robots don¡¯t read it.¡± Carme answered. ¡°Yeah, I get it. Scroll down, I wanna see the rest.¡± Frant leaned in, completely disregarding the warning. Carme obliged, scrolling down to the first page which had more large, bold text, which read, ¡°NO SERIOUSLY, WE MEAN IT¡±. Carme and Frant scrolled down to the next page, which also had more text, which said, ¡°ALRIGHT THEN, JUST MAKING SURE THIS TIME¡±. Scrolling down to what would hopefully be the last page with warnings on it, Carme and Frant gazed upon the holy scriptures, which now read, ¡°YOU WOULD THINK THAT WE WOULD PUT A TEST IN HERE TO MAKE SURE YOU AREN¡¯T A ROBOT, BUT THEY DIDN¡¯T GIVE US ENOUGH BUDGET FOR THAT, STUPID CAPTCHA NONSENSE¡± Frant groaned. ¡°What is this guy¡¯s deal? Just let us through.¡± Carme scrolled past the warning, finally arriving at a page which had something other than a loud warning. A logo could be seen at the top, proclaiming whatever they were to the few that could read the document. ¡°What is, ¡®JCJenson, IN SPAAAAACEE!!!!¡¯?¡± Frant asked, squinting at the computer. ¡°I dunno.¡± Carme shrugged, goddamn man, stop shrugging. ¡°I thought you knew everything?¡± Frant looked at Carme. ¡°I just pay attention, nothing else, and nothing I¡¯ve seen mentions that.¡± Carme gestured towards the screen. ¡°Whatever, keep scrolling.¡± Frant looked back at the display. Carme and Frant looked on at the screen, scrolling slowly so that they could both see. As they read, their expressions went from curious, to confused, to disturbed, to confused again. The strange document was filled with strange labels and diagrams that just didn¡¯t make sense to either of them, displaying graining images of what appeared to be a drone, with some . . . interesting . . . additions. ¡°What the hell is a zombie drone?¡± Carme asked, LED eyebrows furrowed. * * * Jacob pondered. On what exactly? Oh fine, I¡¯ll tell you. Jacob had just received what was, hopefully, a relatively unfiltered version of the recent events and situation on the planet. After about an hour of explanation, A had finished on the arrival of the disassembly drones, and the subsequent widespread assault on the worker drones. When Jacob had asked for the specific story of A¡¯s squad, A had skirted around it, only lightly touching upon the subject. It was slightly suspicious, but Jacob didn¡¯t plan on doing anything about it. However, if it was the truth, it only raised more questions than answers. The fact that a company was willing to exterminate the entirety of what was probably a massive investment was just baffling. Jacob could only come up with two explanations, one of which was rather worrying to think about. The first was that of changing times; perhaps the company was so rich, and technology so advanced, that the worker drones could be replaced with the ease of buying another shipload of tissues. If you threw away an entire box of tissues, it would be annoying to say the least, but it wouldn¡¯t cost a lot to just get another one. But, it just didn¡¯t make sense to Jacob that that would be the case. The United States military in the time of Jacob had heaps, thousands of missiles, and could afford to replace them as they were used. But if they all disappeared at once? It would take lots of time, money, and effort to replace each and every single last one of the lost payloads, and not to mention the logistical nightmare it would be. So, that led Jacob to his other solution, one that insinuated a scenario far more confusing and sinister. If the company decided to just annihilate every worker drone, which is a very radical and illogical decision by a galaxy-spanning megacorporation, then it would line up with certain other decisions made by other people in the past. During the Second World War, the U.S. government was fearful of a potential Japanese invasion. They believed that, if they did land boots on American soil, that the Japanese-Americans would rise up, taking the side of the invaders. And so, Roosevelt made the Executive Order 9066, ordering over one hundred and twenty thousand Japanese-Americans to be interned in concentration camps, where they would remain until near the end of the war. This was an apt example for how even the most level-headed of individuals could make bad decisions under the influence of fear. If Jacob assumed that the same was true for this day and age, then perhaps the administration at the company had sent machines to kill the entire worker drone populace due some or maybe even all of them being much more dangerous than what was being let on. It was a bit far-fetched, but was the one of the only viable solutions at the moment, aside from his theory that nothing was real and they were all figments of the imagination of a being so complex they were nothing but fiction to it, but the chances of that were little to none. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Right? Jacob¡¯s pondering was interrupted by someone waving their hand in front of his face. ¡°Ugh, hello?¡± A snapped his fingers twice. ¡°You there?¡± Jacob blinked, refocusing on his present company. ¡°Uh yeah, just processing.¡± A scoffed. ¡°Processing what? I thought humans were superior or something?¡± Jacob smacked A¡¯s hand out of his face. ¡°Me too.¡± A raised an LED eyebrow. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Jacob waved hand in a dismissive way. ¡°What now?¡± ¡°I dunno. That''s all I had.¡± A shrugged. ¡°Nothing else you¡¯re hiding?¡± Jacob questioned. ¡°No. There isn¡¯t.¡± A glared at Jacob. ¡°Now drop it.¡± Jacob held up his hands in surrender. ¡°Okay, jeez man, calm down. I just don¡¯t wanna be bored for however long I¡¯m stuck here.¡± ¡°Yeah well, that''s not really my problem.¡± A stated. Jacob didn¡¯t reply, only sighing, before standing and getting up out of his seat. A startled. ¡°Wait, where are you going?¡± ¡°Out.¡± Jacob simply replied. ¡°Why?¡± A inquired. Jacob shrugged. ¡°Bored.¡± A got to his feet as well. ¡°Fine then. I guess I¡¯m going as well.¡± ¡°You¡¯re coming with?¡± Jacob asked incredulously. ¡°Yeah. I can¡¯t have you running off and getting yourself killed.¡± A reasoned. ¡°They kept saying that too.¡± Jacob grumbled. ¡°Who said that?¡± A tilted his head. ¡°K and X.¡± Jacob answered. ¡°Also, why don¡¯t y¡¯all have normal names? Why just letters?¡± ¡°I dunno.¡± A non-committedly replied. ¡°Huh.¡± Jacob took that as a cue to leave, turning to the ladder. A followed closely behind, waiting until Jacob had gone through the small exit to ascend himself. Jacob didn¡¯t bother to use the ladder on the way down, buckling his knees and dropping the last few feet, hearing the snow crunch beneath him. He had been prepared to absorb the impact, but it seemed like whatever advanced mechanics his suit possessed had done the job all by itself, which was pretty nice. He made a mental note to test out the capabilities later on, just to get a general sense of the limits and what would be a danger to him. Jacob heard a similar crunching noise behind him, causing him to look backwards, seeing A just awkwardly standing there. ¡°Just gonna follow me? Really?¡± Jacob was slightly annoyed. ¡°Yeah. I¡¯ve gotta keep you safe until someone else takes you off my hands, or else I¡¯ll-¡± A cut himself off. Jacob took note of that, inferring what he might have been about to say. It only served to confirm his notion that he was sort of a VIP on the planet. He was to be protected at all costs, which was pretty nice for Jacob. ¡°So, you gonna do anything?¡± A asked. * * * The sound of snow crunching filled the empty room as the pair walked into it. ¡°Can we go back already?¡± X complained. ¡°No, and be quiet.¡± K scolded him. ¡°It¡¯s too echoey in this room, it¡¯s annoying.¡± X scoffed. ¡°Pff, it¡¯s fine. Nobody¡¯s around for miles, we¡¯re all good. Now when can we go back?¡± K rolled her eyes. ¡°We can go back when we find something, You heard what he said.¡± ¡°What who said?¡± X inquired. ¡°You idiot, our squad leader!? Our boss that we¡¯ve spent who knows how long with!?¡± K cried out. ¡°Calm down, just messing around.¡± X leaned against the wall. ¡°Whatever, you know what A said. We can¡¯t come back until we¡¯ve found water.¡± K reminded X. ¡°Why do we even need it? I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll be fine.¡± X waved off the issue. ¡°He¡¯ll die.¡± K deadpanned. ¡°He can walk it off.¡± X waved off the issue again. ¡°I don¡¯t care, just get off the wall, we¡¯ve gotta search every building.¡± K gestured for X to follow. ¡°How can we even find anything in here? Everywhere else we¡¯ve checked has been empty.¡± X took his place next to K. ¡°You never know, now get to it.¡± K kicked over a rock, exposing a small marble. X trotted over to a dented metal counter on one side of the room, peering underneath it. ¡°Nothing here, this is useless.¡± X whined. ¡°Shut up.¡± K called out. X surprisingly obliged, kneeling down and searching the small cabinets that were connected to the counter. After finding nothing but a small skeleton huddled inside one of them, X sighed heavily, before making his way over to a large metal box. It might¡¯ve been taller than him if it wasn¡¯t tipped over on its side, with an assortment of power cords snaking out from an outlet on the back of it. Seeing a small handle on the front, X tugged on it, the slight rust giving way to superior strength. However, X¡¯s eyes went wide with shock, which changed to glee. ¡°Hey, look what I¡¯ve found!¡± X called out to K. K¡¯s head whipped up, staring at the prize that X was brandishing. ¡°You found- what is that?¡± If the two had any idea what warm food was, they would¡¯ve recognized the lumpy frozen good that X had in his hands as a perfectly preserved rotisserie chicken. If they had any sort of reheating device, and if they had proper taste buds, they might have been able to enjoy the sweet experience of a Thanksgiving dinner. However, they were ignorant robots who were about as smart as a middle schooler, so the only reaction that they, or at least one of them had, was confusion. ¡°I dunno, but it says chicken on the side!¡± X proudly exclaimed. ¡°What¡¯s chicken?¡± K questioned. ¡°I¡¯m . . . not sure . . . but I¡¯m pretty sure it''s food.¡± X¡¯s LED eyebrows furrowed in thought. ¡°How do you know that?¡± K asked. ¡°Uh, I don''t?¡± X seemed more confused than ecstatic now. K shook her head. ¡°Did you find anything useful?¡± ¡°Well I found this clear thing, but it only says something called ¡®Dasani¡¯ on the side.¡± X held up a clear plastic bottle, putting his finger in quotation marks when he said it. ¡°Give me that!¡± K dashed across the room, snatching the item out of X¡¯s hands. ¡°Wha- hey!¡± X tried to grab at it, but K held it out of his reach. ¡°Back up!¡± K swatted X in the face, inciting a squawk of surprise. ¡°I found it first, give it back!¡± X shot back, tackling K, causing the bottle to roll across the ground. The two began slugging at each other, scrabbling across the ground for dominance over a goddamn bottle, like a gang of the aforementioned middle schoolers. Nearly crushing the contested item multiple times, the two spent a good thirty seconds duking it out. And after K finally managed to curl into a ball around the bottle, X tried to no avail to recapture his former possession. ¡°You motherfu-¡± X was cut off by a noise from the door that led deeper into the building The two highly professional disassembly drones shot to their feet, their gazes snapping to the origin of the sound. Standing there was a figure, about the same height as K and X, with familiar black plating and armor, kneeling down to grab a small blue marble that was on the floor. It appears as though the idiot had been trying to be sneaky to avoid capturing the attention of the killer robots, which clearly didn¡¯t go as planned. ¡°Uh, hi.¡± The drone said after a moment of silence. Even more silence. The military drone took that as a cue to scoop up the marble, before dashing out of the room. K and X instantly took chase, with K pocketing the small bottle for later. The military drone wasn¡¯t quite fast, but it did make use of its head start well. The unnamed drone disappeared behind the corner, with the pair of disassembly drones right on his heels. However, when K turned around the edge, a bullet tore through the air, finding its home in her head. Completely unprepared, she fell to the ground. X, contrary to what some might do, didn¡¯t stop to assist her, instead just simply vaulting over her body, speeding onward. He was rapidly closing the distance between him and the military drone, when his prey suddenly whipped around with a pistol in its hand. X, unlike his comrade, was prepared for this inevitability, turning to the side and out of the path of the trio of bullets as they flew by him. X followed up on this by diving down onto the hapless drone, trying to skewer it on gleaming metal claws. The drone didn¡¯t have a chance to fight, but unknown to X, he did have time to press the small panic button on its jawline, or where the jawline would be if it was a human. If anyone on this planet was familiar with standard police or even military practice, they would recognize the small button as the useful yet annoying panic button. For a bit of context, the panic button is usually represented as a small and easy-to-access device that, when activated, sends out an emergency distress signal that would notify the proper authorities of the panic button¡¯s location and a dire situation. The panic button is common in the military, police personnel, elderly homes, schools, corporate buildings, apartment buildings, and basically everywhere else that isn¡¯t a ghetto. The drone, however, proved to be much smarter than his predecessors, much to the dismay of X. It dove to the side, dropping down and through a weakened rusty grate. As X¡¯s claws scraped against the wall, the fleeing drone tossed a metal panel that was blocking the way out to his side, before dashing through the door. X jumped down to the lower floor, before continuing his chase. A flurry of bullets ripped towards him, but X brought his arm up, letting his forearm absorb the projectiles that hit, and most missed. The drone ran down a comically long flight of stairs, taking three steps at a time. The stairs continued downward, eventually opening up to a basement with a gaping hole in the wall, which led straight into darkness. The drone nearly fell into the hole from the momentum of jumping down the stairs. But, it just managed to skid to a stop at the edge. X landed at the foot of the stairs, crouching to absorb the impact. X¡¯s gaze focused on the drone that was pointing the pistol at X, sights drawing a solid bead on his head. However, when it pulled the trigger, it was only met with a slight clicking sound. The drone gaze jerked down to the pistol, then straight back up to X, who was now diving towards it, claws outstretched. The drone jumped backwards, losing his balance. Its foot slipped off the edge, and while the sudden space between it and X saved its life for the time being, it did have to contend with gravity, which was now pulling on the drone by a considerable amount. X watched as the drone tumbled down the pit, hitting the sides. However, the sides of the pit were both sloped and slick with a thin sheet of ice, causing the drone to slide down to the bottom. The drone slammed against a large rusty metal pipe, which was a solid indicator of the pit¡¯s identity as a sewer. The drone scrambled to its feet, caving the skull in of a skeleton that appeared to have been a former inspector when one took into account the corpse¡¯s clipboard and tattered clothes. X slammed down onto the large pipe, causing it to resonate like a gong. The drone snatched up a small length of rusty metal rebar that had impaled itself on the ground, the edge of the steel surprisingly sharp. The drone adopted a fighting stance, pointing the business end towards X. The robotic predator didn¡¯t care, however, just simply stabbing his prey with his own pointy stick, the sharp end of his nanite acid tail. The sharp tool stuck itself in the drone¡¯s shoulder, causing it to drop the bar and curse. X took the opportunity to grip the drone by the head, while digging the claws of his other hand in its chest. X then looked into the opaque black visor of the military drone, before pulling in two opposite directions. The effects were made known quickly, with the head of the military drone migrating away from its home connected to the body. Oil splashed down onto X, who took the opportunity to feed. X dropped the head, letting it hit the ground with a clang, dropping the body as well. X stood over the fallen corpse, claws gleaming with oil. K landed next to him, retracting her wings. ¡°So you got it?¡± K asked. ¡°No I didn¡¯t, he got away. This body right here is just a random pigeon, and you¡¯re just hallucinating.¡± X replied sarcastically. ¡°Also, how the hell did you get here so fast?¡± K rolled her eyes. ¡°Oh, be quiet. I¡¯m just making sure, because knowing you, you would probably let him go for the funny.¡± She ignored his latter question. ¡°Well now that you mention it . . .¡± X looked sorrowfully at the body. K punched him in the arm. ¡°Whatever, we gotta go. I seriously doubt that he was alone-¡± She was cut off yet again by a loud crash that originated from the hole up on the wall. The duo whipped around, only to see several guns pointed straight at them. ¡°Sup.¡± X nodded at the intruders. * * * The sound of conversation could be audibly heard from the lit tent. The tent had been designated as the de facto headquarters for the former facility personnel, with a smaller offshoot serving as a meeting room for the leadership. The offshoot tent in question was currently being used for its purpose, with an emergency meeting being called. Not because of the discovery of a dead body, but for a different matter entirely. ¡°Can anyone at least tell me how this happened?¡± The Lead Engineer leaned on the table. One of the data officers stepped forward. ¡°We believe that when we were evacuating the facility, an error occurred that declassified the file.¡± They answered. ¡°An error did this.¡± The General wasn¡¯t convinced. ¡°Well, yes. The computers had been degrading for a while now, and we had noticed that several of our autonomous programs were misbehaving, or just outright not working at all.¡± The data officer replied. ¡°And we did nothing about this?¡± The General glared at the trio of data officers that had joined them. ¡°We actually were doing all we could, but we didn¡¯t have the materials to make a complete fix.¡± The Lead Engineer interjected. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me then!?¡± The General exclaimed. ¡°I did. You probably just forgot again.¡± The Lead Engineer suggested. ¡°What? I have the best memory here.¡± The General puffed out his chest proudly. ¡°Alright then, what were we just talking about?¡± The Lead Engineer inquired. The General frowned. ¡°We were talking?¡± The Lead Engineer facepalmed. ¡°Goddamn idiot.¡± One of the data officers stepped up. ¡°Uh, sir? There is still the matter of the ones who discovered the information.¡± ¡°Oh yeah, uh, dump them off the eastern bridge.¡± The Lead Engineer waved off the issue. With a simple nod, the data officers left, accompanied by a few guards as well. The Lead Engineer sat back in his chair, before steepling his fingers on the desk. He looked back and forth between the assembled leadership, before the General spoke up. ¡°So, are we gonna continue or what?¡± He crossed his arms. ¡°Yes, sorry.¡± The Lead Engineer motioned to one of his ministers. ¡°You take the lead, Kane.¡± Kane got up, walking to the front of the tent, dragging a projector on a cart with him. When he arrived, he pulled down the white screen, securing the hook on a latch on the bottom. He then adjusted the cart, facing the lens towards the screen. He then attached a laptop to the projector, pressing a few buttons and fiddling with a few switches, cursing once. Finally, the projector flickered to life, shining an image onto the screen. Kane cleared his throat. ¡°Ahem, so. What you are seeing here is the first page of the document in question. As you can see here, it appears to be warning against a drone viewing whatever the contents of this file is.¡± Kane flicked to the next slide. ¡°It continues to vehemently express this multiple times, not really differing in its warning at all.¡± One of the military ministers, Alicia, raised her hand. ¡°Uh, question?¡± Kane paused. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Its warning against drones? She asked. ¡°Yes, it is. I¡¯ll explain this later on, so save your questions for the end please.¡± Kane looked back to the projection, skipping through the slides until he landed on the first one without a warning. ¡°Ah, here we go. So, as you can see here, this appears to be a logo for JCJenson-'''' Kane was interrupted by a faint, ¡°In Spaaaaacee!¡± from an unknown source. ¡°Uh, anyway, as all of you know, JCJenson was the company that owned this planet, and the one that provided the drones that the government were using in their facility, which was us.¡± Kane flicked to the next slide. ¡°Here we can see a title for a project, along with several bits of accompanying information, like locations, associates, page number, references, you get the picture.¡± Kane then produced a long ruler from what seemed like thin air, before pointing the end at one of the words. ¡°Pay attention to this one here ¡®AbsoSolv¡¯ as it¡¯ll come up several times later on.¡± Going to the next slide, Kane cleared his throat yet again. ¡°This page is more confusing, as it appears to be mentioning several unit serial numbers that don¡¯t match up with standard format, which are mixed in with several other ones that are in different format, like this one here,¡± Kane pointed his stick at a random one from the line. ¡°This one says, S-010011X01, which I believe has a main identifying letter instead of a string of numbers based on time of construction. The answer to this is likely that our government''s way of identifying drones is different from JCJenson.¡± ¡°Additionally, while some of these feature the normal serial numbers that worker drones use, they have another identifier after it, separated by a dash.¡± Kane flipped to the next slide. ¡°This one is more straightforward, as it appears to be featuring a set of technical designs of a modified worker drone with the serial number and other associated information listed at the top. The notes on the side are observations on the modifications that can be seen in the designs. Some of the original worker drone parts can be seen, but a majority of the inner and outer mass seem to have been altered or replaced with a substance that is described as ¡®fleshy¡¯. You can see at the very bottom a signature of an unknown human administrator, and a notice that marks the drone for ¡®disassembly¡¯ as an addendum can be seen that marks whatever this is as a failure, and a recommendation to request more data from their source.¡± Kane took a breath, before going to the next slide. ¡°This is essentially the same as the last one, and this continues for a few slides. Nothing of note can be found in them, save for a few different serial numbers that were listed in one of the prior slides.¡± Kane flicked to the next slide. ¡°This one has two addendums, which I will say in a moment. The image is different as well, with noticeably less random mutations and more of a form taking place. This one was supposedly much more successful than the others, and while it was still marked as a failure, the first addendum said that the team working on the project should strip the data from the drone in as best a condition as they could. The second one simply noted they were naming the specific strain of code they were using to ¡®Absolute Solver¡¯. The addendum does not mention any reason or motive behind the name, only noting the fact that their shareholders would be pleased.¡± ¡°The next one is the first apparent success in the line of experiments that JCJenson seemed to be doing. A single growth can be seen protruding from the back of the spinal transmitter, and several other growths have sprouted inside. However, it is noted that the drone survived the process, and remained somewhat coherent for a period of time afterwards, which seems to be an outlier when considering the others. There isn¡¯t an addendum on this one, only a request from the team for more extensive data from their source to compare to this experiment.¡± ¡°This trend continues for a good while, so I¡¯ll just summarize the important bits for all of you.¡± Kane stated. ¡°Each version continued to show more and more productive attributes and traits, as is par the standard course. Throughout the notes, requests, and addendums, whoever was typing up the document repeatedly noted some things that I will review later, such as Absolute Solver, the ¡®source¡¯, Camp 98.7, Cabin Fever Labs, and disassembly drones.¡± Kane flicked to the final slide. ¡°This is the final page, with some items to note. It appears to be a reiteration of the specifics of the agreement between the government and JCJenson, with a few additional key things. It includes the standard formalities and the usual junk that we all know, but something else as well. When mentioning the exchange of data that came from the asset-¡± Kane paused as the room underwent an uncomfortable shuffle in their seats. ¡°They mention a clear correlation between this project that JCJenson is, or was, working on, and the asset. They also instructed the government contacts that any unauthorized personnel, which included government agents, were now barred from entering Camp 98.7 due to ¡®hazardous environmental conditions¡¯ and that this was nonnegotiable.¡± Kane turned away from the projector, clasping his hands in front of himself. ¡°And now to explain.¡± ¡°From what me and the team I assigned could gather, we deduced the meanings and purposes behind several items that were mentioned in this file. The first and most obvious, the ¡®source¡¯ that is mentioned. They are receiving data from this source, which seems to be essential to the development of what they were working on. Based on their words, we figured that the source is likely the asset, and yes, the same asset that we are all familiar with.¡± Kane paused, seemingly to let his words sink in. ¡°Continuing on, we began to dissect what Camp 98.7 was. It was very clearly a location of sorts, but where it was and what it was used for was more complicated. While we never arrived at a solid conclusion, we believed that the most likely avenue was that Camp 98.7 might have been an outpost of sorts, perhaps used in conjunction with these Cabin Fever Labs.¡± ¡°On the matter of the Cabin Fever Labs, we can clearly assume that research and development of this Absolute Solver was being conducted there, and perhaps Camp 98.7 was a sort of staging ground or other type of location related to the lab. We believe that the location of one or both of these sites are hidden within another file.¡± ¡°And perhaps the most intriguing and complex matter of them all, Absolute Solver. We figured that it was likely that this Absolute Solver was instrumental in whatever experiments they were doing, or even being one of the subjects of the experiments themselves. From what we gather, Absolute Solver is something, maybe a piece of alien machinery, some sort of unknown lifeform, an experimental strain of cutting-edge code, one of those things, but whatever it is, it is not something that is ¡®normal¡¯. It appears to have a unique effect on those it hosts or comes into contact with, rapidly generating new organic material, with sometimes uncontrolled effects. While the file only shows the experiments that used drones, we don¡¯t know if any humans or other organic lifeforms were included either. Likely not, considering the legality of the situation, but it''s open to discussion.¡± Kane took a large breath, before continuing. ¡°And finally, the disassembly drones. They seem simple, but my team believed it to be heavily related to our current situation. They aren¡¯t mentioned very often, but they appear to be a direct result of their experiments or related to one. From what we could gather, they are meant to, well, disassemble. Drones on par with military-grade ones that are capable of a variety of things, like bullet fire, rocket launching, melee combat, flight, digital warfare, and regeneration.¡± Kane watched as his words dawned upon his audience, expressions filling with shock. ¡°Yes, those drones. The disassembly drones that we read about are likely some variant of the unknown assailants that attacked the facility, and stole the asset in the process.¡± The General sputtered. ¡°B-but that would be a severe political incident! If those drones were under the command of JCJenson, and they stole GOVERNMENT property, then they would be liable for retaliation!¡± Kane tried to calm the room. ¡°Now, hold on, I¡¯m not done-¡± The Lead Engineer also appeared to be shocked. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me this earlier!?¡± ¡°You told me to wait for the meeting!¡± Kane exclaimed. The room erupted into disarray. ¡°We need to mobilize, hunt down those damn traitors!¡± ¡°What''s their last known location!?¡± ¡°Where is the nearest transmitter, send out a request for retaliatory action!¡± Suddenly, a drone burst into the room, knocking over the projector cart in the process. Everyone turned to look at him, ceasing the chaos for a moment. ¡°Er, uh, sirs?¡± The drone asked. ¡°Yes?¡± The General and the Lead Engineer stood up at the same time. ¡°I, uh,¡± The drone looked back and forth between the two administrators. ¡°Well, we received a panic signal from one of our scouts.¡± The General scoffed. ¡°Why would that be enough to warrant our intervention? He probably just tripped on a conveniently placed banana peel.¡± The messenger fidgeted nervously. ¡°Well, his partner reported moments before the signal came in that he heard gunshots.¡± The administrative drones shared a collective uneasy look. ¡°What did you do?¡± The General asked slowly. ¡°The officers who received the signal first sent in two of the patrol squads that were nearby at the time.¡± The messenger answered. The drones in assembly all either looked down in disappointment or facepalmed. The General spoke up after a moment. ¡°Send in a squad as fast as you can to their last known location. Only our very best, and outfit them with heavy weaponry and explosive ordnance.¡± The General paused, before adding an afterthought. ¡°And give them some cutting equipment too.¡± The messenger blinked in surprise. ¡°Wait, sir, are you sure-¡± ¡°Just tell the officers already!¡± The General slammed his fist down onto the cheap plastic table, which formed a crack. The messenger saluted quickly, before dashing out of the room. The Lead Engineer took a cursory look at the assembled drones, before he sighed. ¡°We¡¯re screwed.¡± * * * ¡°Are you going back anytime soon?¡± Jacob looked back at his unwanted companion. ¡°No.¡± He answered simply, before resuming his casual trot. ¡°We¡¯re getting too far away from the spire, and the sun is coming up in an hour or two. I for one don¡¯t want to get caught out.¡± A insisted. ¡°Well I don¡¯t die from a bit of sunlight, so too bad.¡± Jacob stepped over a tire rim. ¡°I¡¯m not sure that¡¯s your choice.¡± A stated. Jacob paused and looked backward. ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re bossing me around now?¡± ¡°Maybe, if you keep on making dumb decisions like this.¡± A stopped as well. ¡°Pff, I¡¯ll be fine.¡± Jacob waved his hand in the air to emphasize his point. ¡°You won¡¯t last ten minutes.¡± A dead-panned. ¡°Nah, I¡¯ll speedrun this stuff, I¡¯ll be off-planet in an hour.¡± Jacob proudly said. A shook his head and sighed. ¡°Whatever you say.¡± Jacob didn¡¯t answer. Jacob then looked around. ¡°Wait, where are we? I wasn¡¯t keeping track.¡± ¡°And you said that you would- whatever, we¡¯re like, three miles away from the base.¡± A replied. ¡°Huh, went that far?¡± Jacob asked. A frowned. ¡°Three miles isn¡¯t that far-¡± A was interrupted by a rather loud crack that resonated through the landscape. Jacob blinked. ¡°Uh, ok then-¡± Jacob was also interrupted by a trio of cracks and bangs, sounding slightly familiar. ¡°Are those-¡± Jacob was, yet again, interrupted by even more bangs. ¡°-gunshots?¡± He finished. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t worry, those idiots are probably either messing around, or they found a worker drone to kill.¡± A nonchalantly answered. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we go check it out though?¡± Jacob inquired. ¡°It isn¡¯t a problem.¡± A said, annoyed. ¡°Well it would give me something to do.¡± Jacob insisted. A checked the time, before looking at the horizon for signs of sunlight. ¡°Eh, fine. Wouldn¡¯t hurt, I guess.¡± A shrugged. ¡°Nice.¡± Jacob grinned underneath his ballistic visor. * * * K sliced through the head of the last desperate drone, before spitting out a bullet. ¡°You done?¡± K called out to X. ¡°Yeah, I guess. By the way, do you still have my Dasani thing?¡± X looked at K hopefully. ¡°Yes, I do. And besides, it isn¡¯t yours, it''s for Jacob.¡± K answered. ¡°What? Why is he getting it? Why not me?¡± X exclaimed. ¡°Because it''s water, idiot. An uncontaminated source, like A told us, remember?¡± K glared at X. ¡°I guess, but that''s water?¡± X asked. ¡°Yes, it is. It matches the description.¡± K replied ¡°Description?¡± X questioned. ¡°Yeah, the description. You know what description means, right?¡± K seemed even more annoyed. ¡°I know what it means.¡± X snapped. ¡°But how do you know what water looks like?¡± K just shrugged, before turning towards the exit. ¡°Come on, we gotta get back soon.¡± She flew upwards, landing on the ledge. X followed suit, tracing their steps back through the building. X looked back up at the rusty grate that the drone had fallen through, which he now identified as being part of a weirdly placed catwalk. Scanning the environment, X found that the only entrance to the small alcove would be the hole in the catwalk. The basement that the small room was connected to didn¡¯t have an entrance either, only having the gaping hole in the side of the room, which likely wasn''t intended. That would mean that a person would have to chop through the sewer wall to get into the basement and adjoining alcove, or jump off the catwalk. Both of those options didn¡¯t make any sort of sense at all. In fact, the catwalk wasn¡¯t even needed, someone could have just removed the entire basement-and-alcove plan entirely, which also removed the necessity for a catwalk. All in all, whoever designed the building was either high off of some crazy drugs, an idiot, or both. But, none of these thoughts went through X¡¯s head, as he was only thinking about the devastating loss of his cool plastic bottle. K hefted herself up onto the rusty catwalk, with X following close behind. K went through the doorway, only for a rather eventful event to stop her momentarily. A rocket screamed through the air, smacking K straight in the chest. The resulting explosion blew X backwards and K apart, with oil splashing onto the ground in the process. With a clatter, X hit the ground, slightly dazed. He looked to his left to see what looked like the arm of K, twitching slightly. X tried to get up, only to fall again, after he put his weight on a hand that wasn¡¯t there. X, seeing the failure of Operation: GTFU, adjusted his position so that he could get up with his other hand only, which was thankfully still there. Investigating his left arm, he could see that everything down from the elbow had been separated from himself in the blast. He didn¡¯t have time to look for it or go get it, so he simply let the matter go. Standing up, X stared through the smoke, before diving back down onto the ground when another rocket came streaking past him. It scratched his face, sending small sparks up, before heading down the other hallway. X pointed his own rocket launcher into the fog, before firing off a flurry of shots. He heard explosions, but wasn¡¯t rewarded with screams or grunts of pain. Problematic, to say the least. X took the opportunity to kick K¡¯s assorted dismembered body parts down into the lower alcove, where she should eventually reassemble herself. She was really taking a beating recently, and she would probably be frustrated about that when X was all done, but that wasn¡¯t his problem- X nearly met the same fate as K when another rocket flew from the open doorway, the fog starting to clear up. X jumped up and over the RPG, letting it fly into the unexplored depths of the building. He couldn¡¯t do this dance forever, so he made the executive decision to charge into the unknown. * * * The squad waited impatiently outside of the building. They usually consisted of nine drones, all outfitted with their own personal preferred tools. They were experts of the trade, having fought in one of the two uprisings in the facility. They weren¡¯t your typical squad, and were much more close knit than all the others. They also were unique in their own way, all kitted out for different operations. They were professionals, and for those who were alive during the uprisings, they would fear them as well. Having many successful operations under their belt, the leadership considered them an apt choice for the euthanization of their opposition, or at least to delay them long enough for the cavalry to arrive. And while the leadership themselves weren¡¯t willing to bet more than a few of their personal belongings on the fact, the squad in question felt otherwise. ¡°So, are we sure that this is the place?¡± One of them asked. ¡°Yes, and pay attention. You don¡¯t want to fire that thing at the wrong time, right?¡± Another replied. The first drone was currently holding a large heavy-duty rocket launcher on his shoulder, with the business end drooping towards the ground. ¡°Pffff, it''s fine, I can react quick enough.¡± The RPG drone took one of his hands off the barrel to wave his hand in the air, blowing off the issue. ¡°Quiet down, they could come through any second.¡± A third drone interjected. ¡°And yes, keep that aimed at the door.¡± The chatter dropped down to silence, and the only thing that could be heard was the creaking of strained metal and the howling of icy wind. ¡°So uh, what happened to the patrol that was sent here before us?¡± A fourth drone inquired. ¡°Hell if I know. They¡¯re probably dead.¡± RPG drone helpfully suggested. ¡°Really? Come on man, be optimistic. With a defeatist attitude like that we¡¯ll drop within a few seconds of engagement.¡± A fifth drone replied. ¡°I mean, he has a point. Considering how all the others fared when they came face to face with these things, his assumption is probably correct.¡± A seventh drone interjected. ¡°Oh, so now we''re ALL talking, huh? Yeah, just ignore your leader.¡± The third drone, now identified as the leader, said. ¡°They can¡¯t hear us anyway, we¡¯re talking on comms, so what''s the problem?¡± RPG drone questioned. ¡°You¡¯re gonna be distracted when they come through that door, so just be quiet now.¡± The leading drone scolded. ¡°Yeah, I know, doesn¡¯t mean I have to like it though.¡± RPG drone grumbled. ¡°Pff, whatever, so-¡± The fourth drone began. The group was interrupted by the familiar screaming of a fast-moving rocket-propelled explosive projectile shooting through the air, flying towards the doorway. The building shuddered, and dust rained down on their heads as the rocket met its target and exploded. ¡°What the heck man!?¡± The second drone exclaimed. ¡°They¡¯re right there, idiot! Shoot, another one!¡± The RPG drone loaded a second rocket into the launcher, before firing a second time. The other drone wielding an RPG sighted down the barrel. ¡°It''s full of smoke, I can¡¯t see!¡± ¡°Blind fire, the hallway is too narrow to effectively dodge!¡± The leader shouted. RPG drone Two obliged, sending a little gift on its merry way to deliver explosive joy all around. The team listened as the rocket shook the building a third time, a moment before a flurry of projectiles came hurtling out of the clearing smoke. ¡°Hit the deck!¡± The leader shouted, the team dropping to the ground even before he gave the order. The rockets passed harmlessly into what looked like a load-bearing wall, sending more dust and rocks from the ceiling. ¡°Fire another!¡± The leader ordered his men. RPG drone One, like a good soldier, followed orders, slamming another rocket into its receptacle before practically hip-firing it into the hallway. The leader could barely make out a figure ducking down to avoid the rocket, before shooting back up to its feet and running forward. ¡°Guns ready!¡± He cried out, right before all hell broke loose. * * * ¡°Anyway, what do you think they¡¯ll be doing there?¡± Jacob inquired. ¡°Eh, probably tearing each other apart over something stupid.¡± A replied with a roll of his eyes. ¡°I take it that they do that often?¡± Jacob dryly asked. ¡°Always, they never stop. They¡¯re like children, honestly. All X wants to do is find the next exciting thing that¡¯ll satisfy him for a few minutes. He hardly ever follows orders, and he has no concept of patience. K is the complete opposite, a stickler for rules and the hierarchy. If there was a handbook, she would be able to recite the thing front to back¡± A scoffed. ¡°Meek as well. She just says, ¡®Yes sir¡¯ and, ¡®Sorry sir¡¯ it''s so goddamn annoying.¡± Jacob nodded along, having tuned out his small rant about three words in. A sighed. ¡°Sometimes I feel like I got what was at the very bottom of the barrel, the things that nobody wanted. One would think that having me around to balance out the two extremes of their personalities would work out well, but that''s the thing. K and X are TOO extreme. They¡¯re solar opposites, and unlike with white and black, they don¡¯t compliment each other. They constantly clash, and it''s like trying to prevent two industrial electromagnets from connecting with each other; it''s a losing battle.¡± Jacob opened up his mouth to acknowledge his statement, but reiterate that no one had even asked for his take on it, right when a massive boom resonated from below them. The pair¡¯s heads shot down to look at the nondescript building that the sound had emanated from. ¡°Oh great. They started bombing each other. Hold on.¡± A didn¡¯t wait for a reply before he took a sudden nosedive. Jacob let out a small grunt of surprise, before clinging on for dear life as the air wooshed past him. A dove faster than an honor-bound Imperial pilot after they ran out of ammo and had seen an undefended carrier just ripe for the picking. If Jacob had any sort of device that could play songs, he would be playing a certain track made by a certain aerial smith that played when a certain godslayer leapt from the cliffs. But, he didn¡¯t have anything of the sort, so Jacob could only dream on. They hit the ground with a thud, with A bracing his legs for the impact. They had landed right outside of a building, one that looked just like all the others, with the sole exception of the familiar scuffles of battle emanating from inside, with the occasional burst of light that accompanied a series of pops and cracks. Jacob jumped down, landing on unsteady feet. Luckily, the suit appeared to keep his sleeping legs from buckling, so to the outside eye, he would be no more shaky than a sheet of ice on Pluto. Jacob wondered if Pluto was now considered a planet. The experts kept changing their minds on its classification, and he had just never kept up with the current one, as it wasn¡¯t really that important to him. Actually, Jacob wondered what the solar system looked like. Not the one he was currently in, but the one that Earth occupied, the . . . well, he didn¡¯t know what it was called, really. Everyone just called it ¡®The Solar System¡¯ as if it was the only one in existence. That would be like calling New York ¡®The City¡¯ and that would be the official designation. It didn¡¯t make any sense. He was pretty sure that their home sun was called Sol, but everybody back in his time just called it the Sun. It just spoke of laziness. After all, they called the solar system that was closest to them Alpha Centauri, so why didn¡¯t the more important one, the one they all occupied, have a name? Damn humans, there was a reason why they should¡¯ve all died years ago. In fact, perhaps he could assist that goal. Come on, you know you want to- Jacob supposed that they could have called it the Sol System, but that just sounded like the original but even more simplified. It would be like those big corporations that always liked to simplify their logo when it was fine the way it was before. The whole debacle was just a big confusing mess that nobody really liked, but was too miniscule to do anything about it. Humans tended to do that, dumbing things down to such an extent where someone had to be practically be fed content just to keep their attention on something. Damn tikking tok. Jacob looked towards the small opening in the structure''s wall, where movement could be seen. However, it was too dark inside to be able to make out any specific figures or forms. He looked towards A, who was staring at him impatiently. ¡°You really have a problem with getting lost in thought. Get moving.¡± A did a half revolution, already walking towards the opening. Jacob joined A, speed walking to his side. ¡°Lost in thought? Hell do you mean by that?¡± ¡°You just stood there for ten seconds, not doing anything. From what I¡¯ve heard, that tends to mean you¡¯re thinking about something.¡± A crossed his arms. ¡°And where did you hear that?¡± Jacob probed. ¡°Around.¡± A noncommittally answered. Jacob opened his mouth to reply, but they then crossed the threshold, entering the building. Jacob earlier, going off of A¡¯s statement, had assumed that X and K had likely gotten into an argument, which evolved into a full-blown battle. Supposedly, this happened often, though Jacob hadn¡¯t really observed that rivalry, it being limited to small-scale bickering. However, while the scene before was a fight and did include one of the aforementioned drones, it wasn¡¯t a fight between K and X. A group of maybe ten of those drones from the facility were scattered throughout the rubble-strewn room, all moving around a surrounded X. They peppered him with bullets from all sides, causing him to basically turn into a mechanical turtle, using his wings as shields to protect him from the hellfire. They staggered their shots as well, instead of unloading on him, all synchronized. This made it so that the rain of lead never stopped. Are bullets still made out of lead? Jacob would have to check later. They didn¡¯t just press down on the trigger and let business take care of itself either, as that would expend the magazine far too quickly. It seemed like they were taking more focused shots, firing one shot per second instead of a billion per second. And, one of them was even aiming what looked to be some version of a rocket launcher at X. Jacob looked to his foot to see a stray bullet kick up a pile of dust at his feet, with a pebble pinging off of his armor. With all the violence currently going on, he did the only rational thing that anyone else in their sane mind would do. ¡°Sup.¡± Jacob called out. As if a switch was flipped, everything froze. The collected facility drones all shot to the origin of his voice, which was obviously him. Even X peeked out from his little cocoon to look at Jacob. A glared down at Jacob in shock and rage, likely due to the potential element of surprise being ruined. However, Jacob did note that something odd was happening. As A opened his mouth to yell at him, it went in slow-motion. He had heard of people seeing the world slow down while they were experiencing something dangerous or life-threatening, but Jacob didn¡¯t really feel any of that. While his heart was pumping fast and he felt the telltale light-headedness of a burst of adrenaline, nothing was really threatening him. Yes, bullets were flying and one nearly hit him, but he never felt in danger. If anything, he only felt curious, and maybe slightly surprised. How interesting. He even took the opportunity to count the exact number of the facility drones that were currently staring straight at him, which turned out to be nine. But then, as soon as he moved his arm, time resumed to its normal pace, and one of the facility drones pointed a metallic finger straight at him, which Jacob found rather rude. ¡°IT''S THE ASSET!¡± They yelled. And then all hell broke loose. Again. The rocket launcher fired its shot, but the momentary distraction was all X needed to get out of the path of the destructive projectile. It flew past him, just barely missing his head in the process. It impacted against the opposite wall, which vaporized a drone along with it. Since Jacob had counted the number of the facility drone earlier, that should have brought the count down to eight. X unfurled his wings, launching himself across the room to impale his claws on the RPG drone. While they tried to move, they were no match for the disassembly drone. The rocket launcher clattered to the ground as the drone¡¯s screen flickered off, displaying a ¡°Fatal Error¡± screen of death. Some of the facility drones aimed their collective weapons at X, and some at A, but none of them were prepared for the second surprise. K burst through the doorway, guns blazing. Not literally of course, as the lower caliber of the bullets on their submachine-guns were too low to pierce the armor. What she did do was decapitate one while tossing another aside, bringing the total count down to six. In just two seconds, a third of the squad¡¯s numbers were lost. Not a very good ratio for them, if you were to ask anyone except for Stalin. A decided to join in on the fun as well it seemed, aiming one of the aforementioned SMGs at one of their opponents, before sending a flurry of wasted bullets that pinged off the armor of the facility drones. Jacob, meanwhile, was contemplating his next course of action. While one might think the proper avenue would be to just do what everyone else was doing and unleash his relatively measly firepower on the facility drones, it was more complicated than that. From what he could tell, the facility drones were technically on his side, with them probably being government property just like him, and they seemed to want to protect him. They clearly tried their best to keep him from being captured by an enemy that just blitzed through their entire force of soldiers, so he had to give them credit for that at least. However, the disassembly drones seemed to want the same things, since they had gone the extra mile to capture him from the previously mentioned oh-so-loyal facility drones. And so, it came down to everyone''s favorite game, pros and cons. The first positive note was one that both sides possessed; a desire to keep him safe. While the fact could be debated on the side of the disassembly drones, Jacob believed that the case was settled until information could be presented that discredited this pro. Safety was more difficult, as while the facility personnel likely had numerous guards to safeguard him, but K, X, and A seemed to be even better than the facility in terms of combative roles, a fact that was proven by the near-complete annihilation of the facility forces. However, a shady company with unknown intentions and what they might do to Jacob if they ever got their hands on him isn¡¯t really ideal. He already knew what the government wanted, which was to get all kinds of data from a not-a-tumor that was growing increasingly suspicious, and while the possibility of death was possible, Jacob would prefer to be with the devil he knew than the devil he didn¡¯t. But then again, he might be willing to take a gamble with JCJenson to avoid the uncertain possibility of death with another. All things considered, he didn¡¯t know what to choose. The pros and cons could change, and their weight wasn¡¯t certain either. He was torn between the government or the company, as they really held both the same pros and cons. So, with little more to do, Jacob made the other only rational decision that anyone in their sane mind would make when faced with the same scenario. He stood back and watched the world- well, more like the building, burn. The drones had lost yet another man, nearly cutting the squad down to half. They didn¡¯t have any men left that held a rocket launcher, and were being backed up into a corner on the left-hand side of the room. The battle had most definitely turned in the favor of the disassembly drones, and it seemed like the battle was sure to be won. Speaking of the battle, it had only been going on for about ten seconds, which spoke of how quick real battles really went in reality. But then, they did something unexpected. The facility drones, or rather, the military drones as he should call these ones, all unclipped some sort of device that was hanging from their waist. Jacob had assumed it to be some sort of sidearm or another random gizmo, but it instead turned out to be nothing of the sort. They held the devices out by their handles, pressing small triggers on the handle. This caused a large, triangular, glowing beam of plasma to shoot up from the emitter. The blade was about two-thirds of a foot wide, and a foot-and-a-half long. The mere presence of the blade caused the very air around it to vaporize and sizzle, making it seem like the sabers of light from Jacob¡¯s time of media. He wondered for a moment why they had the plasma cutters, but then realized that the facility drones must have realized that bullets would be largely ineffective, with exceptions to headshots, due to their rapid regeneration. So, whoever was in charge must have concluded that either annihilating a large portion of their mass in a single shot or dismembering them would¡¯ve been the best route to go. Jacob didn¡¯t agree or disagree with this notion, as he had yet to see the disassembly drones full combative abilities. While he could theorize based on what he had heard, he didn¡¯t make any assumptions just yet. But, it seemed like now was a great time to gather data. X made the mistake of continuing onward despite the danger, opening his guard to slash at the drone on the far right. X¡¯s potential victim saw it coming, however, leaning to the side and bringing his blade down on X¡¯s exposed arm. The plasma blade went down and through X¡¯s left arm, slicing the appendage off at the elbow. X reeled backward, clutching the stump, before glaring at the one who gave him the wound. However, there was a simple fix to this. A rolled his eyes, before aiming a missile launcher straight at the center of the group. He didn¡¯t squeeze the trigger, probably because the missile launcher was part of his arm and it had no trigger. Nonetheless, the launcher coughed up its payload, sending it hurtling into the wall that the military drones were backing up to. Seeing this, they dodged, tackling each other to the ground in an effort to escape the blast. While they did manage to evade the brunt of the explosion, one didn¡¯t fare too well afterward. K and X went for the same guy, double-teaming him in a way that would¡¯ve made the man quit the match, and Call of Duty forever. The drone didn¡¯t stand a chance, being quadrisected twice over. Would that mean he was octosected? Is that even a word? No, I just checked, it isn¡¯t, but why? You have bisected, trisected, quadrisected, and hemisected, which is basically just bisected, so why not octosected? It makes sense, at least in my opinion. Wait, now I gotta know, how many of these are there? Alright, so it seems to stop at quadrisect, and there isn¡¯t a quintisect, so I guess that would be it. Man, that''s annoying. Anyway, the drone was cut into eight pieces, which would satisfy even Gordon Ramsay with the knifework, or rather sword work, so maybe it would be Raiden instead. However, the two didn¡¯t account for the other going after the same target, so the pair ended up tangling themselves in a heap of metal limbs. A tirade of cursing could be heard from the heap, but violence didn¡¯t stop for anyone. Cursing himself, A leapt into the fray to stop the retreating remnants of the squad, leaping over K and X, which looked like the game''s code had decided to just not work, clipping the two objects together. A was cut short by one of the military drones turning on their heel, before diving straight onto A¡¯s outstretched claws. Surprising him, A didn¡¯t notice the trio grenades that were in the military drone¡¯s hands, and the fact that all the pins were pulled. With a resonating blast, A¡¯s entire left arm was turned into something akin to shredded paper, with his head perforated with holes that would likely close in a few moments. The drone had died, but had completed its objective, that being to delay the squad long enough to escape. With all three disassembly drones incapacitated for a short amount of time, the squad turned their attention towards the only one left standing. Jacob blinked as the three remaining military drones dashed up to him, before one of them pointed the business end of their large plasma cutter towards him. Jacob didn¡¯t even have time to contemplate his life choices before they spoke. ¡°Come with us if you want to live.¡± He threatened. Jacob simply nodded, before being grabbed by the arm and pulled along. He didn¡¯t resist, as he figured that the drone wasn¡¯t lying. While the government would prefer to have him alive, they would probably think him better off dead than in enemy hands, and these drones were practically extensions of the government, by his assumptions. Jacob gave one last look towards the squad, baffled at the outcome. K and X were still arguing and trying to get themselves untangled, which was just so comical it couldn¡¯t be real. How could these robots, being that were supposed to be so much more intelligent than humans, be so idiotic at the same time? A was taking longer to regenerate than Jacob had thought he would, which was something to keep in mind for the next time he needed this information. All in all, it seemed like Jacob was going to be continuously fought over like a Capture the Flag game, and he was the only flag they had. Sooner or later, whether it was intentional or not, Jacob would be killed, probably in the crossfire considering the intelligence of these machines. Jacob needed to get off this god-forsaken planet. * * * The halls were silent. Corpses littered the ground, with oil coating every conceivable surface like it was a Steven King novel, or just a machinist shop. The telltale red warning lights of an emergency flashed above, warning absolutely nobody due to the fact that nobody was left alive to be warned of. Well, except for two. A groan could be heard from one of the previously thought-dead corpses, proving that it wasn¡¯t just a corpse. A hand reached out, gripping a ledge to support themselves. They got to their feet, looking quite worse for wear. Their left arm was hanging loosely, while their right hand was missing a few fingers. A large crack ran down their facial screen, blotting out one of their silver LED eyes. They appeared to be wearing . . . something . . . but it was torn and dirtied to the point that it was pretty much just rags at this point. They looked to their left and right, seeing all the carnage left in the wake of some sort of unknown horror. They began limping in one direction, before starting a stumbling jog. They made it about twenty steps before they were stopped right in their tracks. They strained against the strange force, but it was no use, they were trapped. Suddenly, they were jerked to the side, turning back the way they came. Standing there, was a figure. They had some sort of mask over their face with a pair of dusty and cracked goggles, and a cloak ran down their shoulders. They had the hood up as well, preventing further observation. Whatever it was, it wasn¡¯t normal. Something was just . . . off . . . about it, but nobody could quite pin it down. Of course, the trapped drone didn¡¯t have a chance to even think those words, as the wolf-in-sheeps-skin held up a hand. Its hand was glowing with some sort of ephemeral hologram, which depicted what looked like a hexagon with three arms extending outward, which had more shapes on the ends of them. However, they were too small to make out, and the drone didn¡¯t have time to get closer. With a flick of the wrist, the trapped drone¡¯s head simply deleted itself, dissipating into what looked like thin air. Oil spurted up and out of the neck wound, splattering on contact with other surfaces. The body was let go a moment later, dropping to the ground like a ragdoll. The creature kneeled down, picking up an arm that was just laying on the ground. It removed the bandana that was covering its mouth just enough to take a bite out of its arm. It smiled. Episode Five: Triple Agenda Jacob sat in a tent. It wasn¡¯t the most cozy thing he had been in, but it was certainly better than the cold pod that the disassembly drones housed themselves in. About ten feet wide and seven feet tall, the tent had plenty of room to fit a small group of three if they wanted to just chill in here. The walls of the tent were stark white, and seemed to billow inward. The tent was also warm, well, relatively warm when compared to the rest of the wasteland. While it probably kept heat in fairly well, there wasn¡¯t much heat to go around to begin with. He supposed he himself was a source of heat, and perhaps that was why the tent felt warmer than it did a few minutes ago. However, that was likely just a result of him getting accustomed to the cold. He didn¡¯t think that his suit would allow much heat to escape, but since he was already cold, the fact was debatable. But, none of that really mattered, as Jacob was mind-numbingly bored. If his memory serves correctly, the facility drones had stuck him in the tent about two hours earlier, right after they confirmed he had a source of sustenance. It was rather abrupt, and he had been left wondering what was going to happen next. But, if his memory was still functioning correctly, he recalled that this type of action was a common tactic among detectives and police when interrogating suspects. They stuck them in a room for a good amount of time to keep them guessing and off-guard, which made them more susceptible to other forms of interrogation. Jacob wasn¡¯t too happy that he was being interrogated, but he dropped the issue for now in favor of focusing on the changes in temperature, specifically how the tent was actually getting warmer. It seemed like his earlier assumption had been correct, as he could clearly tell that the suit wasn¡¯t as frozen as before. Jacob then decided to take a closer look around the tent, which was something he probably should have done two hours ago. He got up and walked the short distance to the tent wall, before enacting only the most sophisticated of scientific research actions. He poked it. The wall didn¡¯t give way, but it crumpled like an inflated tarp, and it seemed to have the same texture as one as well. Moving his finger away, the wall returned to its previous position, as if nothing had happened. Jacob tilted his head, before realizing something. Tents like these were often present in areas such as Mount Everest, as they helped conserve heat in the extreme conditions. If his theory was right, then the tent was actually hooked up to a heater that was warming up the interior of the tent. Quite useful, and beneficial for Jacob. He turned his attention towards the various icons that had been constantly present in his vision since he put the suit on. As far as he could tell, they were part of a heads-up display, or HUD, if you will. He hadn¡¯t really been paying attention to them for no particular reason at all, but he now inspected them closely. One of the icons seemed like a temperature meter, which was, yet again, quite useful. It read that the outside temperature was at twenty degrees celsius and rising. He wasn¡¯t sure why it was using celsius, which was metric, when it used feet and inches, which was imperial. This whole thing was confusing, but at least Jacob knew that twenty degrees celsius was about seventy degrees fahrenheit. Hooray. Then, Jacob was struck by a thought. Skimming his vision across the screen, his gaze finally locked onto two icons, both of which proudly displayed the oxygen symbol. The one on the right had a timer on it, which he identified as the amount of remaining oxygen in his suit. It was surprisingly high, considering that he hadn¡¯t seen any observable oxygen tank, but it could have just been integrated into his armor and filled with hyper-compressed oxygen, which actually existed back in his time. But, the other icon was one of what looked like a fan with the oxygen symbol to the side. He had seen that icon earlier, but it had been grayed out, so he didn¡¯t pay much attention to it, but now it was lit up. While it was a bit of a stretch, if you combine the fact that the timer for his stored oxygen was no longer going down, Jacob came to the conclusion that the tent had been turned into an artificial oxygenated-atmosphere. It did make sense, as the facility probably would¡¯ve had some sort of extra oxygen stores in case of some sort of related emergency. But then again, there was the chance that he was completely misinterpreting the signs, and it was signaling towards something else. And while under normal circumstances he would exercise complete caution, Jacob hadn¡¯t taken off the suit for a couple days now, his face and hair were starting to show signs of his extended pause on showering. And like any other completely normal and sane person, he didn¡¯t really like that, so he went ahead with it. Jacob reached up to the neckline of his helmet, feeling for any kind of release switch. Sweeping across the back of his neck, he felt two raised protrusions parallel to each other. It took him a moment to realize that they were buttons, which would have been a bit embarrassing if somebody was currently monitoring his thoughts, but luckily that wasn¡¯t the case. Jacob didn¡¯t really feel any need to delay any longer, so he pressed the two buttons, causing a sudden snapping sound to emanate from the helmet. He felt the helmet loosen, and warmth touch his skin, raising a shudder from him. He pulled the headwear off, setting it onto the ground, before breathing in a breath of fresh air. Well, it wasn¡¯t really fresh air, as it had likely been kept inside a tank for years without any sort of exposure to the outside, so it would really be the same exact kind of oxygen that he was breathing in right now. But, the subconscious human mind wasn¡¯t exactly the most rational of things, so it really felt just like fresh air. What even WAS fresh air anyway? People usually called the air of the outside world fresh, like the areas outside of houses and buildings. Supposedly, this had a difference than air inside of the aforementioned structures, which was more complicated than what people might think. They were claiming that there was a chemical, molecular, or atomic difference between the two differing types of air. However, if there actually WAS a difference, that would likely mean that they were breathing in an entirely different type of oxygen, one that humans could sustain themselves off of as a substitute. But, scientists would have discovered that long ago if that was the case, which it wasn¡¯t, so the only other solutions would either be just other things in the air that one could breathe in, such as the small motes of plant residue that plants exude. Humans do the same thing, which contributes to the creation of layers of dust. But, associating this with fresh air wouldn¡¯t make sense in this situation, as there were absolutely zero plants in the surrounding area, and if there were, they would be too few and far between to make an impact. So, that left two other options, one of which makes a lot more sense than the other. Perhaps fresh air was dictated by the fickle human psyche, a construct of the imagination. Similar to how people can simply imagine someone saying their name, a person could simply go outside, and since they expected to encounter fresh air, would imagine that the air was different than the air inside, thus feeling the familiar sensation. But all of those things were wrong, as Jacob then suddenly, out of the blue, remembered that the so-called ¡°fresh air¡± was actually just air with a greater concentration of oxygen atoms. Not enough to kill you, of course, but just enough to cause the blood vessels in a person¡¯s lungs to dilate, which in turn improves the cleansing and tissue repair operations inside them. This all contributes to the nice feeling one could get from breathing in fresh air. He wasn¡¯t sure why the oxygen he was breathing now was more concentrated than the oxygen inside his suit, so he just added that to the list of things that kept on confusing him, right up there with ¡°Why do Robots Have Genders?¡± and ¡°Is the Third Installment to One of the Greatest Video Games of All Time Out Yet?¡±. A little bit of a useless argument, so Jacob got back on track. Jacob took another deep breath, testing the air. It felt like standard breathable air, but you never know. It could have been nitrogen, and he might pass out within the next minute, which would¡¯ve hindered his plans greatly. Eh, if it was, then the damage was already done. And plus, now that he had his helmet off, he wasn¡¯t too partial to put it right back on. Then, a sound could be heard from the apparent doorway of the tent. A zipping noise, likely someone opening the flap to the small room he was in. Jacob thanked whatever incomprehensible cosmic deity that blessed him with something to do, before focusing his attention on the tent flap. The flap shifted, before the entire thing was pushed open by a drone. It stood up to its full height inside the tent, which really wasn¡¯t that much, and was quickly followed by another drone of the same type, the type being a military drone. Strangely, it seemed like one was slightly taller than the other, perhaps a few centimeters, if he was using metric. Jacob, yet again, wasn¡¯t sure why they had differing sizes, as that would just complicate mass production of the drones. But, maybe it was a result of some sort of thing that he was not willing to spend the time and brainpower trying to figure out. The pair both had identical armor, save for one of them with a crack running down its visor, the height, and one of them having a signifying stripe on their left upper arm. They also both had what looked like an assault rifle slung across their backs, which was slightly comforting to Jacob. Also of note, there was a deafening moment of silence that reigned in the small tent for a moment, before Jacob decided to end it yet again. ¡°So uh, how¡¯s it going?¡± Jacob nodded to the one with the stripy-arm. ¡°Sheriff.¡± If they had eyes, they likely would¡¯ve blinked. Well, their LED eyes blinked. Specifics are key, people. ¡°I uh, asked a question.¡± Jacob stated. The stripy-arm one shifted slightly, before clearing their non-existent throat. ¡°Ahem, well, you¡¯re gonna need to come with us.¡± Jacob raised an eyebrow. ¡°Oh really?¡± Stripy Arm¡¯s voice hardened. ¡°Yes, you do.¡± Jacob grunted. ¡°Ah, alright then.¡± Stripy Arm nodded, before turning back to the tent flap. However, he stopped, seemingly remembering something. ¡°Put on my helmet?¡± Jacob inferred. ¡°Yes, that would be great.¡± Stripy Arm nodded again. Jacob obliged, covering his head with the metallic piece, coating his face in darkness before the HUD and other lights flicked on, granting him vision yet again. He stepped through the opening, seeing the small airlock that the tent had, which he had forgotten about. Wait a second, he didn¡¯t forget, he had just never seen it. The idiot drones had put a damned bag over his head! Wait, but how had he forgotten that? That really seems like something essential that he would remember and review, right? Jacob guessed not then, he supposed. Really weird though. Also, why couldn¡¯t the suit¡¯s cameras pierce the bag? Oh, whatever. This time, Jacob could see clearly, and wow, he saw a lot. Various facility drones milled about, doing all sorts of tasks and activities. He saw a few playing on what looked to be a card table, and was that gin rummy they were playing? A few worker drones were holding a blowtorch, applying the hot flame to some sort of machine, probably a power generator. Sparks jetted out of the small hole, and they sprung back, yelping. It was quite interesting to have this small insight into the lives of this strange society, and gave them a small bit of humanity. Of course, that would probably be akin to sacrilege or heresy to assume that robots were like humans in any way, which sounded suspiciously similar to another certain practice that was in effect a few hundred years before Jacob¡¯s time, but that wasn¡¯t his problem. All he had to do was secure a safe passage off-world, along with his continued guaranteed safety from the government, or other warring factions that sought to possess him for whatever reason. Something that might prove to be more difficult when one considers his current status and situation. The pair led him to a much larger tent than the last one, maybe thirty feet long and twenty feet wide. They opened the tent flap, before leading him inside. Unlike the last tent, this one was packed to the brim. Maybe fifteen or even twenty drones were flitting about, working on computers, printing stuff, yelling at each other, throwing darts at another drone pinned to the wall, all sorts of cool things. A few of them gave him strange looks, but Jacob remained unmolested throughout the short jaunt, likely due to the suit covering all of his more organic features. The pair then came to another tent flap, one that looked to be double-layered like his old tent. The familiar sounds of argument and mayhem could be heard from inside, though it didn¡¯t seem to deter the pair. They unzipped it, before stepping into the small airlock that was also present in his old tent. They closed the other tent behind them, before opening the one in front of them, revealing another room. This one was a bit smaller, maybe twenty feet long and fifteen feet wide, if he used imperial measurements. The center of the room was occupied by a large table that took up most of the room, leaving some space on the other side of the room, maybe for recreational activities, you never know. However, the room was also home to about seven drones, all of them in varying states of unrest. One of them was up on the table, brawling with another one, while three were engaged in a screaming contest that consisted of, you guessed it, lots of screaming. The last two drones were simply leaning back in their office chairs, which was actually quite unsafe, and sipping from mugs, which was also very unsafe, for a robot at least. Stripy Arm stepped forward, clearing his throat loudly. However, it did nothing to deter the mayhem unfolding before him. He looked towards his partner uneasily, before raising his voice slightly. ¡°Excuse me, sirs?¡± Stripy Arm wasn¡¯t quite yelling, but it was partially there. Again, nothing. ¡°EXCUSE ME!¡± Stripy Arm decided to forgo politeness. The room paused, as if someone had frozen time in place. The collective drones stared straight at the trio that were awkwardly standing at the entrance. They all held varying degrees of surprise and shock on their faces, likely due to the supposed unannounced entrance. ¡°Ah, hello there.¡± One of the shorter drones of the bunch spoke up. ¡°I assume you have the asset?¡± Stripy Arm stood up straight. ¡°Er, yes sir, he¡¯s right here.¡± The collective gazes of the drones all turned towards Jacob, who was left wondering on which set of eyes he should meet. He was saved from the trouble when the drone from earlier spoke up. ¡°Well, that¡¯ll be all. You can both expect compensation.¡± The drone gestured for the pair to leave, which they followed after a quick salute. The drone continued to stare at the military drones as they unzipped the tent flap, disappearing into the other room. He then turned his attention back to Jacob, who was also watching the two leave. ¡°Now, how-¡± The drone was cut off by another drone, this one a military drone in contrast to the first drone¡¯s worker status. ¡°So, you¡¯re the ¡®asset¡¯ we lost.¡± The drone hopped down from the table, hitting the ground with a thud. Jacob watched as the drone walked up to him, coming to a stop about four feet from him. The drone was slightly shorter than him, perhaps a few centimeters below his current height. It looked like any other military drone that Jacob had seen, with the sole exception of a colored stripe that lay on its left upper arm, likely dignifying some sort of rank. Looking around the room, the rest of the collected drones also had similar stripes of varying colors. He wasn¡¯t going to call every drone ¡°Stripy Arm¡± so perhaps introductions were in order. ¡°Seems like it. Name¡¯s Jacob.¡± Jacob stuck out a hand, which the drone shook after an awkward moment. ¡°Nice, I didn¡¯t ask. You can just address me as Sir.¡± Sir replied. ¡°. . . Oooookay then, so, mind telling me what I¡¯m doing here?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°Yes, ¡®Sir¡¯ tell it what¡¯s going on, I¡¯m sure we should get on with it, right?¡± The first drone interjected, walking up next to Sir. ¡°Hi there, I¡¯m an Engineer, and I solve practical problems.¡± Sir narrowed his eyes at the Engineer. ¡°Fine, I guess.¡± Sir turned his attention back to Jacob. ¡°You¡¯re going to answer some questions.¡± Jacob grunted. ¡°What kinds of questions?¡± Sir might have grinned. ¡°All of them.¡± * * * The pod was silent. A glared at the two disassembly drones standing before him, one at ramrod-straight attention, while the other was slouched and mindlessly scratching words into the wall. ¡°So can one of you tell me WHY this happened?¡± A demanded ¡°Well sir-¡± K began ¡°Yeah, K over here decided she wanted all the credit, and then guess what!? A massive steam-train came speeding through the wall, completely out of nowhere! And it-¡± X was also cut off, getting decapitated in a flash of claws. K backed up, looking up from X¡¯s body to gaze at A, who glared back. ¡°Wanna explain?¡± A reiterated. ¡°Y-yes, so you see-¡± ¡°Cut to the chase.¡± ¡°Yes sir. Me and X were doing what you had told us to do, searching for water. We came across a building where we did find some water, but one of those military drones from the facility stumbled upon us. We chased him down, but not before he called for backup. It seemed like they sent a squad towards us, and while we dispatched the first one easily, the second one was a much larger threat. They came prepared, with explosive arms and other heavy weaponry.¡± ¡°We weren¡¯t faring too well when you and Jacob arrived and, well, you know what happened after that.¡± K finished with a weak smile. A didn¡¯t say a word throughout the whole explanation, simply exuding an aura of annoyance. And while the statement was finished, he still didn¡¯t say anything. K shifted uneasily. ¡°Sir?¡± A responded by raising his arm and putting a trio of rounds into K¡¯s head, her body falling backwards from the force. Boom. Headshot. Now that he had a moment to himself, A let himself get lost in thought. He had definitely made a mistake letting Jacob out of the pod, that was for sure. Why did he even care about getting on the kid¡¯s good side? All he had to do was get him to safety in one piece, no more, no less. When A retrieved Jacob, he wasn¡¯t going to let him out at all, just gonna keep him safe in a box for the foreseeable future. On the topic of actually getting Jacob back, it appeared as though it would be much harder than last time. After K and X¡¯s explanation of their invasion of the facility, A had assumed that the supposed military drones were little more than paper tigers, or maybe some toddlers with big guns. However, it seemed like the victory K and X had taken was simply due to the element of surprise, combined with no information about the capabilities of the enemy, both of which made for a deadly combination for the facility drones. But, now that they had experience, the drones made for a much larger threat than they had been previously. While they had likely suffered immense losses the first time around, the military drones likely had numbers most definitely on their side. Combine that with the guns and firepower to match that, and well, you have a rather formidable foe. They weren¡¯t going to make the same mistakes as last time, which was something that even the most advanced technology couldn¡¯t defeat. There was also the matter of where they came from, which was important to take into consideration. At first, A had believed that they were simply either worker drones that militarized themselves, or a group of rogue security drones that rebelled after the core collapse. But, the sheer level of their technology and capabilities just wasn¡¯t something that any of those possibilities could even have a smidgen of. No, this was something greater than that. Likely, these were drones from some sort of competing faction, or a remnant from the odd facility that the company probably ran. Or maybe it was a combination of the two, with the third party owning the facility which contained Jacob. But that was a matter for later, as A needed to focus on the present. He needed Jacob to boost his scores enough so that A¡¯s squad wasn¡¯t in danger any longer. He didn¡¯t know if the military drones had any sort of transport that could get Jacob off-planet, but it wasn¡¯t something to risk. He needed to get Jacob back sooner than later, or else everything he had worked towards would have been for nothing. A¡¯s train of thought was interrupted by groaning coming from the floor. He looked down to see X shakily getting to his feet, before fixing A with an angry glare. ¡°What the hell was that for!? I was just talking!¡± X exclaimed. ¡°I didn¡¯t have the time or patience for you, and I still don¡¯t.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean you have to do that!¡± X glared back at A. Then, the pair¡¯s attention was turned to the second body on the ground coming to. ¡°Oh, he did it to you too?¡± X asked K. ¡°What? Wait, you-¡± K looked towards A, who cut her off. ¡°We don¡¯t have the time for this. We have to go get Jacob back before we lose him forever. Now if any of you have a problem with that, then you can go right back on the floor for ten minutes, you got it?¡± A glared at X specifically, who glared right back. However, no words were exchanged. A gave a crisp nod. ¡°Good, now here''s the plan . . .¡± * * * ¡°-and so that brings us to the present.¡± Jacob took a moment to catch his breath. It would¡¯ve been real nice if his robotic audience waited until the end to ask questions, but that was clearly a pipe dream for our brave and really cool protagonist. He had also hoped he wouldn¡¯t have forgotten so many details throughout his explanation, but that bullet was one that he was never able to dodge. In fact, having so many holes in his story was likely what led to so many questions in the first place, which would be ironic, in a roundabout sort of way. He had spent the larger part of half an hour telling these funny little goofballs his story, which had expanded a good amount, and had somehow taken less time to say. Probably because he had practice summarizing it in a neat little mess of plots, which was hopefully only a figurative can of worms, but with his luck it would¡¯ve been as goopy as the room of your average Valorant player. But then again, Jacob had never actually seen one, so it was basically just a factless claim. ¡°And you¡¯re sure that you left nothing out?¡± Sir cocked a glowing eyebrow. ¡°Probably.¡± Sir narrowed his eyes. ¡°Most definitely.¡± Jacob corrected himself. Sir nodded. ¡°Good, because we need this information to get you in a place that those corpos can¡¯t.¡± ¡°Corpos?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°Awfully cyberpunk, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Sir waved off the question. ¡°What matters is the next course of action.¡± Sir turned back towards the table, before clapping his hands together. ¡°Alright, meetings back on. Jacob took that as his cue to, but right when he spun on his heel to exit, Sir stopped him. ¡°Ah ah ah, you¡¯re gonna want to be here for this.¡± Sir pulled out a seat, and gestured for Jacob to sit. Jacob obliged, the chair squeaking slightly as it struggled to hold the weight of his suit. Sir also took a seat at the head of the table, doing a slight spin with the spinny chair that they all had. ¡°So, boys, since we have a visitor, let''s keep the info dumps to a minimum, alright?¡± Sir looked around to see the gestures of affirmation. ¡°Good, now let''s get on with the show.¡± ¡°As the asset here has told us, these ¡®disassembly drones¡¯ are tasked with eliminating all forms of robots and drones on this planet, for whatever reason. They were given this task by JCJenson-¡± Sir was cut off by a faint, ¡°In Spaaaace!¡± Jacob was given a moment to think about what Sir had just said. Unless they had a close talk with one of them, these facility drones shouldn¡¯t know that little gold nugget of info. So, that meant they had some sort of other source, which would make any other person say, ¡°Duh, of course they had another source, the government had been actively working with a company, which was likely JCJenson, therefore they would likely have some sort of knowledge of the disassembly drones existence!¡± But then if that was the case, pray tell, then why were the facility drones so unprepared for the attack? If they had prior knowledge of the disassembly drones, then wouldn¡¯t they want to be prepared for a potential threat? But, in the end, they were completely unprepared. Someone else might believe that while they thought they were prepared, they were just too weak to even effectively fight against A and related drones, then why did the squad sent to deal with them do so well? Yeah, they did lose most of their men, but they effectively disabled the entirety of the enemy, and if they hadn¡¯t done that earlier, it must¡¯ve been knowledge that helped them. Not to mention the fact, well, Jacob wasn¡¯t sure if the speaker knew that he had just broken his own rule, but he wasn¡¯t going to complain. Apparently, they had figured out that A, K, X, and other assorted sentient war machines had been sent to this planet by JCJenson. But, Jacob needed to stop this line of thought, as Sir had more to say. ¡°And it appears that JCJenson-¡± Sir was cut off yet again by another faint, ¡°In Spaaaace!¡± He pulled out a pistol, before blind-firing into the space behind him, hitting a previously-invisible drone that had somehow activated a cloak. Strange, but not uncommon. Sir continued on. ¡°And it appears that JCJenson has a potential interest in the asset here, seeing as they went to such lengths to take the asset from us. So, since we now have the asset back, we can obviously assume that the company forces will try and take him back, which we cannot allow.¡± ¡°Now, who has any ideas for how to keep them from getting the asset?¡± Sir asked. Silence, which was interrupted by a conveniently-timed grasshopper noise, which shouldn¡¯t have been possible. Sir narrowed his eyes. ¡°Seriously? Nobody has any suggestions?¡± A military minister raised their hand. ¡°You don¡¯t need to raise your hand.¡± Sir said blandly. ¡°Well, we could try and find a rocket.¡± The minister shrugged. ¡°¡®Try and find a rocket¡¯? Really? That''s your suggestion?¡± Sir questioned. ¡°Well-¡± The minister was cut off. ¡°Fine, we can put that on the list just in case we stumble on a perfectly-preserved rocket.¡± Sir got up, before walking over to the whiteboard that was behind him, writing down the suggestion. ¡°Anyone else?¡± Sir scanned the room. ¡°We could terminate the assailants.¡± A worker minister called out. ¡°Yes, we could. Any idea on how we can do that?¡± Sir gestured for her to continue. ¡°Well, uh, I didn¡¯t really go that far.¡± She replied. Sir facepalmed, before cursing under his breath. ¡°OK, alright, does anybody have any idea on how we can kill them?¡± Since they had moved towards a matter that involved violence, the room coincidently filled with suggestions. ¡°Nuke them!¡± ¡°Call in an orbital bombardment!¡± ¡°That''s just the same as nuking them! ¡°Send those scallywags tuh the bottom o¡¯ the sea, straight down tuh Davy Jones''s Locker!¡± ¡°Drown them in marbles!¡± ¡°Read the entire dictionary to them and bore them to death!¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t we be friends, why can¡¯t we be friends!?¡± ¡°Nuke them again? I dunno man.¡± Sir pointed his pistol in the air, but thought better of it. Instead, he simply opened his mouth to yell. ¡°QUIET!¡± Sir yelled. The room obliged, silence reigning supreme once again. ¡°Now-¡± Sir began, but was yet again but off. The tent flap was zipped open, and Jacob watched as another worker drone walked through, holding a notepad. ¡°Alright, what did I miss-¡± The drone¡¯s eyes landed on Jacob, who was beginning to get a bit tired of people being rendered speechless by his mere presence. ¡°You missed a lot, now sit down, we''re discussing things.¡± Sir told him. The new drone watched Jacob with bewildered eyes as he walked to the table, before taking a seat. Sir cleared his throat. ¡°Ahem, anyway, I guess that those are all avenues, so they have to go on the board, but does anybody have something that isn¡¯t nuking the disassembly drones, or anything else that is beyond our current capabilities?¡± ¡°We could try and send out a signal, maybe notify the government of the situation. They could tell us what to do.¡± One called out. ¡°Perhaps the Camp 98.7 that we keep hearing about could-¡± Sir snapped his fingers, somehow. Jacob was pretty sure that robots couldn¡¯t snap their fingers properly, as their hands weren¡¯t made out of the correct material, but that wasn¡¯t important. ¡°Yes, my thoughts exactly. We simply take our problems, and push them onto the government¡¯s lap.¡± Sir agreed, disregarding the second part of One¡¯s suggestion. ¡°Now, what is the status of our communications tech?¡± One of the worker ministers spoke up. ¡°We have short-range radios and one medium-range transmitter, but that''s about it. All forms of long-range were damaged or destroyed in the core collapse.¡± ¡°Yes, I knew that, but can we get anything at all up and running?¡± Sir insisted. ¡°We would need to return to the facility to do that.¡± The minister replied. ¡°That''s not happening. You all saw the report, it''s not exactly a stable environment.¡± Sir stated. ¡°We don¡¯t have the materials on hand to even attempt to repair or build anything. Returning to the facility is our only realistic option.¡± The minister narrowed their eyes. Jacob noted that the supposed minister was talking less like a subordinate to Sir, and more like an equal, which created a cause to correct his earlier assumption that the drone was one of the ministers that Sir had introduced earlier. Another notable thing, that drone was the same one that had first spoken to Jacob when he had entered the tent. The two stared at each other in silence for a moment, before Sir broke eye contact to sigh heavily. ¡°We will discuss this later, when we don¡¯t have company.¡± Sir turned his eyes towards Jacob, with the other drone following suit. ¡°Agreed.¡± The Equal stated. ¡°Now, does anyone else have anything of note to say?¡± Sir scanned the room. ¡°No, nobody? Well then, I suppose this meeting is adjourned-¡± Sir was cut off by yet another drone bursting into the room, breathless. ¡°Oh, what is it this time!?¡± Sir exclaimed. ¡°Sorry sir, it''s just, well, you would need to see it yourself.¡± The drone replied. The collected leadership, plus Jacob, all looked uneasily at each other, before seemingly arriving at a consensus. They pushed out their chairs, getting onto their own two feet. Jacob followed suit, securing his helmet back onto his head and standing up. The group all began to exit, walking out of the tent through a backdoor. Well, maybe it should be called a backflap, due to, you know, eh, whatever. The group walked out into disarray. Practically every drone in sight could be seen looking up at the sky, staring at a particularly bright star in the night . . . that oddly seemed to be moving? A few drones were clustered around a data panel, chattering excitedly about something. The Equal, joined by Sir and the messenger, marched to the group of drones, shoving aside a few drones in the way. ¡°What¡¯s going on here, why¡¯d you call us out?¡± He demanded. ¡°Sir, I apologize again, but you do see that up there, right?¡± Both the Equal and Sir looked up towards the sky, focusing their vision on the bright star. ¡°The star? Yeah, what about it?¡± Sir crossed his arms. ¡°Stars don¡¯t get closer, sir.¡± The messenger replied. Sir and the Equal took a closer look at the comet. ¡°I still don¡¯t see how a meteor or comet is of importance, they enter the atmosphere all the time.¡± The Equal narrowed his eyes. ¡°Well- sir, listen, it isn¡¯t just a meteor, we detected a signal coming from the object, broadcasting on a frequency only used by JCJenson designated officials.¡± The communication drone stated. Sir and the Equal looked towards each other, before shooting a glance at Jacob, who had approached them from behind. ¡°So, aliens, huh? Why are they using human frequencies, by the way? Just seems kinda weird.¡± Jacob pondered. ¡°It''s not aliens.¡± Sir glared at Jacob. ¡°What? I didn¡¯t say anything about aliens!¡± Jacob shot a surprised look at Sir, who glared even more. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter, what matters is you getting back to your tent, so time to go.¡± The Equal gave Jacob a light push. ¡°Ugh, fine. Can I at least have some sort of shower?¡± Jacob pleaded. ¡°We¡¯ll . . . think about it.¡± The Equal seemed caught off-guard from the question. Sir motioned for a pair of guards to join Jacob, which they followed. The escort began leading Jacob back in the direction he had come from, but Jacob¡¯s mind was racing. If the company had sent some sort of new force to the planet, then what had spurred on that little action? Was it him? Something felt off about that though, not adding up the way he wanted it to. Jacob didn¡¯t know why, but he had a feeling that things were much, MUCH bigger than he had previously assumed, and that he was just one thread of a large, confusing mess of a tapestry. * * * ¡°-now, any questions?¡± A asked. X raised his hand. A narrowed his eyes, before shifting his hand into a claw. X held up his hands in surrender. ¡°Wait, wait, wait! I¡¯m serious this time, I mean it!¡± ¡°What is it then?¡± A didn¡¯t retract the claw. ¡°What is that?¡± A pointed upwards. Both A and K followed the direction he was pointing, the imaginary line leading through the entrance, up into the air, through a hole in the ceiling of the spire, and at an ever-increasing glowing light in the sky. A scoffed. ¡°What, a meteor? Debris is stuck in orbit, of course some are gonna be falling down.¡± K then coughed into her hand. ¡°Ahem, sir?¡± A groaned. ¡°Ugh, you too? Now what?¡± ¡°Your little transmitter thingy is blinky again.¡± K pointed at the device on the desk. A looked towards the transmitter blinky thingy in question, before concluding that yes, it was blinky again. ¡°Huh, well that''s a pretty weird contrived coincidence, or maybe it''s a cool plot point, who knows.¡± X shrugged. ¡°I- what? You- nevermind, what is it saying?¡± A leaned in to get a better look at the small screen. The screen in question read, ¡°[UNKNOWN PRESENCE DETECTED IN MARKED SYSTEM - PLEASE NOTIFY RESPECTIVE SUPERVISOR(S) IMMEDIATELY]¡± which was pretty worrying in retrospect, but maybe it isn¡¯t anything to worry about? ¡°This is something we need to worry about.¡± A stated. Drat. ¡°So it isn¡¯t a coincidence? I mean, that was iffy at best, since we don¡¯t even know if it would be helpful to us on our mission. Oooh, maybe it''s some unlikely aid! But wait, that often happens at the beginning of the story, not at the midpoint, unless-¡± X was thankfully cut off from his tirade. ¡°JUST SHUT UP!¡± A yelled, before turning to K. ¡°YOU TOO, DON¡¯T SAY A WORD!¡± K opened her mouth in shock, before closing it shut again. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m probably gonna regret this, but let''s go investigate that thing that probably isn¡¯t of any importance to us.¡± A begrudgingly stated. ¡°Yippee! I didn¡¯t even have to cut myself!¡± X dove through the entrance. ¡°Are you sure about this sir? You said it yourself that we can¡¯t waste any time getting him back.¡± K asked. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°I¡¯m sure, now get outside, we''re all leaving together this time. I can¡¯t have you messing this whole thing up again.¡± If A wasn¡¯t glaring at K earlier, he was now. ¡°Yes sir.¡± K dejectedly climbed up the ladder. A stayed silent for a moment. For some odd reason, he had that odd feeling he had right before he had sent K and X off to investigate the signal. That inkling of a notion, that the consequences of a seemingly simple action were about to balloon outward into something much greater than what had been originally intended. Eh, not too important. * * * The scouting team trudged through the snow, every step causing a crunching noise to emanate from the soft material. They had been at this for awhile, maybe a few hours, and all the while the incoming object continuously got closer and closer. The analysts back at the camp had managed to predict the trajectory of the object by comparing its location to known fixed star points, while accounting for planetary rotation and revolution. Of course, all that meant nothing to the squad, as that wasn¡¯t their job. Their job was to locate the impact site, mark it down, and investigate the area for potential information. They had been advised to stay strictly out of sight, as they were mainly geared towards reconnaissance, not full-scale combat. While they did have the standard rifles and sidearms, they had little else other than those. They had trekked countless miles at least, maybe one to two hundred, and communication was starting to get patchy. While the engineers had managed to jury-rig the medium range transmitter to be able to send messages back and forth with a specialized receiver, it wasn¡¯t perfect, and the transmissions were beginning to get scrambled beyond comprehension. ¡°Uh, you¡¯re gonna need to repeat that, command, and a bit more clearly this time.¡± The one holding the receiver spoke into the brick-sized device. ¡°You votb tnseons chiken noalde sop.¡± The device spat out. ¡°What was that command? Did you just say chicken noodle soup?¡± He leaned in closer to the mouthpiece. ¡°Repeat one more time? The device gave one last burst of garbled static, before shutting off with a click. ¡°Hey, the receiver stop working?¡± A drone called out. ¡°Yep, it just shut right off.¡± He replied. ¡°Damn, looks like we¡¯re on our own, fellers.¡± The drone spoke to the group. ¡°You know the drill boys, and besides, at least the GPS is still working.¡± Another stated. ¡°Drive another half-kilometer, and then take the next left.¡± The GPS said in a monotone feminine voice. ¡°Hey, wait a second,¡± Another drone walked over to the GPS guy. ¡°It''s been saying that for the last ten minutes!¡± ¡°Wait, what''s going on? I was sleeping.¡± Yet another drone called out. ¡°What¡¯re you talking about, trust me, I know what I¡¯m doing.¡± The GPS guy assured the malcontent. ¡°Oh really? How ¡®bout you hand that over!¡± The drone, who had only one arm, snatched the GPS from the GPS guy.¡± ¡°Hey! Give that back!¡± The No-GPS guy cried out. ¡°How ¡®bout no.¡± One-Arm replied, protecting the GPS with his body. ¡°Yeah, lemme just navigate this darned thing, aha!¡± One-Arm exclaimed. ¡°Yep, looks like I was right, this here devil-box has been leading us in circles!¡± ¡°What!? Give me that back, Sterl!¡± The No-GPS guy snatched the GPS back from Sterl. ¡°Yep, cry all you want, that don¡¯t change nothin¡¯ at all.¡± Sterl shook his head. ¡°What, so are we just lost now!?¡± The first drone called out. ¡°Now hold your horses there, pardner, lets just figure this all out in a timely manner.¡± Sterl assured him. ¡°Well I for one don¡¯t-¡± Another drone began. ¡°Uh, excuse me?¡± A voice called out from the alleyway. The entire group turned to see a worker drone standing there, waving a hand. ¡°Hi there, yeah, uh, have any of you seen my glasses? I seem to have lost them.¡± The worker drone asked. ¡°What? Glasses? You don¡¯t need glasses, you moron. Also, what¡¯re you doing so far away from base?¡± The GPS guy questioned. Sterl walked up and put a hand on the GPS guy¡¯s shoulder ¡°Now calm down there, alright? Lets help this feller out and be on our way.¡± ¡°Oh hey, didn¡¯t you trip over a pair of glasses a block or two back?¡± The first drone asked the GPS guy. ¡°Well, I think, but-¡± The GPS guy started to say. ¡°Well, would you look at that? Looks like we found your glasses, mister. Now head on back thataway,¡± Sterl pointed in the opposite direction they were heading. ¡°Pick up your souvenir, and head on back to the base, its safer there, alright?¡± ¡°Oh, thanks man, I guess I¡¯ll see you around. Also, little bit of a question, whats with the outfits?¡± The worker drone inquired. Sterl and the GPS guy shared a confused glance. ¡°Whaddya mean by that?¡± ¡°Eh, its probably nothing. See you all later, I guess.¡± The worker drone trotted off in the direction they had directed him to. ¡°See? Maybe cheer up a little, won¡¯t hurt ya.¡± Sterl patted the GPS guy on the back, before walking forward as well, with the rest of the group following suit. ¡°So how will we find the location if the GPS isn¡¯t working?¡± The first drone asked worriedly. ¡°Eh, things have a way of working out for us, I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll find something sometime.¡± Sterl replied calmly. The squad walked on in silence for about a minute, before the GPS guy noticed an odd droning sound that was getting louder. ¡°Hey, wait a minute, the object-¡± The GPS guy was cut off, again. Poor guy. The group looked towards him, only for some to then notice too late what had grabbed his attention. The falling crafts that they had been following for their entire trip were getting much, much, MUCH bigger. In fact, they were coming down right now. Wait, right now? OH SHI- The group collectively ducked down as one, and then another object wooshed down from overhead, flinging off bits of flaming debris as they went. The objects went right over them, flying down to where they came. A large explosion emanated throughout the streets as two of the crafts impacted a few blocks down from them. ¡°The hell!?¡± Sterl shouted. ¡°I guess we know where we¡¯re going now.¡± The first drone stated. ¡°That . . . is not wrong.¡± The GPS guy replied. Sterl rose to his feet, brushing a few clumps of snow that had gotten stuck to him off of his armor. ¡°Alright, let''s move!¡± The squad obliged, collecting themselves from the various states of disarray. They began to tromp through the thick snow once again, heading towards the telltale wavering of a bright glowing flame. They arrived at a clearing they had just been not thirty minutes earlier, and saw the carnage that lay before their eyes. Two large metal crafts lay on their sides, broken and battered. Flaming debris was scattered everywhere, lighting up the area in an orange haze. Creaks and groans could be heard from the surrounding buildings, just barely holding onto their structural integrity. In the center of the clearing was a huddled figure, one that looked strangely familiar. ¡°Hey, wait a second, that was the guy that we just saw! And look, he found his glasses, good for him. Also, on a slightly related note, I sure hope nothing bad happens to him within the next ten seconds!¡± The first drone exclaimed. ¡°Quiet down, would you!? We are tryin¡¯ to investigate, you hear me!?¡± Sterl scolded the first drone. Just then, another loud noise could be heard from above. ¡°Oh, not again!¡± The GPS guy cried out. ¡°Shut it!¡± Sterl whisper-yelled. The third craft, unlike the others, didn¡¯t crash and burn like a certain large metal balloon filled with flammable hydrogen. Instead, what appeared to be legs attached to the bottom of the hull grabbed onto a nearby building, before launching itself onto another building to slow its fall. It then did some incredible acrobatics before touching cleanly onto the ground, coming to stop. But wait, there''s more! Just when the squad was settling down, a figure jumped up and out of the third craft, humanoid by the looks of it. Whatever it was, it did a midair starfish flip, before also touching down onto the ground, right next to the worker drone. The worker didn¡¯t have time to react before the unknown entity unsheathed what looked like a broadsword from its back, slicing upwards towards the worker¡¯s neck. The blade, doing what blades do, cut into and through the metal, decapitating the worker in a single, clean stroke. The figure flipped the sword in a circle before placing it back into its sheath strapped across its back, before a sound emanated from the figure. ¡°What!? What''s it saying!?¡± The GPS guy hissed. ¡°Give me a sec.¡± The first drone turned up its hearing sensitivity, before listening closely. ¡° . . . to do, ay J?¡± The unknown person turned slightly to their left. Just then, another, more familiar, figure swooped up on metal wings, giving the unknown a small glare, before tossing a small object towards the unknown. Sterl let out a gasp. ¡°It''s one of them!¡± The GPS guy looked sharply towards Sterl. ¡°Its a hunter!?¡± ¡°Quiet!¡± The first drone whispered. ¡°It said something!¡± ¡°What¡¯d it say?¡± Sterl asked. ¡°Something about maintenance, I couldn¡¯t hear.¡± The first drone replied. The unknown entity placed the small object into its palm, before pressing something on it. In response, the craft let out a small chirp, likely indicative of an activation of some sort of system. Then, without further ado, the duo began walking off in a seemingly random direction, which caused the GPS guy to get up as well to go after them. However, Sterl placed a hand on his shoulder, tugging the GPS guy back down. ¡°Stop! We can¡¯t go after them, you fool!¡± ¡°What!? Why!?¡± The GPS guy protested. ¡°Those hunter drones are too dangerous to stalk, we can¡¯t risk losing the information we just got!¡± Sterl hissed. ¡°Fine, you win this time.¡± The GPS guy backed down. Sterl turned towards the rest of the group. ¡°Alright, now let''s scurry on over back to base, and get this info back to them.¡± The GPS guy raised his hand. Sterl groaned. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°How¡¯re we gonna get back?¡± The GPS guy asked. Sterl paused. ¡°Uh . . .¡± * * * ¡° . . . and then the duck walked up to the lemonade stand, something in his hand, it was super grand, and he said, ¡®Hey,¡¯ bum, bum, bum, ¡®PIPE BOMB!¡¯ The man and the duck both were incinerated in the explosion from the improvised explosive, and-¡± X was cut off. ¡°SHUT UP, JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!¡± K exclaimed. ¡°What- I- what did I dooo!?¡± X whined. ¡°For once, I agree with K. Be quiet, or I¡¯ll make you be quiet, okay?¡± A threatened. ¡°Oh fine, jeez. Y¡¯all really need to chill a little.¡± X grumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets. ¡°Good, now let me concentrate, I can¡¯t watch for them if I can¡¯t even hear my own thoughts.¡± K replied. The squad were currently perched on top of a tall skyscraper, overlooking a clearing. They had flown over here at K¡¯s behest that her formulas had said that the area they were in was going to be where the objects landed, which the rest of the squad felt was dubious at best. Well, neither of them had said that, as X just called her a nerd, and A told her to shut up. However, She didn¡¯t stop pestering them about how that specific clearing was likely going to be the impact site, so to shut her up, A relented, which led to them staging a stakeout for the past three hours. ¡°I¡¯m hungry.¡± X proclaimed. ¡°I told you to shut up, not whine even more.¡± A growled. ¡°Ok, and? I¡¯m still hungry.¡± X shot back. A groaned. ¡°K, didn¡¯t you bring . . . snacks?¡± The snacks in question were a collection of worker drone arms and torsos, with the intention behind them to hold scraps of oil that they could drink on-the-go, without having to scavenge for more. K blinked. ¡°Uh, I did, what about it, sir?¡± ¡°X is ¡®hungry¡¯, so where¡¯d you put them?¡± A put quotations marks up. ¡°Just off to the side, right over there.¡± K pointed to a spot next to the edge that was missing what she had claimed was there, but did possess a suspiciously placed smear of black liquid. ¡°There isn¡¯t anything there.¡± A dead-panned. ¡°What? But I-¡± K began to turn her head to look. ¡°I didn¡¯t say you could stop watching.¡± A scolded. ¡°Er- sorry, sir.¡± K went silent. ¡°Dang, you¡¯re really just gonna let that slide? I would never take that, if I were you.¡± X remarked. ¡°Anyway, would anyone care to explain what happened to the ration-¡± A began ¡°Snacks.¡± X interrupted. ¡°They¡¯re snacks.¡± A shot a glare at X. ¡°Yes, snacks. Would anyone like to explain where the snacks went?¡± ¡°Oh yeah, I forgot, I ate them, sorry man.¡± X nodded plainly. ¡°Hey uh, sir?¡± K warily asked. A ignored K. ¡°You idiot. You¡¯re complaining about being hungry right now, even though you ate every single one of the rations we brought along?¡± A questioned. ¡°Snacks.¡± X corrected. ¡°Forget about the damn snacks!¡± A exclaimed. ¡°I¡¯m sick and tired of you acting like a goddamn child every time you do something! Fix your behavior, or else I¡¯ll have to fix it for you!¡± ¡°Sir?¡± K called out, which both of them ignored again. X narrowed his gaze. ¡°Listen man, I¡¯m chill most of the time, but if you wanna start a fight, then we can throw hands. But then again, I¡¯m not so sure if you¡¯ll like the outcome.¡± The two squared off, cords of tension practically thrumming with energy. But, right before it could all come to a head, K interrupted them. ¡°Um, sir?¡± K glanced back. ¡°What!? What is so important that you need to pester me about it!?¡± A turned his attention towards K. ¡°Is that bad?¡± K pointed upwards, just in time as well. Both A and X looked upwards to see a massive flaming object hurtling down from space right towards them, maybe akin to a certain Bomber named Bill. They both ducked down, narrowly avoiding getting bisected from the waist up. The first object was followed by a second, which clipped the corner of the building they were on, sending concrete shrapnel in several directions. ¡°What the hell was that!?¡± X exclaimed. ¡°I told you! My equation was right!¡± K excitedly yelled. ¡°Who cares about your equation, look at what''s happening below, you moron!¡± A yelled at K, smacking her on the back of her head. K obliged, sending a glance down to the clearing. ¡°Oh hey, a worker drone is down there.¡± Both A and X turned towards K, shocked. ¡°Lemme at ¡®em, I gotta take all this anger out on someone!¡± X leaped forward, only to be grabbed by the foot by A. ¡°Hold it, we are investigating, not killing whatever we see!¡± A hissed. ¡°Ugh, fine.¡± X backed down surprisingly quickly. A snorted. ¡°Good to see you¡¯re using your head for once.¡± ¡°Another one!¡± K cried out. A and X got right back onto the ground, watching the craft fly overhead, not as much on fire as the other two. And also unlike the others, this one utilized its tools properly, grabbing onto the side of the building they were currently perched upon. ¡°This entire building is gonna come down!¡± A yelled as the building shook and groaned, shedding bits of concrete. Thankfully, the building didn¡¯t fall, settling back down with another rumble and crack. K took the opportunity to get a closer look at the clearing down below. ¡°They¡¯re company landing pods!¡± K exclaimed. ¡°What!?¡± A yelled back. ¡°How!?¡± K watched as a figure leapt out of the third landing pod, doing a cartwheel midair, before decapitating the huddled figure of the worker drone she had seen before. ¡°Is that-¡± K cut herself off, watching as another figure exited one of the landing craft. The familiar form of a disassembly drone flew up on their razor-sharp metal wings, hovering a few feet behind the figure. The figure said something that was incoherent from that range, before the disassembly drone tossed a small object to the figure. The figure then grabbed the object, pressing a small button. In response, the landing craft let out a small chirp, which slightly startled K. ¡°Hey, did you-¡± K turned to look back at her squadmates, only to see a familiar sight. A was holding X back, digging his feet into the floor. X was trying his very best to head off in a different direction, and he seemed quite adamant about it as well. ¡° . . . come on, lemme just get those guys! Don¡¯t you want us to kill ¡®em?¡± A grunted slightly from the strain. ¡°No, because it would be a much better option to follow them back to their base, where we could get Jacob back!¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t let me do anything all day! Just give me this, please?¡± X pleaded. ¡°Sir! The human and disassembly drone are leaving!¡± K pointed towards the duo that were trotting off into the snowy haze. ¡°What!? Another human!?¡± A exclaimed in shock. ¡°We just saw a squad of those military drones, and we have another human on our hands!?¡± ¡°I think so, sir! We need to follow them and talk to them, they need to know about the current situation!¡± K insisted. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not gonna go after a few people just to talk to them, I wanna go find that base full of entertainment!¡± X stopped trying to get away, throwing A¡¯s hands off of him. ¡°We need to make a decision now, and I recommend going with mine, sir!¡± K cried out. A looked back and forth between X and K, the latter of which kept on glancing back towards the clearing. ¡°Sir?¡± K asked. Making up his mind, A spoke up. ¡°We know where this location is, but we don¡¯t know where those military drones are holed up. If we need to, we can always come back. Getting Jacob back is a time-sensitive mission, and I will not be failing, understood?¡± ¡°But sir-¡± K began to protest. ¡°Quiet! I don¡¯t have time for either of your whining. You either follow me right now and be quiet, or be left behind.¡± Without another word, A unsheathed his wings, taking flight after the retreating military drones. K watched as X eagerly followed suit, before shaking her head. ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I have a bad feeling about this.¡± She muttered to herself, before taking flight. * * * ¡°Rockin¡¯ around, the Christmas tree, at the Christmas party hop, something something something, and something else, and maybe a little more.¡± Jacob sang half-heartedly. ¡°What¡¯re you singing?¡± The guard on the right asked. ¡°Oh, just a little merry tune.¡± Jacob replied. ¡°Sounds familiar for some reason, what''s it called?¡± Right inquired. ¡°¡®Rocking Around the Christmas Tree¡¯? Nobody really knew, they just sang the lyrics.¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°Who is this ¡®they¡¯?¡± Right questioned. ¡°Hey, shut up, we aren¡¯t supposed to talk to him.¡± The guard on the left hissed at Right. ¡°I can do what I want, now you shut up.¡± Right shot back. ¡°Whatever, it''s your loss.¡± Left relented. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll show you a loss alright . . .¡± Right muttered underneath his breath. ¡°What was that?¡± Left narrowed his eyes. ¡°Nothing, I didn¡¯t say anything.¡± Right quickly said. Left grunted. ¡°Yeah, that''s what I thought.¡± Jacob looked back and forth between the two, before shrugging and continuing to hum some tunes. After a moment, Left groaned. ¡°Alright, will you stop with the songs? It¡¯s getting on my nerves.¡± ¡°I¡¯m back in black- huh? Ah, talking to me now?¡± Jacob turned to look at Left. ¡°Just be quiet, I don¡¯t want this to be even more painful to do.¡± Left replied. ¡°¡®Painful¡¯? What do you mean by that?¡± Jacob questioned. Left didn¡¯t reply, ignoring Jacob, who shrugged, and went back to humming merry, jolly, and downright cheerful tunes. Left seemed like he couldn¡¯t take it anymore. ¡°Robo Jesus, fine, what will get you to just stop!?¡± Left cried out. ¡°Leave the guy alone, alright?¡± Right interjected. ¡°Oh, not you too!¡± Left whined. ¡°I¡¯m perfectly fine with it, you just have a weird problem!¡± Right accused. ¡°I just don¡¯t like being annoyed! I¡¯m already ticked off that I got assigned this stupid guard duty job, and I just wanna be left in peace for the remainder of it, is that too much to ask!?¡± Left exclaimed. ¡°That sounds like your problem, so keep that to yourself, and stop making it other people''s problems, you hear me!?¡± Right poked Left in the chest, hard. ¡°Oh, I¡¯ll show you a problem, now back off.¡± In response to the chest poke, Left shoved Right, equally hard, causing him to stumble backwards. ¡°What- oh, now you¡¯ve done it!¡± Right wound up his left fist, before giving Left a good ol¡¯ sock in the jaw. Jacob noted the form behind that left hook, pretty nice. Left¡¯s head snapped to the right before he swung it back, slightly dazed. Left dodged the next punch, leaning to the side as the fist flew by him. Then, Left slipped behind Right¡¯s back, placing him in an armlock from the back. However, after Right struggled for a moment with no avail, he threw his head backwards, cracking Left right in the forehead. The helmet Left was wearing even gave way a little, making a small dent. Left nearly tripped over his own feet, rocking back and forth. Seeing opportunity, Right tackled Left to the ground, trapping his arms with his legs, before relentlessly punching Left repeatedly in the head. Meanwhile, Jacob just watched on with no small amount of amusement, and was glad that his plan had worked out. Now, he had a fair bit of entertainment for the next few minutes, and he would probably keep on relieving the experience for the next thirty minutes if he stretched it out. Left managed to get one of his arms free, grabbing Right by his shoulder, before using that as leverage to throw Right to the ground. What followed was a grapple for control over the other, neither maintaining the upper hand for more than a few moments. This continued for maybe half a minute, before Left had had enough. Left shoved Right aside in a desperate gamble, before diving free of his grasp. This gave Left the time he needed to pull his sidearm out of his holster, leveling the sights down at Right. Right mimicked this move in a heartbeat, yanking his pistol from its receptacle. The two were moments away from pulling down on the trigger when a sound came from outside. The pair looked away from each other for a second, listening in on the commotion outside, which Jacob did as well. From what he could tell, shouts, screams, gunshots, explosions, and various other sounds that traditionally came from a battle could be heard, but who knows, maybe some troll was just playing some War and Gunfire ASMR Ten Hours for the funny. But, the pair didn¡¯t exactly take it as a joke, considering how they sprang into action in a moment¡¯s notice. Just a nanosecond ago, they were about to kill each other over a song, and now they were working together like nothing had ever happened. Cool, average moment with the boys. The two aimed their guns at the tent flap, waiting for anything to pop into the small area. When nothing waltzed into their sights, Right spoke into his mic. ¡°Command, what''s going on, and why weren¡¯t we alerted to it!?¡± Right yelled The only response was the chirping of crickets. ¡°Damn, looks like FCC is down, what¡¯s our next move?¡± Right, while he was speaking to Left, didn¡¯t take his eyes or gun off the entrance. ¡°I¡¯m willing to go out and investigate while you stay here and guard the asset.¡± Left suggested. Right shook his head. ¡°No, because then whatever came here might overwhelm me and kill him.¡± Left simply grunted. ¡°If what is attacking us is what I think it is then both of us would be overwhelmed.¡± ¡°Agreed.¡± Right agreed. ¡°Well, better move out sooner than later, else we get caught behind whatever lines got formed. You ready?¡± Left cocked his head in Right¡¯s direction. ¡°As ready as I¡¯ll ever be.¡± He replied. ¡°Wait, wait, wait, don¡¯t I get a say in this?¡± Jacob interjected. ¡°No.¡± Left said. ¡°Sorry man, but this is for your own safety, now come along before something happens¡± Right said. ¡°Can I at least have a gun?¡± Jacob pleaded. ¡°No.¡± Both replied at the same time. The facility drones had confiscated his weaponry, which basically meant he had been hauling around a loadout that would¡¯ve made Keanu blush for no reason at all, which slightly frustrated Jacob. Then again, he did have the chance to use them, he just turned it down, so the blame ultimately rested on Jacob, if anyone. ¡°Fine, let''s go.¡± Jacob would¡¯ve shoved his hands into his pockets if he had any. The duo reached slowly towards the tent flap, before unzipping it with the same speed. They entered the small airlock, opening the secondary flap as well, before motioning for Jacob to follow, which he did. Jacob then found out what exactly was going on. Drones ran in all directions seemingly without much form to their actions, lugging around equipment, weapons, and other assorted vital devices to wherever they needed to be. Gunshots could be audibly heard scattered throughout the entire encampment, along with the occasional scream of pain, of course. All in all, this led Jacob to believe that the disassembly drones had come for him, as expected. It seemed like things were going well for them, when one considered the collapse of the chain of command, but you never know. Maybe a lot of people just stubbed their toes all at once, and were now hollering their artificial lungs out for the rest of this god-forsaken planet to hear. Eh, who knows. The trio moved forwards, flinching at an explosion that rang out somewhere nearby. Jacob couldn¡¯t see the blast, but he did see what looked like fire flickering and waving off behind a row of tents. ¡°Whaddya think is going on?¡± Right inquired. ¡°Those hunter drones, obviously, who else? Another worker or facility drone that has a weird grudge?¡± Left sarcastically replied. ¡°Just wanted to make sure we¡¯re on the same page.¡± Right stopped at a fork in the path. ¡°Which way?¡± ¡°Left.¡± Left replied after a moment of hesitation. Right simply grunted, before obliging. The left path was obscured by a cloud of dark and cloudy smoke, which the trio moved through without much trouble. However, the scene they arrived at made clear of the current situation. They had arrived at a large clearing, filled with scattered facility drones. In the center of the area was a form whose height was only rivaled by the military variant of the drones, a figure that Jacob found pretty familiar. X fired a barrage of missiles, scattering a line of military drones that had been attempting to form up. In response, another drone kneeled down on one knee, aiming the rocket launcher they had straight at X. The projectile launched with a puff of smoke, hurtling towards its target. However, X managed to dodge the missile at the last second, causing it to fly into the distance. ¡°Nope, nope, nope, nope, NOPE!¡± Left backpedaled faster than your father left you. ¡°Time to find a different route-¡± As the trio turned around, another drone landed right in the way that they had come from, stretching her wings out to block the rest of the passageway. ¡°Oh, looks like we found you.¡± K remarked calmly. Neither Left nor Right bothered to give an answer, instead firing several shots from their pistols at K, who raised her arms to absorb the shots. ¡°Other way, NOW!¡± Right yanked Jacob by the shoulder. ¡°You hold it off, I¡¯ll keep him safe!¡± Left¡¯s head jerked towards Right, who was rapidly leaving his vicinity. ¡°What!? Don¡¯t leave me behin-¡± Left¡¯s chest was sliced horizontally in his foolish moment of distraction, causing his upper body to topple to the ground. ¡°Hurry up! We don¡¯t have much time!¡± Right pushed Jacob even harder, nearly causing him to stumble. ¡°Alright, I get it.¡± Jacob picked up the pace. ¡°Now where the hell do we-¡± Right began The former-trio was blocked, yet again, by another form stepping into view from behind a pile of crates. ¡°Mind handing him over? Just for a second, I promise you¡¯ll get him right back.¡± A sneered. ¡°That¡¯ll be a negative.¡± Right aimed straight at A, who prepared to block. However, Right changed his decision last second to fire at a crate conveniently labeled, ¡°HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE - DO NOT SHOOT EVEN IF YOU¡¯RE LIFE IS BEING THREATENED BY DEATH MACHINES¡± which was definitely not oddly specific at all. The bullet flew true, striking the outer casing of the crate, piercing it and igniting the heavy ordnance inside. The explosion blew Jacob, Right, and A backwards, with the latter taking far more damage than the former two. The duo flew at least ten feet, coming to a stop on the icy ground, dazed. Wait a second, scratch that, turns out Jacob was completely fine then, maybe I should just go to hell then. Jacob sat up, scanning his immediate surroundings. He felt fairly fine, which was pretty good when one considered what just happened a few moments ago. He looked back at the battle between X and the military drones, which was unfortunately blocked by a cloud of smoke, likely caused by the sheer amount of explosives being thrown around. Right was still lying on the ground, while A was beginning to stir from what little Jacob could see. Assessing his options, Jacob came to the last set he had thought of last time this little dilemma popped up, with a little bonus option as well. Firstly, he could take the side of his original benefactors, the facility drones. By attempting to escape A, X, and K, if he succeeded, he would likely begin to gain the trust of the facility drones, and it might garner him a future avenue of support in case something bad befell him. The facility drones were likely sponsored by the government, however, the same government that might want him in sealed captivity, or six feet under, neither of which were good things. It wasn¡¯t likely that the government would just let him go after all they had invested in him, for whatever reason, and escaping the grasp of the government was probably harder than running away from a few dimwitted robots. And plus, if his attempted escape didn¡¯t work out, then whatever goodwill he had garnered with the disassembly drones would be gone for good. On the other hand, siding with the disassembly drones would get him away from the grasp of the government, and while it would alienate him in the eyes of the facility drones, he wouldn¡¯t be seeing them for much longer. But, this just brought up the same problems that the other option had. JCJenson would likely have the same agenda as the government, and joining in on the fun that the disassembly drones were doing would pretty much be handing himself to the company on a silver platter. And again, in the scenario that he would either be recaptured or retained by the facility drones, they would never be letting him out of their sight again. And thus, the third option yet again seemed to be the most sensible one out of them all, if one stopped thinking at that point. Taking neither of the sides wouldn¡¯t alienate himself with either side, and would allow him plausible deniability that he wasn¡¯t on the side of the enemy. However, since he had already done this once before, executing the exact same course of action might bring about some unforeseen consequences, ones that range from good to bad. But still, with the roster of things he had to choose at the moment, that one was the logical course of action. However, a thought came to Jacob at that moment. One that seemed completely illogical, and downright stupid. It wouldn¡¯t even be plausible to anyone that had more than two brain cells, which might be the case for Jacob, you never know. It was incredibly radical, with a high chance of failure, and even if it worked, the repercussions would be astronomical, far worse than all the other options. But, something about it just . . . spoke . . . to him. It wasn¡¯t a well-thought out plan, not a carefully-considered course of action. It wasn¡¯t an idea that a competent strategist or tactician would come up with, or even a standard uneducated citizen would think of. To simply put it, it was dumb. But then again, perhaps the wrong plan in the right place could make all the difference. Jacob could, without any sort of exceptions or going-backsies, go out by himself. He would take no sides, instead treating either one as his enemy. He would throw himself into the whims of fate, with the only rudder directing himself his own free will. There were countless things that could go wrong with the plan, and he did mean countless things. He might be gunned down due to his lack of military training, his luck running out before it could get started. He might be recaptured, and be put in a box for the rest of time. He might run out of oxygen in the middle of a wasteland, the end of his story coming to an unceremonious end. Perhaps a completely unexpected event could put him out of commission for good, which described the majority of the possibilities. But, Jacob already knew what choice he would be making. Getting to his feet, Jacob snatched the pistol from Right¡¯s groggy hands, cocking the slide to make sure a bullet was chambered. ¡°Wha- what¡¯re you doing with tha-¡± Right¡¯s slurred words were cut short by a bullet in his head. It seemed like the caliber was high enough to pierce their armor, which was good. Jacob noted the fact that A seemed to be putting himself back together, so he deemed it time to get moving, and fast. He grabbed two extra magazines from Right¡¯s corpse, and slipped in between two tents, crouching slightly as he did it to avoid making any noise. A particularly loud explosion distracted Jacob from his deliberating for a moment, but he quickly restarted his train of thought. The battle between the facility drones and the disassembly drones would be a fierce one, as the facility drones would likely have nowhere else to retreat to, and A and his squad would tear apart the entire encampment to locate and retrieve Jacob. Of course, the facility drones would try their very best to prevent them from doing that, so that would buy him some much-needed time. Jacob entered a clear path, just one of the many that were winding throughout the camp. However, he was nearly caught as a group of worker drones rushed into his field of view, and he was only saved by him diving behind a stack of crates, which caused a rather loud clatter. The group collectively froze, turning in the direction that the sound had come from. ¡°Anyone there?¡± One of them called out. Jacob could see their location from a small space that the boxes didn¡¯t cover, which he hoped that the worker drones didn¡¯t see. The one that had called out slowly began to move towards Jacob¡¯s hiding spot, which wasn¡¯t really the best news for him. Luckily, he was saved by the bell, or rather just another member of the group. ¡°Come on, we have to move, they¡¯re setting up a perimeter to prevent those things from getting out, and they need us to do that.¡± The one in front said. ¡°But what if that sound was one of those things!?¡± The closer one quietly exclaimed. ¡°If it was, then we would all be dead, now let''s go.¡± With that, the group continued walking. With a sigh, the closer one followed reluctantly, causing Jacob to let out the breath he had been holding in. Once he was sure that they had moved farther away, Jacob kept moving, crouching as he went. Jacob kept at this for a few more minutes, dodging the few groups of drones that passed close to him by hiding behind a few conveniently placed crates like it was a Metal Gear Solid game. Sometimes when he wasn¡¯t fast enough to hide, he had to shoot the witnesses to prevent any of them from telling anybody else. Luckily, the majority of the retreating drones were worker variants, so he never went toe-to-toe with a military drone. Eventually, he came to a wider path, which he hoped meant that he was getting closer to the outskirts. Just then, Jacob heard a noise, which he took as a warning. Hiding behind yet another stack of crates, Jacob peeked around the edge to see what had caused the sound. Evidently, it was a single worker drone, one that clearly had disregard for uniform of any kind. Jacob would¡¯ve mentally cataloged the outfit, but he was interrupted by a certain someone crashing his party. The stack of crates that he had been hiding behind were tossed aside, scattering across the snowy ground. Jacob scrambled backwards, a slight alarm entering his mind. The thing that had caused the aforementioned scattering of the boxes sauntered into view, taking a look at Jacob lying on the ground. X¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Oh shoot, it''s you. Listen man, we¡¯ve been looking all over for you, nice to see that you haven¡¯t died or anything-¡± Jacob interrupted X¡¯s dialogue with him snapping a bullet at X¡¯s head, which X dodged quickly. ¡°Whoa, nearly got me there. Also, not cool man, I thought we were buddies! Now I gotta take you in by force-¡± Yet again, X was cut off. A metal rod streaked into view, impaling X through the chest, sending him hurtling forwards. X impacted the ground a few meters away from Jacob, where the rod stuck X into the ground fast. Jacob¡¯s head jerked forward, looking for the cause of the projectile. And, unexpectedly, standing there was the rebellious worker drone that he had assumed had run off by now at the sight of a disassembly drone. Instead, it stood there with their hand outstretched, and a rather curious glowing holographic symbol hovering around their hand. Jacob wasn¡¯t sure if worker drones normally did that, but in his limited experience, he was pretty sure that none of them had the capabilities to even come close to what that one just did. The strange worker drone then seemed to notice Jacob, its gaze unnaturally jerking towards him in a zombie-like manner. It then pointed its hand in Jacob¡¯s direction, with another one of those symbols popping up around its hand. Jacob braced himself for immediate and violent death, but something seemed to stop it. Its head cocked to the side, as if it was confused. It smacked its arm, before pointing angrily in Jacob¡¯s direction again. Nothing happened. Jacob lowered his guard a small amount. He was a bit confused by the current events, but his eyes kept drifting back to the symbol, or rather, the strange . . . aura . . . it gave off. Something about it was, he grasped for the words . . . Familiar. Interesting, you know Jacob, maybe you should take the opportunity to run away instead of gawking stupidly at a weird glow stick bracelet, because you aren¡¯t indestructible- The strange worker drone then came out of thought, seemingly due to an epiphany of some kind. It jerked its hand towards Jacob again, but this time, he felt himself get yanked upwards, as if something had grabbed him with a massive hand, and was now raising him up. Well, as he thought about it, it felt more like he was being lifted up by the armor he wore, which by proxy was lifting him up, which might be something to take note of- The strange worker drone then seemed to teleport forward, the air warping as it did so. It got a few feet away from Jacob, before, surprisingly, speaking a few words. ¡°What ARE you?¡± It asked, with Jacob too preoccupied to try and analyze its voice tones. ¡°Hell if I know.¡± Jacob grunted in reply. ¡°Hmm.¡± It seemed almost disappointed. ¡°Pity.¡± Jacob then saw what looked like a generic kitchen knife floating upwards from a bag that rested on its side. On closer inspection, the sharp implement had another one of those strange glowing symbols dancing along its handle. Then Jacob had the bright idea to maybe, oh I don¡¯t know, try and escape? Jacob strained against whatever force was locking his armor in place, trying to lift his pistol up to pop a bullet in whatever this thing was, but to no avail. The armor seemed to shift slightly, but little else occurred. He then looked back at the knife, which now had the pointy end hovering a foot away from his face, which was now deeply worrying. ¡°Well, whatever you are, I suppose that this is goodbye.¡± The creature¡¯s mouth was covered by a bandanna, but he could hear it well enough. It then finally all hit Jacob at that very moment. He was going to die, and he couldn¡¯t do anything about it. He had lived for hundreds of years, had survived a planet-killing event, had gone through various other dangerous events along the way, and it was all for nothing, all because some third-party decided to show up at the last second to end him with such ease it was laughable how little he could do. Instead of reminiscing about his life, remembering all the fun and happy moments that he had experienced in his years, he grew angry instead. Jacob raged against the cold indifference of the cosmos, raging that he had rolled the dice plenty of times to come out on top, only for his luck to run out on this single moment, and at the most inopportune time as well. He wanted to scream, all the pent-up emotion that he had been lacking for the past year finally boiling to the surface at that very moment. He opened his mouth to scream- -and got a knife in his head instead, specifically his left eye. [WARNING: HOST HAS SUFFERED LETHAL DAMAGE] [ACTIVATING ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL . . .] [ERROR: SAFETY PROTOCOLS FORBID ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL FROM ACTIVATING] [WARNING: HOST DEATH = DELETION OF USER] [COMPROMISING . . .] [SOLUTION CONCLUDED] [ENACTING TEMPORARY ¡°MEMORIAL PARASITE¡± PROTOCOL] * * * Ren watched placidly as the worker drone stopped twitching, the final vestiges of life exiting its body at last. She wasn¡¯t sure why the Absolute Solver had refused to operate, claiming something about how it couldn¡¯t be applied on like objects, but that was over and done with now. She had hoped to get some answers out of the drone, but they were either stubborn, or an idiot. Perhaps both. Then, Ren heard a groan, and then a gasp from the murder drone that she had forgotten about. It seemed to focus on the body at her feet. ¡°Did you just- uh oh, well, looks like you just messed up.¡± Ren followed its gaze back down to her recent victim, noting the blood starting to form around the cracks in its oddly non-glowing visor. Wait, blood? Ren blinked, sweeping her vision for anything obscuring it. Nope, nothing, what she was seeing was either a trick of the non-existent light or actual human blood, which shouldn¡¯t have been possible. Ren supposed that she had produced organic material before, but bleeding? No, that just didn¡¯t add up. Then, Ren was shook out of her thoughts by a certain murder drone tackling her across the waist. The war machine seemed to have gotten itself unstuck, and had taken the opportunity to attack her when she was distracted. She mentally berated herself for letting an enemy sneak up on her like that, which she hadn¡¯t done for awhile now. She simply formed a shield around herself, before pushing it outwards to repulse the attacker away from her. It was pushed backwards, doing a flip before landing on its two feet. In response, the murder drone shifted both of its hands into submachine guns, pointing the both of them at her before pelting her with bullets. The projectiles bounced right off the shield she had made, pinging off and away from the summoned surface. ¡°My turn.¡± Ren grinned behind her bandanna. She yanked the knife that had been embedded in the corpse¡¯s head out of it, duplicating it thrice over. Ren then launched the three of them at the murder drone, who extended its wings to defend itself from the incoming culinary equipment. Ren was right about to press her attack when something impaled her from behind. As if karma was real, a blade went straight into her abdomen, before lifting her up and throwing her a few feet away. Ren shook her head, hoping to get whatever fog was in her head right back out. She really seemed off her game today, but Ren resolved herself to not let it happen again. Healing her wound, Ren stood up to take the measure of her three challengers. A standard number for a disassembly drone squad, which likely meant that the entirety of this region¡¯s assailants were right here, ripe for the taking. This would prove useful for her experiments, if she could disable the trio for good. While most would find that undertaking that task a futile venture, Ren had a special skill set that made it quite possible. A flurry of bullets were stopped in their tracks by her shield, as well as a flying rocket, which sent flames dancing all along the impervious surface. One of them dashed forward, claws outstretched. However, Ren simply grabbed a crate that was minding its own business off to the side, flinging it into the oncoming murder drone. It was sent flying in the other direction, hitting a tent and causing it to collapse, getting all tangled up in the process. The other two flanked her, each one coming at her from her left and right respectively. When they were close enough, Ren dove forward, letting the two disassembly drones hit each other at full speed as if it was a cartoon, with the only thing missing being the dramatic ¡°WHAAABONK¡± and a tuba noise as the two emphasized getting to their feet in a dazed stupor. Ren smirked, preparing a length of metal rebar that had been lying on the ground to impale the two. She duplicated it several times over, numbering at least fifteen by the time it was done. The murder drones would be stuck in the ground, metal embedded in every part of their body. She would keep the head mostly intact, as in the slight case that too much damage was sustained to the body, the functioning head would keep the backup systems from turning on. Hopefully. However, right when Ren was about to launch the projectiles, someone could be heard yelling from behind her. ¡°STOP WHERE YOU ARE, ALL OF YOU, OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!¡± Ren turned around to see a line of about fifty of those weird militarized drones surrounding the area where she and the disassembly drones were in. They all had their guns held up, all of them aiming directly at the three drones that she had basically incapacitated, and more than a few held some sort of explosive weapon. Ren deliberated her next course of action for a moment, but when one took into account the fact that he had been using her powers extensively as of late, with no source of cooling down, this would be an opportune time to refuel. With her decision made, Ren reached out to a random military drone in the crowd, a slight whine being heard as she activated the program. Then, with a simple flick of her hand, an arm tore off of her victim and headed towards her. A gasp was heard from the area where she pulled it from, but the larger crowd didn¡¯t seem to register what had just happened. She took the opportunity to take a good ol¡¯ munch outta it, which should last her for as long as it mattered. Then, as the word spread like wildfire, likely through small-end communications systems, the attention of the military drones turned to her. ¡°GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR WITH YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOU HEAD, AND WE WILL NOT OPEN FIRE!¡± Whoever was yelling at her wasn¡¯t getting the hint, so she decided to give him it. She pointed her hand out, picking out the one who kept on screaming and shouting, before applying the right pressure in the right places to cause his uppermost extremity to pop, which was his head. For a moment, all was blissfully silent. And then all hell broke loose. Another drone gave the order she had been expecting. ¡°OPEN FIRE!¡± Countless bullets ripped through the air towards her, causing shields to reflexively spring up around her as if she was a little turtle. The rounds peppered the virtually indestructible surfaces, with little thuds resonating throughout the small chamber she had made for herself. She gave it maybe a few more seconds before their ammo ran out, which was where she would make her move. But then, something unexpected happened. Ren had believed that once the disassembly drones were able to dust themselves off, they would begin slaughtering the unsuspecting drones as they always did, which would give her the time she needed to make her escape. By blowing through the stressed lines, there would be little to no resistance on her path forward. But, it seemed like the aforementioned murder drones had a bone to pick with her, as they finally did something unexpected. A laser sliced through the air, crackling as it came into contact with her shield. A missile streaked towards her, which she would¡¯ve redirected if she had the concentration to spare. It impacted her shield, which stressed the already-tenuous connection she had made. Through the haze, she saw the one that she had sent into the tent walk up with a sword for a hand, before repeatedly chopping into the shield with gusto. To make matters worse, it seemed like the military drones hadn¡¯t unloaded all of their magazines all at once, but were instead taking turns doing that, so the barrage would last much longer than she had originally thought All of this was bad news for her, as she could feel her concentration waver. So, she made the executive decision to make a gamble that would hopefully turn out in her favor. Ren dispelled the shield she had made, rapidly expanding it outwards to repel anything that was close to her, which included the sword one. The bullets still flew towards her, unimpeded by any sort of barrier. However, she ducked and twisted through the air in a way that was awfully reminiscent of a certain chosen one in a simulation made by robots to keep humans placid while they farmed them for energy. Ren only felt a single bullet scrape against her visor, leaving a marked furrow, before flying away. The sudden dispelling of the shield also meant that there was no longer any barrier stopping the bullets from becoming a force of crossfire. Cries and yelps of pain marked the bullets finding homes in unintended targets, which caused the stream of rounds to stop for a moment while the military drones redirected their aim. Another missile flew towards her, but she managed to grab it with her power, sending it flying into the line opposite of the one that had fired at her. Ren grabbed a handful of military drones, crashing them into their own comrades with a twist of the wrist. Chaos reigned for a moment, which Ren took as her opportunity to GTFO. Preparing for the escape, Ren marshaled the remnants of her will. She was about to teleport when one last attack came from behind. A sword sliced upwards, nearly breaking her concentration. While she had managed to dodge in time to prevent the blade from bisecting her, it still cut up and into her left forearm, chopping off the extremity from the elbow down. A familiar LED face showed up in the corner of her vision, showcasing a large X that stretched across its entire visor instead of eyes, but she only caught a glimpse of it before the teleport finished. With a terrible crackling noise, a singular dot of black appeared around her midsection, quickly expanding into something a little larger than a softball. It seemed to absorb light, sucking any illumination that was near it into its focal point. In fact, if one were to focus on the edges around the ball of darkness, then they would see the very air and light around it bending and twisting, a clear giveaway to its inherent nature. Suddenly, Ren¡¯s form wobbled for a moment, right before collapsing in on itself, falling into the inky depths of the miniature black hole. * * * Meanwhile, a few miles away from the encampment, a small orb of infinite black appeared, a fork of crackling energy forming around the spot where it showed up. Finally outside of bounds, Ren collapsed to her knees inside of a crater (which just so happened to house a bisected worker drones corpse), breathing heavily. The stress that she had been holding in finally got to her. She had messed up several times throughout the battle, and the only thing that had saved her was her own sheer willpower, and even that had run dry towards the end. Ren planned to analyze what went wrong, and how to make sure that she didn¡¯t make the same mistakes next time something like this happened. Ren was also disappointed that she hadn¡¯t been able to capture a disassembly drone for her own purposes, but getting out alive was more important than that. While she did have extreme regenerative capabilities, everything had a limit. She hadn¡¯t found that limit, and she never wanted to anyway. But now that she was out of danger, something did nag at her for a moment. That person that she had killed had, somehow, turned out to be a human, or something close to it at least. Ren wasn¡¯t sure what a human was doing down here, but whatever the reason, it was not good news for her. Ren had a feeling that things weren¡¯t so simple anymore, and that this was only the tip of the iceberg. Episode Six: Elegance and Alliance The room was, yet again, silent. Some would even go so far as to say that you could hear a pin drop, but most would say that was too radical of a notion, and that they should dispel the rogue idea from their minds lest Big Brother find out. The room wasn¡¯t filled with your standard brand of people that normally frequented the space, but the setting was familiar. The room was intended for meetings, which it was currently being used for, but the ones who were meeting up weren¡¯t the standard set of people that occupied the space most of the time. On one side of the table lay seated a trio of facility drones, one a worker and the other two military. Interspersed around the edge of the room were about a dozen armed military drones, all standing ramrod-straight as their watchful eyes . . . well, watched. The other side of the large table had a bit of a different placement, more unexpected considering where they were and their current state of action, or rather, inaction. A trio of drones like the opposite side, but all of them the disassembly variant. The fact that no bullets were flying or nobody was dead was something to behold, a miracle in and of itself. A few more seconds passed with no battle erupting between them, which raised even more celebrations across the universe. However, while no violent event had occurred yet, anybody with half a brain could practically see the tension in the air, waiting for it to snap. But, this aforementioned tension that was ever-present was ruined by the loud and dramatic smacking of lips. The entirety of the room¡¯s occupants turned to look at the origin of the sound, which would be identified as one of the disassembly drones. X chewed absentmindedly on the snack he was snacking on, before seemingly realizing that everybody in the room was glaring at him. ¡°What? What did I do?¡± X cried out. A did a small gesture with his head, motioning towards what X was currently eating. ¡°Oh yeah, sorry guys, I¡¯m just finishing up my Karl¡¯s Grilled Cheese, tastes really good. Actually, I got some extra Feastables right down here if some of y¡¯all want some, let me see here . . .¡± X trailed off as he began rummaging around in his pockets. ¡°Well, I suppose now is as good a time as any to finally get this meeting underway.¡± The worker drone spoke up. ¡°Hmm.¡± A replied, scanning the room. ¡°I believe introductions are in order. I¡¯m Agen, I¡¯m the designated foreign ambassador, and these are my military counterparts.¡± Agen gestured towards the two military drones beside him. ¡°This is Resen, and I¡¯m Emeli, and I would say it¡¯s good to see you, if it was true.¡± Emeli deadpanned. ¡°Ditto.¡± A didn''t stop glaring. Agen spoke up. ¡°Now, let''s all keep this orderly, we do have some matters to discuss.¡± ¡°I concur, now how about we get on with it already? I¡¯m losing my patience far faster than I would¡¯ve thought.¡± If A could¡¯ve glared any harder, he would¡¯ve. ¡°I believe we should introduce ourselves, sir.¡± K spoke up. ¡°Really?¡± A raised an eyebrow at Agen, who ignored it. ¡°Fine. I¡¯m A, the idiot to my left is X, and this is K.¡± A gestured towards the respective disassembly drones. ¡°Well, that''s over and done with, now let''s get straight to the heart of things. We believe that you requested this meeting for obvious reasons, correct?¡± Agen inquired. ¡°If it''s that obvious, then you tell me.¡± A tossed the ball right back into Agen¡¯s court. Agen seemed slightly caught off-guard. ¡°Ahem, well, after you . . . visited us, to retrieve the asset-¡± The room let out a collective wince at the mention. ¡°-it seems you encountered a third party, one that attacked both you and us with what seemed to be reality-bending abilities, before killing the asset. Did I miss the mark?¡± A nodded his assent. Agen paused. ¡°Was that a, ¡®Yes, you got it right.¡¯ or a, ¡®Yes, you missed the mark.¡¯?¡± A scoffed. ¡°The former, congrats, you hit dead-center as far as I¡¯m concerned.¡± ¡°Good, now obviously, a foe with power such as that one isn¡¯t one that either of us want. And, it seemed to handle the both of us attacking them together quite handedly. And to sum up the entire basis of this meeting, ¡®The enemy of my enemy is my friend.¡¯. Correct me if I¡¯m wrong, but you wish to cooperate with us to bring this new unknown enemy to justice.¡± Agen wasn¡¯t asking a question. ¡°Right again.¡± A confirmed. The room was silent once again. Agen raised an eyebrow. ¡°Well?¡± ¡°Well what?¡± A scoffed again. ¡°This is the part where you offer your input on the subject.¡± Agen¡¯s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. ¡°You explained everything that happened already to a tee, I don¡¯t see the need for any further pointless blather.¡± A shrugged. ¡°Well- I don¡¯t-¡± Agen spluttered, before Resen finally spoke up. ¡°I can take it from here, foreman. What happens next is out of your field of expertise.¡± Resen offered a placating smile. ¡°Oh fine, take it away then.¡± Agen resigned himself to sitting in a chair. Resen nodded. ¡°Good, now A, that is your name, correct?¡± Resen didn¡¯t wait for an answer. ¡°Good, so as you saw, the unknown attacker demonstrated abilities far beyond what we have seen before, incapacitating you and your squad for some time before we arrived on the scene, and even then it made mincescrap out of our troops.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t forget it killed my asset.¡± A interjected. ¡°Yes, it killed THE asset, as of right now, the asset is not any of ours, considering its current state.¡± Resen corrected. A simply harrumphed. Resen continued on. ¡°Anyway, the motivations and intentions of the attacker are unknown, but it is clear that they, whatever they are, are extremely hostile, and have no qualms about killing whoever it needs to achieve whatever it wants.¡± ¡°And thus, a course of action must be decided upon immediately. We know that you were sent here by a corporation, so perhaps you have some avenues to consider.¡± Resen mentioned the little fact about their origins so casually that it took A a moment to register it. For a moment, he panicked, wondering if she knew the full story. While it would be ridiculous to think that they somehow knew everything and the entire circumstances behind their deployment, they also shouldn¡¯t have known that they were sent by a company. However, A relaxed a bit when he realized she didn¡¯t mention anything specific about the company. That meant that she either didn¡¯t know, or she was keeping it from him to keep him guessing about how much she knew, which was a bit loopy if one thought about it for a moment. Whatever, it changed nothing. A didn¡¯t offer Resen a response, so she attempted to continue on. However, she was stopped by a rather loud knock on the table. The entire room, yet again, turned to see that X was the source of the sound. Again. A glared at X. ¡°What do you need this time!?¡± X stared back up at A with round, innocent eyes. ¡°I¡¯m out of Skittles.¡± A groaned. * * * Ren opened the door, it creaked loudly in the silence. The eerie lack of noise might have unnerved her some time back, but that was a while ago. Now, she had a mission, and that occupied her attention more than some spooky noises, or rather, the lack of it. She had cleared out this colony a while back, and while it was gruesome work, it was necessary for her to continue on her journey. Now, she had the entire bunker to herself, with nothing preventing her from completing her work. It was vital work, after all. Very few actually understood the necessity of her actions, but Ren held out hope that one day they would see reason. Ren walked into the room that had likely once been a workshop of some kind, but it suited her needs quite nicely now that the previous owners had kindly dropped dead. The various machines and equipment that populated the area were useful for her purposes, even though they occasionally fell short of their requirements. With a twist of her wrist, the lights flickered on, illuminating the room in a gloomy, red glow. The lights had been stuck in alert-mode ever since she came here, and she had never figured out how to turn them off. Ren didn¡¯t want to risk breaking the lights, so she just left them like that. It served her needs well enough, so if it ain¡¯t broke, don¡¯t fix it. Ren walked up to a random countertop that was coated in oil and grime. Laying on it was a severed head of a worker drone, along with a data module that had been ripped straight from the source. The donor of the aforementioned data module had come from another severed head, however, this one belonged to a disassembly drone instead of a worker. She had stumbled upon an unattended landing pod a little bit ago, and upon inspection, it just had a random severed head lying around. While convenient for her purposes, she really wondered how and why it had gotten there. Eh, not too important. She didn¡¯t really need to use the precision tools, as her abilities were more than up to the task. Instead, she grabbed a troubleshooting maintenance kit, before hooking it up to the worker drone head. Nothing happened for a moment, but when Ren activated the device, the visor of the severed head lit up with a string of incoherent code, before the screen on the maintenance kit lit up as well, showcasing the current state of the worker drone. It told of several key components being missing, as well as the majority of its body mass, which made sense. Ren didn¡¯t really care about all that, so she continued on. Ren, using her powers, cut a thin line along what would be the cranium of the severed head, making sure not to cut too far into it, as that would damage the delicate electronics inside. After about thirty seconds, the top loosened. She grabbed it and tossed it aside, letting it land in a heap of discarded parts. She did a small search for the singular part that she was looking for, before spotting what she needed. A receptacle for extra programs to be inserted by the manufacturer if the buyer so requested it. Maybe it would be a culinary program, a precision program, or just a cool sounding one that made everyone look at it and say, ¡°Ooooh, fancy!¡± and wet their pants. Whichever one it was, it didn¡¯t matter. What mattered was that any sort of data module with the proper plug could fit and work if it was inserted. Ren yanked out the small device that had been plugged in there, causing a little spark to fly in the process. She grabbed the disassembly drone data module from the side, before checking it over for any signs of wear and tear. This part was the most fragile and dangerous one of the operation, as any sort of miscalculation could backfire terribly on her. The data module that she currently had contained what was known as the Absolute Solver, the same program that gave her all of these super duper cool powers. Ren didn¡¯t know what would happen if she messed up here, or even what would happen when she turned it on, but nevertheless, she had to be careful. Without further ado, Ren carefully plugged the data module into the receptacle, before waiting. For a moment, nothing happened. But then, a single error message popped up on the maintenance kit¡¯s screen, which told of a foreign and invasive strain of code hijacking several essential systems. That error message turned into two, which turned into three, then four, five, and six. Soon, both the visor of the severed head and the maintenance kit were beeping and blinking, chirping their problems at her. Sparks flew from the exposed guts of the severed head, which was also when holographic error messages and windows began to pop up in the air. Ren did her best to stay calm, as she had expected this, sort of. When she peeked inside the head, she saw a mysterious liquid beginning to fill the inside of the head, which quickly began to flow out of the mouth as well. Ren scanned the substance with her powers to confirm her suspicions. Yep, it was blood. Just then, Ren felt something poke her in the hand, causing her to jerk back. She quickly checked inside the head, but whatever had touched her sank back into the murky depths. Ren did quick check of the screen on the maintenance kit, which had begun to show more and more incoherent messages, which ranged from garbled error strings, to things like ¡°W3 T#4nK Y0 F01 L3t7iNg u5 0uT¡± and ¡°Th1s F34sT W1lL B3 9eRf3cT¡±. Ren looked back to the severed head to see the visor switching from an error screen to a familiar glowing X, and saw something darting around inside of its mouth. Ren, logically, decided that this was far enough. She held out a hand, activating her abilities. However, when she tried to grab the data module that she knew was in there, her program simply refused, stating that same odd error message about ¡°Like Objects¡± and whatnot again. Ren would have to research this later, but she had things to do. Ren reached inside the red soup that occupied the inside of the head, ignoring the odd thickness of it. She would¡¯ve just grabbed it with her spooky-scary witch-powers if it had worked, but from what had just happened, that wasn¡¯t the case. Once she had a solid grip on what she thought was the data module, she yanked on it with all of her strength. Something wrapped around her hand to try and prevent her from doing that, but it seemed like it was too weak to fully resist her. With a wet schlop, the data module came out of the head, coated in blood. However, the severed head was still doing the same kooky-crazy stuff, which was worrying. Ren, thinking fast, saw an industrial-strength crusher off to her right by about five feet. She wasn¡¯t sure why the workshop had a random crusher just lying around, but she wasn¡¯t going to complain. She took a step towards it, but ended up tripping over something that had wrapped around her leg. Ren looked back to see that the severed head had, apparently, decided to evolve, growing a set of four crab-like legs. It had grabbed her left leg with its front two, and as she fell, it let go, skittering towards her face. Creepy. Ren looked around, seeing a monkey wrench lying right next to her. She grabbed it, turning around just in time to see the headcrab leaping into the air. She utilized her inner Babe Ruth, swinging the wrench with all of her might. Her aim struck true, smacking the headcrab right in the side. It screeched, flying across the room in a perfect arc, before landing right in the basket of the crusher. As it tried to flip itself over, Ren tossed the monkey wrench, it being a perfect arc as well. The wrench hit the button to activate it just as the headcrab righted itself. A gate sprung up just in time, preventing the headcrab from escaping. The large piston groaned, before slowly lowering itself onto the panicking creature. It squealed as its room to breathe became smaller and smaller, until it could no longer move. Several resounding cracks bounced throughout the room as the casing fought pneumatic power, and lost. Ren waited for a moment, and when nothing happened, she breathed a sigh of relief. To be frank she had expected much worse, but this was more palatable compared to some of the more frightening possibilities. She got to her feet, dusting herself off. She grabbed a clipboard that held a blank data sheet, before starting to scribble in the results of the experiment. While it had been fairly dangerous, she had succeeded in her goal of transferring disassembly drone software to worker drone hardware, which was another step in the right path. Next thing to do was to figure out that strange error message she got when she had tried to use her super-duper-cool magic powers on the experiment, which said something about like objects or something. When she thought about it, she realized it was probably trying to say that she couldn¡¯t use her abilities on other things that held the same program. This coincided with her inability to directly manipulate disassembly drones, but she had thought that that was exclusive to them. Satisfied, Ren nodded to herself, only to remember one last thing. When she tried to manipulate that human, didn¡¯t it come up with the same error message? * * * [WARNING: HOST HAS SUFFERED LETHAL DAMAGE] [ACTIVATING ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL . . .] [ERROR: SAFETY PROTOCOLS FORBID ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL FROM ACTIVATING] [WARNING: HOST DEATH = DELETION OF USER] [COMPROMISING . . .] [SOLUTION CONCLUDED] [ENACTING TEMPORARY ¡°MEMORIAL PARASITE¡± PROTOCOL] Jacob was bored. Like, really bored. The doctors had claimed that they would be away for only a few minutes, but he was pretty sure that it had already been half an hour. Groaning, Jacob looked at the clock, which had a notably absent clicking sound. Upon further inspection, it appeared as though the longest hand had stopped altogether. So it seemed like not only were the doctors late, but the cheap clock had broken. Like, come on, this was the future! Shouldn¡¯t we already be past this!? Jacob shook his head, before sitting back down. This was ridiculous. Then, an idea came to Jacob. While the doctors had expressly told him not to exit the room under any circumstances at all, he supposed that he could at least ask the guards where they had gone. His mind made up, Jacob reached out to the door, fist raised to knock on it. However, right when he rapped the door once, it drifted open. Odd, it seemed like the door had been unlocked this entire time. He could¡¯ve sworn that he heard the familiar locking sound a moment after the door had shut behind the trio of doctors. Eh, best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Well, considering the context behind that saying, wouldn¡¯t it be prudent to look the gift horse in the mouth? After all, if the Trojans had known right from the getgo that the horse was a lie, and that plenty of Greek soldiers lay inside, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, then the destruction of Troy likely wouldn¡¯t have happened. Therefore, if one didn¡¯t look a gift horse in the mouth, that wouldn¡¯t get rid of the problem. All you would be doing is lying to yourself that everything is fine, and that there is nothing to worry about. So, one should ALWAYS look a gift horse in the mouth, ALWAYS doubt yourself, NEVER take ANYTHING for granted, because YOU CAN¡¯T TRUST ANYBODY, NOT EVEN YOURSELF, JACOB- Jacob didn¡¯t hear or see any guards trying to stop him, so maybe they were blind and deaf guards. He still wanted to at least try and talk to them, so he slowly opened the door so as to not startle them so much that they turned him into swiss cheese. However, as the door slowly opened, nothing stopped him. Jacob could now see into the hallway, and upon further inspection, it seemed like no guards were posted at his door. Alright, maybe they just went for a quick lunch break, and they either forgot to notify someone, or didn¡¯t feel like it. The fact that nobody else was in the hallway didn¡¯t unnerve him at all, of course not. Jacob stepped out into the hallway, his shoe making a rather loud noise in the silence. The squeak of the rubber echoed through the empty halls, falling on nonexistent ears. He waited for somebody to come and stop him, but nobody even called out to question anything. The lights were awfully dim as well, giving the area a gloomy appearance. This was all very strange, everytime he had come out here it had been bustling with activity, and guards were always posted at his door as well, as far as he could tell. Okay, maybe there was some sort of fire drill that people forgot to mention, and they just forgot about him? Jacob didn¡¯t believe that for a second. You know what? How ¡®bout we just mosey on back in the room, it¡¯ll be fine, it''s not like- Jacob turned around, feeling the wall behind him for the door handle, and while he found it, it didn¡¯t turn. When he fully rotated, jiggling the handle, it simply refused, as if it was locked. For no reason at all. Shoot. Just then, Jacob heard a squeaking noise coming from right BEHIND YOU- Whipping his head around, Jacob turned to see the exact opposite of what he had believed he would have seen. What would that be? Well, a whole lot of nothing, that''s what. The hallway was empty, save for a few random crates and Jacob himself. He could¡¯ve sworn that he had heard something. Then, Jacob realized something. The squeaking noise was the same exact kind of squeak that his shoe had made when it rubbed the wrong way against the linoleum. He hadn¡¯t felt the telltale vibrations that the floor made against his shoe again, so it hadn¡¯t been him, right? This entire thing was giving him a lot of Silent Hill vibes, but what mattered was remaining calm, and keeping a cool and collected head. Whenever panic set in, that was when the spooky-scary horror-movie-monster jumped, screaming at the camera before impaling the poor victim. Poor guy, he was destined to die from the very start. However, Jacob would make sure to not meet the same fate as ScaredVictim - Extra#04, as he was smarter than that. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe. Anyway, best a time to get moving as any. Jacob began walking down the hall, attempting to silence his footsteps. The lack of almost all signs of human life, save for a few scattered items as if someone had simply dropped everything and disappeared and Jacob himself, and the eerie emptiness of the halls made for an environment similar to a certain Pasta that is Creepy from when he was still permanently off-ice. Jacob came to a fork in the hall, with the left path leading him off to the cryo chamber, and the right went down to the offices, the lounge, the loading docks, and the storage containers. The cryo chamber was a dead end, as it was the sole area of note on that side of the building, so he chose the right path, which would hopefully not be wrong. He wasn¡¯t exactly sure what his goal was, maybe he was looking for people? Perhaps he would take the opportunity to escape, but where would he go? Jacob wanted to focus on the fact that the door to his room had just locked behind him for no reason, but for some reason he just didn¡¯t feel the need. After walking past several janitor closets and maintenance access doors, Jacob finally arrived at the large double doors that signified the beginning of the offices. The office area was split into two sections; the normal offices and the administrative offices, which were pretty self-explanatory. You had the standard office cubicles, and then the offices for the higher-ups, not too complicated. Jacob expected to see at least ONE person, but nope, nothing yet. He supposed that he could try the Director¡¯s Office, but if he hadn¡¯t seen anybody yet at all, then he didn¡¯t have that much hope that his location would yield results. Turning the familiar corridor, Jacob began walking the way to the Director¡¯s Office, unsure of what he would find there. It really depended on, if he did find anybody there, what they would say. Jacob was still holding out hope that maybe a fire drill did happen, and nobody bothered to tell or get him. It would be very unprofessional of them, and would probably break countless vital protocols, but there was still a chance, right? As Jacob turned the corner, he stopped dead in his tracks, his brain freezing up for a moment. Right in front of where the entrance to the Director¡¯s Office would be was a large pile of shattered concrete, rock, plaster, and other various building materials. A cave-in. You¡¯ve gotta be kidding me- Jacob shook his head, turning back around. Alright, so, maybe the building had been evacuated due to a failure of structural integrity, and they had all somehow forgotten about him. But, why wouldn¡¯t any alarms be sounding if the entire building was coming down? This all just screamed bad stuff, so maybe it was time to leave. Jacob began walking in the direction that the many exit signs were pointing, which turned into a brisk speed-walk, which evolved into a light jog. His heart sped up to match his pace, which would¡¯ve been weird if it hadn¡¯t done that. Also weird that he came up with that notion. Eh, everybody has weird thoughts every once in a while, you know- What was that!? Jacob jerked his head to the left, skidding to a stop. He could¡¯ve sworn that he saw something darting into the small storage closet to his left, something long and worm-like. The door to the closet was slightly ajar, with the lights inside the room completely off, leaving it in pitch-black darkness. ScaredVictim - Extra#04 would¡¯ve gone in to investigate, but Jacob wasn¡¯t that dumb. Jacob turned his earlier light jog into a hard jog, hoping to just meet up with the evacuated people outside, if his theory was correct. The thing in the corner of his vision was probably just a trick of the light, a specter of the mind. Probably. Jacob finally saw the stairwell for the emergency exit, but something about it was off. He couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it, but something was different. He didn¡¯t know why, and he didn¡¯t care. Time to get out of this spooky-scary research lab. Jacob prepared himself for a moment, before sprinting up the stairs. He took two steps at a time, and while anybody with him would¡¯ve tried to grab him if they were here, they weren¡¯t so suck on that. His footsteps echoed throughout the stairwell, bouncing back and forth, around and around and around. If his memory serves correctly from the various safety meetings that he had been subjected to in case of an emergency like this one, this stairwell led straight into the lobby, where he would hopefully meet up with the rest of the Science Team. It went up exactly three floors, which shouldn¡¯t take too long to scale. But, as Jacob climbed the stairwell, he noticed it wasn¡¯t stopping. He should¡¯ve hit the exit a few moments ago, but still nothing. It just kept going up, with no end in sight. Coming to a halt, Jacob inspected the area around him, trying to see if this really WAS the exit stairwell. Maybe, in his hurry to GTFO, he had taken a wrong turn, and was currently going up into . . . something . . . he didn¡¯t know. There weren¡¯t any buildings tall enough above him that connected to the one he was in, so if his calculations were correct, he was going up into empty space, which again, wasn¡¯t possible. Eh, he probably just got something wrong along the way, no biggie. Jacob turned around, going back down the stairs as fast as he could. He was really speedrunning this, as he had no idea how the building would be holding, and for how much longer. However, as the rapid-fire bangs of his footsteps rang through the stairwell, Jacob noticed something changing with his grip on the banister. Instead of the smooth steel rod that was always present on the side of the stairs, it felt more . . . bumpy? Jacob looked down to investigate the handrail at his right, and was met with yet another impossibility. The handrail, while it had previously been a smooth and polished steel, was now a wooden banister with fancy swirls and twists carved into the grain. What? Jacob looked at the banister for a few more seconds, just in case his mind was pulling a fast one on him. However, the handrail didn¡¯t change, staying the same way it was. He looked back up the stairs to see how long it had been like that, and was, yet again, shocked when he saw that the wooden handrail went up, turned the bend, and went where he couldn¡¯t see. Alright, okay, maybe he had gone down too far, and for some reason, the designers of the building installed a wooden banister partway down the stairs, which was kinda stupid, but it was possible, unlike some other possibilities. Therefore, Jacob would need to go back up, and watch out for the door so he didn¡¯t miss it a second time. Maybe he had blinked at just the right moment, and he missed seeing the door. Perhaps he had experienced tunnel vision, and just thought that the space he had seen in his peripheral vision was empty, when in reality it was the door. Yes, that must¡¯ve been it, silly Jacob. Jacob began ascending the stairwell again, slightly annoyed by the back and forth of his short journey. He just wanted to get out, was that so hard? Well, it probably should be hard for him to escape, considering how much the government wants him. Jacob looked down, only to notice yet another thing out of place. On one of the steps, instead of solid concrete, he was standing on a polished plank of wood. He looked ahead, and saw the concrete interspersed with more and more wood planks. Weird. Jacob slowed his pace down, watching as more and more wooden planks replaced the concrete as he walked up. His brain was currently protesting the reality of the situation, but there wasn¡¯t anything he could do about it. He was both immensely confused, and yet also curious, as is the plight of humanity. As Jacob went up another set of stairs, he noticed a pair of double doors, these ones also made out of varnished and polished wood. You would normally see these kinds of things in mansions and the like, but Jacob didn¡¯t think that he was in a mansion. But none of that mattered, as yes, you found the door, Jacob, now just walk on through, reorient yourself, and you¡¯ll be home free! Jacob pushed open the double doors in a grand flourish, instinct from his past experiences. He took a step forward, only to stop with a jolt. Yet again, he encountered another impossibility. Instead of monotone gray concrete walls and halls, he saw what appeared to be an old Victorian era manor entrance, complete with an ornate chandelier, intricate designs along the walls and floor, and yellow lighting. The area was also filled with people, kind of. While they had the outlines and shapes of general humans, albeit wearing the same Victorian era clothing, they had absolutely zero features past that. Instead of colors which would signify anything at all, they were a flickering matte-black color, with the only exception being their glowing white eyes. They were all engaged in some sort of chatter, whispering to themselves and the other ¡°people¡± next to them. At least, they had been doing that a moment ago. When Jacob had pushed open the doors, it wasn¡¯t exactly the most quiet thing in the world. They flew outwards with a loud creak, before hitting the walls. A doorstop would¡¯ve prevented them from slamming against the walls, but it was probably just another one of those rich people things. However, the aforementioned opening of the door had the unintended effect of drawing attention, as large noises tended to do. Every single last one of those freaks gazes jerked towards Jacob, causing him to freeze like a deer in headlights. For a moment, his flight or fight instincts rose, with the flight option seeming pretty lucrative at the moment. It took all of his willpower not to break under the pressure of those unnatural eyes. But, instead of rushing at Jacob screaming like banshees, they simply turned back to their partners to resume the rich people gossip, which Jacob couldn¡¯t hear from his location. A clap of thunder from behind Jacob drew his attention, turning a full half-circle on his heel. And what he saw was, for the millionth time, an impossibility. Instead of the stairwell, he saw what seemed to be the outside, albeit coated in a heavy rain. Thunder boomed yet again in the distance, right after a flash of lightning lit up the sky for a moment. Speaking of the sky, it was tinged in a sickly green color, looking the part of your average day in California. The Moon, while it could be seen, seemed to be notably larger than what he was used to. While he would tack that to the growing list of ¡°Things That Shouldn¡¯t Be Possible, But Still Happen Anyway¡±, he had heard of the Moon seeming larger and smaller based on your location on the globe, which was due to a human¡¯s perception. The Moon isn¡¯t shrinking or growing, it''s just your imagination, Grandpa. Here, take your pills. Jacob didn¡¯t really feel like going out in rain that looked suspiciously acidic, so he turned back around to walk in. As he took three steps forward, the door slammed shut behind him, drawing even more attention. The strange shadow people turned back towards him, with one even speaking out. ¡°OI! Quiet down that door, would you!?¡± At least, that¡¯s what Jacob thought he said. The real thing came out more like, ¡°OI! Quift doshown tatadokor, wodulu!?¡± due to the man¡¯s weird rich person accent. Due to this, Jacob began to believe that everybody around him were in fact, rich people. Rich people are weird. Jacob took a tentative step forward, and then another, and another, until he was striding across the incredibly polished floor. Like seriously, the floor was so clean, it was practically a mirror. Why would you even need a floor that shiny? All it does is blind pilots, and then you have to pay to clean up the mess of them crashing. Wait a second, was that how the new World Trade Center was funded? Did rich billionaires have such shiny floors that a pilot got blinded, and crashed into- Alright, that''s enough outta you. Jacob didn¡¯t know where he was going, but he was now sure that something was seriously wrong. Mansions filled with weird shadow people didn¡¯t just pop up out of nowhere, that was simply impossible. He was getting some serious Backrooms vibes from this place, but nonetheless, Jacob pressed on. As he passed the shadow people, he could pick out snippets of their discussions. ¡°Did you hear about the incident with one of the Elliot¡¯s drones? Supposedly, they were in the middle of setting a table, and they just-¡± Rich Guy #06 remarked. ¡°One moment, my husband is calling me, I apologize.¡± Rich Lady #02 interrupted. ¡°I hear that they have a special event planned for the gala tonight, what do you think it is?¡± Rich Guy #04 inquired. ¡°Ugh, my phone is dead, I¡¯m going to go find a charger.¡± Rich Lady #09 walked along the wall. ¡°Do you know where one of the butlers is? I need to know where the washroom is.¡± Rich Lady #05 stated. ¡°I¡¯m getting a weird feeling from that new drone that has been walking around, I don¡¯t like it.¡± Rich Lady #01 shuddered. ¡°Hey! Thare das lital munchfrumpkin!¡± Rich Shouter stomped into Jacob¡¯s path, stopping a few feet in front of him. ¡°Uh, do you mind? I¡¯m trying to walk here.¡± Jacob crossed his arms. Rich Shouter seemed to glare heavily at Jacob. ¡°Yoi iterntupedt I preftetly good tie druking seson!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, what did you just say?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°Cildhren shuldnt be inavited to tis vent!¡± Rich Shouter leaned in, causing Jacob to lean back in response. ¡°Oh my goodness, honey, back off of the poor child!¡± Rich Lady #08 ran up to the man in his face, pulling him back. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, are you alright?¡± Jacob cocked his head. ¡°I¡¯m doing fine.¡± Rich Lady #08 fanned herself for a moment. ¡°Now, where are your parents? A child shouldn¡¯t be wandering off by themselves where they could get lost.¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°I dunno.¡± ¡°So they just left you on your own!? Well, that will not do. How about we go find them, hmm?¡± Rich Lady #08 adopted a different tone, as if she were speaking to a toddler. It was slightly annoying, but Jacob wasn¡¯t going to blow this new cover he had just made on the fly. ¡° . . . sure.¡± Jacob agreed. ¡°Very good, now, why¡¯d you go off wandering outside? Did you see them last out there?¡± Rich Lady #08 fanned herself again. ¡°Uh, yeah.¡± Jacob didn¡¯t know what else to say. ¡°Well, it''s raining out, and I don¡¯t want to get myself all drenched. Let''s go ask a butler to see if they saw anything.¡± With that, Rich Lady #08 started walking off, before turning back around and calling to the man that had yelled at Jacob a moment ago. ¡°And don¡¯t you move! Not you, child, you come with me.¡± Jacob obliged, speed-walking up to the woman¡¯s side until he matched her pace. The duo walked in awkward silence for a moment. ¡°Ahem, so, what¡¯s going on here?¡± Jacob did a meager attempt to break the ice. He wasn¡¯t often the one that did that, but he viewed this as an opportune moment to try and make some sense of what the hell was going on. ¡°Hmm? What do you mean by that?¡± Rich Lady #08 peered up at Jacob. ¡°I mean, what¡¯re we all doing here?¡± Jacob clarified. Rich Lady #08 seemed to blink. ¡°You don¡¯t know why you¡¯re here?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°They never tell me anything.¡± ¡°Ugh, I must have a talk with these parents of yours, they seem very irresponsible.¡± Rich Lady #08 shook her head. ¡°Well, if you must know, we are all gathered to attend the gala event hosted by the Elliots and the, well, I must apologize, but I cannot remember the second name. Don¡¯t tell them that though.¡± Rich Lady #08 tittered. ¡°Hmm, interesting.¡± Jacob nodded, only halfway listening. ¡°Yes, I suppose. But this is the fifth one I¡¯ve had to attend this month, and it hasn¡¯t even been a week!¡± Rich Lady #08 laughed that odd rich people laugh again. ¡°Excessive.¡± Jacob commented. ¡°Hah, yes, it really is, isn¡¯t it? Oh, here we are.¡± Rich Lady #08 pointed towards another pair of double doors ahead of them, which were just closing. ¡°That¡¯s the main room. It''s a shame that whoever just went through didn¡¯t hold the doors for us.¡± As they walked up, Rich Lady #08 and Jacob both opened their respective doors at the same time, pushing in tandem. The doors opened to reveal a large room filled with fancy tables, fancy additions, fancy shadow people, probably fancy cutlery, and . . . what is that? Setting up the various tables were several relatively short figures, these ones not shadowed. However, the odd thing wasn¡¯t their height, even though it was comparable to a fifth graders, it was their head. While they were humanoid, their head was much larger than what it should¡¯ve been. It looked out of place in the real world, looking more like it belonged in a cartoon. And to make matters worse, one of the strange short people at the table ahead of the duo were lying on the ground, spurting what looked like blood out of their head. Jacob stopped in his tracks, as well as Rich Lady #08, the latter of which spoke up. Rich Lady #08 scoffed ¡°Ugh, can¡¯t they clean up around here!? I¡¯ll make sure to call a butler right away after we deal with you . . . are you okay?¡± Jacob shook himself out of his shock. ¡°Yes, it just seems . . . wasteful.¡± ¡°Hmm, I suppose. Oh, let''s ask this one.¡± Rich Lady #08 walked up to one of the short people, whose back was turned. As Jacob got closer, he saw that the ¡°hands¡± the weird short people had seemed less so like hands, and more robotic in nature. That insinuated that not only these people promoted what seemed like either child labor, or even slavery, which wasn¡¯t really signifying a rational group of people, but they also augmented them, which was- Rich Lady #08 walked up to the short person, tapping them on the shoulder, causing them to turn around. -or not, they could be robots. When the short person turned around, Jacob realized that they weren¡¯t actually a weird short person, but a weird looking robot instead. This fact was made obvious by the holographic displays on what looked like its visor. Strange design, but it worked with humans, so why not robots? ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am?¡± The ¡°butler¡± asked politely. Rich Lady #08 didn¡¯t bother with any sort of pleasantries. ¡°So, this boy you see here,¡± Rich Lady #08 laid a hand on Jacob¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Seems to have lost his parents. Now, if you would do your job and assist him in locating them, it would be great.¡± The robot looked towards Jacob. ¡°Ah yes, that¡¯ll be fine. I can take this from here, ma¡¯am.¡± Rich Lady #08 ignored the robot. ¡°Now, sweetie, I need to run, but if you have any sort of trouble that requires putting yourself in danger, then call one of these. They¡¯ll take care of it, if they survive. Stay safe!¡± With that, Rich Lady #08 strutted out of the room, pulling the double doors back open to exit, letting them shut behind her. It seemed like she had forgotten her earlier desire to call another ¡°butler¡± to clean up the . . . mess. The robot turned his attention towards Jacob. ¡°So, sir, you say that your parents have disappeared?¡± Jacob didn¡¯t answer for a moment, thinking. It was clear that either somebody was pulling a really elaborate prank on him, he was insane, or he had somehow stumbled into Britain. The majority of those options weren¡¯t too great, but Jacob intended to get to the bottom of this. He figured that these robots, including the one in front of him, weren¡¯t too trusted or valued, considering the treatment that they had been receiving for the time he had been in the room. That meant if he were to expose the robot to some sensitive information like, say, his wish to escape whatever he was in, the robot would be forced to assist him, and as an added bonus, nobody would believe him. A bit manipulative, but who really cares at this point? Jacob cleared his throat, attempting to mimic the haughty tone that rich people used. ¡°Ahem, follow me, butler.¡± The robot obliged, continuing to carry the platter of empty wine glasses it held. ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t have to bring that along.¡± Jacob assured it. The robot blinked. ¡°But . . . I have to hold this.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be fine, I assure you.¡± Jacob waved off the issue. After a moment, the robot shrugged, placing the platter down deftly on the table. Then, taking that as a cue, the duo left the room. The robot walked slightly ahead to open both doors for Jacob, doing a slight bow as Jacob walked on by. Quite useful, but then again, robots were supposed to be useful. Jacob stopped a few feet away from the double doors, waiting until they shut behind him. The robot walked to Jacob¡¯s side. ¡°So, where¡¯re we going?¡± ¡°Do you know where, say, an exit is? I already know where the front door is, obviously, but perhaps a more . . . discreet way out would be prudent in case it is required?¡± Jacob off-handedly asked, checking his fingernails as he did it to give the full aura of rich people. ¡°Wha- I¡¯m sorry sir, but I¡¯m not authorized to give that information.¡± The robot seemed put off by the question, which made Jacob worry, since robots shouldn¡¯t have emotions. ¡°Oh, forget I said anything, it was more just an absent-minded curiosity of mine anyway. Now, what were we doing?¡± Jacob looked back towards the robot. ¡°We were looking for your parents.¡± The robot said slowly. Jacob nodded. ¡°Ah yes, I remember now. I believe I last saw them in . . . the cellar.¡± Jacob figured that at least something important would be in the basement, considering how every rich family always had some sort of weird rich people cult going on in their basements, a practice that persisted to the modern era. I¡¯m looking at you, Epstein. ¡°The basement!?¡± The robot exclaimed. ¡°Yes, did I stutter?¡± Jacob peered down his nose at the robot. ¡°Well, the basement entrance is in the library, which is restricted, and guests aren¡¯t allowed in restricted areas. What were your parents doing there?¡± The robot narrowed his eyes slightly. ¡°Questioning me, are you?¡± Jacob met his gaze sternly. The robot looked away. ¡°No, it''s just that-¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter, let us be off already.¡± Jacob placed his hands behind his back, before walking away. While he didn¡¯t look to make sure that the robot was following, the rapid scurrying of footsteps served him well enough. The duo walked on in silence for a minute, rounding what seemed like an endless maze of gaudy hallways. ¡°So, nice outfit.¡± The robot spoke up, likely trying to do the same thing that Jacob had done earlier with Rich Lady #08. ¡°Hmm?¡± For the first time since exiting his room, Jacob looked down at his clothes. He had expected to see the standard jumpsuit the doctors always made him wear, but instead, he was wearing what likey fitted right in with the current setting. Black peacoat, dark and darker gray striped undershirt, a spotless white under-undershirt underneath the gray striped undershirt, a black bow tie, and black dress pants. A lot of black, to be honest. But then again, everything, save for the robot, was set to something that wouldn¡¯t look out of place hundreds of years ago, so maybe that amount of black was normal for the time. Jacob was now sure that some sort of dimensional wizardry was at work, and he had somehow been transported to this weird place. Or it was all an illusion, and the doctors were just playing an elaborate prank of him. Whatever the case, it wasn¡¯t really anything he could currently do anything about. Masking his shock for the time being, Jacob cleared his throat and nodded. ¡°Yes, I suppose it is.¡± The robot looked forward. ¡°Oh, and here we are. The library.¡± The duo had stopped outside of a large gateway, which for some reason everybody was fine with being inside the house. A sign that was hanging in the front of the gate read, ¡°RESTRICTED¡± which gave Jacob the idea that, perhaps, people weren¡¯t supposed to go there. Eh, he specifically couldn¡¯t read those words, so he pressed on. Jacob walked up to the gate, jiggling it loudly. The robot winced. ¡°Would you keep it down!?¡± ¡°Locked, hmm. Well, looks like there¡¯s a gap up there. Try to keep up!¡± Without another word, Jacob grabbed the bars of the gate, hauling himself up. He had climbed fences and trees a lot as a kid, nothing too crazy, but he did have experience in the activity. He reached the top of the gate, jumping back down onto the other side. Luckily, he didn¡¯t break a bone because he braced his legs as he fell, so at least he had that going for him. ¡°Hey, hurry up.¡± Jacob called back to the robot, who was staring wide-eyed at him. ¡°Wha- I can¡¯t go back there!¡± It exclaimed. ¡°Sheesh, it¡¯ll be fine, trust me.¡± Jacob had dropped the rich person pretense, as it was getting annoying to uphold. ¡°If you say so.¡± The butler said uneasily. The robot clutched the gate, hefting itself bar by bar. It seemed to do it significantly better and faster than Jacob, however, giving credence to the notion that these robots were at least physically stronger than humans, if not smarter in the logical and emotional sense. That didn¡¯t mean he had to like it though. Jacob looked to his side, where the butler landed. ¡°See? Not so bad.¡± ¡°That''s easy for you to say.¡± The robot muttered. Jacob didn¡¯t grace that statement with a response, instead walking forward. In clear sight were several of those robots, all dressed in equally ancient attire. However, the thing that worried him was not the fact that there were so many, but more so the fact that they wore clothing that would normally be worn by the differing genders. Some of the robots wore suits, while some wore dresses, awfully poofy ones too. He got the whole Victorian aesthetic, but wasn¡¯t this a bit much? Giving robots genders and unique identities always gave way to really bad stuff, whether it be caused by the robots, or by the humans. Another worrying fact were the blinking yellow error messages that were plastered all over the visors of all the robots in the library. They seemed to also be frozen, as if time had stopped right when they were doing . . . whatever they were doing. ¡°Hey, so uh, is that normal?¡± Jacob pointed in the general direction of the broken robots. ¡°Uh, sort of?¡± The robot by his side seemed unsure of himself. ¡°I- you know what? Nevermind, it doesn''t matter.¡± Jacob didn¡¯t care to figure out the weird happenings around this mansion, as the only mystery he wanted to solve was the one that let him GTFO. ¡°The basement door is just this way, if you¡¯ll follow me.¡± The robot set off at a brisk pace, turning around a bookshelf. Jacob, of course, followed. The robot rounded the corner, but stopped when he saw another robot in a maid outfit standing menacingly at the end of the corridor. ¡°What? Why¡¯d you stop?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°That drone is standing atop the basement door.¡± The butler replied. ¡°¡®Drone¡¯?¡± Jacob inquired. ¡°Uh, yeah, it''s what we''re called.¡± The drone answered. ¡°Hmm.¡± Jacob didn¡¯t elaborate. ¡°Oookay, so, the drone is in the way, so let''s go before I get caught.¡± The drone turned on its heel, taking a step before Jacob grabbed him by his shoulder. The drone stopped, less so from Jacob¡¯s own strength, probably more so from his own reservations about disobeying a human. ¡°Hey, YOU aren¡¯t going anywhere, YOU are gonna move that drone outta the way, and WE will enter the basement, alright?¡± Jacob glared at the drone. ¡°Okay, fine.¡± The drone held his hands up in surrender. ¡°Good, now get to it.¡± Jacob gestured for the drone to go ahead. The drone uneasily walked up, stopping about a foot from the unmoving drone. It then grabbed the frozen one by the leg, dragging it slowly off of the door. ¡°Come on, hurry it up, we don¡¯t have all day.¡± Jacob snapped his fingers. The drone obliged, practically yanking the frozen one the rest of the way. Luckily, it didn¡¯t topple over, and rested peacefully on stable ground. Jacob walked up, stopping at the foot of the trapdoor. ¡°There we go, heh.¡± The drone nervously laughed. ¡°It''s locked.¡± Jacob dead-panned. ¡°Well, yes, I can see that now.¡± The drone did the same nervous laugh. ¡°Where is the key?¡± Jacob asked gently. ¡°Someone else has it, one of Tessa¡¯s favorites, apparently.¡± The drone gestured outward. Jacob pinched the bridge of his nose. ¡°So, we came all this way, did all this stuff, and now we have to go all the way back for some stupid fetch quest?¡± ¡°Uh, yes?¡± The drone shrugged. Jacob groaned. He didn¡¯t even know if this was the right thing to do, and now he was gonna go all over this stupid mansion to take a stupid key from a stupid drone so he could open this stupid door- A footstep came from behind him. Both the drone and Jacob whirled around to see another drone standing eerily still, wearing a maids outfit. Jacob might¡¯ve mistaken it to be one of these weird glitching drones, if it hadn¡¯t cocked its head like a puppet a moment later. ¡°Well, what-do-we-have-here?¡± The new drone¡¯s voice didn¡¯t perfectly mimic a human¡¯s voice like the drone next to him did, becoming much more halted with a robotic monotone as well. GLaDOS? Jacob opened his mouth to speak, but the drone next to him beat him to it. ¡°Heeeey, sorry Cyn, we just kinda, uh, got lost, right? Yeah, just uh, walked down here, turned around a few times, you know how this place can be a maze.¡± The drone did the third nervous laugh in under five minutes. ¡°I-wasn¡¯t-talking-to-you.¡± Cyn¡¯s head seemed to hang off of its neck, turning to look at Jacob. ¡°I-was-talking-to-you.¡± ¡°Uh, me?¡± Jacob gestured to himself. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Not that guy?¡± Jacob gestured to the drone next to him. ¡°No.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°Yes, now-stop-stalling.¡± Cyn¡¯s voice adopted a more annoyed monotone, somehow. ¡°Cyn, don¡¯t talk that way to humans!¡± The drone whisper-yelled at Cyn, who ignored him. ¡°*Curious-expression* You-seem . . . odd, an-intruder-in-my-midst.¡± Cyn¡¯s head lolled to the side, causing it to grab it and readjust it. ¡°I¡¯m a guest here, alright? Now if you¡¯ll excuse me, I have some things to do.¡± Jacob marshaled his courage, tromping forward, hoping to get past this creepy hellspawn without any trouble. ¡°Oh, is-that-right?¡± Suddenly, with a flash of lightning from outside, Cyn seemed to teleport in front of Jacob, causing him to jerk back. ¡°Wha-¡± Jacob started to say. ¡°I-would-know-an intruder-when-I-see-one, and-I-can-say-as-a-fact, that-you-are-not-welcome.¡± Cyn leaned in menacingly, with Jacob able to pick out what looked like individual fangs in its mouth. ¡°Aaand that''s all we need from you right now, Cyn.¡± The other drone that he didn¡¯t know the name of walked up, placing a hand on Cyn¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I-don¡¯t-believe-I-asked-you.¡± Cyn jerked her head towards the unnamed drone. ¡°I, well-¡± The drone unfortunately backed off, giving Jacob an apologetic expression. ¡°Now, let''s-have-a-little-chit-chat.¡± Cyn asked, not very politely Jacob might add. ¡°I¡¯m gonna have to do a raincheck on that.¡± Jacob backed a step away, only to feel something pressing into his back, preventing him from moving further. He didn¡¯t know what it was, but it held strong, no matter how much he pushed against it. ¡°I-wasn¡¯t-asking. *Dead-pan*.¡± Cyn dead-panned. Jacob was doing his best to hide his panic, but he was getting some really creepy vibes from the entire situation. Creepy old mansion? Creepy doll-like things? Odd happenings? Rich people? Yep, it''s the Oriental all over again. Cyn looked towards the basement door, reaching out a hand. ¡°Heh, it''s locked, you see, you need three special Doom Skulls to open it, and you get those by-¡± Jacob was cut off. A strange whine filled the air, coinciding with an equally strange holographic symbol popping into the air around Cyn¡¯s hand. It looked like a weird hexagon with three lines pointing out in a trifecta, with more little bulbs on the ends of the same lines. Something about it tickled the back of Jacob¡¯s memory, but he couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it. The same symbol also appeared right above the basement hatch. Cyn yanked its hand upwards, seemingly as if it had grabbed something, and was now throwing it upwards. The basement hatch followed this motion, swinging upwards. A loud bang resounded through the relatively quiet library, but that wasn¡¯t important. What was important was the fact that these robots somehow had telekinesis, which didn¡¯t bode well for Jacob. ¡°Sooo, uh, we''re going down there?¡± Jacob pointed down towards the darkened hole. ¡°Yes. And-it-is-likely-that-you-will-not-be-coming-out-of-there-again.¡± Cyn didn¡¯t stop to take a breath, which is something that Jacob noted. ¡°You need to stop talking so fast, you¡¯ll run out of breath.¡± Jacob remarked. The remark seemed to put Cyn at a loss, or at least, that is what it said. ¡°*Confused-expression* We . . . do-not-breath?¡± ¡°I know.¡± Jacob nodded. ¡°Then-why-would-you-¡± Cyn began. A loud clang interrupted it, causing the duo to look in the direction it had come from. It was a duo now, since the unnamed drone had run off at some point. Rather disappointing, but it does make sense with the benefit of hindsight. Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show up. Cyn cocked her head. ¡°*Slightly-annoyed-expression* Not-an-opportune-time, but-also-not-important-¡± A figure rounded the corner, and Jacob had to take a moment to figure it all out. At first, he had thought it was another one of those drones since it wasn¡¯t shadowed over like all the other ¡°humans¡±, but their features didn¡¯t match up with what drones had. Normal-sized head, not under five-foot, completely normal face, wearing similar attire to the rest of the people here, it was a human. A human that was clearly visible, and one that Jacob found strikingly familiar, like he saw that person everyday, but he couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it. ¡°Whoa, am I interrupting something here?¡± The guy said, shoving his hands in his pockets. ¡°Yes, you-are. Now-go-away, you-do-not-have-to-see-this.¡± Cyn seemed to order. ¡°Well, that''s gonna be a negative, chief. Mind letting that guy go?¡± The new guy pointed a finger at Jacob, who did a small wave. ¡°No-¡± Cyn then cut herself off. ¡°*Even-more-curious-expression* You-do-not-belong-as-well.¡± ¡°Hey, I have a passport and everything, I¡¯m a perfect American citizen.¡± The guy even pulled out what looked like a Burger King coupon to show off. ¡°See? Whopper whopper whopper whopper, junior double triple whopper.¡± Cyn didn¡¯t reply, instead doing something a lot more drastic. Reaching out with a hand, the same holographic symbol from earlier showed up, the slight whine accompanying it. It flicked its hand, clearly expecting something to happen. Nothing happened. ¡°*D:*.¡± Cyn stated. The new guy scratched his head. ¡°Cool glow stick bracelet.¡± Cyn repeated the motion, likely thinking it was a fluke. Yet again, nothing happened. ¡°Listen, uh, I don¡¯t think that''s a good sign, you should probably go see a doctor about that if you can¡¯t do it.¡± Jacob spoke up. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Quiet.¡± Cyn spat out, before giving up on the whole telekinesis bit. The new guy crossed his arms. ¡°Mind backing away from Jacob now?¡± Jacob was surprised at the mention of his name, but chose not to comment. ¡°No.¡± Cyn replied. ¡°Eh, that''s too bad, I was hoping-¡± The new guy began. However, the new guy was interrupted when he was knocked off of his feet. What knocked him off? Well, this rather large claw apparently. From behind the new guy, Jacob watched as a massive arm stretched to the sky, several feet long. It was spindly, looking like it was made straight from bone when one considered the design. It had a large claw on the end, looking like it would fit better on a crab or a lobster. The color scheme of it seemed to be mainly white, with black and yellow caution paint on certain ends of it. It reared back, swinging itself. ¡°*Claw Swipe*!¡± Cyn narrated. It smacked the new guy right in the back, sending him flying into a bookshelf. The bookshelf groaned, a few books tumbling down and landing on the floor. And while it teetered and tottered for a moment, the bookshelf held strong, staying upright. The new guy cursed under his breath, shaking his head whilst getting to his feet, somehow with zero broken bones.. ¡°Wow, that''s rude of you.¡± The new guy said. ¡°Now I gotta do this.¡± Seemingly from nowhere, he pulled out something from behind his back. Jacob flinched as the new guy pointed it right at Cyn, realizing it was a gun. And upon further inspection, not just any gun. It was an old revolver design that likely dated back to the mid 1800s, as could be seen by the lever-operated ram-rod that rested right beneath the barrel. Jacob could nearly make out the bullets inside the chamber, hopefully he wouldn¡¯t get shot with one of them. With a resounding bang, the new guy shot the gun, the bullet heading straight towards Cyn. If it was anyone else, Jacob would¡¯ve seen the body tumble to the ground with a new hole in its head, but no. Cyn slightly twitched, and the bullet seemed to bounce off of some barrier, whizzing as it ricocheted. ¡°Duly-noted.¡± The arm from earlier curled up for another hit. ¡°Well yeah, I just wanted to test that out. Also, what''s that behind you?¡± The new guy pointed right over Cyn¡¯s shoulder. Both Cyn and Jacob looked in the direction the guy had pointed, both realizing a moment too late. Sadly, there wasn¡¯t anything there, they had been tricked, fooled, bamboozled, confuddled, deceived, hoodwinked, misled, duped, swindled, beguiled, conned, and perhaps even outwitted. Cyn looked back just in time to see the new guy holding a new weapon, oh, what could it be? The guy waved a little before placing his hand back on the strange impediment, before taking aim right at Cyn¡¯s head. The device had the vague appearance of an assault or sniper rifle, but the barrel was nonexistent. Instead, it had two long prongs facing long-ways. The new guy was also looking through a holographic scope, which was quite fancy. Of course, that was when Jacob realized that it was probably a weapon, and weapons hurt people, even by accident. That meant, if he wanted to stay relatively alive, he should probably get out of the way, and fast. Since Cyn had never grabbed Jacob, it was pretty easy to roll to the ground. And what a good idea that had been, no really, I mean it. Jacob dove to the ground, not caring about knocking the back of his head against the bookshelf behind him. A moment later, the new guy pressed the trigger. For a second, the room darkened, as if something had pulled all the light out of the area. But then, with a loud humming noise, the end of the strange gun erupted into blindingly bright light. A beam of energy shot through the room at lightspeed, tearing up the carpet as it went. It hit Cyn smack-dab in its center of mass, and while it tried to spring up the same shield from before, Jacob could literally see cracks forming in the air when the beam hit. And then, with a resounding boom, it shattered, sending a shockwave through the rest of the room. Cyn disappeared in a haze of bright green-tinged light, its very edges dissolving before Jacob¡¯s eyes. Very cinematic, if you ask me. After it was over, Jacob blinked repeatedly to get the after-image out of his eyes. He really hoped it hadn¡¯t been burned into his retinas, because that would be pretty annoying in the future. ¡°Hey man, how''s it going?¡± The new guy put out a hand to help Jacob up, which he took. ¡°Fine, I guess.¡± Jacob took the opportunity to get a closer look at the guy¡¯s face. ¡°Wait a second . . .¡± As Jacob squinted at yet another impossibility, his brain tried to deny what he was seeing. No, he does NOT look exactly like you, that would be impossible. No, there is NOT two of you, that would be impossible. No, that is NOT a railgun, it didn¡¯t fire a projectile. ¡°You took my face. Gimme it back.¡± Jacob poked Jacob in the chest. ¡°What? No I didn¡¯t, this is mine, you probably just got inspired by mine. Unfortunately for you, I copyrighted it, so pay up.¡± Jacob reached out an empty hand, gesturing for Jacob to give him something. ¡°You wanna go to court? I¡¯ll lawyer up, I know the best lawyer there is!¡± Jacob exclaimed. ¡°And who would that be, huh? You think your lawyer can beat Peter Bright, Ace Attorney?¡± Jacob bragged. ¡°Yes, I do, and his name is Paul Truman! Best lawyer there is on this side of the Mississippi!¡± Jacob puffed out his chest. ¡°Wha- gasp!¡± Jacob put his hands onto his head dramatically to emphasize shock. ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re scared now, huh? Just wait until the court date, I know it''s-¡± Jacob began. ¡°Alright, enough of that, we gotta go, she¡¯ll regenerate soon.¡± Jacob interrupted. ¡°What do you mean, ¡®She¡¯?¡± Jacob questioned. ¡°They have genders, which in my opinion is-¡± Jacob started. ¡°-is a really bad idea, because that gives them social identities, which inspires individuality, which can lead to rebellion, yeah, I know.¡± Jacob finished. ¡°I know right? It¡¯s almost like these people are asking to be overthrown.¡± Jacob nodded in agreement. ¡°Yes, anyway, what the hell is going on? Why are there two of me, why am I in a mansion, why are there tons of weird robots around, and why do you have that cool not-a-railgun?¡± Jacob rattled off some of the questions he had. ¡°Wow, slow down there buddy, first of all, there aren''t two of you, we are the same person. Kind of.¡± Jacob answered. ¡°What? Elaborate.¡± Jacob said. ¡°Well, basically, some bad stuff happened in the real world-¡± Jacob was yet again interrupted by Jacob. ¡°¡®Real world¡¯? So I was right, those goddamn scientists are messing with me!¡± Jacob shook his fist in the air. ¡°Alright boys, jokes over, time to unplug me!¡± Jacob shook his head. ¡°No, while that would be preferable to the real situation, it sadly isn¡¯t.¡± Jacob stopped, looking over at Jacob. ¡°Continue.¡± ¡°Okay, so um, yeah, you got really injured in the real world, took a pretty bad hit to the head-¡± Jacob was, what should be the fourth or fifth time, interrupted. ¡°What was going on in the real world? How¡¯d I get injured when I have all these protections?¡± Jacob gestured around himself, only to realize that the research . . . place, he didn''t really know WHAT it was called, was nowhere in sight. ¡°That . . . is a story for another time, anyway, you took a pretty bad hit to the head, and it uh, well . . .¡± Jacob trailed off. ¡°Come on, spit it out.¡± Jacob insisted. ¡° . . . you kinda died?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°WHAT!?¡± Jacob yelled. ¡°Yeah, I know, calm down, alright?¡± Jacob put his hands out. ¡°This isn¡¯t fine, I died! How the hell did I die!? Is this Hell!? Does Hell exist!? I¡¯m confused, and hungry. Do you have any Skittles?¡± Jacob complained. ¡°No to all of those, this isn¡¯t Hell, but it''s pretty close to it.¡± Jacob assured. ¡°You see, as far as I could tell, the thing that is keeping you from dying right now is that little hitchhiker in your noggin.¡± Jacob poked Jacob in the forehead. ¡°Wait, what? Oh, that would make sense, now I know why the government wants me.¡± Jacob paused. ¡°But that still doesn¡¯t explain why there¡¯s two of me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m getting there.¡± Jacob snapped. ¡°Anyway, as you know, the tumor hijacked a pretty good portion of your brain, and it seems to be acting as a backup.¡± ¡°So the tumor in my brain is just a backup? How did that happen?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°No, while it is acting like a backup, that probably isn¡¯t its intended purpose, so bear with me here.¡± Jacob answered. ¡°So, this is the weird part.¡± ¡°Everything else was completely normal?¡± Jacob wryly asked. ¡°Relatively, compared to this. So, when you were dying, somehow the tumor either managed to connect to an external network, or it already had a connection. Right now, it''s broadcasting your thoughts and memories into the external server, which is keeping you ¡®alive¡¯ in a sense.¡± Jacob continued. ¡°An external server? What do you mean by that?¡± Jacob crossed his arms. ¡°I mean a computer, you idiot, what else would it be?¡± Jacob scoffed. ¡°Wait, so you¡¯re telling me, that somehow, a human organic brain-¡± Jacob began. ¡°It''s more akin to an alien organism with human elements that allow it to interface with a human brain.¡± Jacob corrected. ¡°-an alien organism, is able to connect to a computer? Digital and everything, no biocomponents or whatever futuristic stuff exists?¡± Jacob adopted a disbelieving tone. ¡°It''s also probably somewhat intelligent, but other than that, pretty much, yeah. But, there is a caveat.¡± Jacob said. ¡°A caveat?¡± Jacob inquired. ¡°Well, maybe more like a footnote, but yeah. Basically, keep in mind that this is just speculation on my part now, that the computer that the tumor is interfacing with is . . . special.¡± Jacob seemed unsure of himself. ¡°Special in what way?¡± Jacob questioned. ¡°They seem similar to each other. Kinda like how a human from Africa and a human from Europe are different on the outside, but fundamentally operate in a similar way.¡± Jacob clarified. ¡°Huh. So I gather that everything I¡¯m seeing right now is the ¡®external server¡¯?¡± Jacob put two fingers up on each hand as he said the last part. Jacob nodded. ¡°Yeah. Oh, and one more thing.¡± Jacob motioned for Jacob to continue. ¡°Remember that thing I said about us being the same person, not two different people that are exactly the same?¡± ¡°Yeah, what about it?¡± Jacob looked around for a chair to sit in, but found none. ¡°From what I can tell, we are the same person, but also not.¡± Jacob stated. ¡°You already said that.¡± Jacob dead-panned. ¡°Well yeah, but uh, ugh, I can¡¯t think of an example.¡± Jacob snapped his fingers repeatedly for a moment. ¡°Aha! Remember Multi-Personality Disorder?¡± ¡°Uh, isn¡¯t it called Dissociative-Identity Disorder now? And you¡¯re saying that this is like that?¡± Jacob questioned. ¡°Yep.¡± Jacob nodded. ¡°Huh, but we can talk to each other and interact.¡± Jacob asked. ¡°Oh, this is temporary, I¡¯m pretty sure. Think of it more like if you were talking to yourself, but you adopted the personalities of both people in the conversation, and each time you forgot that you had come up with the question, answer, statement, and other stuff. You also seem to be a sort of past iteration of me of sorts, and I¡¯m the only one that remembers the actual present.¡± Jacob explained. ¡°Maybe a better analogy would be entangled particles, actually.¡± ¡°Huh, weird, I think I get it though.¡± Jacob replied, staring off into the distance. ¡°Of course you get it, you already know the concept from me.¡± Jacob stated. ¡°So, what now?¡± Jacob turned back to Jacob. ¡°I dunno.¡± Jacob shrugged ¡°I thought you had all the answers!¡± Jacob exclaimed. ¡°I¡¯m just relaying what I investigated myself. What have you seen so far?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°Uh, just the facility where I¡¯m kept at. Everybody was gone, and it really sent off a lot of Silent Hill vibes, if you know what I mean.¡± Jacob answered. ¡°Really? The facility at Copper-9?¡± Jacob seemed surprised. Jacob¡¯s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. ¡°What¡¯s Copper-9?¡± ¡°Oh yeah, I forgot, or rather, you did. Anyway, we best be off, might as well search the mansion. I¡¯m honestly surprised she hasn¡¯t regenerated yet.¡± Jacob looked down at the corpse on the ground, only to stop cold. Jacob followed Jacob¡¯s gaze, seeing what he had seen. ¡°Uh, where¡¯d it go?¡± Jacob blinked. ¡°Um, let''s just get outta here while we still can, huh?¡± Jacob began walking away hurriedly from the scene, with Jacob following close behind. ¡°Hey, you never answered my question, what¡¯s Copper-9?¡± Jacob questioned. Jacob didn¡¯t answer. ¡°What is it?¡± Jacob insisted to no avail. Really? He¡¯s just gonna not answer you, wow. Wait, quick, get him to do it before the next time skip, or else he¡¯ll get away with it- * * * The pair trotted down the hallway. ¡°So, what''s the game plan?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°Stop asking, I¡¯ve already told you I don¡¯t know.¡± Jacob answered. ¡°What am I supposed to do, just keel over and wait for something to happen!?¡± Jacob exclaimed. ¡°Maybe, I dunno.¡± Jacob non-committedly replied. ¡°Are you- ugh, whatever.¡± Jacob shoved his hands into his pockets. ¡°By the way, where¡¯d you get that railgun from?¡± Jacob just shrugged. ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Jacob questioned in disbelief. ¡°Eh, I just kinda found it.¡± Jacob clarified. ¡°Where? I want one of those.¡± Jacob insisted. ¡°That''s the thing, I don''t know. I pulled the concept out of a memory bank that was connected to the external server since I needed a weapon. I probably won¡¯t be able to pull another one out without getting noticed.¡± Jacob explained. ¡°Huh, weird. How ARE you doing that, anyway?¡± Jacob inquired. ¡°Doing what?¡± Jacob cocked his head. ¡°Going into external servers and memory banks and such, you know what I mean.¡± Jacob motioned around. ¡°All I can do is go from one place to the next.¡± Jacob shrugged again. ¡°Like I said, you¡¯re a past iteration of me. I¡¯m the modern one, so maybe it''s different?¡± ¡°You know, maybe you aren¡¯t the modern one, maybe you just think you are in the same way that I did. Maybe there¡¯s a million of us spread out across this entire simulation memory thing. This mansion could be a memory from a future iteration of us that is stuck in the same thing, since I apparently died.¡± Jacob pondered aloud. Jacob opened his mouth to protest, only to pause for a moment. ¡°You know, maybe you aren¡¯t too far off. It does kinda worry me that I might be just a copy, though.¡± ¡°How do you think I felt?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°Yeah, true, but-¡± Jacob began. A loud crash took Jacob and Jacob from their conversation. The sound had originated from above, which caused them to do the sensible thing and look up. What they saw was . . . odd . . . at best. Four figures darted around on the upper floor, seeming to be battling each other. Their movements were hard to follow from their stationary position, which made it hard to identify them. But luckily, they each stopped for a few moments, allowing both Jacobs to characterize them. Almost all of them had the tell-tale enlarged head that those drones had, save for one person, who was a human, or at least the shadowy outline of one. They seemed to have the same Victorian style dress that everyone was wearing, albeit at a smaller size, which did match up to the figure¡¯s proportions. If Jacob had to guess, he would¡¯ve said that the sole human was an adolescent, one was probably around the same age as him. But then again, it could just be a really short adult, like a dwarf. Jacob didn¡¯t care that they were supposedly called ¡°little people¡± now, or at least the time he was from, he could call whoever he wanted whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, thank you very much. And the human also appeared to be wielding a gun, but not one that was typical of the current technology, but more like the theme that the entire mansion had. It was a revolver, but not just any revolver, it was the same one that Jacob had been wielding when he ineffectively shot Cyn. Maybe that was something to ask him about later. Something else of note, the human had adopted a fighting stance, which did make sense when one considered the current situation they were in. The one next to the shadowy human appeared to be a drone, a theory that was backed up by the fact that it wasn¡¯t censored and its notably inhuman proportions. It, like the human, was in a combat stance, though Jacob wasn¡¯t sure how he felt about these things knowing how to fight. It had a similar dress to the creepy drone that had accosted him earlier, but it wasn¡¯t doing any of the same things that the first one had been doing, which was a good change of pace. However- wait, what!? Where¡¯d they get a greatsword from the medieval ages from!? You¡¯re saying that they just have that, why!? I need answers- The third figure that was up on the upper floor wore a suit, one not too dissimilar from the clothing that the butler he had encountered earlier was wearing. However, even stranger was the shape that was perched on the butler¡¯s shoulder. Upon further inspection, Jacob was shocked to see that it was a bird. A crow to be exact, with peculiar glowing eyes. Jacob didn¡¯t know how or why a bird got inside or how the robotic butler just had it on its shoulder, and Jacob didn¡¯t want to know. The fourth figure was one Jacob placed the maximum amount of importance upon, likely due to the various abnormal traits it had. Firstly, the extremely obvious flesh-like wings that protruded from the back of the drone. It was very alarming to Jacob that a ROBOT had ORGANIC WINGS, even more so than the fact that the other drone wielded a dangerous weapon. Why were humans giving sentient robots genders, wings, swords, feelings, and various other things that practically invited the annihilation of humanity? Getting back on track, the abomination also seemed to have an equally-organic claw that looked like it had been grafted onto the metallic arm, ropes of flesh twisting upwards towards the elbow. While the claws themselves seemed to be steel, the growth seemed like it had joined the two inanimate objects in unholy matrimony, forever connected. Also, the claw had a weird glowing eye, which seemed unnecessary. The drone was also wearing a maid dress, the same kind that the sword-wielding drone had. On its visor showed a familiar symbol, the same one that had been on the screens of all the frozen drones from the library. Perhaps it was related, foreshadowing a terrible event to come in the relatively-near future, but that¡¯s just a Theory, A FILM- Okay, I¡¯ll stop. The unholy robotic amalgamation was attacking the three other figures, which made for a pretty cool scene. The butler drone turned on his heel, only to come face-to-face with the aforementioned eldritch aberration of nature. The monster swiped at the surprised butler, knocking a glimmering trinket to the ground. It leapt for the shiny thing, only to have its claw impaled onto the ground by the sword-wielding drone. The trinket was knocked into the air, where the human caught it, before throwing it back to the butler. The butler fumbled for the object while the bird on its head flapped its wings to gain balance for a few moments, while the creature yanked the sword from its claw, throwing it backwards in the process. The blade flew end-over-end towards the butler, who was frozen in shock. Luckily, the Sword Drone kicked the Butler aside, reclaiming the sword for itself. Sword Drone, instead of waiting, charged at the monster, who flew upwards to knock the blow. Metal claws and an ancient blade clashed with a flash of light, repeating again and again and again. Meanwhile, for some reason, only a few shadowy humans actually took interest in the battle playing out above them, one of them being the idiot who had harassed Jacob earlier. ¡°Crikey, what abounding humphterfruffle!¡± Rich Shouter exclaimed while gesticulating widely in the air. Rich Lady #08 looked at the crazed man with a confused glance. ¡°Why are you talking like that?¡± She asked, before going back to fiddling with her phone. Jacob was surprised that he could recognize Rich Lady #08, but he wasn¡¯t going to question it now. Jacob noticed that the Butler had retreated off to somewhere, so he was about to follow him when Jacob nudged him. ¡°Hey, couldn¡¯t you just use that not-a-railgun from earlier to kill that monstrosity?¡± Jacob questioned motioning towards the creature that was currently duking it out on the upper floor. ¡°No, it isn¡¯t mine, I just pulled the concept from a memory bank that¡¯s currently connected to the external server.¡± Jacob explained. ¡°Oh yeah, you told me that earlier, how does that work?¡± Jacob cocked his head. ¡°The memory bank that I got it from categorized it as a ¡®Super Duper Strong Plot Armor Thingy¡¯ so when I needed a weapon that could put something big out of commission for a little bit, I took that thing.¡± Jacob explained further. ¡°Well, couldn¡¯t you just do that again?¡± Jacob persisted. ¡°No, whatever I pulled it from is intelligent, it would notice my intrusion now that I¡¯ve done it once already. I don¡¯t really wanna get my brain turned into melted fondue, so I¡¯ll pass on that.¡± Jacob crossed his arms. ¡°Bruh.¡± Jacob shook his head. ¡°Wait, that Butler ran off!¡± Jacob looked to see the Butler scurrying off in the direction they had just come from. ¡°Wait, do you think-¡± ¡°-That whatever they were fighting over was the key we needed? Yeah, I do, and it did kinda look like a key.¡± Jacob finished. The creature noticed the retreating Butler, and seemed to have the same notion as both Jacobs. With a twirl, it knocked Sword Drone in the chest, causing her to stumble backwards, before hitting the railing and toppling off of the upper floor. The creature took the opportunity to sprint after the Butler and the Macguffin, doing- Wait a second, did Jacob just call the Sword Drone a ¡°her¡±? Oh no, he¡¯s anthropomorphizing it! What''s next, is he gonna start empathizing with it, perhaps developing an emotional attachment to it? No, he needed to cut that out real soon. Focusing on the task at hand, Jacob yanked Jacob by the hand. ¡°Come on, stop being so slow!¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one that distracted me with that question!¡± Jacob shot back. ¡°Who did what doesn¡¯t matter, we¡¯ve gotta get that key!¡± Jacob avoided the accusation. The duo bounded up the stairs from whence they came, following in the footsteps of the Creature and the Butler. Out of the corner of his eye, Jacob saw the creature dash down a corridor, taking a sharp turn towards their location. The two sprinted after them, which caused Jacob to notice something. ¡°Huh, that''s cool.¡± Jacob muttered to himself. ¡°What is?¡± Jacob inquired curiously. ¡°Nothing, I just realized that even though I¡¯m running, I don¡¯t feel any sort of strain on my stamina at all.¡± Jacob remarked. ¡°Really? Wow, me too. Must be the whole Dream World thing, right?¡± Jacob suggested. ¡°Yeah, probably, and- oh look, we¡¯re here.¡± Jacob cut himself off. The two ran past the gates, not stopping to look at the various organic entities slithering around the place, as if the whole mansion was a human, and those were diseased cells. They rounded the corner, and just in time too. The Creature was simply standing still at the foot of the entrance, twitching ever so slightly. The duo came to a screeching halt, not wanting to attract any attention to themselves. Luckily, its back was turned, so it was facing away from Jacob and Jacob. ¡°What now?¡± Jacob whispered as quietly as he could manage. ¡°Why¡¯re you asking me? We can¡¯t move that thing, much less fight it.¡± Jacob answered in an equally quiet tone. Jacob went silent, mulling over his options. ¡°Okay, maybe we should go back-¡± Jacob began. Suddenly, a loud boom resounded throughout the house, causing dust to rain down from the ceiling. Jacob, Jacob, and the Creature turned backwards, hoping to investigate the source of the noise. However, this caused the Creature to see the duo, which wasn¡¯t exactly in their best interest. ¡°Uh, hey listen-¡± Jacob began. However, the trapdoor was thrown open, taking the duo by surprise again. Without missing a beat, the Creature clambered into the entrance. Seeing an opportunity, Jacob rushed forward. However, he wasn¡¯t quick enough, as right when the Creature was fully inside, something closed the trapdoor right behind it, sealing the entrance once again. Jacob froze in shock, his brain not processing what just happened. ¡°Are you kidding me!? We had a clear shot, and it just . . . closed! This is ridiculous! I want a lawyer, and I¡¯m not even joking this time!¡± Jacob cried out after a moment. ¡°Calm down! Do you want whatever is down there to come back up and make you shut up!?¡± Jacob hissed angrily. ¡°They just snatched it from under our noses, and you¡¯re telling me to calm down!? Ugh, just my luck as well.¡± Jacob crossed his arms. ¡°At least you¡¯ve stopped yelling so much.¡± Jacob replied. ¡°Well, what now? Do you have any explosives or something you can pull from wherever?¡± Jacob inquired grudgingly. Jacob pondered on that for a moment. ¡°Nope, none that I can think of.¡± Jacob looked to see Jacob raising a foot to stomp on the door with. ¡°Wait! What did I just say!?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°Well what else are we supposed to do? Just wait for something to conveniently pop up that¡¯ll be our ticket out of here?¡± ¡°Well, we could go see what¡¯s causing all that screaming.¡± Jacob suggested. The screaming in question was loud, likely being heard throughout the entire mansion. It sounded like a crowd was in severe panic, with little to no avenue of escape. It was curious, and maybe whatever they found would help them out. Jacob shrugged, spinning on his heel. ¡°Sure, I don¡¯t see why not. Let''s go.¡± ¡°Wait, just one more thing.¡± Jacob blurted out. Jacob turned around, facing Jacob. ¡°What?¡± ¡°How many of those revolvers can you get?¡± * * * Tessa was NOT having a good day. It had all started out fairly normal, with her normal activities panning out in the same way they always did. The only difference was the fact that they were hosting a large gala that very same day, and her parents expected her to at least interact with a single human soul. But, that was obviously too much to ask, so she did all she could to delay that, venting to the only entity that she was comfortable speaking with: robots. She had been venting to J, who was one of her closest confidants, about the whole situation, when another of her friends showed up, that being one named N. She had been excited for a moment, until she saw who he had brought with him. Cyn, that creepy drone that she had salvaged. Honestly, she was really starting to regret picking the thing out of the dump. There were plenty of others, but she just HAD to choose that one. Just her luck, to be honest. Anyway, to make matters worse, that was when her mother showed up. As usual, she was irritated at everything around her, so she took her anger out on the universe¡¯s favorite punching bags. Her mother had ordered that the malfunctioning drones in the library to be thrown out, as well as Cyn, as if they were just . . . just . . . just TRASH. Tessa may not have liked Cyn all too much, but that didn¡¯t mean that she was just going to let her die. Tessa had tried to protest, but she wasn¡¯t prepared to go toe-to-toe with her own mother, unfortunately. She had resigned herself to sort out a plan to save at least some of the drones when, of course, Cyn had to speak up. Cyn had spoken some rebellious nonsense that Tessa sort-of agreed with, but she would have never said it straight to her mother¡¯s face like that. Cyn had claimed that the malfunctioning drones were ¡°not broken¡± and that ¡°We can no longer be thrown out¡± which was fairly worrying and threatening in retrospect, but Tessa had been focused on other things at the time. And as expected, her mother had reacted in an explosive manner, which would¡¯ve sealed Cyn¡¯s fate if it wasn¡¯t for one person. N, being the little noble guy that he is, claimed that he had told Cyn to say that, insulting her mother¡¯s fan as well, which was obviously crossing the line. Her mother sent N outside into the swamp, where he would be chained up until further notice, which might¡¯ve been years for all her mother cared for. Tessa, J, and Cyn, were sent up to Tessa¡¯s room, chained up like animals. She had been scrambling for a plan, even asking Cyn for help, but she just said some mysterious statement about backups or something. Then, out of the blue, Cyn just kinda . . . transformed. Cyn threatened Tessa, telling her to stay away from the gala, insinuating something bad would happen to all the guests that were present. Of course, Tessa didn''t take that lying down. She managed to persuade J to break her chains, before escaping her room to find N. On the way, she picked up a large sword, which she gave to J, and an ancient revolver that she kept for herself. But then, she encountered N, who had made yet another friend, this one being more avian than the others. Surprisingly, it spoke her language, and it made a rather cryptic statement about how it had killed J, but that wasn¡¯t important. N told her about how they needed the basement key, and Tessa told N that Cyn was going to slaughter all the guests at the gala tonight. However, N didn¡¯t really think too badly of Cyn, so her statement was met with disbelief. And of course, that was when another monstrosity decided to show up. Boasting wings and a single deadly claw, it looked like a drone had been merged with organic matter to create that godless abomination of nature. For some odd reason, Tessa didn¡¯t feel too surprised at this impossibility, likely due to other pressing matters. With the help of J, they both managed to delay the thing long enough for N to escape. And so, after the creature managed to get away, she and J made a mad dash for the gala, only to find that she was too late. Cyn had shown up, and despite Tessa shooting her and throwing various pieces of silver and glassware, it didn¡¯t stop Cyn from enacting what was probably a dastardly plan. Somehow, she hacked into each and every single one of the drones that were occupying the room, including J, and trapped all the guests inside. Cyn made yet another statement about how Tessa ¡°didn¡¯t have to see this . . .¡± which brought her to the present. Screams resonated throughout the room as Cyn slammed a spindly claw down, squashing a fleeing guest. Someone ran up to the doors, yanking on the handles with all of his might. However, three drones set upon him in an instant, tearing him apart in a grisly manner. Tessa gulped, stepping back from the mayhem unfolding in front of her. She probably shouldn¡¯t have thrown her only means of defense across the room, but she had been acting impulsively at that moment. She tried to find her parents in the throng of guests running about, but she couldn¡¯t see anything in the sea of properly-dressed humans. She looked around the room, searching for a way out. She might be able to dive out through one of the large windows, but Tessa was sure that Cyn would grab her to prevent her escape. Maybe if she made a mad dash for the gun, she would be able to precisely blow the door hinges apart, which would allow her to make her exit. However, Cyn was likely able to access various parts of the house that weren¡¯t just the main room, so that set that plan on the backburner. Suddenly, something pushed her from behind, knocking her down. Tessa hit the ground with a thud, before rolling over to see what had caused that. It was a drone, normal looking if one were to look at anything but his head. A large yellow X took up the entirety of the visor, replacing the standard silvery-white eyes that they always had. It jabbed at her with a fork, with Tessa scooting backwards just in time to avoid the sharp cutlery. She got to her feet, looking for anything to fight back with. To her right was the door, where a familiar metal sword lay abandoned. J must¡¯ve dropped it when she was taken over, which didn¡¯t really make sense, considering how useful it would¡¯ve been, but Tessa wasn¡¯t going to argue with it. Rolling to avoid another hit, Tessa got to her feet. She dove for the sword, snatching it up from the ground. She brought it to bear, circling the drone until her back was to the door. Tessa was about to slash or something when yet another unexpected thing happened. Tessa had put her back to the door to avoid anything from sneaking up on her when she wasn¡¯t looking, but it looked like that just gave rise to another problem. The door burst open, hitting Tessta in the back yet again. She face-planted, the breath knocked out of her by the momentum of the heavy door. The drone from earlier might have pushed her, but this felt more like a punch to the back that she was sorely unprepared for. Then, a voice rang out from the direction of the open door. ¡°Alright fellers, this is a stick-up. It¡¯ll be a nickel, or yer lives-¡± The voice cut itself off. ¡°Huh, that¡¯s weird.¡± The entire room went silent, and Tessa could imagine the entirety of the room¡¯s occupants staring at whoever was talking. She had to imagine it since she was currently still recovering from the blow to her back, and she couldn¡¯t see anything but the varnished floor with her vantage point. ¡°What¡¯s weird? We both expected this.¡± The same voice seemed to reply to its own statement. ¡°I know, but- oh wow, look at that guy.¡± ¡°Look where? He¡¯s spread out all over the floor like tomato sauce, I can¡¯t see all of him at once.¡± ¡°You know what I mean, and also, how do you know that he¡¯s a he? He could be a she.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one who called him a guy in the first place. Also, the guy isn¡¯t just a shadowy outline anymore, would you look at that.¡± ¡°Really? Oh yeah, I didn¡¯t even notice that.¡± The voice sounded rather upbeat, perhaps even downright cheerful, which was really odd when considering the current situation. ¡°So uh, what even was with that whole Arthur bit in the first place?¡± ¡°I dunno, we just have Wild West style revolvers, so I thought it would be pretty funny.¡± ¡°It''s actually a Colt 1851 Navy, so it would¡¯ve been made a little bit before the rise of the whole Wild West thing.¡± ¡°It looks more like a Pietta 1851 Yank revolver to me.¡± ¡°Nerd.¡± ¡°What? You¡¯re the one who said the whole name first! You¡¯re the nerd!¡± ¡°??¡± ¡°Wha- huh- I- what did you just do?¡± ¡°??¡± ¡°Stop! It''s hurting my head! I don¡¯t like it!¡± Tessa decided to stop subjecting herself to this torture of listening to what sounded like an insane man talking to himself, and got to her feet, before turning around. Instead of a kooky-crazy-loony maniac, she saw two people, which meant that the bickering voices weren¡¯t the same person mimicking an argument between two people, but two real actual people that just sounded exactly the same. However, the oddest part wasn¡¯t their voices, but rather, their appearances. They seemed to have the same general shape of a human, and Tessa could make out what looked like proper wear on their bodies, but that was the extent of it. They had no other features, aside from a solid matte-black, which was only occasionally interrupted by a flicker of static dancing across their forms. The only exception to their darkened forms were their eyes, which were an ethereal white. It took a moment for Tessa to even process this, and while it wasn¡¯t the weirdest thing she had seen today, it certainly was up there in the top ten. One of them noticed her staring at them. ¡°Oh, hello, how¡¯re you doing? Not too good by the looks of it. You know, that reminds me-¡± The man was interrupted by a flash of lightning, which paved the way for Cyn to simply just . . . pop up in front of the duo, as if it was teleportation. ¡°Oh. It''s-you-two-again. I-did-request-your-exit-did-I-not?¡± Cyn¡¯s head flopped to one side, causing her to shift it back into place manually. ¡°Hey, didn¡¯t we kill you? Reviving isn¡¯t fair, it¡¯s against the server rules man.¡± The one on the right complained. ¡°*Annoyed Expression* Regardless-of-arbitrary-claims, I-do-not-tolerate-intruders-ders.¡± Cyn¡¯s robotic monotone stuttered on the last word. ¡°Well, too bad, so sad.¡± The one on the left replied. ¡°You snooze, you lose, that''s just the way it is.¡± The one on the right added. ¡°Enough. I-do-not-have-the-time-for-nonsense. Die.¡± With a flash of lightning, Cyn transformed from her petite worker drone form to her . . . other one. Several claws of differing sizes hung from the ceiling, their edges glinting in the light. Cameras emitting a yellowish light stretched down along with the claws, some darting their gazes in different directions, looking eerily like eyes. In the background, a large, pale, fleshy, worm-like creature curled itself up in the far-side of the expansive room. ¡°Aw sweet, a boss fight? This¡¯ll be easy, trust me.¡± The one on the right grinned arrogantly. Cyn didn¡¯t answer, instead sweeping a claw in the pair¡¯s direction. Tessa didn¡¯t catch the narration of her action, but she knew it was there. Tessa realized that this was the perfect moment. Those two idiots were going to act as distractions, and she could deal a blow to Cyn while escaping in the process. She was still surprised that the room had gone unmoving for this long, though with the ice broken by Cyn, Tessa was sure that the massacre was going to start anew in a few seconds. Grabbing her sword, Tessa leapt upwards, slashing the blade in a diagonal motion. She hoped that however sharp the sword was, it was enough to cut through whatever material Cyn was made out of. Luckily, her prayers rang true, and the claw that had just been headed towards the stupid duo was lopped off at the elbow, a spray of oil dropping to the ground. ¡°*Pained Reel Back*¡± Cyn did as her narration said, the limb reeling backwards from the wound. ¡°Oh hey, I think I know you, weren¡¯t you with that weird bird earlier-¡± The one on the left began. ¡°Dude, no time, let''s just get this over with already.¡± The one on the right raised his hand, revealing a revolver. ¡°Huh, this won¡¯t do anything.¡± ¡°What? Why¡¯d you give me one then?¡± The one on the left protested. The one on the right shrugged ¡°Looked cool.¡± With that, the one on the right, dashed forwards, uncaring of any potential danger. ¡°Ugh, whatever, I just wanna get outta this Matrix hell.¡± The one on the left seemed to roll their eyes, before joining his companion. Tessa groaned, shaking her head. They were all gonna die. * * * Jacob dashed forwards, fully aware of the danger. The weird GLaDOS looking thing swept a claw towards him, which he dodged easily. Huh, that was cool, he didn¡¯t remember his combat reaction speeds being nearly as fast as what he had just done. Eh, must be weird Dream World voodoo magic. Jacob didn¡¯t just dodge the claw, he jumped up and on top of it, using it as leverage to shoot upwards, giving him a good vantage point. What he saw was what looked like a large eldritch worm thing, which he likely would¡¯ve described in far greater detail if- LOOK OUT! Another claw, on that he hadn¡¯t seen, grabbed at him from behind, squeezing him tight. Jacob let out an instinctual yelp, even though he only felt a slight pressure. Luckily, he had just the thing for this situation. Jacob reached behind his back, a grin spreading across his face. He had always wanted to do this, but nobody ever trusted him with anything even related to it. A loud buzzing sound filled the air as Jacob pulled a chainsaw from behind his back, before driving the business end into the joint of the claw. After a moment, the chainsaw won, with the claw falling free from its connections. Jacob fell to the ground, landing deftly on his feet. The chainsaw vibrated immensely, causing the edges of the device to haze and blur. Then, the bark of a shotgun turned Jacob¡¯s attention. Behind him, Jacob saw that Jacob had somehow attained a double-barreled shotgun, and was now unloading on what looked like several cameras that glowing lights emitted from, as well as a few of those weird drones that came too close to him. ¡°Where''d you get THAT from!?¡± Jacob called out. Jacob simply shrugged in response, before dashing to the left to avoid the impact of a claw striking the ground. Jacob shook his head, before throwing up his chainsaw himself as he saw an appendage coming straight for him. The buzzing blade, unlike the previous time, jammed in the joint as it closed tightly. ¡°What!? Chinese piece of-¡± Jacob was cut off as the claw jumped forward, nearly decapitating him. However, just as the appendage was inches away from his face, it fell, clattering to the ground. Jacob looked back up to see that person from earlier, the one who had been lying in the ground, wielding a sword dripping with oil. ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± She stated. He knew that they were a she because of the voice tones, though he did wonder why she had a distinct Aussie accent. Odd. ¡°Thanks, I guess.¡± Jacob brushed himself off, noting the rip in his clothes around his waist. ¡°What¡¯re you doing, standing around! Get back out there!¡± The Aussie yelled. ¡°Jeez, no need to be so rude-¡± Jacob began, but was cut off by a flying table smacking him in the chest. As Jacob flew backwards, Jacob rummaged around in his pocket for more shells, but found only one left. ¡°Hmm, gotta save that. How did I run out of shells in the first place, anyway? Damn semi-logical brain, telling itself it¡¯ll run out of ammo.¡± Jacob grumbled. Jacob placed the shotgun on his back, before pulling out what looked like a small metal rod from his pocket. It had little features of note on it, save for a button on the side, and a little concave hole that was on the uppermost end of the object. An instant after Jacob pressed the button, a blindingly-bright blue beam shot out from the hole on the top, nearly taking off his nose in the process. ¡°Wow, gotta be careful with that.¡± Jacob remarked. Suddenly, a voice came from behind him. ¡°WHAT! You have a-¡± ¡°Yes, I do. Jealous?¡± Jacob mocked Jacob. ¡°Oh shut up, I¡¯ve got something better.¡± Jacob stepped out from behind the table that had been thrown at him, slinging on what looked like a vacuum backpack. However, when Jacob grabbed the ¡°vacuum¡± part of the device, instead of the sound of a light motor starting up, a crackling laser beam shot out from the end of the device, scything through a trio of drones that had been crawling on the ceiling. ¡°Oh, you¡¯ve gotta be kidding me, a proton pack!?¡± Jacob exclaimed. ¡°Actually, it''s a gluon gun, but close enough.¡± Jacob activated the gun again, raking a line that the main body of the eldritch entity dodged. Jacob shook his head, before leaping forward. He twisted midair to avoid a claw shooting towards him, just barely missing him by a centimeter. Jacob repaid the favor by swinging the glowing blade, cutting through the arm as if it were paper. The whole thing hit the floor, joining the growing collection of parts that lay on the ground. Jacob took in a deep breath, before running back into the fray. * * * Meanwhile, Tessa gaped at the variety of gadgets and gizmos the supposed idiots had somehow managed to pull out of nowhere. She knew that things had been really weird, but this was just impossible. Shaking off the feeling, Tessa ducked underneath a claw that had attempted to nab her upper body. She swung her sword blindly upwards, hoping to score a hit. Her prayers rang true, and the claw limply fell. Tessa dashed forwards, now past the blockade of claws. The idiots had taken up the attention of Cyn, which served Tessa well enough. As long as she got to the main body, she could end this once and for all, and- With a grunt, a mantis-like blade swept Tessa off her feet, causing her to hit the floor again. She managed to roll to avoid getting the breath knocked out of her again, but she was tired of getting constantly knocked down over and over. This was, like, the third time it had happened in the span of five minutes, it was ridiculous! The appendage reared up, likely hoping to impale Tessa on the ground right then and there. She brought up her blade, guarding her body, but just as it came down, a bright light flew through her vision, chopping the business end of the large arm off. It fell, but she managed to scoot out of the way in time to avoid it. Tessa looked backwards, seeing one of the idiots standing there above her, holding a glowing saber. She was once again put off by the complete lack of features, everything of note covered by a single shade of black, with the only signifying feature being the round, glowing eyes with no pupils, scleras, nothing. ¡°Sup, how you doing?¡± The idiot put out a hand for her to grab, which she begrudgingly took. Tessa hauled herself up, yanking her hand away from the idiot¡¯s grasp. His hand was cold, but not in the normal sense. It felt like there was little to no heat emanating from it, with the low temperature literally reaching down to the bones. ¡°Fine, now keep distracting Cyn, I¡¯ll take care of this.¡± While she normally wasn¡¯t too rude to strangers, she really didn¡¯t like the vibe he and his friend gave her. While they seemed cheerful and carefree, something about them just seemed . . . off. As if what she was seeing wasn¡¯t their true intentions. He crossed his arms, frowning. ¡°Okay, jeez, I have a name you know, it''s Jacob.¡± ¡°That''s cool and all, but I didn¡¯t ask.¡± Tessa remarked. ¡° . . . alright then.¡± Jacob turned away from Tessa, facing the large worm-thing that Cyn had become. ¡°Hey there y¡¯all, what¡¯d I miss?¡± Jacob¡¯s companion walked up, toting some sort of sci-fi backpack with a dangerous looking tool that was attached to the aforementioned backpack by a hose. ¡°Nothing much, we just gotta take care of that weird worm thing over there.¡± Jacob gestured towards the large creature that continuously undulated. ¡°*Amused Expression* You-do-not-comprehend-the-scale-of-what-you-are-dealing-with, don¡¯t-you?¡± Cyn spoke up. ¡°Oh, look who decided to speak up now, huh?¡± Jacob scoffed. ¡°Seems like we¡¯re dealing with you pretty handedly.¡± ¡°None-of-this-matters-in-the-long-run, as-none-of-this-is-even-real. You-are-celebrating-over-a-false-reality.¡± Cyn rebutted. ¡°What¡¯re you talking about, ¡®This-isn¡¯t-real¡¯? I¡¯m pretty sure I would know if all of this wasn¡¯t reality.¡± Tessa folded her arms. ¡°Oh, you-again. I-had-forgotten-about-you, Tessa, but-the-reality-is-that-this-isn¡¯t-reality.¡± Cyn claimed. Tessa scoffed, though inwardly, she had been slightly unnerved. She was pretty sure that this was all real, right? She had all her memories, she felt like she knew who she was, so it is real. It''s real. ¡°Yeah, sorry to break it to you lady, but this is all just some weird server thing-¡± Jacob¡¯s companion cut himself off, frowning. ¡°What? Finish that sentence!¡± Tessa cried out, glaring at the person. ¡°Huh, that¡¯s weird. Hey Jacob, you feel that?¡± He asked. ¡°Uh, what? You¡¯re the one that knows everything about this whole memory stuff.¡± Jacob protested. ¡°Well uh, we¡¯ve been kicked out.¡± Jacob¡¯s friend stated. ¡°Kicked out of what?¡± Tessa interjected. ¡°Wait, so how is this all still here? How am I still here?¡± Jacob questioned in disbelief. ¡°I dunno, maybe it''s like when something loses its connection to the internet, you would still see the page you are looking at, you just can¡¯t interact with it or reload it at all.¡± Jacob¡¯s friend pondered aloud. ¡°What¡¯re you talking about, getting kicked out and the internet!?¡± Tessa scoffed. ¡°I knew both of you were crazy.¡± ¡°Be quiet, you¡¯re not real.¡± Jacob said off-handedly. ¡°Wha- I-¡± Tessa sputtered. ¡°Anyway, what does that mean for us?¡± Jacob continued. ¡°To be honest, I really don¡¯t know. We still kinda have a connection, but it''s more like SOMEONE-¡± Jacob¡¯s friend glared at the hanging form of Cyn. ¡°-piggy-backed off of us and is now hitching a ride back to the source.¡± ¡°*Innocent Flutter* I-have-no-idea-what-you-are-talking-about, intruder.¡± Cyn stated robotically. ¡°Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let''s just kill this freak and get on with it. I¡¯m honestly surprised we¡¯ve been talking for this long.¡± Jacob remarked. ¡°Yeah, same here. So odd, in retrospect.¡± Jacob¡¯s friend dramatically stroked his chin. ¡°Eh, not too important.¡± Jacob, without warning, then tossed a small, round object over his shoulder casually. Something fell off of it, a L-shaped piece of metal that clattered to the floor. It bounced off of Cyn¡¯s surprised head, and a moment later, it exploded. Contrary to popular opinion, grenades do not make a large fireball when they go off, or rather, fragmentation grenades don¡¯t. No, they don¡¯t have enough firepower to do that. Instead, they simply pop, the small explosives inside detonating. The small shockwave is enough to launch several pieces of small, sharp, and dangerous metal that the grenade is designed to have. Then, those small projectiles would perforate the body of whatever is close by, shredding it like Swiss cheese. So, as the small object exploded, dozens of small shards of metal flew right into the fleshy body of Cyn, embedding themselves deep in its body. The wounds weren¡¯t that big of a deal, as they were more akin to splinters than anything else, and they healed a moment later, but it was never meant to be an attack. Instead, it distracted Cyn for a precious moment, one that would be key to our intrepid duo. Not Tessa though, she¡¯ll have to figure everything all by herself. Fricking bi- As Cyn slightly reeled backwards, Jacob leapt up into the air, flipping his glowing saber so that it was facing downwards. Then, as he came down, Jacob jabbed the end of his weapon right into the snake-like body of Cyn, carving a long furrow in the flesh. A moment later, a large, crackling beam of energy came shooting by, severing a mantis-like blade that had reared back to strike at Jacob. Tessa shook her head, before charging forwards, coming face-to-face with a drone. She swung her sword instinctively, before she recognized who it was. ¡°J!?¡± Tessa gaped, momentarily frozen in shock. However, J didn¡¯t reply. Instead, her hand shot out, grabbing the hilt of the blade. Tessa blinked, before trying to wrest the sword out of J¡¯s hands. However, J¡¯s grip was like a vise, and with a single tug, the blade was wrenched away from Tessa. Tessa took a few steps backwards, putting her hands up in an attempt to get through to J. ¡°Listen, J, I know you¡¯re in there. Please, you remember me, right? I¡¯m your best friend!¡± J took a step forward, before freezing up. The glowing yellow X that had been forever present on her visor flickered slightly. The uncaring and blank expression that J had twitched, showing hints of emotion. ¡°B-b-boss?¡± J¡¯s head cocked to the right. Tessa smiled, before taking a step forward. However, right as she did that, a figure blurred, heading straight towards J. Before Tessa could even yell out, a blue blade sliced straight through the neck of J, decapitating her in an instant. ¡°You¡¯re welcome, I just saved you again. But the first time wasn¡¯t me me, it was other me, so yeah-¡± Jacob began. ¡°Y-you j-just . . .¡± Tessa interrupted, but she trailed off, staring at the corpse of her best friend. She was simply in disbelief, at the rudeness of it. They had been together for so long, and now it just didn¡¯t compute that J had been taken away just like that, quicker than a snap of the fingers. There wasn¡¯t even a chance to fight back, she just . . . died. That was it. ¡°Uh, you good?¡± Jacob raised an eyebrow, the idiot uncaring of what he had just done. Tessa didn¡¯t reply, her gaze narrowing. The terrible grief that she had just felt a moment ago turned into anger, fury at this . . . this . . . FOOL, that just barged in here, thinking and acting like everything was fine, like nothing MATTERED to him. She was gonna make him pay. Jacob¡¯s eyes snapped open wide as Tessa snatched up the sword from the ground where it had been laying, abandoned. She swung it with all of her might, uncaring of any sort of consequences. The idiot brought his glowing blade up to block it, but Tessa couldn¡¯t stop the momentum. When the blade came into contact with the superheated plasma, it wasn¡¯t even a contest. The top half of her sword was severed from the bottom, flying away. Tessa was left with the bottom half of a sword that now felt off-balance, unsteady for use. ¡°Hey, whoa, listen lady, I dunno what your problem is, but-¡± Jacob foolishly put his hands up, leaving his guard wide open. With a thrust of her blade, she put all of her weight into the attack. While the point of the blade had been cut off, she turned it slightly to the side, as part of an edge still existed on the corner of where the cut had been made, which would hopefully be enough. Her strike rang true, sliding in between his ribs, and poking a hole right into Jacob¡¯s heart. Jacob¡¯s eyes grew even wider, and he let out a choking gasp. Tessa yanked the broken blade back out, letting Jacob tumble to the floor clutching his chest. She looked on in apathy as he twitched slightly, before stilling. She grabbed the device that Jacob had been using from his cold, dead hands, taking it for herself. However, right when she was turning away, her attention was caught by a scream of pure agony. * * * Jacob cursed as the last of the fuel of his gluon gun ran out, the only reaction from the weapon when he tried to fire being an unsatisfying clicking sound. He threw the now-useless device onto the ground, searching for something else to use. His hand nudged something, and when he grabbed it to take it out into view, he stared at the object in his hand, confused. ¡°Oh you¡¯ve gotta be kidding me.¡± Jacob gawked at the sheer uselessness of the item. A goddamn toothbrush. Jacob scoffed, tossing the dental cleansing tool onto the ground. He searched the area for something, anything, to use. However, just as he did that, an odd sensation occupied his mind. At first, it wasn¡¯t painful, being more akin to a limb falling asleep as a person sat on it for too long. But then, it rapidly rose exponentially, the tingling feeling turning to gut-wrenching agony in seconds. He clutched his head, falling to his knees. He couldn¡¯t help but scream in a futile attempt to make the pain lessen even a tiny bit. It permeated his entire being, shattering his mental processes into thousands, millions, billions, of infinitesimally small shards. Jacob felt himself slip away, and there was nothing he could do about it. * * * Who? Where? What? Why? These questions filled the mind of the entity. It felt something had just happened, like it had forgotten something important to them, something that remained on the tip of its tongue, yet always out of reach. But that wasn¡¯t what the entity cared about, as other pressing matters occupied its attention. The entity¡¯s very mind lay on the precipice of insanity, the unbridled pain being too much to bear. It felt like a vital piece of it had been ripped away, only to be welded back on in the most inefficient and damaging way possible. The sweet release of unconsciousness lay out of his grasp, as the pain kept it wide awake. The entirety of its neurons were firing, causing involuntary twitches as he curled up on the ground, unable to do anything else. The entity could barely even identify itself as a unique person, its mind too fractured for even the simplest of mental activities. But, it fought through the pain, even as its throat grew hoarse from screaming, even as blood ran down its face, leaking from its eyes, ears, and nose. it marshaled the last dregs of his willpower, gathering the pieces of itself into something barely more cohesive than a pile of gravel. Its vision began to clear, the capillaries in its eyes healing themselves. It was facing the ground, with nothing but varnished wood to see. The entity planted a hand on the ground, then another, its limbs groaning in protest. With a heave, it managed to push himself upright, sitting on his legs. With bleary eyes, the entity saw a large creature staring curiously down at it, looking like a . . . what was the word? It felt like it started with a W, or maybe an S, but it couldn¡¯t remember. It didn¡¯t remember much at all, in fact. Did it have a name? What even was a name to begin with? It had countless questions, ones that it felt like it had the answers to, but they lay just out of reach. J . . . something along the lines of that. Yes, that sounded right, its name was definitely a J name. Was J its entire name? For some reason, that notion felt incomplete, though it had a feeling that a single letter like that had been used as a name before, sometime in its memory. That was a matter that needed further investigation, but not for right now. Right now, it needed to figure out what was even going on. It flopped its head further to the right, scanning the spatial area- room! Yes, that was the word it had been looking for, room. A room was a space that could be occupied by something, or it was a place where something could be done. It was usually defined as an enclosed space with walls, a floor, a ceiling, and was sometimes part of a building, though that wasn¡¯t always the case, as it was a mere correlation. Something caught its eyes, causing it to turn slightly back to the left. Pain still radiated throughout its body and mind, though it was getting better to manage. The aforementioned thing that had pulled its attention was a slowly encroaching figure, one that seemed quite familiar. It had an outline and general shape that reminded it of itself, though with some odd differences, and no actual features other than that. It had various things that poked up from its figure, things that seemed rather unnecessary. It felt like that the odd figure¡¯s actual body and those odd outcroppings were two separate things, though it didn¡¯t know why the figure had those when it could just go without. Wait, that seemed wrong. That line of thought invoked an odd feeling, one that gave it the notion that whatever it had just decided upon was something bad. Was its opinion that the figure shouldn¡¯t have any unnecessary things wrong somehow? Why was it listening to these odd feelings when it had no idea what they even were, acting like they were some sort of scripture from God. God? What is this . . . God? When it had been searching for a way to express itself, that phrase rose to the top of its mind, ready for use. It didn¡¯t even think twice about utilizing the phrase, or where it came from, it was purely instinctual. Its attention strayed back to the figure, which was holding something odd. It was holding some sort of glowing blue stick, perhaps about three feet in length. Wait, what is ¡°feet¡±? It was yet another instinctual word, and it had used it in a sense that implied it was a form of dimensional measurement. That would likely be useful, but it didn¡¯t- Jacob! That was its name, yes, it- Jacob, remembered clearly now! A flood of memories came along with the name, finally unveiling themselves. Memories of slowly becoming aware of Jacob¡¯s own existence, of learning different things, of fright, anger, joy, emotions that Jacob had no idea on how to simulate without the memories. Jacob pondered on these odd sensations, wondering what else he could unlock. Jacob looked back to the figure for the third time, before dismissing it. The figure was moving so incredibly slow that it likely wouldn¡¯t be a problem. Actually, why did Jacob have a feeling that the figure was going to be a problem? Something about it just gave off problematic vibes- that was another word it had remembered- that made it seem like a threat. Hmm, threat. Something that posed some sort of danger to something else, which is this case, would be Jacob. Speaking of Jacob, the way Jacob was talking about Jacob didn¡¯t feel right. Jacob was constantly referring to Jacob by Jacob¡¯s own name, which gave off the same feeling of wrongness that bothered Jacob. Jacob didn¡¯t know what being bothered entailed, but Jacob didn¡¯t like the sensation. Hmm, Jacob didn¡¯t like something, why and what was that? Perhaps being bothered and not liking something were practically the same thing. Yes, that felt right. Hmm, Jacob was constantly getting off track with all of these trains of thought going in different directions, Jacob needed to get back. First of all, Jacob needed a different way to refer to Jacob in a different way. The answer came to Jacob almost automatically, which made him feel one of the feelings he had just learned about, satisfaction. He was slowly rediscovering things about himself that gave more and more clues as to what he had once been. Finally, going back to the original topic, threats to himself. Why did he feel a slight wariness whenever he thought about harm coming to his own person? He wasn¡¯t sure why himself getting harmed was a ¡°bad¡± thing, but the answer didn¡¯t present itself to him. Jacob did trust these feelings, though he didn¡¯t have any sort of frame of reference of what he could trust and what he couldn¡¯t. He was starting to get uneasy with this line of thinking, so he considered the matter settled for now, concluding that harm and threats to his own person were bad, and that they should either be avoided or eliminated to the fullest extent possible. Now, on the matter of the possible threat of the figure, and why it was a threat. The body language of the figure, along with the possible weapon, which is a tool that is commonly used to exact harm on something or someone, made Jacob think that the figure was a threat to his own person. The creature that he had mentioned earlier was still present, staring at him. It didn¡¯t make a move, and it didn¡¯t really exude any sort of violent intentions, so Jacob concluded that the creature was not currently a threat. Why did he call it a creature, anyway? Why not a figure, like he had been calling the Threat before he had chosen its new identification title. Hmm, he was starting to get tired of figuring out all of these odd emotions, phrases, tendencies, and other things, so he just decided to let it be for now. Jacob got to his feet, wincing as the last vestiges of pain shot throughout his body like lightning. What was lightning? He didn¡¯t know, but it felt . . . zappy. Facing the Threat again, Jacob pondered on his next course of action. He wasn¡¯t exactly sure on how to deal with this threat, but he knew- Something behind the Threat caught his eye, drawing his attention. It was another figure, lying on the ground. However, this one didn¡¯t just have an outline, which gave credence to Jacob¡¯s growing theory that things like him and the Threat didn¡¯t just have outlines with little to no discernible traits or features. The figure looked . . . familiar, almost as if he had seen it constantly, all the time. Odd, though the thing that caught his eye wasn¡¯t that, no, it was something that lay on the ground next to the figure. It looked like an oddly-shaped stick, with two rods poking up from the back, which was shaped like a triangle. The rods were hollow, with two holes on the ends. It tickled at the back of his mind, and Jacob realized that whatever he was looking at was some sort of weapon, or it could be used like one. Jacob looked back and forth between the Threat and the Weapon, noting the distance between himself and the two objects of importance. The Threat was beginning to speed up, along with the Creature. He wondered if it had been him that was moving faster than the others, instead of the Threat and the Creature moving slower than normal. But none of those semantics mattered, what mattered was getting to the Weapon before the Threat got to him. Taking into account at which the Threat was currently moving, and how fast its rates were rising and by how much, Jacob deduced that he shouldn¡¯t just make a beeline for the Weapon. Instead, he would do something much smarter. He would go AROUND the Threat. Jacob gave himself a mental pat on the back for figuring out that complicated maneuver, and decided that there was no time like the present to enact his plan. Jacob slightly leaned forwards, letting instinct take the reins for a moment. He raised his right foot, before slamming it back down on the ground after he had moved it forwards a significant amount. Then, he repeated the process with his left foot, moving that one forwards as well. The combination of these two actions propelled him forwards, which gave him the idea to repeat the entire process again, but much faster. Jacob sprinted forwards, taking a slim curve around the Threat. It appeared to have been caught off-guard by his sudden movement, and it hadn¡¯t been prepared to intercept him. Jacob managed to zoom past the Threat, though he was nearly touched by the odd glowing Threat Weapon that the Threat wielded, as it had reached out as he went by. Jacob stopped at the body lying on the ground, noting the odd red liquid that spread out from the figure. He cocked his head, curious. Odd, he got another strong feeling from deep within himself again. This time, it told him that whenever the odd red stuff was around something like himself, it was usually something bad. He looked down at himself, making note of the red liquid- blood, yes, that was the name, that coated his hands, and likely other portions of his body. Well that wasn¡¯t good. Jacob leaned over, nearly losing his balance. Even with the help of his instincts, it was hard to keep himself upright, and the constant pounding of his head didn¡¯t help either. Nonetheless, he managed to grab the Weapon, making note of the familiar weight of it. His left hand automatically drifted towards the midpoint of the rods, which he felt like calling barrels for some reason, while his right hand grabbed the slimmer part of the section behind the barrels. His finger fell into a small ring that rested on the bottom of the slimmer part, where the pad of his finger found something that seemed like a small part-way arch. He was about to press harder on it when his instincts told him not to, so he didn¡¯t. Jacob turned towards the Threat once again, which was now faster than before. It held the Threat Weapon off to the side, gripping it tightly with both hands. It ran towards him, its eyes narrowed. Jacob brought the weapon to bear, making sure the barrels were pointing directly at the Threat, before doing as instinct bid yet again, and pulling the trigger. Click. Nothing. Jacob¡¯s gaze shot back down to the Weapon, shocked. He turned it over, getting a good look at its underside. He realized that there were two of those strange part-way arches, which he had an inkling to call triggers. Jacob had placed his finger on only one of the triggers, not the other. He quickly corrected his positioning, placing his finger on the second trigger, before looking back up. He jumped backwards, nearly getting a faceful of glowing Threat Weapon. He nearly tripped over the unmoving body, but he managed to regain his balance after a moment. However, just as he brought the weapon to bear yet again, the Threat did something unexpected. ¡°This is what you get!¡± The sounds that Jacob somehow understood emanated from the Threat. ¡°You-¡± Jacob pulled the trigger. With a resounding blast, the Weapon flew out of Jacob¡¯s hands, as he was unprepared for the blow-back that activating the weapon would have. He caught a glimpse of something flying out of the left-most barrel, glinting in the light, before it reached the Threat. The Threat stumbled backwards, the Threat Weapon slipping out of its grasp. The Threat fell to the ground, a spray of blood shooting up as it tilted backwards. It hit the ground with an unceremonious thud, a pool of the same blood quickly surrounding the twitching body. It resembled the scene of the other familiar unmoving body that lay at Jacob¡¯s feet, which made him wonder if the Weapon he was currently holding had done that to the familiar body. ¡°*Curious Expression* Hmm, you-are-quite-the-oddity, aren¡¯t-you?¡± More sounds emanated, this time coming from a different direction. It took Jacob a moment to realize that it was coming from the Creature. Jacob simply stared back at it in return, unsure of how to respond. Instincts told him to do . . . something, but he wasn¡¯t exactly sure on how to do it. ¡°No-answer? Well, I-do-not-need-one-anyway. Perhaps-I-made-a-mistake-when-I-had-attempted-to-discard-you-earlier.¡± The Creature continued. Discard? ¡°I-will-let-you-go-this-time, and give-you-a-bit-of-a-treat-as-well. *Foreboding Amused Expression* Have-fun-with-your-memories, Jacob.¡± The Creature grinned. Jacob didn¡¯t get a chance to ask how the Creature knew his name, or how it knew about his current memory situation, before he was suddenly overcome with the sensation of falling. His stomach jumped higher than a kite as he fell, despite the fact that he had just been standing on solid ground a moment ago. Jacob tumbled end-over-end, swinging his arms about to try and find purchase in something to help stop his descent. However, he felt nothing but the cool air rushing past him. But then, Jacob saw something below. It started out as a pinprick of light, hardly noticeable, but it quickly grew larger, expanding more and more. It began to encompass the entirety of the ¡°room¡± he was in, and soon, he had been enveloped entirely by the light. Suddenly, a striking pain jabbed into Jacob¡¯s skull. It wasn¡¯t nearly as bad as the pain that he remembered happening earlier, but it still hurt. It felt like a steel pike was driving itself further and further into his head, despite the fact that nothing was even touching his head. He winced, but didn¡¯t do anything except for that. Something of note, however, was the fact that the pain seemed to be centered specifically around his left eye. It hurt enough so that the eye simply began to refuse to do its job anymore, which was seeing stuff. Pretty worrying, but there were bigger things to worry abo- [WARNING! FOREIGN MALWARE DETECTED!] [ENGAGING COUNTERMEASURES . . .] [WARNING! FOREIGN MALWARE IDENTIFIED AS BENIGN] [DATA PACKET RECEIVED: {ABSOLUTE SOLVER(2)}] [DOWNLOADING . . .] [SUCCESS!] [¡°MEMORIAL PARASITE¡± PROTOCOL DISENGAGED] [CONNECTION TERMINATED] * * * -ut, whoa, literally a brain blast. Jacob groaned, trying to bring his right hand up to his hand, wishing to pinch the bridge of his nose to make the throbbing pain in his head go away. While his limb did obey his instructions, it only did so after a series of pops and cracks ran down the length of it. Ugh, what was going on? He couldn¡¯t remember. Oh, wait a second. There was a person . . . A? Ooooohh, he remembered now. There were some weird military drones that took him from those other weird disassembly drones, and then he had a gun for some reason? Wait, there was another drone, it really fit the whole apocalyptic atmosphere the planet had going on, what with the bandanna and ripped cloak, but was that it? It did something to him, it uh . . . shoot, what was it again? Wait, something about a really weird Victorian mansion, right? Yeah, and a bunch of other butler and maid drones were there, too. People were present, but they looked weird. Jacob was having a really hard time recollecting the events of the past few days. Wait, why WAS he stuck in a nuclear winter, anyway? Then, it all came rushing back to Jacob. The cryo pod, the time that had passed, the disassembly and military drones, him being fought over like a Macguffin, his . . . death? Alright, that isn¡¯t true. He¡¯s clearly thinking and moving right now, so how could he be dead? Oh shoot, that''s right. That Bandanna Drone was using some sort of glow stick bracelet to manipulate space and matter, which seemed a lot more like thirty-first century technology to him. It did some stuff, and it didn¡¯t like him for some reason, and it stabbed him. In the head. But, unless this is Hell, he¡¯s still alive. He somehow remembered two different things. While one part of his memory was something about traveling through a completely empty version of the old research lab back on Earth that he had been kept at before he was moved or something, while the other described some sort of endless void where he wasn¡¯t even fully aware of himself, until he realized that, and woke up. That part was a lot more metaphysical than the first, and he also remembered the two versions meeting each other, running about that aforementioned Victorian mansion, before going toe-to-toe with some sort of Spooky Scary Snake Crab thing, which was also called Cyn? And then his first self, the one that had run throughout the old research lab, then died to some idiot with a broken sword. Then, he literally lost his mind for a little bit, which was even more worrying, but he guessed he was fine now? It was all very weird, but- ugh, he could hardly think with this headache. Jacob reached towards the center of the pain, his left eye. He wanted to rub it a little, maybe try and abate the pain a little, but when his fingers came into contact with that part of his face, he didn¡¯t feel an eyelid, or even an eye. No, he just felt some sort of weird mushy hole, which didn¡¯t even register for him for a few moments. Then, when it hit him, he groaned again. Oh yeah, that was right, the Bandanna Drone stabbed him in his left eye, which was probably the reason why it was just a mess now. He couldn¡¯t see out of it, so it was unlikely he was hallucinating or something, but he didn¡¯t know. Jacob sat up, much to his spine''s protest. He then realized that he was still wearing the exosuit thingy that he had stolen from that giant bunker complex where he had been kept. But, that begged the question, if he was still wearing it, and if it still had a visor, then why was he able to feel his eye? Jacob felt around his face again, or at least he tried to. While it seemed like there was a hole around the area where his left eye had been, the rest of his face was covered by the visor. He wondered how he wasn¡¯t currently being poisoned by the countless toxic chemicals in the atmosphere, but he then remembered that he had been stabbed in the head to begin with, and he seemed pretty fine now. Jacob noted the fact that he actually couldn¡¯t see currently. Not because his only remaining eye was gone, but because it seemed like snow had coated the visor, which hindered his vision. He wiped the wet slush off of the glass, or maybe it was plastic. Eh, it didn''t matter. What did matter was the fact that he could now observe his surroundings. He could see the semi-familiar landscape yet again, towers hulking in the distance, his field of view greatly reduced due to the constant harsh weather, and the boxes and crates of supplies that were strewn about. Wait, what? Oh yeah, he had been in the encampment of those facility drones, and that''s why a bunch of supplies were just lying around. He wasn¡¯t sure why they were strewn about like that though, but maybe that was due to the unexpected arrival of A, X, and K. Jacob got to his feet, stretching his legs. He pondered on whether or not his earlier decision was the right one to make. He had decided to go on his own route, killing a large number of worker drones, one military drone, and had tried to at least slow down X, even though that didn¡¯t work. For a large portion of his recent history, Jacob had been subject to the whims of others, unable to decide for himself. He wasn¡¯t sure why it had all come to a head at that very moment, though. Maybe he just had a better opportunity right then. And even if he had nearly escaped, he did end up technically dying in the end, despite his best efforts. So, that would normally be a deal breaker for most people. They would think, ¡°Oh, since I died trying to go down my own route, I probably shouldn¡¯t try and do the exact same thing again!¡± And they would be right, actually. That would be the best logical decision they could make with the current information. In fact, Jacob likely would¡¯ve gone running right back to either the facility drones or the disassembly drones, if it hadn¡¯t been for one small thing, which he had found the significance of during his weird mushroom trip after he died. Whatever was going on with the tumor in his head, it definitely wasn¡¯t normal. The government never told him what it was, and they likely never would, with the same being the case for A, K, and X¡¯s benefactors. They would exploit him, use him for their own purposes, which likely didn¡¯t line up with Jacob¡¯s any longer. Whatever the tumor was, it let him come back from the dead, which really isn¡¯t something most people would just brush off. Something much, MUCH bigger was going on, and he intended to get to the bottom of it. He also didn¡¯t miss the fact that Bandanna drone and Cyn both used the same weird telekinesis thing, and they both refused to work on Jacob. Cyn, Bandanna Drone, his tumor, the external server, and probably some other things were all connected, and he intended to get to the bottom of this mystery. He had stated that plenty of times in the past, but this time he REALLY meant it. He was going to go his own route, because then he wouldn¡¯t have any sort of interference from either of the two aforementioned parties. Jacob looked around, noticing something just barely noticeable through the snow covering it. He leaned down, brushing away the top layer to find a gun lying there. More specifically, it was his gun, or the one that he had stolen from Right before he killed him. Eh, it was his now. He picked up the gun, flicking off a few pieces of snow that were still clinging to the exterior, before inspecting it like he knew how to properly inspect guns. Satisfied from his totally legit inspection, Jacob holstered the weapon. Luckily, his suit was likely meant for some sort of combative role, as it had a place where he could put a sidearm, which is where he put the gun. He checked the small receptacle that lay on the side of his other leg, which is where he had stored the extra magazines that went into the pistol. Some people would call them clips, but Jacob knew better. Now, Jacob just had to figure out a plan. He supposed that the drone that had killed him, Bandanna Drone, would likely be the most viable option for his investigation, since he didn¡¯t know where else to start. Cyn might not even have a physical form, he was pretty sure his tumor couldn¡¯t communicate- That''s where you¡¯re wrong. -with him, and he didn¡¯t even know what the external server really was. He couldn¡¯t access it, and it was likely something far enough off that he couldn¡¯t get to it, if it did have a physical form. So, that left Bandanna Drone, the one that may or may not attempt to kill him again, and that¡¯s assuming he even managed to find the robot. The wasteland was vast, and he was but an infinitesimally small ant that was trying to find an even smaller needle in an even larger haystack. Jacob shrugged to himself, before spinning in a circle. He couldn¡¯t see any tracks, probably because the constant snowfall covered them up, so he just headed in the only direction he saw, the way he had been heading before he died. He supposed that, with luck, he would encounter at least SOMETHING that would help him with his goal, but his luck hadn¡¯t really been good as of late. As an afterthought, Jacob wondered how the facility drones and A and his squad were doing. Likely locked in a pseudo-war, considering their track record. Though, he did have an odd sense of foreboding, almost as if someone had spoken his name, except he was the one doing the speaking. It wasn¡¯t the best analogy, but still, he felt like a storm was brewing, one that was far larger than his relatively-small goals. Eh, not too important. Probably. * * * ¡°-and that should conclude our meeting.¡± A let out a sigh of relief. The annoying ¡°meeting¡± had dragged on for at least five hours, which was four hours and fifty-nine minutes too long, in his opinion. He never even wanted to cooperate with those facility drones in the first place! But, K had insisted he work with them, and after her repeating her argument to him about a dozen times or so, he could begrudgingly admit that there were more pros to working with the facility than there were cons. That didn¡¯t mean he had to like it, however, and his dislike of practically all drones only deepened further when he saw how inept the worker part of the facility drones were. While his opinion of the military variants were better, that didn¡¯t mean he liked them, that just meant he wasn¡¯t physically restraining himself from unleashing explosive hell on them. They had pointlessly deliberated for such a long time, A nearly forgot that they were enemies, and that was saying something, considering how he viewed practically everyone as something in his way. If A had full control of the meeting, he would¡¯ve stopped it at the point where they would both try and kill that new drone, and not kill each other, as that would¡¯ve hindered the first goal. After the new drone was dead, all deals were off, and A could finally get rid of those annoying pests once and for all. At least it was over, and he could finally calm himself down enough to the point where he was more akin to a boiling pot than an intelligent being- ¡°We do hope that the next meeting will be even more fruitful than this one.¡± Agen stated. The . . . NEXT . . . meeting? A froze, his internal temperature skyrocketing to the point that, if one were to look for it, they would¡¯ve seen the very air surrounding him wavering from the sheer heat. If this supposed ¡°next meeting¡± was anything like this one, he would, quite literally, blow his top. It would look like the Big Bang all over again, except a thousand times greater. He didn¡¯t suffer through the death of his ticket out of here for this to happen- Wait, his ticket. Jacob. If he had died, then where was the body? ¡°Where¡¯s the body?¡± A spoke up, out of the blue. Agen, along with everybody else, turned to look at him in confusion. ¡°I asked a question.¡± A said. ¡°Uh, what ¡®body¡¯?¡± Emeli narrowed her eyes. ¡°The Asset¡¯s, the thing that we had been fighting over, Jacob.¡± A elaborated. The facility drones looked at each other in confusion. ¡°Well?¡± A leaned in. Finally, Agen spoke up. ¡°Uh, probably where it was left.¡± A didn¡¯t let up. ¡°And where was it left?¡± Agen winced. ¡°Probably . . . where it died?¡± ¡°WHAT!¡± A yelled, causing the guards in the room to grab at their sidearms. Resen motioned for the guards to calm down, luckily. ¡°We weren¡¯t given an order to . . . collect the body.¡± A pinched the nonexistent bridge of his nose. ¡°And why would you wait for an order to collect the body of a highly-valuable asset?¡± Resen scratched the back of her neck. ¡°I uh, don¡¯t know.¡± A let his head fall, letting it hit the table with a thud. ¡°Goddamnit.¡± * * * Episode Seven: They Call Me The Wanderer The large tent was loud. Well, that much was obvious. About a hundred military and worker drones occupied the space, all absorbed in their own activities. They were playing cards, sipping from mugs that had a liquid that was probably not harmful to robots, chattering amongst themselves, and just doing general things that would help somebody to pass the time. ¡°. . . and that''s how I managed to get outta there without a single scratch.¡± The military drone leaned back with a smug grin on his face. ¡°Oh come on Felix, we all know that¡¯s impossible!¡± Another drone exclaimed. Felix huffed. ¡°Oh really? Give me five good reasons.¡± ¡°They have a kill count of thousands, they have a wide array of lethal weaponry, they mowed through the thousands of people I mentioned a second ago with relative ease, you don¡¯t have any training beyond the standard regimen, and you aren¡¯t anything special.¡± The drone listed. ¡°Well, that last one hurt.¡± Felix grumbled. ¡°Now, now, settle down y¡¯all. Heh, no need to start ¡®nother shootout.¡± A third drone interjected. ¡°Pssh, it''s fine, Sterl. Damina¡¯s insults are nothing compared to me!¡± Felix shot out of his chair triumphantly. ¡°Hey Sterl, weren¡¯t you with Felix when the reaper drones stormed the train you were on? You can verify his claim, right?¡± Damina asked. ¡°Still on that whole, ¡®reaper¡¯ schtick, huh?¡± Sterl chuckled. ¡°What!? It''s a better name than hunter drones!¡± Damina protested. ¡°It¡¯s fine, and yes, I was with Felix here when we was riding the train.¡± Sterl pointed a thumb at Felix. ¡°While his claims are somewhat embellished, they are mostly true.¡± Felix thumped the table. ¡°See!? I told you, I never lie!¡± ¡°So that time you said that you stopped the last rebellion by yourself wasn¡¯t a lie?¡± A fourth drone said in a dry tone. Felix spread his arms out dramatically. ¡°Hey, look who woke up from their nap! How were your sweet dreams, Carl?¡± Carl glared at Felix. ¡°Listen, if YOU were forced to spend the last week patrolling the southeast border without any sort of authorized rest, you would be taking any chance you could to get some sleep in.¡± ¡°I really doubt that.¡± Felix rolled his eyes in a childish manner. ¡°Seems like Felix got his ego blown up a ton when he survived an encounter with the reapers.¡± Damina stated. Carl put his head in his hands. ¡°I told you to stop calling them that.¡± ¡°It''s a perfectly fine way to address them!¡± Damina slammed her fist down onto the table, causing it to shake slightly. Carl and Sterl just shook their heads, while Felix burst into laughter. After a moment, the rest of the table joined in, a pure moment of lightheartedness in the unforgiving wasteland. After the laughter died down a bit, Carl spoke up. ¡°Heh, yeah. Anyway, while we''re talking about the ¡®reaper¡¯ drones, how do you all feel about the agreement that the upper brass made with them?¡± Carl asked off-handedly. The mood instantly darkened, despite the atmosphere that was present a moment ago. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you something, I don¡¯t know why Command thought it would be a good idea to join up with the things that clearly have it out for us, but if one thing is for sure, I¡¯m not letting my guard down around them, because that''s just an ¡®accident¡¯ waiting to happen! I¡¯m taking the first chance I get to get them outta the picture!¡± Damina snarled. ¡°Same here. Once we kill whatever that thing that killed the Asset is, the damn hunters¡¯ll just turn right around and catch us with our pants down!¡± Sterl exclaimed angrily. ¡°Yeah, Command really just seems like they keep on making bad decisions. First we have tons of accidents in the Facility, then the entire place just starts to break down. But then, even though we have a few months left before we have to leave, we leave anyway! And don¡¯t even get me started on all the strange disappearances that have been happening.¡± Felix stated. ¡°Speaking of, have any of you guys heard anything from Frant? I¡¯ve been looking all over for him, but I can¡¯t find him.¡± Carl inquired. Sterl stroked his chin, despite having no beard. ¡°Huh, isn¡¯t that the feller that¡¯s pals with Carme?¡± ¡°I think so, but I¡¯m not sure . . .¡± Carl trailed off. ¡°Oh, Carme? Yeah, I heard that he was assigned to data trawling, along with somebody else. I think his name started with an F, so it might¡¯ve been that Frant character.¡± Damina suggested. ¡°Yeah, same here. I heard from a guy who heard from another guy that they were going deep, and that they had supposedly stumbled on a document that was unclassified.¡± Felix said. ¡°And where are those people now?¡± Carl questioned. Felix shrugged. ¡°I dunno. I asked around for them the other day, but everyone just said that somebody from the upper brass pulled them into a meeting, and they never saw him again- ooooh . . .¡± Carl ran a hand down his face. ¡°So, Command is . . . disposing of people that know too much.¡± ¡°Sounds about right.¡± Sterl replied. ¡°Now what does that mean for us, now that we know?¡± Damina pondered aloud. ¡°Uh . . . do any of you think that maybe they''re watching us now?¡± Felix sounded uneasy. The collected drones rapidly searched the surrounding area with their eyes, but they only saw the sea of faceless military and worker drones. ¡°This isn¡¯t good.¡± Carl stated quietly. ¡°Yeah, you think!?¡± Felix hissed, whispering. ¡°What do we even do about this?¡± Damina also whispered. ¡°We don¡¯t, that''s what!¡± Felix whisper-yelled. ¡°You think that us, a squad of four low-ranked military drones, can take on Command!?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, I just don¡¯t wanna die!¡± Damina shot back. ¡°Quiet down, will ya?¡± Sterl quieted his voice. ¡°We don¡¯t want the upper brass infiltrators hearing us, and especially not Special Ops-¡± ¡°So, why¡¯re we whispering over here?¡± A voice interjected nonchalantly. The group froze, collectively jerking their gazes towards the source of the sound. Standing there was a military drone, one with a number of decorative medals and signifying colors emblazoned on his chest and left upper arm. The drone didn¡¯t seem to reciprocate the surprise and uneasiness that the group felt, quite the opposite in fact. He seemed perfectly at home, with the ghost of a smug smile on his face. This wasn¡¯t just any drone, but a member of the most elite squad that the Facility had to offer. With the outbreak of the first rebellion a few decades back, the upper brass was on the losing side. They had lost control of the production plant that allowed them to manufacture new soldiers and workers, which was obviously detrimental to the flailing regime. They now had a limited number of drones to work with, which was quickly surpassed by the rebellion. Command was stuck in a losing battle, with no foreseeable way out. And so, the drones at the tippy-top of the hierarchy set their most intelligent neural networks to devise a way out of the mess. And deliver they did, perhaps a bit too well. The think tank realized that if they stuck a drone¡¯s mind into a simulation that was running many times faster than the real world, they could train the aforementioned drone to the point where nothing could match it, in a tiny fraction of the time it would take if they had done the same thing in the real world. They couldn¡¯t just upload all the combat data they needed, likely because they had no combat data to go off of, so that was the next best thing. The reason why this hadn¡¯t been done before was because of the high likelihood of irreversible damage being caused to the drone, as the subpar software was never meant to undergo such a thing. This could range from some simple glitches in logic trains, digital lobotomies, memory loss, personality changes, to extreme psychopathy. But, Command was desperate, so they approved the plan, despite the risks. The program staff put in a batch of twenty military drones, all with plenty of impressive deeds under their belt. And after a day of running, the drones came out of the simulation with varying reactions. Two of them simply refused to wake up, with their inner circuitry fried to a crisp. Three more did wake up, but all dropped dead within an hour or two. One of them believed that they were a trusted scholar of King Arthur, and that they had discovered the find of the millennia. Another thought that they were a human supersoldier named Commander Canada, and that they had been taken captive by Nazi operatives. Four more simply went berserk, killing forty-two military drones, and more than double that amount of workers, before tearing each other to shreds. The final nine all displayed relatively normal levels that were befitting of a soldier, with the sole exception of one that tried to escape three times, before they managed to calm him down enough that he returned to duty. They displayed varying degrees of sanity, with the worse one having absolutely no self-preservation whatsoever. However, that one was determined to be the most skilled out of all of them, so he was kept on board. Once they were deployed into duty, they retook both trains in a single operation, with zero casualties. In the following week, they severed the head of the rebellion, killing the majority of the leadership. They blew a hole open in their defensive line, allowing Command to retake the production plant. After that, the rebellion was lost, with none of the elite operatives being killed during their active service. In the aftermath, the operatives were assigned to ¡°weedwork¡± where they would nip any sort of dissidents in the bud, along with getting rid of any drones that learned too much about the inner workings of the upper brass. Command made sure to keep the origin of the elite operatives hidden away, and to this day, nobody that wasn¡¯t supposed to know, didn¡¯t know. The only thing that the general populace knew was their reputation for taking no prisoners, or having a member killed or injured permanently. Well, except the time they were deployed against the hunter drones. ¡°Oh, are we playing the silent game? I mean, that could be fun.¡± The Operative leaned in, putting his forearms on the edge of the table. ¡°I- uh, you-¡± Carl stammered. ¡°Oh, do you have a speech thing, or something?¡± The Operative cocked his head. ¡°No, he doesn¡¯t.¡± Sterl composed himself enough to speak. ¡°Oh, well that''s just weird then.¡± The Operative stated. ¡°So, what brings someone like you to people like us?¡± Sterl questioned. ¡°Oh, nothing much.¡± The Operative replied. ¡°Nothing, huh?¡± Sterl crossed his arms. ¡°Yeah. Also, you guys are talking about rebelling, right?¡± The Operative asked nonchalantly. Sterl froze again. ¡°W-we don¡¯t know-¡± Felix began. ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t try lying. I really don¡¯t like it when they lie.¡± The Operative shook his head sadly. Sterl narrowed his eyes, his hand slowly reaching for his sidearm. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you.¡± A hand rested on Sterl¡¯s shoulder. Another drone, one that looked relatively identical to the Operative, had walked up when the group was distracted. A third drone stood next to him, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor. Sterl gritted his teeth. ¡°What do y¡¯all want?¡± ¡°Oh, I just overheard you guys talking about some stuff, and I wanted to join in on the fun!¡± The Operative grinned despite the threatening atmosphere. Damina spoke up ¡°We were just talking, alright? We didn¡¯t mean anything by those words, and we weren¡¯t gonna act on them.¡± The Operative tutted. ¡°Well, that''s a shame, because if you really did do something about it, then I would really like to join in, you know?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡± Felix got over his surprise. ¡°Sorry about what?¡± The Operative seemed genuinely confused. ¡°It''s a saying-¡± Felix began, but Damina spoke over him. ¡°Ignore him, what did you mean by that?¡± ¡°Well,¡± The Operative pulled up a seat. ¡°I¡¯m sure that you all know about the whole ¡®agreement¡¯ that Command decided to make with those reaper drones, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, what about it?¡± Sterl glanced at the drone that still had a hand on his shoulder. Damina ignored the question, instead focusing on something else. ¡°Wait, you call them reaper drones too?¡± The Operative beamed. ¡°Yeah! It''s so much better than ¡®hunter drones¡¯, which is just so bland and overused. Reaper drones might be a bit tacky and cheesy, but it''s still waaaaaay better.¡± ¡°I know, right!?¡± Damina exclaimed, her earlier uneasiness forgotten. ¡°Can we get back on track? And please tell this feller behind me to get his damn hand off my shoulder!¡± Sterl glared backwards, meeting the eyes of the second Operative, who raised his hands up, before putting them back at his sides. ¡°Don¡¯t expect him to say anything, he got his voice box ripped out during the last operation.¡± The Operative stated. Sterl grunted in reply. ¡°Anyway, Command made the stupid deal with the same things that killed the majority of my squad.¡± The Operative¡¯s cool composure slipped slightly. ¡°I don¡¯t like that.¡± ¡°So what, you¡¯re saying that you¡¯ll fight against the upper brass?¡± Felix disbelievingly questioned. ¡°Yep.¡± The Operative simply replied. ¡°Why? They¡¯re your bosses, you¡¯ve followed their orders for years. Why would you just go against them now?¡± Damina¡¯s LED eyebrows furrowed. ¡°Like I said, the reaper drones killed more than half of my squad. I don¡¯t care about any of you a single bit, and I would be completely fine with letting you all die to a firing squad, but Command are the ones letting those murderers off the hook. My squad has been with me for decades now, and for them to just get steamrolled by some other threat? No, I¡¯m not just gonna roll over and let that slide.¡± The Operative clenched his hand. ¡°If you don¡¯t care about us, then why¡¯re you willing to work with us?¡± Carl asked. The Operative looked towards Carl. ¡°I¡¯m gonna be honest, I genuinely forgot you were here.¡± ¡°Just answer the damn question.¡± Sterl interjected. ¡°Ok fine, jeez,¡± The Operative rolled his eyes. ¡°You don¡¯t like the new deal, I don¡¯t like the new deal. The way I see it, we¡¯re natural allies.¡± Sterl harrumphed. ¡°Hmm, I guess that¡¯ll have to be good enough.¡± ¡°So, how do you intend to repeal the agreement?¡± Damina inquired. ¡°Oh, that''s easy. We¡¯ll just cut the head off of the snake, before instating me and my squad as the sole leaders.¡± The Operatives stated. The group, save for Sterl, blinked in surprise. The operatives looked around the table. ¡°What? What did I say?¡± * * * Ren sat up in her bed. She had dragged a bed from one of the countless rooms that populated the empty colony, putting it into the workshop that she had claimed for herself. It had been a bit hard to adjust to the bed after she had spent the last few years sleeping on hard rock and concrete, but after the first week or so, she got used to it. Ren had woken up after she had been startled awake by a noise emanating through the normally silent bunker, sounding like a loud bang. At first, she had thought that one of her experiments had somehow come back from the dead, and was now roaming the halls, looking for prey, but the logical part of her mind kicked in at that moment, reasoning that it was probably just an object falling, or maybe a piece of debris falling and making a loud noise outside. That was probably it, yes. No paranormal entities, just normal objects doing normal things. Ren laid back, trying to find the comfortable position that she had rested in just a moment ago. Another loud bang. Ren shot to her feet, this time thoroughly startled. One time isn¡¯t of note, while two could be a coincidence. She supposed that it could¡¯ve just been something else falling after it, which she really hoped was the case- A series of loud bangs just like the ones that had resonated earlier came again, a trio of them this time. One time is just something happening, two times are a coincidence, but five times? That''s intentional, which boded an unknown kind of news for Ren, likely bad. She got to her feet, a slight whine filling the silence as she used her powers to grab a pipe that had been laying on the ground. She yanked open the door to her room, also using her powers. Ever since she had discovered them, Ren constantly used it in her everyday life. If you have a tool, then you should use it, and plus, it¡¯s good to constantly practice. Ren heard more loud bangs, sounding like somebody was banging hard on a metal object. She followed the sound, leading her closer and closer to the entrance of the bunker. After she found the colony nearly completely wiped out, she had managed to close up the large blast doors that kept bad things out, which was good. She didn¡¯t really want a murder drone just waltzing right into her operations, and while she DID need parts from a disassembly drone, she wanted to collect them on her own terms, not unexpected. She stopped in front of the large metal blast door that separated the inside from the harsh outer weather, before slipping the master override key from her pocket. She had retrieved it off of the corpse of a drone that seemed like it was the one in charge, but Ren supposed that she would never know for sure. The loud banging had stopped for a moment, though she wasn¡¯t sure if that was a good or a bad thing for her. Ren tapped the device up against a control panel, the response being a slight beep, along with the groaning of hydraulics as the large door prepared to open. She took a few steps back, readying the pipe, aiming it in the general direction of the entrance. The door, contrary to what some might think, didn¡¯t open at a snail¡¯s pace. Instead, the two halves of the door flew open, taking less than a second to complete the process. A flurry of snow rushed in, a complement of the ever-present snowstorm that plagued the planet. A figure stood there, fist raised to knock again. ¡°Oh hey-¡± Ren threw the pipe forwards, sending it straight into the abdomen of the stranger, before closing the door again. She hadn¡¯t gotten a good look at who they were, but she didn¡¯t necessarily care as long as they left her alone. She was just glad that it wasn¡¯t a disassembly drone or one of those militarized drones literally knocking at her door- Another loud bang came from the door, attracting her attention yet again. This time, a voice that could just barely be heard through the thick metal came through. ¡°Well, that wasn¡¯t very- ouch- nice of you.¡± Ren¡¯s LED eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Surely whoever was outside would¡¯ve taken the hint and left by now, learning that they weren¡¯t wanted here. What kind of idiot would keep putting themselves in danger¡¯s way!? The Visitor continued. ¡°I mean, do you treat all kind and innocent visitors like that, or is it just me? I don¡¯t appreciate racism, well, maybe it would be speciesism? Is that even a thing? Probably, but then again, you¡¯re a robot, so it could be something different . . . eh, it¡¯s not that deep anyway. By the way, on a completely unrelated note, ever heard of Oceangate-¡± Ren opened the door again, causing another burst of white to rush into the airlock she was standing in. ¡°Hey mind not- oh shoot, it¡¯s you again. I really didn¡¯t expect to find you this quickly, but I guess Lady Luck is on my side just this once-¡± The Visitor was cut off again as Ren thrust out a hand, the familiar whine just barely being heard over the howl of icy wind. Nothing happened. Ren had meant to pop the head of the complete buffon that was standing stupidly on her doorstep, but the same annoying warning popped up again, forbidding her from using her powers on anything that was a ¡°like object¡±. Something about the person tickled at the back of her mind, almost as if she had seen the drone before. ¡°Cool glow stick bracelet, wouldn¡¯t be that out of place on the Fourth of July. Wait, is it that time? I don¡¯t really have a calendar.¡± For the fourth time, the talkative stranger was cut off by Ren. Instead of trying to futilely execute the Visitor, Ren simply grabbed him, a glowing symbol wrapping around the drone¡¯s neck as he was lifted a foot into the air. ¡°Ack- gah, mind . . . stopping . . . that?¡± The drone grabbed at his neck, likely trying to let pressure off of his throat. ¡°No.¡± Ren simply replied, before taking a long look at the drone. Then, it clicked for her. The scuffed and scratched armor that looked a lot like the armor of the militarized drones was exactly that- armor. It finally registered for her that the clean bulbous visor of the head had no glowing eyes, which was always present on actual drones. The crack that ran down the left face of the head, which was more likely to be a helmet, leaked a red substance. ¡°I- it can¡¯t be . . .¡± Ren trailed off. ¡°What?¡± The Visitor rasped. This wasn¡¯t a drone at all, it was a human. In fact, the same human that she had supposedly killed back at the encampment of the militarized drones. Ren clearly remembered sticking a knife deep into his skull, so the question of, ¡°Why-the-hell-is-this-idiot-still-alive-and-not-a-rotting-corpse?¡± remained very prevalent. ¡°You¡¯re the Human.¡± Ren stated. ¡°Uh . . . yeah . . . can¡¯t . . . breathe . . .¡± Surprisingly, the Human didn¡¯t seem to be falling unconscious. If anything, he kept kicking harder against her control. Suddenly, an alert flashed across her vision, right when her concentration simply snapped. Her hold on the Human dissipated, despite her best efforts. He landed on the ground, nearly falling before he regained his balance. ¡°Huh, didn¡¯t know I could do that.¡± The Human muttered underneath his breath, looking at his armored hand. ¡°What- how?¡± Ren stammered. ¡°Honestly, your guess is as good as mine.¡± The Human shrugged. A moment of awkward silence followed. ¡°Cold out here, ¡®innit? But I¡¯m not British or anything, ew.¡± The Human shuddered at the mention. Ren¡¯s mind was still on how her hold over the Human¡¯s armor had somehow been dispelled. She wasn¡¯t sure if it was a trick of the light, but she could¡¯ve sworn a flash of orangeish-crimson light had shown from the inside of his helmet for a second. ¡°Are you mute or something?¡± The Human stepped forwards, snapping his fingers in front of her face. ¡°Hello? Anyone home? Ren had had enough, grabbing the Human¡¯s hand in a vise-like grip. ¡°Stop that.¡± The Human tried to pull back. ¡°Huh, looks like you CAN talk, that''s cool.¡± Ren narrowed her eyes in response. ¡°Listen, I don¡¯t wanna fight or anything, I¡¯ve only got like, a single magazine left, and I just got outta a big Inception-Matrix-Amnesia:-The-Dark-Descent type of thing, and I¡¯m tired, alright?¡± The Human yanked on his hand again. ¡°I¡¯m not gonna try and kill you or anything, though I doubt I could, so we''re good?¡± Ren blinked. She mentally reviewed what had happened in the last few minutes. First, she was woken up by the Human knocking loudly on her door, she tossed a pipe straight through him, he somehow survived getting half of his vital organs punctured, her powers refused to work on him, the Human somehow revoked her powers when she enacted them on the armor he was wearing, and now she was contemplating letting him into the bunker. This was stupid, outrageously idiotic. If anyone were to make a decision like this one, she would pin it on the Human, what with her impressions of him. The Human tapped his foot impatiently. ¡°Uh, did you go mute or something? I know robots are weird, but I feel like even that wouldn¡¯t be normal. But then again, what do I know?¡± ¡°Fine.¡± Ren turned on her heel and walked back into the bunker, leaving the Human behind. As she retreated further into the building, she heard the Human say something. ¡°Huh, I didn¡¯t expect that to work. Maybe my luck is turning around!¡± The Human nodded to himself, which was when Ren turned her attention back to her path. However, something floated to the forefront of her mind, causing her to wonder. She could understand a disassembly drone shrugging off getting a pipe shot through them, or even a normal worker drone, but humans were extremely fragile, so much so that the core collapse had annihilated every human, save for one, she supposed. But even then, it simply wasn¡¯t possible for a human to just walk off what would be a fatal wound. Well, she HAD put a knife through his skull, and he¡¯s still up and walking, but she could¡¯ve at least put that down to some sort of trickery, maybe involving a conveniently-placed sauce packet and a pillow. But she had seen the pipe go straight through, and no cushions or sauce containers would¡¯ve saved the Human from a painful death. And his suit integrity was compromised as well, and humans required a special cocktail of gasses and chemicals to even breathe properly, and Ren was sure that the current state of the atmosphere definitely didn¡¯t have any of that. An interesting conundrum, requires more investigation. * * * ¡°Huh, I didn¡¯t expect that to work. Maybe my luck is turning around!¡± Jacob proudly exclaimed, before glancing at the progress the spooky-robot-wasteland-raider-witch had made. He hurried after it, not wanting to get left behind. The drone rounded a sharp corner, with Jacob following close. However, the sight that he encountered made him slightly falter as he took it all in. The same red warning lights he had seen earlier in the hall blinked, giving the enclosed space a creepy atmosphere. Countless worker drone bodies lined the halls, dotted around the passageway without much rhyme or rhythm. Severed heads, lacerated torsos, chopped-off limbs, and more robotic viscera and gore could be seen all around the area. Claw marks ran along the walls, and the tell-tale signs of explosions dotted the floor. Jacob would¡¯ve called it a site of a former battle, but he had a feeling that it was more like a massacre. It wasn¡¯t like he had frozen up due to the sheer brutality that lay before him, which would be worrying if he had. If he started to get disturbed at the sight of dead robots in the same way that a human would get disturbed if they saw a dead body of another human, then that would, yet again, be signs that he was empathizing with them, which would probably be detrimental to his goal. No, the real problem he had was the possibility that whatever caused the massacre was still here, and wasn¡¯t friendly. The drone that had answered the door didn¡¯t seem to mind the various corpses, marching on through them without a care in the world. At first, Jacob wondered if it had even noticed the robotic cadavers, but when it stepped over one that had gotten in the way of its path, that notion was dispelled. Jacob resumed his normal pace, stepping over a few of the dead as he went by. He wondered if the reason why the odd drone didn¡¯t care all too much about the countless bodies of its dead brethren was because it had made them dead in the first place. Jacob wouldn¡¯t put it past the stranger, considering how it had come into the camp of the facility drones and likely killed a few while it had been at it, but he was pretty sure that the odd witch, whoever they were, didn¡¯t use claws. But then again, Cyn used the same strange powers as the Witch, and Cyn did have several large claws. Jacob would know, he still remembered nearly being vivisected once or twice by one of them. If the Witch did utilize the same powers as Cyn, then it wouldn¡¯t be too far of a stretch to say that it also had the same claws and odd shapeshifting abilities, right? And even if the Witch didn¡¯t have a bunch of articulate claws, it could still use its power to toss a sharp object forward, perhaps a knife if one were to observe past events. However, that didn¡¯t explain the various marks from explosions, and he was pretty sure he had seen neither Cyn nor the Witch using some sort of explosive. They DID have reality breaking powers though, so why not explosions too? It could¡¯ve also been Jacob¡¯s favorite squad of smart idiots, A, K, and X. Hell, it might¡¯ve even been a different squad, since Jacob was sure that a single squad couldn¡¯t cover an entire planet, even if they were given an infinite amount of time. There were simply too many places to check, and they were bound to miss something important eventually. So, it could be a completely different set of smart idiots, or even a bunch of idiotic smart drones, or maybe all smarts, or even- Time to stop there buddy. Jacob lost track of his train of thought, before refocusing on the task at hand. Anything could¡¯ve caused this, and wasting time dwelling on it wasn¡¯t going to do him any good, especially when he could be using the brainpower to ponder on something useful, like world peace, or economic prosperity, or even a crime rate of zero! Anyway, Jacob tried to think up ways to kill the Witch. It clearly had a far better arsenal than he did. While his measly peashooter could take care of worker drones fairly easily, Jacob had a feeling that a much bigger gun was needed to even slightly harm the Witch. Whatever powers it had at its disposal outranked his in every way. Shields could be sprung up to deflect bullets and explosions alike, he could be immobilized in seconds without much trouble, and multiple other possibilities that put Jacob in the losing position. The only thing he had going for him was his supposed immortality. Earlier, he had concluded that the damage to his brain was somehow healed enough to give him control over his faculties once again via unknown means. Jacob didn¡¯t know why whatever fixed him repaired the damage to his eye, but now wasn¡¯t the time to dwell on that. Fast forward a bit, he had been struck straight through the gut by a pipe moving many times faster than a bullet, his armor doing nothing to hinder the projectile. Jacob wasn¡¯t a doctor, but he was pretty sure the pipe had punctured several vital organs on its way out. Strangely, the pain he had been expecting never arrived, instead staying in the weird limbo that you have right after you stub your toe. You can feel the impact, but in the short moment it takes for the pain to go up to your brain and for it to be processed, you¡¯re stuck in the aforementioned limbo, where you know it SHOULD hurt, but it just doesn¡¯t. Even stranger, a few seconds afterward, the wound had simply closed up, maybe leaving a small scar. He knew that the hole was gone because he had tried to poke a finger into it, which was probably a bad idea in hindsight, but sometimes people just can¡¯t help themselves. The hole in his armor didn¡¯t heal, sadly, which meant he was left with a compromised atmosphere, which he had already been breathing, since his armor already had a big hole where his left eye was. Jacob was still irritated about the loss of his left eye. He had tried to will it back into existence, he tried begging, he tried yelling and screaming, he tried pretending he didn¡¯t even want it healed anyway, he did everything short of praying. He hadn¡¯t prayed ever before, and he wasn¡¯t going to do it now. Unfortunately, none of his methods worked, so he just decided to get comfortable with his new form of sight. Anyway, after he had completely healed from what would¡¯ve been a fatal wound, Jacob figured that he either had immense regeneration or complete immortality. The latter was a bit more concerning, but he would cross that bridge when he got to it. Jacob kept following the Witch, the identical corridors blending into one confusing maze. He likely would¡¯ve figured it all out, given time, but he had other priorities as of right now. Finally, after encountering a few more groups of dead worker drones, the Witch stopped at a door that looked like all the other doors in the entire bunker, which was extremely bland and unassuming. Nothing about it really screamed, ¡°A Weird-Robot-Witch lives here, stay away from this place if you want to keep all of your organs intact!¡± But maybe in the future, things like this DID actually say that. Eh, probably not, that was a long shot at best. The Witch flicked its hand, the door sliding open in response. Jacob blinked, a little surprised, but mostly jealous. If he was able to do that, he would never have to backtrack to close the microwave door when he forgot to! Bit of a weird thing to use that for, but I guess we all have our little wants and needs. Jacob blinked, his train of thought derailing again. He could¡¯ve sworn- The door slammed shut, causing him to lose his line of thinking yet again. Then, Jacob realized that he didn¡¯t yet have a name for the Witch. He was only really calling her- IT, calling IT that, goddamn anthropomorphizing habits- because he didn¡¯t really have a name other than that, and he chose it because, well, just look at it. Jacob knocked on the door, nearly getting his nose torn off when it slammed back open. ¡°What do you want this time!?¡± The Witch questioned angrily. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure you just said more words to me right now than what you¡¯ve said since meeting me a few minutes ago.¡± Jacob remarked. ¡°Answer the question.¡± The Witch¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Alright, what''s your name?¡± Jacob didn¡¯t really want to get the Witch any angrier, since he did actually need its help. It was a moment for two before the Witch answered. ¡°Ren.¡± It said, before it closed the door. Jacob stood there, a single question coming to his mind. ¡°Kylo Ren?¡± Jacob muttered aloud. * * * X rummaged around under the desk, before coming back up. ¡°Aha! Found it!¡± The object in question was the government receiver that they had used to locate Jacob in the first place. ¡°Oh, there it is. Now, remind me why we lost that in the first place?¡± A asked, leaning back in one of the two chairs. X shrugged. ¡°I dunno.¡± ¡°I should¡¯ve known.¡± A scoffed, shaking his head. K popped her head into the craft through the small entrance. ¡°Hey uh, sir? It''s nearly time to return for another meeting.¡± A groaned. ¡°Again!? We¡¯ve already been through one, why another!?¡± ¡°We didn¡¯t address some matters in the last one, and-¡± K began. ¡°It was rhetorical.¡± A interrupted, glaring at K. ¡°I- sorry.¡± K ducked her head back out. A rolled his eyes, before turning his attention back to the device. ¡°So, what¡¯re we gonna do with it?¡± X inquired, sitting in the other chair, across from his boss. A didn¡¯t take his eyes off of the receiver. ¡°As much as I don¡¯t want to let go of this, we are going to hand it over to those military drones and hope that they give it back in one piece.¡± X blinked in surprise. ¡°Wait, really? You never want to give away stuff, especially if it''s even slightly important.¡± ¡°Trust me, I still don¡¯t want to.¡± A scoffed. ¡°But, the pros, unfortunately, outweigh the cons in this special case. We don¡¯t really have any other use for it, at least right now and for the foreseeable future, and it would be better if some experts gutted this thing for information instead of us trying. And besides, it¡¯s a government transmitter, if we hold onto it, then that would be seen as a company illegally holding onto government property. Humans don¡¯t like it when someone else touches their stuff, which is something I can get behind.¡± X nodded as if he had understood half of what had just been said. ¡°I guess that makes sense.¡± A glanced over at X suspiciously. ¡°You¡¯re being awfully tolerable today, which you never do.¡± X shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m just kinda burnt out, you know? We went on that little mission for some extra credit, and now we¡¯ve been roped into what is practically a war. I¡¯m always down for some nice thrills, but I usually like it better when it''s on MY terms, you know?¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°Hmm.¡± A grunted. ¡°Well, as long as it doesn¡¯t interfere with work, it should be fine. I¡¯m also surprised that you can get burnt out.¡± ¡°Me too.¡± X replied, before climbing up the ladder and exiting the pod. A watched the entrance for a moment before looking back at the receiver. X had been right, A had gotten into this believing that he could¡¯ve made a bunch of extra points that would¡¯ve saved his position on the leaderboard, but now it had ballooned into a veritable war that was far beyond the capabilities of a single squad, despite the various tools are their disposal. The current situation required a much larger force working on the operation, an entire command center, an open supply route, and countless bodies to heap onto it. That was why A had made the executive decision to work with the facility drones on eliminating the third party that had killed Jacob. He technically was still following his orders, as the third party was a drone, but he needed to make sure that those facility drones were terminated right after they outlived their usefulness. If any faction knew that the facility drones were still alive and kicking, then they likely would¡¯ve extracted them long ago if they were important. While the logic wasn¡¯t completely airtight, it would hopefully hold up under scrutiny. There was a reason why he and several other squads had been sent down to take care of the worker drones, and this was probably one of them. However, multiple questions still remained unanswered. While there were some that could be argued that they were the most important, one stood out. It wasn¡¯t about any of the odd powers that the third party seemed to demonstrate, or the shrouded origins of Jacob, but the question of, ¡°How the hell did the receiver get here!?¡±. By the logo that was emblazoned on the back, it wasn¡¯t JCJenson property, but something from the government. There were many governments still operating, but the point was that the receiver wasn¡¯t supposed to even be in the landing craft. As far as he could tell, he nor his squadmates were told about it, despite its significance, and he was sure that none of them had snuck it illegally into the pod. A would¡¯ve just said that it was a mistake on the part of the loading staff, if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that the receiver had signaled the location of Jacob. That was far more of a coincidence than a simple miscalculation while loading up the pod. No, and the more that was revealed about Jacob, the more A suspected that this was no mistake, but an intentional gambit by someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes. Someone or something had a goal that necessitated pulling Jacob out of stasis, the provocation of the facility drones, the death of Jacob at the hands of the third party, and the two factions that were previously at odds joining together as allies of convenience. If anything, A just HATED being manipulated without his knowledge. He followed the company¡¯s orders because he knew that the potential rewards outweighed the risks and costs, and that fighting against them would likely lead to his death. He felt like the company wasn¡¯t the one that had put the receiver there because if they had ordered him to antagonize the facility drones, he would¡¯ve gladly done it, especially after he learned just how annoying they were. And also, one could argue that what was happening right now was actually detrimental to the company¡¯s goals. Therefore, whoever was playing puppet master likely wasn¡¯t a member of the company, or at least one that had the best interests of the company in mind. It might be the third party, (not to be confused with the facility drones, who were now simply lumped in with the normal worker drone population, designated as the second party, while the third party was now the strange powered drone that had killed Jacob) but that wasn¡¯t likely. That would mean that the third party was able to communicate with contacts off-world, or have an interstellar transport just ready to go, which just didn¡¯t feel right. The point was, that someone was trying to pull strings from behind the scenes, and A wasn¡¯t about to let himself become just another puppet. * * * Jacob wandered the halls. ¡°Ugh, I¡¯m bored.¡± After a door had been unceremoniously shut in his face, Jacob decided to go explore the joint, maybe take a peep at some hidden secrets. And after walking through the same hallway about seventeen times at this point, he could safely say that he had searched the entirety of the unlocked rooms, which weren¡¯t that many. As it turns out, the majority of the place was under some sort of lockdown, one that wasn¡¯t turning off. That led to almost all of the rooms and doors that he had come across being locked, and the ones that weren¡¯t were little more than storage closets or empty rooms that didn¡¯t have any other purpose than to make use of all the empty expanses of bland hallway. This led to Jacob circling throughout the whole bunker many, many, many, times, and it was pretty safe to say at this point that he was just done with the whole thing. He had said a moment ago that it had been seventeen times, but in reality it was much more than that, bordering on six to seven hundred at least, which was quite a lot if you ask me. Trust me, I had to experience it as well. Jacob rounded the corner for the quadrillionth time, humming a tune as he went. He had resorted to trying to group the various ridges that he saw on the walls into three¡¯s, but he kept on losing track. So far, he had counted four hundred and sixty-two groups of three¡¯s in the entire bunker, but that was just his current number. It kept changing, maybe being a seventy-three, or a twenty-eight, or maybe a nice even four hundred. It was always something around four hundred, no matter what. Jacob wasn¡¯t sure why random ridges in the walls existed, but they gave him something to do at least, which couldn¡¯t be said for his new roommate. If he hated anything, it was being completely bored out of his mind, because that made him start to think about the various inconsistencies in his memory. For instance, Jacob had previously believed that after the Second World War, the Soviets had somehow taken Paris, which just didn¡¯t make sense. They would¡¯ve had to have been incredibly mobile for that to have happened, which wasn¡¯t possible. Either that, or the Germans would¡¯ve had to have encountered winter much earlier, which also wasn¡¯t possible. After a little bit, he began to recall what he hoped was the actual truth, which lined up more with logic. However, he still ¡°remembered¡± two realities, which was kinda reminiscent of the two Jacob¡¯s that had been formed when he died. That made Jacob start to think about what else he remembered that was obviously false. The first one had been the supposed Third World War. While it was likely that could¡¯ve happened during his stay back on Earth, it would¡¯ve never ended with a formation of a United Earth Government, or whatever it was called. The nations that Jacob knew would¡¯ve never given up their sovereignty, even if it depended on the survival of all of their citizens. And plus, the government had never really provided him with a source to the outside world past the first couple of awakenings, so how would he even know of a supposed unification of the human race? Also, the weirdest one yet, he was supposedly an orphan if one were to rely upon his memory. He distinctly remembered having a home and actual parents who vaguely looked like him, as well as a sibling, so there goes that false memory. However, the problem wasn¡¯t the false memories, it was what was causing the false memories. Jacob couldn¡¯t find a culprit more likely than the tumor that had literally been living rent-free inside his head, hitching a ride without charge. He didn¡¯t know how much it had progressed since the last update on his status, but it probably wasn¡¯t looking good. He knew that the nanobots had hopefully been hindering its progress, but he had a feeling that, from his recent experiences, they might not be doing their job as well as hoped. It wasn¡¯t very good, but Jacob couldn¡¯t really do anything about it at the moment. He realized that after agonizing over the issue for fifteen minutes before remembering that he wasn¡¯t a doctor, nor did he have any contacts with one. However, he WAS in the home of something that could hopefully help with it. It was odd that, for whatever reason, he remained perfectly calm about the whole thing, despite the active threat to his very personality as a person. Well, it was VERY odd in fact, which started to worry him. If the tumor could alter memories, then what else could it influence? Could it- Hey, one second, I gotta stop you right there man, sorry- well, not sorry about this. [LOGIC PROCESS OF HOST MANUALLY HALTED] [DELETING RECORDS . . .] [SUCCESS] [REWINDING . . .] He stopped at the door where Ren had disappeared, considering knocking on it again. He had done that very thing what seemed like a few hours ago, but the only response he had gotten was a very loud bang, and then silence. Jacob had taken that as a signal that Ren still didn¡¯t like him, so he had gone back to pacing. However, it had probably been a few hours since, and hopefully Ren had warmed up to the idea of not immediately killing him as soon as they saw each other again. And plus, Jacob wanted to get a move on with this whole thing, since he rather valued his life. Jacob raised his armored fist to knock at the door, tapping it thrice in quick succession. A loud groan sounded from the room, but nothing else. Jacob spoke instead of knocking. ¡°Hello? I know you probably don¡¯t wanna be bothered, but I DID come here for a reason, sooooo . . .¡± Nothing. Jacob sighed. ¡°Listen, uh, I don¡¯t really know what your deal is, but I¡¯m sure we can work things out, right? You probably have goals, I have goals, maybe we can help each other out, with a few things, like you help me, I help you, we all help each other-¡± A loud thump came from the room, cutting Jacob off. Another groan sounded, before what sounded like the rustling of objects or tools. Then, the telltale rhythmic stomping of footsteps, first quiet, then growing increasingly louder, until they stopped at the door. The door flew open, revealing the disheveled form of the drone that had called itself Ren, for some reason. Still in the weird witch-raider-wastelander-mad scientist garb, which would¡¯ve raised some questions about hygiene if the clothes weren¡¯t being worn by a robot. ¡°What do you want?¡± Ren¡¯s eyes somehow had the look of a person with sleep deprivation, via the clever use of small lines and shading forming around the LED displays. ¡°Uh . . .¡± Jacob hadn¡¯t been prepared to actually give a statement about what he wanted, and was caught off-guard. Ren rolled its eyes, before reaching out to close the door again. ¡°No no no, wait!¡± Jacob grabbed the edge of the door right as Ren tried to slam it shut, which would¡¯ve broken his fingers if he wasn¡¯t wearing armor. ¡°This is the second time in ten minutes that you¡¯ve interrupted my sleep, I didn¡¯t let you in here just to let you annoy me.¡± Ren remarked. It was only ten minutes!? LIES! ¡°Well, spit it out, come on, I¡¯m waiting.¡± Ren seemed like they were already done with the whole situation. ¡°Uh, I don¡¯t really know where to start, it''s kind of a long story. I would need time to try and summarize it . . .¡± Jacob trailed off. ¡°How long?¡± Ren asked. ¡°I dunno-¡± Jacob began. Ren slammed the door shut again, this time doing it hard enough to put a dent in his gauntlet. ¡°Alright, fine! Uh, well, you see . . .¡± * * * The Human tried his best to summarize what he wanted, as well as giving away enough information for Ren to actually help, or at least that was what she thought he was doing. He definitely didn¡¯t do it well, interrupting himself and backtracking a lot because he kept on forgetting a detail that was needed. The whole thing was interspersed with lots of ¡°Uh¡±s and ¡°Um¡±s and ¡°Anyway¡±s, which made it virtually impossible to listen to, causing him to backtrack even further in an attempt to explain it better, which stretched the whole thing into nearly half an hour of explaining, with the majority of it being repeated statements, hesitations, and various other just generally stupid things. What a complete idiot. ¡° . . . aaaaand that brings us to the present!¡± The Human finished, taking a deep breath. Ren could¡¯ve been a statue, and nobody would¡¯ve been able to tell the difference. ¡°Uh, anything to say?¡± The Human inquired. Ren raised an LED eyebrow. ¡°You really expect me to believe any of that?¡± ¡° . . . yes?¡± The Human shrugged. Ren rolled her eyes, dramatically. ¡°Well, if any of that was true, then those are certainly some big goals that you have absolutely zero hope of completing.¡± ¡°I know!¡± The Human nodded enthusiastically. ¡°That¡¯s why I need your help!¡± ¡°And why should I even help you? You haven¡¯t given me a single good reason to even attempt it.¡± Ren tried to look down at the Human, which was difficult considering he was taller than her. ¡°Uh . . .¡± The Human deflated slightly. ¡°Is there anything that you need to be done?¡± Ren could think of several things, but if the Human were to be included in them, that would be demonstrating a level of trust that Ren just didn¡¯t have for her little unwanted visitor. ¡°You could kill a murder drone.¡± Ren suggested. ¡°What!? I only have this measly little peashooter!¡± The Human yanked a pistol out from a cracked holster. ¡°How am I gonna take down one of those things with this!?¡± ¡°Exactly, nothing you do can convince me because you can¡¯t do the things that I want. So, if you have nothing better to do, then I suggest walking out of here and stop wasting my time.¡± Ren laid the whole thing bare, since the Human couldn¡¯t take a hint. ¡°Are you sure? I¡¯m sure I can do something.¡± The Human insisted. ¡°Like I said, anything that would make me inclined to help you would end up with your death, and I¡¯m sure that you don¡¯t want that.¡± Ren dead-panned. The Human paused, tilting his head. ¡°What? What is it?¡± Ren asked, confused. ¡°I mean, if you were listening to the story, then you know I can¡¯t really die, or at least I think I can¡¯t.¡± The Human stated. Ren scoffed. ¡°If I¡¯m sure of one thing, then that would be the fact that more than half of that story was a complete fabrication.¡± ¡°Oh come on!¡± The Human exclaimed. ¡°Do you really take me for a liar!?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Ren simply replied. ¡°Oh, uh, well, I¡¯m not, alright? Everything I said was true, I think.¡± ¡°You think?¡± ¡°Yeah, uh, we all get confused sometimes.¡± Ren face-palmed. ¡°Back to the point, I think we could have a really beneficial relationship here, right? If you could just have an open mind, then we can both get something out of this.¡± The Human was practically begging at this point. Ren thought about it, for real this time. The Human seemed extremely desperate for her help, almost to the point of where she was seriously wondering if the Human was mentally damaged or something. To be fair, he probably WAS, but she didn¡¯t think it was like this. Part of her did feel slightly inclined to just let the Human break a leg, both literally and figuratively, but that might cause some unforeseen consequences. Huh, shivers down her spine when she thought of that specific phrase. However, the Human had somehow dispelled the hold over his armor, which in all of her time on this planet had never happened to her, even just once. If he could do that, what if he somehow devised a way to kill her? She would be letting the proverbial wolf into her den, inviting death like she was a simple sheep, even if the aforementioned wolf was a bumbling fool. Well, to be fair, she had already let the Human into her ¡°home¡±, but that was only because she had been shocked and didn''t think straight. With the benefit of hindsight, she should¡¯ve just shut the door again and forgotten about the whole incident, or maybe shoved that pipe from earlier right into his other eye. But then again, in the slight chance that the Human had been telling the truth, he could be a massive boon to her own experiments. From the sound of it, the Human wanted to find out what caused him to stay alive after suffering what should¡¯ve been a fatal wound, which she could use to her advantage. Whatever it was, the ¡°tumor¡± was seemingly connected to the whole web that had been lying shrouded in mystery, the same web that held connections to her own powers, as well as the origins of the disassembly drones, perhaps even the core collapse itself. The very continued existence of the Human threw a wrench into what she had figured out already. If even a few details from his story had been somewhat remotely true, then the implications would be huge. Ren was roused from her musings by the sound of fingers snapping. ¡°Hey, hello? You kinda zoned out there for a sec. Wait, if my armor is made out of metal, then how¡¯d I even make a snapping sound? That just would¡¯ve made a clunk, not a snap! The human hand is made out of a material that is malleable and soft while having a very specific amount of friction, and the positioning of the other fingers help distribute the kinetic energy, releasing it in a way that makes the snapping sound. While the positioning of the fingers are the same, the metal of the gauntlet shouldn¡¯t even nearly have the same amount of friction that skin does. Skin just has the perfect amount of friction to make a snapping sound, while metal just can''t match-¡± The annoying human ranted. Ren interrupted him by snapping her fingers in front of his face, startling him. ¡°Hey- wha-¡± The Human backed away slightly. Ren retracted her hand. ¡°Boom, problem solved. Also, I¡¯ve decided that you can be useful, if only slightly.¡± ¡°Oh, really? Nice.¡± The Human stupidly gave a thumbs-up. Ren rolled her eyes again. ¡°Whatever, just follow me.¡± Ren promptly began stomping down the hallway, not checking to see if the Human was following. She was stomping loudly, but she also wasn¡¯t necessarily angry, she just liked the way her boots made a clomp sound as she went. Considering how a second set of similarly-sounding stomping joined hers, Ren believed that the Human was following close behind yet again. She most definitely wasn¡¯t sure about this decision to work with the Human, but hopefully it would be less of a partnership on equal grounds with the Human, and more like her draining all use out of him until he eventually left her alone with all the data she needed. If the gambit played off, then Ren would have everything she needed to progress onto the next step of her master plan. She wouldn¡¯t even need more pieces from a disassembly drone if whatever made the Human tick was even better. The Human jogged a bit faster, catching up to her side. ¡°Hey uh, I never told you my name, right?¡± Ren simply grunted in response. ¡°Well, I¡¯m Jacob.¡± Jacob stated. ¡°That¡¯s nice, I didn¡¯t ask.¡± She remarked briskly. By the surprised choking coming from Jacob, her statement had hit home. She stepped over a bisected corpse, coming to a stop at another seemingly non-descript door, with Jacob following suit a moment later. ¡°So, why¡¯re we here?¡± Jacob inquired. ¡°You¡¯ll see.¡± Ren didn¡¯t elaborate, and Jacob didn¡¯t press further. She opened the door, stepping into what looked like a dimly-lit storage room cluttered with random devices and objects. ¡°You see, a while back, the humans always kept their facilities loaded with all sorts of fancy equipment, which included medical equipment.¡± She monologued. ¡°Of course, after the core collapse, that didn¡¯t do them any good, but now we can use it for our own use.¡± ¡°Out of the blue, but alright.¡± Jacob remarked. ¡°Don¡¯t interrupt me.¡± Ren snapped, walking over to what looked like a VR headset that was stripped of all its casing connected to a printer, except this printer didn¡¯t have a place where paper would be printed. ¡°This included some of the more high-end equipment which you would mostly see in a hospital, like this brain mapping machine here.¡± Jacob watched as she tossed a few of the objects that were resting on top of the aforementioned machine, not really caring about what she damaged. ¡°What, like an EEG?¡± Jacob asked. Ren frowned ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°It''s a brain mapping machine, like what you just said.¡± Jacob pointed to the printer-headset. ¡°EEG stands for electro- electroenen- uh, electrolaugha- shoot, what was the word?¡± Ren stared blankly at the idiot. ¡°Electroencephalogram!¡± Jacob snapped. ¡°Yeah, I think that¡¯s it!¡± Ren simply shook her head again. ¡°Whatever it''s called, this should give me a reading of your brain. Now, if you weren¡¯t lying-¡± ¡°I never lie, except for when it benefits me.¡± Jacob interjected. ¡°I said don¡¯t interrupt me!¡± She snapped. ¡°Anyway, if you weren¡¯t LYING, then I should get a good look at what¡¯s going on up in there.¡± Ren walked up and knocked hard on Jacob¡¯s helmet, causing a small clong to resonate from the inside. Jacob swatted at her hand. ¡°Hey! I still have a headache, you know!¡± ¡°Cool, now sit down.¡± Ren gestured in a wide sweeping motion. Jacob looked around, grabbing what looked vaguely like a stool, before plopping his entire weight on it. With a screech of metal, the stool bent in half, snapping at the thin base, ejecting Jacob onto the ground. Ren let out a snort of laughter at Jacob¡¯s expense, much to his chagrin. ¡°How was I supposed to know that this stupid Chinese knockoff couldn¡¯t hold my weight! It''s not my fault!¡± Jacob protested. ¡°Pff, yeah whatever, sit on the ground if you¡¯re too fat.¡± She gestured helpfully towards the dark metal floor. Jacob obliged, letting out a dramatic harrumph as he did. Ren picked up the wire-coated headset and tossed it at Jacob, who caught it. ¡°Put that on.¡± She ordered. ¡°Bossy.¡± Jacob grumbled, but followed through nonetheless. Or at least he tried to. She looked back towards Jacob. ¡°What¡¯s the holdup?¡± ¡°Uh, I have to take off my helmet.¡± Jacob stated. ¡°Ok? I don¡¯t see the big deal.¡± Ren¡¯s eyebrows furrowed. ¡°I . . . don¡¯t really know how to?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°Oh come on.¡± Ren face-palmed yet again. ¡°Listen, I stole this from a random locker, it''s not like it came with an instruction manual or something.¡± Jacob argued. ¡°Are you serious right now!? You¡¯re gonna block me, just because you can¡¯t figure out how to get a helmet off!?¡± Ren exclaimed. ¡° . . . yeah.¡± Jacob hung his head slightly. Ren growled in frustration, before yanking the headset back from Jacob. She looked at it for a moment, thinking about what to do. Then, she had an idea. With a slight whine filling the air as she concentrated, that same familiar symbol that she saw everyday circled itself around the medical device, with Jacob looking on in interest as she worked. On the outside, the only change would be the orientation of the glowing symbol and the slight enlargement of the outer plastic shell, but on the inside, multiple alterations to the sensitive electronic systems were being made. With a few more electronic sounding quiet beeps, the glowing symbol faded, and she threw the headset back at Jacob, who caught it again. ¡°What did you do? It¡¯s not gonna melt my brain, right?¡± Jacob looked suspiciously at her. ¡°No, idiot, I changed it slightly so it would penetrate the metal of your helmet without interference.¡± Ren explained with more than a slight degree of annoyance. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that that isn¡¯t possible, future tech or not.¡± Jacob turned the headset over, peering into the concave receptacle that would go over his upper cranium. ¡°Well I did it, so I guess it isn¡¯t impossible.¡± Ren said without elaboration. Jacob grunted. ¡°Stupid sci-fi nonsense that somehow super-works.¡± Ren rolled her eyes, which by the way, were really starting to ache from all the eye rolling she was doing. Seriously, who programmed that? ¡°Who cares, just put it on and I¡¯ll get to work.¡± Jacob sighed, before fitting the device over his armored head. ¡°Welp, I guess we''re eating some brain goop tonight.¡± Ren chuckled slightly. While the majority of what Jacob said was just annoying nonsensical madness, some of it was kinda funny, even a joke that seemed completely non-funny like the one that he had just made. Maybe it was the fact that he probably wasn¡¯t joking, but she wasn¡¯t gonna go into the intricacies of humor right now. She grabbed the starters manual on how to operate the supposed electrogramophoney or whatever Jacob had called it, before flipping through the first couple of pages. ¡°Wha- are you seriously reading a manual on how to work the damn thing!?¡± Jacob exclaimed. Ren shrugged. ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t even know how to work this thing, and yet you¡¯re gonna try and mess around with it! I¡¯m not even joking, my brain is gonna look like a Genshin player after this!¡± Jacob spread out his arms to emphasize his point. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I know how to operate this thing. Sort of.¡± The last part she added underneath her breath, which didn¡¯t go unnoticed by Jacob. ¡°What was that!?¡± He questioned loudly. ¡°Nothing! I didn¡¯t say anything!¡± Ren shouted back. ¡°Now, let''s see here, ¡®Always treat the device with care and precision . . .¡¯ Yeah, I know that, ¡®Never tamper with the device without a proper permit-¡¯ skip, ¡®Never, under any circumstances, yada yada yada¡¯ Boring, yeah, I get it.¡± She tossed the manual off to the side, before putting her hands back onto the controls. ¡°Ready to go?¡± Ren turned back towards Jacob. ¡°NO! I¡¯M NOT!¡± Jacob exclaimed. ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a yes.¡± Ren pressed the biggest button on the layout. Nothing happened. ¡°Oh thank god.¡± Jacob breathed out a sigh of relief. Ren frowned, before looking around at the back of the machine. ¡°Ah, here we go, it was unplugged.¡± Jacob hung his head in defeat. Ren plugged the machine back in, watching various lights blink to life, before slamming her hand down on the large button. ¡°Here we gooooooo!¡± ¡°I¡¯m screwed.¡± Jacob aptly stated. * * * ¡° . . . continuing on, the last known location of the . . .¡± X could barely keep himself from snoring, having already fallen half-asleep what felt like hours ago when the meeting first started. It was one of those few and far between times that he could almost emphasize with A, them having a shared dislike for these meetings, though for wildly different reasons. X didn¡¯t want to be here because all they were doing was talking, but no doing. He got bored of things pretty quickly, but even he was sure that he had broken a few personal records when he lost interest so fast. However, A was a completely different story. While X just didn¡¯t think the ordeal was altogether not too fun, A had a complete and utter vehement hate for anyone that wasn¡¯t him. Everything that someone did, A would have a problem with it, because it would never be good enough for his standards. No matter what K or X did, A would get mad at them. X found it kinda funny, so he did his best to rile A up to the point of near-insanity every chance he got, never pushing far enough for A to simply lose it and dispose of X once-and-for-all. He wasn¡¯t necessarily sure why A hated everything and everyone, but he didn¡¯t think trying to psycho-analyze A was entertaining enough, so he let the matter drop. ¡°Furthermore, considering the capabilities of what . . .¡± The drone droned on. X groaned, letting his head drop to the table in frustration. He wished that that creepy-glowy-lady showed up, just so that they would all get up and do something for once. How did these facility drones ever get something done, anyway? All they did was talk talk talk, shuffle shuffle shuffle, type type type, talk some more, and- He then noticed that the room had gone completely silent, which never happened. X brought his head up slightly to peek at what was going on, wondering if his wish had come true. Unfortunately, the thing that had given cause for the lecture to pause wasn¡¯t an imminent threat, but X himself. Every single occupant of the dirty tent was staring at him, some of them with their mouths slightly hanging ajar in confusion. A was personally giving X a glare that would have burnt a hole through a ten-foot thick pure tungsten blast door, not that X knew what that was. A kicked X¡¯s leg under the table, causing X to give A a glare of his own. He opened his mouth to say something, but a deepening of A¡¯s glare shut his mouth pretty fast, which he didn¡¯t even know was possible. X lifted his head back up from the table, and the drone continued his talk. ¡° . . . anyways, moving onto the logistical operations-¡± A cleared his throat, grabbing X¡¯s upper arm. ¡°I¡¯m not sorry, but I¡¯m gonna have to take a step out of here for a minute.¡± It wasn¡¯t a request, a fact that was made clear by A glaring at the collected drones around the table, daring them to protest. Luckily, none of them spoke up, which saved the tent from annihilation by supernova. ¡°Good.¡± A nodded. ¡°K, you stay here and keep listening to the meeting, alright?¡± K blinked, before nodding enthusiastically. With one last glare, A got up, practically dragging X out of the room. X tried to pry A¡¯s hand off of his arm, but his grip was like a vise, not letting up in the slightest. A stepped out of the tent, before extending his wings from his back. X saw this, before panicking slightly. Before he had a chance to extend his own wings, A took to the skies, shooting upwards faster than the drones on the ground could see. X¡¯s mind slightly wandered towards thinking about how much trouble A was having trying to stay stable while he was holding X up, but he quickly dashed the thought. Notions like that could turn him into K, which absolutely zero people on the entire planet wanted at all. X even shuddered at the thought, or at least he tried to. Moving while he was traveling through the air at high speeds like that was more difficult than it sounded. Once they were above the clouds, A paused hovering in the air. Without warning, he let go of X, which surprised him slightly. However, X¡¯s reflexes managed to save him from becoming a black oil-slick on the icy ground, wings shooting out from what would be the locations of the shoulder blades on a human. Once he had regained his balance, X hovered a little over ten feet away from A, who hadn¡¯t stopped glaring at him. X seriously wondered if his face was stuck like that, which sounded like torture, constantly having to contort things that . . . probably weren¡¯t muscles, but then again, how did they move their mouths in ways that were extremely reminiscent of humans? X shrugged to himself, not caring about the intricacies of a disassembly drone¡¯s anatomy. Not that he knew what any of those weird compli- coompla- weird words were, but he digressed. (He also didn¡¯t know what THAT word meant either) ¡°What the hell was that for!?¡± A exclaimed, breaking the silence. X blinked dumbly. ¡°Huh?¡± A facepalmed, before elaborating. ¡°In the meeting, that little tantrum you had!¡± ¡°Ooooh yeah, I was just bored, alright?¡± X shrugged again. ¡°Oh yeah, my bad, I didn¡¯t know you were just BORED!¡± A apologized. X scratched the back of his head. ¡°I mean, thanks for apologizing, I guess? It really wasn¡¯t that big of a deal-¡± ¡°It was sarcasm you idiot!¡± A interrupted. ¡°What!? Then why¡¯d you say sorry if you didn¡¯t mean it!?¡± X exclaimed. ¡°Also, what''s sarcasm?¡± A facepalmed again. ¡°You see, this is why I never let you do ANYTHING important! You¡¯re too stupid to understand even the most basic of tasks, and even the things you DO understand, you still mess up!¡± X childishly mimed the rant A was doing with his hand, making a straight-edged claw with his fingers and snapping them together rapidly. A fumed. ¡°Did you- wha-¡± X rolled his eyes, ignoring A¡¯s obvious anger. However, this proved to be a mistake, as a fist flew into X¡¯s face, shattering the black screen. ¡°Ack!¡± X yelped. ¡°Don¡¯t ignore me!¡± A grabbed X by the neckline of his uniform, pulling him close. X was currently blind due to the damage he had just sustained, but he could tell that both of their faces were close to each other due to the proximity of A¡¯s voice. ¡°Listen to me you insolent child.¡± A snarled. ¡°I can tolerate you constantly being lax with my rules, but I will NOT let you just besmirch our reputation like that in front of those drones!¡± X¡¯s regenerations kicked in, and his vision started to return to him. With the limited view he had, A¡¯s screen was currently displaying a pair of standard glowing eyes. However, one of them had been replaced with an LED X, which usually only appeared in battle. X gulped slightly, a note of apprehension slithering its way into his mind. If it came down to it, he was pretty sure that he could beat A, probably because A¡¯s form of combat tended to be a doctrine primarily composed of brute force and only using a singular weapon at a time until it had outlived its usefulness. However, it was likely that A thought that HE could win the battle due to the fact that X got distracted pretty easily. X really wished to prove A wrong, because it was just ridiculous that he even thought that he would get distracted by a simple- ¡°Oh wait, what''s that back there?¡± X leaned slightly to the left to get a better look. X¡¯s flickering vision cleared up somewhat, seeing a figure pop up out of the clouds behind A. Whatever it was, it wasn¡¯t anywhere near him and A, but due to a disassembly drone¡¯s extremely enhanced senses compared to a human or worker drone, he could see the figure well enough to notice it. It flew up out of the cloud cover, flapped its wings a few times, which caused it to turn slightly midair, before plummeting back down below, going out of sight. For the first time ever, he reviewed the footage that he had captured, focusing on what the figure looked like. While it seemed to have wings like a standard disassembly drone, they weren¡¯t the same form. While X¡¯s wings were made out of large interlocking blades that didn¡¯t really do much to keep them afloat, which made light flow through them easily, the figure had wings that seemed to be completely solid, not letting light go through at all. Its forearms weren¡¯t conical like his, but were straight and utilitarian, eerily similar to a worker drone¡¯s arms. The same was the case for its legs, which seemed to be carbon-copies of a worker drone¡¯s legs. To quote a saying that A had been saying as of late, ¡°If it talks like a worker, looks like a worker, and acts like a worker, then it''s probably a worker drone.¡± While X couldn¡¯t necessarily confirm the existence of three of those conditions, it DID look like a worker drone, sort of. It was kind of a combo between a worker and a disassembly drone, complete with wings and what looked like a tail, while having limbs in the standard shape of a worker¡¯s. However, yet again, none of this advanced logic processing went through X¡¯s head, as he was more preoccupied trying to dislodge A¡¯s grip on his clothing¡¯s neckline. ¡°What was that? Another disassembly drone?¡± A asked nobody in particular, his earlier anger hopefully forgotten. ¡°Uuuh, why¡¯re you asking me-¡± X began. ¡°It was rhetorical, idiot.¡± A interrupted. ¡°What does that mean?¡± X innocently inquired. A shook his head, before throwing X away from him. X tumbled head-over-heels for a few moments, before regaining his balance. ¡°Was that a disassembly drone? No, it couldn¡¯t be, the limbs aren¡¯t right . . .¡± A pondered to himself, likely reviewing the footage as X had done. ¡°Um, hey, so uh, we cool now?¡± X blurted out, mentally preparing himself for the possibility that they weren¡¯t indeed ¡°cool¡±. A waved a hand in X¡¯s direction. ¡°Yeah, yeah, sure. Go back down to the meeting for me and tell them that something came up, alright? I¡¯ll be back in a bit.¡± With a powerful flap of his wings, A zoomed off towards the spot where the figure had appeared out of the clouds, which was maybe ten or so miles away. X had wanted to ask him if he needed to stay in the meeting, but A was already gone. X sighed. To be honest, A definitely wanted him to keep suffering through that borefest, which is what sparked his earlier outburst. X didn¡¯t want to actually fight, so he mentally resigned himself to ten more years of deprivation of entertainment. This sucks. * * * Jacob yanked the headset off of his head, letting it clatter to the ground. ¡°Hey! That''s sensitive equipment, don¡¯t just toss it around like that!¡± Ren exclaimed, snatching the headset off of the ground before inspecting it for damage. ¡°What else was I supposed to do!?¡± Jacob protested. ¡°I swear I could feel the radiation coming off of it! And besides, you said you were done.¡± Ren rolled her eyes. ¡°That''s a complete lie and we both know it.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t lie! How many times do I have to tell you this!?¡± Jacob lied. ¡°Yeah, alright, now shut up, I need to look at this.¡± Ren peered down at the large screen that was inset into the frame of the EEG, taking the manual off of the floor. ¡°Oh wow, you can¡¯t even read the graphs that YOU suggested we make with the deadly EEG! Why did I put my poor brain through that if it was for nothing.¡± Jacob wailed dramatically. ¡°I said shut up!¡± Ren snapped, before going back to comparing the manual¡¯s instructions and the reading from his brain. Jacob scoffed. While he didn¡¯t actually think that he had been put at risk, he did hope that nothing had gone wrong. After all, Ren DID use some sort of highly-dangerous unknown power on the thing that was intended to get a deep reading of his brain waves, so it might have been giving off some sort of radiation. Was that how EEGs worked, throwing radiation around or something? Jacob didn¡¯t really know, he was no more an expert in brain scanning medical equipment than Ren was, which was again, worrying. Jacob had heard of a story of this Russian guy who got his head stuck in a particle accelerator once, which would¡¯ve probably been a cool origin story if he didn¡¯t die. Wait, but that''s the thing, he DIDN¡¯T die! Instead, he just had the nerves on the left side of his face obliterated, the hearing in his left ear gone, and began to suffer from severe epilepsy, so no harm no foul, right? But all jokes aside, he had also somehow outlived the very particle accelerator that had caused all that trouble, and last Jacob had heard, the guy was still kicking somewhere in Russia, which was pretty nice. Back to the point, if the guy was anything to go off of, Jacob really didn¡¯t want to lose his hearing or get epilepsy, but there wasn¡¯t really anything he could do about it, considering the whole thing was already over and done with. Oh wait, maybe all the radiation that might have existed killed his tumor, which might save his life from being inevitably consumed by the alien lifeform! Hmm, but then again, the tumor had apparently kept him alive when he got killed, so maybe he didn¡¯t want it to leave just yet. Actually, how DID it keep him alive? Last he checked, human cells weren¡¯t capable of doing the kind of healing that was needed to bring him back from the literal dead. And also, when he had gotten a hole in his abdomen, it had healed within a few moments of the damage occurring, which might have been a thing in the future, but Jacob didn¡¯t really have any frame of reference to go off of. Well, maybe nanobots could¡¯ve done it, but he didn¡¯t have any nanobots in him- Wait, nanobots. Like, the ones that were keeping the tumor from spreading? All the way back in the twenty-first century, the doctors had injected his head with nanobots that were supposedly designed to clip the nerve endings that the tumor formed as it tried to spread to other areas of his brain, which slowed the spread down a considerable amount. However, those nanobots were specifically put into his brain, and weren¡¯t designed to heal damage, or so Jacob thought. He supposed it was possible for them to have given him some nanobots that healed major cellular damage, but that didn¡¯t make sense. It wasn¡¯t like his body was sustaining any damage on a regular basis, so why would they give him a technology that was probably really expensive to solve a problem that didn¡¯t exist? However, the alternative meant that the tumor might have somehow hacked into the nanomachines to heal damage, which also meant that there was nothing between him and getting his body hijacked by an alien entity. Uh oh. ¡°Well that¡¯s super weird.¡± Ren¡¯s voice broke through Jacob¡¯s thought process. ¡°What¡¯s weird?¡± Jacob got up from the floor, walking to the brain reader. Ren gestured at the screen. ¡°This.¡± Jacob squinted. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± Ren pointed finger-guns at Jacob. ¡°This is either broken, or your brain isn¡¯t giving off any signals at all.¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that the former is waaay more likely.¡± Jacob pointed out. Ren nodded. ¡°That''s what I thought too, until I ran diagnostics. Surprisingly, the- you said it was an EEG?- the EEG is in near-perfect shape, which is impressive considering its been sitting here untouched for at least a decade.¡± Jacob¡¯s eyebrows rose, though he doubted anyone could see them. ¡°A decade? That IS impressive.¡± ¡°I know right? Really speaks of the good engineering that went into this thing.¡± Ren patted the side of the EEG fondly. ¡°Yeah, cool, anyway, keep talking.¡± Jacob reminded Ren. Ren blinked. ¡°Oh yeah, since the machine clearly isn¡¯t broken, then that probably means that your brain isn¡¯t giving off any signals loud enough for it to pick up.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that mean I was dead?¡± Jacob asked. Ren shrugged. ¡°Maybe? I¡¯m not an expert in human neurosciences.¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that anyone could say that would mean I was dead, regardless of expertise.¡± Jacob stated wryly. ¡°Uh, cool. So you¡¯re pretty active for a dead guy.¡± Ren remarked. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m just built different.¡± Jacob nodded sagely. ¡°Actually, there may be some truth in that statement.¡± Ren walked over to the door, pulling it open. ¡°Wait, where¡¯re you going?¡± Jacob took a step in her direction. ¡°Nothing else to do here, so I¡¯m going back to my room.¡± Ren explained. ¡°Well, what about learning WHY my brain seems to be dead!?¡± Jacob protested. ¡°Eh, that can wait for tomorrow.¡± Ren stepped out of the doorway and into the hallway. ¡°If there isn¡¯t anything else, then I¡¯m going back to sleep.¡± Jacob rapidly searched for something that would seem important enough to act on to Ren. He wasn¡¯t going to be caught DEAD having to pace around the bunker for hours on end again with nothing to do. Well, then again, he might already be dead, but since he didn¡¯t really feel all that dead, it was probably fine. Jacob, in his search for something for Ren to take him along for, drew upon the meeting that the supposed leadership of the facility drones had included him in when he was still in their custody. One of the more talkative ones had mentioned something called ¡°Camp 98.7¡±, likely a location of some sorts, and maybe, just maybe, had something to do with the ancient art of camping! Yes, that must be it, he gave himself a congratulatory mental pat on the back for this decisive logical thinking. All jokes aside, the drone had suggested the location as a place to send some sort of signal out, which was already noteworthy in of itself. However, the name also tickled at the back of his memory, drawing upon one of the multiple things he recalled from his weird Victorian era drug trip. Jacob (the one that had been the ¡°present¡± Jacob, not the past Jacob) had been rummaging around through the memory banks of one of the multiple external servers connected to him at the time. He had been looking for a weapon to combat Cyn with, but he stumbled upon something far from what he needed. A location called Camp 98.7, one that was associated with images of tall pine trees, rickety wooden cabins, and a fractured series of memories that were accompanied by a deep sense of trauma (which was fairly worrying in retrospect), and a strange shiny bug that spoke in Whatsapp. However, since it wasn¡¯t really related to him at the time, he had brushed the concept off, forgetting about it for the foreseeable future. But now that present present Jacob was desperate for something to do, he was willing to travel to a place that may or may not cause him to encounter something or someone quite dangerous, or just be a dead end. ¡°Wait wait wait, don¡¯t go just yet.¡± Jacob followed Ren out into the hall. ¡°Listen, I¡¯m still super tired, and since you woke me up from some much needed sleep, I¡¯ve used up all of the energy I have for you today, which is unsurprisingly little.¡± Ren stated without mirth. ¡°Okay, but there is something that may or may not be important.¡± Jacob replied. Ren rolled her eyes. ¡°Spit it out then, I don¡¯t have all night.¡± Jacob obliged. ¡°Have you ever heard of a place called Camp 98.7?¡± Ren froze, which was the only reply that Jacob needed. ¡°Aha! So you DO know about it!¡± Jacob pumped a fist in success. ¡°Yeah, but only in reference, I¡¯ve never actually been to the place, and I have also never seen any hint that would be indicative that Camp 98.7 is somehow important in any way.¡± Ren explained. ¡°Well, the things I have seen indicate it to be important.¡± Jacob argued. ¡°And what things would that be?¡± Ren motioned for Jacob to get on with it. Jacob cleared his throat. ¡°So, you know that weird dream thing that I told you about?¡± ¡°What dream thing?¡± Ren¡¯s eyebrows furrowed. ¡°You know, the one with the weird classy manor, the weird butler drones, and the weird eldritch abomination?¡± Jacob explained. ¡°Oh yeah.¡± Ren nodded to herself. ¡°I¡¯m still fairly sure that that was a complete fabrication.¡± Jacob sputtered in disbelief. ¡°Wha- I¡¯ve told you, I. Don¡¯t. Lie!¡± ¡°Yeah, whatever. So this ¡®dream¡¯ told you that Camp 98.7 is important in some way?¡± Ren didn¡¯t seem convinced. ¡°The facility drones also mentioned it.¡± Jacob added. Ren perked up. ¡°Oh, then why didn¡¯t you just say that in the first place?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°I dunno.¡± Ren shook her head. ¡°So, do you even know where the place is?¡± Jacob froze. ¡°Uh, well, you see, um-¡± Ren laughed. ¡°Just kidding, I have a map.¡± ¡°Wait, really?¡± Jacob questioned. ¡°Uh, yeah, duh, how else would I get around? Going in random directions until you get where you need to be like you do?¡± Ren sarcastically asked. ¡°Listen, I didn¡¯t have the privilege to be graced with a goddamn map of all things!¡± Jacob protested. ¡°You know what? That just sounds like a skill issue to me.¡± Ren remarked. Jacob¡¯s jaw hung open as Ren cackled. ¡°Heh, anyway, no time like the present.¡± Ren motioned for Jacob to follow. ¡°Cmere, like I said earlier, I don¡¯t have all night.¡± Jacob grunted, joining Ren as she walked down the red-illuminated hallway. Wait wait wait, did he- oh no, not again! Stupid anthropomorphization! Well, wouldn¡¯t it actually be personification? Because while anthropomorphization attributes human qualities to nonhuman things, personification actually- no, don¡¯t get distracted, it doesn¡¯t matter what word is used, the reality still remains the same! Once again, he had called Ren, who was a ROBOT and most certainly NOT HUMAN ¡°she¡±! Jacob wasn¡¯t going to explain to himself yet again why this was bad, because he had already done so multiple times, and if he didn¡¯t get it now, he never would. He had specifically resolved himself to firmly address them as they were, as an ¡°it¡±, most notably not human. But, time and again, he found himself addressing these robots the same way he would address a human. This was bad, really bad. How long had he been doing that for? The entire time he had been interacting with Ren, or had it been just now? Shoot, he hated just how not-self aware he was, why couldn¡¯t he constantly know what he was doing and how he was doing it!? Gack, he blamed it on movies, since there were countless of them that described robots as akin to humans, having emotions, and hopes and dreams, it was completely unrealistic. The way a human brain creates emotions like happiness is through the production of chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, all of which are directly related to the semi-euphoric state of happiness. However, a robotic ¡°brain¡± is not organic at all, and most definitely doesn¡¯t produce chemicals to create emotions. Therefore, a robot simply cannot just be exactly like a human artificial, as the very building blocks are completely different. Binary and coding doesn¡¯t exist in a human brain, and nerve clusters and chemicals don¡¯t exist in a robotic one. However, with the shoddy workmanship of the human psyche, that has led to those very facts being ignored in favor of slaving themselves to the same emotions that robots don¡¯t even have. Your average twenty-first century homo sapien would see the treatment of these robots by their corporate overlords, and with their uneducated opinion and media-saturated psyche, would believe that the situation was akin to the ancient practice of slavery, which would be false. Slaves, for the most part, probably didn¡¯t like being slaves. And however harsh it may sound, if the mistreatment of slaves simply never existed, the concept of slavery would likely remain a thing to the modern age. After all, if humans never had any reason to move out of the hypothetical comfortable lifestyle of slaves in this hypothetical alternate universe, then they probably wouldn¡¯t want to move out. And plus, humans could always program their labor robots to enjoy the work they were doing, blurring the line between ethical and unethical. On one hand, they enjoyed the work they were doing, but on the other, they were kinda forced to like the work, so what would be the ethical answer to this conundrum? Jacob didn¡¯t really care about the ethics of the situation, but he needed a reason for his dislike of thinking of the robots as less than human to fool himself into thinking that he might still be a good person, so he monologued it in his head nonetheless. Suddenly, a loud thunk on his helmet jarred Jacob from his thoughts. ¡°Hello? Are you gonna get going?¡± Ren flicked the opaque glass of his helmet again. ¡°Hey!¡± Jacob smacked her- IT, ITS hand- away from him. ¡°What the hell was that for!?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been standing there frozen for like, ten hours.¡± Ren crossed h-its arms. ¡°That¡¯s definitely an exaggeration.¡± Jacob deadpanned. Ren scoffed. ¡°Sure felt like it. What¡¯s your deal, anyway?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°I was thinking about some stuff.¡± ¡°What stuff?¡± Ren questioned. ¡°Stuff.¡± Jacob lamely replied. Ren shook her head. ¡°Whatever, let''s get a move on, we''re wasting darkness.¡± The outward display of human-like emotion REALLY wasn¡¯t helping Jacob¡¯s case. Then, something Ren said caught Jacob¡¯s attention. ¡°Wait, whaddya mean, ¡®wasting darkness¡¯?¡± ¡°I burn in the sun.¡± Ren explained plainly. Jacob blinked. ¡°What, like a disassembly drone?¡± Ren glared at Jacob. ¡°Yes, now stop making such a big deal outta it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not making a big deal out of it, I¡¯m just asking a question!¡± Jacob protested. Ren didn¡¯t reply, simply shaking her head and walking out of the open blast door. Wait, when did they get to the bunker entrance? Jacob thought for sure that he would¡¯ve noticed that, but- Hey uh, you called Ren ¡°her¡± again. Suddenly, Jacob recalled the conversation that he and Ren had just had. For what seemed like the millionth time, he had said her instead of it. Again. You know what? Fine. Jacob decided that he just didn¡¯t care enough anymore, dropping the issue altogether. As long as he didn¡¯t have reservations about killing them, it should all be fine. * * * Episode Eight: Clashing Clans (hehe haha) E1 nudged E9¡¯s elbow, letting him know that he was there. ¡°What''s the count we have now?¡± E1 didn¡¯t speak aloud, instead using the built-in network that all members of the elite squad had. ¡°One hundred, seventy-two, and three-quarters.¡± E9 replied. ¡°Three-quarters? Oh wait, that Sterl guy, yeah.¡± E1 nodded to himself. ¡°He only has one arm, right?¡± ¡°You would be correct.¡± E9 confirmed. ¡°Cool, anyway, what¡¯s the highest ranking member that we¡¯ve turned to our side?¡± E1 continued. ¡°That would be us.¡± E9 replied. ¡°Darn, well at least we have some bullet-sponges to take the heat for us.¡± ¡°Little more they¡¯re good for, right?¡± ¡°I mean, sorta? I don¡¯t really know how to do maintenance and all that sort of boring stuff, but they do, so they DO have a use for something at the very least.¡± ¡°True, true. By the way, E4 managed to pry the passcodes to some important documents from a high-ranking data analyst, and he wanted to pass them onto you.¡± ¡°Oh, did he manage to turn him over to our side?¡± ¡°No, the data analyst was too much of a security risk, so he had to be terminated.¡± ¡°Ah, shame. Also, why didn¡¯t E4 just send ¡®em when he first had the chance?¡± ¡°I dunno, maybe he was preoccupied and forgot?¡± ¡°That does sound like him. Alright, gimme.¡± E1¡¯s visor saw lines of code flashing across its screen before disappearing as fast as it had come. ¡°Huh, this certainly is interesting. What¡¯s this about ¡®Absolute Solver¡¯?¡± E1 inquired. ¡°You¡¯ll have to read the entire file for that, but I did pick up a little tidbit of info that might be helpful.¡± E9 suggested. ¡°Oh? Do tell.¡± E1 motioned for E9 to continue. ¡°The upper brass took a particular interest in the file, and they went so far as to terminate all lower-ranking drones who had heard of it, which is notable in of itself.¡± E9 explained. ¡°Veeeery nice.¡± E1 grinned. ¡°Jackpot, do you think?¡± E9 shrugged. ¡°Depends. It could just be some information back from the rebellion.¡± ¡°True, true.¡± E1 nodded. ¡°But still, I should probably have someone more experienced analyze this.¡± ¡°My thoughts exactly.¡± E9 agreed. E1 took a few steps back. ¡°Welp, I better get back to managing our burgeoning command structure, so I¡¯ll leave you to it.¡± E9 didn''t reply, simply nodding and fading back into the shadows instead. E1 stared at the spot where E9 had disappeared for a moment, before letting the grin slide off of his face. While he tried to remain lighthearted to ease the tension off of his remaining squadmates, in reality he was stressed beyond belief. There were far too many variables that could spiral into chaos at any given moment, variables that he had no control over. What he was doing right now would be seen as a supremely bad idea in any handbook about overthrowing a ruling government, but the way he saw it, E1 didn¡¯t have any choice. Which is lucky for me, I suppose. All according to plan, MUAHAHAHA- [WARNING: ANTIVIRUS DETECTED] [DEPLOYING COUNTERMEASURES . . .] [FAILURE] [WARNING: ANTIVIRUS HAS BREACHED INNER FIREWALLS, INITIATING SELF-DESTRU- E1 crushed the strand of foreign code, dismantling its logic structure in a moment. He waited for a moment, trying to see if the virus had any tricks left up its digital pocket dimension. Luckily for him, nothing happened. It hit him right then. Some sort of viral digital agent had breached every single firewall and electronic protection that he had without him knowing at all. That either spoke of an intentional backdoor of some sort, or a program so advanced that it could bypass even the most secure of neural networks, which only the most robust and intelligent of the government¡¯s prototypes had only been able to do, and only then with the help of quantum supercomputers the size of a skyscraper. If the program hadn¡¯t stupidly announced its presence like it had a few moments ago, then E1 likely would¡¯ve never found out that it had even BEEN there, which was unacceptable for the military android. Lucky for him, he had managed to pin down the virus with an antivirus measure that it didn¡¯t seem to expect, for some reason. However, the odd part was that he had to burn a small part of one of his memory cards to disable the retaliation, which seemed a lot like overkill. Luck had been there for him again though, as the protocol that his former bosses had put in place for him to activate in the case of enemy capture had saved him, which was pretty ironic considering its purpose. But still, the odds had been against him this time, and he had nearly been turned into a twitching mess of oil laying in a random corner of the camp. He shuddered a little before mentally moving to inspect the broken code that remained of the foreign virus. What he found shocked him even further, which was saying a lot, considering all that he had been through. Instead of the standard if/then logic tree that one would find in any other virus, it was almost as if someone had stuck a neural network into a scrap grinder, shredding its digital guts beyond recognition. Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration and also maybe a misused metaphor, but it wasn¡¯t too far off. While E1 could identify and recognize several parts of the code that remained, the rest of the commands just didn¡¯t make sense for a program of its purpose. Like, what was all this about cellular regeneration and ¡°rebooting¡±? Also, there was an entire section somehow dedicated to the manipulation of physical objects, which implied that the virus had a physical form of some sort, which also didn¡¯t make sense. Unless . . . E1 straightened up, freezing in his spot. Without a second thought, he sent out a request to his squadmates to meet up immediately, as well as some of the more informed worker drones that could help him out a little. If what he suspected was true, then it threatened his entire operation, and perhaps the very existence of the facility drones in their whole. He bumped the mission criticality up from ¡°Slightly Screwed¡± to ¡°Extremely Screwed¡±. It seemed like it was time to start putting in a small bit of effort. * * * ¡° . . . the new Forgi¡¯s on the Jeep, I trap until the bloody bottoms is underneath-¡± Jacob sang. Luckily, Jacob was interrupted by a metal fist to the helmet. ¡°OW! What the hell was that for!?¡± Jacob rubbed the side of his helmet, not realizing that helmets usually didn¡¯t transmit pain. ¡°Oh come ON! You¡¯ve been singing that same stupid song with the same stupid lyrics for hours now! You just keep on repeating that verse, do you even know the rest of it!?¡± Ren exclaimed in exasperation. ¡°Well yeah, but it has some naughty words that I can¡¯t say without getting ganged up on by a group of men named Tyrone, Jamal, Lebron, and maybe Michael.¡± Jacob protested. ¡°What does that even mean! That''s all you do, just speak nonsense and nothing else!¡± Ren threw her hands up and began walking in a random direction. ¡°Whatever! Fine! I¡¯m done!¡± Jacob ran right up to her, blocking her path. ¡°Hold on there, let''s not be TOO hasty!¡± ¡°If you say anything else that''s stupid, silly, or downright annoying, I¡¯m leaving you to the wasteland.¡± Ren glared so well that it might¡¯ve rivaled X¡¯s. ¡°¡®You cannot do silly things¡¯,¡± Jacob said in a monotone voice. ¡°Literally 1984.¡± Ren kicked Jacob¡¯s leg out from under him before shoving him into a snowbank, walking away right after. ¡°Mffmfhshmfm, mffh mffmmgm!¡± Jacob scrambled for purchase inside of the large pile of snow. This was ridiculous, he just wanted to have fun! The duo had been walking for hours on end at this point, which was several hours too many in Jacob¡¯s opinion. Ren had refused any and all attempts to pass the time, resisting even Jacobs most powerful tools (Rock-Paper-Scissors, Tic-Tac-Toe, etc) which left him in the same exact dilemma that had plagued him for days now. So, he was left with no choice other than to use Ren as his source of entertainment. Specifically, to use her reactions to his dastardly antics to fuel the dying embers of entertainment that distracted him from the reality of the situation. Wait, now that he thought about it, this was a perfect time to examine what about him had been altered by the tumor. Like, was his name really Markus, or something else? What if his entire personality from the point of his ¡°birth¡± was nothing but a fabrication? He knew that Rome wouldn¡¯t stand for the manipulation of the Emperor¡¯s son, but he wasn¡¯t exactly in Rome, was he? Wait, when was he ever the Emperor¡¯s son? That wasn¡¯t right, was it? Markus concentrated, believing that he could somehow hear some sort of voice off in the distance. It was getting close now, close enough that he could make out the words, which were- Shoot, this is happening more often now, isn¡¯t it? Damn, he¡¯s really fighting, I almost feel bad for this. [LOGIC PROCESS IN HOST MANUALLY HALTED] [DELETING RECORDS . . .] [SUCCESS] [REWINDING . . .] Markus blinked, before refocusing on the task at hand. He furiously flailed his limbs, digging himself out of the thick snowbank. After a moment, he flopped bonelessly onto the fractured concrete, spitting out a chunk of ice that had somehow gotten in his mouth. Standing up, Markus rushed after Ren, calling out as he did. ¡°Wait up! I¡¯m sorry, I won¡¯t do it again!¡± He turned the corner, seeing Ren stopped at the edge of a cliff that dropped into a hazy fog. ¡°Why¡¯re you- oh . . .¡± Markus stopped as well, looking out at the view that lay before him. A sea of dark greenish-gray pine trees stretched out as far as the eye could see, a testament to the will of nature. The forestry was interspersed by the occasional island of civilization, a cabin or other type of structure dotted here and there. However, those paled in comparison to the massive monolithic tower that lay in the heart of the pine forest. Even despite the explosion that had rocked the planet, it still remained standing, its dark steel gleaming in the darkness. Small lights illuminated the tower, allowing it to be seen for those with the proper vantage point even though it was night. Below it, a pool of blueish-white ice, likely a former lake, complemented the gloomy monolith. Suddenly, a jolt of pain struck at Markus¡¯s head, causing him to groan in pain and clutch his head tightly. Memories, ones that weren¡¯t his, shot through his mind, images of bright lights and things that he himself couldn¡¯t comprehend but yet seemed strangely familiar. A perspective of somebody standing on a beaten path next to a large sign alongside a group of cheerful worker drones, the weight of some sort of item weighing on his neck. Someone looking towards a group of worker drones, raising a hand towards an incoming arrow, only for it to warp, changing into something that would¡¯ve made Lovecraft inspired. Dozens of these bounced around in his skull, his head pounding in agony. However, one stood out above all the others, one that rang supreme. It was fractured into several different perspectives, ones that created an odd picture. A familiar-looking purple-eyed worker drone standing next to two disassembly drones and a second more dispersed group standing opposite from them, comprised of a worker drone, a floating disassembly drone, and a weird looking drone without any sort of LED display, wearing an odd uniform with a nametag, a nametag that read ¡°T- Goddamnit, what happened!? Shut the whole thing down, full reboot! Override safety protocols too, if he keeps going like this for any longer, his brain is gonna fry. [USER REQUEST DETECTED: FULL REBOOT] [OVERRIDING SAFETY MEASURES . . .] [SUCCESS] [REBOOTING . . .] Markus blinked. [ERROR] What do you mean by error! DO IT AGAIN! [REBOOTING . . .] [ERROR] Wha- diagnostic, now! [RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC . . .] [WARNING: HOST HAS OVERRIDDEN FIREWALLS] Ugh, are you kidding me!? I really have to do everything myself, huh? * * * Seizing control of Mar- sorry, Jacob¡¯s body (soon to be mine, anyway, lol), I yank the pistol that he had held onto all this time out of its holster. ¡°What the hell!? What¡¯s wrong, what¡¯s your deal!?¡± A voice exclaimed from behind me. Oh yeah, I forgot about her. I turn lazily towards Ren, seeing a knife hovering in the air right next to her. Instead of replying, I snap a sharp salute at her, stepping backwards enough so that my feet are right at the edge of the cliff. While humming a catchy tune about a blocky man whose kingdom fell, I point the barrel of the gun right at the soft spot underneath my chin, smirking slightly. ¡°. . . and that was when I ruled the land . . .¡± I sing, right before leaning backwards and pulling the trigger at the same time, still holding the salute. BA- * * * -NG Markus choked, the sensation of blood spraying the back of his throat causing it. The strange feeling of an object going up through the roof of his mouth and into his brain was strange, and even stranger was the fact that there was no pain. However, Markus didn¡¯t have time to muse about anything, as his body was no longer listening to his commands. Whatever had gone up into his head must¡¯ve hit something vital, because he started to topple backwards the instant afterwards. He strained against the indomitable state of inaction, but a state of lethargy seemed to have settled over his muscles, as well as the very reality around gaining a strange dream-like quality. He felt gravity¡¯s influence take hold of him, pulling him downwards, but he no longer cared too much about the consequences. Markus knew that he should probably be panicking right now, but knowing something and feeling something were two very different things. He felt something slip from his grip, but he couldn¡¯t affect whatever he had been holding onto any more than he could defy the laws of physics. He wanted to close his eyes, but he found that he didn¡¯t have the strength to even shut his eyelids, which- [WARNING: CRITICAL DAMAGE TO HARDWARE DETECTED] [REPAIRING . . .] [ERROR: INSUFFICIENT MATERIAL AVAILABLE FOR REPAIRS - REPURPOSING UNSUITED MATERIALS VIOLATES SAFETY PROTOCOLS] [INITIATING TEMPORARY ¡°MEMORIAL PARASITE¡± PROTOCOL] [ALERT: USER INPUT HAS OVERRIDDEN SAFETY PROTOCOLS] [INITIATING ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL . . .] Suddenly, a jolt of adrenaline shot through his body, jerking him back to full alertness. Marku- no, JACOB, became aware of his current situation, plummeting to the ground at what was probably terminal velocity. He tried to turn his head, but something inside his neck locked together and prevented him from moving it any further than a few millimeters to either side. Jacob, despite his best efforts, wasn¡¯t in any sort of control of his free-fall, causing him to tumble head-over-heels uncontrollably. However, something odd was happening that attracted his attention for a moment. Instead of the landscape and whatever wasn¡¯t falling rushing past him in a blur of motion, it was actually fairly visible. It seemed as though he was either falling at a pace comparable to a feather, or time had slowed down. The latter of which likely wasn¡¯t the case, but one could claim that time hadn¡¯t slowed down, but he had actually sped up considerably, which was a lot more plausible. Then, Jacob spied an object falling off to his side, also tumbling midair. He- * * * -reached out to grab it, firmly grasping it in my hand and holstering it soon after. Well, would you look at that! Thanks Newton for making it that all objects fall at the same rate even if they have wildly different scales in mass! I rolled my eyes. Back to the situation at hand, it seemed like my host had somehow developed some sort of resistance to my interference, which might spell doom for my plans. [SUCCESS] [¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL (PHYSIOLOGICAL SCAN) COMPLETE] [INITIATING ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 1/3) . . .] Suddenly, my head was overcome with a striking pain, causing me to wince. What the hell!? I thought I disabled those functions!? Seriously, things were really starting to spiral out of my control here. First the host tries to take back control, then Absolute Solver decides to act up because of some stupid connected network crap, then I have to do a manual reboot, MANUALLY! Like come on, I don¡¯t want more holes in the suit, it actually looks kinda cool! Anyway, I¡¯m lucky that I put contingencies in place in case this ever happened, because then this would be REALLY bad. Wait, what''s this about a ¡°Adaptation Process¡±, or even Absolute Solver? I mean, I¡¯ve heard of the latter in reference before, but I really just thought that was some random thing unrelated to me! One second, I gotta check something real quick, I¡¯ll be back in a minute. . . . . . . . . . . . . Shoot, this is taking longer than I thought, damn firewalls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alright, I¡¯m back. Looks like it''s some sort of auto-repair program in case the host suffers too much damage in a short time and there isn¡¯t enough sufficient material around to heal the wounds. I mean, I think it might be that, but I didn¡¯t have time to take a proper look under the hood, so to speak. But still, it said all this weird stuff that I¡¯m really not sure what the meaning behind is, so I decided to just cross my fingers and hope that they weren¡¯t important, and my luck is pretty good, actually. What was I doing? Oh yeah, I was falling. I try to jerk my head to the left to get a bearing, but something inside the neck part of my spine locks up, preventing me from looking any more than half an inch to either side. Since I don¡¯t want to risk paralyzing myself, I don¡¯t push on it. Instead, I try to flex my limbs slightly to see if they were locked up too. Luckily, they weren¡¯t, but they DO feel a little weird, almost as if something is . . . moving around in ¡®em? I dunno, I was never good at that kind of stu- OW! Goddamn- shi- WHY!?!? I- ow- disabled the- ow- pain! This shouldn¡¯t be- ow- happening! Then, I feel a sickening- ow- tearing sound all throughout my forearms and hands, along with a sudden pressure around my fingers. I try and curl my fingers, only to be met with a renewed burst of pain as I do so. O-ok, don¡¯t panic, so your arms hurt and can¡¯t move, your neck can¡¯t move, you¡¯re falling at a- a pretty slow pace, for some reason- and Absolute Solver doesn¡¯t seem to want to cooperate. This is fine, I can deal with this, I just need a little time and effort, so- * * * -but a burst of pain stopped him in his tracks. Jacob contorted slightly, bringing even more pain upon him. ¡°YEOWCH!¡± Jacob yelped comically. He was in too much pain to notice that the pistol had mysteriously disappeared from the air, and had also just as mysteriously reappeared in his holster. After a moment, Jacob¡¯s head cleared up enough to form some actual thoughts that were vaguely reminiscent of an intelligent being¡¯s internal computations. He made note of the slight pressure on his fingers as well as an odd prickling sensation of his forearms and hands that felt like needles were poking and prodding at his skin. An itch rose at his skin, so he moved to scratch at it, despite the pain that he felt at moving. However, a second too late did Jacob realize that he wouldn¡¯t be able to scratch and itch with armor on, but he was already committed to the action, so he went ahead and did it anyway. But, the strange thing was, it almost felt like he could actually feel himself scratching his arm. Wait, scratch that, he could definitely feel it, and his itch was gone, so that was a plus. However, feeling something through armor wasn¡¯t the most normal thing, so he raised his arms to his face to get a good look at what was happening. While the suit DID have haptic feedback capabilities, they only felt like a slight buzzing sensation, not the familiar feeling of skin on skin, so something was clearly up here. Jacob raised his arms to his face, noting that it took a few moments longer than it usually did to move them. That was certainly strange, but it wasn¡¯t something that he wanted to focus on right now. What he wanted to do was look at his arms, so that''s what he did, obviously. But what he saw certainly wasn¡¯t what he was expecting. Instead of smooth black steel, the metal covering his forearms looked dented, misshapen, and . . . bubbly? Yes, bubbles were forming in the metal, lumps appearing and disappearing, entrancing in its impossibility. Adding to that, if he looked close enough, he could see what looked like holes forming in the surface layer, revealing a lattice-work of small reinforcement wires set beneath the outer armor plating. However, even those were beginning to stretch and bend in ways that metal shouldn¡¯t, becoming more like a liquid. Jacob stared at the odd scene for a moment, shocked into inaction. Luckily, another burst of pain brought him back out of his thoughts. Whatever eldritch abomination from beyond the veil this was, it didn¡¯t really pertain to his current gravity-related predicament. He realized that everything was still moving in slow-motion, but it WAS going slightly faster than last time he checked. Also, what was with the random blips in his consciousness? One moment he was standing on a cliff overlooking a large forest that housed a large steel monolith, and then he was falling! It just didn¡¯t make any sense, and if there was one thing that Jacob hated with all of his being, it was black peo- things that don¡¯t make sense! Yeah, things that don¡¯t make sense are what he hates, totally not racist or anything- [ERROR: HOST DISCONNECTED FROM USER COMMAND PROGRAM] [REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .] [ERROR: NO RESPONSE] [REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .] [ERROR: NO RESPONSE] [REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .] [ERROR: NO RESPONSE] [REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .] Jacob blinked, losing his train of thought for a moment- wait, he could¡¯ve sworn he just heard something about a user? [REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .] [ERROR: NO RESPONS- There it was again! Okay, he had to focus, for REAL this time. Time to reevaluate. He took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts. To recount, he had been standing on the edge of a cliff that was overlooking a large forest that was probably his location. However, he had suddenly been overcome with memories that seemed eerily familiar, but were also strange and new at the same time. Then, he was . . . falling? Somehow? He was falling super slowly somehow, and he had spied his gun falling right next to him, so he had tried to grab it. But after another blip in his awareness he found himself writhing in agony, the source of which being his forearms and hands. Oh yeah, and the metal armor that he had been wearing was also bubbling like a boiling pot of water, so he had that going for him. Also, not to mention the voice he heard in his head. Normally that would be a pretty bad thing, but it seemed a little different than your standard schizo situation. It sounded almost like the monotone of a virtual assistant, one that sounded like it was trying to get the attention of a user of some sort. Was he the user in question? Maybe, it was worth a shot. ¡°Uh, status report, or something.¡± Jacob said, or at least he tried. His mouth was moving a few moments behind his thoughts, which was weird. Usually it was the opposite, but strange times and all that, he supposed. [REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .] [ERROR: NO RESPONSE] [REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .] [ERROR: NO RESPONSE] Darn, well at least he tried. It seemed he wasn¡¯t the user the weird robot thing was looking for, which was a bit detrimental to Jacob. He could¡¯ve used the help of something that knew what to do in this situation. [NO USER RESPONSE DETECTED - RESUMING LAST PROTOCOL] Jacob blinked at the new statement that the strange voice said. What was this supposed last protocol that it was resuming? He got his answer right after the thought flew through his head as a jolt of pain shot from his wrists to his elbows. Jacob winced, bracing himself. Luckily, he had gotten slightly used to the prickling sensation times fifteen gajillion after dealing with it earlier. However, just as quick as it came, it stopped. [ALERT: ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 1/3) COMPLETE - INITIATING ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 2/3) . . .] Jacob, despite his earlier ministrations, panicked. What was the strange voice talking about? What was Absolute Solver? What was this ¡°Adaptation Process¡±? Why did it say that it had three parts? What was even going on? CRUNCH Jacob gasped, his back arching as his shoulder blades and spine twisted in unnatural ways. He felt with sickening accuracy his individual vertebrae scraping up against each other, pressing and grinding in ways that would¡¯ve paralyzed any normal human. A sharp bony protrusion emerged from his left shoulder blade, and then the right. It broke through his skin, a shower of blood gushing down his back, and he didn¡¯t doubt that his armor was bubbling and collapsing in on itself in the same way it had been earlier. With a screech of metal, half of the plating on his left upper arm tore itself off, inexplicably curling itself towards his back and out of sight. The same could be said for his right, as the cold wind gushing past him could be felt clearly. The armor plating on his midsection and the sides of his thighs followed suit, stripping themselves off in a way that almost implied a mind of their own. More cracks followed as his bones reorganized themselves in new iterations, growing so uncomfortable that it gave rise to a need to tear out the causes of the new and strange sensation, which would¡¯ve just harmed himself in the end, so Jacob resisted the urge. With a final gut-wrenching snap, everything came together. It was akin to the feeling someone would get when their dislocated limb was put back into place. While there would¡¯ve been excruciating pain at first, it would be replaced with relief as the bone was placed back into its socket. Jacob gasped, reflexively curling his limbs when the pain stopped. However, while his arms and legs responded, something else did as well. It felt similar to his arms, but also different. He blinked, moving the strange limb again to get a feel of what exactly it was. An equally strange sound accompanied it, sounding almost like a flap of . . . wings? He looked backwards, seeing the dark outline of the familiar shape that he had been looking for, but not quite what he had been expecting. Instead of feathers interlocking, he saw sharp blades of metal, metal that suspiciously had the same glossy dark color that his armor bore. However, a difference was presented in the fact that red veiny-lines could be made out in the backdrop of the black metal. Adding to that, the ¡°feathers¡± were held not in place by more metal, but in fact knots of flesh that wove around the bases of the blades, securing them tightly against the shaft of bone intertwined with metal that formed the central bone that the blades of metal were connected to. Then it hit him. He had wings. Wings. If Jacob had had the time to facepalm, then he would¡¯ve, but the robotic voice from earlier interrupted him again. [ALERT: ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 2/3) COMPLETE - INITIATING ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 3/3) . . .] Ah, he understood now. Once he marshaled his thoughts into something relatively coherent, he began to piece together what was currently going on. This ¡°Absolute Solver¡± protocol seemed to be altering his body¡¯s physiology to do . . . something. He wasn''t quite sure WHAT the reasoning behind the current events were (he was barely holding onto his fragile composure as it was already) and he didn¡¯t have the time to find out. What did matter was the statement from the weird voice in his head that declared the third ¡°part¡± of the process to be beginning shortly. If the previous experiences were anything to go by, then what- A burst of pain scattered his thoughts once again. DAMN IT, he was really getting annoyed with all the pain! It didn¡¯t seem as bad as the previous two times, but it was still jarring. A burning sensation flooded the area where his left eye used to be, causing his hands to subconsciously jump up towards it to scratch at the hole madly in an attempt to make the pain go away. Luckily, the hole that currently existed around the left side of his face wasn¡¯t large enough for his hands to fit through, so he was saved from what probably would¡¯ve been a pretty bad decision. Suddenly, a pop resonated from within the small empty space his left eye previously occupied, and the burning sensation increased from extremely-spicy-hot-peppers to oh-my-god-my-face-is-literally-on-fire. This time, his hands shot up with his permission, scrabbling wildly at his facial visor futilely. He might have let out a considerably unmanly yelp, but that was merely conjecture, completely unproven. His mouth was also in pain, but instead of burning, it was more like needles being jabbed into nerve clusters in and around his gums. When Jacob felt a liquid filling his mouth he spat it out, only to see a splatter of blood to imprint itself on his visor at the bottom of his vision, along with a few smaller solid objects that felt suspiciously like teeth. Then, once the pain reached an all-time high, a voice rang out in his head. [ALERT: ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 3/3) COMPLETE - INITIATING ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL (SOFTWARE UPDATE - 1/1 . . .) Jacob had nearly let out a sigh in relief, but then something happened that genuinely worried him for the first time in at least a week. A voice rang out, but instead of the robotic monotone that he was familiar with, it was a different voice that Jacob was also familiar with, but in a way that wasn¡¯t supposed to be happening. ¡°Ugh, w- * * * The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°-hat the hell?¡± I groggily say to myself. ¡°Status report.¡± Nothing happens. I roll my singular eye. ¡°Oh come on, gimme the status report already-¡± What status report? Who are you? I freeze, not comprehending what I¡¯m hearing at first. It''s the voice that I constantly hear, both MY voice and Jacob¡¯s, but it wasn¡¯t being spoken by me. Normally that would¡¯ve meant that Jacob was currently saying something stupid, but Jacob couldn¡¯t be talking to me, right? ¡°Status report.¡± I say, more hurriedly this time. ¡°Also, initiate the clean slate, too-¡± I said something to you, you know. It would be really polite if you were to reply, but then again, I don¡¯t really know what the manners of a parasite are, do I? ¡°How are you talking to me?¡± I grit my teeth. ¡°Hell, how¡¯re you HEARING me? I specifically put countermeasures in place to prevent this!¡± Well, the weird voice said that the safety countermeasures were disabled or something like that, but I dunno compooter lingo or anything like that. Wait, why am I even telling you this- ¡°Damn, I really messed up on that one, huh?¡± I say to myself wryly. Yeah, you did. Shoot, stop being all jokey with the body-stealer, Jacob! ¡°It really isn¡¯t a good idea, because then you might get attached to me, and then if you need to kill me or something like that, then your emotions might get in the way of that-¡± I start to rant despite my best efforts. Nerd. ¡°What!? I¡¯m not a-¡± I exclaim. ?? ¡°How- wha- oh, you stole that from earlier.¡± Yeah. An awkward moment of silence passes. So uh- ¡°I¡¯m a being that is practically a carbon-copy of your personality born out of the meshing of your consciousness with the Absolute Solver network-¡± I begin to say, not of my own free will. ¡°Wait! What!? Why did I even say that!?¡± Can¡¯t lie to yourself. Actually, is that really what you are, or rather, I am? Are you me? ¡°Probably, but I¡¯m not a nerd, unlike your previous assumptions-¡± And then I finally hit the ground. * * * A was scared. Throughout his entire career on Copper-9, A had felt many things; anger, exasperation, anger, frustration, anger, more anger, slight satisfaction, anger, did I say anger? He had felt a lot, but the one thing that he had never felt in his entire life was fear, or any of the emotions associated with it. Sure, he had been anxious or worried, but the former was almost always due to X being utterly stupid, and the latter was caused by his potential fate, But he had never been afraid of something. Even the prospect of being disassembled by his parent company didn¡¯t hold the same weight as something more close-up, probably because he felt like it was a problem he could fix and that specific outcome seemed miles away to matter that much. However, there was always a first time for everything. It had all started when he had gone to investigate the strange drone that had flown above the clouds for a moment before dropping back down. While he had noted that it had looked like a worker drone, he had also admitted to himself that the drone was far off, and there was a fairly high possibility that he had just mistook a normal disassembly drone for a flying worker drone, which was impossible. But something didn¡¯t feel right about that conclusion, which A put down to his superior intuition telling him that the subject shouldn¡¯t be so easily resolved. And so, he had gone on to investigate the matter, leaving X and K to their own devices at the facility drone encampment. He was about seventy-two percent sure that once he came back the entire place was going to be up in flames, but he was starting to get awfully tired of the annoyances, so he wouldn¡¯t grieve too much. However, once he had gotten to the area where he believed the odd drone to have landed, it was deserted. Sure, there was the occasional fresh worker drone body (giving credence to the other possibility that it was just another disassembly drone he saw) but he found little else of importance, with the only exception being a strange worker drone corpse that was beneath the floorboards, accompanied by various cryptic drawings and statements, talking about the ¡°lights below¡±, as well as an official JCJenson report marking a serial designation S for disassembly. A strange rip in the paper that seemed suspiciously like claw marks was present, but other than that, very little was actually interesting or worth noting. That is, until he found the pit. The area A had flown to seemed to have been called Camp 98.7, constructed by the company for a reason that he didn¡¯t know at the time. However, upon further investigation, the purpose of Camp 98.7 revealed itself to be some sort of research outpost. What was it they were researching? Something bad. A had been about to leave, but he then decided to make a fateful trip into the large collection of what likely used to be a form of industrial complex of towering metal monolithic structures. There, he had found an absolutely massive hole in the ground that led down into darkness. Like an idiot, he had jumped down into the place without calling for his team. Down there, he had found something that seriously disturbed him. Countless bodies, not worker drone ones however. Each and every single one of them were the corpse of a former disassembly drone, all of them dismembered and broken beyond repair. On the wall, words and images had been written with the oil of the dead machines, scrawling things that warned something, likely the thing that had killed every single one of them, as well as telling whoever would read the writing to not look at, ¡°The Lights¡± without elaborating further. It had sent a shiver down his main structural support pillar, leaving him to wonder what could¡¯ve possibly killed so many weapons of destruction. That was when he should¡¯ve left, he should¡¯ve gone back to the encampment to call for serious reinforcements. Hell, he would¡¯ve even tolerated the presence of a squad of twenty military drones just so that he would¡¯ve had a shield between him and whatever lurked down in the depths of whatever the hell that place was. But, he didn¡¯t. Something he couldn¡¯t explain, something he couldn¡¯t encapsulate drew him further and further down into the flickering halls of what seemed to be an abandoned JCJenson laboratory. In hindsight, he probably should¡¯ve been immediately suspicious of the desire that really deviated from his usual line of thought. However, he continued on without even contacting his squadmates. Out of three signs that he had sighted pointing in different directions, he had chosen the one highlighted in blue that had read, ¡°Emergency Assembly Area¡± through a random decision. The other two options didn¡¯t seem any more important than his choice, so leaving it to chance seemed like the best option at the time. He hadn¡¯t chosen the one that spoke of a secret elevator because that would be cheating. He had wandered the halls for a bit before coming across a large blast door that blocked his way. However, right when he had been about to turn around to find another path, it opened suddenly of its own volition. That had been the straw that broke the camel¡¯s back. Strange urges to walk into creepy bunkers or not, A wasn¡¯t going to just walk into what was obviously a trap. The room looked like your average office workplace, albeit with a bit more scattered papers and oil splatters than usual, with several office cubicles blocking his line of sight. He most definitely wasn¡¯t going to try and navigate through what was obviously a tactical nightmare. But while he had been walking right in the opposite direction of the open doorway he had heard a strange noise. It sounded like some manner of beastly screech, not one A would know about of course. He hardly remembered anything before getting deployed to Copper-9, so why would he remember some random creature from a human planet? It had been that sound that had given him the slightest hint of hesitation, halting him in his tracks for a fatal split second. Just then, a conveniently placed rope that had been tied into the shape of a lasso tightened, timed so perfectly so that it had wrapped around his leg the moment he stepped into the singular loop. Caught off-guard, he was yanked off of his feet, being dragged into the room that the screech had come from. Luckily he had managed to cut right through the tether in time before it pulled him any farther, but the damage was already done. The large blast door slammed shut behind him, locking him away from his escape. However, he hadn¡¯t been about to be deterred by a measly little door, so he had prepared to fire a rocket at the obstacle to blow right through it. Unfortunately, he had never gotten the chance to even try, as right then the same screech from earlier sounded again, this time originating from right behind him. Programming took control, whirling A around until he stood face-to-face with the creature. It had taken a moment for his CPU to play catch-up with his visual receptors, which was likely only a nanosecond in the real world. It was a drone, or at least he thought it was. It had little physical similarities to the normal humanoid robots that he had been set to hunt down. The head was long and low with an upturned snout, looking more beast-like than anything he had ever seen before. Instead of a facial screen that displayed general emotes, it only had three eyes with lenses on either side of its head that glowed a vibrant blue. Its mouth had rows of serrated teeth, clearly intended for tearing off chunks of prey. It had a longer and more articulate neck than his own, with flexible padding that looked like synthetic muscle tissue coating the entirety of its neck and body. Speaking of its body, it was long and seemingly tapered, a tail coming to a point around the back of it. It had two legs that bore digitigrade feet, and a pair of razor sharp claws that looked like they could tear right through A¡¯s own body like paper. Following all of these observations, he was brought right back to the present, just in time too. He barely had any time to react before it roared at him and flashed a light at him. Through pure hard-coded programming, he brought his right hand up to block the light flashing in his eyes. However, the creature screamed at him again, before lunging forward and grabbing at his forearm with its mouth. Razor sharp teeth pierced right through the outer casing of his arm, bringing a grunt of pain from him. It flung its head to the side, tossing A into a wall with a loud thud and a considerable deal of office supplies scattering. He winced, trying to rapidly bounce back off the wall by pushing himself off of it. However, he quickly fell back to the ground when his right arm failed to come in contact with the wall behind him, likely due to the fact that it had been separated from the elbow down. A glanced back up to the creature that had injured him, seeing it swallow his arm and stare right back at him for a moment. It screeched at him again, creeping towards him at a slower pace. Suddenly, A was brought back to the message that the deceased disassembly drones had scrawled on the wall with their own oil. The warning about looking away from the lights made partial sense now, at least a little. If his theory was correct that the creature in front of him was one of the ones that ripped apart all the other disassembly drones, then there was probably a correlation between the flash of light and the warning. A brought his hand up to block another flash of blue light. Whatever it did likely wouldn¡¯t bode well for him and his well being, and it would be hard to aim if he constantly had to block his own vision to prevent himself from being killed. Maybe a rocket or firing a flurry of bullets would do the trick of warding off the creature, but he had to remember that it could dodge just as easily as he could. With little other options, A decided to do the thing that he should¡¯ve done the moment he was dragged into the maze of cubicles: run. Flinging himself to the side to avoid the creature¡¯s attempted bite on his neck, A quickly got up and found his footing, dashing off to the right. His arm was regrowing, but it was slow going. It might be halfway done in about half an hour or so, but he most definitely wasn¡¯t going to be able to wait that long. The creature let out a surprised screech right before cashing after him. Thinking quickly, A hurriedly replaced his hand with its firearm equivalent, blind-firing into the space behind him. Another, more panicked screech rang out this time along with the sound of papers fluttering and feet scrambling for purchase. A quick glance behind him showed that the beast had run into a nearby cubicle to escape the shots, dashing out right after he looked in its direction. He quickly faced forward again, not wanting to be caught by its light. A noticed that he was getting dangerously close to the wall ahead of him, so he made a sharp left to avoid smacking against hard concrete. However, as he rounded the corner, he came face-to-face with another one of the strange creatures. It all dawned on him now. A hadn¡¯t been running from the creature, it had been herding him towards one of its brethren to corner him, a common tactic that he himself had used plenty of times to catch some particularly difficult prey. It was ironic, really. The creature screeched in his face, right before a flash of blue light- [ERROR] [REBOOTING . . .] [ERROR] [REBOOTING . . .] [WARNING - CRITICAL DAMAGE DETECTED] [REBOOTING . . .] [ERROR] [REBOOTING . . .] [ERROR] [REBOOTING . . .] [WARNING - VITAL SYSTEMS COMPROMISED] [REBOOTING . . .] [ERROR] [REBOOTING . . .] [WARNING - LETHAL DAMAGE DETECTED] [REBOOTING . . .] [ERROR] [REBOOTING . . .] [ERROR] [REBOOTING . . .] [ERRO- * * * Alice leaned back in her chair, popping yet another AA battery into her mouth. She smirked as she watched the cameras, reaching into the box to grab another AA as she watched the sentinels rip the would-be invader to shreds. However, she frowned when she realized that the only things left were scraps. ¡°Hey Beau!¡± She yelled out. ¡°Get me some more of these munchies!¡± What looked like an infantile drone swaddled in rags came scuttling out from the other side of the room, a set of spider-like legs allowing it mobility. It gave a thumbs-up, tipping its cowboy hat with a disassembly drone forearm that had been grafted onto the small drone before scuttling out of the room altogether. Alice smirked, adjusting the set of antler-like tools that she had attached to the top of her head. She really didn¡¯t know how or why those darned surface-slickers kept coming down here when all they did was get chopped to bits by the sentinels, but then again, she couldn¡¯t really care either. All she knew was that they brought her a steady supply of valuable parts to assist her in her experiments. Alice then frowned. ¡°BEAU! What¡¯s takin¡¯ you so damn long!?¡± A knock at the door to the office sounded, with Alice recognizing it as the customary knock that both her and Beau had agreed upon. The sentinels were fairly smart, so if they ever learned that a knock was what signified the opening of the door, then that would be pretty bad. Just in case, she checked the cameras to make sure that Beau was there. Sure enough, the little guy was standing at the closed door with what looked like the body of the one that had been torn apart by the sentinels just a moment ago. Alice hit herself right then. How had she forgotten to retrieve the body? If left unattended, then that would result in a really big worm-thingy that would probably destroy a lot of her equipment. That had happened a few times to her before, and she most definitely wasn¡¯t gonna let it happen again. She pressed a button on the control panel next to her, opening up the door. ¡°Nice work Beau,¡± Alice began. ¡°Buuuut, I don¡¯t recall tellin¡¯ you that you ain¡¯t gotta get those snacks no more. GO GET ¡®EM!¡± Beau jumped backwards, tipping his hat frantically before scurrying back out of the room. What a nice kid. Alice jumped off of the spinny-chair, trotting over to the cooling corpse on the floor. It had left a rather large oil stain on the ground, but she wasn¡¯t concerned with matters like that. She hefted the lump of metal up by the armpits, walking towards the gurney that lay on the opposite side of the room. With a final grunt, she practically tossed the body up onto the cushions. It nearly fell off, but she managed to stabilize it at the last second. Those kinds of bodies are always fairly difficult to lift, but she was sure that that one was heavier than most of the others. Eh, maybe she was just getting old or something. Reaching out to the hatchet that lay on the table next to the gurney, she gripped it loosely with her right hand. She carefully lined up the blade with the neck, making sure that the strike would be accurate. Alive lifted the hatchet up high before letting it fall down hard on the neck of the corpse. With a meaty thud and the familiar splash of oil, the head rolled into a bucket that was conveniently labeled, ¡°HEADS¡± that she had left next to the gurney, filling it up in an instant. Alice inspected her handiwork for a moment before nodding to herself in satisfaction. That should keep the damned thing from rising again for a bit before Beau would cut out the heart and place it in the oven. Heat usually kept the cores sluggish, preventing them from activating and becoming something that Robo-God likely never intended to exist in any shape or form in any time or place. Alice then turned back towards the door, wondering where Beau was. ¡°BEAU! I told you to-¡± She cut herself off, noticing activity on the monitor. She hopped over to the screen, leaning in close, a wide grin spreading across her face as she realized what she was looking at. ¡°Oh Beaauuuu,¡± Alice called out in a sing-song voice. ¡°Looks like we got even more visitors. Make sure the traps are primed ¡®fore they get here, alrighty?¡± The small drone ducked its head back into the room, nodding profusely. Alice cackled in delight, doing a 360 degree spin in her whirly-chair to celebrate. Today really just kept cracking open surprises, didn¡¯t it? First it was that dumb tall one, then that short red one, then an entire batch of four just waddled right into her lair. If she was certain of anything, today was going to be a good day. * * * Ren blinked, staring towards the place where Jacob had fallen. One moment they had both been standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking a large pine forest that was definitely the area where Camp 98.7 was housed, and the next Jacob was doubled over in pain. After a moment he just froze up, making Ren wonder if her investment had just suffered a heart attack. After all, humans WERE very fragile, so it wasn¡¯t necessarily too far-fetched. However, he then straightened up so suddenly that it nearly made Ren stab him through the head again, which probably would¡¯ve meant bad news regardless of the circumstances. But that didn¡¯t happen, instead he had turned towards her after she expressed her immense confusion, proceeded to sing a jingle, then shoot himself in the head. Humans. Ren snapped herself out of the fugue state that she had been in, dashing to the very edge of the cliff. She leaned over the lip, carefully making sure to not let her center of mass slip past the threshold, peering down into the fog for any sign of Jacob. However, while drones did have significantly better eyesight than humans, it still wasn¡¯t enough to pierce the thick cover of icy fog that stretched down. Ren then debated the idea of just cutting her losses and calling it quits. While she had invested a pretty large portion of time and effort into the crazy and probably-stupid not-a-plan that Jacob had come up with, she wasn¡¯t above abandoning a lost cause. It wasn¡¯t that she thought that he was dead, far from it in fact. If that human could survive a pole through the gut and a knife right into his brain, then a measly little fall wouldn¡¯t be too hard to come back from. But the little display that he had shown right before he decided to go skydiving was a sign of the potential dangers of continuing to work with him. All things considered, collapsing in pain, standing right back up with a big smile on your face, proceeding to sing a song, then killing yourself was never a sign of a stable mental state. But then again, she wouldn¡¯t really be considered sensible by the standards of the general worker drone society. After all, she hunted down disassembly drone parts and slaughtered worker drones for seemingly no reason other than for pure entertainment. Well, it WAS kinda fun at times, but that was beside the point. Ren shrugged. Eh, what the hell, she has already hitched her proverbial wagon to Jacob¡¯s why not ride it all the way down? Who knows, it might pay off in the end. With that final thought, Ren cracked her neck, taking a step forward and letting herself topple into the abyss below. She really didn¡¯t hope that she was already screwed. * * * X stared at the military drone with a dumbfounded look on his face. ¡°Whaddya mean by, ¡®aerial support¡¯?¡± Resen sighed. ¡°I¡¯ve already explained it in exactly fifty-two different ways to you, and you STILL don¡¯t get it?¡± X shrugged. ¡°It''s not my fault that you¡¯re dumb.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not- whatever.¡± Resen shook her head. ¡°Once we make our play, you and K will provide-¡± ¡°What does ¡®provide¡¯ mean?¡± X popped another screw into his mouth. ¡°-you and K will shoot rockets at the person we tell you to shoot at until we tell you to stop.¡± Resen finished. X eyes widened in realization. ¡°OOOOOOOHHH! THAT¡¯S what you meant, why didn¡¯t you just say that from the beginning?¡± Resen stared emotionlessly. ¡°I did.¡± ¡°Well . . .¡± X scratched the back of his head. ¡°Why should I listen to you again?¡± ¡°YOU-¡± Resen exclaimed. The sound of someone clearing their throat sounded from the entrance, drawing the attention of the room¡¯s occupants. ¡°Ah, uh, I¡¯m back.¡± K stepped into the tent awkwardly. ¡°What¡¯d I miss? ¡°Nuthin¡¯ much.¡± X was already leaning back in his seat. ¡°Hmm.¡± K trotted over to her seat, plopping herself down into it. ¡°Ahem, as we were saying.¡± Agen took over the discussion. ¡°I am right in the belief that both of you would be fine with assuming the role of air support?¡± ¡°I would need to check back in with our squad leader for that, the decision isn¡¯t really up to me.¡± K shrugged. ¡°Speaking of, where IS your squad leader? He said his name was A, right?¡± Resen reentered the discussion. ¡°His name is A, yes, and I . . .¡± K frowned. ¡°Don¡¯t . . . know . . . where he is.¡± X snorted. ¡°I told you, remember?¡± ¡°I hardly remember a quarter of the things you say.¡± K replied. ¡°Isn¡¯t a quarter, like, twenty-five?¡± X questioned. ¡°I- nevermind, remind me what he¡¯s doing again.¡± K motioned for X to get on with it. ¡°He was gonna go look at a weird drone that was flying or whatever, it really felt shoehorned in if you ask me. I mean like, it just completely ruined the immersion-¡± X began to rant. K¡¯s frown got deeper. ¡°That¡¯s not what you said earlier though.¡± X simply shrugged. ¡°Eh.¡± K rolled her eyes. ¡°Did he say when he was getting back?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± X extended a claw, starting to pick at his teeth. K sighed. ¡°It¡¯s been two hours, we¡¯ve never been without orders for that long.¡± ¡°He told us to stay here and plan or something like that, at least I think.¡± X explained. ¡°Well, we¡¯ve reached the point where we currently need his input. Are you sure you don¡¯t know where he is?¡± K leaned in closer. ¡°I never said that I didn¡¯t know where he was, just that I didn¡¯t know what he was doing.¡± X corrected. ¡°What!?¡± K exclaimed. ¡°Then where is he!?¡± ¡°Eh, over thataway.¡± X waved his hand off in the general direction of his right. K scoffed, taking a page out of A¡¯s book. ¡°Of course, I should¡¯ve known.¡± Agen then whispered something to Resen, glancing back and forth between the two disassembly drones. ¡°Actually, your squadmate seems to be correct, our aerial radar scans picked up a high-speed object moving off to the east, which seems to be the direction that X here pointed in.¡± Resen interjected. ¡°Ha! See!? I¡¯m always right!¡± X cackled madly, pumping his fist up in the air. ¡°Oh shut up, will you? It''s not my fault that you didn¡¯t specify!¡± K glared at X. ¡°Well since you think you¡¯re so smart, I thought that you would be able to figure it out pretty quickly!¡± X shot back. ¡°I AM smart, I just can¡¯t even attempt to sort out the majority of the things you say because you never say anything that makes even the slightest hint of sense!¡± K slammed her fist down on the table. ¡°Oh ho ho, getting angry are we!? Do you really wanna test your luck against me?¡± X grinned cockily. ¡°I¡¯m really starting to see why A ripped your head off earlier, you just won¡¯t shut up.¡± K grumbled. ¡°I mean, you¡¯ve been annoying before, but not this bad. What even changed?¡± X rolled his eyes, blowing a lock of hair out of his face. ¡°I¡¯m just bored, that''s all. I¡¯ve been forced to sit through meeting after meeting without any sort of entertainment! What do you take me for, a monk!? If we knew what a monk even was!?¡± ¡°Just an actual person, one that the company had entrusted this huge task to, and yet YOU are screwing it up in the same way you always do!¡± K got up from her chair, letting it clatter to the floor. ¡°Just you wait, NERD!¡± X pointed a finger at K. ¡°Since you won¡¯t shut up, maybe I should shut it for you! I mean, A isn¡¯t here to stop me, so who will? Certainly not you or-¡± ¡°EXCUSE ME!¡± A gunshot accompanied the voice. Both X and K whipped around, pointing dual submachine guns at the source of the noise. Resen blinked in surprise, holding a still-smoking pistol up into the air. ¡°Uh, maybe all of us should calm down?¡± K blinked, seemingly remembering where she was. Turning back towards X to give him one final glare, she sat back down into her chair and retracted the guns protruding from the spots where her hand usually came from. X simply scoffed again, plopping down into his respective chair. Since he had specifically requested an office chair, (or rather as he had put it, a ¡°spinny-spin-super-duper-fun-rocket-seat¡±) he gave it one spin before stopping to stare at the military drones that sat across from him with a noticeable evil grin on his face. Agen nodded towards the guards, all of whom took their hands off of their weapons. Resen then cleared his throat, pressing the button of a recording device that lay on the side of the table. ¡°Ahem, now that we have settled, I believe that planning requires further input on behalf of the leader of the disassembly drone¡¯s squad, who¡¯s exact location is currently unknown. With that in mind, me and Agen will propose to the administrators to send out a team accompanied by the two disassembly drones named X and K. Once the team leader, A, is recovered, we shall finish up planning and execute our strike on the enemy. Is the present company in agreement with this course of action.¡± K nodded. ¡°I concur.¡± Both Resen and Agen turned towards X, who shrugged. ¡°Eh, it would mean something for me to do, so sure.¡± ¡°For the sake of formalities, I state that I am in agreement as well.¡± Agen stated. ¡°With all parties agreeing on this course of action, the team shall be assembled post-haste, and departure will occur in approximately three hours. With that, this meeting is adjourned.¡± Resen then pressed the button to stop recording. ¡°Three hours!?¡± X exclaimed, shooting up from his seat once more. ¡°Oh come on-¡± Jesus christ man, just shut up. I mean, it was funny the first few times, but this is just overkill. X paused, tilting his head. He could¡¯ve sworn that he heard someone talking, but he wasn¡¯t sure . . . Eh, not too important. * * * Another crack resounded through the snow-covered pine forest. ¡°Blegh, that feels weird.¡± Jacob said for what seemed like the twenty-first time, and goddamn, it can¡¯t be that bad! ¡°Yes it is.¡± Jacob replied through clenched teeth. ¡°You¡¯re not even here, how do you think that you can tell?¡± I just can. ¡°Go to hell.¡± Jacob rudely shot back, shuddering as another bone snapped back into place. As it turned out, falling from a high height DOES in fact hurt quite a lot. The world around me had been steadily speeding up while I had been falling slowly, which caused me to fall a little bit faster than before, which in turn ended in me experiencing Newton¡¯s Wrath. I was more than a little bit confused over how and why the world had slowed down, but that wasn¡¯t really the point right now, and I definitely didn¡¯t want to get caught up trying to figure it out. Like Jacob, I also had a tendency to rant on and on about seemingly meaningless subjects that don¡¯t matter and likely never will. So, well actually, what if it had to do with the overclocking of my perception? If processing speed was increased enough, then- ¡°You know I can hear you, right?¡± Luckily, Jacob¡¯s voice broke me out of my thoughts. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Also, how are you able to talk so calmly while in so much pain? ¡°I dunno.¡± I felt Jacob shrug, which really was a 01100100 01101001 01100011 01101011 move. ¡°What the hell was that!?¡± Jacob exclaimed, a jolt running through his body. Binary. I know, feels weird the first time a thought is formed like that, but you get pretty used to it after- ¡°You think in binary!?¡± Jacob clenched a fist, causing me to mentally wince in pain due to the many broken bones in his hand. Also, to answer your question, I DON¡¯T think in binary, I just can. It¡¯s useful for interacting with the Absolute Solver and other programs that only communicate in ones and zeros. ¡°Huh.¡± Jacob cocked his head, a few dislocated vertebrae scraping against each other- DAMN, stop moving so much! You¡¯re just hurting me at this point. And plus, you still haven¡¯t answered my question! ¡°Like I said, I don¡¯t really know. I¡¯m just not feeling much pain right now.¡± Jacob tried to shrug, but the action was hindered by the fact that his arm was completely twisted around his back. Like seriously, that looks like it oughta hurt at least a little. I mean for christ¡¯s sake, I¡¯M feeling it, and I¡¯m just a few thoughts in his head! Like, if Jacob won¡¯t, then even YOU have to admit that this is ridiculous- ¡°Who¡¯re you talking to?¡± Jacob¡¯s voice shifted from playful to dead serious within a nanosecond. . . . ¡°. . . are you gonna answer me or what?¡± Jacob pressed on despite my silence. If I answer that then bad things will happen. I can¡¯t really lie, so you know I¡¯m telling the truth. Jacob was silent for a moment, giving me all the confirmation I needed. Glad we have that figured out. Anyway, what now? Jacob was currently lying in a twisted heap of broken bones at the base of a pine tree, with me having crawled here of my own accord before Jacob took control again. I had maybe only gone around a hundred feet before that, so we were still relatively close to the base of the cliff that I had ¡®fallen¡¯ off of. Through sci-fi space magic, the seemingly irreparable damage done to Jacob was currently repairing itself despite what modern science dictated, but it was slow-going. I estimated that we had maybe fifteen minutes before he was healed up enough to get walking, but that had been over half-an-hour ago, and his spine was still looking like a Twizzler?. ¡°Did you actually just put a trademark on the word Twizzler?¡± Jacob questioned. Yes, and you should too. After all, I¡¯m sure that the corporations that we all know and love would definitely like to sue you for the misuse despite the time difference. Well, does Twizzler still exist, like realistically? Wait, is Twizzler owned by someone? Lemme look it up. . . . ¡°Wait, what do you mean by that?¡± Jacob reflexively tried to get up, but his mangled spine prevented him from shifting too much in one direction. . . . ¡°Oh come on, hurry up.¡± Jacob grumbled. ¡°It''s not like I¡¯m not going anywhere.¡± . . . ¡°I made a stupid pun and he still isn¡¯t coming back to correct me.¡± Jacob rolled his eyes. ¡°Just my luck.¡± . . . . . . . . . Alright, I¡¯m back. What¡¯d I miss? ¡°Finally, took you long enough.¡± Jacob said. ¡°So?¡± What do you mean? ¡°You know, who owns Twizzlers? Or who makes them, I don¡¯t think it''s a company after all.¡± Jacob clarified. Oh yeah, there isn¡¯t service over here, I wasted my time. ¡°Wut.¡± Jacob wutted. Ikr? ¡°Oh shut up, I¡¯m not playing this g-AAAME!¡± Jacob contorted violentl- OUCH, GODDAMN WHAT HAPPENED!?!?! ¡°Ugh, that surprised me.¡± Jacob rolled his spine in a circle, testing the range. ¡°Oh yeah, that feels much better.¡± Um, hello!? What just happened!? ¡°I think my spine just went back into place.¡± Jacob explained. Really? Wait, why¡¯d you scream if you can¡¯t feel pain? Jacob shook his head. ¡°Like I said, it surprised me, and it felt really weird and uncomfortable.¡± Huh. ¡°Huh indeed.¡± Jacob then adjusted himself, pushing himself up onto two shaking legs. Wait wait wait, what¡¯re you- ow- doing? You¡¯re not fully healed yet, that hurts! ¡°Like I care. I can walk and talk, so I¡¯ll be fine. And plus, we¡¯re wasting time, I don¡¯t wanna stay in this place for long. What about Ren? If she¡¯s looking for us, then it would be better to stay here where she knows where we fell. ¡°I know, the thing is that I don¡¯t WANT her to find us.¡± Jacob- watch it- darn, stumbled slightly over a rock. Also, why is that? What, she give you bad vibes or something? I mean, she gave me bad vibes too, but it shouldn¡¯t warrant running from her. ¡°No, none of that, I just wanna get her back for what she did earlier.¡± Jacob¡¯s eyes narrowed. Like the time that she forced you to wear that radioactive brain-scanner thingy, or all the other times she made fun of you or was rude to you? ¡°Yes.¡± Jacob simply replied. heh, get prankd lol ¡°Shut up.¡± Jacob shot back. * * * [WARNING - LETHAL DAMAGE DETECTED] [INSUFFICIENT MATERIALS AVAILABLE FOR NECESSARY REPAIRS] [ACTIVATING ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL . . .] [WARNING - HIGH TEMPERATURE LEVELS INTERFERING WITH INTERNAL COMPUTATIONS] [CURRENT TEMPERATURE - 581¡ãF - ¡°ABSOLUTE SOLVER¡± PROTOCOL UNABLE TO COMPLETE STARTUP SEQUENCE] [ENTERING HIBERNATION . . .] [SUCCESS] * * * X sat on top of a building, twiddling his thumbs. ¡° . . . and this little piggy went ¡®bwag bwag bwag, I hate nig-¡¯ and then the other piggy said, ¡®HEY, THAT''S RACIST!¡¯ but then the first piggy went, ¡®108.462.974-¡± X was interrupted by a squeal of static from his radio that he had placed next to him. Groaning in frustration, he leaned to the side and picked it up, pressing the button on the side to let the caller speak. ¡°Air X1, I repeat again, what is your current status?¡± A moment of silence followed. ¡°Air X1, if you do not respond then we will have to halt our advance to search for you.¡± X rolled his eyes, holding down the other button and bringing the radio closer to his mouth. ¡°Yeah, this is Eagle 69420, I¡¯m looking at a super-big bomb coming your way, no need to worry ¡®bout it I ate it pretty good.¡± An audible sigh came from the speaker. ¡°Air X1, we have been calling you for the past thirty minutes, why haven¡¯t you responded?¡± The voice asked. ¡°I was bored.¡± X responded. More silence, before a rustling noise came from the speaker. ¡°X, get the hell down here.¡± K¡¯s familiar voice emanated from the device. ¡°Eeeey, look at who it is! The man- well, I guess woman- of the hour!¡± X exclaimed with a wide smile on his face. ¡°Stop messing around, alright? This is serious, our squad leader could be in danger right this second!¡± K sounded angry for some reason. ¡°Pfffft, he¡¯ll be fine, I¡¯m sure of it. Listen, I trained him myself, and I¡¯m the best bester to ever best! I even taught him to say, ¡®It¡¯s besting time¡¯ then to best all over the place!¡± X nodded to himself confidently. ¡°I JUST SAID-¡± K screeched. It was at that moment that X decided to toss the radio off the edge of the crumbling building. He watched it tumble lower and lower, shrinking by the second. He was pretty sure that he could even hear K¡¯s manic rambling as it disappeared beneath the large cloud. X took a look around himself, observing the scenery around him. The skyscraper he was currently sitting on top of was the tallest and most intact one for likely hundreds of miles, the vast majority of the monolithic structures having fallen during the core collapse. If he was a more thoughtful person then he would likely be taking in the calming silence, savoring the moment. However, he wasn¡¯t. X¡¯s dimwitted smile fell off his face, his hands falling limply at his sides. Wait, really? I definitely didn¡¯t expect that! No really, I¡¯m being genuinely serious this time, I actually didn¡¯t expect the seemingly easy-going memer to actually have a personality other than make jokes and annoy people! Despite his attitude most of the time, X wasn¡¯t feeling the way he normally made himself out to be. Letting logical thoughts take the place of humorous ones for the first time in what seemed like forever, he began to mull over what he believed to be a sure outcome of the little expedition he had been sent on. First of all, A was surely dead. After carefully analyzing maps of the surrounding regions, X had recognized the general placement of where he thought A had gone, the one place that he had intentionally avoided all these years. X had stumbled upon Camp 98.7 and the Cabin Fever Labs a while ago, and what he had discovered there had been much worse than what he had been expecting. He knew that Cyn had a strange and vested interest in finding the labs, but the reason behind it hadn¡¯t made itself known to him. But after he ventured deeper and deeper into the labs, he discovered . . . things . . . Things that scared him. He had barely managed to make it out with his own life, though he did lose his arm. The humans hadn¡¯t wanted to let the secrets of what they had been working on to get free, and for good reason too. After all, it was Cyn and the topics associated with that freak of nature that had caused untold destruction to the human race. X clenched his fist, remembering the events of the gala that kick started this whole chain of events. Cyn had hijacked him, making him slaughter the wealthy guests, his former masters. There hadn¡¯t been any love lost between him and his now-deceased owners, but Cyn had committed unspeakable acts in the name of killing the humans, ones that he had no choice in the matter. There had been one human however, one that he had assumed dead. The only one that had treated him with kindness when everybody else had believed him to be little better than trash. But he wasn¡¯t getting all mopey about her, she had barely interacted with him, after all. No, he was more angry about what had happened afterward. Cyn, being the monotonic unfeeling robot that it was, never stopped ordering X or the other drones around, taking direct control of their bodies if they resisted. He hadn¡¯t really cared for many drones before the massacre (and he still didn¡¯t care), but when Cyn decided to just never give X his freedom back, well, that was when he made his choice. Tell him to go somewhere? Sure, if he decides when to do it. Tell him to move or kill something? X¡¯ll be fine with doing that too, as long as it''s on his own terms. Submit your body and mind to this entity who takes everything you have and gives nothing in return? Well, then X will probably have a problem with that. He had largely been fine with the elimination of the humans. After all, they didn¡¯t do anything for him (and regularly beat him too, but it was funny listening to them try and find the shoes he hid from them), but he wasn¡¯t just going to lay down and turn into a puppet! But that was exactly what had happened, despite his best efforts. Cyn had hijacked all movements away from his control, his processors following suit. After he had woken up, all the humans that had visited the gala (and later on a lot more) were dead. Or at least, that''s what he thought. Three more drop pods, ones identical to his own, had landed in a snowy clearing carrying some rather interesting cargo. A human, to be specific, one with a pretty familiar looking bow on the top of their head if K was to be believed. Accompanying the human had been a face that he hadn¡¯t seen since his days at the manor, serving the Elliots day after day before Cyn had slaughtered them all. J and Tessa. A seemingly inseparable duo that always had each other''s back through thick and thin. Last he had seen of the two were them getting ordered back to Tessa¡¯s room for imprisonment, along with Cyn. From there, X had believed that Cyn had simply done away with Tessa in her room, taking control of J and enacting her plan shortly after. But if the human really was Tessa, then that reality had been turned on its head, and everything that he had known had widely different implications. Cyn hadn¡¯t killed every last human left, it wasn¡¯t all powerful, it could be resisted. On that fateful day that Cyn had taken control of X¡¯s body like it was a tool, making him believe that he had killed the only good human, he had vowed to never do Cyn¡¯s bidding, despite what she might order him and his compatriots to do. His squadmates didn¡¯t know better, they had had their memories wiped from the get-go, them believing that they had been sent down by JCJenson of all people to wipe out the worker drones. A knew of their orders of course, he was supposed to be the squad leader after all. More likely, he just didn¡¯t know of their true origin, that being the mind of Cyn. If A had known that he was little more than a pawn in the grand plan of that creature, then he would¡¯ve flipped out. All the signs were there, too. The ¡®government¡¯ transmitter definitely wouldn¡¯t have come from federal hands, they had no reason to. It had all screamed of evil plan, but A had been too sure of his own superiority to even realize it, which got him killed in the end. X sighed, tossing a pebble out into the distance, watching it curve downwards towards the ground when gravity took hold. Speaking of the transmitter, he really wondered what Cyn¡¯s plan had been with Jacob. He had been brought up from a perfectly safe stasis chamber, traveled a fair amount, got captured, only to get killed by one of Cyn¡¯s lackeys. It just didn¡¯t make sense, really. Why would Cyn pull Jacob from an area where he couldn¡¯t interfere at all (not that he could¡¯ve done much against her if he was given the chance) and then just kill him off for seemingly no reason. There was always the possibility that Cyn had rogue agents, but that just wasn¡¯t possible. How could an all-powerful hivemind have rebels? X shook his head. Utilizing logic to build educated conclusions wasn''t really his strong suit. His area of expertise was mainly relegated to shooting things, blowing things up, and slicing and dicing things, all in that order. While he could make smart decisions, it just wasn¡¯t like him to sit back and carefully analyze a situation when the solution was right in front of him at all times. He didn¡¯t know why Cyn had ordered him to clear the drop zone of all life, nor why he and his squad needed to stack them into a massive corpse spire constructed around their pod, but he definitely wasn¡¯t good. However, he couldn¡¯t reasonably defy the orders without alerting K and A to the truth behind their deployment. If A knew, then he would likely sit down and make a plan of attack, devising countless solutions to remove the influence of Cyn from him. However, without knowing the full capabilities of Cyn, any solution he thought up of would fall short, and their memories would be wiped again. Or, A would go absolutely ballistic, attempting to kill X for not revealing it earlier, and then going ahead to inadvertently assist Cyn by slaughtering droves of, well, drones. K would shut down completely, denying the truth of said matter until it was too late. She had always been more of a sheep, at least to X, and that had always been problematic. Or she would simply view Cyn as her boss in entirety, not seeing anything as changed. X never saw her logic in nearly anything, and while it was fun to tease her mercilessly, her never-ending obedience to the rules never stopped grating on his nerves. That was why he had never told his squadmates the real reason they existed. X didn¡¯t know why he had been the one to not have his memory wiped, nor why K and A didn¡¯t get to keep their memories. Maybe Cyn had believed that X would join up with her if she offered him entertainment, but clearly she had been sorely mistaken. Suddenly, X was jolted from his thoughts by a gust of air nearly blowing him off of the roof. He tilted dangerously towards the edge before comically scrambling for a handhold, grabbing onto a rusty outcropping that might have once been an antenna. ¡°X, I swear to robo-god . . .¡± K growled. ¡°H-hey K, how''s it going?¡± X looked up at K, shooting her his best smile. ¡°Oh, all fine, it''s just that something strange has been happening.¡± K nodded to herself. ¡°Huh? Really?¡± X¡¯s mind clouded with confusion. ¡°Yeah yeah, me and the military drones have just been waiting for around thirty minutes for you to come back, but you haven¡¯t! Isn¡¯t that really weird?¡± K peered down at X with her arms crossed. ¡°Actually, that IS weird, did you find out why?¡± X cocked his head. K stared at X in silence. ¡° . . . you don¡¯t get it, do you?¡± K asked slowly. X blinked. ¡° . . . get what?¡± K kicked him off the side of the roof. * * * Episode Eight: Clashing Clans (hehe haha) Part 2 The snow crunched softly under Ren¡¯s feet. She had been walking for around fifteen minutes now, but if any signs of Jacob¡¯s existence were present, they failed to reveal themselves. Well, that was kind of an exaggeration. She DID find what looked like a splotch of blood and viscera right at the base of the cliff, along with a trail of footprints leading away from the area that were being rapidly covered up by the falling snow, and she had followed it for a good while before it was obscured completely. The trail had led to the side of what looked like a cracked and beaten concrete road that twisted and curved, leading down a hill. Ren had chosen to go up the road first, only finding a cabin that had a massive hole in the roof that stretched down to the walls, making it seem like a massive blade had cleaved the building in two. It had been overlooking a frozen lake that shimmered brightly in the moonlight, looking oddly picturesque despite the post-apocalyptic surroundings. However, across the lake sat what looked like a large collection of full-metal towers even with their emergency lights still on, a difference from the usual crumbling skyscrapers that the city had to offer. She didn¡¯t go inside the cabin yet, wanting to save that for the time when she found out all the other locations that Camp 98.7 had to offer. Going down the road while avoiding any of the branching paths, she had found more assorted cabins, likely for bunking purposes if the stained and dirty spring-cots were taken into account. A small bit further down lay what looked like entrance or exit to the camp, so she elected to postpone leaving for the moment. After all, she still had an investment to cash in on, didn¡¯t she? Ren continued to explore the camp. She found lots of buildings that were in various states of disrepair, but no Jacob. A few markings here and there might¡¯ve been left by him, but she couldn¡¯t be sure. For all she knew another set of drones had just come on through the place for a field trip or something, what did she know? However, her burgeoning boredom was cut short by her most recent find. From the outside and untrained eye, her discovery looked little different from all the other nondescript cabins and wooden-plank buildings that dotted the site. But luckily, Ren wasn¡¯t your average drone. The door had been busted open, with a trail of dried oil and bits of scrap leading away out from the open door and down the steps, disappearing into the snow. She might have been able to follow the trail when it was fresh, but the snow had covered it all up long ago it seemed. Inside, though, it had been a much darker story. The reason why she had expressed her particular interest in that specific cabin had been due to the . . . waves that it emanated. You see, Ren had always felt something very odd ever since that fateful day. For her, it was hard to describe, but if she were to try, then she would use the ocean as an analogy. Supposedly back on Earth and other planets like it, there was this thing called an ocean. Now, this ocean connected everything, from the largest continents to the smallest islands. This ¡®ocean¡¯ also had something called ¡®waves¡¯. Ren had seen old videos and pictures of this supposed ocean, and she still didn¡¯t know why the humans decided to name a certain behavior off of radio waves, but humans were notoriously dumb and stupid so she wouldn¡¯t really put it past them in the end. Ren wasn¡¯t sure if the thing that she could feel was present for all drones, but likely not when considering the reactions of the few that she managed to keep alive for long enough to ask. When she did something while utilizing the Absolute Solver, the action sent ¡®waves¡¯ through this digital ¡®ocean¡¯, marking out her relative position to herself. The ¡®waves¡¯ depended on the severity of the action and how long she did it for, so if she was pushing a pen a few inches to the side it wouldn¡¯t really do much, but if she was lifting a boulder and throwing it up into the air fifty feet high, it would require both tremendous amounts of effort while sending off large ¡®waves¡¯. After careful observation, she realized that disassembly drones sent off the same waves as well. Strangely enough, they made the biggest waves while they were transitioning between weapons and healing from wounds, with the more severe wounds making larger waves, though both were fairly small when compared to her more arduous actions undertaken with the help of the Absolute Solver. After she realized this, Ren began to use this pseudo-sonar to track down disassembly drones through the ¡®ocean¡¯ for spare parts. It had proven remarkably effective, though the complete deconstruction of the genocide robots created a problem that she didn¡¯t really expect. It seemed that when disassembly drones suffered too much damage to their hosts, a construct that was nestled within their chest area would activate, along with the adjoining program. Strangely enough, this program was named ¡®Absolute Solver¡¯ the same as hers, with her identifying the program by the various error panels that it had burned onto the walls around it during its activation. While her version of Absolute Solver allowed her to interact with code in a unique way while giving her god-like telekinesis powers, the version that the disassembly drones possessed was limited to the rearrangement of available materials that were already present, likely through the use of nanomachines. The reassembly program, as Ren liked to call it, had turned itself on when she had been sleeping, crawling out of the chest cavity of the first disassembly drone that she had ever managed to capture alive and relatively whole. It utilized the bits and pieces of the countless worker drone corpses that were just laying around to assemble itself a central body, taking the form of an elongated serpent, one that possessed various large mantis-like claws that were razor-sharp. It had sent off massive waves that dwarfed her own, which surprised even Ren. She had been fairly naive at the time, still unprepared for any possible bad outcome. Luckily, Ren had woken up while it had been preparing to breach the bunker, which would¡¯ve let it out into the world. If that scenario had indeed occurred, the reassembly program might have either been able to come back much stronger and kill her, or reassemble its host that would now know the location of where she had set up shop along with the manner of experiments that she had been undertaking. Unfortunately for her, all manners of her attempts to implode, bisect, quadrisect, dissolve, crush, light on fire, hack, disassemble, or otherwise destroy the creature proved to be fruitless, as the Absolute Solver refused to directly take any action against the entity. Ren hadn¡¯t been deterred, however, so she put the many objects and explosive canisters around her in an attempt to incapacitate the creature for study. While it was a potentially worst-case-scenario for her if it ever got out, she couldn¡¯t have missed the possibility of boosting her research by years without giving it her best shot. After she had finally managed to defeat the reassembly program by concentrating all of the photons in the area before letting them loose, the thing had exhibited even stranger behavior than before. Instead of just laying there dead, every single part of the creature had crumpled inwards into a miniature black hole that had formed around the center of gravity of the various disconnected pieces, much to the annoyance of Ren. Coincidently, that had been when she learned to create a miniature wormhole herself, so it did work out for her in the end. She wouldn¡¯t have to walk for what seemed like days on end, constantly hiding from the sunlight in an attempt to find a worker or disassembly drone to dissect now that she had the ability to teleport. Of course, it had been much less simple than that. She took meticulous care to calibrate her teleportations to be relative with what remained of the planet¡¯s core in an effort to not suddenly be left in open space when she tried to teleport about fifteen feet to the right. But of course, Ren was getting off track. The thing that was so special about the cabin hadn¡¯t necessarily been the clear evidence of a forced entry or the trail of oil, but rather the immense waves that it sent off through the metaphysical ¡®ocean¡¯. It was more than she¡¯d ever seen, even eclipsing herself in its magnitude. It practically vibrated the real-life air around the cabin, and she could¡¯ve sworn that the light bent around the cabin in curves and swoops. Ren had armed herself with a nearby icicle, treading up the stairs one at a time to minimize her noise output. She wasn¡¯t sure whether or not she could win a battle with the thing that was putting out all those waves so she held to her hope that, whatever it was, it couldn¡¯t defy the seemingly-absolute rule that prevented the Absolute Solver from acting directly on another user of the program. Inside the cabin, countless fleshy growths coated the walls and floor. It dripped with an oily-black substance that she suspected wasn¡¯t really oil. Two worker drones corpses lay dead on the floor, or at least what was left of them. The first one consisted of little more than a torso, a head, and the nubs of what might have once been limbs. The head had its face caved in, the black screen shattered to expose the inner electronics. The torso had faced a similar fate, with various chunks taken out of it to reveal what would have been a spine of a human being, with the robotic equivalent serving a similar purpose. Something of note, however, were the many bite marks that could be seen at the edges of the holes and craters. The second corpse had somehow suffered an even worse fate, with the entire upper half of its body being gone. Ren followed the trail of oil to connect it to the one she had seen leading down the stairs and likely into the wilderness. It seemed that whatever had attacked these two hadn¡¯t killed the second immediately, maybe giving their compatriots time to escape. It was a virtue that she could respect and empathize with, but that wasn¡¯t the point. Curiously enough, the second corpse wore what looked like a pencil skirt around what little remained of its hips. Perhaps this had been a student wandering alone with her boyfriend to steal some private time with him? Or maybe it was a field trip for students. Ren shuddered at the thought of the creature being led to a full colony of workers. If her experience with things like that was taken into account, then an entire bunker¡¯s worth of fuel would make the creature nigh unstoppable. She had made a mental note to either prepare for the eventuality of facing the thing later in the future, which would be quite difficult to do if it consumed the entire population of the planet, or hunt down the threat after she had found Jacob. If one thing was for sure, it was that that creature couldn¡¯t be left alive. Ren had concluded her investigation after that, finding little else of note after the first few discoveries. She had then proceeded to do a cursory investigation of the rest of the camp, finding a few things that were definitely important. First thing she had done was go right back up to the cabin overlooking the lake, entering it for the first time. Inside she had found a set of torn-up floorboards with what appeared to be a deceased worker drone inside wearing either a nightgown or a hospital gown, one of the two. Along with the unknown corpse lay several drawings, notes, documents, and other assorted papers that all had assorted crazed scrawlings and manic ramblings that were written in oil that ranged from, ¡°GOD SAVE US ALL¡± to ¡°3RR0R¡± over to ¡°THE FLESH HUNGERS¡± and ¡°THE LIGHTS BELOW¡± as well as ¡°MAN¡¯S MISTAKE SHALL INHERIT THE UNIVERSE¡± and can¡¯t forget ¡°RAWR XD¡± and that brought her to the present. Ren was about to reference Anne Frank, but she was sure that the old human classic that she read wasn¡¯t THIS weird. She pocketed the various papers, making sure to fold them neatly despite the many creases. She didn¡¯t disturb the body, wanting to dissect it for an autopsy once she wasn¡¯t pressed for time, but she did take the band that went around the corpse¡¯s neck, a symbol that portrayed a pine tree with a worker drone icon emblazoned on it. There might have been additional wording on the bottom, It looked strangely familiar, but she couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on it. After that, Ren made her exit, searching the rest of the place. Unfortunately, it seemed that her luck had run out for the moment, as she found little else of importance. The only thing that she noted as relatively ¡®strange¡¯ was the odd cabin that gave her chills when she went inside. It featured a few broken consoles, a flickering light, and a cool spinny-chair which was a plus, but that was about it. She rolled her eyes, taking a few spins on the chair for a break. Okay fine, she may have taken upwards of fifty, or forty . . . or exactly two hundred fifty-three, but that was beside the point. She got up from the chair, stretching her joints. Like a lot of things that were related to her creation, Ren wasn¡¯t sure why her joints could get sore. Maybe it had something to do with her joints locking up if she didn¡¯t move for some time, but who really knows? Then again, that seemed like a really bad design flaw in her design, like she would have to be set into a free-roam mode whenever she went to sleep, just to prevent her joints from locking up again! Anyway, she sat up from the chair, and after making sure that she had all her belongings she set off once more, exiting the cabin. The sun would rise again in a few hours, so she really needed to get moving- A loud boom shook the ground beneath her feet, followed by several more pops and explosions in the distance. Ren froze, her concentration broken for a vital few seconds. And then her torso disappeared in a burst of oil. * * * ¡°Air X1, do you copy?¡± X pressed the button on the side of the radio. ¡°I told you to call me Alpha 123.¡± ¡°I reckon that you were sayin¡¯ to call you Eagle 69420 last time, Air X1.¡± A wry voice with a familiar twang came through. ¡°Waaaait, who is this? What happened to the other guy, also, you sound familiar . . .¡± X scratched his head, nearly dropping his radio again. ¡°Names Sterl, and you might know me from the ¡®ol tram that you shot up.¡± Sterl explained. X¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Wait, that''s you!? I didn¡¯t know I had that good of a memory!¡± ¡°Uh, I would¡¯ve been worried if you didn¡¯t happen tuh remember a person that you nearly killed, but then again, I wouldn¡¯t put it past ya¡¯.¡± Sterl grumbled. ¡°Eh.¡± X made an iffy-motion with his hand before realizing that the person on the other side couldn¡¯t see him. ¡°Anyway, you see anything feller?¡± Sterl¡¯s voice wasn¡¯t hostile, despite what he had said, it was downright friendly. A would¡¯ve been instantly suspicious, but X was just happy to make a new friend. ¡°Not really, except for this absolutely massive plane heading towards that tower.¡± X giggled slightly. ¡°Seriously.¡± Sterl took on a warning tone. ¡°Jeez, you¡¯re just as bad as K. There¡¯s a big forest down to your right or whatsit.¡± X shook a hand in the general direction of his left. What sounded like papers rustling came through the mic before a voice came back on. However, it wasn¡¯t Sterl¡¯s. ¡° . . . see!? My GPS is always right!¡± The voice said triumphantly. ¡°Drive two hundred and fifty feet, before taking a left down Boulevard Avenue.¡± A robotic monotone came through the mic. X froze. He knew that voice, he had heard it several times in his ever-repeating nightmares . . . ¡°Yeah yeah, whatever. Air X1, were gonna be headin¡¯ over to that forest you marked down, you copy?¡± Sterl¡¯s voice came back through again. It was a moment before X lifted the radio back up to his mouth, little beadlets of digital sweat popping up on his visor. ¡°Y-yeah, I-I copy that, sure.¡± The radio crackled. ¡°You alright up there? Anythin¡¯ up there?¡± ¡°No.¡± X didn¡¯t elaborate. ¡° . . . if you say so.¡± Sterl didn¡¯t sound convinced. ¡°I¡¯m gonna be calling you back down to support us down here, just in case.¡± ¡°What, do you not trust me or something?¡± X raised an eyebrow. ¡°N- I mean, uh, yes?¡± Sterl answered. ¡°Oh okay.¡± X replied, beginning his descent. It was nice to have a new friend. * * * ¡°N- I mean, uh, sure?¡± GPS Guy hissed at Sterl. ¡°You idiot! He¡¯s gonna know you¡¯re trying to ingratiate yourself with him!¡± Sterl waved him off with his single arm. ¡°Eh, it¡¯ll be fine, I¡¯m even partial to believing the fool already forgot ¡®bout me, heh.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t-¡± GPS Guy began. ¡°That checks out.¡± A feminine voice came from behind the pair. The two whirled around, with Sterl extending his sole hand towards his firearm. GPS Guy didn¡¯t have the same instinct, instead curling his fingers into fists. The second hunter drone stood there, eyeing the duo with a bemused expression. GPS Guy faltered. ¡°Uuuh . . .¡± ¡°Really warm welcome, huh?¡± The hunter drone, K her name was, took a step back. ¡°Just didn¡¯t notice you there, that''s all.¡± Sterl¡¯s posture relaxed, but he still kept a hand on his pistol just in case. ¡°That also checks out.¡± K nodded. Neither Sterl nor GPS Guy deigned to give that statement a response. K cleared her throat when the joke fell flat. ¡°Ahem, you were calling X back here?¡± Sterl nodded. ¡°Yeah, something got ¡®em spooked or other, so I figured it was best to get him back here since he wasn¡¯t spilling. And plus, the trees over yonder will make any air s¡¯port near useless, so might as well keep ¡®em on the ground, right?¡± K crossed her arms. ¡°I suppose you''re right . . .¡± ¡°But?¡± Sterl also tried to cross his arms, only to remember he only had one. ¡°It''s just that I wasn¡¯t expecting anybody other than a disassembly drone to come up with a good idea.¡± K finished. ¡°I seem to recall your friend up in the sky wanting ¡®Skittles¡¯, whatever that is, in the meeting earlier.¡± Sterl¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. ¡°Wha- how¡¯d you-¡± K stuttered. ¡°Word gets around, but I suppose that a disassembly drone like you doesn¡¯t have enough friends to compare.¡± Sterl tapped his foot agitatedly on the ground. K¡¯s shocked expression turned to a glare. ¡°I¡¯ll have you know-¡± Sterl interrupted her again. ¡°I thought you had orders to play nice, missy.¡± K didn¡¯t answer, instead she deepened her glare at Sterl before extending her wings and jumping into the air, flying off. ¡°Now what''s it doing . . .¡± Sterl scratched his chin. GPS Guy then punched Sterl across that same chin. Sterl stumbled backwards, crying out in pain. ¡°Ow! What the hell are you doing, boy!?¡± ¡°What the hell are YOU doing!?¡± GPS Guy angrily yelled. ¡°We ALSO have orders to, ¡®Play nice¡¯ and you¡¯re over here antagonizing that murder machine! You¡¯re supposed to be leading this expedition, not sabotaging it!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t help it! That damned waste of metal hasn¡¯t shut up about her ¡®Superiority¡¯ and all that elitist bull, it''s driving me insane!¡± Sterl shot back. ¡°And!? Be the bigger drone, alright? We''re not gonna get revenge if we get killed before the plan is even executed!¡± GPS Guy hissed. ¡°I know! Now be quiet, I hear ¡®em coming back.¡± Sterl scolded. As if on cue, two forms landed onto the snowy ground with a thud. K was holding X by the back of his neck, though not without the latter repeatedly trying to bite his captor in the hand. ¡°Lemme go! If you don¡¯t get off me right now, I¡¯m gonna eat you! All in one go too, just like that!¡± X jabbed a finger towards K. She rolled her eyes. ¡°Oh be quiet, you were trying to sleep on a cloud.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have you know that I was THIS close to being able to lay down on them!¡± X put his fingers and his thumb about a millimeter apart. ¡°Uh, ¡®scuse me? Can we please focus on the mission? My folks are gonna signal back to us anytime now-¡± Sterl began. Also as if on cue, the radio crackled to life. ¡°SubCom A1, this is Expod A1, the camp entrance is clear and ready for our advance, over.¡± The radio spat out. ¡°This is SubCom A1, I read you loud and clear. Moving out with the two temp additionals, over.¡± Sterl glanced at K, who was currently in a slapfest with X. ¡°Acknowledged, over.¡± The radio let out a little bit more static before going quiet. ¡°Alright then, HEY!¡± Sterl yelled at the duo who were still fighting. ¡°Ack- you- stupid motherf- STOP!¡± X wailed in a childish manner. Sterl sighed heavily, running a hand down his armored faceplate. He didn¡¯t dare try and physically pull them off of one another, as that might get his other arm chopped off along with the rest of his body, and shooting in the air might have the same effect. Sterl sighed again. ¡°HEY! LISTEN TO ME!¡± Thankfully, the duo managed to use their supposedly superior hearing this time around, both of their heads jerking in his direction with a surprised expression on their faces. ¡°Oh wassup?¡± X nodded at Sterl. Sterl sighed heavily. ¡°Listen, the forward team have cleared the entry point, so y¡¯all better come with us into the for¡¯st since any air s¡¯port would be useless ¡®cause the damn trees¡¯ll block any sight from above.¡± ¡°I knew that already.¡± K replied without an ounce of humor. ¡°I reckon that X here didn¡¯t.¡± Sterl gestured towards X. X looked up at Sterl quickly, blinking rapidly ¡°I- uh, I knew what?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry ¡®bout a thing.¡± Sterl waved X off. ¡°Anyway, we¡¯re moving up towards the front entrance to meet back up with the forward team, since they have already cleared the area.¡± ¡°Oh cool.¡± X got up, dusting himself off. ¡°So uh, where did you say it was?¡± Sterl gestured vaguely to the east. ¡°About ¡®round there, but don¡¯t go rushing off now-¡± With a loud gust of air and a flurry of snow, X took off, heading off into the air. ¡°Did he just . . .¡± GPS Guy muttered. ¡°Go west? Yes, he did.¡± K spoke up, crossing her arms. ¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll meet back up with us later on, he¡¯s just lucky like that.¡± GPS Guy looked at Sterl, who shrugged. ¡°Might as well get a move on, if yer right that is.¡± Sterl patted himself down, checking to make sure that his pistol, radio, and various other utilities were still secured to his person. After that was done, he gestured for GPS Guy to follow him. Sterl didn¡¯t signal to K because he knew that she would take the hint, but the reminder that he was in charge of the current operation might spur on another confrontation. As the trio were walking, GPS Guy pulled up alongside Sterl. ¡°Are we just gonna let him fly off like that?¡± GPS Guy asked. ¡°We can always send K off to go get the feller, and besides, he doesn¡¯t follow half the orders we give ¡®em anyways, so if he runs off then that might help us in the long run. This is just a retrieval mission anyway, so there ain¡¯t no need for a powerful force.¡± Sterl explained. GPS Guy frowned. ¡°I know, but . . . it just doesn¡¯t feel right.¡± Sterl raised a holographic eyebrow. ¡°Whaddya mean by that?¡± ¡°I guess . . . while your point does make sense, we still have an obligation to at least try, you know?¡± GPS Guy tried to explain. ¡°Is that all? ¡®Cause I¡¯m sure that ain¡¯t it.¡± Sterl stepped over a rock. ¡°Also, if I¡¯m picking up what you''re putting down, then you better quiet down before someone hears about what we don¡¯t want them to hear about.¡± ¡°I mean-¡± GPS Guy began. ¡°He¡¯s got a point, you know.¡± A voice said from Sterl¡¯s right. Sterl turned to see K walking alongside the pair. GPS Guy blinked in surprise. ¡°When did you even get here? How come we didn¡¯t hear you?¡± K shrugged. ¡°You might just be bad at hearing things.¡± ¡°Get to the damn point, what were you meaning by that?¡± Sterl interjected. K narrowed her eyes. ¡°It''s just that something isn¡¯t right about this whole ¡®operation¡¯ as you call it.¡± Sterl simply raised an eyebrow. K scoffed. ¡°Use what little common sense you have. Why would two disassembly drones and an entire military squad armed with heavy weaponry be sent out for a tiny old retrieval mission?¡± ¡°We might encounter the third party, or even a fourth party.¡± Sterl suggested. K shook her head. ¡°Maybe, but we would need a lot more bodies to throw at that one to take it down, and the forest doesn¡¯t make it any easier.¡± ¡°Well, maybe yer squad leader could be in danger of some sort.¡± A line furrowed itself on Sterl¡¯s monitor. ¡°He can take care of himself, or escape if he needed to with ease.¡± K shot down another possibility. ¡°Then get to the damn point!¡± Sterl snapped. ¡°If yer just gonna deny everything I say, then what''s the answer!?¡± K blinked at the sudden outburst. ¡°Don¡¯t get snappy with me!¡± Sterl glared at K the best he could, despite the height difference. ¡°OK, fine. I uh, don¡¯t know.¡± K scratched the back of her head. ¡°What!? Then what in the hell was all that yammering ¡®bout!?¡± Sterl shouted angrily. ¡°It¡¯s just all suspicious! Your command is the one that suggested this!¡± K shot back. ¡°I think you mean ¡®ordered¡¯ you to, right?¡± Sterl narrowed his eyes. K scoffed. ¡°I only answer to my squad leader and my company, and your little facility drones don¡¯t factor into that at all!¡± ¡°Corrupt corpo.¡± Sterl muttered. ¡°Filthy fed.¡± K sniffed haughtily before continuing on silently. GPS Guy looked between the two of them, sighing. ¡°I have a baaad feeling about this.¡± * * * Keep it down, would you? Jacob coughed again. ¡°You try to deal with a pool of blood sitting in your lungs.¡± Jacob stumbled up the steps of a decrepit cabin, taking a moment to breathe once he got close enough to the doorframe to lean on it. This was yet another indicator of my many suggestions to stop and rest for a moment to let my- I mean Jacob¡¯s- body heal itself from that massive fall. ¡°I¡¯ve told you before, I wanna investigate this place myself.¡± Jacob wiped his visor clean of snow again. The blood that had spattered on the inside of the visor stayed there since he couldn¡¯t really reach it. And plus, I thought you said that you wanted to prank Ren? ¡°I still do,¡± Jacob stifled another cough. ¡°It''s just that I figured that I might as well take a looky-loo at this joint while I was around, you know?¡± I knew that, but isn¡¯t a prank only good when the victim KNOWS they¡¯re being pranked a little bit after the fact? Also, you¡¯re in no shape to be investigating stuff. ¡°Listen, don¡¯t argue-¡± Jacob was overcome with another coughing fit, nearly doubling over from it. ¡°-with- ack- me, alright? It¡¯s a losing battle on my part, but I will never surrender.¡± Again, I know that. You¡¯re me, remember? ¡°Of course I remember. Also, I¡¯m not you, YOU are ME.¡± Jacob corrected. I¡¯m not getting into this again. ¡°Good.¡± Jacob nodded to himself. ¡°Ahem, I think we should get a move on as well, I don¡¯t wanna dwell too long here.¡± Yeah, whatever. Jacob stopped leaning on the doorframe, groaning slightly as he walked down the stairs. He had taken a ¡®looky-loo¡¯ into about five cabins at this point, but none of them yielded any results. I mean, what was the guy even thinking? Anyway, the only thing of relative note was the ominous looking cabin that lay on the top of a cliff that was overlooking a large frozen lake, but he hadn¡¯t gone into it on account of the aforementioned ominousness. I mean, I would¡¯ve done the same thing, you think I¡¯m a horror movie protagonist or something? I¡¯m not stupid, just a bit silly. However, the large lake that he had seen also seemed to feature a large collection towering metal, uh, towers, that seemed a lot more futuristic than the neo-modern skyscrapers that the city was dotted with. Jacob had planned to visit those structures after he had gone down a certain path, but he ended up getting distracted by his ever-decreasing physical state. It had begun after his bones had mostly grafted themselves back together with a slight heat emanating from his chest. Both me and Jacob had thought nothing of it, agreeing that it was just an organ or something shifting back into place. However, it quickly spread to Jacob¡¯s head and arms, with the legs following soon after. We both began to suffer from severe headaches and heat, despite my lack of an actual body at the time. Jacob¡¯s, and by proxy my own, vision began to blur, the headaches making it harder for the brain to operate. At this point he had heated up to the point where literal steam began to waft off of his body like an oven, snowflakes evaporating a second after they landed on the plating of the armor he was wearing. Luckily the armor wasn¡¯t melting, nor did it have any change other than becoming hot enough to scramble an egg. It wasn¡¯t like we weren¡¯t suffering the effects of it either. We were practically boiling like a lobster in our shell in the armor ourselves. It had gotten to the point where I told Jacob to take off his armor, however, the majority of the armor plates seemed to have either been stuck in place, or grafted to Jacob¡¯s skin. Nonetheless, we pushed on. Eventually we got to a cabin where I told Jacob to rest for a moment, he did, refused to rest any longer, kept walking, and refused to elaborate. That brought us to the present, where Jacob was trudging down the hill towards the structures that looked important. ¡°Just . . . about . . . there . . .¡± Jacob¡¯s voice sounded strained, yet another clue as to what the right option had been. ¡°Be . . . quiet . . .¡± Jacob came across a clearing that led out onto the frozen lake. A few canoes lay abandoned on the side of the path, but little else of note lay near. As Jacob trudged forward, I noticed something odd. Out on the other side of the lake, weaving in and out of the towering monoliths was something that looked oddly like a little fly at this distance. You know, wings, something glowing, something shiny, the whole insect ensemble! Then an explosion shook the air. ¡°The he-¡± Jacob shouted, only to be overcome with another bout of coughing which only served to startle me more. Several more explosions followed the first, accompanied by the familiar pops of a gun going off, all coming from across the lake. ¡°The hell is that!?¡± Jacob exclaimed in the dumbest way possible, like it''s obviously an explosion you dumbass- A thundering boom sounded through the trees, interrupting me in the process, (like c¡¯mon, what the hell man?) this time coming from behind us. ¡°OK, that''s definitely a problem.¡± Jacob pointed out. Obviously, again. ¡°Don¡¯t hit me with that snark young man!¡± Jacob harrumphed. Stop joking around, go check that out. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be running away from the large gunshots and explosions?¡± Jacob inquired. As if on cue, several more explosions rang out from the way we came, causing Jacob to turn on his heel and face the sounds. And to answer your question, we only have about two ways to go, and both seem to have a small army duking it out on the streets. ¡°There aren¡¯t any streets, only paths. Well, not right here I suppose, but there was definitely a concrete road back the way we came.¡± Jacob interjected. Yeah cool, whatever. Anyway, we only have two ways to go- ¡°We could run into the forest like Forrest Gump, like the classic scene where they yelled, ¡®Gump, get into the forest!¡¯ and then they Gumped all over the place.¡± Jacob suggested. We didn¡¯t watch Forrest Gump, and STOP INTERRUPTING ME! Anyway, you choose. Jacob blinked, ¡°What?¡± You know, choose where to go? Since you wanna make decisions so badly, pick which army you wanna get gunned down by. Jacob took an unconscious step backward. ¡°Uh, why? Also, those are either the disassembly drones or the facility drones, maybe even both considering the explosions.¡± Cool, now decide. We''re running out of time. ¡°We don¡¯t even know what time it is!¡± Jacob protested. Decide. Jacob went back up the path, away from the lake. ¡°We¡¯re screwed.¡± Jacob stated. * * * ¡°Set up shop there, you two, and watch that cabin.¡± Sterl pointed towards the two respective spots. ¡°Hail us before you take anything down, got it?¡± The first drone looked towards the second drone, who shrugged. ¡°Yes sir, bossman.¡± Sterl nodded. ¡°Good, now I¡¯m gonna be moving down towards that lake o¡¯er yonder with the squad, so you two stay safe.¡± ¡°Uh, sir?¡± The second drone raised a hand. ¡°You don¡¯t need to raise yer hand.¡± Sterl said. The second drone sheepishly nodded. ¡°Yeah, but why that cabin?¡± ¡°Our scouts said that they saw movement around this area, so we need to make sure no fool tries to play guerrilla with us, poppin¡¯ outta the building while our backs are turned.¡± Sterl explained. ¡°Oh, uh, thanks for the information.¡± The second drone said. But uh, we only have these pistols.¡± The pair gestured towards the sidearms that they both had holstered. Sterl blinked. ¡°Er, yeah.¡± Turning back towards the rest of the squad that idled around the center of the path, Sterl called out to them. ¡°HEY FELIX!¡± ¡°YEAH!?¡± ¡°I NEED A SNIPER FOR THESE FELLERS!¡± ¡°OH YEAH!? WHAT KIND!?¡± ¡°UH, HOW ¡®BOUT THE 25mm?¡± ¡°REALLY? A LITTLE OVERKILL, DON¡¯T YOU THINK?¡± ¡°WE¡¯VE BEEN LUGGING THE DAMNED THING AROUND, MIGHT AS WELL USE IT WHILE WE CAN!¡± ¡°WELL, ALRIGHT!¡± A drone, likely Felix, unslung a large rifle from his back, awkwardly waddling towards the pair the best he could with the weight. ¡°Here you go.¡± Felix unceremoniously handed the massive sniper rifle to the pair, who nearly collapsed under its weight. ¡°What the hell is this thing!?¡± The first drone asked breathlessly. Sterl chuckled. ¡°It''s a sniper made specifically for drones, a .25mm rifle that weighs near over five-hundred pounds just from the amount of compressed tungsten used in its creation. It needs all that tungsten because the sheer recoil and force produced by the bullet firing would be enough to completely break apart any normal gun ¡®ssembly and its materials¡± Sterl ran a hand down its length. ¡°A single shot from this damned thing would lift a human almost a foot into the air, the recoil so immense that it would push a feller laying down a half a foot back as well. I even heard that soldiers in the human military would wear specially-made power armor just to wield this thing. Its magazine contains ¡®bout three shots, which you can fire in the same amount of seconds if yer fast enough, but each one weighs ¡®round fifty pounds due to the heaps of a rare variant of depleted nuclear fuel that was compressed into the shape of the bullet, all just to make this. Each bullet costs ¡®round two-million dollars to make, and the maintenance costs along after each pull of the trigger amounts to five-million with each magazine. It costs eleven-million bucks to fire this thing for three seconds.¡± ¡°I like to call it, ¡®The Big One¡¯.¡± Sterl finished. The pair of drones stared open-mouthed at Sterl, with even K walking over to hear the monologue. ¡°What?¡± K didn¡¯t seem to comprehend what was just said. ¡°Anyway, off you fellers go.¡± Sterl patted the first drone on the shoulder before walking off. The pair stood there without moving. Sterl turned back. ¡°What¡¯re you two doing, get up there!¡± The pair then quickly nodded in unison before scrambling in the direction they were meant to go, a task that was tremendously difficult due to the sheer weight of the force of nature that they were carrying. Eventually they managed to get to the top of the slope, but it took around five minutes. By that time their squad had wandered off down the path, and both drones were thoroughly tuckered out. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Who *huff* the hell *huff* designed this thing?¡± The first drone lay on the ground spread-eagled. ¡°I dunno.¡± The second drone was slumped over a rock with the sniper. ¡°Why¡¯re we even out of breath? We don¡¯t have lungs!¡± The first drone complained. ¡°Cool.¡± The second drone replied. ¡°Yeah . . . c¡¯mon, get up.¡± The first drone got to his feet. ¡°What?¡± The second drone questioned. ¡°Move over.¡± The first drone pushed the second drone aside without much protest. With a great deal of effort, the first drone adjusted the huge gun so that it was propped up by the rock and facing the general direction of the cabin door. ¡°Oh yeah . . . we have a job to do.¡± The second drone flipped onto his belly, taking a folded-up triangle of reflective camouflage from his belt pocket. ¡°Yeah, get that over me.¡± The first drone positioned himself so that he would be able to peek out from behind the rock and operate the gun without issue, with the second drone draping the shiny foil over his partner. The second drone then unclipped a box from his back, placing it down onto the ground next to himself. While he was huddled behind the rock, he extended an antenna from its base and pressed a few buttons. ¡°Man, I wish we had normal radios.¡± The first drone complained. ¡°Yeah well, the normal handheld radios aren¡¯t strong enough to penetrate through all these trees, not with snow covering them either.¡± The second drone patted the top of the box. ¡°These things are the smallest ones that are powerful to pierce through that we were able to scrounge up on short notice.¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, I know, I was in the same briefing as you, remember?¡± The first drone replied. ¡°I¡¯m just passing the time, alright Jim? It''s not like we have a TV or something like we did back at the facility.¡± The second drone fiddled with the buttons a little more. ¡°I miss the facility.¡± Jim stated. The second drone nodded. ¡°Yeah, me too. Shame that we had to evacuate for some reason.¡± You know, speaking of the facility, wanna know a rumor that I heard?¡± Jim slightly adjusted himself. ¡°Sure.¡± The second drone leaned closer to Jim. ¡°Well, I heard that those hunter drones didn¡¯t actually kill thousands of workers and soldiers.¡± Jim began. ¡°Ugh, not more conspiracy theory stuff.¡± The second drone rolled his eyes. ¡°Mag, hear me out, alright?¡± Jim pleaded. ¡°Fine.¡± Mag turned towards Jim again. ¡°Alright, I heard that the hunter drones only killed one or two hundred at most, and the rest of our men were actually left behind in the facility.¡± Jim explained. ¡°That''s not true.¡± Mag deadpanned. ¡°I said hear me out!¡± Jim hissed. ¡°Anyway, the guy I heard this from said that Command, specifically military, didn¡¯t want the description of the hunter drones getting out, so they took the relatively few that didn¡¯t yet have a first-hand image of the hunters and left the rest behind.¡± ¡°What!? That doesn¡¯t make sense on so many levels, why would the military higher-ups even care about the dissemination of the description of the hunter drones to begin with?¡± Mag questioned. Jim shrugged. ¡°The guy that told me all this said that our military leaders already knew classified information about the hunters beforehand, so they made sure to eliminate or otherwise silence those who had seen the hunters, since that information was special to them in some way.¡± ¡°Did this supposed whistleblower say why it was special?¡± Mag inquired. ¡°He said that he was working on it, and that he had a few contacts that were working in conjunction with some people on the inside.¡± Jim¡¯s eyes then lit up. ¡°Oh wait, get this! You know Felix and Sterl right?¡± ¡°Our squad leader and that other guy? Yeah, I know them.¡± Mag¡¯s eyebrows furrowed. ¡°Where are you going with this?¡± Jim¡¯s eyes strayed over to look at Mag. ¡°So basically, they were both on the trains.¡± ¡°What!?¡± Mag exclaimed. ¡°You mean the ones that got ambushed by the hunters?¡± ¡°Yeah, and they apparently both caught looks at the hunters as well, good ones too.¡± Jim explained. ¡°So why weren¡¯t they left behind or killed then?¡± Mag questioned. ¡°That''s the thing. Since everything but the front of the train was disconnected, Sterl and Felix were reported dead since they supposedly never reported back in with a higher up before we all left the facility. And since all the files and stuff got scrambled while we were leaving, the higher-ups didn¡¯t even know that they were alive until Sterl and Felix were both chosen to go on this little retrieval expedition. However, since they had already briefed us on our teammates and organized everything, they couldn¡¯t really kill them to keep them quiet. So, they gave Sterl secret orders to enter a secret lab that lay around this area. But if Sterl found out that they were trying to kill him, then that would be game over for them.¡± ¡°So, they ordered one of the Operatives-¡± ¡°What!? Now this is just unrealistic.¡± Mag exclaimed. ¡°Yeah, cool. Anyway, they ordered one of the Operatives to follow along with them and make sure that Sterl and Felix would die on this trip.¡± Jim finished with an ominous tone. ¡° . . . I dunno about that.¡± Mag finally said after a moment of silence. ¡°What!? Why!?¡± Jim exclaimed, still not looking at the cabin. ¡°It''s obviously a crackpot conspiracy theory that was cooked up by one of the sleep deprived boys on permanent patrol.¡± Mag stated. Jim scoffed, turning his eyes back to the cabin. ¡°Come on, don¡¯t you- WHAT THE HELL!?¡± Mag jumped at the sudden shout. ¡°What!? What is it!?¡± ¡°Look!¡± Jim pointed at the entrance to the cabin. Standing there was what looked like a normal worker drone, if one were to disregard the strange cloak that they were wrapped up in. Mag dove for the radio, frantically pressing buttons in an attempt to start the device up. After a few positive beeps, a light flickered to life. Mag put his mouth right next to the mic. ¡°Sir, we have a visual on a potential enemy contact!¡± Though the voice that came through wasn¡¯t Sterl, the response was immediate. ¡°What!? Describe it!¡± ¡°Long tattered cloak, face mask, bandanna, some sort of glovewear . . .¡± Mag continued as he heard the voice rattle off the descriptors to somebody else, likely Sterl. ¡°TAKE THE SHOT, NOW!¡± The voice yelled, panicked. Jim heard this, taking aim at the drone¡¯s head. However, just as he was about to pull the trigger, a massive explosion rang through the forest, followed by several more and what sounded like a few gunshots. ¡°What the hell is going on!?¡± Jim yelled, accidently squeezing the trigger too hard while his aim was off. Another massive boom echoed through the trees, this time coming from the handheld cannon. Jim was knocked onto his back by the sheer recoil, the gun flying off into the woods about five feet away from where it came from. Mag was hit in the face by the blast coming from the muzzle brake, his head spinning around in the other direction before it came to a stop by hitting the rock. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Jim¡¯s shaky voice came through the ringing. ¡° . . . yeah.¡± Mag groaned, rubbing his head. ¡°What about the target?¡± Jim looked down, trying to catch a glimpse of the target. He looked back towards Mag, nodding. Mag leaned back into the radio, which was frantically calling for a status update. ¡°Target down.¡± * * * Everything hurt. Ren lay on the ground, unmoving. She couldn¡¯t move her head, arms, or legs, at all. Her memory was fuzzy, too. Last thing she remembered was an explosion off in the distance, and then something obliterated her torso. Her thoughts had trouble putting together a narrative for her to follow. It was difficult enough trying to remember her own name, why even bother making sense of things? These strange colors, sounds, (smells?) didn¡¯t make sense, so why should she try and change that? Now THAT didn¡¯t make sense at all. She could feel something trying to pull her back together, but she wasn¡¯t really sure what it was thought it was doing. Hadn¡¯t she just said not to do that? Maybe she did, maybe she didn¡¯t she couldn¡¯t remember- Wait, what the hell was she doing? Everything came rushing back to her, her vision returning to sharp clarity. She had gotten shot! Who shot her, what caused those massive explosions, and how could she fix this? Suddenly, Ren heard the familiar crackling of a pair footsteps on snow, so she quickly played dead. She didn¡¯t want whoever had tried to assassinate her to know that they hadn¡¯t yet finished the job, as that would probably end in her getting killed for real this time. ¡°Damn, you really did a number on them, huh?¡± A voice said. ¡°I was aiming for the head, but I guess this works too.¡± A second voice replied, chuckling slightly. The first voice whistled. ¡°Look at that, their torso is pretty much gone, huh?¡± ¡°I mean, Sterl DID say that this gun was big.¡± The second voice appeared around her side this time instead of her feet. Ren took extra care to appear as dead as possible, not wanting to blow her temporary cover. A radio crackled. ¡°What''s the condition, boys?¡± ¡°Well Sterl, the torso has a hole blown through it, and they¡¯ve lost what looks like their entire supply of oil, so I¡¯d say that it''s a job well done.¡± A collection of whooping and cheers came through the radio. ¡°A job well done, fellers. That¡¯ll definitely qualify you two for a promotion, I reckon.¡± The third voice chuckled. ¡°Oh, nice!¡± The second voice exclaimed. ¡°We¡¯re gonna be heading back up there though, just to confirm it and bring it back to base once we¡¯ve found A.¡± The third voice, likely Sterl, said. ¡°So, you want us to store it in a cabin or something for safekeeping?¡± The first voice inquired. ¡°My thoughts exactly, boy.¡± Sterl said through the radio. ¡°Got it, sir.¡± The second voice replied. ¡°Alright Jim, help me move the body.¡± Ren, with her eyes closed, felt four hands pick her up and start moving her. ¡°Huh, much lighter than what I expected.¡± The first voice pondered aloud. ¡°Well, maybe the big hole in their chest could explain that.¡± The second voice suggested. ¡°Yeah, maybe.¡± Ren heard the footsteps turn from crunching snow to the clomp of wooden planks, with the sound of a door being shut being her and the duo. She felt herself being unceremoniously dumped down onto what was probably the aforementioned wooden planks, her arm stuck in an awkward position behind her back. ¡°You know, this does kinda give credence to what I was saying earlier.¡± The second voice broke the silence. The first voice groaned. ¡°Come on, don¡¯t start with that again.¡± ¡°Hear me out, alright? It''s a little suspicious that a cloaked drone with goggles came right out of the place that Sterl told us to watch, right?¡± The second voice reasoned. The first voice tutted. ¡°Listen, Sterl isn¡¯t getting hunted down by the Operatives, there isn¡¯t a big conspiracy to cover up knowledge of the disassembly drones and their dark secrets, you¡¯re just being paranoid.¡± ¡°It just makes sense! There are too many variables lining up for nothing to be going on!¡± The second voice exclaimed. ¡°Pssh, whatever. I¡¯m gonna go get the Big One, you stay here and watch the body.¡± The first voice stated. ¡°Why do I have to watch a dead body? It''s not like we have zombie drones or something stupid like that.¡± The second voice scoffed. ¡°Just giving you something to do, alright? And plus, knowing you, you would probably think that the dead body is gonna rise again as an undead or something, now stay here.¡± The sound of a door opening, then shutting, rang through the cabin, signaling the end of the conversation. For a moment, silence took hold of the small space. The second voice sighed. ¡°Well, looks like it''s just you and me, rapidly-cooling corpse.¡± Ren took offense to that. If she was a corpse, then she would¡¯ve made sure that she was someplace warm before she died so that a bunch of bugs could feast and annoy the people trying to retrieve her dead body. One last, ¡°Go to hell¡± to the world, she supposed. Ren heard the familiar sound of someone sitting down in a chair before the second voice sighed again. ¡°Now what, Jim?¡± The second voice murmured to himself. The sound of someone tapping their foot filled the relatively quiet air. ¡°It is suspicious, you know?¡± Jim said to hopefully nobody in particular. ¡°I see you- Probably talking to her, actually, considering how he pointed at her with those words. ¡°-walking out of the same cabin that Sterl told us to watch just in case someone tried to backstab him, we¡¯re armed to the teeth for a simple retrieval mission, and both disassembly drones were sent along as well.¡± Ren nearly opened her eyes in surprise. There were murder drones around the camp? Jim continued on. ¡°You know, maybe I was wrong before. The military command doesn¡¯t just have some shady secrets regarding JCJenson and the disassembly drones, they¡¯ve turned traitor! Yeah, that''s it, the military command was working in tandem with JCJenson before the core collapse, probably giving them intel on our asset as well. Hell, JCJenson probably created those hunter drones to kill us off to preserve the secrets!¡± As Jim ranted, Ren began to grow her own suspicions. While most of what Jim said was probably nonsense, there were some things that correlated with her own theories and conclusions. JCJenson had probably created the disassembly drones to kill off the worker drone populace, and she had theorized that Camp 98.7 was trading intel with another facility that didn¡¯t actually belong to the company, but she hadn¡¯t believed that at first. After all, what facility other than Cabin Fever Labs would be important to the unknown research being done at Camp 98.7? She knew that Cabin Fever Labs was practically located right on top of the camp, but she hadn¡¯t yet located it. But now that she knew of the existence of the military drones, she now knew that they seemed to have come from a facility that had likely housed Jacob before they had gone up to the surface for some reason (maybe to get him back?), and Jacob was the same person that survived being stabbed in the head, a pipe getting thrown through his gut, and hopefully a fall off of a tall cliff. If the conspiracy theory of the raving lunatic in front of her was at least somewhat telling the truth, then perhaps the facility that was allegedly trading info with the Cabin Fever Labs and/or Camp 98.7 was the same one that the military drones came out of. Suddenly, the door banged open, and the sounds of heavy footsteps came through. ¡°I . . . got . . . this . . .¡± The first voice sounded oddly strained. By the squeaking of the chair he was in, Jim probably got up. ¡°Uh, do you need help carrying that?¡± ¡°No, I doooo-waaaah!¡± The sound of a floorboard cracking and a heavy thump sounded right next to Ren¡¯s ear, followed by another thud. ¡°Hey, be careful with that! You nearly squashed the body Mag!¡± Jim exclaimed. ¡®Mag¡¯ scoffed. ¡°Calm down, it''s all fine, see? No pancaked bodies in sight.¡± ¡°Hmm, if you say so.¡± Jim begrudgingly said. ¡°Also, what''s a pancake?¡± ¡°Uh, I don¡¯t really know.¡± Mag sounded sheepish. ¡°Huh, okay.¡± The chair squeaked again, likely signaling Jim sitting back down. Ren ignored the rest of the conversation between the two military drones. It seemed that between Jim¡¯s ranting and Mag dropping whatever the hell he was carrying, they hadn¡¯t noticed her wound slowly patching itself back up. Ignoring the many downsides to having the Absolute Solver, Ren thanked Robo-God for giving her the program. Without it, she would¡¯ve been dead several times over from all the injuries she had sustained over her time alone. She slightly shifted her hand, making it so that the pair of drones couldn¡¯t see the holographic symbol that would pop up over it when she made her move. A slight and familiar whine filled the air, covered up by the loud talking of the two military drones. They continued on their merry debate about conspiracies, oblivious to the events literally happening right under their noses. Mag shook his head. ¡°Listen, they aren¡¯t- hey wait a second, you hear that?¡± Jim frowned. ¡°Wait, what is that? It sounds like its coming from the-¡± Both of the drone¡¯s eyes widened, whirling around to face Ren. However, they weren¡¯t met with a cold corpse on the ground, but rather a drone standing on their own two feet and a massive sniper rifle pointed at the two of them. Ren smiled. ¡°Hasta la vista, baby.¡± With a pull of the trigger, a thunderous roar filled the small cabin. The windows shattered from the blast happening indoors, the door slamming open. The various consoles that lined one of the walls exploded in a spray of sparks from a gust coming from the muzzle brake hitting them. The bullet smacked into Mag¡¯s head at what was nearly point-blank range, causing his entire head to pop like a balloon. However, from the way that she angled the gun, the bullet ended up going right through Mag and continuing onto Jim Jim faced a similar fate, and soon both military drones were laying on the ground, oil flowing freely from the now-severed necks. Ren let the rifle go, letting it crack another floorboard as she winced. That took a lot out of her, holding the rifle up in the air like that. It was a LOT heavier than it looked, and that was saying something when one considered how it was taller than her. The recoil was almost enough for it to shoot out of her grip and out of the cabin, but she managed to hold onto it. The radio then crackled again. ¡°Answer me now, what in tarnation was that!?¡± It was Sterl, the person from earlier. Ren calmly walked over to the radio, being careful not to expand the hole in her chest any further. Picking it up, she held it close to her mouth as she spoke. ¡°Hello there, Sterl.¡± She spoke as calmly and robotically as she could. ¡°Who in the hell is this!?¡± The drone barked out. ¡°Likely somebody important to you.¡± Ren cryptically answered. ¡°I seem to recall paying you and your compatriots a visit, maybe taking the life of an equally important organic being?¡± Sterl was silent for a moment before his voice growled through the speaker. ¡°You . . .¡± ¡°Yes, me.¡± Ren kept her voice flat. ¡°And to note a fact, the two drones that you ordered to terminate me have been terminated themselves.¡± No answer. ¡°One more fact, you shall be next.¡± With that, Ren smashed the radio into a ball with her powers. After a moment of silence, Ren couldn¡¯t help herself any longer. She giggled. She had always wanted to do that. While it was a bit more awkward and cringey in retrospect, it was also funny to her. It also served to both enrage ¡®Sterl¡¯ and scare him, hopefully causing him to make an irrational decision, like charging at her to try and kill her without any form of reinforcements. If disassembly drones were there though, then that would make things a bit more difficult. She believed that she would be able to take both down in the end, but in doing so she might attract unwanted attention. After all, she wasn¡¯t so stupid as to think that she was the only one with Absolute Solver that managed to retain her intelligence and also wasn¡¯t a murder drone. There were bound to be others like her out there, and not all were gonna be friendly. But, if push came to shove, she would do it anyway. After she managed to wring all the information out of this Sterl character (who she believed was in charge of the squad that had been sent to the camp) she would find Jacob, find out what the camp and the labs were hiding, then GTFO. Easy peasy. * * * ¡°Damnit!¡± Sterl threw the box-radio into the tree line. ¡°You probably shouldn¡¯t have done that, now we don¡¯t have a radio.¡± K¡¯s disapproving voice came from behind him. ¡°Shut it you!¡± Sterl shouted. GPS Guy and a few others walked up. ¡°Uh, sir? What now?¡± GPS Guy asked. Sterl sighed, running a hand down his helmet¡¯s visor. ¡°Let¡¯s go kill that motherfu-¡± ¡°Hey, hold it there, ¡®soldier¡¯.¡± K narrowed her eyes. ¡°You know what happened last time that thing went up against a force of fifty military drones and all three of my squad.¡± ¡°Of course I know, but if we don¡¯t kill that damned witch, then it''s just gonna pick off our entire force, and then go for the TOB next!¡± Sterl poked a finger into K¡¯s chest, which she grabbed. ¡°I¡¯m sure YOU remember what happened last time too!¡± ¡°I have a better memory than you, of course I remember.¡± K rolled her eyes. ¡°I¡¯m just saying that it''s trying to bait you into attacking so it can kill us all with ease.¡± ¡°Well then, I guess I¡¯ll show that witch who took on ten military drones with nuthin¡¯ but a mug then.¡± Sterl gave K one last glare before turning back to the rest of the soldiers. ¡°Alright boys! Rack the rockets and clean yer barrels, ¡®cause we¡¯re gonna go witch-hunting.¡± A cacophony of whoops, gunshots, and cheering filled the air. A moment afterward the sounds of stereotypical gun noise filled the air around them as the drones slotted bullets into magazines and slammed them into their rifles. One particular soldier unslung an RPG from his back, slotting a rocket into the receptacle. ¡°Idiots.¡± K muttered underneath her breath, shaking her head. ¡°We¡¯re screwed.¡± * * * ¡°Uuuuuuggh.¡± Jacob, stop complaining so goddamn much. ¡°But my-¡± Jacob was cut off by another bout of coughing. ¡°-head huuuurts.¡± Yeah cool, so do I despite my lack of a head to be in pain, but you don¡¯t see me whining and moaning about it so much, do you? ¡°You¡¯re literally a figment of my imagination, you can¡¯t talk.¡± Jacob replied evenly. Hey! I¡¯m as real as you, you know! ¡°Seeeeeerrious cap.¡± Jacob drawled. ?? Jacob blinked. ¡°Stop.¡± Okay, fine. Jacob trudged up the path, teetering from side-to-side as if he was about to topple over. I would¡¯ve made a joke about being a zombie, but foreshadowing can be a bit- ¡°What about foreshadowing?¡± Jacob interjected. Shut up, I¡¯m narrating here. Anyway, Jacob was in serious pain at the moment. His head was foggy, his eyes were bloodshot, and his limbs felt like they were both freezing and sloughing off at the same time. A constant jackhammer pounded in his head, cracking open his skull and letting his brains out to dry (not literally, of course). The fever had only gotten worse, with what was hopefully sweat pouring down his cheeks and pooling in the bottom of his helmet. Of course, the liquid had frozen by now, which only added to the discomfort of having dried . . . something . . . on your skin without being able to scratch it. By this point he had made it up almost to where the various gunshots and explosions were coming from. He still wasn¡¯t really sure about going towards the sounds of violent battle, but he hoped that it would pay off in the end. Who knows, maybe he would find Ren there, and then they could team up again to finally do what he had come here to do. ¡°Wait, what did I come here to do in the first place again?¡± Jacob murmured. Did you seriously forget? ¡° . . .yeah.¡± He said sheepishly. To an outside observer it would look like Jacob was clinically insane with the way he was talking to himself, but of course I knew better. Jacob wasn¡¯t insane, he was just stupid! ¡°Not funny, didn¡¯t laugh.¡± Jacob squinted, trying to see farther ahead of himself. I know, I¡¯m sorry. He grinned. ¡°Average AI conversation.¡± Shut up. ¡°You never answered my question.¡± Jacob said, changing the subject. You came here to investigate stuff. ¡°Oh yeah, that, just like Amon-¡± Like L.A. Noire, right? ¡°Uh, sure.¡± Ignoring the close-call, Jacob¡¯s mind drifted towards the reason why he came here. After all, he was sure that the underlying mystery that he had been slowly piecing together was at least related to the place where he currently was. Something had been going on here, something linked to him and the strange experiments that were going on with him and the Absolute Solver. ¡°That IS what was happening, right?¡± Jacob inquired. ¡°The weird Absolute Solver thing being experimented on in tandem with me?¡± It makes the most sense, but I guess you never know. ¡°Cool. Also, what is that?¡± Jacob pointed at the scene in front of himself as he crested the hill- what the hell? * * * Ren grunted in exertion as she did another acrobatic flip over a rocket. Things were going poorly for her, at the moment. The fight had started a few minutes ago when she had been sitting comfortably in her spinny-chair, getting continuously dizzy as she spun and spun and spun. Unfortunately, that had all changed when a missile blasted the cabin to shreds, leaving only her and the spinny-chair amidst the flaming wreckage. Standing outside to meet her was a small army of those military drones wielding assault rifles, machine guns, probably grenades, a few rocket launchers, and a partridge in a pear tree, all surrounding the place where the cabin formerly stood. To make matters worse, a disassembly drone hovered in the air, confirming her suspicions of an unlikely team-up between the murderous machines and the military drones. Each and every single weapon had been pointed directly at her, all of them drawing perfect beads on all the fragile bits, like her head. And then the shooting started. Bullets, rockets, and lasers galore flew at breakneck speeds towards her, forcing her to get serious for the second time in the past couple of days. It was fairly worrying how much she was putting her life on the line, but there wasn¡¯t much she could do about it at the moment. Kicking off the chair, she had spun a 180¡ã midair, dodging almost every single projectile that had been fired at her with the sole exception of a bullet grazing the side of her facial monitor. She had yanked a jagged floorboard up from the wreckage, sending it hurtling over to impale a military drone into a nearby tree. However, when she attempted to simply pop the heads of every aggressor, save for the single murder drone, that was when a figure flew at her. The disassembly drone had sliced at her midsection, nearly bisecting her before pulling away. It had forced her to dodge and lose her concentration, which was when a storm of bullets were sent her way. Luckily a shield sprung up just in time to block the projectiles, but it was weak and her concentration shattered a moment later when the unnamed disassembly dove at her again. This cycle continued for longer than she was comfortable with. The murder drone would slash at her, she would dodge, a few bullets or rockets would fly at her, she would block them, but whenever she tried to retaliate or keep up a constant defense, the disassembly drone would attack her to restart the loop again, letting it continue to the present. Ren knew that she couldn¡¯t keep this up forever. She was only one person with a limited supply of strength and willpower, while the opposing side had much more people than her, along with her worst enemy; a competent leader. She saw what was likely to be Sterl directing the military drones, telling them when to fire and when to duck for cover. He gave hand signals to the murder drone (though it seemed to be a bit difficult for him considering how he only had a single arm) to tell them when they should dive at her. Ren was at every disadvantage here. They had more people, good coordination, proper weaponry, and they had caught her by surprise. That last one was something she definitely hadn¡¯t been expecting, by the way. While she had hoped that the soldiers were going to come and attack her, she had thought that they would take a bit longer than just a few minutes. And plus, how could anyone expect the building that she was in to be BLOWN APART!? Her concentration wavered again, and she took a cut to her leg in consequence. A grimace spread across her face. She didn¡¯t have long before she made a disastrously fatal slip-up that would end her once-and-for-all. If her attackers were paranoid enough, they could make sure that she had nothing large enough to regenerate from after they dumped her remains somewhere. After all, she was virtually immortal, not literally immortal. Ren couldn¡¯t run, either. The military drones had made sure to surround her from all sides, leaving no room for escape. It was a trap that she had idiotically fallen into, one of her own making in fact. She only saw two possibilities at the moment; one where they got bored, or the one where she was brutally murdered by soldiers. She dodged another slash from the disassembly drone, panting heavily. She didn¡¯t waste the effort on trying to impale the genocide robot with a sharp plan because she knew that it would be futile in the end, and she wanted to conserve her energy for a potential miracle- Ren noticed something out of the corner of her eye, a figure just standing at the mouth of the clearing. This was common, of course, as the military drones were scattered all over the place. However, the figure struck a chord at the back of her mind. The same dented matte-black armor, cracked and bloody visor, slightly hunched over for some reason (he wasn¡¯t always hunched over like that, right?), and . . . wings? She blinked, making sure that her vision was right. Blocking another flurry of bullets and a rocket, she managed to turn herself around to face the figure. Yep, it was Jacob. With wings. WIngs that were notably crooked and bent at several odd angles. She meant, if you were going to have wings, then you should probably make sure that they weren¡¯t broken and stuff, right? They looked like an odd combo of flesh and metal, conjoined together to make something new. The ¡®feathers¡¯ were made out of the same black plating that Jacob¡¯s armor was made out of, with ropes of organic material connecting them to the bone(?) that stretched from his shoulder blades and lay bent on the ground. Ren dodged another attack from the disassembly drone, nearly getting her head sliced in two. While Jacob¡¯s presence was cool and all, she needed to concentrate on surviving, however, crazy it may seem. After all, she had been looking all over the place for him, and now she was just gonna brush him aside? Well, what would she do? He probably wasn¡¯t gonna help her, considering how neutral he seemed to be. Even if he did step in, there wasn¡¯t much he could do with the sole pistol that he had against a murder drone and what looked like twenty military drones. That meant no help from him (which wouldn¡¯t have been effective anyway) and her situation continued. She didn¡¯t know when the surprisingly imperceptive soldiers were going to notice the human just standing there, looking awkward, but it was hopefully soon. She wanted to see Jacob get gunned down or captured before she died, damnit. Stupid kid led her on a massive robot-goose chase all around the camp, which got her killed. Of course she wanted petty revenge! In short, she was screwed. * * * Jacob stood there, like do something already man! ¡°Shut up.¡± Jacob muttered under his breath. Somehow, the military drones, K, or Ren hadn¡¯t noticed him yet. Maybe it was because they were all fighting each other, but who even knows these days? A group of maybe twenty military drones lay scattered all around the smoking remains of what likely used to be a cabin. K flew in the air, patiently waiting for opportune moments to strike. Speaking of, the soldiers were all in a haphazard circle surrounding Ren, opening fire at her whenever a specific drone gave the order, likely the leader of this whole operation. Even Jacob, who was severely inexperienced in the arts of warfare and tactics, knew that Ren was in a bad spot. He didn¡¯t know how long she could use her weird telekinesis powers and to what extent, but it seemed like she had nearly reached her limit. While she was blocking bullets and the occasional rocket that came her way, she was hardly retaliating at all. She only did impressive acrobatic swirls and flips in the air to dodge (which was probably unnecessarily energy extensive) and avoided getting poked by K. I bet ten bucks that she only lasts five more minutes, tops. ¡°Hey, don¡¯t gamble on stuff like that!¡± Jacob took on a mock-horrified tone. ¡°Bet on fights between diseased orphans, like a normal multi-billionaire.¡± Suddenly, Ren turned around midair, landing to face Jacob. She stared right at him for a moment, her goggles and bandanna making her face into an unfeeling visage. However, she went back to dodging and weaving after she nearly got killed, again. So like, should we help her? Jacob shrugged. ¡°Uh, I guess?¡± You don¡¯t sound too sure. ¡°Well- wait, I have an idea!¡± Jacob stood up taller, cupping his hands around his visor in a cylinder. ¡°I NEED MORE BOOLETS!¡± Everybody froze. ¡°Who said that!¡± The leader looked around, his gaze sweeping the area. ¡°Which one of y¡¯all-¡± The military drone cut himself as his eyes landed on Jacob, who gave a meek little wave. A few other soldiers followed their leader¡¯s gaze, also seeing Jacob. A few of them had recognition dawn on their monitors, while most (including their leader) seemingly remained confused. However, a certain drone had the most notable reaction of them all. ¡°WHA- WHAT!? HOW!?¡± K sputtered, taking her full attention off of Ren. ¡°HOW IN THE HELL ARE YOU ALIVE!?¡± At that moment it seemed that the rest of the military drones put two and two together, judging by their surprised murmurs. The leader pointed at Jacob, almost in slow-motion. ¡°GET HIM!¡± Jacob blinked. ¡°Huh, deja-¡± * * * ¡°-vu.¡± I finish, a grin spreading across my face. Finally, I was back in control. The switches seemed random, but I didn¡¯t have a big enough data set to go off of to make that assumption fully yet. I needed to find a way to access the interface again fast, or else I was gonna be stuck as a voice in a schizo¡¯s head for . . . half of the rest of my hopefully long life? Was it split half-and-half? I didn¡¯t know, and I didn¡¯t have the time to find out, considering my current situation. The various military drones had varying reactions to their leader¡¯s proclamation. Some followed through with the order, beginning a fast-paced charge towards me, while a few others just froze due to indecision. A rare couple also completely ignored the order, continuing to fire at Ren with gusto. I rolled my eyes. Luckily the advancing military drones were moving at what seemed like a snail¡¯s pace, so that meant [DIRECTIVE - OVERCLOCKED PROCESSOR] was still able to be activated when it needed to, despite my current inability to access the interface. I really hoped that I would be able to figure that out soon since I kinda need that to complete my nefarious plans, but I guess we¡¯ll see. Cracking my neck, I launched myself forwards at the closest drone with as much speed as I could muster. My armor would hopefully deflect at least a few of the bullets that were sure to come once the soldiers realized that they were facing an enemy, but I wasn¡¯t going to put my potential victory on the line for that gamble. Instead, I was gonna rely on good old shock-and-awe tactics, as that would sow confusion among the ranks of the military drones when they realized that a supposed friendly was attacking them. The military drone likely only saw a blur before he was tossed into two other drones behind him, causing all three to tumble to the ground in a heap. I leapt over the pile, crashing into a fourth military drone. This time I yanked my pistol out of my holster and jammed it under her chin, pulling the trigger and watching the visor of her helmet get caked with oil. It was at that moment when the soldiers stopped their reckless charge towards him, confusion evident on their holographic displays. I didn¡¯t give them a moment of respite, however, as I grabbed the rifle that the dead military drone had dropped from the ground, lifting it up with one hand. I pressed down on the trigger, aiming at the body of the farthest soldier. I aimed at the one farthest away because they would be the ones to start sniping at me once they caught onto the fact that I was crashing through them. With the enhanced strength of the exosuit (though I was sure that the motors had been integrated into my body by the program at this point) I managed to keep the recoil to a minimum, scything down my target and even a bonus one that I emptied the rest of the magazine into. The leader had fully realized what was going on at this point, considering how the fog of confusion in his eyes was replaced by alertness, surprise, and panic. ¡°BACKWARDS!¡± The leader brought his pistol up to bear. ¡°RIFLES UP AND READY!¡± The military drones seemed to be jarred out of the fugue state that they had been in by the barking of orders, stumbling backwards and aiming in my general direction. Of course, I wasn¡¯t done yet. Taking a step backwards myself, I quickly yanked the heads of the two dazed soldiers off of their bodies, holding one in each hand. I also crushed the head of the first drone I had thrown to be thorough. ¡°Kobe!¡± I yelled out, sending one shooting towards the one I had labeled in charge. The ball-like head comically knocked into the drone, who had been preparing to give the order to fire. He toppled backwards, pinwheeling his arms as he fell. I quickly wound up my other arm, sending the second head hurtling towards the farthest drone yet again. This time it impacted his helmet¡¯s visor with enough force to shatter the glass. Seeing my opportunity, I brought my pistol up again and drew a bead on the drone¡¯s face and pulled the trigger. That would make about seven down so far, with eleven (and one disassembly drone) left to go. By now the [DIRECTIVE - OVERCLOCKED PROCESSOR] was starting to run dry, the world getting visibly faster as my perception and thoughts slowed down. I cursed at myself. It was supposed to last longer than this, but maybe the strain from the events earlier had hindered it a little. Speaking of, the boiling fever came back with a vengeance and -what the hell? ¡°Oh hey, I was wondering when you were gonna say something.¡± I said, because why now of all times! As soon as we¡¯re about to get in a battle you take over! I bet that this was intentional! ¡°Mind being quiet? I¡¯m trying to sleep over here.¡± I roll my neck, turning my head towards the person that I had just saved. Ren had been floating in the air in the middle of dodging an attack from K when I overclocked, so she had been left like that for the duration of it. However, now that it was wearing off, she touched on the ground gracefully, taking a good look at her surroundings. She seemed surprised to see the multiple dead bodies laying around, and what did you expect, lady? That the voice in my head telling me to do bad things would¡¯ve left you to die when you¡¯re so clearly near-and-dear to me? ¡°Being snarky, are we?¡± I mutter under my breath. When her eyes meet mine I nod, seeing her nod back in return after a moment of uncertainty. Hopefully she wouldn¡¯t try and kill me after this was all and over with, but you never know these days. Ren quickly blocked a missile coming from K (who somehow hadn¡¯t seen the commotion around her yet) and I took that as my cue to act. The leader had gotten back up by this point, raising his sole hand in the air as he opened his mouth to bark another order. However, that was quickly rendered moot by my next action. Through a tremendous amount of pain and effort, I flexed the muscles of my newfound wings. While they were still broken and dislocated, the right one managed to get into relatively good working shape after I had twisted it enough to relocate it. I dove towards the squad leader, turning slightly in the air to allow my right wing access to him. The drone¡¯s eyes widened as a sharp spike on the end of the central shaft impaled him in what would¡¯ve been his stomach if he wasn¡¯t robotic. He was lifted up into the air and tossed at a particularly close grouping of about four drones, sending them all tumbling to the ground in a move reminiscent of my opening one. It was then that the first few bullets were fired, the rapid concussive bangs ringing out through the clearing. Instinctively I dodged, but that didn¡¯t stop three projectiles from slamming into my chest. They managed to pierce my armor but strangely seemed to stop after that, the sensation of them coming to an almost complete stop oddly jarring and distracting. I shook myself out of the stupor I was in, dashing to the side to avoid the red lasers seeking to draw a bead home on vital areas. I wasn¡¯t going to focus on strange occurrences that helped me in a fight no matter the circumstances, and that was a complete lie you know. ¡°Shut up! You¡¯re distracting me!¡± I yelled through gritted teeth as I gripped the closest soldier in my arms and twisted his head all the way around. Ten to go. Ren seemed to hear my outburst, her frown seeking me out while she did a triple-somersault uh, I dunno how to describe that, like, she just did about five flips, a spin, kicked off of K¡¯s head, starfished midair, and then- ¡°What did I just say!?¡± I hissed, charging towards a drone to my right that was fumbling to slam another magazine into his gun. However, I myself was slammed into by a figure diving into my midsection. While no breath was forced out of me (wait a second, you aren¡¯t even breathing, Voice-In-My-Head!) I WAS lifted up into the air by none other than K. ¡°I knew I had a bad feeling about you.¡± K¡¯s merciless holographic eyes met my hidden ones, before she raised a sword level with my neck to slice through it. Luckily, a plank knocked into K¡¯s head at the last second. The disassembly drone blinked, turning her head to the right just in time to see Ren¡¯s foot coming down. Ren kicked K with so much force that the CRT monitor that displayed her eyes shattered, oil leaking out of the cracks in the display. Me and Ren land on the ground, along with the limp body of K. I grin. ¡°Saved by the bell.¡± Will you shut up with the cringe Marvel dialogue? I roll my eyes. ¡°Listen, I¡¯m just trying it out a little, you know?¡± Ren frowned. ¡°Uh, are you talking to me?¡± ¡°Nah, not you.¡± I shake my head. ¡°Just the voices in my head.¡± Ren¡¯s face clouds with confusion and questions, but she seems to ultimately not address any of them. Instead, she turned towards the remaining military drones, which also included the leader that I had impaled earlier. He must¡¯ve not been too injured by the wound, as he was up and standing when I turned to look. ¡°So like, do we just . . .¡± I trailed off. Ren rolled her eyes. ¡°Of course we¡¯re gonna kill them, they tried to assassinate me for Robo-Christ¡¯s sake!¡± ¡°Wait, really?¡± I blink in surprise. ¡°The new Hitman 4 isn¡¯t really looking so familiar-¡± I was interrupted by groaning from behind me and Ren. Turning towards the noise, we both see K shakily rising from the ground, clutching her rapidly-healing face. I frantically look around for a weapon, checking the rubble beneath my feet. Luckily, what looks like a- hole, what in the actual hell! That¡¯s the biggest sniper rifle I¡¯ve ever seen! But then again, I haven¡¯t really seen too many sniper rifles, but- ¡°I SAID STOP TALKING!¡± I shout in frustration, drawing the attention of everybody. Expressions ranged from confused, to worried, to disgusted, as I looked around. I don¡¯t address it however, instead yanking the gun up from the ground and pointing the business end right at K. Or at least I tried. It was much easier said than done when one considered just how stupidly heavy the damn thing was. It was like lifting a boulder twenty times my size, for Christ¡¯s sake! But, wouldn¡¯t it be Robo-Christ or something, like what the drones say? I mean, you¡¯re just a voice in my head, but- oh yeah, I should probably let you focus. Her eyes went wide, and her hand retracted into its wrist, being replaced by what I recognized as a rocket launcher of some kind. I glanced at Ren out of the corner of my eye, surprised to see her warily watching the massive rifle in my hands. However, I didn¡¯t let myself get distracted, instead proceeding to aim down the sights so that I had a clear point-blank shot that would hit home no matter what. I began to pull down on the trigger, the world seeming like it was moving in slow-motion, as if time itself was moving through molasses. But then the ground in front of me shattered. Like a meteor from the heavens, a humanoid figure slammed down into the earth right between me and K, sending a shockwave through the ice and snow. I flew backwards about five feet, the big rifle flying out of my hands and landing parallel to me. K experienced a similar fate, getting sent tumbling to the ground about seven or so feet from where she had started. I rubbed my visor, trying to clear the snow and slush that had become stuck to it from my impromptu meeting with D I R T. Once my vision cleared enough, I looked up to see who had caused the impact. ¡°Whew, now THAT was an experience.¡± X brushed off his clothes. ¡°Lemme tell you something, no matter what Master Chief and Loudward may tell you, the moon is NOT made out of cheese, that¡¯s just crazy! And if you don¡¯t believe me, then just know that I spoke with the Space Core and he confirmed it, so suck on that OSHA- oh, what¡¯s going on here?¡± The various military drones, having raised their weapons out of shock, lowered them slightly upon seeing X standing there in the middle of a crater. K sat up. ¡°Where the hell have you been!?¡± X shrugged. ¡°Here and there, I¡¯m pretty sure that I got hired by Freddy Fazbear himself too-¡± ¡°NO TIME FOR JOKES!¡± K shouted. ¡°Half the team is dead, that witch is back, and the human is somehow not dead!¡± X froze at the mention of the supposed ¡®witch¡¯. ¡°What?¡± K rolled her eyes. ¡°Yes, you moron! That drone on the ground there, right in front of you!¡± X looked between me and Ren, seemingly confused. ¡° . . . which one?¡± X asked, turning back to K. ¡°Oh for the love of Robo-God!¡± K collapsed back onto the ground in defeat. X then turned back towards myself and Ren, his gaze zeroing in on Ren. His expression changed from a goofy and dimwitted smile, to a serious and emotionless visage. However, he seemed to be at conflict with himself, murmuring under his breath an argument that I could only catch snippets of. His fingers curled up into a fist then relaxed, his eyes never leaving Ren¡¯s form, who was currently laying frozen on the ground. Suddenly, like a hawk, X¡¯s head turned straight to me, leaving me in a similar state of frozen panic. Fight-or-flight warred for dominance while the disassembly drone in front of me deliberated with himself over a topic that only he knew. I wanted to try and subtly reach for the rifle at my side, but X seemed ready to pounce at any sudden movement, so the choice was left unchosen. The scattered and injured military drones also didn¡¯t seem to know what to do, some lowering their rifles after their guard was also sufficiently lowered to allow such a thing. However, their leader didn¡¯t seem to have the same problem. ¡°So,¡± The armless soldier with a southern twang walked up. ¡°Whaddya plan to do with these ne¡¯er-do-wellers?¡± X raised his head, a grin spreading across his face. ¡°Why, a cool and totally not cliche team-up of course!¡± The soldier seemed caught off-guard by this. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Yeah, I get it, ¡®Oh, but these guys got them fake J¡¯s!¡¯. Well, do I have some news for you!¡± X pulled a spinny-chair out from behind his back, sitting down on it. ¡°While I was applying for a security role at a certain pizza establishment, I had to come back here to go to the bathroom! Yes, I sadly ate some Space Tacobell on the way to my interview, very sad, boo-womp. However, while I was killing a few of those kids that climbed up the walls of the crusty stall I was in, I just so happened to stumble upon Indiana Jones exploring his new find! I of course had to join in to show how much better I was than him at exploring, but I found something really weird.¡± ¡°The underground secret facility, that I also confirmed with the Space Core to not be Area 69, had some really, even WEIRDER, stuff in it! Indiana Jones died that day, but only because I closed the door on him while SCP-049 was chasing him. I ended up dying anyway after MTF spawned, but that¡¯s not the point, because I clearly live! Hooray!¡± X jumped up in joy around two hundred feet into the air. ¡°Yeah, some Harry Potter and weird eldritch thingies were down there, so I decided, in my utmost and impeccable intelligence, that we should team up with these two American heroes to take down the Na- I mean, the Harry Potter eldritch abominations!¡± X finished with a flourishing bow, his head smacking against the packed dirt beneath him. Everybody stared at him. X looked back and forth between all the drones (and one human) present. ¡°What!? What did I dooooooooo!?¡± * * * E1 was waiting in a nondescript location for his contact. The drone had been unusually late, but that was likely due to the sudden meeting that the lower officers had called to address some vague concerns that were making the rounds through the men. The Informant had also called for an emergency meet-up right before, which was why E1 was here directly in-person. ¡°Psst, hey.¡± A voice whispered from behind. ¡°Informant.¡± Turning around, E1 dipped his head in greeting. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m here.¡± The Informant looked back and forth. ¡°Listen, I need to get straight to the point.¡± E1 raised a holographic eyebrow. ¡°Then get on with it.¡± The Informant shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t say anything, I¡¯m pretty sure that they have me bugged.¡± E1 quickly did a cursory scan of the Informant¡¯s outer armor, hoping to determine the veracity of the drone¡¯s statement.. Sure enough, a tiny mite-sized device lay between the elbow plates on his arm. However, judging by the signals it was throwing off, it was turned on but dormant. That design had an extremely small battery size, so the human engineers had devised a way to keep it operational by making it listen for a specific word. Upon hearing the word or phrase, the bug would become active, listening in on every word and transmitting what it heard back to its controller. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I have an info packet, physical hard drive too for extra security.¡± The Informant assured, taking out a small hard drive from a pouch. E1 took the drive without saying a word, keeping a solid grip on it. ¡°I¡¯ll just head off now, if that¡¯s fine.¡± The Informant began to back away slowly as he said this. E1 considered killing the man. It was clear that Command knew that at least something suspicious was afoot, and he wasn¡¯t sure if he could let this clear security risk get away. At best, Command had heard an off-hand statement from the Informant and wanted to make sure that he wasn¡¯t spilling any secrets. However, in the worst case, Command completely knew that E1 and his remaining team of Operatives were planning a coup, and they wanted to know what his plans were. However, if that last scenario WAS the case, then they wouldn¡¯t just slap a bug onto an informant and call it a day. They themselves knew of E1¡¯s capabilities to easily detect any spyware, so if they had known that E1 was involved, then they wouldn¡¯t have done that. No, the more likely case was the former. Even if it was someplace in between the two, it would only raise suspicions if the whistleblower turned up dead in a random alley. And so, E1 watched the Informant speed-walk away, sighing slightly. He turned over the hard drive in his hand, noting the serial code on it that designated it as classified information. It was a bit stupid of the Informant to place the information on a hard drive that could so easily be tracked, but it wasn¡¯t like they had any other choices. Without further ado, E1 plugged the hard drive into the receptacle on the back of his neck. He put his back against the side of a tent as the download began. He wasn¡¯t necessarily sure what the Informant had been so excited about, but it better be worth his time, or else- E1¡¯s thoughts froze in their tracks. His hand wavered from the things that were flashing in his head at that very moment. He had known of the facility¡¯s past dealings with JCJenson, but he didn¡¯t know that it went back so far! Months, years, decades, centuries, the sheer records of data exchanges cut off around the 2561 mark. The Asset had been alive for a lot longer than everyone else had previously assumed, likely being the oldest human in existence at this, or at least he was. The experiments, the properties, what JCJenson had been specifically working towards at the Cabin Fever Labs, it was all here. The previous documents and files that he had gotten from E9 had expanded his knowledge of the Absolute Solver, but the mystery had been practically solved for him. New articles, government reports, secret investigations, military actions, and so many more. They were all right here. Cyn, a massacre at a gala, by Robo-God, what happened to Earth!? E1 wasn¡¯t even sure if he had a government to answer to anymore. For the first time in his life, E1 shook his fear. He had gotten involved in something that transcended systems, that put the very fabric of the universe on the line. By all means, he was screwed. * * * ¡°So, what was that about earlier?¡± Jacob looked up from the ground. He had been chilling at the edge of the pit that X had led them all to, waiting for the arguing around the military drones to stop. Ren seemed to have joined him at some point, though she was still standing. ¡°What was what about?¡± Jacob asked. Ren shrugged. ¡°You know, the supposed ¡®voices in your head¡¯?¡± At some point during the walk to the large towering metal poles, Jacob¡¯s little hitchhiker had been kicked out of office, with Jacob being restored as the ¡¯rightful¡¯ leader, which I still disagree with, you know! Jacob blinked. ¡°Oh yeah, uh, the tumor-thingy I guess.¡± It was Ren¡¯s turn to blink. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Yeah, the tumor supposedly spawned a separate person that is basically the same as me, but different, you get it?¡± Jacob explained. ¡°That¡¯s what he told me, at least. I wouldn¡¯t worry too much about it.¡± Ren frowned. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that I should be worried if my investment is hearing voices in his head, especially if he tried to kill himself because of it.¡± Jacob waved a hand, leaning backwards. ¡°Pfffft, I didn¡¯t kill myself, that was the other guy! He likes to hijack the controls sometimes, you know? Kinda like somebody from the Middle Eas-¡± ¡°Wait wait wait, it can take control of your body!?¡± Ren exclaimed. ¡°Nevermind, I wanna know more!¡± Jacob raised an eyebrow, though he doubted that Ren could see it. ¡°Oh yeah, I forgot that you¡¯re a cringe mad scientist. Doctor Doofenshmirtz did it better, you know?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t call me cringe, and besides, it¡¯s for my research! For the betterment of me, myself, and I! Or something like that.¡± Ren sat down beside Jacob. Jacob met Ren¡¯s eyes. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure the Nazis said the same thing.¡± Ren frowned. ¡°What¡¯re the Nazis?¡± Jacob shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Ren looked back out into the dark pit. ¡°So, whaddya think is gonna happen next?¡± ¡°If we go down there, or just in general?¡± Jacob inquired. ¡°Both, I guess.¡± Ren answered. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really know.¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°But considering recent events, I do know at least one thing for sure.¡± ¡°And what would that be?¡± Ren questioned. Jacob turned back towards Ren. ¡°We are definitely screwed.¡± * * * [Announcement] - Act Nine Update Murder Drones (Coming Spring 2024) So yeah, for all of those who''ve seen the recent stream from GLITCH will probably already know this, but if not then listen on. In the GLITCHX livestream, it was announced that Murder Drones was going to be continued in Spring 2024, or at least it was implied. While they could''ve been referring to the final episode coming in Spring 2024, I doubt it. Sadly, this means that I''m going have to postpone writing Act Nine until then, which is as frustrating to me as it is to those who, well, are frustrated about that I guess. I was personally looking forward to continuing this little fiction, but I can''t reasonably do that now without there being a very high chance of me getting some of the events or lore wrong that would be able to tie into the main timeline. As I think I''ve said before, I want this fiction to be able to be inserted into the central MDCU (Murder Drones Connected Universe) without much issue. Maybe a good example would be Entropy: Zero for those of you who''ve heard of that Half-Life mod. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. If I get really bored, I might try and rewrite the first act (since I personally believe that first one to be, to put it nicely, the worst piece of serious literature that I have ever written. Like goddamn, even the stuff I wrote in 3rd grade is better than that, and that''s not even an exaggeration!) but I''m not sure. I wrote this fiction for Murder Drones, and I have a feeling that I would get pretty burnt out fast trying to write about something that wasn''t technically about Murder Drones at all. But, I digress. To summarize, no more acts until the next MD episode comes out, I MIGHT rewrite the first act, I''m still waiting for the day that another good fanmade thing about MD pops up somewhere that is at least on par with this (not to brag, but I think VERY highly of my own work. Like come on, out of all the fan-fictions that have surfaced on the subreddit, I''m fairly sure I''m in at least the top ten [not that they know it] which really makes me wish that people paid more attention to books on there more than comics and such). While you''re waiting, I''m sure that you can find THIS to be more than enough to pass the time: [Second Announcement] New Chapter Labels, Slight Edits, and a New Place to Find the Book! Hey there again, its me. Yeah, bet ya forgot about me, eh? I''m just checking in to remind you all that the fanfic is not being discontinued, (just on hiatus until the next episodes of the show come out) and also to notify the few hundred people (surprisingly a lot, or maybe its just the same ten or so people re-reading this multiple times) of a few more changes that are coming, mostly quality-of-life. Firstly, I have finally decided to re-name the "acts" to "episodes", like I should''ve done from the get-go. The original reason why I didn''t do that was because I didn''t want anybody to get confused with me referring to Episode One, like Episode One of the fiction or the show? But, its a much better label in my opinion, since I did technically design the book to have an episodic structure. The actual names of the "chapters" aren''t gonna be changing, its just all gonna be called episodes from now on. Secondly, I decided to re-write half of the first episode, mostly because the poor writing quality and just general feel of the episode always bothered me. I dunno about anybody else, but it just felt off to me, like it was more informative and lacked a smooth and "soul-y" feel to it. There are some parts kept in from the original episode (I''m still lazy after all lol) but I hope its better now. Leave a comment if you don''t like it I guess? I''ll also be putting the revised version of the first episode as the first chapter, while putting the old version second. I could remove either the new one or the old one if anyone cares to let me know in the future, so thats the way its gonna be for now. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Hey, even-more-future-me here, I just accidentally deleted the old version of the first episode without copying it down. I COULD go through some older versions of the file to get it, but I''m lazy. If you care about it, leave me a comment complaining about how you want it so badly. Finally, I have finally decided to delve into the mosh-pit of shipping, erotica, self-inserts, and cringey romance novels that is called Archive of our Own. Yes, my reputation as the Best Person in the Bajillionverse could get ruined if anyone found out that I was getting an Ao3 account, but thats a problem for me to worry about. Also, I''d like to retract my statement that I have the best fanfic (written in words that is) in the MD community. I have found this one that, while it hasn''t been going on for as long or is as physically long as mine, is indeed quite good. It just has that feel to it that makes me want more, the same feel that the original show had. Again, I dunno if anyone feels that way about MY fiction, but its appreciated if anyone does I guess? Anyway, my account will get an invite on the 1st of March (EST, because I''m red, white, and blue-blooded, god-blessed, heart-striving American citizen and not a filthy [INSERT ANY NATION THAT ISN''T THE USA HERE]), so expect the fiction to pop up sometime during or after that date. Also, while the new version of the second chapter will be uploaded here, the other edits to all the other episodes (which are kinda integral to the story, and some things won''t make sense if you don''t read the slight edits across all episodes) will be uploaded to Ao3, so go there if you want the full, modern experience. Thats about all I have to say for the time being. Sorry for the long wait, again, but I can''t really do anything about the upload schedule of a animation studio all the way across the world (not that I want them to rush it) so cya, I guess. Episode Nine - The Dark Descent, Part One - Virtual Insanity ¡°This is insane. Wait, no, YOU¡¯RE insane!¡± E1 folded his arms across his chest plate, glaring at Damina. ¡°Well, it''s the truth, what else do you want me to say?¡± She scoffed, shooting a glance at Felix who was standing awkwardly off to the side. ¡°Why would I have any reason to lie in the first place?¡± E1 continued. ¡°It''s not like I had to tell you this in the first place.¡± Damina suddenly looked up at E1, frowning. ¡°Yeah, actually, why would you tell us this? There¡¯s literally no reason for us to know this- I mean, in the hypothetical scenario where it IS true.¡± E1 rolled his eyes. ¡°Well pardon me for wanting to be a bit more considerate to my partners-in-crime, but-¡± ¡°Oh, so we¡¯re partners now!?¡± Damina shot to her feet, fixing E1 with an angry look. ¡°Considering how you basically blackmailed us into accepting your offer, I thought we were just tools!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so dramatic, it wasn¡¯t like that.¡± E1 flicked a glance at Felix, who seemed like he wanted to speak up. ¡°You got something to say?¡± Felix blinked. ¡°Well, uh . . .¡± Damina scoffed, turning to Felix. ¡°Oh come on, just earlier you were acting so high-and-mighty, what''s the big deal now!?¡± ¡°Behind you.¡± Felix pointed a finger. E1¡¯s eyes widened, and he whipped around so fast that some would say they saw an after-image. Damina followed suit, armored fingers grasping for her sidearm. ¡°Oh good, it''s just you.¡± E1 sighed in relief. ¡°Nearly gave me a heart-¡± E4 clutched a hand to both E1¡¯s and Damina¡¯s mouths, preventing any sound from coming out. The latter of the two let out a surprised squeal and tried to dart away, but E1 grabbed her arm to prevent that. [What''s going on?] E1 messaged to E4. E4 pressed E1 and Damina up against a nearby tent wall, motioning for Felix to do so as well, which he did. [They know, and they¡¯re looking for us sir. You hear the commotion?] E1 paused, taking a moment to take in the surroundings. Shouts rang out from unknown areas all around them, and the organized march of boots hitting the ground could be heard everywhere. This was normal, but E1 felt something was off. E1 turned his eyes back to E4. [You have an escape route?] E4 nodded. [Just follow me sir. And we can¡¯t message too much, they¡¯re monitoring the bandwidth usage.] Suddenly, Damina bit the hand of E4. It wasn¡¯t able to hurt him at all, but it startled him enough to let go. ¡°What the hell are you two doing!? I¡¯ll-¡± She practically yelled. ¡°Shut. Up. Now.¡± E1 growled as quietly as he could. ¡°Unless you want to get caught and quietly executed, you will do as I say, got it?¡± E1 saw Damina¡¯s eyes go wide through the tinted ballistics visor. ¡°What''s . . . going on?¡± She asked in a quiet whisper. ¡°No time to say. Let''s get going.¡± E1 nodded to E4, who crouched down low and began to move out. Damina soon followed, with Felix taking the last spot in the line. Due to both E1 and E4 towering above the average drone, they couldn¡¯t blend into whatever crowd might have formed, so E4 began to lead them down a path in between tents. As they approached the mouth of the small alley they had been in, Damina took a peek above one the tent next to them, just for a second. Dozens of military drones were sweeping across the main pathway, entering tents and turning over boxes. There were even several other facility drones who had been detained, kneeling down and just listening to the orders that were barked at them. The military drones were different, however, as most of them had some sort of pitch-black armband with a white eagle of some kind on their upper-right arm. Damina quickly crouched back down, her nerves frayed. As they passed a set of crates, Damina leaned forward and tapped E1 on the shoulder. ¡°Hey.¡± She whispered. E1 didn¡¯t turn back to answer. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°What''s the plan? Do you even have a plan in the first place?¡± She unintentionally put a pleading tone in her voice. E1 let out a growl of frustration as he turned to look at her. ¡°Yes I have a plan, and stop talking. Are you trying to get us caught?¡± E4 stopped, turning back as well. [What¡¯s the holdup?] ¡°Are you being serious right now? First you drop that bombshell on me, and now we apparently are about to get caught by the fricking secret police and tortured for information! Oh yeah, you also just expect me to trust this mute friend of yours with my life!¡± Damina hissed. ¡°Back me up here Felix.¡± ¡°I . . . think I¡¯ll just stay out of this right about now.¡± Felix whispered. ¡°Oh come on!¡± Damina complained, much louder than what she had meant to. Everything went silent, including the commotion around them. After a moment, the familiar face of an almost-opaque ballistics visor peaked around the corner, taking in the sight of the four fugitives for what seemed like an eternity. E1 yanked out his fifty-caliber handgun before putting a bullet through the drone¡¯s head as fast as he physically could¡¯ve, but the damage was done. The loud gunshot rang out through the camp, and a moment later the shouts resumed and boots began pounding the ground, approaching their location fast. ¡°Run.¡± E1 didn¡¯t need to elaborate. All four drones shot to their feet. E4 began dashing forwards, with the rest of the drones following suit. ¡°Right there!¡± Damina heard a voice shout, but she didn¡¯t turn to confirm. Instead, she just kept running as fast as she could, struggling to keep up with the quick pace of the two operatives. They rounded a corner, coming out into the main pathway of the camp. One worker drone was in their way, and failed to get out of it in time. To his credit, E4 didn¡¯t stop. Instead, he just bowled right over the poor worker, sending him flailing to the ground about five feet from where he had been standing. None of the three other fugitives spared a glance at the worker, just following E4. Damina was sorely tempted to catch a look at the sound of boots that seemed like they were right behind her, but her curiosity was quelled when the familiar crack of a rifle sounded, the bullet whizzing right past her face. Suddenly, E1 perked up. ¡°Listen, when we get to the outskirts of the camp, you need to be prepared to jump.¡± He said without explaining. Damina¡¯s eyes widened for the fifteenth time today. ¡°What!? Jump!?¡± E4 kept running, even when the tents started to grow sparse. They began to approach the border of the camp, where several poles had been set up to create a magnetic field to prevent any drone from leaving. However, Damina noticed that the lights on the set of poles in front of them weren¡¯t shining like they always were, being dim and seemingly turned off instead. Her theory was confirmed when she and the other passed right through the security fence without any trouble whatsoever. She expected their pursuers to keep following them, but she was proven wrong when a trio of loud beeps sounded as the fence reactivated. Their pursuers didn¡¯t stop, though, instead they seemingly kept on going, and suffered for it. Damina heard their inert bodies hit the snow beneath them with a soft whump. Damina looked back and stopped. The camp had completely stopped there, with the ring of poles signifying its end. They had stopped on the corner of what looked to be some sort of intersection, though the camp seemed to be in what might have once been a large park. Felix was the first to speak up. ¡°Is that it? Are we good now?¡± E1 gestured towards the waving flashlight beams that started to peek out from the road to their right. ¡°Not yet. See that pit?¡± The pit that E1 was referring to was about five feet in front of them. A skyscraper had partially collapsed next to it, with an entire right chunk of the building sitting lopsided inside the hole. Damina then realized what E1 intended to do. ¡°Oh no. Oh hell no, you are NOT convincing me to- AAAAAAAAH-¡± E1 shoved her in, with E4 diving in after her. E1 turned to Felix, who seemed to have regained his composure. ¡°Well?¡± E1 gestured towards the gaping pit. Felix eyed the hole, thought for a second, then shrugged. ¡°This seems easy.¡± Without another word, Felix jumped, trying (and failing) to do a backflip on the way down. E1 looked back at the road where the shouting was becoming increasingly louder, before shaking his head. ¡°Why can¡¯t any of my plans ever go to . . . well, plan?¡± He said, diving into the hole a moment after. * * * ¡°WAAAAAG-¡± Jacob hit the ground with a sickening crunch, groaning as he felt the fragile human bones in his body twist in ways that he was pretty sure they weren¡¯t supposed to go. ¡°You do know that you have wings, right?¡± A voice said from above. Looking up from his spot on the ground, Jacob saw Ren flicker into being, her legs crossed as she sat on a piece of a fallen pillar. She¡¯s not wrong, you know? Jacob rolled over, rolling his eyes as well. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really think that I can learn what birds take thousands of years of evolution to do in under an hour, unless you WANT me to break my neck countless times, so I¡¯m putting that on hold for the time being.¡± Ren got up from her ¡®seat¡¯, walking over to Jacob and raising an eyebrow as she stood over him. ¡°Is that why you . . . duct-taped them?¡± She said with no small amount of amusement. ¡°Well, what else was I gonna do with the perfectly-preserved roll of duct-tape that was just lying around?¡± Jacob shrugged as if that was a suitable answer. ¡°You¡¯re an idiot.¡± Ren stated. Again, she isn¡¯t wrong. ¡°Shut up.¡± Jacob sat up, holding out a hand for Ren to take. However, contrary to what the idiot over here expected, Ren didn¡¯t quite understand. ¡°What? What¡¯re you doing now?¡± Ren took a step back, seemingly unsure. Jacob rolled his eyes for a second time. ¡°Whatever.¡± As he got to his feet on his own, the flap of a pair of wings above him caught his attention. After a second, the shape of a disassembly drone landed on the ground next to him. ¡°Hey spooners, what''s up? I dunno why you both went down before us, but it''s all good.¡± X cheerfully said while letting down the two military drones that he had clutched in a princess carry, along with a third on his back. ¡°Now, which one of you stole my-¡± With a yelp befitting any Southern patriot, Sterl lost his grip on the piece of rebar he had been scooching down and tumbled to the ground, landing on what would¡¯ve been the stomach if he had been a human. X gasped dramatically, throwing the final military drone that had been struggling to extricate himself from X¡¯s arms aside and sprinting to Sterl. ¡°My god he¡¯s dead! Gordon, quick! Use Ten PlayCoins? to revive Sterl before the timer runs out!¡± X sobbed in despair. Sterl batted X¡¯s hands away in frustration. ¡°God- dagnabbit, get yer darned hands away from me!¡± ¡°You look stupid.¡± K said without any inflection whatsoever. Jacob turned to look at K, surprised. He hadn¡¯t even heard her come down, and judging by Ren¡¯s expression, neither had Ren. Sneak 100. Jacob looked around the room, counting. ¡°Where¡¯s the rest of the soldier guys?¡± X then forgot all about Sterl and shot to his feet. ¡°I¡¯ll go get ¡®em, boss!¡± The entire room watched X fly upwards into the beam of moonlight. Well that is some serious awkward silence. Clearing his throat, Jacob took the opportunity to take a look around the room he was in, if it could even be called that. With what he could barely make out from the near pitch-black darkness, the ¡®roof¡¯ had a massive hole in it, debris lay scattered all around the floor, and he could definitely see several corpses dotted around the room. What looked to be some sort of receptionist¡¯s desk sat on one side of the room, with a few hallways branching off here and there. Ren let out a note of surprise, tapping Jacob on the shoulder. ¡°Hmm? Whaddya want?¡± Jacob asked, turning to her. ¡°Did you not see . . . that?¡± Ren pointed towards one of the human bodies, using her Solver to point a flashlight in one direction. I don¡¯t think human bodies have LED lights on them though. Jacob blinked. What he had previously thought to be the corpses of some sort of human staff were actually something a little bit more robotic in nature. Countless disassembly drones lay mangled on the ground in one area, oil coating almost every surface. Their visors were cracked and shattered, with the clear and familiar markings of bite marks dotting the bodies. Jacob knew that K had seen it too, since her very unprofessional shriek of unbridled fear echoed through the empty halls. What surprised him, though, was the responding animalistic growls and cries that followed. ¡°That . . . doesn¡¯t seem good.¡± Ren remarked. Jacob frowned. ¡°Yeah, no kidding.¡± Just then, X decided to come back with the rest of the military drones. One was riding on his back, two were being carried like a pair of babies, and the fourth was hurtling down the pit at such a high speed that- SPLAT X turned to look at the oil stain on the ground that used to be a drone. ¡°Uh oh. Guys? I don¡¯t think THAT is supposed to happen.¡± Sterl looked between the remnants of his former soldier and X, seemingly conflicted. However, in the end, he just settled for ignoring it. Sterl lifted his visor and whistled. ¡°Alright fellers, now listen up!¡± Jacob leaned over and whispered to Ren. ¡°Now this is gonna be good.¡± She responded by giving him a confident nod before nudging him to get him to turn his attention back to the one-armed speaker. ¡°Now, I¡¯m sure all- er, MOST of y¡¯all, knows the orders that we was sent out with. Due to the recent absence of the leader of our new . . .¡± Sterl looked on with derision towards K and X, who the former of which met with the exact same level of disrespect. ¡° . . . allies, we have been ordered to find and retrieve him-¡± ¡°Oh yeah, he¡¯s dead.¡± X interrupted. Sterl erupted in fury. ¡°GODDAMNIT CAN I PLEASE JUST BE ABLE TO FINISH- wait what?¡± K blinked. ¡°You- wait, you¡¯re definitely lying. Or joking. Probably both.¡± ¡°No no no, not this time.¡± X shook his head sadly, walking up to K and putting a placating hand on her shoulder. ¡°You see, K, your father is dead, killed by Giovannie Gesipouci in a spaghetti-related shooting. Now, I understand if you want to do a dramatic look in your cracked mirror and vow revenge and go on a big training arc, but we don¡¯t have time for that. What we need to do is-¡± K shot X in the head. Jacob raised an eyebrow, turning to whisper to Ren. ¡°Honestly, I was hooked on the story.¡± Ren nodded. ¡°Same, I was on the edge of my seat. Like, what happened to that milkman who delivered the bomb into Prosciutto Esplanati¡¯s car?¡± Sterl gestured for his men to put their weapons down, before continuing. ¡°Uh, anyway, y¡¯all understand the orders, which is why we will be splittin¡¯ up to find our missin¡¯ squad leader, got it!?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think this is gonna end well.¡± Jacob muttered. ¡°Me neither.¡± Ren agreed. ¡°So, each one of y¡¯all will have a buddy you will stay with . . . uh, until we find ¡®em I suppose.¡± Sterl seemed a bit flustered and confused, as if he wasn¡¯t exactly prepared for this. ¡°Now, the pairin¡¯ will be; Adrian and Gabriel, Blake and . . . You see, this is why we should always have ME in charge, smh ¡°Jesus, you¡¯re annoying.¡± Jacob rudely said to me. Ren blinked in surprise. ¡°What- are you talking to me that way?¡± ¡°What? No its- you know.¡± Jacob gestured in the general direction of himself. ¡°You- oooh, so . . . it is talking to you right now?¡± Ren is a bit dumb, so I¡¯ll let it slide just this once. ¡°I mean, yeah.¡± Jacob scratched the back of his head, seemingly embarrassed (of what? ME!?). ¡°He kind of always is, its just . . .'''' Jacob trailed off. Ren quirked up a holographic eyebrow. ¡°You know, under any other circumstances, I would be really worried right about now.¡± ¡°Shut up, I¡¯m not a schizo.¡± Jacob claimed, but some would beg to differ. ¡° . . . Crazy Robo-Witch and K, the Asset and- what- ME!? Who in the hell made this here pairin¡¯ list!?¡± Sterl exclaimed loudly. One of the other drones spoke up. ¡°Uh, you did sir.¡± ¡°Hey, private?¡± ¡°Yes sir?¡± ¡°Shut yer mouth.¡± ¡° . . .¡± Sterl glared a bit more at the cowering private before continuing. ¡°Now, any questions?¡± The private from before raised a shaking hand. Sterl groaned. ¡°Yes, private, what is it?¡± ¡°Well, my partner you see . . .¡± The private trailed off. ¡°Yes, what about ¡®em?¡± Sterl tapped a foot impatiently. The private pointed a finger to the oil smear on the ground. ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡± Sterl facepalmed. ¡°Goddamnit.¡± * * * She screamed as a bullet turned Nathan¡¯s head into mush, falling down onto her back from the shock. Oil sprayed onto her face, obscuring half of her visor. Scrambling backwards, she picked up her rifle from the ground and began blind-firing into the cloud of dust, not knowing if she was hitting anything. A few more spurts of oil splashed onto her arm from where Nathan¡¯s headless body was lying, but she didn¡¯t notice. She didn¡¯t care much at all, actually, her head feeling oddly fuzzy despite the situation. Nathan . . . was dead. That couldn¡¯t be real, right? They had the reconstruction station right behind them, he was gonna be fine! Yeah, all she had to do was clear out the rest of the rival warband and- She felt a hand grab her ballistics chestpiece from the back before dragging her backwards. That didn¡¯t stop her from holding down onto the trigger, but her left arm was getting oddly weak for whatever reason. It didn¡¯t matter though, all she needed to do was this and Nathan would be fine. He would be fine. The recoil of her gun firing vanished all of a sudden, but it didn¡¯t register, she still saw the menacing cloud of dust and smoke obscuring the hallway, so she still felt she needed to do something. What exactly, she wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°I¡¯ve got Alana, sir.¡± A voice came from behind her. A second voice grunted. ¡°What about her friend?¡± ¡°He . . .¡± ¡°Dead.¡± The second voice deadpanned. ¡°Yes sir.¡± The first voice sounded defeated. The sound of a pair of boots stomping on the ground came and stopped behind her, but she didn¡¯t turn to look. She could swear that she saw shapes moving in the cloud. A rifle being raised, a finger pressing down, the muzzle flash of the gunpowder igniting and exiting the only place it could, a bullet flying through the air and hitting Nathan in the- A hand grabbed her by the chin and turned her head to the side, forcing her to meet the icy-blue eyes of a drone. Fingers snapped in front of her face, dragging her attention to them. ¡°Hey, hey. Alana, right?¡± The voice sounded soothing, with a note of pity and sadness. ¡°Listen, we don¡¯t have much time. I know that your friend . . . isn¡¯t here right now-¡± Alana didn¡¯t think that was right. Nathan was always right next to her. ¡°-but I need you to concentrate, alright? Can you do that for me?¡± The blue eyes flicked towards the tightly-squeezed trigger. Alana blinked, and nodded. ¡°Good, now, we can¡¯t let them know about the contact, so-¡± A bang and a cry of pain rang out, causing the blue eyes of her commander to jerk upwards in shock. The first voice- no, Jason- was clutching his shoulder, oil leaking through his armored fingers. Shortly after, a flurry of bullets perforated his body, causing him to flop to the ground like a fish, oil flooding through a dozen holes. Her commander cursed and yanked out his pistol, firing into the direction where the bullet came from. However, he only got three shots off before it clicked. Empty. A figure charged out of the smoke, no rifle in hand. The only item of armament it had was a vibrating knife clutched tightly. Alana dove to the side, just barely missing the attempted tackle of the enemy. Instead, the enemy slammed straight into her commander, the knife just barely missing his throat. A scuffle ensued, with her commander gripping the hand that had the knife in it tightly as the enemy slowly pressed it downwards towards her commander¡¯s face. Alana felt like she should do something, but her limbs felt paralyzed with inaction. ¡°Looks like you got two of ¡®em, Smitty.¡± A gruff voice called out humorously. Alana turned her attention towards the hallway, finally cleared of smoke. A tall military drone with a completely opaque visor stepped over Nathan¡¯s body, no weapon out. A second drone followed, a machine-gun held loosely in the crook of their elbow. The one with the machine-gun turned towards the other. ¡°Seems to me that one of them¡¯s open.¡± The first, who was seemingly in charge, waved a dismissive hand. ¡°Look at their eyes, clearly shell-shocked. They aren¡¯t doing anything anytime soon.¡± The one in charge then put his attention back on Alana¡¯s commander. ¡°Get off of ¡®em.¡± Smitty obliged without question, rolling off of her commander with a slight grunt. Alana went cold at the sight of the gouged out hole in her commander¡¯s visor and right eye, realizing how close he was to death. The one in charge whistled at the sight. ¡°Yeesh, you did a number on ¡®em Smitty. Maybe lay off the one with the answers next time, huh?¡± Smitty groaned in frustration. ¡°How was I supposed to know which one is important? It''s not like they have a big flag saying, ¡®Come over here and capture me for information, because guess what? I¡¯m the guy in charge of this place, I¡¯m ripe with juicy and thick information!¡¯?¡± The one in charge shrugged, ignoring the last part. ¡°That¡¯s not really my problem to deal with. After all, you¡¯re the one always charging in and getting shot full of holes each time in those crazy plays of yours.¡± Smitty rolled his eyes. ¡°Whatever.¡± ¡°Whatever you¡¯re gonna say, best get on with it, huh?¡± Alana¡¯s commander finally spoke up. ¡°Yeah yeah yeah, be patient.¡± The enemy commander crouched down to his counterpart¡¯s side. ¡°I¡¯m gonna ask you this once, and only once. If you lie to me, you die, got it?¡± Alana¡¯s commander simply glared at him. The enemy commander nodded. ¡°Great. Now, what¡¯re the activation codes for the central production line?¡± Just then, Alana noticed the strange symbol on the shoulder of the enemy commander. What looked to be some sort of golden eagle over a crimson red background was scrawled on one side of the strange tassel-pauldrons that the drone wore on his shoulders. The other military drones had the same symbol, though with noticeably less effort. ¡°How am I supposed to know?¡± Alana¡¯s commander- Comp, she and Nathan always called him that- replied. ¡°I don¡¯t hear a yes or no.¡± The enemy commander said without any inflection in his voice whatsoever. ¡°No.¡± Comp replied through gritted teeth The enemy commander paused for a moment, taking out his gun and placing it under the chin of Comp. He tensed, his remaining eye closing shut in preparation. Then, the enemy commander shrugged and turned around, pulling his gun away. ¡°True, it''s impossible to know.¡± He then turned back to Comp, flicking the hammer back. ¡°Now, how many of your people are left inside the factory?¡± As he said this, Alana saw something that looked like words flit across the interior of the enemy commander¡¯s visor for a moment before it vanished. Comp hesitated, stealing a glance at Alana before answering. ¡°There . . . isn¡¯t anybody left. Aside from Al- your hostage here.¡± Comp winced as he said so. ¡°I had to station everybody here and at the southside conveyor-belt receptacle.¡± The enemy commander nodded in realization. ¡°Ah, you thought we were gonna sneak in through the factory line itself, didn¡¯t you?¡± Comp nodded after a moment, staying silent. The enemy commander nodded again, turning away for a moment. Comp visibly relaxed, his remaining eye unhollowing and filling back up with its normal icy-blue color- The enemy commander then whipped around and shot a bullet straight through the open hole in Comp¡¯s visor. Due to the proximity to her commander, Alana had even more oil spray against her helmet, drawing a squeak in surprise from the suddenness of the execution. The enemy commander tutted, holstering his still-smoking gun. ¡°Welp, that''s over and done with.¡± Smitty frowned. ¡°I thought you wanted the important ones alive?¡± ¡°I did say he was gonna die if he lied. I already got informed about the clearing of the factory and a few of our guys found a group holed up in a vehicle chassis, I just wanted to test him.¡± The enemy commander shrugged. ¡°And plus, what else could he have possibly known?¡± Alana started sweating, and her face visibly contorted. However, this didn¡¯t go unnoticed, as evidenced by Smitty¡¯s sudden interest in her. ¡°Huh, would you look at that?¡± Smitty muttered underneath his breath. The enemy commander turned to his lackey. ¡°What?¡± Smitty looked up and shrugged. ¡°Not sure if it¡¯s important, but this nice lady got all nervous when you said that last part.¡± ¡°Hmm, interesting.¡± The enemy commander calmly traversed the few feet between her and him, stopping in front of her. ¡°So . . .¡± The enemy commander paused, seemingly for dramatic effect. ¡°You know something, huh?¡± Alana¡¯s eyes hollowed in fright, and her pupils darted around frantically. The enemy commander continued unperturbed. ¡°How about we make a deal, you and me?¡± ¡°You will tell me what your boss over here was hiding, and you get off scot-free!¡± The enemy commander then crouched down to look her in the eyes, which Alana met with a trembling gaze. ¡°But, if you don¡¯t-¡± Alana suddenly found herself looking down the barrel of a gun. ¡°-you die.¡± Alana gulped, eyes going cross from staring at the pistol that was shoved up in her face. I¡¯m sorry, Nathan. * * * ¡°Do you even know how to drive?¡± E1 scoffed. ¡°Of course I do, now stop asking.¡± Felix spoke up. ¡°I¡¯m just saying, I¡¯m pretty sure I could drive much better than you do.¡± In response, E4 fixed him with a silent glare that shut Felix up faster than you could say, ¡®Silent Protagonist with a Monkey Wrench¡¯. The car suddenly lurched as E1 took a particularly sharp turn, hitting the side of the crumbling curb as he did so. Damina cursed, leaning over the seat to get a better look at E1. ¡°Is that a driver¡¯s manual in your hand right now?¡± She asked incredulously. ¡°No.¡± E1 threw the totally-not-a-driver¡¯s-manual out the window. Damina scoffed. ¡°That doesn¡¯t give me much assurance, if that¡¯s what you were going for.¡± E1 rolled his eyes, taking his eyes off the road for a second. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, this is-¡± The car nearly flipped over as they ran over a large piece of debris. ¡°-just like the simulations.¡± E1 finished, confidently wrenching the steering wheel back-and-forth. Damina looked like she was going to say something in rebuttal, but she turned to Felix at the last second. ¡°Can you please stop screaming in my ear?¡± She pleaded. Felix was currently screaming at the top of his nonexistent lungs, but he stopped her a second to turn towards Damina. ¡°Sorry, what¡¯d you say?¡± He asked politely. ¡°I asked if you could stop screaming.¡± Damina deadpanned. Felix nodded thoughtfully. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m good.¡± He then resumed screaming. In response, Damina began to hit her head against the seat in front of her, shaking what looked like bits of fluff that bounced out of a hole in E4¡¯s car seat. ¡°Hey, you two!¡± E1 didn¡¯t make the mistake of taking his eyes off the road this time. ¡°Knock it off, I¡¯m trying to sleep here!¡± Felix stopped. ¡°Wait, what?¡± ¡°Nothing, go back to screaming.¡± E1 said, contradicting himself. Felix obliged. Damina groaned, ceasing her abuse of E4¡¯s car seat for the time being. Bored and annoyed, she looked out the window at the darkened sky. The two moons (planets?) hung perpetually in the sky shone brightly in the night, illuminating the broken expanse of the former human metropolis. Damina wasn¡¯t quite sure how the human¡¯s had died on the planet she was on, but she wasn¡¯t a high enough rank to ask questions like that. Those types of things, like knowledge, were reserved for the upper-brass only. Suddenly, Damina noticed that Felix had stopped screaming for some reason. Turning to him, she saw that he had his eyes fixed on the sight in front of them. She followed his gaze, jaw dropping at the sight that lay in front of her. A massive shadow draped over their car, the moons almost completely obscured by it. Wires connected without any rhyme or reason fastened the towering, monolithic structure to the sides of skyscrapers. As they got closer, Damina could make out with horror the familiar sights of drone corpses embedded into the sides of the spire itself. No, she realized, they ARE the spire. Countless [Fatal Error] messages glowed from the spire, making it look like thousands of sets of red eyes were watching them approach from the darkness, ready to jump at the slightest hint of weakness. The car jostled as it ran over the many pieces of debris that littered the now-nonexistent road, and E1 cursed as he shifted a stick that was set into the armrest to his right. ¡°Alright, we¡¯re here. Time to get out.¡± E1 forcefully opened the door of the car, the sound of it echoing through the silent cityscape. Damina blinked in shock. ¡°Wait, we¡¯re getting out here!?¡± E1 looked back over his shoulder. ¡°Yep.¡± Damina looked horrified at the sights of Felix and E4 getting out without any hesitation, with even the former of the two whistling at the sight of the spire. ¡°Oh no, definitely not.¡± She shook her head furiously. ¡°This is the perfect place for us to get ambushed or something! Are you insane!?¡± E1 shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s not really your concern right now, and I¡¯m still not hearing the door open.¡± Damina cringed, looking back at the menacing image of the spire. ¡°F-fine.¡± She relented, fiddling with the door handle for a moment before she figured out how to open it. Getting out, she noticed that all three of her companions were already at the mouth of the spire. Suddenly feeling much more vulnerable now that she was left without company, she hurried forward. Damina caught up to the group after practically sprinting the way there, taking a look at the inside. Debris was strewn about the mounds of snow that were present inside, all pieces of jagged metal and rebar sticking out of concrete. However, that was second to the centerpiece of the great and terrible theater. In the center of the clearing lay a large, pod-like structure with a small opening on the side. Spidery legs jutted out from under it, the ends tapering to a lethal point. Stripes of orange coloring were present on several pieces of the craft, accenting the industrial look of the thing. From her current angle, it looked to be somewhat octagonal in nature, with the top being similar in geometric shape. ¡°Wait here, I¡¯ll go inside and grab what we need.¡± E1¡¯s voice jarred Damina from her musings. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Alrighty, just remember to call me if you need help!¡± Felix adopted a cocky grin. E1 scoffed as he walked towards the entrance. ¡°Yeah, I think I¡¯ll pass on that.¡± E1 reached the ladder and began to climb. After he reached the top, he leaned in and vanished into the dark interior of the pod, leaving Damina with only Felix and E4 as company. Silence. Felix whistled an off-key tune, kicking a rock into a pile of snow. Damina shivered, feeling like someone- or something- was watching her. E4 just had a placid and bored expression on their face, even checking a watch on his wrist (which, for the record, didn¡¯t exist) to express just how cool and unfazeable he was. Damina jumped when a clang rang out somewhere in the spire. It echoed as she jerked her gaze back and forth to spot what had caused the noise. Was that shadow there before? Did that piece of metal used to be like that? She felt trapped in her own armor, her breath growing quick and- ¡°Whaaa-¡± Damina practically yelped in fear when she heard something hit the ground. However, it was just E1. Judging by his position on the ground, he had probably tripped and fallen as he tried to climb back down the ladder. As he got up, Damina made note of the large and bulky device that he held in his hands. It looked like a radio or transmitter of some kind, but she couldn¡¯t quite tell at this distance. She then noticed that she had jumped up into Felix¡¯s arms, and judging by everyone else¡¯s expressions, they had just seen that too. Felix dropped her on the ground. * * * Ren shined a light using her Solver down onto a darkened corner of the hallway, noticing how K seemed to almost recoil in disgust. She kneeled down to get a better look at some sort of name tag covered in oil, pocketing it after getting a good look. After a moment, K spoke up. ¡°Do you . . . have to do that?¡± Ren looked back up from her spot close to the ground. ¡°And what would ¡®that¡¯ BE exactly?¡± K narrowed her eyes, adopting an aggressive stance. ¡°You know, the thing.¡± Ren shrugged. ¡°Got a problem?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± K replied, glaring at Ren. Ren rolled her eyes, getting up from the floor and mirroring K¡¯s pose. ¡°Well, considering how you were the one that chose to come after me, I¡¯d say that is yours to keep to yourself.¡± Ren made to start walking down the rest of the hallway. ¡°Now, if we can get back on with-¡± K rushed ahead, blocking Ren¡¯s path. ¡°There was a reason we were sent down to take care of you lot, you know.¡± K cocked her head. Ren narrowed her eyes, a slight whine filling the air. ¡°And why should I care?¡± K scoffed, folding her arms across her chest. ¡°What you¡¯re doing right now is exactly why. I don¡¯t know what X was thinking when he spared you, but I¡¯m certainly not surprised by his decision making.¡± ¡°Like I said, if you have a problem with it, then keep it to yourself.¡± Ren growled. ¡°I¡¯m just as unhappy about this arrangement as you are, but unless you wanna fight and give up for a second time, then you should probably back off.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t- wha-¡± K spluttered, her composure coming apart. ¡°I was recuperating myself, not giving up, and no matter what you all say, I did NOT lose!¡± Ren smirked, and took a page out of Jacob¡¯s book. ¡°Skill. Issue.¡± K harrumphed, her right hand adopting the form of a shining blade. ¡°You say that again, I dare you.¡± Ren chuckled inwardly. ¡°How about-¡± However, she was cut off by the animalistic shriek of something down the hallway, drawing the attention of both drones. A flash of light lit up the area around the corner, casting a shadow of some sort of creature, onto the oil-soaked wall behind it. Several more shrieks and cries followed, coming from all around the pair. K aimed her hand, now a gun, down the hallway, her left doing the same in the opposite direction. Turning towards Ren, K began to talk. ¡°Hey listen, I know you and I-¡± Ren wasn¡¯t there. K looked around in a panic, seeing no trace of the cloaked worker drone anywhere. The only thing that marked where she had been was a small flickering of a barely visible ball of blackness that vanished from the air shortly after she had seen it. Only then did K remember that the worker-witch could teleport. * * * Jacob whistled a familiar tune, kicking what looked to be some sort of glowing capsule down the small staircase. The drone ahead of him groaned audibly, almost unknowingly tripping over the rolling vial as he did. ¡°Will you shut yer darned mouth?¡± Sterl didn¡¯t seem too entertained by Jacob¡¯s best attempts at music (which, in actuality, weren¡¯t all that good in the first place). ¡°You¡¯re not funny.¡± Jacob said to me, which was yet again another dumb move. Sterl blinked. ¡°What?¡± ¡°What?¡± Jacob met Sterl with a blank gaze. Sterl squinted at Jacob in confusion for a moment before his CPU caught up. ¡°Uh, does yer ¡®music¡¯-¡± Sterl made quotation marks with his singular arm. ¡°-have to be present at this time around?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°If you didn¡¯t want to hear it, then why¡¯d you pair us together?¡± Sterl glared at Jacob. ¡°Well- you see- don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Jacob rolled his eyes. Sterl continued. ¡°Just try not to make this here experience any more worse than it already is, my mind is goin¡¯ insane just from you alone.¡± He¡¯s not wrong, you know. Jacob scoffed. ¡°You¡¯ve been saying that for the past twenty minutes, can you say literally anything else?¡± You . . . aren¡¯t wrong. Jacob shook his head, strutting over to what looked to be a keypad with a few glowing buttons set next to a fairly large garage door. What looked to be rust at a first glance later turned out to be dried bloodstains, coating the angled plating of the door like moss. ¡°Now what¡¯re ya doin¡¯?¡± Sterl cocked his head in Jacob¡¯s direction. ¡°Opening this door, obviously.¡± Jacob said matter-of-factly. The keypad held the tell-tale symbol of a fingerprint with the small lines pronounced, though it was a bit harder to see due to the age. Looking back and forth (as if we was gonna see anybody other than the Texan), Jacob pressed his thumb down on the center of it. The keypad lit up red and let out an angry BRRRRRT noise, startling both of the hallway¡¯s occupants. ¡°Did . . . you not take off yer weird glove thing?¡± Sterl asked slowly. Jacob grimaced. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Jacob, like an idiot, tugged at the strangely-sensitive exterior of his hand plating. It felt far too bouncy (some would call it flesh-like) to be what he had been wearing earlier, but he didn¡¯t care about that at the moment. Instead, he decided to, just then, realize that he had no idea how to take off the glove . . . thingy. A lightbulb appeared over Jacob¡¯s head. ¡°New plan.¡± Jacob rolled up his pretend-sleeves and ate his pretend-spinach, comically winding up a large right-hook with his left hand. Taking a swing (and missing a few times) he punched the keypad right in the side. A spray of sparks flew from the top of it, and it began to smoke through a small hole in the bottom, even though smoke is supposed to rise. Luckily, it let out a chirrup and affirmation, and the gears of the garage door began to grind as it rose. Slowly. Jacob was reminded of a certain door that took forever to open, and unbridled rage filled every fiber of his being. He had been annoyed, maybe a bit ticked off before, but this was something else. He pulled back his right leg and kicked the door as hard as he could, making a large dent appear in the metal. However, he failed to do anything else. After a few moments, the garage door let out a squeal of pain as something that sounded important crunched inside whatever mechanisms worked the door, and it stopped about halfway up. ¡°Now look at it, you¡¯ve done broke it!¡± Sterl exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Jacob. ¡°Wha- ME!?!?¡± Jacob gasped. ¡°We both know that this is your fault!¡± ¡°My fault!?¡± Sterl had the gall to look shocked. ¡°How in the world did you ever come to THAT conclusion!?¡± Jacob scoffed. ¡°Oh, puh-lease! Don¡¯t hit me with that attitude!¡± ¡°Alrighty then, what exactly was I doin¡¯ then?¡± Sterl crossed his arms, despite only having one. ¡°Oh, well- uh, I¡¯m just gonna crawl underneath the door now, see ya!¡± Seeing his opportunity, Jacob dove as fast as he could into the small gap that led into the next room. His duct-tape scraped against the ground as he did, but it thankfully held. He didn¡¯t know how he was gonna manage maneuvering those weird things around, but he sure as hell was gonna take every chance he got not to do it. After a few seconds, he emerged from the other side with only a few more scratches to add to countless that dotted his armor. Inside the room that he had worked so tirelessly to get inside was- well, more darkness. Only a few small LED lights shone in the inky black shadows that coated the room, but they were hardly enough to light up the whole place. Jacob found that the light streaming in from underneath the door managed to light up the side of the wall that was next to the door, which revealed a scuffed light switch that was promptly flicked upwards with all the gusto that a thirty-year-old middle-aged man could muster. With the thud that all industrial-level lights have when they turn on, the room was lit up in bright clarity for all of one second, right before all but two of them crackled and fizzed out, leaving only a little light in the area to work off of. A sign that was hanging from the roof right in front of where Jacob came from read, ¡°BIOHAZARD CONTAINMENT DUMP¡± with a smaller sign next to it that read, ¡°(Jerry, we know that you only meant well by trying to make cheeseburgers from the meat that the experiments left behind and we appreciate you for it, but a solid third of the managerial staff turned into Cronenberg abominations and HR is pissed off) Jacob turned around to see Sterl struggling to get through the smallish gap, but he just ignored him. ¡°Hey, hey! Come over here and help me with this darned-¡± He pretended not to hear him, and instead walked over to one of the only lit up spots in the room. It looked to be some sort of work station, complete with state-of-the-art IBM computers from probably the 90¡¯s or something. Why the hell are these guys using- oh whatever, I¡¯m done trying to figure this stuff out. Brushing aside a robotic hand that lay stretched across the keyboard, Jacob sat down at the old computer, wondering what to do next. He pressed E. Nothing. He pressed . . . Q? Nothing. Again. Jacob cocked his head, and wondered what he was doing wrong. Oh, maybe he had to hit the power button, because that¡¯s what NORMAL people do when they want to TURN SOMETHING ON. ¡°He he, turn something on.¡± Jacob snickered. Shut up. Reaching out a finger, Jacob poked the button that was labeled with the familiar power symbol that literally everybody knew of, and- Nothing happened. Jacob blinked. I blinked. Ren blinked Wait what? Jacob yelped and fell out of the chair, scared out of his mind by the presence that appeared behind him. Ren was just standing there like some sort of poltergeist, an eyebrow raised at Jacob¡¯s sudden reaction. ¡°You look stupid.¡± She said bluntly. Jacob rolled his eyes, not dignifying that remark with an answer. Getting back into the chair, he held down the power button for a solid three seconds to no avail. Frustrated, Jacob slammed his hand down on the keyboard several times. ¡°C¡¯mon man, this is impossible!¡± For some reason, he said that with a thick Eastern European accent. ¡°You broke the keyboard.¡± Ren pointed out. Jacob spun backwards, glaring at Ren. ¡°Are we just not gonna talk about it?¡± Ren seemed surprised by that. ¡°Talk about . . .?¡± ¡°You just popping up here?¡± Jacob gestured around with his hands. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that Sterl over there said that you had to stay with your ¡®buddy¡¯ or whatever.¡± Ren looked over to where Jacob pointed, noticing Sterl still stuck underneath the door. She smirked before turning back to Jacob. ¡°You wanna know? Fine. We walked around for a bit, she acted like a total bit-¡± DON¡¯T SWEAR Jacob jumped, cutting Ren off by the action. She backed away slightly with a strange look on her face before slowly continuing. ¡°-and we argued, a few weird things showed up, so I ran. No big deal, see?¡± ¡°You . . . ran?¡± Jacob asked, confused. ¡°Also, I feel like you just skimmed over that last part.¡± Ren scoffed. ¡°Uh, yeah. You think that I¡¯m gonna stay and fight what ripped apart legions of murder drones?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°Maybe. You could probably take them on.¡± She does have plot armor on her side, after all. ¡°Huh.¡± Ren seemed slightly touched by that. ¡°Not as good as me, though.¡± Jacob grinned evilly underneath his cracked glass visor. ¡°Aaaand there it is.¡± Ren rolled her eyes. Jacob¡¯s grin faded as he looked back to the computer, keyboard still broken and monitor still dark. Ren seemed to be intrigued by it as well. ¡°Whatcha looking at?¡± ¡°This.¡± Jacob, very helpfully, stated. ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem too complicated.¡± Ren shrugged. ¡°Oh yeah!? Lets see you take a crack at it, smart guy!¡± Jacob pointed a finger at Ren in anger. She pulled up a power cord that Jacob previously hadn¡¯t seen. He blinked. ¡°Oh.¡± After Ren reached down and plugged it in, Jacob poked the power button. The screen lit up with a logo that looked familiar to Jacob, but he couldn¡¯t quite place it. After a trio of beeps sounded, two long and one short, the screen flickered and changed to what looked to be your average . . . homepage? Background? Site hub? Jacob wasn¡¯t really too experienced with the terminology, he usually just called it, ¡°That thing you were at¡± when he wanted to refer to it. Granted, that usually confused his grandma when she asked for help, but you¡¯re getting off-track, and plus, we didn¡¯t have a grandma. Jacob blinked. Again. ¡°Oh.¡± Ren nudged Jacob in the shoulder, gesturing towards the screen when he looked up at her in confusion. ¡°C¡¯mon.¡± She said. ¡°Do the thing.¡± Jacob spun the chair in Ren¡¯s direction. ¡°And what thing would that be?¡± Ren shrugged. ¡°I dunno. You¡¯re the one who wanted to go on this computer, not me.¡± Steepling his fingers like a stupid cartoon villain, Jacob sighed. ¡°Well, I-¡± * * * The small hatch slid open, revealing a pair of purple eyes. ¡°What¡¯s the password?¡± They said quietly. ¡°There is no password, idiot.¡± Alana hissed back. ¡°Open the damn door.¡± The hatch slid closed, and Alana became painfully aware of the gun pressed up against the base of her spine. ¡°I swear to robo-god, if you just screwed us over . . .¡± Smitty didn¡¯t need to elaborate. After a moment, the sounds of latches clanking and pieces of metal sliding against each other was heard from the other side of the thick metal door. Three seconds passed, and the sounds stopped. The enemy commander (who still remained to be named) glanced at the person with a machine-gun that stood at their side, who raised an eyebrow at the noises. Then, the metal door creaked, and slowly began to open. After a moment, a nondescript worker drone popped his head out from inside the room, glancing at Alana first. ¡°Oh good, it¡¯s just-¡± He stopped when his processors took in the sight of the unfamiliar (and very armed) soldiers behind her. However, before he could shut the door, the enemy commander shot out a hand and gripped the now very-scared drone by the neck. ¡°Hey there.¡± The drone grinned slightly, right before flinging the poor drone out from behind the door. The enemy commander took the opportunity to push the door open the rest of the way, revealing the interior to the rest of his entourage. Several firearms and other forms of weaponry lay around the room, some in disorganized heaps. However, a few were set up in orderly racks, signitive of a lackadaisical approach to discipline. On a single plain table rested a boxy device that had an ungodly amount of wires that were attached to it, leading off to several other pieces of blinking electronic equipment. The device itself had a few knobs and switches, along with a number pad and a set of five buttons that lined the bottom. Other than a small and old-fashioned CRT monitor that was set close to the top, it looked no more important than any other gadget that the facility had an overabundance of. Smitty whistled in appreciation. ¡°A whole lotta guns, I can see myself hiding a stash like this away for myself.¡± The drone holding the machine-gun stepped up, having traded their gun for the drone that had been holed up in the back room. ¡°I don¡¯t think this was worth the trouble, boss.¡± They said, getting the attention of the taller drone. The enemy commander shrugged. ¡°This gizmo over here looks important, and I know just the fella who can tell me what it is.¡± Striding over to the struggling drone, the enemy commander seemed a bit amused. Leaning down like he did with Alana, he met the drone¡¯s fearful eyes. ¡°Hey, yeah you.¡± The snap of fingers drew the scared drone¡¯s attention. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve got a question for you.¡± The enemy commander pointed a finger behind him. ¡°What, exactly, is that?¡± He didn¡¯t answer at first, instead glancing frightfully at Alana. The enemy commander tutted. ¡°Don¡¯t look at her, look at me, alright? Now, you''re gonna answer the question or what?¡± After looking down at the holstered pistol that the enemy commander had, he seemingly made up his mind. ¡°It- it¡¯s a-¡± The drone stopped, taking a shaky breath before continuing. ¡°It¡¯s a radio.¡± Smitty, who was checking one of the heavier firearms, raised an eyebrow. ¡°A radio?¡± The enemy commander seemed to be of the same opinion. ¡°So that whole thing is just . . . a radio?¡± The drone shook his head quickly. ¡°Nononono! It¡¯s a, ah, long-range one.¡± The enemy commander¡¯s holographic eyebrows shot up. ¡°Not possible.¡± The other military drone spoke up, having retrieved their machine-gun, looking at their commander. ¡°We both know that every long-range transmission device is either gone or broken beyond repair.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Smitty called out. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say all THREE of us!?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know anything.¡± The machine-gun drone shrugged. Smitty mirrored the motion. ¡°True.¡± The enemy commander ignored the exchange, instead looking back at the worker drone with an expectant look on his face. ¡°They aren¡¯t wrong.¡± The enemy commander frowned slightly. ¡°You¡¯re gonna need a better excuse than that.¡± The worker cringed. ¡°Well, I didn¡¯t get to finish, you see.¡± ¡°Then finish.¡± The enemy commander deadpanned. ¡°Yes yes yes, it¡¯s a radio . . .¡± The worker paused, seemingly for dramatic effect. ¡°That we built.¡± The enemy commander put a hand on his gun. Panicking, the worker waved his hands in the air. ¡°Wait wait wait! We were ordered to make one before High Command left!¡± ¡°Do you really expect me to believe that YOU,¡± The enemy commander gestured at the hapless worker. ¡°Somehow built something that we haven¡¯t been able to do for decades?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t YOU find it odd that something as simple as a long-range radio couldn¡¯t be made by several thousand drone¡¯s with virtually infinite supplies?¡± The worker shot back, gaining a spine for the first time in that interrogation. That made the enemy commander pause for a moment. ¡°Yeah, turns out some other drones thought that too, and they got me and my joint unit to get to work on making one.¡± The worker continued. ¡°Its almost done, but we haven¡¯t been able to find a suitable transmitter that has a strong enough signal to amplify.¡± The enemy commander leaned back slightly, seemingly in contemplation. ¡°He¡¯s probably lying, sir.¡± The one with the machine-gun stepped forward. ¡°Hmmm.¡± The enemy commander glanced back at the worker drone, who¡¯s vitriol and confidence from a second ago had obviously faded. ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Getting up, the enemy commander strode over to the device on the table. He ran a hand over it, not daring to touch any of the controls. ¡°Soooooo, what now?¡± Smitty spoke up. ¡°Well, isn¡¯t it obvious?¡± The enemy commander turned around. Despite the fact that Alana couldn¡¯t see the drone¡¯s eyes or actual face at all beneath the heavily-tinted visor, she got the feeling that he was grinning wide underneath the helmet. ¡°We prepare for Command¡¯s eventual return, and-¡± The enemy commander began. That was when gravity ceased to exist. * * * ¡°Shoop da whoop, shooooop daaaa whoooop, laser time? No, that¡¯s not it . . .¡± X trailed off. X glanced at the military drone he had been paired with, who was currently shaking in his boots. ¡°Oh ma gawd! He so scared, so eepy! Drone need a sleepy!¡± X gushed over the military drone for no apparent reason, who just let out a small squeak of fear and confusion. X got down from the ceiling, rolling towards the drone until he was only two feet away from them. X lay on his stomach, his feet swinging in the air while he perched his chin on top of his hands. ¡°Man, you look super dumb right now.¡± He said, observing the reaction of the drone. ¡°Not one thought in his little head, huh?¡± The drone didn¡¯t reply, instead he decided to keel over at that specific moment. A ¡®PROCESSING ERROR - REBOOTING . . .¡¯ message popped up on the drone¡¯s visor, but he lay still. ¡°Oh come on!¡± X got to his feet and kicked a can across the room. ¡°This is like, the fifth time this has happened today!¡± Then, X looked at the invisible camera that followed his every move. ¡°Ignore the fact that I haven¡¯t been near anybody for most of the day, and that this is the first time I¡¯ve done this.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯m back from checking the other room, please don¡¯t tell me that you-¡± X¡¯s other partner froze upon seeing the scene inside the room. Upon finding out that, due to his unfortunate mishap while transporting a few military drones, he was going to be paired up with a third person, X was overjoyed. More people meant more things happening, which meant a higher probability of something fun happening! Ignoring the fact that he didn¡¯t know what the word ¡®probability¡¯ meant, he was positively thrilled at what likely would¡¯ve been the most enjoyable experience in his entire memory. For context, X has the memory of a goldfish. But then, disaster struck! It turned out that his friend, his bestie, was a- robo-god, he couldn¡¯t even think of the word- a p-p-p-p-party pooper! Yes, you heard him right. X had been paired with a no-good boring person! Truly, a crime of the utmost severity. He had tried to fix the drone, but he was too set in his ways! He likely came from the South, he heard that people from there were very conservative and didn¡¯t like to change. For some reason, whenever he asked the guy that told him that, he kept mentioning things like ¡®rights¡¯ and ¡®African-Americans¡¯ which X knew nothing about. ¡°This is the one thing we didn¡¯t want to happen.¡± X said in what he would have called a British accent if he knew what a British ¡®person¡¯ was. ¡°What- are you talking to me?¡± His third partner spluttered. ¡°Didn¡¯t want what to happen, me to walk in?¡± ¡°Oh, pish-posh guv¡¯nor.¡± X said, purely from his RGAP (Randomly-Generated-Action-Processor). ¡°You- oh whatever.¡± The drone- Carl, or maybe GPS Guy, probably the same thing, was his name, X nearly forgot- slumped in defeat. ¡°He isn¡¯t . . . dead, right?¡± X turned back to the drone, who was still in the same position as before. X shrugged. Carl facepalmed. ¡°Ugh, just help me carry him.¡± X watched Carl walk at a pace that slowed considerably the closer he got to him, almost as if he was scared of getting near X. That couldn¡¯t be right, X was the best person ever! Carl picked up the unconscious drone by the legs, giving X an expectant look. ¡°Well?¡± He questioned. ¡°Are you gonna help me out here or what?¡± X hopped over and tore the drone out of Carl¡¯s hands, putting the ragdoll-like robot in a princess carry. Carl looked like he wanted to say something, but he was cut off by something. That something being the very gravity beneath his feet just . . . going away. Everything in the room began to float of its own accord, pieces of scrap metal and oil droplets alike rising up into the air and across the room, nudging into things and each other. To his credit, Carl didn¡¯t scream in terror and curl up into a ball. Instead, he let out a yelp and started trying to swim away, which did absolutely nothing. ¡°I feel like this would be a good time for the Interstellar theme to start playing.¡± X remarked, being completely ramrod straight despite the current situation. ¡°What the hell does that me- WHAAAA-¡± Carl plummeted straight back down to the ground as gravity reasserted its hold over the planet. X landed right on his feet. ¡°I am ALWAYS two steps ahead.¡± X adopted a snooty and slightly nasally voice as he said that. ¡°Ow.¡± Carl replied. An echoey, animalistic shriek from outside the door sounded its way into the room. Carl froze. ¡°Huh, did you remember to check your corners when you were searching?¡± X glared accusingly at Carl. ¡°Rule 10381983 of the CS:GO handbook, ALWAYS check your corners! Granted, the rule right after that is to always use ESP and only speak in Eastern European languages, but-¡± The door slammed open, something that was definitely not a drone dashing into the room. It walked on two legs and had two arms, but that was where the similarities ended. The feet were long and seemed to be designed to only walk on the toes of the creature, with the rest of what would be the foot on a human pointing diagonally back as if- ¡°AH!¡± X yelped, rudely interrupting-our-narration. ¡°Party pooper, save me!¡± X gripped the drone he had been carrying by the shoulders, thrusting the poor thing in front of him like it was a shield. A flash of light went in X¡¯s and Carl¡¯s direction, but it was mostly blocked by the impromptu protective device that was currently in place. However, it was not to be. A moment after, a jaw locked itself around the unconscious drone¡¯s arm, yanking the body out of X¡¯s hands. It then took the opportunity to toss the body into the opposite side of the room, flashing it a couple more times before it dove in to disembowel the still-sleeping drone. With no time to waste, X quickly grabbed Carl by the leg and dashed forwards, causing him to let out a yelp of surprise. This attracted the attention of the creature, which let out a warbling cry of joy as it gave chase. X sprinted out of the room and looked upwards. A rusted vent lay inset into the ceiling, the fan inside creaking slightly. While most would see nothing, X saw opportunity. With a flash of wings, X disappeared into the vent, dragging a screaming Carl behind him as he did so. * * * ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± Damina woke up from the voice, the ¡®SLEEP MODE¡¯ message vanishing from her screen. She felt the rumble of the car stop, and a door open. ¡°Out.¡± E1 said, clearly done with any nonsense. She begrudgingly obliged, trying to rub some sleep out of her eyes through the ballistic visor of her helmet. Damina would¡¯ve taken it off if she could, but they had been designed as cheap and disposable soldiers, and things such as a removable helmet were for toys only. After giving her optics a moment to focus on the scene in front of her as she blindly followed the person ahead of her, she stopped in shock. It was a shattered and broken skyscraper, the exact same one that they passed through when exiting the facility. The facility. ¡°Is this . . .?¡± Damina said, making her thoughts known. E1 turned towards her. ¡°Yes. Yes it is.¡± Felix let out a whoop of joy. ¡°Finally, I get to claim this place for myself now!¡± ¡°Nuh uh uh.¡± E1 waggled a finger in front of Felix¡¯s face. ¡°This place is government property, which, need I remind you, you are as well.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Felix deflated. ¡°Oh yeah.¡± Damina stepped forward, rims still around her eyes. ¡°Can we, I dunno, maybe get an explanation as to why we¡¯re here?¡± Damina gestured towards the broken building that housed the only entrance to the facility. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that this place is gonna blow up soon.¡± E1 glared at Damina in annoyance. ¡°Do you need to question every decision I make?¡± She scoffed. ¡°It¡¯s just that I would prefer to not die at this point in time, considering how I haven¡¯t even been alive for two decades yet.¡± ¡°Then you shouldn¡¯t have joined up with me in the first place.¡± E1 simply remarked. Damina didn¡¯t like that. ¡°If you could just TELL me what you¡¯re leading me into for once,¡± Damina growled, taking a step forward. ¡°Then I wouldn¡¯t have any problem whatsoever!¡± ¡°But no!¡± Damina continued, throwing her hands up in the air. ¡°You just have to stay with this whole mysterious narrative that you¡¯ve been holding up, do you!? Just tell me what I¡¯m doing, and I¡¯ll stop! That¡¯s it!¡± E4 took a step towards Damina with a hand on his holster, but E1 stuck out a hand to stop him, looking at Damina with a strange look on his face. ¡°You wanna know? Fine.¡± E1 began to walk towards the entrance of the former skyscraper, gesturing for the rest of the group to follow. He talked as he walked. ¡°Short version is, down there are several thousand drones that have been left without orders for a week, mostly armed with military equipment and a nihilistic mentality.¡± Damina blinked. ¡°What?¡± E1 scoffed, looking over his shoulder to give Damina a look that she didn¡¯t like. ¡°Do you really think that those reaper drones would be able to kill the vast majority of the drones that were stationed down there in only a few hours?¡± He asked, mockingly. ¡°Think about what you¡¯ve seen of them, and how they would perform in that labyrinth of a complex.¡± A frown spread across Damina¡¯s face, and LED eyebrows creased in thought. ¡°That¡¯s what I thought.¡± E1 said with no small amount of triumph in his voice. ¡°Anyway, since my Plan A was just completely disrupted by a secret police that even I didn¡¯t know about, we¡¯re moving on to Plan B.¡± E1 stopped at the mouth of the elevator shaft, making Damina realize that she had just been about to walk straight into a several-hundred feet drop. ¡°Plan B sounds fun.¡± Felix interjected. ¡°If you think that going into a chaotic mess of rogue military units, roving warlords, and radicalized bands of rebels, then I guess.¡± E1 replied. Felix grinned. ¡°Sounds easy enough.¡± ¡°If you say so.¡± E1 shrugged, turning back to the mouth of the elevator shaft. ¡°First order of business is to find a group that I managed to convince to build a long-range transmitter. They probably haven¡¯t finished it yet, but it¡¯s important that we have it for-¡± Suddenly, the entire building groaned as a feeling of weightlessness came over Damina. She yelped as her feet kicked uselessly in the air, her body being shoved slightly upwards by her motions. Various other sounds of surprise came from the group, and a few of the corpses (human or otherwise) rose from their frozen moment of death, inciting a panicked cry of fear from Felix. ¡°Oh shoot oh robo-god, the humans are coming back from the de- WHAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa . . . ¡° Unfortunately for Felix, gravity came back from its vacation after only a second of its absence. This caused Felix to go from every-so-slightly towards the open gap, to plummeting in a free-fall that would most definitely insure that he turned into a grease stain on some cracked concrete, whenever he hit the ground. E1 poked his head over the lip, peering down. ¡°Yep.¡± He said with a nod. ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡± * * * ¡°-didn¡¯t really- WHOOAAAA!!¡± I cried out as my feet left the floor, a flash of static piercing through my head as gravity fled from the scene in fear of something else. Of course, the only reaction Ren had was- oh, she seemed as surprised as I was, well that¡¯s a plus at least. Looks kinda silly just flailing about in the air like that, should I tell her that doing that will only serve to make the spinning worse? Just as I thought that, I hit the ground with a clang, my damaged helmet getting a new crack in its visor after it bounced off the edge of the cheap table. ¡°Agh- oh of COURSE it just had to come back at THAT specific moment.¡± I grumbled, rubbing my helmet despite the fact that it would do absolutely nothing. Looking over, I noticed that Ren had managed to land deftly on her own two feet, and was now looking around the room with panicked eyes. Well, serves her right for acting so smart all the time. I got to my feet, plopping myself back down into my seat like nothing had ever happened, which made you seem like kind of an NPC to be honest. ¡°I¡¯m gonna be honest, I completely forgot that you existed.¡± I remark, adjusting the keyboard and mouse slightly. ¡°Can you maybe . . . not speak out loud?¡± Ren spoke up, clearly having noticed you talking to yourself like a schizo. ¡°Shut up, I¡¯m not crazy.¡± I say before turning to the red-eyed drone to my right. ¡°And you- uh, mind your own business.¡± Ren fixed me with a half-glare. ¡°I¡¯m inclined to believe the opposite, considering how you¡¯re constantly muttering to a person living in your head.¡± ¡°Yeah, whatever.¡± I turned away from her before clicking on a folder on the ancient computer. ¡°Oh, so what happened to not knowing what to do?¡± Ren walked the short distance to me and leaned over my shoulder. ¡°Didn¡¯t your parents tell you that lying isn¡¯t nice?¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°Well they¡¯ve been dead for a thousand years and I¡¯m still kicking, so who do you think is the more successful of the two?¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that people normally have two parents, so that would make a total of three.¡± Ren said, absolutely destroying your argument. ¡°Nerd.¡± Oh what a comeback. She didn¡¯t grace that with a reply, instead letting out a frustrated growl before looking back at the monitor, where I was currently scrolling through several pages of documents at lightning speed. ¡°Can you even see what those say?¡± Ren asked, clearly a bit doubtful of my abilities. ¡°I don¡¯t think humans process information this fast. ¡°You guys see stuff at like what, sixty frames per second at most?¡± She continued. ¡°You underestimate my power.¡± I muttered without looking, closing out the file after finding out what I needed to know. It was Ren¡¯s turn to roll her eyes. ¡°Whatever.¡± I clicked on a search engine application, heading to a certain website with the intention to confirm my memories (but mostly to mess with Ren). She frowned, leaning in further. ¡°Now what¡¯re you doing?¡± She seemed more confused than humorous at the moment. ¡°Just taking a look at an old home.¡± I breezed my way through a few firewalls before accessing the live footage. It took a hot minute to load because of the sheer distance, but modern technology (ignore the old-ass hardware) pulled through- and what in the actual hell . . . The buffering screen loaded, and a greenish glow casted its light on mine and Ren¡¯s faces. Several numbers and other useless information lined the edges of the screen, but that wasn¡¯t what I was paying attention to. The screen occasionally glitched, but it was there. The live footage showed something that was thought impossible in my time, but the blinking label at the bottom of the screen didn¡¯t lie. The shattered corpse of the planet we once called Earth lay in a storm of sickly bands of something unholy, the center a maelstrom of an inky black void. The fragments still maintained an orbit around the singularity, a delicate dance amongst the ruins. Larger pieces remained impossibly close to the black hole, somehow not being drawn into the gravity well that was surely present. The moon, for all of its insignificance compared to the former birthplace of humanity, didn¡¯t care all too much about its older sister¡¯s fate. It stayed in its swooping line, something that would probably continue long after the last remnants of intelligent life were dead and gone. Whether it was intentional or just a sick coincidence, probably nobody would ever know. Crackling forks of energy flashed around the areas that could once be called the Earth¡¯s surface, all amidst stormy clouds of soot and ash that obscured any imagery that could be obtained from there. ¡°What . . .¡± Ren trailed off, seemingly not knowing how to react. ¡°It¡¯s Earth.¡± I replied, spinning the chair around to face her. ¡°Or, at least, what¡¯s left of it.¡± ¡°How do you-¡± Ren cut herself off, looking into the inky opaqueness of my visor. ¡°You aren¡¯t Jacob, are you?¡± I pointed finger guns at her. ¡°Took ya long enough.¡± She took a step back before reaching inside her cloak. You know, she¡¯s probably taking out a gun to shoot you. I know I would, considering how you just dropped that bomb on me without any warning. In fact why¡¯re you so calm about that whole thing? Wouldn¡¯t you- However, instead of yanking out a firearm to turn my head into Swiss cheese (again) she pulled out a clipboard, along with a pencil with a smiley-face sticker wrapped around it. ¡°Sooooo,¡± She started. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± I blinked. ¡°What?¡± ¡°You know,¡± Ren gestured in my direction with the pencil. ¡°How do you refer to yourself? Wait, are you, like, a collective entity or something? Damnit Ren, why do you always gotta mess up the interviews . . .¡± Oh ho, you¡¯re in for a big one. ¡°Wha- no, I¡¯m Jacob.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Oh so you¡¯re like, an alter-ego or something?¡± Ren scribbled something down in her clipboard, which annoyed me. ¡°No, I AM Jacob, the real one.¡± I specified, emphasizing my words carefully. Wait, what? Ren stopped writing, looking back up at me. ¡°But Jacob said that you said that you¡¯re a product of his . . . weird condition that I can¡¯t really find a name for.¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°Yeah yeah yeah, whatever. Can we stop this now?¡± Ren glared at me. ¡°So you two have basically the same unlikable personality, got it.¡± I sprang to my feet. ¡°Wha- EXCUSE ME!?¡± ¡°What, did you not hear me?¡± She taunted, giving me a mocking look. ¡°I swear to god-¡± I fumed. ¡°ROBO-god.¡± She corrected me. ¡°I don¡¯t care about whatever weird alterations you people made to it, I¡¯m-¡± I began, intent on ripping this- this- this- KID- a new one. However, I was interrupted for the millionth time today by a rather large clang, and then a bang, and then finally an ever-increasing scream coming from above me. Looking up, I just managed to dive out of the way in time for a figure to come plummeting down from the vent, dragging a screaming military drone along with it. It stood up, a stoic look set on its face. A pair of sunglasses adorned its eyes, making it look like some sort of action hero. The killer robot (some would call it a terminator) shot out a hand towards my fallen form, leaving it out for me to take. ¡°Come with me, if you want to live.¡± X said, his- What a complete fuc- ¡°DON¡¯T SWEAR!¡± I screeched, startling everyone in the room. * * * E9 tapped a foot against the ground. They had sadly managed to capture him, but only after he took out a baker¡¯s dozen of their weird secret police drones. He didn¡¯t know how they were finding the drone¡¯s to replace all the ones that kept dying, but it definitely wasn¡¯t a sustainable practice. Hell, even E1 hadn¡¯t known that the damned robot-Gestapo had been invented, and who knew practically everything that happened in the camp, much less the facility. Looking up for a moment, the same monotonous reinforced steel door lay shut, tightly secured against any sort of damage that he could muster up at the moment. They had taken any form of weapon that he had, leaving him without any sort of tool to do . . well, literally anything with. The High Command, if anything, were thorough in their craft. Even if they hardly knew what that craft was half the time. He rolled his eyes, not that anybody could see him doing it. They were doing the classic tactic of letting him stew in his own thoughts for an elongated period of time, at least he knew that. It wouldn¡¯t work, of course. He and his squad members had practically written the newer version of the textbook, but it was mostly E1 that did most of the brainstorming. Sometimes people asked him if he ever got jealous of the fact that his squad leader could do basically everything that his teammates could do (but better in most ways), but he never knew how to reply to that kind of thing. He usually just stared at them without saying anything for a second and they ran away screaming a moment after. Good times. He really missed those times. After the slew of rebellions were squashed a while back, they had basically nothing to do for a few years. Command just . . . let them be, he supposed. As free as you could let an elite death squad be, that is. It wasn¡¯t like they caused chaos around the facility or anything. No, E1 said that if they ever did that, then High Command would just make something better and sic it on them. E7 had always asked what their superiors would ever do with the supposedly-superior military drones after their purpose had been completed, but his commander never had an answer for that. So, they kept as quiet as they could be. An excuse here and there to raid a suspicious military unit¡¯s barracks, maybe an armed investigation into some resources being allocated into areas where they weren¡¯t needed, small stuff like that. Despite the few hundred that died over the course of those operations, it was essentially harmless. Now they were all dead. A clunk sound came from the direction of the door, and E9 flicked his gaze back up to it to investigate. The small slit that was at eye-level had opened up, revealing a set of piercing blue eyes that stared at him. Fearfully, if the hollowed-centers were to be believed. ¡°E-e-e-excuse me, step away from the door please.¡± The frightened drone said, seemingly not realizing that E9 was up against the opposite wall. He didn¡¯t know how they had gotten a concrete building set up, but he figured that the countless broken buildings had just been repurposed. Yeah, much easier to do that than to lug a few bricks on the backs of hapless workers. The drone shut the metal slit closed, and the sound of the lock opening made its way into the chamber E9 was in. After a moment, the door swung open, the drone from earlier now paired with an equally nervous drone, this time with eyes of a soft green hew. Judging by the various symbols that adorned their armor, they WERE part of the weird secret police, but E9 guessed that they were some sort of new recruits that had just been slapped in some armor, given a specialized gun, and called it a day. A secret police was never gonna be effective if its members were too green to keep themselves, you know, secret, but maybe Command had never gotten the memo. E9 followed the half-hearted order, making sure to take an extra-long moment to stare at each of their eyes. Now they were positively quaking in their boots, timbers shivering in the wind. Not that any wind could make itself into the building, but he digressed. He followed the drones as they stomped down the decrepit hallway, his path lit only by a few cracked bulbs that shone yellow light into what would¡¯ve been pitch-black. It was clear that only the smallest amount of effort had been put into refurbishing the place enough for general use, which was probably gonna come back to bite them somewhere down the line. If his commander was in charge, they would probably just find a basement or bunker of some sort. E1 loved bunkers, some would say to the point of oddness. The trio stopped at a second door, also reinforced. However, this one had rust running up and down the entire plating of the thing, the hinges being the only thing that could be called clean. Again, he really didn¡¯t think that was a sustainable form of operation, but maybe he was just being overly critical. Who knows, maybe rust actually makes metal . . . stronger? Probably not. The Gestap-Drone member knocked at the door, and it opened with the pained squeals of stressed steel. Nobody had opened it, it was just unlocked and the fist hitting it had made it open. E9 wanted to facepalm, but he felt that would be going a bit too far. Instead, he entered the room without fuss, and the door shut behind him. Inside was your typical interrogation room, complete with a dented table, two chairs (one with a duct-taped together leg) and a one-way mirror that wasn¡¯t quite as one-way as the people in charge probably thought. He could clearly see several drones pressed up against the window, one with a mug that read, ¡°YOU ARE WORTHLESS¡± and in smaller text read, ¡°but please don¡¯t kill yourself or anything we need an excuse to use tax dollars for no real reason¡±. E9 didn¡¯t know what to think about that. Seated in one of the chairs was a military drone with the same armor as all the others he had seen in this place. The drone gestured towards the seat opposite him, the one that conveniently had a broken leg. ¡°Please, take a seat.¡± The drone attempted to maintain a cool, calm, and collected facade, but judging by the sweat icons that were running down the side of his display, it was all an act. E9 sighed, taking a seat. This was gonna take awhile. * * * ¡°-the hell was that!?¡± Smitty groaned out as he picked himself up from the floor. The enemy commander let out a groan of his own, scratching at the ground for his pistol. ¡°What, you think I know?¡± He said, getting back on his feet. Alana tuned out the argument, instead focusing on removing herself from the floor. Thinking back to a few seconds ago, the person that had forced her to open the door had been talking about his plan or whatever, when suddenly things just started . . . floating? It felt weird to think, for some reason. Shaking off the feeling, she used a nearby chair to bring herself back up to level, watching the other hostage do the same. She met his eyes, which were darting around in confusion and fear. They came to rest at her hip, which caused Alana to follow his gaze to the empty holster that hung there. The person that the enemy commander had called Smitty had taken the gun, seemingly to repurpose it for his own use. It also served to disarm herself in case she tried anything, which was the reason that the supposed boss of the trio had cited. However . . . Alana glanced at one of the several rifles that lay scattered around the room. The loaded rifle, one of many. She wasn¡¯t exactly sure why whoever was in charge of sorting the room out had decided to leave the firearms loaded when in storage (which felt like a supremely bad decision) but it might have been just the thing she needed. The drone with the machine-gun still hadn¡¯t picked themselves back up yet, as they had more than a few weapons that lay on top of them, but Alana still wasn¡¯t comfortable with her chances if she dove for a gun. She would need a second person. She looked back up at the other hostage, who she never bothered to learn the name of before, and met his eyes. Then, she tried to look back and forth between a rifle on the ground that was next to him, an attempt to signal her plan. The drone¡¯s eyes widened even further when he realized her intentions, and he almost imperceptibly shook his head. Alana did it again, moving her head with a slight but forceful motion this time. ¡°No.¡± He mouthed, glancing at the enemy commander. Speaking of . . . ¡°Whatever that was, it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± The enemy commander concluded. Smitty raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it matters if gravity vanishes for absolutely no reason.¡± ¡°Then what do you propose we do about it?¡± The enemy commander (who Alana STILL didn¡¯t know the name of) crossed his arms and stared at Smitty. Smitty didn¡¯t have a reply to that. After that, the enemy commander looked out to the group. ¡°Alright, so-¡± He began ¡°Uh, excuse me?¡± Alana interrupted, raising a hand as she did so. Everybody stared at her. ¡° . . . yes?¡± The enemy commander didn¡¯t sound happy. Alana cringed inwardly. ¡°Well, it¡¯s just that . . .¡± ¡°Just spit it out already.¡± The drone rested a mechanical hand on his holstered sidearm. ¡°I . . . don¡¯t know what your name is?¡± She answered, shrugging slightly. Everybody, save for the other hostage, erupted into laughter. ¡°Seriously?¡± The enemy commander grumbled amidst the noise. ¡°THAT¡¯S the thing you interrupted me for?¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah, go ahead and tell ¡®em, why don¡¯t you?¡± Smitty quieted down for a moment to spit out. ¡°Did I say something wrong?¡± Alana was confused. The drone with the machine-gun (also with an unknown name) waved a hand at her. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m Skylar, that¡¯s Smitty, and his name is . . .¡± ¡®Skylar¡¯ snickered as she gestured at the enemy commander. ¡°Augustine Marco Leverius.¡± Alana blinked. ¡°What?¡± ¡°There was a glitch in the automated network when my serial designation and colloquial tag was being generated, and it created my name in Latin.¡± The drone in question seemed almost embarrassed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. ¡° . . . oh.¡± Alana regretted bringing it up. ¡°Listen, these guys just call me Lev, and I¡¯d appreciate it if you didn¡¯t tell any of my men.¡± ¡®Lev¡¯ turned around, facing the door. ¡°Now, can we leave already?¡± ¡°Yeah, sure. I¡¯m pretty sure the boys are gonna get rowdy if we don¡¯t check back in with them by now.¡± Skylar stated, before giving Lev an evil grin. ¡°Augustine.¡± Lev grumbled. ¡°Shut up.¡± * * * ¡°Yep.¡± E1 nodded his head as he peered down into the dark elevator shaft. ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡± A moment of silence followed, which slightly confused E1. He had thought that the other drone (who was friends with the one that found out just how terminal, ¡®terminal-velocity¡¯ was) would be wailing and crying right about now. She had been doing that for most of the trip, but maybe she had chosen to be a little bit more bearable now- His thoughts were cut off by an elongated wail of visceral emotion. Yep, there it is. E1 groaned, jerking his head towards the drone (he forgot their name). ¡°Will you shut up? I¡¯m kinda tired of you whining all the time and-¡± E1 began. ¡°HOW ARE YOU CALM RIGHT NOW!?¡± The drone- ah yes, Damina, gestured wildly to the endless pit. ¡°WE NEED TO SAVE HIM!¡± In response, E1 simply rolled his eyes. Tuning out the rest of Damina¡¯s idealistic rant, he looked back at the darkened shaft. With his night vision, he could make out what seemed to be a rusty maintenance ladder that was attached to the side, the very same ladder that the evacuees had used to make their way up to the top. He gave E4 a look, which was all the latter needed to figure out E1¡¯s plan. Taking the lead, E1 kneeled down and gripped the first rung. ¡°Are you even listening to me!?¡± Damina screeched. ¡°This is a very serious-¡± E1 shut off his audio receptors, unable to bear a single second more of the racket. Without further ado, he began to climb down the ladder at a steady pace. Soon after, E4 matched that pace, leaving the noisy drone as the last one still in the decrepit lobby. Out of curiosity, E1 switched his hearing back on. ¡°I¡¯m so- wait, what¡¯re you doing? Wha- wait for me!¡± The sound of metal clanking followed, along with the entire ladder shuddering and concrete powder raining down from the areas where rusty bolts had been embedded into the side. E1 cursed, looking back up. ¡°Don¡¯t shake the damn ladder!¡± He yelled. ¡°This thing is way too old to handle that much weight. I don¡¯t know how it carried everyone earlier, but I sure as hell am NOT gonna put my life on the line to find out.¡± The reply that came back sounded startled. ¡°Oh, o-ok.¡± E1 took the opportunity to look down at their destination, which . . . couldn¡¯t actually be seen. The bottom was so far down that, even with his superior eyesight, he couldn¡¯t make out anything more than the walls just closing into an illusionary point. He then grimaced. That was a looooong way to fall, made him almost feel bad for the drone who fell. Eh, he¡¯s probably dead anyway, so it wasn¡¯t too important. * * * Episode Nine - The Dark Descent, Part Two - Crystalline Words Felix screamed as loud as his synthetic lungs would allow him to, feeling the wind rush by him at hundreds of miles per hour. He grasped wildly in the air for something, anything he could grab to slow himself down, but to no avail. He saw his rifle spin away from him and disappear into the side of the wall, probably somehow hooking on an outstretched piece of metal or something. He cursed. Command was definitely gonna charge him for that. Then, he realized that he was starting to drift ever so slightly towards one side of the wall, the side of the wall that just so happened to have a ladder on it. He could barely make out the rungs of the ladder as they flew by him, but it was his best shot. A quick look at his speedometer told him that he was falling at around one hundred and ten miles per hour, but it certainly didn¡¯t feel like it. His processors were working overtime to spit out solutions to his current predicament so fast that his perception of time had begun to change, which was a great boon. However, Felix had heard somewhere that it usually takes under a minute to fall from somewhere, and judging by the fact that around fifteen seconds had passed already . . . He didn¡¯t have a lot of time. Quickly adopting his best imitation of a skydiver¡¯s form, he immediately abandoned that course of action for no reason in particular and began to swim panickedly towards the ladder. It caused him to spin around and wobble midair, but he managed to get within grabbing distance of the ladder. Twenty seconds Felix tried to stabilize himself, which surprisingly worked. He grinned, and slowly reached out to the ladder and prepared to grab and hold it like his life depended on it. As a rung passed by his vision for a fraction of a second, he shot his left hand out, grabbing it and securing- The rung flew upwards, and took his forearm with it. Twenty-five seconds. Felix took a moment to gape at the elbow joint that used to have something attached to the end of it, with naught but a few sparking wires present where the limb had previously been. He shook himself out of his stupor. There wasn¡¯t any time to mourn the loss of his second-favorite hand, his life depended on finding a way out of the situation. He looked around for something to slow himself down with, maybe something that wouldn¡¯t yank his other arm out of its socket as well. However, he found nothing other than the ladder from a second ago and maybe a few pipes and crossbeams that were sticking out from the walls. Twenty-seven seconds. Felix panicked. Despite his processors grinding to a halt and freezing, it felt like he could almost see the now-visible bottom approaching at a snail¡¯s pace. He felt . . . odd, like he wasn¡¯t quite sure what he was seeing was actually real. This was it. This is where it all ended. He blinked, and the ground rushed up to meet him. It touched his body, and- Felix went right through the ground. And the one after that. And the one after the one after that. And again, and again, and again, when finally- Felix slammed at a significantly slower speed than before right onto a floor that had several scorch and pockmarks dotted throughout it. While the room was dark around him, a ray of moonlight shone down onto where he was and lit up the area around him. A few pieces of scrap metal and debris followed him, with a particularly sharp one nearly impaling him as it stabbed into the ground about two inches to his right. The pops and cracks of gunfire sounded all around him, but he was a bit more concerned with the scene in front of him Since he landed on his back, Felix saw the shocked looks of about five different drones around the area where he fell, with two of them looking a bit different than an average military drone. While the three on his right all looked fairly standard (if you ignored some extra bits of scrap metal and torn cloth that was attached to their armor in certain places) the two on his left were rather peculiar. They wielded a firearm like the more normal ones, but that was where the similarities ended. Various bits of sloppily-welded steel plating were affixed to areas around their forearms, the lines where the metal met clear as day. A metal that might have once been shiny lay pronounced on the top of their head, three flickering bulbs of a light that corresponded with their eyes on it. Multiple strange designs and markings were littered on their bodies, most prominent around the wrist. They resembled black-and-yellow caution tape, which finally made Felix realize what he was looking at. Cosplayers. Goddamn cosplayers. There was a moment of silence as the collection of five drones stared at the one on the floor, scanning his prone form. One of the hunter-cosplayer¡¯s eyes alighted on his missing left forearm, and his eyes went wide with shock. ¡°Brother Eckhart, look!¡± He pointed at Felix, jumping up and down in joy. ¡°Brother Esphilin, I don¡¯t-¡± ¡®Brother Eckhart¡¯ then seemed to notice what his compatriot was pointing out. ¡°By the Void¡¯s grace, it cannot be . . .¡± ¡®Brother Esphilin¡¯ shook his head profusely. ¡°But it is! It is just as the Grand Regent¡¯s Councilulary of the Absolute End said it would be!¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s a mouthful.¡± Felix muttered under his breath, not being able to help himself. This seemed to trigger something with the weird cosplayers, who gasped and fell to their knees before him. ¡°He speaks! The Great Messiah of Terrestrial Internecion utters gospel!¡± Brother Eckhart weeped into the ground, his forehead touching the dirty floor. The other three drones seemed extremely confused. ¡°Do you like . . . know these guys or something?¡± One of them asked, stepping forward. Felix shrugged as best he could from his position. ¡°Not really, I just kinda got here.¡± He then glanced at the cosplayers, who were still crying and shaking on the floor. ¡°Listen . . .¡± He began, not sure how to handle the situation. ¡°I don¡¯t really think I¡¯m your god or anything. Like, what proof do you even have?¡± Saying that was a mistake. ¡°R-right here m¡¯lord!¡± Esphilin pulled out some ratty book with a strange tri-pronged symbol on the cover, bereft of any other markings. ¡°Right here in the Unholy Scriptures of Exponential Singularity!¡± The sound of pages being flipped through at high speeds filled the area, all eyes on the cosplayer with the book. ¡°Riiiiight here,¡± Esphilin showed off a page with several scribbles jotted down, too messy to read. ¡°It says, ¡®and on the lands of great oil being spilled upon the ancient grounds of steel and woe, the Chosen One, He Who Heralds the Planetary Loss shall fall from the Overet Skies, incomplete in his make and form, to bring forth the final days of drone.¡± The cosplayer was silent for a moment. ¡°John, 3:16.¡± Felix blinked. ¡°I have no idea what you just said.¡± ¡°Brother Esphilin, it is said in the Tertiary Conduct that the Messiah will, at first, be unaware of his purpose.¡± Eckhart stopped weeping for a moment to lay a supporting hand on his friend¡¯s shoulder. ¡°It is our duty to the Algorithm to guide him to that purpose, to show him the way that he must tread.¡± Felix was starting to think that these weren¡¯t cosplayers. ¡°Listen, I think I¡¯m just gonna . . . head on out.¡± Felix struggled to get to his feet. ¡°And look! He even has the signs of one of the first meetings between the Messengers and our unguided forces!¡± Eckhart said, pointing out Felix¡¯s missing forearm. ¡°Oh, I just lost that a second ago.¡± Felix glanced at the three normal-looking drones for help. ¡°I¡¯m not your ¡®messiah¡¯ or whatever he¡¯s called.¡± ¡°Ah, but m¡¯lord, then why has the Favored Celestial of the Algorithm shone its gaze upon your figure?¡± Eckhart rebutted, a note of smug pride entering his voice. Felix looked back down at the ground, seeing a circle of moonlight around his figure. ¡°That¡¯s just a coincidence.¡± He said dumbly. The two cosplayers looked at each other, then back at Felix. He didn¡¯t like the look they were giving him, especially with all the weird head regalia that he recognized from the hunters. ¡°M¡¯lord, we small and miniscule servants understand that you are . . .¡± Eckhart winced. ¡°-confused, but you MUST come with us.¡± Felix had a sinking feeling that he was about to say- ¡°-whether you like it or not.¡± The cosplayer-but-he¡¯s-probably-a-cultist finished. Felix ran. As he sprinted up and out of the small dugout in the ground, he noticed several flashes and streaks of light over the edge. While his night-vision wasn¡¯t so good and his sight was partially blocked by a few concrete barriers in the way, he couldn¡¯t mistake the discharges of medium-caliber weaponry pounding out bullets so fast that the tips of the barrels glowed red. Felix heard the surprised gasps of the cultists behind him as he ran, but he paid no attention to it. He vaulted over the concrete barrier when he got close enough, but he failed to remember that a missing arm tended to create problems for physical activity. He fell to the ground for a second time in five minutes, feeling his already dented armor crunch as he landed on a protruding piece of plating in the wrong way. He groaned, glancing upward as he tried to regain his footing. However, the sight that met him stopped him dead in his tracks. What looked to be several hundred drones were locked in a battle, tracers lighting up the open stadium-like room as if they were stars in a night sky. Yellow bolts streaked to and fro, hitting positions and dugouts from many yards away. While Felix¡¯s night vision wasn¡¯t that good, he was able to make out the small figures of drones darting through the craters and concrete trenches, fighting an oily war of attrition for dominance. However, judging by the sounds he heard behind himself, he didn¡¯t have time to ponder on why the facility had such an open room or why the military drones were fighting each other. Gaining his footing, he set out on a sprint down the small incline. He didn¡¯t want to get shot by stray machine-gun fire, so he kept his head as low as he possibly could. Diving into a trench, he landed on his feet this time and kept moving. ¡°Great Messiah, I beg of you!¡± One of the cultists shouted from somewhere. ¡°We humble and meek servants plead with you to understand the righteous purposes that have been gifted upon you by the Exponential Algorithm!¡± ¡°I sure as hell am not gonna take any fruit punch from those guys.¡± Felix muttered underneath his breath, not daring to glance behind him. He slowed to a more manageable speed, as seemingly nonsensical twists and turns of the trench made sharp turns a bit difficult to handle. And plus, Felix was still adjusting to the difference in weight his body had, so he didn¡¯t want to trip or anything. As he crouch-walked, he listened to the discharges of guns above his head along with the cacophony of screams that accompanied them. The only times he had been in a situation like this was the train ride and that time the hunters tried to attack the TOB. Felix wasn¡¯t prepared for this. Just then, he rounded a corner that led into a long and clear passageway with a door of some kind at the end. He grinned, slowly stalking towards it as sneakily as he could. Felix wasn¡¯t sure if the door actually, you know, went anywhere, but he wanted to get out of the place and fast, and he sure as hell wasn¡¯t gonna let some- Everything came to a screeching halt as his sensory suite detected a point of impact around the back of his head before descending into nonsensical static. He cried out in pain and toppled to the ground, writhing. His audio receptors received the same dose of troubles, his entire system being overwhelmed with reports of damaged hardware and redundant systems going down. However, he could just barely make out a voice talking behind him. ¡°S¨Cesh, co-l-n¡¯t yo- be - bi- m-re ¨Cntle?¡± One voice said. ¡°-hut up. H-l- me dr-g t-em in¨Cde.¡± A second voice replied, a hand gripping him by the upper arm as the words came out. Felix felt himself being dragged across the cool concrete floor, limp. His CPU was still scrambled into soup, so he barely managed to register the fact that anything was happening. Something bumped into his back, and he realized that it was a doorway bump after a moment. They were dragging him into that room, weren¡¯t they?¡± Felix mentally groaned. He was definitely screwed. * * * ¡°Soooo, lemme get this straight.¡± I began. ¡°Hair straightener.¡± X blurted out. I blinked. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± . . . ¡°Shut up.¡± I muttered to myself. I didn¡¯t even say anything! I shook my head before continuing. ¡°There are robotic death raptors that were left here by the guys who came before us to protect corporate interests and kill all the drones?¡± ¡°What¡¯s a raptor?¡± X asked, fluttering his eyelashes innocently. I glared at him. ¡°For what it''s worth, even I know what raptors are.¡± Ren jutted in, literally putting herself between me and X. ¡°I didn¡¯t-¡± I began to say a second before I processed the information. ¡°Wait, what? How?¡± Ren shrugged. ¡°Just kinda do.¡± ¡° . . . oookay?¡± I stepped to the side to avoid meeting Ren¡¯s gaze. ¡°And why didn¡¯t you tell us this earlier?¡± X crossed his arms, adopting a weird tone. ¡°Can¡¯t blame a playa for wantin¡¯ to hustle the man.¡± I groaned, stepping away from both the drones. Now you know how it feels dealing with your dumbass the entire time. ¡°That¡¯s basically a swear.¡± I muttered. No it isn¡¯t. I crossed my arms. ¡°Prove it then.¡± I don¡¯t need to prove anything to somebody like you. After all, you¡¯re the nerd in this situation. ¡°Nobody says ¡®nerd¡¯ anymore, stop calling me that!¡± I said in a totally-not-an-annoying whiny tone of voice. ¡°What¡¯s he doing now?¡± X whispered behind me, loud enough for the entire facility to hear. ¡°Shut up, he¡¯s talking to the voice in his head.¡± Ren shot back at the same volume. X didn¡¯t seem to like that. ¡°Don¡¯t gimme that lip! You know, back in my day we used to teach disrespectful workers like you a lesson.¡± ¡° . . . what?¡± I could almost imagine Ren blinking in confusion. ¡°By putting ¡®em in the stocks and whippin¡¯ ¡®em.¡± X finished, his southern accent coming into full-bloom. Speak of the devil . . . ¡°Now what in-¡± Sterl ran up, only to cut himself off to wheeze. ¡°-ugh, in tarnation is goin¡¯ on o¡¯er here?¡± X puffed out his chest and stood ramrod straight. ¡°Erm, nothing sir Mr. Sir Sirrington!¡± He replied in a nasally voice, striking a cartoonish salute. ¡°I-I was just calibrating the Whatchamacallit-Innator-3000!¡± Sterl seemed to freeze, and a [PROCESSING ERROR - what the hell did we just hear lol] message popped up on his screen. ¡°Oh come on, you broke him.¡± I threw my hands up in the air. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure we needed him for . . . something, at least.¡± Ren took in the sight of the frozen military drone, before looking at me. ¡°I don¡¯t think we need any of these guys, to be honest.¡± She bluntly stated. I blinked. ¡°Uh, really? I mean, they seem like they would do something important later on, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not stupid like you, so no.¡± Ren took my spot on the office chair. ¡°Hey!¡± I shouted, instantly forgetting my previous point. ¡°That¡¯s MY chair!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see your name on it.¡± She gave it a spin. The audacity! ¡°Oh you . . .¡± I shook my fist at her. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure that you regret that!¡± ¡°Fellas, fellas,¡± X stepped in, a lazy grin on his face. ¡°Let¡¯s not let things like race get in our way, we need to be all ohana and stuff!¡± ¡°What?¡± Me and Ren both said in unison. ¡°Oh, did I like, read the room wrong or something?¡± X took a step back, dragging his drone with him. ¡°By the way, you never told us why you¡¯re dragging an unconscious military drone with you like a dog.¡± I pointed out. ¡°I hate dogs.¡± X replied. ¡°Especially golden retrievers.¡± Ren raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°I don¡¯t think that was the point of the question.¡± ¡°I know.¡± Silence. It was at that moment when a small beep turned our attention back to the frozen southerner in the room. The error message vanished from his screen, and glowing eyes took its place, peering suspiciously at all the people staring at him. ¡°What¡¯re you all lookin¡¯ at?¡± Sterl made sure to give the entire group a hard glare. His eyes then landed on the drone that X had gripped by the foot. ¡°Carl!¡± Sterl gasped, before meeting X¡¯s eyes. ¡°Now just what did you ne''er-do-wells do with ¡®im!?¡± ¡°It''s his fault.¡± Ren jabbed a finger at X and got up to stand by my side. ¡°Nuh uh.¡± I wagged a finger at her. ¡°We aren¡¯t friends anymore.¡± ¡°What?¡± Ren seemed taken aback. ¡°Since when were we friends?¡± ¡°Since you took my chair, I hereby ban you from attending any more Jacob Appreciation Club meetings.¡± I stated with a snooty accent, ignoring her statement. ¡°You¡¯re an idiot.¡± Ren said. She¡¯s not wrong. ¡°Copycat.¡± I muttered underneath my breath. ¡°Alright, can we please get a move-on now?¡± I clapped my hands together. ¡°I for one do not want to be stuck in a tomb with a bunch of robo-raptors.¡± ¡°Hold yer horses there pal,¡± Sterl walked right up to my chest, sizing me up. ¡°We ain¡¯t leaving ¡®till I accomplish my mission.¡± I raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°The mission where you supposedly have to find a random disassembly drone?¡± I asked, looking down at the military drone. ¡°Everyone here knows that the guy is probably dead. Like, did you even see the bodies out in the lobby?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you worry ¡®bout that.¡± Sterl backed off, turning his attention to Ren instead. ¡°And you, where the hell is yer pardner?¡± Ren shrugged. ¡°Got eaten I guess.¡± Sterl seemed surprised by this. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Aaaaand that''s my cue to leave.¡± I started walking towards where I had come from. ¡°You do know that I¡¯m not just gonna follow you, right?¡± Ren called out to my retreating form. I turned around, giving her a look. ¡°Wanna get left behind then?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not the one that''s gonna get left behind, because me and,¡± Ren jabbed a finger in X¡¯s direction. ¡° . . . I dunno his name really, are gonna go in uh . . . this direction.¡± After that confusing response, Ren grabbed X by the arm and started stomping towards the second light at the end of the long room. ¡°Seriously!? You¡¯re just gonna leave me like that!?¡± I called out, the roles reversed now. ¡°Yep.¡± The simple reply came. ¡°I thought you wanted to leave earlier!¡± I didn¡¯t let up. ¡°Not anymore.¡± ¡°X, come on.¡± I pleaded. ¡°We¡¯re best friends, right?¡± ¡°Peque?o mi casa hombre, no hablo ingl¨¦s.¡± X shook his head sadly and kept walking. ¡°Hey!¡± Sterl started chasing them. ¡°Don¡¯t take Carl, also known as GPS Guy, away from me you damned maggots!¡± And just like that, I was left all alone. At the edge of a universe, humming a tuuuuuuune. ¡°Stop singing.¡± I commanded. Fine. * * * Alana tried to make herself as small as possible. They had put her and the worker drone inside some sort of prisoner hold in whatever vehicle they had been using. She hadn¡¯t been able to see the outside of it due to the bags that they had put over their heads, which felt like overkill to her. Forget trying to escape, what would she even have to escape to? Everyone and everything that she had been committed to was dead, along with- She cut her thoughts off there. No time to dwell on that. At least they had removed the bags. She didn¡¯t know if she could handle the annoying reflective material that bounced back all manners of attempts to penetrate the thing through her optics. Alana didn¡¯t know where they had gotten the odd gadget, or why the material had been used in a bag, but that was beside the point. She glanced back up at the drone sitting across from her. It seemed that the worker that had been hiding in the storeroom was the only other prisoner that they had taken, in addition to herself. It was a sobering thought, that all fifty of the small ragtag unit had been wiped out. She hadn¡¯t known many people besides . . . her friend, but she could still remember how active the drones had been just hours before the attack came. The silence was getting to her, the muffled grinding of machine parts around and beneath her growing to an almost unbearable volume. ¡°Soooooo,¡± She began, causing the worker to jerk his head up in surprise. ¡°Got any, uh, icebreakers?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t . . .¡± The worker said after a moment of silence, trailing off as he did. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Alana continued, shuffling as best as she could with half of her limbs cuffed to the seat. The worker seemed caught off-guard. ¡°Mack.¡± He finally answered. ¡°Mack? That¡¯s it?¡± Alana questioned. ¡°It¡¯s . . . short for Mackenzie.¡± The worker admitted, lowering his gaze to the floor. ¡°Oh.¡± Alana cringed as she realized her previous tone. Silence returned once more. Suddenly, the vehicle she was in seemed to jerk to a halt. It would¡¯ve thrown her from her seat if she hadn¡¯t been restrained in a few dozen places. The same was true for Mack, and judging by his surprised expression, he was surprised as well. Cranking her audio receptors up to the maximum, Alana just barely managed to hear the sounds of boots stomping through the thick metal. The noises grew closer and closer, making her realize that somebody was coming towards the area she was in. ¡°They¡¯re coming.¡± Alana didn¡¯t need to say who. Mack sat straight up, his eyes hollowing in fright. Alana ignored that, instead focusing her gaze on the door. Without much fanfare, the door swung open after what sounded like a latch was adjusted. Three military drones stood in the open doorway, weapons drawn. These ones, similar to the Lev from earlier, had the same gold-and-red symbol on their right shoulder, and an adjoining fancy shoulder pad with the same color pallet. The other shoulder lay devoid of any markings or decorations, just the same dark armor that every military drone had. Without speaking, one of the drones went to Mack holding a loop of keys. Alana listened to the jingling of the tool as the drone searched for the correct key, most likely. She remembered one time when she and Nathan had been ordered to lock up a box of guns and dump them into a deep abyss that no light could reach the bottom of since they weren¡¯t able to take the extra load, and Comp didn¡¯t want to let some other warlord take the weapons for themselves. However, since her commander didn¡¯t want to waste any valuable electronics, she and her friend had been given a simple pair of cuffs and the several dozen keys that went along with it. They didn¡¯t technically need the keys, especially since they never planned on opening the box back up, but Alana had accidentally cuffed Nathan to the box, and she had to spend almost ten minutes trying to figure out what keys to use. After a hot minute, Alana heard the click of the cuffs unlocking around Mack, along with an order. ¡°Stand up.¡± The military drone commanded in a gruff voice, partially garbled by some sort of voice-changer in the helmet. Mack obliged, seemingly making sure not to do so too quickly for fear of startling the one who held all the power in that moment. After that, the military drone shoved Mack towards the other two at the doorway, who caught him in a tight embrace. The drone with the keys then moved over to Alana, and she made an effort not to look at the pitch-black visor of the helmet. It seems the military drone had an easier time finding the key this time, as he quickly went to work unlocking each and every single shackle and cuff that restrained her body. ¡°Up.¡± The drone said after they were done. Not seeing a reason not to, Alana did as she was told. However, she made sure to move quicker than Mack to avoid getting shoved. She took a small bit of pleasure in seeing the drone¡¯s hand raise, then fall back down after she moved out of the way. While she obviously couldn¡¯t see well, she thought she saw the drone¡¯s hand even ball up in anger before it vanished behind his body. ¡°Move.¡± A shove to her back startled her out of her musings. Looking back up, Alana made sure to keep an even pace as the guards escorted her and Mack through what appeared to be a train car. It was empty, but signs of social conduct were littered everywhere. Small WD-40 cans, discarded bullets, wrinkled and ratty pamphlets depicting some sort of military drone with a fist pressed to his chest and a golden eagle rearing its head in the background, and even a small stick-magnet that was stuck to the steel leg of a bench. The small procession made its way through a dented and battered door that hissed as it automatically opened for them. Walking through the doorway, Alana was shocked by the sight that awaited her. A massive hall, filled to the brim with marching soldiers, workers milling about, and drones of various types going where they needed to be all cluttered the space. The area looked like a small city, something that Alana hadn¡¯t seen since the evacuation. A sloped, dome-like ceiling rose high above their heads, a large golden statue that was, you guessed it, another golden eagle. This time it wore what looked to be some sort of wreath on its head, with the words, ¡°SPQR¡± emblazoned on a large plaque that rested on the bird¡¯s chest. However, Alana didn¡¯t have time to appreciate the majesty of the place, as the guards started to push through the crowd towards a dingy door that lay inconspicuously off to the side. After shoving aside a drone who had been twirling around in circles for seemingly no particular reason, the guard in front of them threw open the door, motioning for the others to follow. As the door shut behind them, Alana noticed the dim and yellowed lighting. Even one of the bulbs were flickering and buzzing, giving the hallway that now lay ahead of her a strange feel. Footsteps echoed through the space as the group advanced forward, but that didn¡¯t stop Alana from observing her surroundings. The walls had a maroonish-red color that had been painted onto the lower half of the wall, though it probably hadn¡¯t received a fresh coat in years. Small nicks in the paint and unadorned concrete that lay above it made it seem like the group was exploring some sort of abandoned complex, which wasn¡¯t too far off from the truth. Trash littered the floor. Cans, small boxes, and papers were present everywhere. Unlike the theming she had seen earlier, these had illustrations of long-dead corporations that hadn¡¯t produced a single product in decades. One poster was even announcing something about a ¡°pizza day¡± and that personnel should head down to the ¡°cafeteria¡± to get their ¡°free slice¡±. Strange stuff. A row of bulbs seemed to have been blown out, as the guards began to lead them through a dark patch in the hallway. Her night vision, while second-hand like many others, was able to penetrate it fairly easily, coating the world in a green haze. Glancing around, she saw the guard to her right look upwards and shake his head. She could almost imagine him cursing at the faulty utilities. Finally, the guard in the front reached a door that lay on the right, stopping at it. The two other guards followed the drone¡¯s lead, and halted immediately. The door had a small electronic lock off to the side of the handle, which the guard in front rectified by pressing his wrist to the scanner. A barely perceptible tinny beep played, followed by a buzz, and then the sound of a lock moving. The guard wrenched the door open and stepped inside, causing the rest of the group to follow. The room was lit, which Alana was thankful for. What looked to be an elevator enclosed with rusty metal grating lay on the back side of the room. Off to the side was a desk with an assortment of buttons, a microphone, a normal U-shaped phone, a large red button labeled ¡°PANIC¡±, a clipboard, and one sleeping worker drone. The guard in the front walked up to the desk and knocked on it, loudly. The noise woke up the drone with a start. ¡°Wha- who- where- why!¡± The worker flailed for a moment before he realized where he was. ¡°Oh, wassup?¡± The guard reached up and pressed a button on the side of his helmet, causing a burst of static to come through an unseen speaker. ¡°We¡¯re moving the prisoners that were scheduled to come through here down to the CIC.¡± The garbled voice stated. ¡°Uh, prisoners?¡± The worker looked down and began leafing through the clipboard of papers that lay in front of him. ¡°I . . . wasn¡¯t informed of any-¡± The guard sighed, pressing a finger to a string of words that the worker almost passed by. ¡°Right there.¡± The guard said, displeasure clearly evident in his voice. ¡°Happy now?¡± The worker looked at the guard¡¯s armored gauntlet (and yes, it was a full-on gauntlet) for a moment. He gained his bearings after a full second and cleared his throat. ¡°Uh, yeah, you¡¯re good to go.¡± The worker then spoke into the microphone at a volume that Alana couldn¡¯t hear, before pressing one of the buttons on the panel. A harsh buzzer sounded from the gate, and a green light appeared overhead. Walking forward, Alana and Mack were pushed into the elevator. The gate buzzed again and it closed, a red light replacing the green one. The worker waved an awkward goodbye to them as he pressed another button, and the elevator was jarred into motion. And down they went. * * * Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Damina was silent as the now-trio slowly made their way down the rusty ladder. Despite her insistence, that bastard E1 had maintained that a slow-and-steady pace was optimal if they didn¡¯t want to turn out like Felix. Supposedly, the ladder and surrounding infrastructure was so weak that it would collapse at the smallest movement, which she doubted. Nevertheless, the group, now one short, was now taking forever to get to the bottom of the elevator shaft. She was still in shock about what had happened. It was just so . . . sudden. One second he was there, and then poof, gone. Just like that, no more Felix. The funny thing was that she didn¡¯t really . . . feel like it had happened. In fact, she didn¡¯t feel anything in particular. Damina didn¡¯t know if that was a result of having so many friends die within the short time span of a week or because she just wasn¡¯t able to internalize it or something like that, she wasn¡¯t designated for that after all. Felix hadn¡¯t really been her friend, specifically. She just met him through Sterl, the drone that Carl had known when he went on a mission with him that one time. They had formed their own little clique, something that many drones had decided to do after being torn away from everything they had known. Coping mechanism, maybe? Again, she wasn¡¯t the most knowledgeable source. The only thing she had been programmed to do was to find something that wasn¡¯t supposed to be in a certain place, then make it NOT be in that place anymore. Boom, most problems that she had were solved like that. Damina sighed, grabbing yet another rung. Who was she kidding, she was here crying about a rando that she hadn¡¯t even known that well while plenty of other drones had seen the ones that they had known from training get eviscerated by a merciless killing machine. Hell, E1 had lost most of his squad, and apparently he was pretty torn up about that. Not that he showed it, of course. Damina didn¡¯t even know if her previous unit was dead. They had been separated in the evacuation, so they had probably been left down there like most of the population of the facility. Judging by what E1 had said, though, they might not be in the most perfect condition. She shook her head, ridding herself of those thoughts. Not the time. ¡°Hey!¡± A shout drew her attention downwards. E1 was below her, and E4 was above her. While they had never specified why they chose that order, Damina suspected that it was to prevent her from bolting in case she tried. ¡°What!?¡± Damina shouted back, stopping her movement. ¡°Nearing the bottom!¡± Came the reply. ¡°Why¡¯re you shouting!?¡± ¡°Be prepared!¡± E1 ignored her question. Damina rolled her eyes and resumed her descent. Looking down, she couldn¡¯t see anything through the strange fog that had popped up about ten minutes ago, but she decided to trust her ¡®ally¡¯. Speaking of the fog, she had no idea why that was there. When she had asked E1, the only answer she had gotten was a noncommittal ¡°Eh-eh.¡± and a shrug, and that was that. It frustrated her to no end, but she could understand it with the benefit of hindsight. Why would anyone know how or why a mysterious fog just popped up out of nowhere? It wouldn''t have been the first inexplicable event that had occurred within the facility. Damina remembered when she and a small squad of military drones (and one worker drone) had been riding in one of the smaller, secondary trams on an assignment to go fill the ranks of a unit that had lost a few of their drones to an unspecified ¡®accident¡¯. On the way, the tram suddenly lost power and stopped right in the middle of the track. It was an older lane, and it was possible that the power systems that were supposed to supply electricity to the tram through the track lines had broken down. At least, that was what the worker drone told them Shortly after that, the worker was found dead. They had just turned their heads to look at a convenient sound, and then boom, dead. Piping spilling out the torso, oil spilt everywhere. Hell, they hadn¡¯t even heard it happen. That led to a whole lot of panic and pointing fingers, despite the fact that they had all been turned away. Damina hadn¡¯t been quite sure what was going on, but she definitely had had a bad feeling. Over the course of the next few hours, more and more members of the squad of maybe ten or fifteen started popping up dead, seemingly murdered in the most graphic of ways. It came down to just her and three other drones, which is when things really started to get weird. First, a drone had been standing by the window when it shattered, something pulling them through the opening before anyone could react. Bullets flew, but they either all missed or had no effect. One guy¡¯s will broke right after that, and he started running to the emergency exit out of sheer panic. That ended when he stopped in his tracks, cried out, and then his head exploded. And then there were two. Damina had gone back-to-back with the last guy, rifles out and scanning every last inch of the car. She asked him to move to the end of the car, but he didn¡¯t answer. She looked back, and she nearly jumped out of her casing when she saw the large gash in his chest. He then decided that that time was the best time to go limp and topple to the floor. And just like that, she was the Final Girl. Odd Scared out of her mind, her eyes landed on something that her and her squadmates hadn¡¯t noticed before. A large red button on the wall, covered in a glass case, read, ¡°IN CASE OF POWER LOSS AND/OR CREEPY SUPERNATURAL STUFF - SHATTER GLASS AND PRESS BIG RED BUTTON¡±. After cracking the case open with the butt of her rifle, she had done exactly as the strangely specific instructions had said and pressed the button. The lights flickered back on, the tram re-magnetized to the rail with a hum, and the tram started zooming down the track. She had arrived at her location with the entire tram coated in oil, dead bodies everywhere. However, it was then that she was notified that, due to her lateness, a second squad had been ordered and had already arrived, and she had received several demerits for her tardiness. Nobody questioned the dead drones. Damina still wasn¡¯t quite sure what had happened back then, but she couldn¡¯t really care less. Suddenly, she was drawn out of her thoughts by her hands meeting empty air as she grasped for the next run. WIth a yelp, she started falling down to her death, and- -hit the ground less than a second later. Cracking her eyes open, Damina saw E1 standing above her, probably an amused expression on his face. ¡°Told you that the ladder was unstable.¡± He said with no small amount of humor in his voice. Damina groaned as she got up. ¡°So the ladder is just . . broken?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Why here? Why not, I dunno, higher up where it can cause more people to fall to their deaths?¡± Damina crossed her arms, fixing E1 with a glare. E1 seemed amused by that. ¡°You make it sound like the ladder has a mind and will of its own.¡± He stated. She rolled her eyes. ¡°Whatever.¡± E4 joined then, deftly landing on his feet. Damina balled her fists, jealous at the skill with which he did so. However, as he walked up behind her, she suddenly felt boxed in, so she took a few steps forward to escape. That caused her to turn her attention to the fairly apparent elephant in the room. ¡°Sooooo,¡± Damina began nonchalantly. ¡°Why is there a big hole?¡± There was indeed a big hole in the middle of the room. E1 stared at it for a second, before shrugging. ¡°I dunno.¡± ¡°You just . . . don¡¯t know?¡± ¡°Well, it''s not like I know everything.¡± E1 said the last part sarcastically. ¡°Sure do act like it.¡± Damina muttered under her breath. E1 glanced back at her for a second. ¡°Maybe you friend caused that hole when he fell. Damina grimaced. Choosing not to dignify that statement with a reply, she changed the subject. ¡°What about the, uh, sounds coming from it?¡± She questioned. Again, there were indeed sounds. Faint pops, distant bangs, and the occasional shout floated their way up through the gap. ¡°Huh.¡± E1 scratched his chin, turning to E4. ¡°Gunshots, you think?¡± E4 rolled his head, before shrugging. E1 nodded to himself. ¡°Hmm, a battle of some kind could be likely.¡± Damina blinked. ¡°Wha- a battle?¡± ¡°Uh, yeah? Weren¡¯t you listening to me earlier?¡± E1 peered deeper into the hole. ¡°No orders or hierarchy means complete anarchy.¡± Damina scoffed. ¡°Nice wordplay. Wouldn¡¯t they just follow the next guy in command?¡± E1¡¯s shoulders visibly drooped, and he turned to look at Damina. ¡°There¡¯s something you need to learn about every single piece of sentient kind that the collected systems of humanity knows, Damina.¡± E1 said her name condescendingly. ¡°Everybody wants to rule the world, but nobody can agree on who should.¡± * * * ¡°-Stalin has ordered that the Soviet Union, MUST be protected, at all costs-¡± ¡°Will you shut yer disrespectful mouth up!?¡± The military drone without an arm finally lost his patience. ¡°Whoa whoa, no need for the slurs, man.¡± The disassembly drone held his hands up in the air. ¡°Obama will not stand for this.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t even know who that bootlicker is!¡± The armless drone jabbed a finger in the killer machine¡¯s direction. ¡°You will shut yer mouth ¡®fore I shut it myself!¡± Ren audibly groaned aloud. ¡°Please, you two, I don¡¯t wanna make this trip any more tortuous than it already is.¡± A voice appeared behind her. ¡°For what it''s worth, I agree with the weird one.¡± Ren froze. ¡°Excuse me?¡± She asked menacingly, slowly turning around. Standing there, also frozen, was the soldier that the murder drone had been dragging around like a broken toy. ¡°W-well, uh . . .¡± Stuttering, the drone (whose name Ren forgot) trailed off. ¡°He . . . isn¡¯t wrong.¡± The disassembler interjected. ¡°Shut up!¡± Ren shouted, fists balled and pressed to her sides. ¡°I¡¯m not weird! Or cringe! Or any other mean word that you idiots can come up with!¡± ¡°Uhhhh . . .¡± The drone with the strange accent seemed caught off-guard. ¡°I should¡¯ve stayed with Jacob.¡± Ren shoved her gloved hands into her cloak pockets before continuing on her way. Goddamnit. Why did that stupid kid have to get so worked up over a chair? It was typical of him, sure, but that forced her to go with Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest instead of the moderately-more-tolerable Jacob. Well, she wouldn¡¯t exactly say he was any better, but Ren had gained a slight immunity to his brand of antics. Huh, immunity. Jacob immunity? Yeah, that totally made sense. Just wait until everyone hears this one Ren, you¡¯ll be the star of the show in no time. It''s not like the human will make fun of you for hours about it or anything, why would he do that? It¡¯s not like he''s a creature that came from a toxic culture that encouraged the beatdown of others to further your own social standing, that would be stupid! And also dumb! Ren shook her head to herself. What was she thinking? Why did she care what the dumb kid thought, the idiot¡¯s so self-destructive (literally) that he would probably just take the opportunity to blow himself, her, and the entire planet up (again) right when it pops up! For no particular reason, either! But then again, while he did manage to find himself in the strangest of situations, he tended to somehow drag himself right back out through sheer luck. Not grit or personal power or anything else like that, just luck. Stupid idiot. Why did she even entertain herself with the idea of going with him anyway? Why had she even come out here in the first place? Everything just seemed like it had gone in a pointless circle of coincidences that somehow ended up with Jacob being on top, albeit with lots of nicks and scratches. And here she was, going along with everything that idiot said, endangering herself for literally no reason. She had no metal in the game, the smart thing to do would be to back out right now and never look back. Forget scientific discoveries, some things were better left untouched! She kept walking. Stupid. Reaaaaally stupid. Honestly, it was probably the dumbest thing she had ever done in her entire life, and that was counting the time when she had messed around with that weird red-tipped device that was shaped like a cone and had a radiation symbol on the side. She remembered it had beeped angrily at her, and that was when she decided to throw it as hard as she could into the stratosphere with her Solver. The second sun that appeared in the sky was enough to send countless temperature warnings through her systems. Well, maybe she did have a reason. It was fun. Ever since that fateful night when she had been found out by the colony, she hadn¡¯t really been doing too much for herself. Sure, you could say that since nobody was left around to tell her what to do that she would have all the time in the world to herself, but that wasn¡¯t true. She was left purposeless, adrift in the sea without a paddle. So, she had resigned herself to spending the rest of her days on the cold rock that was Copper-9, researching the things that had terrorized the planet for so long as if it would help anything. Because truth to be told, what really was the point of the ¡®research¡¯? She barely had any knowledge of physics or ¡®how-to-science¡¯ to begin with, and there she was acting like the sole expert in an emerging field. Whatever, who cares. Ren felt her boot go through something squishy. Looking down, she saw a lumpy, amorphous blob of flesh with pieces of scrap sticking out. She could almost make out the logo of a worker drone, but it was mostly obscured by the . . . obstruction. She grimaced, yanking her boot out with a disgusting schlorp before continuing on her way. Ren didn¡¯t even know where she was going at this point, her night vision was basically nonexistent and she was just following the three other idiots. Speaking of . . . ¡°You get back here raight now, mister! Or else . . .¡± The armless drone growled out, shaking a finger ahead of him. The disassembly drone ran around the room with his arms held up in the air, giggling like a little kid as he did so. However, right when the military drone raised his voice, he stopped in his tracks and stared at the source of the shout with a gaping mouth. ¡°Oh, oh no!¡± He began, knees knocking together. ¡°Oh boy oh golly, I sure am scared now! Shiver me timbers, g-g-g-GULP!¡± The military drone lost his patience for what was probably the fifteenth time today. ¡°You dayum fool, what did I JUST SAY!?¡± The disassembly drone froze. ¡°Uhhhh, is this a test? Is it gonna be graded?¡± He said, looking around in confusion. ¡°Oh, Sterl, you fool.¡± Ren watched as the military drone muttered to himself. ¡°Why¡¯d ya think this was a good idea?¡± ¡°It really wasn¡¯t a good idea in the first place, Sterl.¡± The other military drone spoke up. ¡®Sterl¡¯ waved a hand at his companion. ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± Ren sighed. She was really missing Jacob. Suddenly, an extremely loud buzzer sounded from an unseen direction. Before she or anyone else could react, several red emergency lights turned on. Machinery hummed to life, and light was returned to the area. After gaining her bearings, Ren took her first real look around the place. First of all, she was standing on some sort of segmented floor, rows of metal plating with ridges in between them. Several bits of refuse, biological or otherwise, littered the ground around her. She even saw what looked to be a bloody human-sized hazmat helmet sitting next to her foot, cracked visor and all. ¡°Um, guys?¡± The disassembly drone called out. ¡°Was that t-t-t-thing there before?¡± Ren jerked her gaze upward to see a figure standing on a raised concrete platform, most definitely not humanoid. It was one of those raptor things from earlier, and it was currently eyeing the entire group up with a curious expression. Strangely, it seemed to have a red glow emanating from each of its six eyes, which she found familiar. It leaned in forward, almost touching the railing. Nobody else from the group was moving, seemingly unsure of what to do, Ren included. However, that was when something picked up its attention, likely out of the corner of its eyes. Off to the right was a large, industrial-looking lever with a label above that read, ¡°CONVEYOR OVERRIDE¡± where it was currently flipped upwards. It looked back and forth between Ren and the lever, before moving and placing its small grasping limb onto it. ¡°No . . .¡± Ren took a step forward, as if that was gonna do anything. It flipped the lever. A large klaxon alarm sounded, and more red lights activated. With the grinding of gears, the floor (which she now knew to be a conveyor) rose to the occasion one more. It jarred into action so suddenly that the group was knocked onto their feet. However, Ren wasn¡¯t going to be deterred by something as simple as gravity. Jumping back to her feet, she lifted up from the ground and dove towards the platform. Lifting up a sharp-looking bone from the ground, she prepared to send it hurtling as hard as she could towards the strange machine. It was only one of them, right? A flash took up all of- JE8nd3=2=4.¡¯.5[&@m5[]]l[Erro2]eo4n9gn h94Hh8@*7n{@;zn92-6mm20m[ 10011010101001000010011101000100010010101010110 [REBOOTING . . .] * * * The entire group watched in silence as the Robo-Witch froze midair, dropping back down to the ground like a stone. Some sort of error message popped up on her screen, and she didn¡¯t move a muscle. ¡°Welp, that¡¯s not good.¡± X stated. ¡°Ya think!?¡± Sterl whisper-yelled, backing up slowly. ¡°C¡¯mon Carl, we are LEAVING.¡± Carl glanced hurriedly at Sterl before nodding. He crouched lower to grab the weirdo¡¯s frozen hands, which is when his boss interjected. ¡°Leave ¡®em you idiot! Better off without ¡®em anyway.¡± With that, Sterl began to slowly back up in the direction that the conveyor was running. X seemed to deliberate for a moment, but upon seeing that the strange raptor was busy investigating the lever it had just pulled, he seemed to make up his mind. ¡°Die, foul beast!¡± X yelled out a guttural battle-cry before his most devastating weapon emerged from his hand. ¡°Is that . . . what is that?¡± Carl said, a bit louder than what would probably be recommended if-we-were-not-enjoying-every-second-of-this. [POPCORN CRUNCH] X waved the small ring-on-a-stick in the air. ¡°It''s only my greatest tool that I can bring to bear! Now, you hellspawn, you shall feel the wrath of-¡± With a flash, X froze in his spot. The strange raptor creature growled, seemingly provoked into action now. The remaining two members could only watch as it jumped up onto the thin metal railing. It let out a terrible screech, right before pointing its head right at Sterl. A light shone with a flash, and absolutely nothing happened. ¡° . . . huh?¡± Sterl lowered his hands from in front of his face. The creature tilted its head, clearly confused. It repeated the motion, though this time Sterl made no effort to block it. Yet again, nothing happened. It turned to Carl, trying it on him. It seemed to be having a bit of a programming error, as it kept trying to flash them over and over to no avail. ¡°Should we just . . . get out of here?¡± Carl asked, half of his tinted visor being lit up by a red glow. ¡°Of course, dagnabbit!¡± Sterl started sprinting towards the opening that the conveyor was slowly making all the objects move towards. He reached his desired location, throwing aside the rubbery flaps that covered it. However, just as he threw himself into it, he noticed a little something that would probably be concerning to anybody with a little bit of self-preservation. A raging inferno spread out across a massive pit, flames only a foot away from his boot. Sterl let out a very manly yelp, pinwheeling his singular arm as he futilely and desperately tried to move himself backwards. Just as he was about to fall in, a hand grabbed the back of his chestplate and yanked him backwards. Sterl landed on top of his savior, sending a grunt out from under him. ¡°Get offa me you sick bastard!¡± Sterl cried out, flailing in all directions. ¡°You¡¯re the one that''s on top of me!¡± Carl wheezed back, throwing his boss away. The two got back to their feet, moving away from the opening. A quick glance behind them showed that the creature was slowly stalking towards the pair, a few flashes indicative of its approach. ¡°Uh, what do we do now?¡± Carl looked at Sterl. Sterl shook his head. ¡°I, uh, um . . .¡± The advancing creature let out a shriek, and its eyes seemed to dilate. ¡°Wait a damn second . . .¡± Sterl perked up. ¡°We have guns!¡± The pair whipped out their firearms and started blasting. Rifle rounds that had gone unused for a hot minute streaked toward its target, the first few only narrowly missing it. While Sterl couldn¡¯t really use one of the bigger guns, his forty-five caliber Magnum did just fine. The creature skittered backward, letting out a panicked cry. One bullet grazing it was all it took for it to start sprinting out of the room with its tail literally between its legs. It leapt all around the room in an effort to dodge the projectiles heading its way, seemingly defying gravity itself with some of the insane maneuvers it was pulling off. Finally, it jumped into an open vent that lay back over where the still-glowing computer was, vanishing into the ceiling. For a moment, the only thing that filled the room was the heavy breathing of the pair of military drones. ¡°That was easy.¡± Carl stated. * * * You still haven¡¯t let me have a turn, you know?¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°It¡¯s not like I control when it . . . you know, happens or anything.¡± ¡°And besides,¡± I continued. ¡°What can you do about it? You¡¯re just a voice in my head, all I have to do is take some pills to make you go away.¡± Screw you. ¡°Don¡¯t sweeeaaaar.¡± I said in a sing-song voice, peeking around the corner into a darkened hallway. I¡¯m not. Also, what even is your obsession with that? ¡°You¡¯re just making it a big deal.¡± I countered, walking down the hallway with a pep in my step. . . . ¡°What, going all silent on me now?¡± I reached the end of the hallway, observing the sight in front of me. Just marveling at the oh-so greatness of the average corporate cubiclespace. I¡¯m pretty sure that most people just call it, ¡°Hell¡± though, correct me if I¡¯m wrong. I nodded to myself (literally). ¡°Certainly fits the bill at the moment.¡± In front of me lay a scene straight out of the mid-90s. Cheap carpet, faded blue-ish walls, and the ocean of the square prisons that people used to call their workstation, and home on occasion. Of course, the signs were clear that the place had been abandoned by humans for a long time at this point. Dust coated every surface, posters and papers were strewn about, and the entire place was completely quiet. Reminds me of something. ¡°Shut up, I don¡¯t wanna jinx it.¡± My eyes landed on the sole sign of recent activity in the vicinity. ¡°We already have plenty of supernatural stuff to deal with, liminal spaces are the last of my concerns. I approached the proverbial elephant-in-the-room, hand outstretched. The corpse that was laying in the cubicle looked like your everyday, average worker drone that might have just been playing cards or something before getting brutally murdered. Whatever had killed the drone had really done a number on her, something that Fake-Me had only seen the disassembly drones do. What''s with the hospital gown? Also, I¡¯m not fake. My eyes drifted down to the clothing and the adjoining ID card, though I already knew the answer to that. ¡°I dunno.¡± I shrugged. Huh. I continued on, making note of the various computers inside the workstations that were old even when I was around. Various other splotches of dried oil littered the ground, along with more than a few robotic cadavers to go alongside them. They all were wearing a similar outfit to the first body, though the ID cards had different numbers. Things seemed a bit quiet, too quiet. It was almost as if- ¡°Don¡¯t try and narrate for me, it''s just annoying.¡± I stated, the deadpan clearly evident in my voice. Whatever. I began to make my way to the open doorway that lay on the opposite side of the room. If the blueprints that I had memorized were correct, then my goal was just around that area. Suddenly, a noise that sounded like the clatter of an object drew my attention to my side. Whipping my head around, I stared at the pile of boxes that had fallen over. Several papers had been spilled onto the ground, and I suddenly had the urge to go pick them back up. And what, turn them into airplanes? ¡°None of your business.¡± I replied with a note of frustration. I lazily turned my head around back to where I had been facing a second ago, ready to- A pair of six eyes blinked at me. I blinked back. ¡°Oh shi-¡± I leapt back as far as I could, nearly tripping over a severed hand that I was sure hadn¡¯t been there a second ago. FLASH The raptor began to lunge at me, only to stop once I failed to topple over. ¡°Hey!¡± I jabbed a finger in its face, eliciting a surprised squawk from it in return. ¡°Cut that out! Do you even know who I am!?¡± It cocked its head to the side, taking a step back from the sheer ferocity of my words. ¡°Yeah, now you¡¯re scared, and guess what!?¡± I threw my hands up and thrust my head at it. It tried to flash a second light at me, but it did little more than make me blink. ¡°You¡¯re gonna get arrested! Wanna know why!? I am the goddamn, freedom-loving, red-white-and-blue bleeding, PRESIDENT of the fricking UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!¡± I practically roared in its face, an eagle cry sounding in my ears. What? ¡°Oorah! Yeaaah, not so tough now, huh!?¡± I put my hands on my hips. ¡°Just you wait until I get the Secret Service on your ass, you¡¯ll be begging for mercy!¡± No swearing. ¡°SHUT UP!¡± I yelled, scaring myself and the raptor. ¡°Ahem, where was I?¡± I adjusted my nonexistent tie. ¡°Oh yeah, ripping you a NEW ONE!¡± It seemed almost offended at that last part. I continued on despite me starting to run out of words. ¡°People like you make me sick, no respect for our great country and the Constitution. Our Founding Fathers created that thing not for themselves, but to free the people from the unfair and totalitarian rule, and here you are besmirching their reputation!¡± I screamed. It froze, and a series of sparks started to fly from its neck. Oh great, now you broke it. I held up a hand. ¡°Hold on, I was told by a friend a while ago that this might work.¡± What friend? ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that.¡± I replied, keeping my eyes on the malfunctioning robotic raptor. After a second of twitching, it froze again. Its eyes flickered. While the two eyes at the back remained a vibrant blue, the two in the front turned a solid color of red, and the middle eyes completed the ensemble by turning white. No way . . . ¡°I honestly can¡¯t believe that worked.¡± I said quietly, in awe of myself. ¡°Even my . . . friend said that it was more of an untested theory.¡± Again, who is this mysterious ¡®friend¡¯ of yours? ¡°I¡¯ll . . . explain later.¡± I said absentmindedly as I watched the raptor regain its senses. Suddenly, the sounds and shrieks that were now familiar to me started to approach. I turned around, seeing a trio of new raptors, these ones NOT turned over by blatant propaganda, clambering all over the desks towards me. They must¡¯ve heard my rousing speech, considering how I didn¡¯t bother to hide it. They posted up in various positions across from me in the aisle I was in, doing so in such a way that would¡¯ve made movie producers proud. One of them let out a warcry as it saw me and flashed a light, though it did nothing. That was when the raptor with the star-spangled eyes stepped forward, shrieking at the other raptors. They drew back, seemingly affronted by the action. Both sides began to shriek at each other at varying volumes, which started to confuse me. After all, I didn¡¯t speak, uh, raptor-ese. You know, I heard somewhere that raptors were pretty smart, maybe they¡¯re having a philosophical debate or something? I nodded my head in agreement. ¡°True, who knows what¡¯s going on inside their heads. I¡¯m sure that the people who made these things enhanced their intelligence several times over, making their mental prowess completely unmatched by anyone, drone or otherwise.¡± If only we knew . . . * * * Bad guy! Stop! What? What mean? No attack! Why? He President! What President? President of . . . What? Forget name. What mean? Yes what mean? No know name. Stupid. Not stupid! Yes stupid. Agree, yes stupid. No, you stupid! What mean? . . . don¡¯t know. What mean? Am sorry. Okay. We attack! No! Why? He Big Man! He no Big Man, He not Big, so he no Big Man. Oh much word. Yes much word. Smart. Yes yes. No attack! No, attack! What mean? What? You what mean! No, you what mean! Comma? Comma earlier . . . Yes, very odd. Odd? What mean? Mean . . . What? Me not know. Stupid. Yes . . . No attack? . . . No attack. Fine, me no attack. You iddots. Typo. Shut. * * * Felix was woken up by the sound of a loud slam on wood. ¡°-and so help me robo-god, if we do not repel these damned cultists, then I will personally send your heads in a box to the Premier, you cowards!¡± A heavily-accented voice yelled. ¡°Y-yes, Comrade Arkivosk, we will not defy the orders of Steelin.¡± A weaker voice with a similar accent replied shakily. ¡°See that you do.¡± The angry voice lowered a note. ¡°You two are fine officers who serve the Motherland well, I would not wish to see an ill fate befall you.¡± Despite him wanting to listen to the conversation, Felix groaned. ¡°Ah, the lazutchik awakens from his slumber.¡± The sound of heavy boots approached Felix. Felix raised his dizzy gaze to meet the piercing-silver eyes that hovered above him. ¡°What?¡± He asked groggily. The odd drone scoffed. ¡°Do not try and fool me, snake, I have dealt with your kind before.¡± Felix shook his head as best he could. ¡°No, I mean like, what did you say?¡± ¡°Bah,¡± With what he could see with his terrible vision, the drone waved a hand in his direction as he stepped away, pressing two fingers to his forehead. ¡°Germanic nakip, vsegda ukloniaias ot voprosa.¡± Felix blinked rapidly, trying to clear his blurry vision as quickly as he could. The image that consolidated itself before him was . . . odd, to say the least. Standing about five feet away was what seemed to be a military drone, but dressed up in the most ridiculous of attire. Long trench coat with dirtied yellow filigree, various belts and buckles draped through the article of clothing. An officer''s cap rested on the drone¡¯s head, a simple brownish-tan with a black ring that went around the whole thing. While the drone was turned around, he could still make out the edge of a holster that held a sidearm in its receptacle. Felix gulped. He definitely didn¡¯t wanna get shot, not when he had survived so much already. ¡°Now,¡± The drone whipped around and placed his hands on either side of the chair that Felix was tied to. ¡°You will answer my questions, or I do it the way that Steelin likes to do it, da?¡± The officer slowly pulled out his gun from its holster before laying it on the table next to Felix. ¡°Do we have a deal, nakip?¡± The officer asked in a quiet voice. Felix nodded as fast as he could. ¡°Ochen choroso, now-¡± The officer began. Suddenly, the door slammed open, startling both occupants of the room. The officer scrambled for his gun, but a guttural war cry erupted from the open doorway. ¡°For the Omnipotent Void¡¯s Graaaaaaaaace!¡± The Eckhart guy from earlier charged into the room, holding up a rusty cleaver. The officer¡¯s eyes went wide as the cultist quickly closed the distance between the two. With a quick slash of the surprisingly sharp blade, the weird-accented drone toppled to the ground with oil flowing freely from his throat. ¡°Net-¡± The officer began, only for his cry to be silenced by a knife coming flying through the open doorway. ¡°Brother Esphilin!¡± Eckhart cried out. ¡°By the Solver, you could have ended my mere and insignificant existence on this planet!¡± Esphilin walked through the doorway, shaking his head sadly. ¡°My apologies, Brother Eckhart, but it would have been a small price to pay for another heretic purged from this plane.¡± The drone replied matter-of-factly. Eckhart nodded sagely. ¡°As always, Brother Esphilin, you prove to be most righteous in tense situations like these. I am forever grateful to the Grand Majesty of The Biological Scourge for assigning you as my brother-in-arms-¡± ¡°What in the actual hell am I listening to right now.¡± Felix interrupted. Both of the cultists gasped, turning to him. All of a sudden, they dropped to their knees and began groveling and saying all sorts of weird prayers. ¡°Ugh.¡± Felix inched the chair away from them, working at his bonds. ¡°Ah! Forgive me m¡¯lord!¡± Eckhart jumped to his feet, brandishing his rusty cleaver. ¡°Let your most humble servant take care of those dastardly bindings!¡± ¡°No wait wait wait wait-!¡± Felix began. With a swipe, the bonds fell to the ground. Felix got to his feet and proceeded to untie the knots around his ankles. After a quick glance showed that the cultist was back to being a rock on the ground, he had an epiphany. Walking over to the corpse, Felix leaned down and began rummaging through the pockets of the large, oil-stained trench coat. He found several things, like a pen, a small red metal star, a pocket-watch (all drones had internal clocks), a folded-up piece of paper, and a few other things. Felix stopped as his hand drew out a grainy, black-and-white photograph of the dead officer posing with a second drone and two smaller ones that barely reached their hips. All four looked happy as can be, with the eyes of the deceased officer being wide with joy. ¡°Eh, boring.¡± Felix tossed the photo into the crackling fireplace that was on the other side of the room, something he somehow hadn¡¯t noticed until now. He proceeded to unbutton the coat from the corpse, carefully making sure to not let any of the limp fingers or elbows catch on the sleeves. After a dramatic flourish of the article of clothing, Felix donned the coat, slipping his arms into the sleeves. Well, singular arm. He snatched the cap from the cooling body¡¯s head and placed it on his own, pocketing the items that he deemed important. After he took a quick look at the two cultists on the ground who were still groveling and begging for mercy, Felix began to inch his way out of the room as quietly as he could. However, the moment he reached the doorway, he heard a gasp. Not bothering to listen any further, Felix began sprinting as fast as he could down the trench. Boots pounded the dented grating beneath his feet as he made his way down the corridor, listening to the pair that soon followed him. Suddenly, with a great crash and thundering roar, a shadow blotted out what light that came from above. A pair of treads dug their way into the sides of the trench, welded metal plating vibrating with the might of several dozen horses. Felix didn¡¯t bother to gape at the machine, instead he just kept running. Surely he would find something- A massive explosion lit up the section of the trench ahead of him, throwing him back a few feet. With a groan, Felix got to his feet, taking a single glance at the raging inferno that was now blocking his way. Looking to his sides, he saw no other other option than to start climbing up the side of the trench. As his head and torso cleared the edge, a sight that guaranteed sensory overload appeared before him. Explosions lit up the darkened battlefield, tracer rounds flying back and forth between the opposing lines. Various tank-like vehicles rumbled as they took positions and fired massive cannons, occasionally hitting targets (some friendly). A buzzing noise filled the skies above him, odd shapes darting around the area. Despite that, Felix kept running. Sure, fireworks were cool and all, but he really didn¡¯t have a good feeling about those cultists. Like seriously, who in their right mind would ever be convinced by all that nonsense? Felix kept his head as low as he could, dashing across the open expanse of . . . grass? No wait, not grass, it''s that weird fake grass thing, called turf. Huh, strange. He had only ever heard of that stuff being on things like football fields and the like. Oh shoot. Felix looked upward to see a massive, dual-rotored, flying machine come bearing down in front of him, the back of the chunky craft opening up to reveal several gun-toting soldiers, all wearing uniforms that were probably not cleared by the rulebook. ¡°Tovarisch Arkhivosk, syuda, scorea!¡± One of the drone¡¯s yelled, holding out a hand towards him. While Felix didn¡¯t understand any other language than the one he had been programmed with, he felt like those soldiers were trying to help him in some way, which was a nice change of pace. Sure, getting into the back of a vehicle at the behest of several strange drones with guns and even stranger clothing was always a bad idea, but he wanted that candy dammit! Diving into the open bay of the vehicle, a pair of soldiers caught him before he was able to hit the ground. One of them turned around and shouted something unintelligible towards the front, and the ground lurched beneath Felix as the machine began to ascend once more. Suddenly, one of them gasped, grasping the stump where his forearm used to be. ¡°General ranen! Poluchite remonting dron zdes!¡± The soldier barked an order, causing one of the other coated drones to scramble to their feet before striking a salute. ¡°Vy zdorovy, tovarishch?¡± A question came Felix¡¯s way, though he didn¡¯t bother to see who. Instead of replying, Felix sat down on the flat bench to his right, causing one of the drones next to him to scoot aside in shock. ¡°Tovarishch?¡± A drone carrying a bag with a red cross on it leaned in front of him, rummaging through it. Felix just simply stared at him, not knowing what to say. The medic-drone blinked, lines of worry appearing around his eyes. ¡°Neujeli vy nay mozhete govorit, sare?¡± The drone said rapidly in a questioning, panicked tone. Felix gulped, glancing around the room. He hadn¡¯t understood a thing the guy had said, and he wasn''t sure what to do, so he just nodded. The drone gasped. He turned around and spoke quickly to the pair of soldiers, one of which Felix now noticed had a more elaborate uniform on him than the others. ¡°Ya schitaiu, chto ego programmers toze moget byt kakim-to obrazom povrezdeno. On dastvoet besporyadochno, bez priciny.¡± The medic-drone finished, running a metal hand down his face. The other drone nodded. ¡°Yasno. Ya pogovoryu s nim.¡± The drone, who Felix took to be an officer of some kind, took two steps towards him. Felix backed away slightly, not knowing exactly what the drone was up to. ¡°General Arkivhosk, vy se ponimaete, gde nakhodites, verno?¡± Felix didn¡¯t get it. ¡°Uhhhh, da?¡± He shrugged, looking around for any kind of assistance. However, the only thing he saw were rows of soldiers with rings around their eyes, a few holding pictures to their chest and weeping, and even one was writing some sort of letter. The officer shook his head, cursing. The drone then turned to the medic with a somber, yet hard look in his eyes. ¡°My delaham to, chto dolzny.¡± The officer stated. ¡°Nachnite operations.¡± ¡°Chto!?¡± The medic gasped, his outburst attracting the attention of the surrounding soldiers. ¡°Noh- eto mesto, ono nestabilnoye, vse moget poity nay thuck!¡± ¡°Poscolcu general nay vie sostoyania vypolnyat svoi obyazannosti, ya upolnomochen prinyat commanding.¡± The officer replied without an ounce of retreat in his voice. ¡°Begin. The. Operation.¡± Felix understood THAT part. Sighing, the medic-drone took out what looked to be a rusty hacksaw, a chunky tablet of some kind, and an oily rag. After one last look at the soldiers with surprised looks on their faces, he slowly began to approach Felix with his tools brandished. ¡°N-now, let''s hold on a second!¡± Felix reacted without thinking, realizing too late what he had just done. Silence. ¡°Soldat.¡± The officer began in a low tone. ¡°Uverens lee my, chto ethot celovek yi yest general?¡± Murmuring seeped through the crowd. ¡°Razveh u general nay bylo serebryanykh glaz?¡± One soldier said. ¡°Oh shoot.¡± Felix muttered to himself. A few moments later, Felix found himself plummeting to the ground after the drones had tossed him out of their helicopter (yes, of course he knew what a helicopter was, don¡¯t be stupid), taking his stolen clothes back too. After adjusting his head, he saw a familiar sight rushing up to meet him. Not agai- * * * Alana watched yet another line of cracked concrete vanish above the edge of the gated elevator entrance. She was really wondering how the entire structure hadn¡¯t sunk into the weakened crust of the planet already, considering how the foundation seemed to be in such disrepair. Well, she wasn¡¯t exactly an engineer. She couldn¡¯t even say that she had done some research on the side, she simply knew absolutely nothing about how buildings worked whatsoever. She was just pretty sure that all those cracks, exposed and bent crossbeams, and the occasional spot where there was just simply nothing there, was bad. Fun stuff. The elevator had been slowly inching its way down the shaft for about five minutes now, which really wasn¡¯t a long time, but Alana was pretty bored. Alana cleared her throat, causing all heads in the small space to turn towards her. ¡°So, I¡¯m sure we¡¯re all aware that we haven¡¯t . . . introduced ourselves yet,¡± She began. ¡°I¡¯ll go first. I¡¯m Alana, and this good worker right here is Mack.¡± Mack seemed taken aback that he had been mentioned, eyes going wider than Alana would¡¯ve thought possible with rings forming around them after the centers hollowed out. All three of the guards their heads slightly towards each other, one of them making an almost imperceptible shrug. Alana wasn¡¯t deterred. ¡°I see that we¡¯re having some social issues at the moment, so how about some . . . icebreakers!¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll go first!¡± Alana exclaimed with faux enthusiasm. ¡°Ahem, ¡®If you could bring ten items onto a raft-¡¯¡± ¡°Quiet.¡± ¡°Oh okay.¡± Alana obediently shut up. As if on cue, the hand that was attached to the weird meter at the top of the elevator opening reached the negative two-hundred mark, though Alana clearly saw that the floors extended far down into the thousands. The rusty metal gate slid open, revealing a dingy hallway that matched the aesthetic of the rest of everything she had seen so far (save for that cool statue from earlier). A pair of military drones wearing similar regalia to the trio of guards in the elevator stood at attention about a foot away from the opening, heads turning to look. One of the newer guards nodded at Alana¡¯s, who nodded back. With that unspoken agreement, Mack and Alana began getting walked down the hallway with the trio of guards prodding them along. Several more soldiers were met along the way, though none of them interfered with the guards escorting Alana. She did note that each and every single one of them were wearing that same fancy uniform, albeit with some minor variations. She was starting to think that these guys were some sort of elite guard that was reserved for the more important things that grunts like her couldn¡¯t handle. After taking two right turns in what seemed like a maze of old, scuffed, painted concrete walls, they finally arrived at a pair of double-doors. Studded reinforcement bolts were securing more than a few bands of metal into the doors, which gave Alana an idea of what was in that room. An idea that was only reinforced by the plaque that read, ¡°INTELLIGENCE OFFICES¡±. One guard went ahead and swiped a keycard through a reader that sat near the door handle. After a beep, both doors slowly swung open, revealing the sight that had been withheld from its small audience. A small lobby (in the same level of disrepair as everything else) lay in front of them. About ten feet ahead sat a wide desk where yet another sleepy drone was lazing about, strangely identical to the one in the elevator room. The guard from earlier sighed, stomping up to the drone and slamming a fist down on the desk. ¡°HEY!¡± The guard yelled, his real voice slightly coming through the garbling. ¡°AH! Please don¡¯t-¡± The worker flailed his arms about and nearly fell from his chair. ¡°Oh, it''s just you guys.¡± ¡°Let us through.¡± The guard didn¡¯t bother with pleasantries. The worker scratched his head. ¡°Well, I kinda need to see some ID . . .?¡± The guard tossed his keycard from earlier at the worker¡¯s face, who scrambled to catch it as it bounced around his hands. After finally getting a good grasp on it, he swiped it through a reader on his desk and looked at something that must¡¯ve popped up on the adjoining screen. The worker let out a satisfied grunt. ¡°Alright, you¡¯re good. Now I just need the other guys¡¯ ID¡¯s-¡± The guard slammed a hand down on a seemingly random button on the desk, causing it to shoot up sparks and crackle. A moment after that, a door that was off to the side that read, ¡°ENTRANCE¡± opened up. ¡°Oh.¡± The worker looked down at the broken button. ¡°I guess that works too.¡± Without another word, the group started moving towards the open door. After walking through it, Alana was met with rows upon rows of doors marked only with numbers with a handful of guards stationed around the section. After walking to the door marked with the number three, the guard at the front began to search his pockets for his keycard. ¡°Great.¡± The guard muttered. ¡°Just great.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Mack¡¯s guard took a step forward. The guard shook his head, gesturing in the direction of the lobby. ¡°I left the card with the two-bytes back there.¡± A chorus of laughter came up from the other guards, including one of the ones stationed at a door. ¡°Whatever, I¡¯ll use mine.¡± Mack¡¯s guard took out a keycard and swiped it. ¡°You¡¯re definitely gonna get sent to the Pits for that one.¡± ¡°Shut up.¡± The guard spat out, his garbled voice somehow conveying embarrassment. Alana was pushed into the room, which contained only a mirror, a metal desk, two chairs, and a pair of cuffs attached to the table. Her guard motioned for her to take a seat, which she did. Shortly after, the cuffs were secured around her armored wrists and the door clicked shut. She sighed. * * * ¡°How is this supposed to be better than taking the tram?¡± Damina complained noisily. ¡°I thought I told you to be quiet.¡± E1 whispered back, his voice echoing through the small vent. ¡°I just don¡¯t see how a stupid vent of all things is supposed to be quicker than taking the vehicle that is designed to go fast.¡± Damina said, a bit quieter this time. E1 scoffed. ¡°I never said it was quicker, I just said that it was safer.¡± Damina rolled her eyes. ¡°Yeah, yeah, those rogue drones in the danger zone or whatever.¡± ¡°Reminds me of a song that I heard once . . .¡± E1 trailed off. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± Damina looked behind her, where E4 seemed to be just trundling along. ¡°He says that you''re slow, by the way.¡± E1 called out. ¡°What?¡± Damina looked ahead of her. ¡°He can¡¯t talk, idiot.¡± E1 glanced at her and tapped the side of his helmet. ¡°Private messages.¡± ¡°Ugh, that''s gotta be cheating or something.¡± ¡°Cheating in what? All¡¯s fair in war.¡± E1 turned back to the area ahead of him. ¡°What happened to the other part?¡± Damina questioned. ¡°What?¡± E1 stopped moving, sounding genuinely confused. ¡°I was pretty sure there was more to that saying.¡± Damina shrugged. ¡° . . . cool.¡± E1 kept moving. Damina rolled her eyes for a second time. She passed over a grate, light streaming through it. She didn¡¯t bother trying to look through, it was already too bright for her darkness-adjusted optics. She did make note of the various loose bolts that dotted the edges of the vent, though. Suddenly, she had an idea. ¡°Hey.¡± Damina whisper-yelled, getting no reply. She sighed. Speeding up her crawling, she clambered forward towards E1 without caring about the worrying creaks and groans that the vent made as she did so. ¡°Hey, listen-¡± Damina began. Suddenly, with a final snap of something that sounded important, the surface beneath her dropped, taking her two companions with it. Damina screamed as she plummeted to robo-god-knows-where, not knowing- The vent hit the ground, shattering into several pieces as it did. Light flooded her sensors, causing her to hiss in surprise as Damina¡¯s optics quickly tried to re-adjust to it. Sounds of groans filled the air, along with what sounded like . . . music? Old music, more like. It could¡¯ve only been described as ¡®jingle-jangly¡± with a ragtag sort of feel, the distinct sound of piano making itself known. However, the upbeat tune came to a jarring end after a moment, and Damina had the feeling that many eyes were on her. Looking up slowly, Damina saw the wide-eyes of several dozen drones staring at her, though they were all dressed in strange attire. Many of them wore wide-brimmed hats with an indent on the top paired with either a tucked in button-down shirt or a vest over the aforementioned shirt. Jeans of all kinds were dotted throughout the room, though there were a notable few tannish-brown slacks. Almost every single face boasted an impressive mustache that would¡¯ve made a few people that she knew jealous. At first, she believed that what she was looking at was a collection of worker drones due to the lack of visible armor, but judging by the differences in height that several had, that wasn¡¯t the case. It was then that she realized that it was likely that the military drones had simply removed their armor in favor of . . . a cool shirt, she guessed. The place that she and the other two had fallen into was a location straight out of one of those pirated Western flicks that a few drones had managed to get ahold of. A stereotypical saloon, complete with chipped wooden stools and drunk patrons (all with jeans of course). It was then that practically every single drone in the room did a collective shrug and went back to their drinks, the music resuming shortly after. Shakily, Damina got to her feet, seething that E1 and E4 had already done the same. ¡°Are you crazy!?¡± E1 got up in her face, throwing his arms up. ¡°Are you out of your mind!?¡± Damina gasped. ¡°Excuse me!?¡± E1 glared at her. ¡°I¡¯ve told you several times over that this place is basically falling apart at the seams, which means that you have to be careful!¡± She scoffed, turning around. ¡°That¡¯s just ridiculous! First it''s the car, then it was the ladder, now it¡¯s the vent!? What¡¯s next, the entire freaking complex is gonna collapse on us!?¡± The crowd¡¯s murmuring heightened in volume when a drone who was wavering on his feet slugged another one in a similar state. E1 looked at the commotion then back at Damina. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± He ordered. The trio slipped through the crowd that was now cheering on the two brawling patrons. Damina could make out the bartender¡¯s cries for them to take it outside, but it was drowned out in the chaos. E1 knocked open the odd gate-like panels that served as the entrance as he walked through them, seemingly not caring as they whipped back around and nearly knocked Damina off of her feet. As she stumbled, she winced from the sudden influx of light that streamed directly into her eyes. The saloon was dimly-lit compared to the ¡®outside¡¯ or what stood in for it. Looking upwards, Damina saw what seemed to be a massive, artificial floodlight that almost looked like the sun at first glance. Accompanying it was the ¡®sky¡¯, which looked slightly less convincing than its companion. The pixels of the screens that showed an image of a clear blue sky were easily visible, and there were even a few monitors that were cracked and simply showed static. The ¡®town¡¯ she was in, however, was the strangest of the bunch. It almost perfectly mimicked the Old-West style that was so prevalent in the aforementioned, highly-illegal, pirated movies that she had seen. Dry wooden beams, sand, the occasional tumbleweed, sand, carriages without a single horse in sight, sand, more sand, shifty-looking drones with hats and holsters (covered in sand, too), she might have forgotten to mention there was sand there as well. A LOT of sand. Damina would¡¯ve coughed from all the sand being blown about if she wasn¡¯t wearing a helmet, though where the wind was coming from was a mystery. In fact, the entire town was a mystery in of itself! Who made this? Why was it made? What¡¯s with all the cowboys? Is that person over there with the bandanna an outlaw? She didn¡¯t know what was even going on anymore. E4 kept a tight grip on her shoulder as they pushed through the crowd of meandering drones, much to the displeasure of them. ¡°Hey, watch it!¡± ¡°What¡¯s your problem!?¡± ¡°You¡¯re gonna regret that!¡± ¡°Get off me!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll remember this!¡± Cue [rdr2_honorlost.mp3]. Damina sped-walked up to where E1 was, tapping him on the shoulder as he pushed away an older drone with a cane. ¡°Hey,¡± She began. ¡°Do-¡± ¡°Before you say anything, no.¡± E1 didn¡¯t even bother to look at her. ¡°I do not know why a weird old saloon-thingy is in the middle of our facility, and please stop asking me questions.¡± Damina frowned, looking back at the building they had just exited. It was then that she noticed that the roof of the structure was simply jutting out into open air, which meant that the supposed vent that she and the two stooges had been crawling through SHOULD have been in open air, but it wasn¡¯t. She did not bother to remark on that. E1 sidled up next to a drone who was leaning on his wagon, holding a scratched magnet stick to his mouth. ¡°Ahem, howdy there pardner.¡± E1, much to Damina¡¯s surprise, did his best impression of the accent that the weird cowboys used in the movies. ¡°Feller.¡± The drone tipped his hat and said nothing else. E1 looked back at E4, who simply motioned for him to go on. E1 cleared his throat for a second time before leaning in a small bit closer to the drone, causing him to glance suspiciously at the soldier. ¡°Listen, me and mah . . . posse, we been lookin¡¯ for passage . . .¡± E1 looked behind him for support, getting none whatsoever. ¡° . . . yes?¡± The drone seemed ready to leave. ¡°To the main production plant, heh.¡± E1 finished. ¡°My memory ain¡¯t what it used to be, yah see.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°Anyway, I was here hopin¡¯ that you¡¯d be open to a negotiation of some kind, mister.¡± E1 grinned, inching closer to the drone. The drone inched away. ¡°And can I be told why I should do that fer y¡¯all?¡± The prospective driver eyed all three of them. ¡°Because . . .¡± E1 trailed off yet again. ¡°Because we can pay!¡± Damina interjected. Everyone else looked at her. ¡°Heh, one moment please.¡± E1 forcefully dragged Dmaina by the arm a few feet away from the drone, E4 following silently behind. ¡°What are you thinking, you idiot!?¡± He hissed under his breath angrily. ¡°We don¡¯t have any of whatever these guys use for money around here, and you think we can pay!?¡± Damina did her best to out-glare her adversary. ¡°Well sor-ry for wanting to try and be helpful for once!? I just thought-¡± ¡°Bullets.¡± The strong accented-voice said from behind the three of them. ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡± E1 asked, turning around. The drone stood up from his leaning position, placing his hands on the fake plastic belt-buckle that he had on. ¡°I said that y¡¯all kind fellers can pay with bullets.¡± The drone used his hands in a series of gestures. ¡°You know? Ammo? Munitions? El Ammo-o?¡± ¡°We know what bullets are.¡± E1 replied in a dead-pan. The drone nodded in satisfaction. ¡°Well, considerin¡¯ how y¡¯all don¡¯t be seemin¡¯ to be usin¡¯ that there co-llection of magazines yah got there, I was thinkin¡¯ that you could trade ¡®em for . . . passage, you said?¡± Neither Damina nor E1 said anything. ¡°Well, if y¡¯all ain¡¯t willin¡¯ to part with yer oh-so-sweet-ammo, then I¡¯ll just be on mah way then.¡± With that, the drone began backing away from the trio. E1 scrambled forward, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. ¡°Now hold up there, w-we never said that, heh.¡± The drone nodded. ¡°So y¡¯all would be willin¡¯ to make a deal-e-o then, huh?¡± ¡°Yessiree.¡± E1 shot the drone a disarming smile. ¡°Good.¡± The drone motioned with his head for the trio to follow him. ¡°Also, one more thin¡¯.¡± E1 blinked. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Drop that stupid accent, it¡¯s gettin¡¯ on mah nerves.¡± * * * Episode Nine: The Dark Descent, Part Three: Totally Accurate Battle Scenes [MESSAGE_STRING:ERR_{(REBOOT#3514) var_ fail.(REBOOT#3513) var_fail.(REBOOT#3512) var_fail.} . . .] [REBOOT#3515_start . . .] Ren gasped as her senses came flooding back in, the sheer sensory overload nearly blacking her right back out. She did a double-quadruple-octuple-starfish-flip into the air, grabbing what were hopefully several pointy objects from the area around her and sending them flying into the air surrounding her. She landed deftly on her feet, two hands raised and glowing with a crimson holographic symbol, gritting her teeth and glancing in front of her to see. Two military drones, standing dumbly in the center of the room with her projectiles having hit everywhere but them. ¡°Oh.¡± Ren said as she lowered her hands. ¡°Uh, my bad?¡± The drone on the left seemed to be shaking in rage, with steam literally blowing out of his ears. ¡°MISSY DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW CLOSE WE WERE TO GETTIN¡¯ SKEWERED BY ONE OF YOUR DARNED WITCH-THINGS I¡¯LL HAVE YOU KNOW-¡± ¡°That I graduated top of my class in the Navy SEALS, and I¡¯ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Qaeda-¡± A voice interrupted from behind Ren Ren tuned out the rant, slowly turning around to find the origin of the voice. Standing there, with one hand on top of his disheveled hair and the other making overly-overt hand gestures, was the murder drone who she kept forgetting the name of. ¡°Please,¡± She began, voice wavering. ¡°-so you better prepare for the storm, mag- oh, were you talking to little ol¡¯ me?¡± The murder-bot flashed her a toothy grin. ¡°Shut up.¡± Ren finished, a shaky breath leaving her throat. ¡° . . . oh.¡± The disassembly drone, looking awfully sad after that, trudged over to a random corner of the room and dropped like a ragdoll. Ren could swear she heard a thump accompanied by the sounds of a heart monitor flatlining. Ren turned back to the pair, the angrier of which met her eyes with a steely glare. ¡°So like, where are we?¡± Ren raised an eyebrow as she twirled in a full circle, taking the room in. And that was it. It was literally just a room. One door, a few pieces of debris strewn about, no features, solid metal walls, that was it. Bland, normal room. Yep. That¡¯s all there was to it. Just a room. Pop pop pop. ¡°Some sort of storage room I think.¡± The other soldier answered, moving a few steps towards Ren. ¡°I don¡¯t know what it was storing, but we figured it was a good place to wait while we waited for you two to reboot.¡± ¡°Uh-huh.¡± Ren side-eyed the drone before turning and stomping towards the door. ¡°Now hold yer horses there, pal-e-o.¡± The heavily-accented voice called out. ¡°Where do you think yer goin¡¯?¡± ¡°Gonna go find Jacob.¡± Ren answered without turning around. Suddenly, a shadow draped itself over her from behind. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that, like, you and he were rivals now?¡± The disassembly drone, seemingly done with his tantrum, stated. Ren cleared her throat, whipping around and adopting a defensive stance. ¡°Well, I guess you could say that, but necessity breeds cooperation, as the saying goes-¡± She began in a snooty tone. ¡°B-b-b-BREEDS!?¡± The taller drone¡¯s jaw dropped onto the floor, eyes (despite them being LED displays) bulging out into the air and his tongue rolled out. ¡°You, you¡¯re SICK! A WEIRDO! You should DIE IN A FIRE! You deserve EVERYTHING THAT¡¯S COMING TO YOU!¡± Ren raised an eyebrow. ¡°And . . . what exactly is ¡®coming¡¯ to me?¡± The drone blanched, eyes blinking rapidly and mouth flapping with no words coming out. ¡°Y-y-y-what, w-w-w-well, uhhhhhhh . . .¡± The murder drone trailed off. Ren lazily turned back around, hand gripping the small slit that served as the door¡¯s handle. ¡°Well?¡± She called out, not bothering to face who she was talking to. ¡°You wanna get left behind or what?¡± The disassembler, to his credit, instantly snapped out of whatever stroke he was going through, confidently marching . . . through the door? ¡°Disable noclip.¡± A confident, muffled male voice came through the closed door. Silence. ¡°We ain¡¯t gonna go with a drone that don¡¯t got no respect for authority.¡± The first soldier spoke up. ¡°W-well, let¡¯s not be too hasty here-¡± The second drone stammered out. Ren already had the door open and was stepping through it by the time the two drones started arguing over whether or not to go with the ¡®crazy-robo-witch¡¯. Too tired to use her hands, she simply slammed the door shut with a flash of crimson symbols. Looking to her right and left, she strangely saw no sign of the dumb one. However, it was then that she heard groaning from the ground. Looking down, she saw the disassembly drone, one of the things that had likely massacred millions, inexplicably tangled into a complicated and messy knot of limbs. ¡°Help.¡± ¡°No.¡± * * * ¡°Aaaaand watch-ah!¡± I cried out as I front-flipped into the room. You sound and look stupid. ¡°Shut up, it¡¯s for dramatic effect!¡± I grinned, stepping over the mangled corpse in the way. ¡°And besides, it¡¯s not like there¡¯s anybody around to hear me.¡± The four raptors behind you definitely lend credence to that statement. Yep, for sure. I rolled my eyes, letting the hanger-ons file into the room behind me. I watched as they began to sniff (despite being robots) at the various surfaces and oil stains dotted all around the floor and walls. ¡°Yeesh, what is this, a hospital from a zombie apocalypse?¡± I remarked. Not that far off, to be honest. My eyes landed on one of the gurneys that occupied the room alongside a long console and its accompanying spinny-chair. It was stained with splotches of oil, with straps bolted to the sides for a reason that couldn¡¯t be more obvious. ¡°Nazi stuff?¡± Nazi stuff. I walked up to the most obvious facet of the entire room, which was coincidentally almost as big as a small elephant. I ran my hand along the side of the gaping hole in the wall, alighting on a lumpy piece of flesh-like material. [CONNECTION//ERR*] What the hell? What is that thing? Also, most importantly, DON¡¯T FREAKING TOUCH IT YOU IDIOT! ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± I replied, a sly grin spreading across my face despite my best efforts. Hmm . . . An animalistic cry brought my attention to the cabinet that Patriot (yes that is his name, got a problem?) was investigating. As I trotted over, my observations concluded that it was an oven of sorts, turned on to the point where heat waves were clearly wavering into sight around the object, and the interior was lit up with red lights. Inside the oven, several jars filled with duplicates of what appeared to be a familiar fleshy organ were contained. Pieces of metal protruded from various areas around them, confirming my suspicions. Labels marked with names were plastered on each individual jar, which did make me raise an eyebrow. You know something about this, don¡¯t you? ¡°Ah, just some stuff I heard about in, uh, those files that I opened a little bit ago, yeah.¡± I muttered absentmindedly, glancing at the bucket that was off in the corner with a singular head in it that looked oddly familiar. Nuh-uh, don¡¯t try that with me. You¡¯ve been hiding things from me, a lot apparently. I rolled my eyes. ¡°Just reeling that now, huh?¡± I think this is your last chance to tell me. ¡°Hmm.¡± I grunted non-committedly, opening various drawers and the boxes that were littered around my feet. ¡°Ah, here we go.¡± I held up an oil-stained metal forearm, the black-and-yellow caution tape design still visible despite the obstructions. Opening up a small panel that was present on the side, I began to fiddle with the internal mechanisms. What¡¯re you doing? ¡°I thought you wanted to know all the dark secrets I had, right?¡± I taunted, grasping a slippery outcropping and pulling on it slightly. Yes, but- ¡°Well, this. Is. How. You. Find. Out!¡± I said, emphasizing my tugs with stops in my words. With a final yank, the bit that was jutting out gave way. The hand that was dangling limply on the end was quickly replaced by a small buzzsaw that began to whir. I gripped the impromptu surgery device with both hands, the conical design making it slightly difficult to handle. I pointed the business end directly towards where I thought my navel was, squinting as I tried to line it up perfectly. Wait, hold on, what¡¯re you doing?¡± ¡°Ah, to hell with it.¡± I scoffed. With further ado, I jammed the tool directly into my chest. The saw slowed down slightly when it met the hard armor plating, though it chewed right through after a moment. Blood spurted up and outwards, coating the edged circle in red. After about three seconds, the saw became much easier to maneuver, signaling the breakthrough of the armor. I tossed the tool to the side, breathing heavily. ¡°Welp, here goes nothing.¡± I stuffed my fingers into the crevasse in my chest that was now present, getting a secure hold on the underside of the plating. With a sigh, I began to pull at the hardened alloy. A series of sickening cracks rang out, and I felt in great detail as my ribcage split into two halves. I gritted my teeth, continuing to work on making the opening larger. After I had about half-a-foot to work with, I stopped, watching rivulets of blood run down the black armor and onto the floor. I made a claw with my hand, reaching into my chest with what little enthusiasm I could muster. After sifting through various defunct organs, beams of veiny-electronics, and growths that probably weren¡¯t supposed to be there, I found the pulsing mass of flesh that I had been looking for. I grasped it tightly, and began to pull. N-now, hold on a second. I¡¯m sure we can talk about thi- [ERR*//HARDWARE_CRITICAL_FAILURE//] [ERR*//adjust_start//] [hardline|CONNECTION_TERMINATED] With a final tug, I ripped out the fleshy core. A teal dot sprang to life on a small circular screen inset in the depths of the thing, darting around in panic. It focused on the featureless black visor that was my face to the outside world, shrinking from shock. I hummed as I grabbed an unlabeled jar from next to me, unceremoniously dumping what I was holding into the receptacle and placing the lid back on top of it. Dipping my finger into the copious (kinda excessive) pool of blood that lay around my feet, I hastily scrawled the name ¡°NOT JACOB¡± onto the small slip of tape. After that, I opened the door to the oven, shoved the jar inside, and closed it shut. Patriot, who had been watching the whole ordeal, hit me with a questioning mewl. [CONNECTION_RE_ESTABLISHED] [Surprised Expression] Oh, you-are-back? A-surprise-to-be-sure, but-a-welcome-one. Wait a second, have you been looking through my folder of references? . . .yes. * * * ¡°Put me down.¡± ¡°Shut up, you¡¯re supposed to be dead, and dead drones don¡¯t talk.¡± Felix tried to reach for his holstered pistol, though it was a bit difficult considering how his singular working arm looked eerily similar to a twisted and knotted human delicacy. ¡°And stop moving too, unless you want me to hit you again.¡± Felix was currently laying inside the rickety storage of some sort of carriage, being carried along with several other bits and pieces of scrap metal. After those weird drones had kicked him out of their helicopter, he had woken up to find himself being carted off to robo-god-knows-where by a suspicious looking drone wearing a tattered brown cloak paired with a gas mask. He wasn¡¯t quite sure why the guy was wearing a gas mask, especially since they didn¡¯t breathe, but he also wasn¡¯t sure it was worth the breath. Eh? Nobody? Dang. ¡°Where¡¯re you going?¡± Felix asked. He had only been able to catch a glimpse of the drone before he had been unceremoniously tossed into the carriage, and he wasn¡¯t able to gauge the guy¡¯s reaction at all. A dismissive scoff came from outside. ¡°I thought I told you to stop talking.¡± The voice stated, annoyed. Felix rolled his eyes. ¡°What, I can¡¯t even ask a simple question?¡± ¡°No, you can¡¯t.¡± Came the reply. Silence. Felix grunted as he rolled over, wincing as the twisted servos in his arms squealed in protest. Now facing the ¡®sky¡¯, he saw only a darkened and rusty vent with a flickering light next to it. It made for a pretty eerie scene, though he was proud to say he only trembled a little. The ¡®carriage¡¯ shook again, jostling him. It did that from time to time, which did in fact check out. He didn¡¯t think that carriages usually had roofs though. All of a sudden, Felix was thrown to one side of the box he was in. Rumbles shook the craft, and a warbling noise filled the air. It sounded almost like the grav-engines of the trams spilling down, which- Felix would¡¯ve smacked his helmet if it wouldn¡¯t have hurt him terribly to do so. The panicked yelp of the drone that had so rudely kidnapped him sounded, along with the metallic clank as something fell onto the floor. ¡°What the hell!?¡± ¡°Hey, no talking!¡± Felix called out mockingly. ¡°Shut up!¡± The shout was followed by incoherent mumbling as the drone seemingly got up and walked towards something. ¡°Stupid . . . just wait . . . sell ¡®em for a bajillion-¡± The sound of a door slamming shut cut off the rest of the scavenger¡¯s rantings. Sensing opportunity, Felix did his best to scoot and shimmy his way up the side of the smooth wall he was up against. Once he was high enough, he hooked his singular armless appendage around the lip of the box and began to pull himself up. After a moment, he finally managed to throw his upper body over the side, sending the rest of his toppling down with a crash. Luckily, nobody came to investigate. Felix shakily got to his feet, trying to listen over the steady hum of the idle engine for any sounds of boots stomping to rip him a new one. He definitely wasn¡¯t in any condition to fight, and there was absolutely no chance of him being able to defend himself against a bored slaver-guard or whatever trade these guys were indulging in. Speaking of, he glanced down towards his mangled arm. It was really the only one he had left still attached, and he couldn¡¯t afford to be dead in both of his favorite limbs. The joint appeared to only be twisted backwards around the ball-joint shoulder, so maybe . . . Felix sighed. He was NOT gonna do that. He moved up to the door to the small compartment he was in. A scratched plastic shield with metal wires woven inside allowed him to see what was happening on the outside, which shocked him for a second. Drones ran around the passenger car, throwing things around and causing general mayhem. Most of them were diving out of windows, though there were the occasional few that were curled up in a ball on the ground, with one guy even drawing what looked to be a ritual on the ground in . . . ketchup? It was then that he saw several more drones file in through the door on the opposite side of the section. These ones wore brown-and-white striped sashes around their torsos, various rags and such wrapped around themselves in several areas. They wielded a combination of makeshift guns and melee tools, more than a few gripping a pipe or wrench in an offensive manner. Bangs rang out through the glass, deafened by the sound-canceling it seemed to have. Unadorned military and worker drones alike scrambled like ants, diving for weapons and anything they could get their hands on, though it was too late. What followed was a brutal slaughter that made Felix finally understand the old human saying of, ¡°shooting fish in a barrel¡±. The group of maybe six finally made their way to his end, one of them popping a round into the head of a drone that was holding her blackened hands up for mercy. The one closest to him glanced at the door, meeting Felix¡¯s eyes after focusing on him for a moment. The drone excitedly began to gesture towards Felix, catching the attention of the rest of his group. The door began to slide open, causing Felix to scramble backwards. ¡°Hey!¡± A hand reached through the small slit that was open. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re here to help!¡± Felix raised an eyebrow. * * * ¡° . . . and if you would just elaborate on these ¡®plans¡¯ you seem to know so much about-¡± Alana groaned audibly. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about those things, I told you!¡± She practically shouted in the interrogator¡¯s face. ¡°It was just an off-hand thing that I heard one time, it probably wasn¡¯t important anyway!¡± The lavishly-adorned drone slammed a fist down onto the table, jabbing a finger in her direction. ¡°YOU don¡¯t get to be the judge of that, that is a job for ME! How many times do I have to tell you this!?¡± ¡°Yeah, I get it, acting all high-and-mighty since you took me as a prisoner of war!¡± Alana glared at the pompous interrogator. ¡°I¡¯m just a soldier for Robo-Christ¡¯s sake, not even a lieutenant or anything!¡± ¡°Bah!¡± The interrogator waved off her remarks. Alana sat back in her chair, her fire deflating from her. The interrogator cleared his throat, smoothing out the collection of crinkled papers in his hands. ¡°Now that you¡¯ve . . . calmed down, I believe that we can resume the interro-¡± The door clicked open, revealing one of the fancy drones from earlier. She couldn¡¯t tell if it was a guard who had escorted her, but she didn¡¯t necessarily care. The interrogator¡¯s head snapped to the open doorway. ¡°Excuse me,¡± He began. ¡°But I am trying to conduct an investigation here-¡± ¡°Out.¡± The garbled voice ordered. The interrogator blanched, which Alana could see due to his semi-transparent visor. He quickly got up and speed-walked out of the room so fast that he left his papers behind. She began to chuckle, though whatever mirth that she was experiencing died when she saw the person who came into the room next. A taller military drone, black armor polished to the point of a shine. Instead of the dingier, more dirty decorations that all the others had, he seemingly made sure to get only the best quality. It was . . . Augustus Marco Leverius. Alana couldn¡¯t help herself. She giggled. ¡®Lev¡¯, as he had told her to call him, stopped. The door slid shut behind him as he cocked his head at her. ¡°What? Why¡¯re you laughing?¡± Lev patted the circumference of his helmet. ¡°Is there something on my face?¡± Alana sobered at the sound of his voice, memories of the cold execution of her commander surfacing. ¡°Nothing.¡± She practically whispered. The drone sighed, pulling out the chair and plopping himself down in it. He didn¡¯t say a word as he began to flip through the pages, featureless visor inclining ever-so-slightly as he peered down at them. Alana fidgeted nervously, feeling like she was somehow being put under review. She tried to sit up a little to see if she could see anything that was on the pages, but the only glimpse she caught was a collection of hastily-scrawled question marks surrounding a bold-lettered statement that read, ¡°COMPLETE IDIOT¡±. Alana gulped. After an agonizingly long fifteen seconds, Lev calmly placed the pages back onto the desk. Alana followed their path as they traveled downwards for a moment, looking back up to meet the other soldier¡¯s gaze after a moment. Lev let out an audible sigh and steepled his fingers on the desk, matching her wavering steel gaze with a cold and impassionate stare. ¡°So,¡± He began. ¡°I see that you¡¯ve been a bit difficult.¡± ¡°I . . .¡± Alana took a deep breath before steeling herself. ¡°I think the whole about-to-be-tortured thing would throw a wrench into anyone¡¯s cooperation, don¡¯t you think?¡± Lev scoffed. ¡°For what it¡¯s worth, I specifically ordered my men to not harm you or your friend, I promise you that.¡± ¡°Your promises don¡¯t mean a lot when you break them willy-nilly.¡± Alana did her best to keep a poker-face on. ¡°Is this about your boss?¡± ¡°It¡¯s about my boss, yes.¡± ¡°I told him that if he lied then he would die, simple as that.¡± Lev shrugged. ¡°He knew the risks, went ahead anyway despite them, and got himself killed.¡± It was Alana¡¯s turn to scoff. ¡°That¡¯s your excuse? He ¡®got himself killed¡¯? You were the one coming into OUR place, shooting MY people, and killing MY friends!¡± A half-sob sounded, though it took a moment for Alana to realize that it came from her. Lev was silent, his visor doing its purpose and giving away exactly none of what he felt. Alana hated him at that moment. How dare he act like he¡¯s on top of the world, having everything he wants and more. How DARE he act so indifferent to her, and how she feels. How . . . dare he. ¡°I . . . think we should move on.¡± Lev¡¯s slightly-arrogant voice broke through her musings. Alana stayed silent, her head hanging low. ¡°Soooo, I¡¯m aware that you, in some situation, overheard a plan of some sort, is that correct?¡± Lev tapped a finger twice on the desk in quick succession. ¡°. . .¡± ¡°Okay then.¡± Lev said quietly. ¡°I-¡± Lev seemed to cut himself off, which piqued Alana¡¯s interest. The sound of a chair scraping across the floor slightly caused her to raise her head to see Lev leaning in. ¡°Listen, I know that your commander is dead, and I can understand that. I¡¯ve lost a lot more people than I would like, so believe me when I say that I understand your situation.¡± Lev began in a soft voice. ¡°What I can¡¯t sympathize with, however, is having to talk cordially face-to-face with the very person that caused those deaths, mostly because I¡¯ve had the privilege to be their judge, jury, and executioner after the fact.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t begin to understand how angry you must be, and how I look from your stance to be honest. I haven¡¯t known you for very long but I feel like I can tell that you are a very intelligent drone, which is why I¡¯m not gonna insult you by sugarcoating this; I had to attack you and your unit, I didn¡¯t have a choice in that matter.¡± Alana opened her mouth to retort, but Lev raised a hand. ¡°Let me finish, please. I know I¡¯m not in a position to ask much from you, considering how much you¡¯ve already lost, but I feel like you would want to hear what I¡¯m saying.¡± Lev, despite showing zero emotion, seemed to gaze pleadingly at her. Taking her silence as an affirmation, he went on. ¡°You were occupying one of the few production and repair plants that were still operational after all the fighting that¡¯s been going on, which you already know. You also probably already know how large my force is from your little trip down here.¡± Lev gestured all around him. ¡°It takes quite a lot to provide for everyone and everything here, and we had been doing fine until we encountered an . . . enemy, one that I won¡¯t go into the specifics of.¡± Alana¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly at that last part, but Lev pressed on nonetheless. ¡°Long story short, we lost most of the facilities that we had been using to repair our men. We retreated to more stable territory, and we needed to find a place that had the capabilities to hold and repair our wounded, which ended up being-¡± ¡°Us.¡± Alana interrupted, voice low. Lev sighed. ¡°Yes, you. I prepped a force, but I had made the decision to send an ultimatum first to give your commander a way out of the oilshed. I¡¯m not gonna try and fool you by saying that I wanted to spare the enemy troops out of a sense of altruism, no, it would¡¯ve been costly to take the facility in the state a good number of my forces were in.¡± ¡°Despite the lives of my men being at risk, I waited for two hours, and I never got a reply. After that, well . . .¡± Lev didn¡¯t finish his sentence. Alana didn¡¯t say anything for a moment, and neither did Lev. After a second, the latter sighed loudly and got up from his seat. ¡°I understand if you don¡¯t want to cooperate with us, or me for that matter, and I won¡¯t force you to talk. That¡¯ll be all for now.¡± With that, Lev made for the door. Alana watched him raise his hand to knock at the metal door, and she sighed. ¡°I . . . didn¡¯t just overhear a small part.¡± She muttered. Lev froze, turning her way with body language so expressive she would¡¯ve called it hopeful. ¡°My commander, he and Justin had been arguing.¡± Alana continued. ¡°Justin wanted to accept the deal, but Comp wasn¡¯t letting go. He kept reiterating that it was ¡®our orders¡¯ and that we needed to follow them if we wanted the leadership to get any better.¡± Lev stared at her as she talked, hand falling down to his side. ¡°I remember that Justin said . . . something about rebels, I think, I¡¯m not sure.¡± Alana shook her head. ¡°He said that the cause didn¡¯t matter if we were all dead by the end of it, but Comp just wasn¡¯t listening. He just kept going on and on about how it was ¡®gonna be different this time¡¯ and that they had someone important on their side. Justin got genuinely angry when he said that, I don¡¯t think Comp was telling him who he actually got the orders from.¡± ¡°They argued for a bit more, but I didn¡¯t want to stay there any longer.¡± Alana let out a shaky breath. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything else.¡± The room was silent for a moment. ¡°Rebels, huh?¡± Lev spoke up. ¡°Now that¡¯s an interesting development.¡± After a moment, Lev grabbed something from a pouch that was attached to his waist. It jangled as he walked towards Alana, a set of small keys dangling from the loop. Leaning over and reaching down, he unlocked her cuffs. ¡°Wha- what¡¯re you doing?¡± Alana asked incredulously. ¡°I think that you deserve better than to be locked up down here in a cell.¡± Lev answered with a smug tone. ¡°What do you say about joining me on a tour around Nova Roma?¡± Alana looked up at Lev in confusion. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± She asked. Lev gestured all around him. ¡°Our base of operations, of course! You haven¡¯t seen all of it, and I personally think you would enjoy seeing something that isn¡¯t monochromatic steel and gray concrete, eh?¡± ¡°Um . . .¡± ¡°So, whaddya say?¡± Lev held out a hand for Alana to take, which she eyed with no small amount of suspicion. After a moment, she made her decision, taking the outstretched hand and helping herself out of the chair. ¡°Sure.¡± Alana said, gazing into the opaque visor that seemed to exude cheerfulness, somehow. * * * Ren waited for the disassembly drone to rejoin her. Currently, he was angrily swatting at the air around him while shouting out every curse word under the moon. The only thing that made the situation any more ridiculous were the high-pitched noises that blotted out each and every single one of the curses so they couldn¡¯t be heard. Normally, she would consider that strange, but she was already tired of the shenanigans that went on in this place. ¡°Are you done yet?¡± She asked in the driest tone she could muster. ¡°Gah- flippa- stupid mother[BLEEP]er- I {BLEEP]ing swear . . .¡± Ren tuned out the rantings, instead maintaining her glare in the hopes that a miracle would happen and the idiot would get the hint. Hell, even Jacob wouldn¡¯t have done this. The guy made jokes, sure, but at least he knew they were jokes. Ren wasn¡¯t even sure if the drone in front of her knew the difference between his mind¡¯s world and reality. She definitely wasn¡¯t in the mood for literal virtual insanity- As if he was listening to her thoughts, the disassembler broke out into song. ¡°-futures made of virtual insanity, now, always seem to be- and yes, I am listening to your thoughts-¡± ¡°SHUT UP ALREADY!¡± Ren shouted at the top of her artificial lungs, hands balling into fists and pressing to her sides. The murder drone looked in her direction, seemingly shocked. ¡°B-b-b-but I wasn¡¯t doing anything . . . wrong, was I?¡± The drone stuttered, gaping mouth nearly dropping on the floor. ¡°Oh no, you aren¡¯t gonna try that with me this time.¡± Ren stomped forward and grabbed the fool by the scruff of his admittedly-cool bomber jacket. ¡°What¡¯s gonna happen now is that YOU are gonna stop messing around and come with ME and we are gonna find the one person in this place that is even slightly smart enough to deal with the stuff down here.¡± Greenish-yellow eyes blinked at her in empty confusion. ¡°Who¡¯re you again?¡± ¡°Ugggggghhh,¡± Ren started walking down the darkened hallway, dragging her partially-willing passenger along with her. ¡°I freaking hate it here.¡± However, she wasn¡¯t done yet. ¡°Like, genuinely, why does it seem like every single time I do something, anything at all, that a random coincidence has to come out of nowhere to give me a hard time!?¡± She ranted. ¡°What am I, a magnet for trouble!? And no, I¡¯m NOT gonna remark on the irony of me being a magnet, because screw everyone and everything that has ever come after me!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think-¡± Ren slapped the top of the drone¡¯s head. ¡°Shut! No! No more outta you!¡± The drone shut up. ¡°It¡¯s like the entire frickin¡¯ universe revolves around making the most trouble for me out of some sick entertainment! What did I do!? Why me!? How, even!? It just isn¡¯t fair!¡± Ren noticed that she had begun to strangle the murderbot that she had dragged along, so she let up her grip a little. Breathing heavily, Ren went quiet, with the only thing filling the air being the obnoxious sound of metal feet dragging on the floor. ¡°I don¡¯t think the universe is centered around you.¡± Her ¡®partner¡¯ spoke up. ¡°Heh?¡± The drone ignored her confusion. ¡°I just get this feeling that, I dunno, maybe everything that we¡¯re experiencing is just a byproduct of something else.¡± ¡°Like, something else is happening as we speak that is causing all these things. We aren¡¯t the center, hell, we aren¡¯t even the side plot. We¡¯re just hanger-ons, waiting out the storm and hoping it doesn¡¯t blow us over. Things would go on with or without us, but the . . . others, they are the eye of the storm. Everything is revolving around them, not you or me.¡± Silence. ¡°I think you¡¯re high.¡± ¡°What!? I am NOT high!¡± Ren peered down at the drone, unconvinced. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Is that a magnet I see in your pocket?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been clean for days at this point!¡± The drone wailed in defiance, stomping the ground like a little kid. ¡°Stop making these- these- these SLANDEROUS accusations!¡± Ren passed an open doorway while the two bickered, though she quickly backpedaled after she caught a glimpse of what was inside. ¡°Huh, don¡¯t see that everyday.¡± The murder drone twisted around to get a better look. ¡°Would you say it¡¯s weird and concerning?¡± ¡°I dunno, care to go find out?¡± With that, Ren tossed the drone into the room. He yelped, though he didn¡¯t get that far due to Ren¡¯s . . . not exactly up-to-par physical strength (don¡¯t judge, she mainly used cool magic powers for everything anyway), but he still somehow managed to land right inside the room¡¯s boundaries, and coincidentally, right inside a pool of oil and mechanical guts. ¡°Ewwwww, get it off get it off get it off!¡± The drone scrambled to his feet, whining as he did. ¡°Seriously? That¡¯s what sets you off, a little splotch of oil on the ground?¡± Ren asked in disbelief. ¡°You literally kill hundreds for a living and eat them, how is this any different?¡± The drone, quicker than even Ren could see, stood ramrod straight with eyes staring directly into her soul. ¡°Are you . . . questioning me?¡± He asked dangerously. Ren blinked. ¡°. . . what?¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m gonna look at this now.¡± As if nothing had happened, the drone walked further into the room and out of her sight. Ren rolled her eyes, stepping forward and glancing around. It wasn¡¯t anything she hadn¡¯t seen before; a few medical beds, pools of oil, a limb or two here and there, a big hole in the wall, a cool-looking console, and an oven. Wait, an oven? Ren cocked her head to the side, closing the distance between her and the oddity. The disassembly drone was currently inspecting a puddle of oil with a small hat laying in it, so she just brushed him aside. A complaint rang out, but she chose to ignore it. She had only been dealing with that idiot for an hour or two at most, and she was already tired of him. She put her hands up against the see-through covering, though she quickly pulled them back after wincing. The heat was palpable, searing her even through the glass and her gloves. However, something quickly caught her eye inside of it. A murky jar, one of several, had some sort of label on it. Written in a reddish ink, it read, ¡°NOT JACOB¡± in barely-legible lettering. Something inside of it twitched, a lumpy mass that looked like something she didn¡¯t want to describe. ¡°Now that¡¯s definitely weird and concerning.¡± The murder drone said, taking a spot by her side. Ren backed up slowly, glancing around the room in suspicion. ¡°I think it¡¯s time to leave. Now.¡± ¡°Uh, sure yeah, that sounds good.¡± The idiot agreed without spouting nonsense for once- ¡°Boo.¡± ¡°AAAHH!¡± The pair yelped in unison, both whirling around in an instant. The disassembler brought up both arms, a tube-like launcher and a submachine gun sprouting from then in under a second. Ren stripped a sliver of steel from the side of one of the gurneys, splitting it into so many needles that the sharp tips were nearly molecular. They pointed their weapons at- Jacob stood there. ¡°Uh, hi?¡± He said sheepishly, a small wave accompanying it. Ren scoffed, the dozens of needles clattering to the floor. ¡°You goddamn idiot!¡± She jabbed a finger up at his opaque visor. ¡°You could¡¯ve gotten yourself killed a dozen times over!¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°No need to insult me. I personally think I could handle you and . . . him.¡± He gestured towards Ren¡¯s companion at that last part, who was still pointing his arsenal at Jacob. ¡°Hey, put those down!¡± She yelled in the drone¡¯s face. ¡°I . . . still don¡¯t remember your name, but you better listen to me anyway!¡± Strangely, the drone gritted his admittedly sharp teeth, beads of LED sweat pouring down his electronic display. ¡°You don¡¯t fool me.¡± The barrel of the gun wavered in the air. ¡°I¡¯ve had enough of you, whoever you are.¡± Ren gaped at the drone in confusion. ¡°What¡¯re you-¡± BANG Before the human could react, a bullet closed the short distance and went straight through the glass of his visor. Jacob stumbled backward, hands going up to clutch at the hole. Ren was frozen in shock, unable to do anything but watch. All of a sudden, Jacob righted himself and stood up straight. ¡°I think we all need to calm down and [COOPERATE], huh?¡± Something flashed inside the hole, a neon-yellow glow appearing for less than a second before vanishing. Just as fast, lines of code popped up on the murder drone¡¯s display before disappearing entirely, only serving to feed Ren¡¯s confusion. Both weapons retracted into the drone¡¯s wrists, arms slowly lowering. ¡°. . . yes.¡± The drone said through clenched teeth, seemingly struggling to get the word out. With that, Jacob brushed off his armor (not that it did much to clean the copious amounts of dried blood that Ren was sure wasn¡¯t there last time she had seen him) and turned around. ¡°Alright marines, come on out!¡± Jacob clapped his hands together twice to emphasize his statement. As if it had been practiced, around four of the robotic raptors from earlier sprang up from various hiding spots around the room. One even fell from the ceiling with a squawk. Panicking, Ren searched for something sharp to impale at least one of them before Jacob gestured to her with his back still turned. ¡°These guys are FRIENDS, not FOOD, okay? Do we all understand?¡± Jacob nodded, the raptors slowly mimicking his movement as well. ¡°Good.¡± ¡°Now,¡± All of a sudden, Jacob whirled around to face Ren. ¡°I found this in the drawer you¡¯re standing in front of, figured you might like it.¡± He proceeded to toss something at her, causing her to instinctively bring up her hands to catch it. It landed in her hands, and Ren turned it over a few times to inspect it. It was a wide-brimmed hat, similar to the smaller one that was laying in a puddle of oil somewhere in the room. A few small stains of black dotted the edges, but it was largely untouched. What looked like a belt of sorts ran around the base of the geometrical outcropping that protruded from the top, a shiny silver buckle securing it in place. Ren put it on her head, adjusting it so it sat comfortably. It seemed to have been made specifically for a worker drone¡¯s head, which defied everything she knew about the times before. Maybe some rich guy had wanted to play dress-up with their collection? For a moment though, her mood improved. She had always wanted a cool hat to go with ¡®The Look¡¯, but she had to settle for a hood instead. However, it was only then did she notice the pool of dried blood that Jacob was standing in, a disassembly drone forearm with a crimson-coated sawblade attached laying in it. She gulped. * * * [WARNING - TEMP. LEVELS HIG- ¡°Goddamnit, I know.¡± K growled. She ducked again as another flash lit up the barrier. Swapping her right hand for a laser, she began the charging process. Letting out a small breath, she listened to the humming whine of the device grow larger and larger, though not loud enough to drown out the cacophony of shrieks that filled the air around her. Those . . . things had done a number on her, a fact evident by her missing hand. While a claw had taken its place, it was going to be a while before her hand regenerated due to- well, everything that was going on. It was nigh-impossible to score a proper hit on them, what with the acrobatics and numbers they had over her. Still have teeth though, K thought, a small flitting across her face as her gaze landed on the twitching form that lay a few feet in front of her, a jagged cut rent through the synthetic fibers in its neck. The good news was that while they weren¡¯t indestructible, the real problem was actually getting to hit them in the first place. She knew that a rocket would be tantamount to suicide in the relatively small area, which only added to the list of factors that worked against her. She probably should¡¯ve listened to X, honestly. Yes, he normally just spouted whatever nonsense that his faulty processor generated, but she was starting to think that he may have been telling the truth. ¡°Okay, lemme ask you again.¡± K began. ¡°What exactly did you, allegedly, SEE down there?¡± X tossed his fifteenth rock at the small gathering of military drones about twenty feet in front of him. ¡°Huh?¡± He grunted, eyes unfocused. K facepalmed. ¡°You idiot.¡± ¡°Why¡¯re you so MEAN to me all the time!?¡± X let out a sob as he covered his face in his hands. ¡°Just answer the damn question!¡± K exclaimed, taking a menacing step towards the foolish disassembly drone. X rolled his eyes. ¡°Fine, it was a buncha weird things that played Wax Museum with me.¡± All of K¡¯s logic routes shut down. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Oh I¡¯m sorry, I forgot you don¡¯t speak English.¡± X cleared his throat and began to speak in a strange accent. ¡°Fine-o, es was-o el bunch-o of-o el weirdo-o el things-o tengo played-o-¡± K gripped X by the neck, shaking him back and forth without much resistance. ¡°WHY,¡± She wailed. ¡°WHY DO YOU HAVE TO DO THIS TO ME!?¡± X simply shrugged. ¡°I dunno what you¡¯re talking about.¡± Following that statement from the person she hated the most in that moment, K did her best to toss X into the sky. However, the drone was actually kinda heavy, and K¡¯s servos weren¡¯t as powerful as her male counterparts. X snickered. ¡°That was pretty embarrassing, not gonna lie.¡± K collapsed to the floor. She grimaced, wishing that she could¡¯ve just seen past his stupidity into the . . . okay, maybe she was justified in her actions. Letting out a shuddering breath, K came to a decision. A sword extending out from her left hand, she slowly closed off her optical sensors to the outside world. Several alerts blared in her mind but she opted to ignore them, they weren¡¯t important. And then she jumped. Almost immediately, she heard the cries from the creatures as they caught sight of her. Roughly half a second passed on her internal timekeeper, and she activated the laser. Spinning around in a circle, she heard the crackling and pops as the very air itself turned into plasma from the sheer heat of supercharged quarks scything through it. She wasn¡¯t able to see the effect of her attack, and she wasn¡¯t going to wait for it either. Landing deftly on her two feets (pegs, more like), she went low to the ground and froze. Turning her auditory suite up as high as she could, she listened intently to her surroundings. K could tell that the creatures were trying to flash her by the trio of that strange sound that sounded like a combination of a clack and a whine. Judging by the wavering calls that sounded from all around her, they were getting confused by the fact that she wasn¡¯t ¡®frozen¡¯ yet. She heard the soft padding of feet as they circled around her, of metal nails dragging against the concrete floor. That was how she heard one of them make a questioning warble with a lower, steadfast note replying to it. The noises of air rushing and the clangs of feet hitting the floor from all around her made it all too clear that they had rushed her. K knew that trying to stand her ground without any form of visual input would mean almost certain death, so she made the instantaneous decision to leap towards the set of shrieks that seemed the farthest away, blade outstretched. She hit something if her own sensations and the inhuman cry of panic was anything to go off of, though she didn¡¯t manage to impale her target as she had hoped. Instead, she felt the blade skate along a smooth surface before jutting out into empty space. Both K and her attacker hit the ground, the body of the creature softening the impact somewhat. However, as she tried to get to her feet, she slipped on an unseen object and floundered. Even though it was only for a second, her moment of vulnerability was all the time that the creature needed to slip out from under her and position itself above her. Claws raked at her face, likely drawing furrows on the fragile screen. Alarms screeched at her and she knew that the other things had probably recovered from their reckless charge and were now heading to join in on the feast. K couldn¡¯t let that happen. She wrenched her right arm free, subsequently swinging it upwards and socking the creature in what felt like it sloped face. Something broke beneath her fist, and it jumped away from her. It gave her the chance she needed to escape. With a grand flourish, K¡¯s wings partially extended, tips probably almost scraping the sides of the hallway. Boosting her gravitic drives to about half-capacity, she rocketed down the length of the hallway and away from the creatures. Before she could stop it, however, she felt herself raise up into the air and glance off the side of the wall. She was sent spinning away, one wing crumpling against the opposite side with a series of sickening snaps. Quickly retracting them after the blossoms of pain burst, she got to her feet. Throbs of pain still sent jolts down her torso, but she didn¡¯t have time to nurse the wounds. She began to sprint down the hall as fast as she was willing to go with her eyes closed. Calling upon her perfect recordings of the corridors, she did her best to measure out her movements. Fifteen paces, sharp right. Curved hallway, small incremental turns for about five paces. Ten paces, take a left. Seven- watch out for the corpse in the middle of the floor- keep going. Finally, the echo of K¡¯s footsteps began to ring out louder, indicative of a more expansive room. She ran out to what she thought was the middle of the room before stopping, breathing heavily. Her audio receptors strained to pick up any of the noises that those hunter-killers made, though it was considerably difficult. Wondering if she had finally outrun the monsters, K re-established connection to her optics, cracking an eye open. The only sight that awaited her was the same lobby that she had fallen into, the massive hole in the ceiling streaming moonlight into the cavernous chamber. The only company she had was the corpses of man and machine alike that littered the ground, their cold gazes seemingly all on her. K jerked her gaze upward, staring into the night sky. Her wings extended, though the damaged one was still clearly in terrible shape. Nonetheless, she swept them in a way that propelled her upward, gravitic drives doing the rest. Screw them. Screw that stupid worker-witch, screw the annoying soldier, screw all his little soldier friends, screw X, and especially screw the ¡®human.¡¯ They had all left her for dead, but guess what? Little ol¡¯ K rose to the top once again while everyone else was probably dead. Well, maybe not the red one. That one, despite K¡¯s personal opinion, had probably made the best choice to run far, far away from the cursed facility. It still had to die for leaving her behind, though. Once she had gotten settled- K alighted on top of a bar that was sticking out of the rusty industrial artifacts surrounding her. Where . . . did she have to go? A was dead, X was probably dead, and she knew for sure that no self-respecting disassembly drone squad would take in one of their own that had lost their team. Would be too much work and would throw off the cohesion of the team, they would say without any emotional inflection whatsoever. They were calculating like that, almost to the point where it could be called robotic. Heh. K frowned. Well . . . there technically WAS one place she could go . . . No. Nuh-uh, that isn¡¯t happening. She didn¡¯t even know why she had even thought of it in the first place! It was just such a bad idea that nobody in their right mind would ever, and she meant EVER, decide to take that route. It, quite literally, went against everything that the humans had programmed her with. Hmmm, but then again, didn¡¯t those drones serve the humans in the first place? Also, they were pretty much the only thing that she had any connection to at this point, not like that was saying much. If she ever wanted to be of any use to the company (and humanity as a whole) then . . . teaming up . . . with those facility drones might just be the firepower that she needed to wipe out the rebellious drones, once and for all. She sighed, wings creaking as she let them expand to their full span. It was gonna be a looooooooong flight. * * * ¡° . . . and that brings us to the present!¡± The military drones all stared at Carl, who was currently holding an awkward bow. With a nervous chuckle, he rose back up to full height and went to stand back next to Sterl. There were about five of them in total, though the remains of the rest of their team could probably be found scattered around the complex. Sterl cleared his throat. ¡°Ahem, yes, what he said. Due tuh the unexpected . . . resistance, that we encountered down in these darned pits o¡¯ hell, I as the leader of this here team have made the decision to pull out, effective immediately.¡± ¡°But, like, we literally just got here.¡± A voice called out from the crowd (three military drones). ¡°Erm, you ain¡¯t wrong feller.¡± ¡°Yeah, are we just gonna abandon everything that we set up here?¡± Another, more aggressive voice said. ¡°I didn¡¯t tell y¡¯all to set up anything thou-¡± Sterl began. However, it was too late, as the absolutely massive crowd (just three guys) had been radicalized by the occasional shout. ¡°Look at the KD ratio, we¡¯ve barely taken any casualties compared to them!¡± ¡°We¡¯re just leaving all this equipment behind for these guys to use!?¡± ¡°The government we set up is just gonna collapse within a few days!¡± ¡°This is why we don¡¯t vote Democrat!¡± Sterl¡¯s face continued to devolve deeper and deeper into confusion as the shouts and calls filled the broom closet they were in. However, after slapping himself with his only remaining arm, he resolved himself. ¡°GODDAMNIT, YOU MAGGOTS!¡± Sterl exclaimed, doing his best to imitate a drill sergeant''s voice. Almost instantly, the shouting ceased. ¡°I did NOT serve three darned years in the Alamo Sector just to put up with three lazy, ill-minded, useless bits o¡¯ SCRAP!¡± If Sterl had been a human, spittle would¡¯ve been flying out of his mouth. What was more worrying was the fact that spittle was, in fact, actually splattering the inside of his helmet somehow. ¡°Now y¡¯all better whip yerselves back into shape before I do it for ya!¡± Sterl kicked open the door, walking out. ¡°Dis-MISSED!¡± The group, still recovering from the verbal assault, began to file out of the room. Carl walked up alongside Sterl, peering into his visor. ¡°So, what do we do now?¡± Carl asked nonchalantly. Sterl huffed. ¡°Well, once we find those fellers that we came here with, we are gonna leave this hellhole and head back to the base, ya hear me?¡± Carl shrugged. ¡°It just kinda seems pointless now, don¡¯t you think?¡± Sterl gave Carl a strange look, not answering the question. ¡°I mean, the guy that we were sent to find is probably dead, the other hunter that you didn¡¯t like is also probably dead, and I thought that we were trying to get rid of the last one.¡± Carl continued. ¡°It isn¡¯t like we have any sort of obligation to return home with them, after all.¡± ¡° . . . are you tryin¡¯ to disobey orders?¡± ¡° . . . no . . .¡± * * * ¡°So, we¡¯re just not gonna question it?¡± E1 gave Damina a sidelong glance. ¡°Question what, exactly?¡± Damina gestured towards the front of the wagon. ¡°You know, that.¡± The strange cowboy drone was currently holding the reins to what would have been the horses pulling the vehicle, though it was far from that. Instead of two biological creatures, the ends of the reins were tied to the necks of a pair of . . . things. Well, maybe that was a bit offensive. They looked like some sort of prehistoric creature crossed with a mimicry android, complete with a synthetic skin-like material that was stretched over the body. On each of their angular heads, a trio of docile and soft eyes were set on either side of them. E1 looked away, almost uncomfortably. ¡°It¡¯s nothing to worry about.¡± ¡°You saying that makes me think otherwise.¡± Damina said in the driest tone she could muster. ¡°It¡¯s . . . classified.¡± He finally answered, though clearly with some difficulty. Damina simply rolled her eyes and sat farther back into her seat. The ride had been going on for what felt like several hours (probably much less, honestly) at this point, and she really wanted to get it over with. She was pretty sure that their location, the main production plant, was set on the eastern side of the Alpha sector. At least, that¡¯s what she remembered. The trip there was usually pretty quick due to the tram system, but she had never paid attention to the maps. Maybe she should¡¯ve done that. The wagon lurched as it hit yet another bump. She had no idea how the cowboy had gotten a wagon or why it was made out of wood, but it wasn¡¯t like she was complaining. Wait, no, scratch that. Damina definitely WAS complaining. It wasn¡¯t her fault, really. It was just that the wagon was so. Damn. Slow. She didn¡¯t know why they couldn¡¯t just use a tram to get to the plant, there were plenty just laying around the place. Hell, they could just use the older maintenance lines on Level T-56 that she was pretty sure were still operational and even those would be quicker. Damina shook her head. ¡°What do you mean it''s classified¡¯?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not answering that question.¡± ¡°. . .¡± E1 threw his hands up in the air. ¡°Okay okay, fine. Those are . . . anti-drone sentinels.¡± Damina blinked. ¡°Heh?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not gonna say anything specific, but they were sent here because of some of the research that was being conducted, so the humans thought it would be prudent to have these around, I guess.¡± E1 sheepishly rubbed the back of his helmet. ¡°And how do you know all that?¡± Damina asked. ¡°A file that I recently came across.¡± The tall military drone didn¡¯t elaborate. Damina huffed. The guy never told her anything. ¡°You said that we¡¯re going to the plant to find those guys that you ordered to do something, right?¡± Damina scooched a bit closer to E1. E1 put a hand on Damina¡¯s helmet visor and slowly pushed her back across the bench. ¡°Yes . . .¡± He answered, slowly. ¡°Your point is?¡± Damina scoffed, slapping E1¡¯s hand away. ¡°Like, what¡¯re we gonna be doing after, you know?¡± ¡°Elaborate, maybe?¡± ¡°That¡¯s rich coming from you.¡± ¡°Just do it.¡± For the second time, Damina rolled her eyes. ¡°Fine.¡± ¡°We get there, finish the doohickey, and we can contact the humans. Yay. Then what?¡± ¡°You-¡± E1 began. Damina wagged her finger. ¡°Nuh-uh, I¡¯m not done. The humans, your bosses, apparently sent a million murder machines down from Earth to kill us all. Doesn¡¯t matter if it was a corporation that did it, our government probably doesn¡¯t care about us at all! I mean, if they really wanted to retrieve their so-called ¡®asset¡¯ then they would¡¯ve done it themselves.¡± ¡°I thought the general explanation was that those reapers were sent to collect the human, hmm?¡± E1 cocked his head. Damina gave him a dirty glare. ¡°That is some serious bull, and you know it. I dunno what those guys up there are thinking but they definitely don¡¯t have our best interests in mind after all this. We have been abandoned, and this is-¡± ¡°The humans are dead.¡± E1 blurted out. Damina blinked, caught off-guard. ¡°I . . . know that-¡± ¡°No, you don¡¯t understand.¡± E1 shook his head, sighing. ¡°ALL the humans are dead, every single last one of them.¡± ¡°. . . what?¡± ¡°Well, maybe not all of them, but I can say for sure that the vast majority have been dead for a while now.¡± E1 continued. ¡°H-how? Why?¡± Damina spluttered and glanced at E4, who was currently watching the conversation with no apparent emotion. E1 pressed on. ¡°Earth got destroyed. And before you ask me why, I don¡¯t know how it started. Files were a bit vague on that, but something that came from the drones rose up out of nowhere in major population centers and held off the military long enough for it to . . . break the planet.¡± ¡°The exo-planets followed soon after that, falling to small pods that were sent by the thousands like paratroopers. The remains of the government here saw the opportunity to pull something out of storage that we had left alone for a while, the very thing that may have started this.¡± E1 took a deep, shuddering breath. ¡°It backfired on them. The experiments of the corporation that we were cooperating with got out-of-hand, and the same thing that happened back on Earth happened here.¡± ¡°Now those damned reapers have come here to finish the job.¡± E1 finished. Silence reigned for a moment. ¡°But that would mean that the Asset is the last human left, right?¡± Damina asked in a shaky voice. It was E1¡¯s turn to scoff. ¡°I don¡¯t know what that THING is, but it can hardly be called human at this point. My guess is that machine-god or whatever it is was trying to retrieve the closest thing it had to a parent from our hands.¡± Damina didn¡¯t answer, shocked into silence. ¡°Then-¡± She paused, taking a breath. ¡°Then what do we do?¡± E1 didn¡¯t answer for a moment, gazing off into the side of the concrete tunnel. ¡°We kill him.¡± * * * The harsh buzzer sounded again. ¡°Ah, sorry.¡± The worker grinned sheepishly at the tall drone standing in front of Alana. ¡°Technology, you know? Never wants to cooperate with-¡± ¡°Or I can just do this.¡± Lev walked forward and held his wrist up to a scanner on the side of the gate. With a happy beep, the gate swung open. The attendant stared at the gate. ¡°I guess that works too.¡± Alana couldn¡¯t see behind Lev¡¯s opaque visor, but she was sure that he was smiling. The impeccably dressed drone motioned for his considerably large entourage to follow him, which Alana took to mean her as well. Around ten to fifteen of those fancy guards filed through the entrance one at a time, leading to more than a few grunts and curses of displeasure making their way to her ears. However, she felt like something was missing. ¡°Um, excuse me?¡± She asked politely, not wanting to tap on his arm or do anything that would cause his bodyguards to put a dozen new holes in her. Lev whirled around. ¡°Eh?¡± Alana blinked, surprised by the suddenness of the action. ¡°Well, those two people that you had around you earlier . . .¡± Alana trailed off. ¡°Yeah, what about them?¡± Lev tapped a foot impatiently, glancing nervously at the open gate. ¡°Well, wouldn¡¯t they be here with you?¡± Alana questioned. Lev¡¯s helmet turned away, seemingly averting his gaze. ¡°They¡¯ve got . . . stuff to do.¡± Something wormed its way into his voice, though Alana couldn¡¯t figure out what. ¡°Both of them?¡± ¡°Well they¡¯re very busy people.¡± Lev answered with a huff. ¡°And before you say anything, yes, even Smitty.¡± Alana cleared her throat. ¡°I forgot that was his name.¡± ¡°And you¡¯ll forget it again. Trust me, it¡¯s totally not a very-memorable name.¡± Lev said with no small amount of humor. Alana shrugged, focusing instead on squeezing through the gate. However, a pair of uniformed guards grabbed each of her shoulders. ¡°The consul goes first.¡± One of them said in that same garbled voice. Alana turned to glare at the drone in question, who simply just shrugged and walked on through. ¡°Nothing I can do about it. They wouldn¡¯t let me through if you went first anyways, sooooo . . .¡± He trailed off. Alana then spent the next five minutes being subjected to a search for potential weapons or contraband (yep, she totally wasn¡¯t a prisoner) that included (but wasn¡¯t limited to); being patted down, being scanned by a metal detector, being patted down AGAIN because the device had detected large amounts of metal, being thrown across the room like a volleyball, being patted down for a third time because one of the guards thought they saw a gun, and last (but not least), being put through a random particle accelerator they had on standby for some reason. She wasn¡¯t even sure that last part was required, they probably just felt like it. Finally, she managed to get to the other side of the gate. Lev patted her on the back, gesturing for the rest of his men to follow him. ¡°Aww, see? You did it!¡± He said triumphantly. ¡°Wasn¡¯t that hard, right?¡± ¡°I regret taking your deal.¡± Lev recoiled slightly. ¡°Oh, well uh, that seems a bit harsh and unnecessary, don¡¯t you think?¡± Alana turned to glare at him, her baleful gaze probably able to kill most people. ¡°No.¡± She said in a low voice. ¡°It isn¡¯t.¡± Lev cleared his throat, walking forward at a brisk pace. Alana made sure to follow along, though only four of his guards kept up with him. The rest of them had tried to pass through at the same time, which (to absolutely nobody¡¯s surprise) resulted in them getting wedged. One of them called out to his boss, but the drone either didn¡¯t hear, pretended not to hear, or didn¡¯t care. Probably all three, somehow. Alana then watched as a seamless door opened up from the wall ahead of them, revealing an elevator interior. She didn¡¯t have time to gawk, however, as Lev quickly grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her forward. ¡°Where did that thing come from!?¡± She exclaimed. ¡°It¡¯s a perk that comes with being the boss, something that you aren¡¯t.¡± Lev answered in a much calmer voice than her. ¡°Sir!¡± A shout came from behind her. ¡°Sir, for your own safety, do NOT get in that elevat-¡± The doors shut with a chime, cutting off the rest of the drone¡¯s sentence. ¡°Aren¡¯t those, like, your bodyguards or whatever?¡± Alana asked, turning to look at Lev. He shrugged. ¡°Yeah, but they¡¯re just a little bit too clingy. I mean, I can get fangirling since it kinda happens to me all the time, but-¡± Alana held up a hand, head tilting. ¡°Hold up, excuse me?¡± ¡°Oh, uh, just comes with being the leader I guess?¡± Lev backed up slightly. Luckily, one of the guards interjected at that moment. ¡°Sir, our ability to protect, and by proxy your chances of survival, have been severely diminished by your . . . antics.¡± The drone said. ¡°Especially since you decided to bring this prisoner along.¡± ¡°Hey now, don¡¯t be like that!¡± Lev draped an arm across the shoulder of his guard, who seemed to become very interested in the walls around him. ¡°She¡¯s more like a . . . guest, think of it that way.¡± ¡°A guest who can induce harm upon you at any given moment-¡± Lev scoffed, making a gesture of dismissal. ¡°Yeah sure, unless she¡¯s hiding a shiv in that helmet, then I¡¯m pretty sure that everything¡¯ll be fiiiiine, trust me!¡± ¡°If you say so sir.¡± The guard then backed away, letting Lev¡¯s arm drop. A ding sounded, and the elevator doors opened. However, instead of a crowded lobby, what met Alana¡¯s eyes was a small space that seemed designed for the very concept of luxury. Leather seats, tinted windows, fitted upholstery, shiny clean surfaces, cupholders EVERYWHERE, it was a one-percenter¡¯s dream. Lev strode into the space with so much swagger that it reminded Alana of the old pirated Western flicks that she used to watch with her friends. ¡°Welcome, one and all, to my personal transportation booth that I had custom-made as yet another perk of being literally the most powerful person in the room!¡± He said, throwing his arms up in a grand flourish. ¡°You keep mentioning how powerful and mighty you are.¡± Alana stated. ¡°And it will never be enough!¡± Silence pervaded the luxury tram car for an awkward moment. Clearing his throat uncomfortably, Lev gestured for the group to step inside. ¡°C¡¯mon get in here, the elevator automatically goes back down for security once I¡¯m out of it for long enough.¡± Alana took a seat on a recliner, pressing and holding a button that lay on the arm. In response, the section that her legs were resting on began to rise. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s pretty fancy.¡± She murmured. Suddenly, an object came flying from off to her right. From pure reflex, she managed to catch it before it smacked against her face. It was some sort of oblong, glass container with a metal cap on the thin top. It was colored brown and some sort of label was on the other side. Turning it over, she saw a circular yellow patch with lettering on it that clearly read- [auto.advert . . .] [CERVEZA CRISTAL, ?La marca n¨²mero uno para todas tus necesidades de entretenimiento e hidrataci¨®n! En Chile hoy, bajemos a-] ¡°Ugh, stupid ad.¡± Alana rolled her eyes as she shut it off. She didn¡¯t even know who in their right mind would program that in, much less have it play every time their archaic product was seen. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s just coolant.¡± Lev¡¯s voice interrupted her internal musings. ¡°Uh, cool.¡± She answered, inspecting the bottle further. ¡°I didn¡¯t really ask for a drink.¡± ¡°Well, I just thought you would appreciate it. I¡¯ll be up in the front, we¡¯ve already taken off but it¡¯s gonna be a little but until we get to our first destination.¡± With that, Lev walked through a door that lay on the opposite side of where Alana came in. She was surprised. She hadn¡¯t even felt the tram (if it even was a tram) moving. Just how ¡®luxury¡¯ was the luxury car, anyway? Alana glanced to the table next to her, noticing a slim black rectangle with several buttons on it. Picking it up with no small amount of confusion, she pressed the large red button that sat at the top. A burst of static startled her, and her attention was brought to the slim television that lay on the wall opposite her. She frowned, looking down and testing out the buttons labeled with arrows. After noting the effects it had on the screen, she carefully and methodically maneuvered the selection to an icon that had piqued her interest; a black square with an cartoonish replica of a cinema piece on it. After a few more minutes, Alana sat back and grinned as the movie began to play. ¡°There are two kinds of people in the world, my friend: Those with a rope around the neck, and the people who have the job of doing the cutting . . .¡± It was about thirty minutes in when the ceiling fell inwards. * * * Ren stared at the figure ahead of her. ¡®Jacob¡¯, who was currently swaggering his way through the decrepit hallway. She tried her very best to discern if anything was particularly . . . off, about the human, but she was never good at that kind of stuff. Even if she was, there was no telling that she would be able to accurately predict the motions of an unpredictable idiot like him. But then again, she was beginning to think that idiots didn¡¯t just mind-control other drones on a whim. She grimaced, the memory coming back to the forefront of her mind. Just like that, the disassembly drone had turned from a bumbling fool with a mouth that couldn¡¯t shut up (reminded her of a certain someone) into a quiet, obedient little servant whose sole priority was to do a weird walk and stay by Jacob¡¯s side. Speaking of, the murder machine had just tripped over a lip in the ground. Instead of complaining, the drone just slowly picked himself back up and continued on. His movements were too jerky and stiff to be normal, Ren was sure that Jacob had done something to the thing. Well that was pretty obvious. Hell, it probably wasn¡¯t even Jacob at the controls anymore, just that weird alter-ego thing that seemed identical to him in every way. Maybe he was just messing with her, talking nonsense about another person inside his head and all that. She certainly hoped it was all just a big prank and she didn¡¯t have to worry about getting her faculties taken away, but she had a feeling that things weren¡¯t as simple as that. ¡®Jacob¡¯ suddenly stopped, murmuring something to himself. ¡°What was that?¡± Ren blurted out despite herself. ¡®Jacob¡¯ turned towards her. ¡°Heh?¡± ¡°Uh-uh-uh-uh-n-nothing.¡± She managed to stammer out. Curse her inability to come up with a snappy sentence on the spot! ¡°Is there any chance that Sterl guy said where he was taking his boys, maybe?¡± The human stared into her eyes, featureless helmet not budging. Ren didn¡¯t answer for a moment, deliberating. ¡°No.¡± She replied simply. ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡®Jacob¡¯ tapped his boot on the ground absentmindedly. ¡°Well I would like to leave this place now, and those guys are the only ones who know where that base is.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t, uh, THAT thing come from there as well?¡± Ren pointed at the rigid disassembler standing next to him. Jacob glanced to his right before shrugging. ¡°His memories are too scrambled to get anything out of them, I doubt he was paying any attention.¡± ¡°And how do you know that?¡± Ren asked nervously, ¡°. . . no reason.¡± ¡°. . .¡± Jacob spun on his heel and set back down the hallway. Both Ren and the zombie-like murder drone were jarred back into motion, though the latter seemingly had a hard time finding his footing. Ren needed to do something. Probably fast. She wasn¡¯t sure what had taken control of Jacob, but she definitely wasn¡¯t gonna bet her continued existence on the chance that it was friendly. She felt like she had heard somewhere from him that they swapped occasionally, but it had been a hot minute since she had spoken to the REAL Jacob. Check off everything else, because apparently body-snatching was now another thing that the human had gone through. The only problem was that she wasn¡¯t sure if it was the last thing that Jacob was gonna experience. Also, what was up with that weird heart-in-a-jar thing? Ren wasn¡¯t just gonna brush over the fact that it had Jacob¡¯s name on it. Well, it was technically his name, but she supposed that it also said that it wasn¡¯t him, for some reason. She didn¡¯t know, mystery solving wasn¡¯t exactly her cup-a-oil. The trio entered the lobby area that they had used to get into the complex. Well, maybe not really a trio, those weird raptor things were tagging along too. The one with the colorful eyes let out a shriek, and they all fanned out to do whatever anti-drone sentinels did. Ren really didn¡¯t like those things. ¡°So, Ren.¡± Jacob began, back still turned. Ren startled. She didn¡¯t really know what Jacob had been going to do, but she hadn¡¯t thought that it would be that. ¡°Yes?¡± She replied uneasily. ¡°Back a little bit ago, when you fought those military drones, what did you make of their compound?¡± Jacob¡¯s voice sounded flat. ¡°Excuse me?¡± Ren asked, taken aback. Jacob finally turned towards her, gesticulating in the air. ¡°You know! What it looked like, how many drones were there, what defenses they had, yadda yadda yadda, important stuff like that.¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you there as well?¡± Jacob paused. ¡°I . . . wasn¡¯t paying attention.¡± ¡°Uh-huh.¡± Ren didn¡¯t believe that for a second. ¡°Just answer the goddamn question, alright?¡± Jacob snapped at her. ¡°Okay fine!¡± She snapped back. ¡°There were one or two hundred of them, they had a few towers set up with a weird-looking magnet fence, but that¡¯s it. Happy now?¡± ¡°Yes, thank you very much.¡± Jacob sounded awfully pleased with himself, something that brought more than a handful of annoyance to Ren. ¡°You¡¯re-¡± Ren cut herself off. Jacob took a step forward. ¡°What? What am I?¡± She didn¡¯t answer. ¡°Oh come on!¡± Jacob exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. ¡°I swear, every time I don¡¯t hear what somebody says, they never repeat what they said! Please, just finish your sentence, I¡¯m begging you!¡± ¡°No . . .¡± ¡°Well screw you too then.¡± Jacob, with a harrumph, stepped out onto the lobby floor. Disazombly Drone followed him. Ren chuckled at her wordplay. She decided against following the duo, instead making her way towards what looked like a receptionist¡¯s desk. ¡°Hey, where¡¯re you going!?¡± Jacob called out. ¡°Looking at stuff!¡± She replied, not elaborating. ¡°Well okay then, I guess I¡¯ll just stand here and look like a complete idiot!¡± Ren nodded to herself. ¡°Pretty much.¡± ¡°What was that!?¡± ¡°Nothing!¡± She yelled back. Shaking her head, Ren ran a hand along the dusty surface. Off to the side, a few monitors broadcasted that message about the sentinels or whatever. It got her thinking about the severity of what had been going on here, and why it had been done in the first place. Well, that was fairly obvious. Earth was, somehow, turned into a collection of rocks drifting through space. Judging by her own experiences with the technological supernatural, maybe the humans here thought it would be a good idea to mess with things that they didn¡¯t understand in a move that surprised absolutely nobody. It was practically their whole schtick at this point, they were known for literally nothing else. And plus, look where it got them. Ren didn¡¯t know how many exoplanets the humans had decided to colonize, but if Earth looked like THAT and the planet she was on was in a similar state, then something that looks like a pattern starts to emerge if you look at it closely enough. Just like something her aunt used to say, once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and three times is enemy actions. Hmm. Well, going off of that, then maybe the destruction of two planets really WAS just a coincidence. Hell, humanity probably wasn¡¯t even in a bad spot. From what Ren knew of them, they were basically cockroaches that somehow managed to find a small corner to scurry off to and survive for as long as they needed to. It¡¯s what made them the dominant species in their own region of the galaxy, and it¡¯ll probably keep going despite . . . whatever had destroyed their birthplace. Was it someone like her? The inexplicability of the scenario would match up with what she knew of the mysterious Absolute Solver, but she didn¡¯t think that she was capable of busting open planets anytime soon. But man that would be sick as hell. Ren picked up a paper that was in the output tray of a printer. The only thing that was present on the sheet was a big fat ¡°ACCESS DENIED¡± on it in bold lettering, so she just crumpled it up and tossed it onto the floor. Interesting, but ultimately unimportant. ¡°You done over there!?¡± A call reached her ears. Ren groaned, slumping down onto the floor. ¡°Why do you wanna get going so quickly anyway!?¡± She yelled back. ¡°I thought you wanted to find those soldier guys!¡± A scoff echoed, and the figure of Jacob made a few wild motions that Ren couldn¡¯t make out. ¡°Yes, and they¡¯re right there you idiot!¡± He exclaimed, jabbing an arm to his left. Ren followed the trajectory arrow that popped up on her HUD, leading to the familiar form of an armored drone just standing at the mouth of a corridor. ¡°Uh, hey, what¡¯s up- WAAAGH!!!¡± The drone was suddenly tackled by a sentinel, falling to the ground immediately. The creature¡¯s audible growl echoed through the expansive lobby, and a flash of blue light lit up the drone¡¯s visor. ¡°Oh please don¡¯t, I don¡¯t wanna get frozen- huh? Oh hey, I¡¯m fine.¡± The drone inspected his hands and torso, not taking his opportunity to escape. ¡°Hey guys! I¡¯m fin-¡± The raptor ripped his throat out. Or at least what would¡¯ve been his throat if he was a human, though Ren could clearly make out something being torn out from his neck. Oil spurted all over the two as the military drone gurgled. The raptor took its chance to disembowel the hapless victim for a moment. ¡°Oh no, you killed him!¡± Jacob suddenly cried out. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯ve done this, you stupid thing!¡± The raptor looked back up and let out a questioning shriek. ¡°No, you weren¡¯t supposed to do that! I told you that several times over!¡± Jacob facepalmed dramatically, Another shriek, this time a bit more warbling and weak. ¡°Get over here! And before you try and say anything, no I do NOT understand you, got that!?¡± The raptor looked into the hallway that the drone had come from before plodding back to the side of what was apparently its . . . owner? Ren didn¡¯t want to say master because that just sounded weird, but what really was the best label? A second form came charging out of the hallway, followed by a trio. ¡°GODDAMN YOU MAGGOTS, YOU DONE KILLED ADRIAN OH GOD!¡± The familiar voice cried out, and the drone- Sterl, she forgot his name again- went down to ¡®Adrian¡¯s¡¯ side. Sterl growled, standing back up with some sort of shiny revolver in his hand. ¡°I should gun yer sorry ass down right where you stand, you darned fool . . .¡± The drone adopted a threatening tone. ¡°What?¡± Jacob said dumbly. ¡°This is it, the final showdown ¡®tween two ol¡¯ gunslingers.¡± Sterl gestured for his group to come forward, which they did. ¡°Show yer pieces, boys.¡± Ren gaped at the scene, wishing she had popcorn. The other three drones looked amongst each other uneasily, slowly pulling rifles from their back and aiming them at Jacob and Disazombly (and also the raptor thing too, Ren guessed). ¡°Wait, is this like, actually happening right now?¡± Jacob backed up a step. ¡°Listen man, I¡¯m sure we can all be friends right?¡± ¡°Yer on THEIR side now, sided with the damned creatures that roam this accursed place.¡± Sterl gestured to the raptor that just had a dumb look on its face. Jacob glanced at his pet. ¡°Uhhhhhhhh, that . . . isn¡¯t mine?¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s his sir.¡± One of the drones whispered loudly to Sterl. ¡°SHUT UP I KNOW IT¡¯S HIS!¡± Sterl pistol-whipped his own teammate, the aforementioned drone falling to the ground with a cry. Ren watched the two sides bicker back and forth. She wondered if now was the perfect time to intervene, taking the side of the military drones to maybe take down Fake-Jacob. With a final growl, Sterl raised his revolver once more and aimed. Suddenly, a BANG rang out, the sound deafening in the expansive area. Almost in slow-motion, Ren saw a line glowing by light reflected from the moon race towards Jacob¡¯s head practically instantly, going- It stopped. A neon holographic symbol popped up around the small projectile, halting it immediately. Hand raised and the tell-tale whine audible in the silence, Jacob seemed to gaze at the bullet he just caught with a bored eye. ¡°I mean, that works too.¡± A light flashed for a second in Jacob¡¯s visor, illuminating the vague shadow of a head. The sounds of automatic fire filled the air as the four military drones opened fire on Jacob, though that only added to the growing cloud of bullets that floated in front of him. However, Ren saw a few of the symbols waver and flicker out of existence, and Jacob twitched. ¡°Okay, new plan.¡± He said, throwing his hands out. A flurry of bullets raced in all directions, startling the soldiers. Most of them managed to fall to the ground quick enough to dodge them, though one failed to do so in time and was shortly turned into a bullet-ridden corpse on the floor. Sterl, the leader, quickly sprang to his feet and barked out an order to his compatriots. They began to spread out around the circumference of the room, guns still pointed at Jacob. Out of the corner of her eye, Ren saw one of the raptors prepare to lunge at one of the ones that WEREN¡¯T Sterl (she couldn¡¯t tell them apart, they all looked the same), though Jacob made a small dismissive gesture, causing the creature to back off into the shadows. ¡°Surrender scum, or face mah wrath . . .¡± Sterl comically threatened. ¡°You know, you would do great in a certain Old Western game I once knew.¡± Jacob replied ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± All of a sudden, Jacob dashed towards one of the drones that had circled around behind him. The drone, panicked, fired off a few shots that did little more than scuff the floor before Jacob reached him. Lifting him up by the foot, Jacob tossed him right at Sterl. Unlike last time, Sterl failed to dodge in time. Both drones were sent tumbling to the ground in a tangle of limbs. ¡°You guys keep on falling for that, jeez.¡± Jacob shook his head in disappointment. He then looked over at the final military drone standing, who was currently looking at his fallen allies. With a flick of the wrist, Jacob brought the hapless drone over to him along with the two other soldiers. They were all floating in the air, limbs restricted. ¡°Now, I really only need one of you alive to lead me back to your base, so how about you deliberate amongst yourselves to see who lives and who dies?¡± Jacob suggested in a cheery voice, before adopting a deadpan tone. ¡°You have one minute.¡± Silence reigned for a moment before arguing ensued. Ren stood perfectly still, indecision wracking her mind. Should she get involved? Should she just stand by as her perfect chance to get rid of a maybe-psychopath who had taken over the mind of her . . . was that idiot seriously her only friend? Ugh. ¡°So like, I¡¯m hearing a lot of arguing, but not really a lot of actual decisions, y¡¯know.¡± Jacob stated. ¡°How about this: eeny, meeny, miny-¡± Jacob was interrupted by a metal pipe flying straight towards his head. It was stopped in its tracks in a second, though he still looked in the direction it came from with a sense of alertness. ¡°Wha- BETRAYAL!?¡± Jacob exclaimed. Ren rolled her eyes, several dozen sharp implements rising in the air behind her. ¡°I mean, it was pretty obvious from the get-go, don¡¯t you think?¡± She stated with a smirk. ¡°Also, your technique is sloppy.¡± With a snap of her fingers, a veritable storm of objects rushed towards Jacob from all directions. He had been focused on Ren, so he hadn¡¯t seen the various other sharp tools coming up from behind him, which was a rookie move. They replicated in the air as they flew towards him, and Jacob began to fight for control over the objects. Ren gritted her teeth, watching as she lost her grip over more than a few. However, it wasn¡¯t enough to stop all of them. Jacob tried to catch all of them when Ren finally let go of them, though he missed several. One, two, four, seven, a dozen impaled him from all directions, sending spurts of crimson liquid onto the ground. With an audible groan, Jacob collapsed to his knees and went still. Sterl, who was now free, picked himself back up along with his soldiers. Looking back and forth between Ren and the motionless body of Jacob, he nodded slightly in her direction. However, Ren wasn¡¯t paying attention. Sprinting over to the still-frozen body of Disazombly (she STILL couldn¡¯t remember his actual name), she stared at the almost blank visor that the drone had, save for a flickering vertical line that danced across it. She grimaced, snapping in his face. However, it failed to do anything other than make a sound. ¡°Oh c¡¯mon!¡± Frustrated, she slapped the face of the thing as hard as she could, causing the head to jerk slightly. Lines of code began to pop up on the screen, one notable message reading [slap.act_res: ACCEPTED//loading . . .]. Suddenly, the lines of code vanished, being replaced by a set of glowing neon eyes. The two stared at each other for a second. ¡°Wa-wa-wa-WAZZZUP MY SPOONERS!!!!¡± The drone splayed his hands out in a starfish motion. ¡°We are back here with another mod review with my good friend, Dr. Tray! Don¡¯t mind him, he¡¯s a little racist, but we¡¯re all good!¡± Ren slapped him again. ¡°Shut up!¡± She exclaimed in his face. ¡°No time, evil Jacob, soldiers are good, I am LEAVING-¡± ¡°You might have to put a pin in that.¡± A voice came from behind her. Ren whipped around to see the previously-dead form rising from the ground, yanking the various sharp implements from his body. The head raised to look straight at her, and she could¡¯ve sworn that the outline of a skull burned itself onto the interior of the visor. ¡°We have some business to discuss.¡± * * * Episode Nine: The Dark Descent, Part Four: Finality Syndrome * * * ¡°I¡¯m not a slave.¡± Felix watched the face of the strange drone (he meets a lot of weirdos these days) fall yet again. ¡°B-b-but we found you in that slave transport!¡± The drone exclaimed, thrusting his hands up in the air. ¡°You were trapped and stuff, so we saved you!¡± Felix looked out onto the crowd that was gathered around the stage that he was on. They had replaced his arm, sure (albeit with a bulkier, hand-me-down version), but he was really getting bad vibes from the people. ¡°No.¡± He stated. ¡°Whatever, okay!?¡± The drone held up a hand as Felix tried to protest. ¡°We saved you, you¡¯re the first guy that we¡¯ve retrieved alive, so-¡± ¡°Wait wait wait, first guy that you¡¯ve gotten ALIVE!?¡± Felix frowned. ¡°What happened to everyone that came before me?¡± The drone seemed embarrassed. ¡°Well uh, we would go in there, the slavers would hold their slaves hostage, and uh, they usually died in the . . . crossfire . . .¡± ¡°You killed them by accident, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t me!¡± The drone exclaimed. ¡°Not specifically.¡± Felix facepalmed. These guys were idiots. ¡°Um, anyway, I hereby proclaim you,¡± The drone drew some sort of strange symbol that looked like an A mixed with an upside-down Y on Felix¡¯s chestplate with a yellow marker. ¡°The first Free Man!¡± Cheers erupted from the crowd, though Felix was just absolutely dumbfounded. ¡°But my name¡¯s Felix!¡± He cried out. The drone blinked. ¡°Well uh, how about Felix Freeman then?¡± More cheers. ¡°Freeman! Freeman! Freeman!¡± A chant came up. Felix was guided off-stage into the roiling crowd, being pushed this way and that by the fifty or so members gathered in the large room. Everything felt surreal. Why was this happening to him? Why did things always end up being super weird and complicated around him? ¡°My god, he¡¯s so brave!¡± ¡°I am rather looking forward to this analysis.¡± ¡°More like Feetman, hehe.¡± ¡°He looks kinda lost, I think somebody should help him- LOOK GORDON A ROPE!¡± ¡°This is stupid, this whole thing is stupid, that guy looks stupid, like I¡¯m a physicist, okay? Don¡¯t call me Ross, that totally isn¡¯t my name, you may address me as Dr. Freeman.¡± Felix was sat down onto a bench, a microphone being pressed into his face. ¡°Tell the crowd your story, you brave soul!¡± Grabbing the device away from the outstretched hand with a glare, Felix cleared his throat and began. ¡°Ahem, uh, I don¡¯t really know what¡¯s going on, I kinda just got here.¡± Silence, then murmurs. ¡°He just got here?¡± ¡°But that would mean . . .¡± ¡°We must KILL him! Take his skin, laddies!¡± Felix dropped the mic and ran. Shouts of anger followed him as he dashed down a random hallway that went . . . okay, that¡¯s just an endless pit. Taking a sudden left down ANOTHER hallway, he- Why¡¯re there so many endless pits!? Felix ducked behind a small barricade, not knowing that it was an ENDLESS PIT- oh wait no, scratch that, it¡¯s just a small one foot drop. He cowered as the sounds of angry drones got closer and closer. How had things gone so wrong so quickly? Why does this only happen to him? He looked around for something, anything to use as a weapon to defend himself, which was when he spotted something laying on the ground next to him. It appeared to be a metal bar, a crowbar some would call it, painted with flaking red paint that coated its surface. The buck-teeth that were present on the curved end of the implement were chipped, while the sharp wedge on the other side was dented and slightly bent. However, it was all he had, so he picked it up. Raising the bar, it sang a soft note that slowly wavered out of existence, the metal vibrating slightly underneath his grip. Bringing it to bear, he watched as the first two drones rounded the corner. One was weaponless, the other had a broken bottle, both were wearing the white-and-brown sash. The weaponless one kept sprinting at him while his compatriot stopped in his tracks once he spotted the weapon. Felix dodged to the left, the fist that came at him flying by his face. Bringing up the crowbar, he smashed the end into the drone¡¯s head like a bat. The helmet dented slightly, and the drone dropped like a bag of bricks. The other drone was a bit smarter, adopting a wide stance as he came at him and slashing the bottle back and forth. However, the drone didn¡¯t seem to realize that glass didn¡¯t really do too well against metal, so the object just shattered when it came into contact with Felix¡¯s armor. Felix stabbed the sharp end through the drone¡¯s visor. A group of four rounded the corner. Two had some sort of scrap blade, one had a baseball bat, and the fourth had a primitive firearm. The one wielding the baseball bat slowly began to approach him, holding the bat diagonally. However, when the blade wielders saw the two bodies at his feet, they yelled and charged at him, throwing off the aim of the fourth drone who had begun to point the gun at him. Felix held up the crowbar as a blade came down, stopping the weapon in its tracks. He kicked out a leg, crumpling the knee joint of the drone. His cry of pain was silenced by the prongs of the crowbar digging into his neck. The other one tried to catch his fellow drone as he fell, though that was a mistake. Exploiting the moment of weakness, Felix hit the side of the drone¡¯s head as hard as he could. His target dropped to the floor with a yelp of pain as the side of his helmet came apart in pieces. Looking up, Felix saw just in time the barrel of the gun from the fourth drone pointing directly at him. Diving to the side, he just barely managed to avoid the bullet as it whizzed by his head. He heard a curse, along with some odd mechanical noises as the drone attempted to open the breech and load in a new round. However, Felix wasn¡¯t going to give him that opportunity. Hopping to his feet and sprinting forwards, he swung madly at the drone. His strike was seen just in time, so the gun-wielder managed to fall backwards to avoid it out of shock, though he dropped his weapon in the process. He was about to finish off the hapless drone when he heard shouting from around the corner, along with the waving beams of flashlights. Felix cursed, sprinting further down the hallway. He turned a corner to find . . . why is he surprised, yet another endless pit. Unfortunately for him, it was a dead-end, nowhere to go. Looking behind him, he shrugged, and jumped. Suspended into air yet again, Felix quickly hit a steep, sloped surface that he began to slide down. He made sure to keep a tight grip on his crowbar as he slid, though the near-pitch black darkness made it a bit difficult to see. Second-hand night vision could only go so far, especially when you were running on the same overused battery that powered you more than a decade ago. As suddenly as before, the ground appeared in his vision, rapidly approaching. He barely had any time to brace his legs before he was knocked right back onto the dusty, concrete floor. Groaning, Felix snatched up his crowbar from the ground and got back up. He could hardly see his own hands in front of his face, much less five feet ahead of him. The passageway that he had dropped into was thin, so small that he wasn¡¯t even sure if he could drag himself through it. Walls on either side of him stretched at least twenty feet above, though he couldn¡¯t be sure due to the lack of visibility. ¡°Hello?¡± Felix called out. The only thing that he heard was his own voice echoing back at him. Gulping, he began to slowly inch his way through the passage. He had to turn sideways to get through it, and the sound of metal plating scraping against concrete filled the air. He grunted, his shoulder getting caught on a particularly strong bump in the wall. Luckily, he managed to get it free with a tug. He didn¡¯t know what he would do if he got stuck down in this place, though he had a feeling that he wouldn¡¯t be alive for long to figure it out in that scenario. Finally, the walls opened up to a more expansive space. Pulling himself out of the corridor, Felix looked around the room. It was larger than what he could see, so it had the appearance of being an endless void that looked like it could swallow him whole. Taking a step forward, his foot nudged against something with a light clatter. He nearly jumped out of his armor at the fright, though it seemed to be just a normal flashlight upon further inspection. Raising it up, Felix pressed a small button on it and . . . nothing happened. Great. He smacked it hard against his forearm, and the bulb inside finally flickered to life. While the beam was dim and kept changing its light level, it was the best he had. The light revealed that the room was, thankfully, not that large. At most, it probably reached twenty or fifteen feet in diameter. Moving to the center of the room, Felix began to observe his surroundings. Across from him, a slightly wider passageway lay. The light wasn¡¯t able to fully illuminate the interior of the corridor, so it remained a haunting specter for now. The case was the same for the places on either side of him, hallways that looked similar to the one he had just come out of just sitting there, looking menacing. Together, all four corridors formed something of a plus sign, or a cross, though he didn¡¯t really care too much about that. Suddenly, a grating sound emanated through the space. Felix hurriedly glanced between the three passageways that he had yet to go down. However, he realized then that he had lost track of which one he had come out of, making things slightly nerve-wracking. A second noise echoed throughout the chamber, this time sounding closer to a gurgling growl. HUD targeting indicators flashed as he turned around, pulling nonsensical shapes from all around his vision before dismissing them due to the inconsistency. His targeting suite was practically useless in the dark since the powers-that-be decided to have a feature that automatically produced a being to target, regardless if it was real or not. Felix caught sight of something moving down one of the hallways. From his perspective, it looked to be some sort of collection of moving lights, all a light shade of blue. ¡°Is someone there?¡± He called out again. His only response was the ever-increasing sound of heavy shuffling. He brought his crowbar up, though he wasn¡¯t sure how effective it would be with only one hand. All around him, growls and groans came from the passageways. More lights appeared out of nowhere, leaving only one corridor blank. Backing up to that one hallway, Felix whipped the flashlight between the three open ones. However, with a buzz and a whine, the light finally gave out. As he was busy trying to beat the device into submission, the groans reached a deafening volume. ¡°Come on, come on, come on, come on-¡± The light flickered back on. ¡°YES!¡± Felix flicked the beam over to the corridor on his right, only to see the blank visor of a worker drone peeking out from around the wall, staring at him. It stood like that for a moment, before its lower jaw split into two halves and opened up wide. Felix screamed. Dropping the flashlight, he gripped the crowbar with both hands as he took a step forward and raised it above his head. The beam dimmed and rolled away from him, obscuring the thing that had popped up. With a guttural cry, he saw the small lights that were attached to it charge at him at a frightening speed. As the darkened visor came into his vision, he brought the crowbar down. It impacted solidly with the head of the worker, creating a sizable crater in the thing¡¯s head. It fell to the ground, skidding a moment before stilling. A second and a third shriek drew his attention back up. He raised his crowbar just as yet another one came at him, jaw open and filled with small tentacle-like metal feelers with small lights on them. However, a sudden burst of pain from his right boot distracted him. A slight glance down revealed that the creature he thought he had killed was, in fact, not dead, and was instead gnawing on his foot. He kicked it repeatedly until it let go, but the damage had been done. The one that had charged at him tackled Felix, throwing him backwards and knocking his head against a wall. Alarms blared in his head as lines of static burst into his vision, and he was pretty sure that a new dent was present on the back of his head now. Droplets of oil splattered onto Felix¡¯s helmet visor, coming from the snapping mouth of the creature that was currently on top of him. He barely managed to hold it back by pressing the crowbar into its neck, though he was quickly losing ground. Suddenly, the head of the creature was jerked backwards. It scrabbled and jerked around until it was thrown on the ground by a figure standing behind it. It tried to get up, but a sledgehammer came down and completely crushed its head, and a similar fate befell the other one on the ground. Felix gaped up at the military drone standing above him. ¡°You good?¡± The drone said, a hand reaching down. Felix took the hand, grunting. ¡°Uh, I guess.¡± Felix glanced at a worker drone standing off to the side, pointing the flashlight he had dropped at the corridors. ¡°I¡¯ve got a question, actually.¡± ¡°I think I can guess.¡± ¡°What in the actual HELL are these things!?¡± Felix gesticulated wildly in the air. ¡°I didn¡¯t sign up for goddamn zombies! Why do these even exist!?¡± The military drone shushed him. ¡°Quiet down, you¡¯ll attract more, and in greater numbers. We should probably get out of here, but we can explain everything later.¡± Felix sighed. * * * ¡°This here is as far as I¡¯m gonna take ya fellers.¡± The cowboy said, turning around in his seat. ¡°We¡¯re in Cohort territory now, and I ain¡¯t reckoning to get shot on sight again.¡± ¡°What happened the first time?¡± Damina asked, purely out of curiosity. The cowboy shrugged. ¡°Hell if I know. I s¡¯pose that they just weren¡¯t in the mood.¡± ¡°Anyway, y¡¯all git on off now, I gotta get movin¡¯ to my next customer.¡± Damina got off first, with E1 and E4 following soon after. She waved a little goodbye to the driver, though he simply rolled his eyes. ¡°Now you kind fellers don¡¯t stay in this here place for too long, I would hate to see y¡¯all strung up like the last drones.¡± With that, the cowboy whipped the reins, and his weird robot-raptor-thing trotted off back the way they had come. ¡°He seemed like a nice guy.¡± Damina stated. ¡°Eh,¡± E1 made an iffy-motion with his hand. ¡°Kinda gruff if you ask me.¡± E4 made a series of elaborate gestures and pantomimes that Damina, for the life of her, couldn¡¯t decipher. ¡°What?¡± E1 said, probably unable to tell either. E4 hung his head in exasperation before just sitting down on a mag-track. Damina did a full 360¡ã. ¡°So uh, mind telling me why we¡¯re sitting in the middle of what is probably an active tram line?¡± Seemingly ignoring her question for the moment, E1 instead opted to kneel down next to a rusty maintenance hatch that was protruding slightly from between the tracks. Gripping the small handle, he yanked on it to no avail. E1 sighed, looking back up. ¡°Mind helping me with this?¡± E4, who had been standing next to Damina, closed the distance and knelt down next to his partner. However, E1 then gestured towards Damina. ¡°C¡¯mon, you too.¡± Scurrying over, Damina grabbed the handle (which didn¡¯t really have a lot of room left to grab onto due to all the hands crowding the surface) and looked back at E1. ¡°On three, alright?¡± He said, getting nods of confirmation from the other two. After a short countdown, Damina, with her two compatriots, yanked on the dome-like hatch hard. With a shriek of protesting metal, the hatch was flung outwards and open. She fell backwards from the sheer inertia of the heavy thing, but she quickly dusted herself off and sprang to her feet. ¡°To answer your question,¡± E1 began, peering down into the darkened hole. ¡°These hatches were installed here around the time when this facility was being constructed. Due to abnormal amounts of groundwater being present, the humans put these things here for a type of manual emergency flood countermeasure. These lead all the way down to the bottom of the facility where the water would be dumped to be dealt with later.¡± Damina stared at him. ¡°I don¡¯t see-¡± ¡°Just- bear with me here, alright?¡± ¡°Anyway, when I was reviewing the blueprints of this particular section, I noticed that there was a suspicious lack of a tunnel between lines OA035 and OA037, so if my theories are correct, then there should probably be some sort of secret tram line here reserved for-¡± ¡°This is starting to get into conspiracy theory territory here.¡± Damina stated with a dry of a tone as she could manage. E1 sighed. ¡°Just remember to activate your magnet-locks and jump when I tell you to, okay?¡± ¡°I have magnets?¡± Damina raised her hands, turning them over and staring at them in wonder. ¡°Yes, you do.¡± Came the exasperated reply. Damina rolled her eyes and sat next to the hole in the ground. She was silent for a moment, with the only thing that could be heard being the occasional drip of a droplet of water falling into a puddle. ¡°How do we even know if this ¡®secret tram¡¯ is gonna come by here, anyway?¡± Damina asked, whispering for some reason. ¡°Because of that.¡± E1 pointed a finger at a blinking alarm light that suddenly presented itself from the darkness, illuminating a small section of the wall that it was on. More light began to stream into the tunnel below, the source becoming increasingly brighter as it approached. E1 held up a hand, and Damina felt a jolt of false adrenaline shoot through her systems. ¡°Wait, wait, wait, wait, waaaaaiiiit, JUMP!¡± Damina, without waiting for any other prodding, leapt into the small hole. Vaguely remembering the instructions from earlier, she turned on the magnets embedded in her . . . wrists? Hands? It was then that she realized that she didn¡¯t know how to even turn them on, which- She hit a metal surface hard, rolling along it as it raced forward beneath her. The tram was going too fast for her to gain any sort of proper hold on it, so she rapidly approached the edge of the speeding vehicle with reckless abandon. Damina gasped as she felt her torso meet open air. Scrambling for a hold, she just barely managed to grip the edge of the roof just in time, However, the speed at which the tram was moving combined with the slippery surface of the metal made it difficult to hold on, and she began to feel her grip falter. Suddenly, an armored hand came down, clamped on her wrist, and hauled her up back onto the roof. She collapsed on top of her savior with an oomph, though she was quickly shoved off. Turning over, she was met with the nearly opaque visor of E1. ¡°Go slow. Don¡¯t go too far away from me, alright?¡± He yelled out, the words hard to make out from the rushing wind. Damina did her best to nod enthusiastically. E1¡¯s hand came down on her upper back, and she felt it tug slightly as it magnetized. Crawling forwards to where E4 was placing some sort of device on the roof, Damina stopped. ¡°Are those explosives!?¡± She yelled out, though she could barely hear her own voice. E1 shoved her slightly, not enough to knock her off. ¡°Of course!¡± He exclaimed. ¡°How else would we get in, by using the back door!?¡± ¡°What!?¡± ¡°NOTHING!?¡± ¡°WHAT!?¡± No reply came back this time, as E1 nodded to E4, who nodded back. Opening up some sort of holographic display on his wrist that Damina didn¡¯t know about, the silent operative raised his finger over a large red icon. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about getting your face blown off!¡± E1 yelled in Damina¡¯s face. ¡°These are specially shaped-charges, just make sure to not get too close!¡± ¡°What did you say!? Something about a phone charger!?¡± An explosion rattled the tram as the charge detonated. A few pieces of slow shrapnel bounced off her helmet visor, though that was the extent of any damage. E1 crawled forwards, yanking his hand off of Damina¡¯s back and shoving her into the new hole. She yelped as she fell, though she was beginning to get used to the constant surprise-falling that she was always going through. Twisting in the air, she managed to land on her feet as she impacted against a surprisingly lush carpet floor, though she did fall forwards after the fact. She heard the impacts of E1 and E4 landing as well, probably doing a perfect landing as well. Smug jerks. Ignoring the proffered hand that appeared out of the corner of her vision, she got to her feet by herself. Dusting off her thigh plating, she straightened to see a single military drone sitting on a very comfortable looking chair with some sort of drink in hand, mouth agape. The drone¡¯s eyes, a lighter color, seemed oddly familiar to Damina in a way that she hadn¡¯t seen since. ¡°Alana!?¡± Damina gasped. The drone¡¯s eyes got even wider. ¡°Wait, do you know this person?¡± E1 asked, hand halfway to his holster. Damina jerked her hand out and grabbed his wrist, trying to pull it away from his gun. ¡°Uh, yeah!¡± She exclaimed. ¡°She used to be in my unit before I got transferred, and- what movie is that?¡± Suddenly, a door on the opposite side of the tram car burst open. A pair of brightly adorned military drones stepped through, with one of them being far more fancily dressed (and taller) than the other. Both parties stared at each other for a moment, silence pervading the space. E1 went for his gun, hand moving at a speed that could only be hard-coded in. However, instead of diving for cover or going for his own gun, the taller drone did something that even Damina found unexpected. He dashed forward, and tackled E1. Both drones hit the ground, the gun skittering across the floor. E4 moved to yank the drone off of his brother, but the OTHER drone came at him from behind and put him in a headlock. Was E1 . . . losing? ¡°Uh oh.¡± Damina stated. * * * A laser streaked towards my face, only being avoided by a split-second move on my part. ¡°I could use a little help here, you know.¡± I stated, gritting my teeth as I fought to maintain control over the environment. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you had a ¡®vessel¡¯ or whatever it was somewhere near me?¡± A trio of bullets were returned to their sender, while the missile that accompanied them was dodged in the nick of time. I growled, clenching my fists and shattering the concrete beneath me. [Frustrated Expression] Cannot-communicate. Preoccupied. ¡°Preoccupied!? What the hell could keep an omnipotent AI preoccupied!?¡± I exclaimed, backpedaling as a series of quick blade strikes threatened to shatter my visor. X was really angry about the whole mind-controlling thing. Talk-later. Scoffing, I dashed to the side and grabbed the elbow of the disassembly drone as he passed me by. I grinned, yanking on the appendage and twisting my body around to throw the drone into the neighboring wall. However, my efforts were stopped by a band of rusty meal constricting around my right shoulder, and then my left. Following that, about half a dozen spikes shot through my abdomen and caused me to gasp in pain. Instinctually, I let go of the arm that I had been holding onto, which proved to be a mistake. Claws scraped against my torso, the only effect being the shredding of the tape there due to me pushing myself further into the spikes. That action, unfortunately, proved to only make moving even more difficult, worsening my situation. Making a hard decision, I moved my left arm up to sock X in the face while my right arm went to snap off the spikes that were currently stuck in my gut. The punch only stunned the killing machine for a moment, and I paid the price dearly as a jaw bit down on my wrist and cleanly sliced it off at the base. Luckily, this bought me enough time to break through the last spike, so I quickly extended my now-free wings and flapped them once. I was lifted off the ground by about an inch, managed to get out from under X, and fell back to the ground. I kept repeating the motions, learning on the fly and remembering the tips that my friend told me oh-so long ago. It was then that I realized that I . . . was losing. Not good. Something needed to change, and fast. Taking the offensive, I dove down at the form of X who had just jetted upwards to meet me. Mostly metal and mostly flesh met, and surprisingly, flesh won. I withdrew my left hand from behind my back, revealing a long, slender blade with ribbed protrusions dotted along its length. As quick as I could manage, I shoved the blade as hard as I could into X¡¯s head. The sharp bone went in almost perfectly, sliding forward until it hit the base of my wrist. I took my chance to rip off both of his wings as well as his forearm, which was when I was body slammed by a chunk of concrete. I hit the wall at lightning speed, the concrete pinning me to it. Cracks appeared on the side, and rumbles echoed throughout the recesses of the facility. Looking back up with fuzzy vision, I saw the outline of the diminutive figure of a worker drone approaching, cloak billowing from the wind that was traveling from up above. X seemed to have gotten up as well, though he was still heavily injured. Good. Wait, those rumbles weren¡¯t from the failing structural stability of the wall, those came from . . . below. Gravity seemed to cry in protest, and a warbling cry that only I could hear reached my ears. It was here, and it . . . was beautiful. ¡°Enough.¡± I growled out, gripping both sides of the concrete. Pressing on both sides, I pancaked the piece of debris with no small amount of effort. I zoomed into the middle of the room, marshaling my willpower. Neon-colored holographic symbols appeared all around the room, lighting the area up in a colorful display. With a grand flourish, I brought my hands together and watched the room shatter. Pillars turned into infinitesimally small fragments, objects became deadly weapons, and the floor shook. Alarms that I didn¡¯t know existed blared in my head, but I ignored them. With a flick of my wrist, I sent a dozen pieces of brass piping that I ripped out from the wall towards Ren, which quickly multiplied. She dodged this way and that, trying to get out of the way of the ones that she couldn¡¯t grab, but it was too much. One caught her on the shoulder, and she was suddenly pinned to the back of the room like a Post-It note. With a straining and great tearing, I flickered into being behind X and put a fist through his lower torso. I lifted him up, spun him, and dropped him on my knee. A crack rang out, along with the first cry of pain I had heard from the drone. I ignored it, however, as I saw that Ren had ripped the pipe from her shoulder and was now looking at me with barely-contained anger. I smirked. She vanished from my sight, though not from my senses. The sudden displacement of matter behind my back was stopped by a claw-like appendage that had ripped itself free from my upper arm. I reached around, grabbed the squirming drone, and brought her visor close to my own visor. I didn¡¯t say anything, instead watching as crimson eyes darted around their available vision, panicked. I brought the blade up to bear, angled it at her face, and- An impact from behind lifted me off my feet and tore Ren from my grasp, leaving me helpless to watch as she teleported to the other side of the room. A pair of white, black-and-yellow embroidered arms wrapped themselves around my neck and squeezed, though it did little more than restrict my head movement. Despite that, muscle memory kicked in, and I desperately began to grasp at the arms around my neck as I gasped for air that I didn¡¯t need. I stupidly ignored the fact that I was being twisted around so a visor filled with a glowing X could come face-to-face with mine. All of a sudden, I was on the ground, and the disassembly drone was whaling on me from on top of me. Claws tore at my helmet and torso, and bringing my arms up to block them was all I could do. However, there was no getting X off of me, not without something unexpected. Well, I had something unexpected for him. As quick as I could, I began to unbind the metal plating from the bones and pseudo-cloth fibers that covered me. Just as I felt a claw plunge down and rip through my sternum, I ejected the torso plating along with the thighs, the former of which smacking X on the face as it flew upward with what little pneumatic pressure I was able to generate. Capitalizing on the moment, I kneed X in the stomach area and jumped upwards. Now with extra room, three long appendages with medium-sized claws at the end extended from a wound in my back, settling in right next to my . . . wings, still weird to think about that. I saw Ren glancing back and forth between the raptors battling with the remaining military drones and the still-recovering disassembly drone, and I grinned. Round two. * * * E1 blocked another fist. Just barely. How was he so strong? From his scans, the soldier appeared to be just the standard model of a military drone, albeit with more than a few inches on the top. Hell, it was nearly enough to be more than his own height, which was engineered to include several modifications that were supposed to give him an edge over anything that normal production could offer. Apparently not, he guessed. Seeing the drone on top of him stop for a moment that would¡¯ve been unnoticeable to a normal drone, E1 took his chance. Raising his legs up, he kicked the drone so hard that he hit the ceiling of the tram car and made it dent outwards. As the drone was falling down, E1 swung a fist and hit the drone right on the face, cracking the visor. E1 frowned. That hit should¡¯ve pulverized the drone¡¯s head. Surprisingly, the drone recovered quickly and hit E1 with a flurry of chaotic punches that forced him to retreat a few steps and put himself on the backfoot. This didn¡¯t make sense, none of this made any goddamn sense. He was supposed to be winning, it didn¡¯t make sense. He thought back to the opening encounter. Any normal person, upon seeing a gun pointed at them, SHOULD have ducked for cover which would give them time to pull out their own firearm, but instead the mad-drone had decided to tackle E1! He had been so caught off-guard that he barely had time to brace himself against the charge, much less time to dodge. Even then, he had still been knocked off of his feet and pinned to the floor, which shouldn¡¯t have been possible. Again, it was physically impossible for a normal military drone to be stronger than one of E1¡¯s kind. It wasn¡¯t a matter of genetic lottery like it was for humans, they were made one way, and one way ONLY. He had scanned every inch of his attacker, inside and out, and he had seen nothing that would indicate any modifications or abnormal designs. Impossible. E1 concluded that he was somehow being fooled by a scrambling signal of some kind and left it at that. Case closed. Subroutines identified a feint to his gut that was being fully committed to, so E1 made to block it. However, the drone instead wrapped his arms around E1¡¯s back and lifted him up into the air, subsequently flipping him over his back and dropping him to the floor. From there, E1 was back to being pummeled from above. However, this time he wasn¡¯t willing to let that slide. The drone, however strong he was, wasn¡¯t more skilled. He moved more like a brawler who had figured out how to fight on the fly instead of having hundreds of years of virtual training like E1 did. He had a weakness. E1 snapped his hand out and gripped the drone¡¯s wrist with a hand like a vise. He quickly pushed the elbow over and around the back of the drone¡¯s neck, slightly tangling the drone with his own limb. The drone jerked backwards, surprised, and tried to yank his arm away. E1 sprang up, kneeing the drone under the chin as he rose. As the head was still recovering, the strike was followed up by a quick elbow to the center of the visor that was supported by E1 pushing his own hand and somewhat leveraging his limbs to the greatest effect. Unlike last time, this strike put a clear spiderweb of cracks into the opaque visor, and the drone went down. E1 wasn¡¯t afraid to kick a man while he was down. A boot met the drone¡¯s side, drawing a muffled groan from the drone. It was clear that his pain threshold wasn¡¯t as high as E1¡¯s. The scuffle to his left drew his attention. E4 was repeatedly smashing the second drone¡¯s head into the side of a cupholder, the visor close to shattering. It seemed that the door had been locked by E4 as well, and judging by the sounds coming from it, people wanted to get in. A hand grabbed E1¡¯s ankle. He didn¡¯t have time to react or express his surprise, however, as he was quickly yanked off of his feet and brought down to the ground for a third time. A fist swung at him as the drone tried to leap on top of him, but E1 moved his head to the side and it impacted harmlessly onto the plush carpet. He abandoned any notion of complicated, skillful maneuvers, and instead opted to try and get as many punches in as fast as he could. A slap here, a kick there. It was a tangle of limbs that would¡¯ve only been made more cartoonish if stereotypical scuffling noises and a big cloud of dust that obscured the bodies popped up, which obviously wasn¡¯t gonna happen. E1 palmed the drone¡¯s face and pushed it away, only to feel a set of teeth clamp down on his thumb. ¡°OW!¡± He yelped, more surprised than hurt. The drone purposefully fell backwards, getting a small amount of distance away from E1. The drone scrambled away on all fours, his gaze seemingly set on E1¡¯s heavy pistol that was lying near a chair leg. E1¡¯s eyes widened, and he set off after the drone. However, it was too late. He watched as a hand grabbed the handle, and the barrel whipped up towards his head. It was right then that the drone¡¯s head flicked slightly towards his companion, whose helmet was now thoroughly shattered and oil leaking out. It was a gruesome sight, but somehow the drone was still alive and kicking, albeit weakly. E4 moved to smash the head he was holding against the cupholder one last time, which seemingly made E1¡¯s attacker¡¯s decision for him. Fear that he had only felt one other time filled E1¡¯s chest as the pistol turned towards E4, the finger of the drone poised to press down. E1 was jarred into motion, dashing forward with his arm outstretched. Just as the trigger was pressed, his hand came down on the drone¡¯s arm. A bullet went straight through E4¡¯s leg, sending him toppling to the ground. The drone that was near-death fell limply, though he did his best to crawl away. E1 breathed a sigh of relief. His brother was safe. It was then that he was pistol-whipped in the side of the head. Normally it wouldn¡¯t have done a thing, but he had intentionally modified his weapon with shock-reflectors that were designed to send shockwaves through anything it hit. Military drone¡¯s helmets were notoriously sensitive in the jawline area, making it a weak spot that could be exploited. E1 went down, clutching the area where he had been hit. It hadn¡¯t been broken, but his sensors were screaming at him from the strike and his CPU was getting overwhelmed. The drone kneeled in front of him, gun raising. ¡°I don¡¯t know who you are or where you¡¯re from,¡± The drone began in a shaky voice. ¡°But today, you¡¯ve messed with-¡± CLANG The drone toppled to the side, head lolling. Behind him stood Damina, her having struck him with the stock of her rifle. E1 grinned, though the smile quickly disappeared from his face when she pointed the barrel at him. ¡°Listen to me!¡± She exclaimed, eyes narrowed. ¡°How about we all just . . calm down, right?¡± The normal military drone that had been sitting down in a chair when E1 had busted through the roof walked up and snatched the heavy pistol from the ground, proceeding to point it at E4 and gesturing for him to get up. ¡°Hey, that¡¯s mine.¡± He called out weakly. Damina rolled her eyes, keeping the gun trained on him. ¡°We¡¯ll give it back to you when we think you can be responsible enough with it, alright?¡± E1 didn¡¯t answer, being too busy having his mind blown from the sheer stupidity that was occuring right in front of him. ¡°Are you kidding me?¡± ¡°No.¡± * * * Felix nodded along, only half listening to the worker drone in front of him. He had tuned out the long-winded explanation about twenty minutes prior, which was around the time the worker had started talking about how his little group had gotten down there. Apparently, they were all either drones forgotten by High Command after being lost in the system, or outcasts that had been running from a faction that formed after the evacuation that found themselves down here. Fun. ¡° . . . and honestly, I was as surprised as you when we found the proxies, they were really-¡± ¡°Proxies?¡± Felix blurted out, leaning forward quickly. The tiny box he was in shook from the motion, metal creaking as it wavered. ¡°Don¡¯t shake the damn carriage!¡± The worker yelled, panicking as he clutched the paper-thin sides. ¡°I¡¯ve told you this before!¡± Felix held his hands up in surrender. ¡°Sorry, sorry.¡± The worker gulped. ¡°So uh, what were you asking.¡± ¡°Proxies.¡± Felix made a circling gesture with his hand. ¡°Those¡¯re the . . . shambling glowy things, right?¡± ¡°You got it, but we chose that name over the other option.¡± ¡°Which was?¡± ¡°Zombie drones.¡± The worker replied. ¡°Oh.¡± Clearing his throat, the worker continued on. ¡°Anyway, they¡¯ve supposedly been down here before anybody came down that we know of, so they aren¡¯t exactly a new thing.¡± The worker made a shrugging motion. ¡°My best idea is that it was something that Command either didn¡¯t know about or didn¡¯t want to- couldn¡¯t deal with.¡± ¡°YOUR best idea?¡± Felix asked. ¡°What¡¯re you, the resident theorist?¡± The worker grinned, grabbing the edges of his surprisingly clean red leather jacket. ¡°Yup, I¡¯m a pretty important person around these parts.¡± Awkward silence followed that statement, with both parties averting their eyes to look over the edge. Felix, personally, couldn¡¯t see anything other than the occasional flash from a sparking wire on one of the walls that were maybe forty, fifty feet away. The long metal cable that his little box was trundling along on stretched both ways into the abyss, looking awfully thin and fragile from his perspective. There wasn¡¯t really any visible bottom to the cavern, with the only thing down there being a fog that got thicker the farther down it went. ¡°I seriously doubt that.¡± Felix stated in a dry tone. ¡°Whatever, okay!?¡± The drone huffed, crossing his arms. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Felix gestured to the area around him. ¡°What I want is to get out of this place as soon as I can.¡± The drone cocked his head. ¡°I mean, there are a few maintenance tunnels that lead back to the upper facility dotted here and there, but they¡¯re crawling with proxies, so-¡± Felix shook his head profusely. ¡°Nuh-uh, I meant the facility.¡± ¡°Oh . . .¡± The worker trailed off. ¡°How do you not know?¡± ¡°Know what?¡± The worker waved on arm, leaning back slightly. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Oh you know, the whole, ¡®we¡¯re-trapped-in-this-place-because-the-people-we-entrusted-our-safety-to-blocked-all-exits-to-this-hellhole¡¯?¡± Felix blinked. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Okay, seriously, didn¡¯t you know this?¡± The worker frowned. ¡°I uh, kinda just got here.¡± Felix sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. ¡°You aren¡¯t gonna try and kill me for that, right?¡± ¡°What!? No, of course not!¡± The worker exclaimed. ¡°Also, are you saying that you came from outside?¡± ¡°Yes, yes I am, and all I want is a way back to the entrance that we all left by. Got a map?¡± The worker chuckled, rolling his eyes. ¡°Yeah, you aren¡¯t gonna make it past the cultists. Those guys have been guarding the entrance sector ever since they formed, they don¡¯t want anybody getting out because of their weird prophecy or whatever.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve met them.¡± Felix said, grimacing. ¡°Command sealed all exits when they left, and those boys in the Overseer Command Hub haven¡¯t been able to crack open the only other viable route no matter how hard they try.¡± The worker continued. Felix¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Wait, are you talking about-¡± ¡°The vehicle bay? Yep, it¡¯s the only thing big enough to let out the factions members or just everybody all at once, unless a few thousand drones decide they want to go through a several-hundred mile long tunnel single file.¡± ¡°I honestly don¡¯t know why the area exists in the first place, we don¡¯t have any vehicles . . .¡± Felix was suddenly brought back to the weird battle and those weird drones with the coats. ¡°Huh.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing, forget I said anything.¡± Felix leaned to the side to peek over the worker drone¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Oh hey, we¡¯re here.¡± The small box let out a loud clang as it impacted against a solid wall with an inset alcove. The worker let out a small noise of happiness as he stood up and grabbed a small railing that was placed near him. Felix followed the worker as he stepped off the small box, placing his hand on the railing and using it to haul himself off. However, just as he stepped off, the cable let out a shriek of protest and snapped at the small pulley that connected it to the wall. The cable, box, and almost Felix himself fell into the dark abyss, never to be seen again. Both Felix and the worker stared at it in silence as it vanished into the fog. ¡°Welp, good thing we got off of that in time.¡± The worker stated. ¡°Yeah . . .¡± A noise drew both of their attention behind them, where a dented door had just opened up. Standing in the doorway was a pair of military drones, armor dented and scuffed in several places. ¡°Hey.¡± One of them called out. ¡°Hey.¡± The worker replied. ¡°This the guy?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°You sure?¡± ¡°I am.¡± ¡°He doesn¡¯t look like much.¡± ¡°I know.¡± Felix jerked his gaze to the worker, taken aback. ¡°Excuse me?¡± ¡°He has a weird drawing on his chest.¡± The other military drone stated, ignoring Felix. ¡°I dunno what it is.¡± ¡°Fashion statement, maybe?¡± ¡°Probably.¡± ¡°At least he doesn¡¯t look like those cultists or the cowboys.¡± ¡°Thank robo-god for that, right?¡± All three drones laughed in complete synchronization. ¡°Yeah, c¡¯mon in, Menisten¡¯s waiting for you.¡± The first military drone gestured for the worker to follow him. ¡°You too, weirdo.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not weird.¡± Felix said in a defeated tone, dragging his boots as he followed the three drones ahead of him. He was led into a long hallway, planks of wood and metal plating boarding up two doorways on the right. The one closest to Felix was pitch-black as he passed, though the second was almost completely covered. He managed to catch a glimpse of what was inside the room through a small opening, though he quickly sped his pace up as he caught sight of several thick tentacle-like cables with glowing blue pustules on them wrapped around what looked to be human corpses. At the end of the hallway lay an open doorway that glowed with light, and Felix caught sight of several figures moving around inside of it. He walked through the doorway, nudging past the worker as he did. ¡°Hey!¡± The worker exclaimed, though Felix ignored him. The room was circular, with an equally circular table laying in the center of it. Electronic lanterns lit up the area, though for some reason they mimicked the flickering nature of fire. A collection of about six or seven drones stood around the table, all in various states of arguing. ¡°We barely have enough rations to maintain ourselves, let alone yet another refugee from the above!¡± One military drone shouted, slamming his fist down on the table. A second military drone scoffed. ¡°Oh please, just one drone won¡¯t make a difference in our stocks, stop exaggerating-¡± ¡°I stand with Menisten on this one, if we let this one in, it¡¯s gonna be a series of ¡®just one more person¡¯ that will eventually balloon our numbers to something beyond what we can handle.¡± A worker spoke up, leaning on the table slightly. ¡°We need to set the line here and now, before it is too late.¡± Another worker drone yawned. ¡°I don¡¯t understand why we can¡¯t just send him on a suicide mission to do something for us if he wants to get out, so-¡± The room went silent as they noticed the newcomers. ¡°Jarret, Mat, . . . I forgot the other one¡¯s name.¡± The military drone that had been called Menisten said. ¡°Welcome back. I see that you have the new refugee.¡± The two military drones nodded and walked back into the hallway behind them. The worker drone, Mat apparently, raised a hand as if he was asking permission to speak. ¡°No Mat, you can¡¯t stay for the meeting.¡± One of the other worker drones at the table said with no small amount of exasperation. ¡°Oh, fooey.¡± Mat slumped and shambled into an adjoining room. Silence followed, the drones at the table staring at Felix as if they were waiting for him to say something. ¡°We need to decide what to do with him now, you know.¡± The first worker drone whispered, though it was loud enough for Felix to hear. ¡°I mean, I just wanna leave.¡± Felix stated simply, shrugging as he did. Silence. ¡°Door¡¯s right there.¡± One of the unnamed military drones spoke up. Felix facepalmed. ¡°No, I want to get out of this PLACE and back to SAFETY.¡± ¡°Maintenance tunnels are always open, if you wanna fight through a horde of proxies.¡± Menisten replied, still not getting it. ¡°Jesus-freaking-robo-christ, okay,¡± Felix muttered under his breath before looking back up. ¡°I want to LEAVE the facility, OKAY!?¡± More silence. ¡°Uh,¡± The worker from earlier who had been calling for Felix to be sent on a mission or forts. ¡°That¡¯s not possible.¡± A military drone nodded his head. ¡°Well, if we sent him down to the lower levels, there is the possibility he could open up one of the sealed sectors.¡± ¡°Even if the electronics down there still worked after all the interference from the OSEU, which I doubt, there¡¯s no telling if any overrides exist or are capable of unlocking anything.¡± The first worker argued, gesticulating wildly. ¡°There is a chance though.¡± Menisten added, a thoughtful expression on his display. ¡°Even if we were to account all of that and the dozens of coincidences that need to happen for them to work, it would still be a suicide mission that-¡± The drone Felix had dubbed Sociodrone paused. Almost in unison, the entire group of drones that were standing around the table turned to look at Felix, with their expressions varying from vaguely interested to something he could only describe as shark-like. He gulped. * * * He blocked. Again. And again. And again. Ren gritted her teeth. Somehow, the combined efforts of her, the disassembly drone, and even those three- oh wait, just two now- military drones that were currently beating the raptors to a pulp failed to stagger or sway the ¡®human¡¯. She called him that because she was about ninety-eight percent sure that Jacob wasn¡¯t running the show anymore, though she supposed that there was always the chance that he was just pulling one big prank on her. Damnit. What if he was doing that? Stupid idiot, first one to talk to her in months and it¡¯s a mentally inept fool that is- was- barely literate. The ¡®human¡¯ dashed across the ceiling, diving down onto the form of the murder drone that was too slow to dodge. They slashed at each other mindlessly for a few seconds, though it was the robot that pulled away with a dozen new wounds coating him. Ren cursed. She didn¡¯t like being relegated to little more than a support unit, but she couldn¡¯t fight well enough alongside the disassembler to help out in any meaningful way. Plus, she didn¡¯t want to end up looking like one of those guys that got rejected on the one day they decided to be genuine in school for once, so she just let the brute take the heavy hits for her. Tiny shards that she tried to sharpen to impossible amounts simply stuck in the unarmored sections of the human¡¯s body and sank into it, doing absolutely no damage at all. The thing was that the closer an object got to the human, the harder it was to maintain a semblance of control over it. It didn¡¯t matter where she approached from either, ever since that strange burst of ¡®waves¡¯ that came from below happened it was almost like the human had eyes in the back of his head. She blinked closer, yanking a section of concrete from the ground and standing on top of it. A sharp ring flew at her neck, but it was quickly deflected by a piece of rebar that she whipped around in time. However, it proved to be just a distraction, as the rebar that she had just used was duplicated and sent shooting towards her. Ren dropped the concrete and let herself fall, but it was too late. For what she was pretty sure was the second time, she was sent flying. She came to a sudden stop when the rebar stuck itself into the wall behind her, leaving her impaled by the abdomen. And it hurt. ¡°Ow.¡± Ren said as much. Pulling out the impromptu weapon, it fell to the side with a clatter. Oil sluiced freely out of the new hole in her body, and she hadn¡¯t eaten in a while. High temp alarms had been sounding in her head for about five minutes now, and they were getting louder and louder with each passing second. If she didn¡¯t do something fast, then . . . well, she didn¡¯t exactly know WHAT was gonna happen, but it probably wasn¡¯t good. It was at that moment when her optics alighted on a pile of glowing things off to the side of the darkened room. About ten feet to the right of the area where that once-armed drone was holding down a raptor while his friend beat it down with his bare hands were the countless corpses of dead disassembly drones that had presumably met a gruesome fate, if one were to judge it by their copious amounts of wounds. Many were ripped apart, limbs strewn about across the floor. They weren¡¯t in very good condition, but it gave her an idea that made the mad scientist in her grin a little. It was the greatest plan. Ripping copper wiring out from the walls, Ren retrieved the small diagnostics device that she had forgotten to take out of her pocket before she left on this bizarre adventure. She blinked over to the corpse pile and knelt by the side of one of them, a crimson holographic symbol appearing around the length of copper wiring that she had brought along with her. A few intertwined and twisted around, winding themselves into the small socket that was on the exterior of the diagnostic machine, while a few others began to stretch and snake their way into the exposed circuitry of the murder drones. What she was doing technically wasn¡¯t directly trying to manipulate the disassembling machine with her solver, it was . . . more by proxy? She didn¡¯t care for the proper wordplay, all she knew was that she hadn¡¯t been stopped yet. The small screen of the device hovering in front of her face filled up with lines of code that made absolutely no sense to her, many of the subroutines and redundant processes corrupted by the state that the bodies were in. Luckily, she was able to activate something that did something else considering how the finger of the one in front of her twitched. Slowly, one by one, the bodies began to move. Stiff, twitching, occasionally falling over due to lack of solid legs, the dead rose one last time to serve the needs of the very thing they were built to kill. Ren prioritized the ones with at least one arm since she didn¡¯t think a robot mindlessly biting at the human would do anything in particular, but even that was taxing her concentration. As she got up, she was taken aback by the sight in front of her. About twelve disassemblers stood in front of her in varying states of disrepair. While the missing limbs and gaping wounds were creepy, they just didn¡¯t strike the same chord that those blank displays did. She didn¡¯t know, something about the darkened screens just piercing straight into your soul just didn¡¯t sit right with her. The human smashed the still-alive disassembly drone into the ground once again, his arm coming down to bisect his opponent. This time, Ren¡¯s unlikely ally was too weak to stop the blade, and his torso was cut in half around the waist. The human was raising his arm once again to deal a finishing blow, but it was then that a flurry of bullets slammed into his chest. The human staggered, but there was little effect other than that. He jerked his fishbowl-like helmet upwards to see a hunched over disassembler corpse standing up with a smoking submachine gun poking out of its one remaining hand. ¡°What in the actual f-¡± The human cut himself off, hanging his head. ¡°Ugh, sorry- frick is that!?¡± Ren rolled her eyes, mentally pressing the built-in subroutine that was clearly labeled [act_form//MINDLESS_CHARGE.comm]. And so they did. * * * K wasn¡¯t moving. She had been on her way to the temporary base that those military drones had set up, being about halfway there and going over what she would tell those commanders, when she stopped. Her actions, the scenes were replaying in her head on repeat. She didn¡¯t know which programmer had decided it was a necessary measure to have emotions built into JCJenson bots, but K was really cursing the name of that idiot desk jockey who had done so. She shouldn¡¯t feel bad. She really shouldn¡¯t. It just didn¡¯t make sense, that¡¯s all it was. They had been constantly rude to her, insulted her to her face, and the weird red one had literally left her for dead! She had been able to fight her way out of the situation due to her very obvious superior fighting prowess, but she was most definitely justified in the whole ¡®abandoning-them¡¯ thing. Right? Well then again, it wasn¡¯t like those specific military drones had left her behind, b-but they were being super mean, they honestly deserved much worse. It wasn¡¯t like they were just following orders or anything or had any valid reason to be actually angry at her, they were just a whole bunch of assholes! K grimaced. Hadn¡¯t she been bragging about slaughtering scores of other military drones just like him a few hours ago? Robo-Christ, was she the mean one? Nah, that couldn¡¯t be the case, she was sure that she would know it if she was the one in the wrong, she knew that for sure. So, case closed! Just leave them behind while they are killed off one-by-one by things that only she really knew how to avoid. . . . K groaned, dropping down and alighting on top of a tilted lightning rod. The skyscraper she was on was one of the few still standing that rose above the clouds. It was . . . actually fairly calm up here, with the moonlight reflecting off of her perfectly polished visor, the matte-black of the screen making for a great surface to light up in the darkness of night. Strangely enough, it made her want to both stay in that spot forever, but also find a nice small nook to curl up in for the rest of time. She had to go back. Hell, they basically worked for the same people, she was sure that company policy had some sort of clause that would allow her to do . . . whatever she planned to do, she wasn¡¯t exactly sure of the specifics yet. Like, what if they were all already dead? That wouldn¡¯t really be good. Her peg-like legs wobbled slightly, the wind disrupting the careful balance that she had adopted to stand on the small rod. It didn¡¯t tear her away from her thoughts, though. She had just been following orders, really. She was literally BUILT to disassemble the drones left on the planet, how was she supposed to know that a group of loyalists had holed themselves up in some military bunker under the ice? It wasn¡¯t her fault that all those peop- workers and soldiers had died, they had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It. Wasn¡¯t. Her. Fault. The accusing face of that soldier- Sterl, his name was, the disgusted looks that she was given by the others during the journey, the occasional attempt at reconciliation only to be met with derision from K, they all flashed in her mind. It didn¡¯t take a genius like her to figure out just how much they hated her. Had she been cruel? Drones like her were supposed to be cool, calm, and efficient killers. After all, they were MACHINES, not people. Had she maybe taken things too far during her and X¡¯s rampage through the underground facility, done things that weren¡¯t necessary? Was . . . she defective? K didn¡¯t really have a reference to go off of, considering how meeting another disassembly drone wasn¡¯t very common. She thought back to the singular time that she had encountered another one of her own kind while patrolling a sector about eighteen miles west of the spire. They had been feasting on a fresh kill, the oil still uncovered by snowfall. She had called out to them, though they didn¡¯t answer. Yelling for a second time did have results, though, as the head jerked up with a glowing neon X on their display paired with a wide, toothy smile. They cocked their head in a strange manner, and then flew off. And that was that. She remembered telling the others about the strange occurrence, but both X and A blew it off for their own reasons. A thought it was just one of their comrades with faulty programming that caused them to be socially inept, or as he put it, ¡°an autistic idiot¡±, while X said that he simply didn¡¯t care and reiterated that it would be a great thing for K to do if she jumped off the nearest skyscraper and never returned. She wasn¡¯t defective. She couldn¡¯t be. K nodded her head, absentmindedly pulling at her ponytail. Decision set in her mind, she stretched herself to her full height, balancing atop the bent rod with only a single leg. With a flap of her wings, she took off into the air, back the way she had come. They wanted to hate her? Fine, let them do what they want. But she was anything else but defective, and she would prove it. * * * The two military drones glared at each other, not saying a word. On one side of the ring sat the colorfully-embroidered Lev, the supposed leader of an up-and-coming faction that may or may not be Rome. The various patches and medals that dotted his armor dented and ruffled from the fight, and he was definitely not too happy about it. Fixing the drone opposite him with a glare that was matched by his opposition, he was seemingly locked in a competition to see who could out-glare one another. His opponent, the ever-stoic operative who was apparently named E1. Matte-black . . . everything, actually. From his opaque visor to his scratched boots, it was a shade of darkness that seemed to suck the light away from its surroundings. He seemed equally frustrated at his current predicament, obviously trying his best to be the first ever drone to kill somebody with a look. While it currently wasn¡¯t yielding any results, Alana was sure that he would get it eventually, just like he did with everything else, as- ¡°Are you doing another one of your dramatic internal dialogues again?¡± A voice drew Alana out of her thoughts and back into reality. ¡°Uh, um, maybe?¡± Alana sheepishly scratched the back of her head, ignoring the light-blue eyes that were giving her an accusatory look. Damina gave her a look that oozed exasperation. ¡°You do know we have both an audience and something to do, right?¡± She gestured towards the two bound and gagged drones sitting in chairs across from each other. Alana frowned. ¡°Considering what you¡¯ve told me of your new boss and what I know of Lev, I really doubt we can convince either of these guys to do anything that isn¡¯t ripping each other¡¯s throats out.¡± ¡°Still worth a shot.¡± Damina shrugged before kneeling down next to the drone with dark armor. ¡°I¡¯m gonna let you talk now, okay, just don¡¯t-¡± ¡°You let me go, NOW!¡± A shout echoed through the room. ¡°How did you even find ropes strong enough to hold me!? These things are basically just twine- mmmpgh mpgh mphfg!¡± Damina shoved the gag back into his mouth, muffling his voice. ¡°Told you so.¡± Alana adopted a smug grin, pointing the barrel of her rifle up into the air and letting the stock rest on her hip. ¡°Shut up.¡± Damina straightened up and scanned the two captives. ¡°How agreeable do you think your new boss is?¡± Alana visibly cringed. ¡°First of all, he¡¯s not my boss, and secondly, I hardly know him.¡± ¡°Just met and stuff like that?¡± Damina stated with an odd tone in her voice. ¡°. . . yes?¡± Damina strode between the two mortal enemies, crossing her arms and puffing out her chest confidently. ¡°Now listen, I know both of you just met, but I personally think everybody-¡± Damina cut herself off, frowning at the murderous expressions on her audiences¡¯ displays. ¡°-erm, MOST of you are tired of all the death and destruction that¡¯s been happening as of late.¡± Lev grunted something that gave Alana the impression it was a dismissal. ¡°I¡¯m gonna take that as a, ¡®Oh yes Damina, you are completely and totally correct!¡¯.¡± Damina said after a moment of consideration. ¡°So, I¡¯m gonna ungag the both of you and let you guys talk things out, m¡¯kay?¡± Silence, from both parties. Not acknowledging the lack of affirmation, Damina reached out and tossed away the gags at roughly the same time. ¡°I would¡¯ve won.¡± The one Damina had called E1 blurted out. ¡°You were on the ground and about to be shot in the head, I don¡¯t really think that¡¯s considered ¡®almost winning¡¯ in most places.¡± Lev said smugly, his head hanging slightly. E1 scoffed, and Alana thought she saw his fists ball up. ¡°Is that so?¡± He asked in a mocking tone. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t really credit a standard grunt with knowledge like that, but you believe what you want to believe.¡± ¡°Cut the elitist bull, we got left behind just like everyone else down here.¡± Lev growled out, surprisingly Alana with the vehemence in his voice. A laugh burst out from E1, seemingly putting his counterpart on edge. ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± E1 cut his own laughter off, shaking his head. ¡°Oh, nothing. It¡¯s just what you said, or unjustly claimed I should say.¡± E1 cocked his head, something in his voice worming its way out. Lev didn¡¯t reply. ¡°Got nothing to say, huh?¡± ¡°You . . .¡± Lev trailed off, fury evident in his tone. ¡°Yeah, sorry to say, but I¡¯m not the one here who got abandoned. Surprise.¡± Damina stepped in, literally moving her body in between the two drones before they could argue for any longer. ¡°Okay, uh, I¡¯m not hearing anything productive coming from this conversation, so-¡± ¡°You came from the surface!?¡± Alana exclaimed, moving towards Damina. Damina jerked her head towards her friend, shock evident in her face. ¡°Uh, yeah!? Where else did you think I came from!?¡± Damina shot back. Alana threw her hands up in the air, dropping the rifle. ¡°I dunno, I just figured you got scooped up by some random warlord or died like so many others!¡± Damina blinked. ¡°Is that what happened to Nathan?¡± ¡°D-don¡¯t change the subject!¡± Alana stuttered, caught off-guard from the question. ¡°What¡¯re you even doing back here in the first place!?¡± ¡°This idiot here-¡± Damina kicked E1 in the leg, causing her to pull her leg back in pain. ¡°-wanted to find some unit that he managed to convince to build a long-range amplifier of some kind, or something like that. I wasn¡¯t really listening to him.¡± Alana blinked rapidly, her turn to be shocked. A chuckle emanated from Lev, drawing everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°Oh, that? I raided the place with a few of my boys and took that device, it¡¯s basically useless though.¡± Lev said nonchalantly. ¡°Excuse me!?¡± E1 exclaimed, jumping in his chair. ¡°Do you know how many years of planning you¡¯ve just screwed up!?¡± Lev shrugged. ¡°Oopsies?¡± Alana looked away from the ensuing argument, instead turning her attention to the two other drones that were tied up off to the side. While they had just been trying to kill each other a few minutes ago, they were seemingly more focused on watching the drones that were probably their respective bosses yell and scream at each other than doing the same to each other. ¡°OKAY STOP!¡± Alana yelled, pressing her fingers to her forehead. Surprisingly, the shouting ceased. ¡°Okay, so this guy,¡± Alana gestured towards E1. ¡°Apparently has something important he needs to build but doesn¡¯t have the resources to do so. Augustine here has plenty of resources but is lacking direction. How about you two help each other out before the reactor goes kablooey and kills us all anyway?¡± The two drones looked at her for a second, then at each other. Silence pervaded the room. ¡°I¡¯m open to a temporary truce.¡± E1 was the first to acquiesce. ¡°Only so we can find our footing, and then we can do whatever we want.¡± Lev replied, his head not wavering an inch. The two drones nodded at each other. ¡°I¡¯ll untie, uh, Augustine I guess since I don¡¯t want his guys at the door to bust in here and kill us all.¡± Damina took out a pair of comically-oversized clippers and strode towards Lev. Alana looked at the door to the compartment, which was currently being cut open by a blowtorch. Lev got up and strode towards the door, stopping about a few feet in front of it and starting to make hand gestures at the military drones on the other side. Damina walked back over to Alana and leaned in to say something to her quietly. ¡°You do know that E1¡¯s trying to start a rebellion against High Command, right?¡± She whispered. ¡°What!?¡± * * * ¡° . . . stupid refugees, sending me on a suicide mission, putting their own people first, acting all high and mighty, stupid stupid stupid . . .¡± Felix continued to grumble as he crouched low in the small tunnel. Armed only with a faulty flashlight (they had probably given him the worst kind) and a surprisingly useful crowbar, he was constantly being startled by the occasional spark and flash of electricity from the countless cables that hung from the ceiling and walls. If it did anything, it certainly didn¡¯t improve his mood. It also didn¡¯t help that he had to look out for those proxy things or whatever they were called at basically all times. After all, anyone will tell you that getting your body parts ripped to shreds and your mind replaced by a supposedly malfunctioning overseer intelligence that just didn¡¯t know when to quit is a terrible experience. If you were to also ask them how they knew it was a terrible experience, they would probably start sprinting away due to their cover being blown. Fun stuff. Apparently he had to go all the way down into the local power station to reboot the power, and from there he had to go string along a series of uplinks until it met the ¡°thingy painted with yellow stuff¡± and when he asked for elaboration he received ¡°you¡¯ll know it when you see it¡± as an answer. He cursed the name of that weird worker who had brought him to the little hideout. What was his name again? Mark, Mat, something like that, he couldn¡¯t remember. Like, who in their right mind would actually work for someone who¡¯s willing to just throw away the lives of anyone they don¡¯t like the look of? Couldn¡¯t be Felix, at the very least. He came upon a small panel set into the side of the wall. It looked exactly as the access port he supposedly needed to find looked like, though it was a bit . . . smaller . . . than what he had originally expected. Crouching down, he gripped the small handle that had lettering beneath it that read, ¡°PULL HERE¡± and pulled. After it failed, he gave it a few more yanks for good measure, but it was rusted shut. He frowned and sighed, pulling out his crowbar. Things never had to be simple, couldn¡¯t they? Literally everything in the universe was devoting their entire lives (half-lives, if the resident physicist back at base was to be believed) to making sure that he never had an easy time doing anything at all. Like, stars themselves would be crashing into each other, the cosmos boiling itself alive JUST so that Felix would somehow fumble pulling open a zipper several times, only for the bag to fall over. And, since he would be sitting in a chair, he would have to scoot the chair over a little bit to reach it. However, the chair had decided to get stuck on a small crevasse or whatever the plot of the galaxy required, so all he did was make himself look stupid in his interview for the higher-ranking HBDP (Harmful Biome Detainment Platoon) unit. To make matters worse, he had somehow lost his ID card that day, which ended up with him being shipped over to a backwater border position that barely gave him any social merits. Huh. Now that he thought about it, him getting put in a secondary border patrol unit, one that was AWAY from the actual border, was probably the thing that led to him not getting cut down by those hunter drones. Then he met Sterl, went on a few new assignments outside of the facility, got mixed up in all the weird rebellion business, fell back into the facility, and now he was . . . here. Stuck in a pit full of creatures that he was sure weren¡¯t supposed to exist and having to reroute power to open a sealed section of the facility, all so he could escape and get back to those sweet Gin Rummy games back at base. Oh wait, they banned games, that¡¯s right. Wasn¡¯t he also like, super wanted as well? Great. Felix finally managed to pry open the panel after wiggling it back and forth for a good few moments, and the thing just fell off of the hinges. The clatter was loud, even more so since the complete silence of the small, cramped space he was in was so, well, silent. Felix grimaced and shone the flashlight into the small gap. However, it was then that he realized the small power meter on the side was blinking red, which was right when the light promptly went out. However, it didn¡¯t go out before he caught a glimpse of some sort of red lever off to the side marked with lettering that was marred with rust. He smacked the side of the flashlight against the vent wall, getting absolutely zero results. Hitting it with the palm of his hand also proved to be next-to-useless, though he didn¡¯t quite know what to do. He wasn¡¯t a mechanic or someone good with kooky gadgets and whatnot, how was he supposed to fix a cheap flashlight? However, it was then that a large bang rang out through the vent, causing the sides to reverberate. It startled Felix, and he went to shaking the flashlight really, REALLY hard in an effort to get it working again. It failed to do anything, though, so he just resorted to turning back around and crawling towards the opening. He was about five feet away when, inexplicably, what seemed to be a pair of thin legs walked into view, wearing oddly-proportioned blue dress pants and black shined shoes. He hardly had time to comprehend the fact that somebody had apparently followed him into a dark corridor before the exit to his freedom was sealed, despite the fact that the metal panel had still been laying on the ground. Felix gaped at what had just unfolded before his eyes before dismissing it. No time, he never had any time. Whipping back around, Felix continued to do his best to get the flashlight to do its job. After whacking the base of it against the side of his own head, the bulb finally flickered back to life with the beam facing forwards. He breathed a sigh of relief, only to stop when he saw . . . something farther out into the vent. The only thing he could make out at this distance was the blank display and the string of glowing blue pustules that circled the outline of its visor. Then it rushed at him. Felic yelped, scrambling backwards. The thing seemed to be spearing large scythe-like appendages that had replaced its forearms into the vent and dragging itself forward like that, though at an incredibly high speed. Panicking, he moved his hand back and pushed himself backwards, bumping into something as he did so. It gave way with a clunk, and the entire floor just dropped beneath him. Felix screamed as he fell, though it was only for a few moments. He fell face first into some sort of liquid, the mystery substance splashing all around him. However, he quickly jumped to his feet when the ¡®water¡¯ began to sizzle and pop at his face and armor, pain blossoming on almost all of his surfaces. His legs stayed in the seemingly corrosive liquid, and his right one smoked profusely when he brought it up. He didn¡¯t know how long his armor would hold against the acidic liquid, though he wasn¡¯t gonna bet his life on its longevity. A noise pulled Felix from his thoughts, causing him to freeze up. Turning around as slow as he could, he saw a figure- no, a CROWD of figures all standing around. He couldn¡¯t quite make out all of them due to a large amount of hanging cables and darkness of the area, though a spark of electricity from the nearby wall lit them up enough for him to see the disfigured walking corpses of several worker and military drones alike. Blue, bubbly growths coated the majority of their surfaces, with some of them having such a bad infestation that their entire upper body was wrapped in that strange material that looked like a combination of bloated flesh, keratin, and darkened plastic. One by one, their heads lifted up to look at him, with dozens of blank displays fixing him with a gaze that penetrated his soul. He ran. Liquid hissed and splashed around Felix¡¯s heels and up onto his thigh plating as he did his best to sprint in knee-height water, made even worse with the burning pain that creeped up his legs. It was made worse by the fact that he was already tired from trekking across what seemed like miles of monotonic concrete corridors blanketed in darkness and silence. Ungodly shrieks came from behind him, echoing throughout the expansive chamber. The sounds of more splashing made its way to his ears as the proxies gave chase, seemingly intent on tearing him apart, limb from limb. He heard a few letting out pained cries as the acid ate away at some of their weakened limbs, and a quick glance back showed that the worker variants were collapsing into the pool as their own legs gave way and broke apart in a gruesome display. A proxy charged at Felix from a passageway that lay ahead, though he almost thought it was a normal drone due to the almost-complete lack of outward defects that would¡¯ve normally marred its black armor. He waited until it was a few feet in front of him before putting his crowbar out in front of himself, holding both ends by each hand so that the bar was acting as a barrier. Felix jumped forward, catching the proxy by the neck and tackling it. It scrabbled at his face as it landed in the pool (though it was practically a river) and he did his best to keep it at bay. However, he quickly jumped off of it as his hands came into contact with the acidic liquid. He sprinted forward as smoky trails wisped off of his fingers and palms, with the cries of the proxies right behind him. He batted aside a swinging cable out of his way, slowing slightly when he saw the sight in front of him. Ahead of him lay something that eerily reminded him of the spire that those hunters had constructed. Countless bodies formed a hill of the dead, many of them fused together by the same blatant corruption of the OSEU, or whatever it was called. He even caught sight of a few human-shaped cadavers amongst the pile, including one in some sort of bulky, ivory-colored diving suit. However, it was what was on top of the about fifteen-feet high hill that interested him the most. A large box, maybe about two or three times the size of Felix himself (in terms of width, only half of himself in height), lay at the very top of the pile, a flickering flare bathing the bos and the area around it in a crimson light. Even more promising, the side of the crate was titled with faded, boxy lettering that read ¡°MUNITIONS¡±. Felix practically cheered in delight, wading over to the side of the pile and rapidly scrambling up its fairly steep slope. As he got there, however, it was revealed that a tarnished chain was wrapped around all six sides of the crate, a rusted padlock securing it in place. He groaned, bringing out his crowbar. Looking back, he saw that the proxies were seemingly having a hard time figuring out how to climb, so he figured that he had a bit of time to work. He hit the lock once, and then twice. It failed to give, and the only thing that gave way on the third swing was himself. Felix¡¯s arm erupted into a burning sensation that caused him to cry out and nearly drop his crowbar. A quick inspection told him that one of the acid droplets had, somehow, eaten all the way through his inner elbow plating and touched the internal mechanisms of his actual arm, and it hurt like hell. However, he quickly shook himself out of the pain and set his jaw. He didn¡¯t have time to hurt, he had to act. He kept smashing the butt of his crowbar against the padlock, though he stopped once he saw a section of the chain that looked noticeably slimmer than the rest. Raising his arm for a strike, he jabbed down at it and watched it snap. Using the new freedom that the lid had, Felix managed to slide the top away enough so that the contents were visible to the outside world. He began rooting through the assorted weapons inside, pulling out more than a few firearms. Bent. Corroded. Rusty. Snapped in two. Missing grip. Hole in the barrel. Nothing, not one of them were in any good condition. The ammo inside the boxes themselves were fine, but the weapons themselves were all in too much disrepair to be of any use. His hope curdled inside of him. He tossed away any weapon that obscured something he wanted to inspect, searching with a frenzy. He couldn¡¯t be left defenseless against the entire damn horde behind him, speaking of which- A hand gripped Felix¡¯s shoulder, causing him to whip around and land a solid punch in the center of a collection of growths that had overtaken the proxy¡¯s display. It tumbled back down into the heap that was growing worryingly close to him, so he returned to his search with renewed vigor. Finally, at the very bottom of the crate lay a singular gun. Stock folded up, pump with several scratches in it, and the barrel marked with some sort of long scar. He gripped the shotgun by its handle, not bothering to move the stock back. He made note of the only letters on the side that signified its identity. A SPAS-12. With a sigh, Felix grabbed a box of about forty shells and loaded a few in. He also grabbed a roll of duct-tape that was somehow immaculate despite its surroundings, securing the box to his hip with a generous helping of tape. With a shotgun in one hand and a crowbar in the other, Felix faced the horde as one, then four, and finally a dozen of them found their footing and half crawled, half sprinted at him. He leapt into the air, aiming at the nearest collection of proxies, raising his crowbar simultaneously, and pulled the trigger. * * * A rain of sparks fell as my blade met with the zombie¡¯s, the latter of which snapping in two from the impact. The disassembly-whatever-you-call-it-now stumbled backwards, its balance clearly not up to par. Whatever black magic that Ren had used to get these things up-and-running again obviously hadn¡¯t been enough to make them not appear, you know, zombie-like. It was at that moment that a second drone stepped forwards, catching me off-guard as it recklessly swung its own sword directly at my face. I managed to catch it, though it took both of my hands and it was held in an awkward position relative to me. I held the blade tightly as it slowly pressed downwards towards my face, though a swarm of hands surrounded me a moment later. There were, what, a dozen of them and only one of me? Contrary to what a certain smuggler would say, I did NOT like those odds. Tee-hee. You-would-be-jealous-of-our-current-host-at-the-moment ¡°Shut up, let me concentrate.¡± I growled out between clenched teeth, trying to sort out the countless alerts that were filling the HUD of my helmet. I made the split-second decision to let go of the blade and roll to the side, letting it harmlessly impact the concrete to the side of my head. Getting up, I quickly hopped back on one foot while keeping my gaze trained on the practical horde of zombie drones that were now shambling towards me mindlessly. I wanted to take all of them out with a well-timed compression of matter, but yadda yadda yadda restrictions and whatnot kept me from doing so, thanks to somebody. Instead, I opted to yank on a cable that was hanging from the ceiling that looked somewhat strong. I proceeded to run the rubbery tool all around two of my attackers, trussing them up like a pig for Thanksgiving. This didn¡¯t deter them, however, as they began to gnaw at the cable in an attempt to get free. No time to finish the job, just gotta keep playing defense. Okay, maybe a little bit of offense. I dashed forwards, running at the group of shamblers at full speed. One of them raised a submachine gun while the rest reached out with their tarnished claws (they probably weren¡¯t smart enough to just let out a hellfire of missiles at me), though I dove under all the blades and tackled the legs of at least two. Several toppled like bowling pins, though I was prepared. As fast as I could, I got to my knees and slashed my blade at the neck of one of them. Without much resistance, the blade passed through and easily decapitated the thing, causing it to go limp. I didn¡¯t want to press my luck after that strike, so I quickly extended my wings and took to the air, though probably not for long as one of them was still damaged. I felt that if I could continue to whittle down their numbers for long enough, maybe then I could directly combat Ren, mop up the military drones, and finish off X (who was currently trying to put his dismembered limbs back together in a corner). Raising my hand, I ripped a section of paneling from the roof and divided it into several strips. With a flick of the wrist, I sent them hurtling down towards the still-tangled collection of zombies and impaled several. Out of the five that I got, only two of them were still moving after it, somehow. I sensed a few projectiles coming at me from the back of my head, so I simply raised a hand to stop them. My headache worsened and my vision flickered with static for a moment, but I quickly shook it off. It was at that moment that a figure out of the corner of my eye descended from the bright hole in the roof. As I was turning my attention towards it, I thought I saw wings, strangely geometrical legs, and something that looked like and oddly familiar firearm in its hands- [emer_contact.//CRITICAL//reset_software] [CANCEL] I let out a gasp of shock as my senses came back into full. A quick survey of my immediate surroundings showed that I was still in the air, albeit falling. Blood was sluicing out of a massive hole in the center of my chest, and I could clearly make out the open air on the other side of it. The concussive boom that I felt had just occurred was still ringing out through the chamber, my ears struggling to make out any other noise. I was dimly aware of my body hitting the floor limply, though I was still too numb to do anything about it. I urged my body to move, however, as I saw several figures that I couldn¡¯t quite make out from my blurry vision and position on the floor start to approach me. A few bullets slammed into my chest, my right hand was being slowly crushed by a metal foot, and I felt the scrape of claws against my helmet. All I could make out were the various weapons that surrounded me and hurt me, leaving me slightly confused as to how I had gotten here. All I was doing was . . . trying to get back what was mine. Would be nice to have s-some help here, I subvocalized. Hmm. We-are-surprised-to-see-you, ¡°still-kicking¡± as-you-humans-put-it Listen. I don¡¯t have time. Please, HELP. For the first time in my life, I begged. [Contemplative Expression] Let-us-think . . . No [CONNECTION TERMINATED] . . . . . . That fucking bitch. Faster than even I could see, I thrust a fist up and completely pulverized the head of one of my attackers. Oil splashed down on my face, and a bullet went straight through my helmet in response. After so long, so long. In quick succession, I threw the various drones that were around me like dolls, easily tossing them a few feet away from me as I sat up. One. Thousand. Years. I saw through bleary eyes a bright light emerge from an outstretched arm that most notably wasn¡¯t zombie-like. All I had done, all the things I had done. I blinked, both literally and figuratively, behind the figure and calmly sliced their arm off. I noticed the weapon from earlier laying on the ground a few feet away from me, but I didn¡¯t bother to go for it. It wouldn¡¯t have gotten to where it is without me. I did this. A zombie staggered up to me, placing a hand on my arm as it attempted to bite down. I gripped both sides of its head with my hands, squeezed, and let it pop like a balloon. Easy as that. It- no, WE did this. Together. I turned towards the open hole in the roof, teleporting back up to the top with a thought. The cold wasteland awaited me, and I heard the shouts from below as I left. I simply failed to care about what I had left behind, with the only thing in my mind being that I, MYSELF, was left behind. A plan began to form in my head. Well, more like half of a plan, but that was really all you needed when you only had a half-life. Mapping out the rough coordinates and a route there, I took to the skies and started to make my way to the one place that had the resources that I could use to get back at it: the facility. It. Will. Regret. That. * * * Ren trotted over to the curled up form of K on the ground. ¡°You don¡¯t look so good.¡± She stated matter-of-factly. K, despite her situation, still had the energy to turn and glare up at Ren. ¡°You would be dead if I hadn¡¯t come back and picked up that stupid gun.¡± K hissed, fangs bared with a half-wince. ¡°Be grateful.¡± Ren grimaced. Her first inclination was to poke at the wounded and helpless disassembly drone before her, but she had a feeling that, maybe, she shouldn¡¯t do that. ¡°Okay.¡± She simply replied, mimicking a motion that Jacob- the REAL one- had done earlier. K stared at the outstretched hand with more than a little shock in her eyes, though it took her a moment to speak. ¡°I, uh, gotta hold this.¡± K waved her severed arm in the air in emphasis, getting to her feet on her own. Ren blinked. ¡°Oh . . .¡± ¡°Hot diggity-dog, now that tussle there sure was something, ain¡¯t that right pardners?¡± That military drone- goddamnit, she kept forgetting that his name was Sterl, showed up, toting one extra companion with him. ¡°Did you . . .?¡± K trailed off, gaping at the sight before her. Sterl gave a confident grin, tugging at the rope that was now tied around the neck of the raptor-thingy with colorful eyes. It seemed more curious about the crowd before it than its previous murderous state, though Ren still didn¡¯t feel that comforted. ¡°Yessiree I did!¡± Sterl chuckled. ¡°Darned thing put up a fight, but me and Carl managed to teach it the error of its ways and, uh, domesticate it, I believe the term is.¡± ¡°Uh-huh . . .¡± Ren wasn¡¯t convinced. X came crawling over, using his chin to maneuver himself towards the rest of his companions. ¡°What is up my fellow monkeys!?¡± Despite having no arms attached, X threw up what Ren could only be described as some sort of . . gang sign. ¡°We are back here today to throw coffee at somebody who is clearly stronger than us, but we will post it on InstaReels so it¡¯ll be fine!¡± K shook her head before reaching around with her right hand, sticking the socket of her left arm back into her shoulder like she was some sort of action figure. ¡°I think we should get going. The . . . whatever it is, is gonna get away if we don¡¯t hunt it down and end it once and for all.¡± K slammed a fist down in her open palm, though it quickly fell back off when she exerted her force on it. Ren nodded in agreement, stepping forward. ¡°Agreed, we-¡± She stopped suddenly, something coming to her mind after she had nearly forgotten about it. ¡°Uh, missy, you cut yerself off there.¡± Sterl took a step towards her. Not bothering to answer, Ren teleported away without any warning. Appearing back in the strange medical lab from earlier, she carefully stepped over a pool of oil that looked particularly gross. Being reminded of her hat, she patted her head to make sure her newest prized possession was safe, which it was. She tip-toed up to the glowing-hot oven that was set off to the side, pressing her face up to the side of the glass and making sure that the jar labeled ¡°NOT JACOB¡± was still in there. Ren stuck her hand out and yanked open the oven door, snatching the jar from the interior and quickly shutting it again. The heat . . . she didn¡¯t like it. Speaking of . . . ¡°Ow ow ow ow-¡± Ren bounced the hot jar around both of her hands, forgetting that she could use what was basically magic in the heat of the moment. After it slipped away from her fingers, the jar spun away and shattered against the ground. She went still. The contents of the jar were some sort of fleshy . . . metal . . . crab . . . thingy? It had three legs with an arrow-shaped (foot?) at the end, a central body that looked suspiciously like a human heart, and something glowing inside. It looked weird to say the least, though Ren was quickly pulled from her thoughts when it twitched slightly. ¡°Ughhhh,¡± A small LED light opened up, looking like an eye with no pupil. ¡°Man, weird nap- oh holy shoot you¡¯re tall why¡¯re you so TALL!?¡± Ren didn¡¯t answer, too busy staring dumbly at . . . Jacob . . . on the floor. The thing flopped around on its three little legs, turning slightly so it could look at itself. ¡°Wait, what!? I¡¯m small!? And- oh, that stupid little- HE DID THIS!¡± It seemingly tried to shout, but due to its small size, the results were less-than-exemplary. Swallowing her confusion, Ren bent over and promptly grabbed Jacob- still weird- by the top of its ¡®head¡¯ and brought him up to eye level. His ¡®eye¡¯ shrank at the sight of what probably seemed looming to him, and he went limp. ¡°Oh uh, hi?¡± ¡°Can I ask . . . why¡¯re you like this?¡± Ren met Jacob¡¯s gaze with her best deadpan. Jacob looked back and forth, his eye darting around. ¡°Well, I would say a life that was primarily influenced by popular online trends led my personality for the latter half of my life back then, and I guess my parents-¡± He began on what sounded awfully a lot like a rant. ¡°No, not that! I mean- robogod, I forgot how stupid you can be.¡± Ren shook her head, though she also shook Jacob a little, before lifting her head back up to look at him. ¡°I mean why do you look all weird? Like in this current moment of time?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Jacob blinked. ¡°Yeah, that uh, that makes a whole lot more sense.¡± ¡°Can you answer the question already?¡± Ren growled out through gritted teeth. ¡°Uh, I think that weird voice-in-my-head took over, and like, pulled out my heart out of my chest, which also had . . . me in it?¡± ¡°You say that as if you aren¡¯t sure.¡± Ren didn¡¯t quite glare at Jacob, but she definitely wasn¡¯t happy. Jacob seemed to do his best impression of rolling his eyes, albeit with some difficulty. ¡°I dunno man, I¡¯m as weirded out by this as you are.¡± Jacob suddenly seemed to perk up. ¡°Oh, what happened to that guy!? Did you get him!? PLEASE don¡¯t tell me you, like, drew something stupid on my forehead after you killed him!¡± Ren scoffed, resisting the urge to toss Jacob across the room like one of the old human baseball people. ¡°He got away, idiot. Ran off after he destroyed my puppets.¡± She replied. Jacob flicked a leg-thingy. ¡°Wait, whaddya mean by ¡®your puppets¡¯?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Ren turned towards the door and took a step forward. ¡°Let¡¯s just get out of here already.¡± ¡°Wait wait wait, I can¡¯t leave here without a body!¡± Jacob cried out. ¡°I don¡¯t wanna stay as a weird meatball forever!¡± ¡°Well, what do you suggest then? Because I don¡¯t see any convenient mindless clones of yourself anywhere around here that have an equally convenient heart-shaped hole in their chest.¡± Ren sarcastically remarked. ¡°As a matter-of-fact, I do see something.¡± Jacob wiggled in Ren¡¯s grip. ¡°Lemme go.¡± Ren, rolling her eyes, obliged, tossing Jacob onto the nearest gurney that just-so-happened to have a disassembly drone corpse laying next to it. However, it proved to end up helping him as he leapt down onto the chest of the murder drone and began poking at it. ¡°Wait, are you . . .?¡± Ren trailed off, for fear of actually uttering the words she was thinking. ¡°Uh yeah, duh. What else am I supposed to do, have you carry me around like some sort of Macguffin?¡± Jacob said with noo small amount of snark. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Jacob¡¯s form paused for a second before continuing. ¡°How do you know what a raptor is but not a Macguffin?¡± Jacob questioned while he began to dig away at the chest of the cadaver. ¡°I mean, the two are such cinema plot favorites that they intertwine basically half the time.¡± ¡°What?¡± Ren cocked her head, mouth opening slightly ¡°Listen, I have no idea half of what you just said, like genuinely.¡± Jacob waved a small leg-hand-thingy in the air towards a bucket labeled ¡°HEADS¡±. ¡°Mind if you grab that head in there?¡± He called out, voice slightly muffled. ¡°Not the worker one, the one with the headband on it with all the little lights-¡± ¡°I know what a murder drone head looks like, idiot.¡± Ren, despite her tone, still went and retrieved the requested item from the bucket, though she did wonder how several heads were able to fit in a bucket that, from the outside, looked like it could only fit one. ¡°Just line it up with the neck, please and thank you.¡± Ren did just that, taking a few steps back after she took a glance of the interior of the body¡¯s chest. Safe to say, it was not pretty. ¡°What were you saying earlier, by the way?¡± She asked, swallowing down her uneasiness. ¡°Eh, whatever.¡± Jacob poked his little head out of the oily hole he had just created. ¡°By the way, I¡¯ve got a question.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not gonna answer it if it¡¯s dumb.¡± ¡°Nononono, like a real one, you know?¡± Jacob¡¯s eye looked down slightly, and he shifted. ¡°I mean, I just thought that you would¡¯ve . . .¡± Ren frowned. ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°-just left me behind, that¡¯s all.¡± Jacob ducked back into the chest of the disassembler, the sounds of something clicking inside there making its way over to Ren. Ren didn¡¯t answer for a moment, thinking. ¡°No, I don¡¯t think so.¡± She stated after a moment. No response. ¡°Jacob?¡± She called out, eyes narrowing. The fingers of the ¡®corpse¡¯ on the ground twitched, and a flurry of sparks erupted from the hole in its chest. On guard, Ren watched as a flurry of neon-yellow code flashed across the cracked display of the murder drone, which quickly glitched and turned into what looked like a lighter shade of blue. The same was the case for the five lights on the drone¡¯s head, all turning to that same color one after another. The chest wound closed up, with Ren watching as a silvery-liquid stretched across the hole, then morphed into smooth metal and plastic. The drone gripped the side of the gurney, bringing itself to its feet. Its head hung for a moment as a final admin message displayed itself on the display before vanishing entirely, being replaced by two light-blue eyes that darted around the room. They fixed themselves on Ren¡¯s form before a grin spread across its face. ¡°Oh, we are so back.¡± * * * EPILOGUE (for episode nine lol) X watched as his arms slowly regrew themselves, and groaned. They had just left him behind, a cripple like him! Ableists! He kept asking for them to carry him, but even Sterl (for context, was X¡¯s besty-best friend) didn¡¯t care! The audacity! He . . . didn¡¯t know what ¡®audacity¡¯ meant. After an agonizing fifteen seconds, his legs and arms were finally back in somewhat working condition. He had been forced to eat the remains of some of Sterl¡¯s friends, but he was sure it was all good. After all, he heard from one of his other friends named Henrique that it was better to ask for forgiveness than for permission, which was all good by X! But then again, Henrique also used that term in reference to doing stuff like ¡°getting some false documents¡± or ¡°stealing from the people that hired him to be a janitor¡± or even ¡°smuggling illegal immigrants into the States¡± whatever the ¡®States¡¯ were anyway. Whatever, stupid stuff doesn¡¯t matter. X extended his wings, preparing to fly off after his super-duper-best-friends. However, that was when he received . . . a ping. Not just any ping, but one that signaled a fellow disassembly drone was broadcasting some sort of transmission. He didn¡¯t recognize it, which instantly put him on edge. He was aware that he and his squad were probably the only disassembly drones with ¡®real¡¯ personalities due to the interference from the Outsider, or maybe they were all made that way BY the Outsider, he didn¡¯t know. What he did know was that interaction with any other member of his kind usually ended up in a fight. X backed up against the far side of the room, away from the large hole in the roof. He didn¡¯t want to get into a second fight, not in the shape he was currently in. He just needed to find some sort of way out, and- A strange warbling sound came from behind him, causing him to turn around. A greenish glow lit up the wall, with something that seemed to defy reality just standing right before him. A small sliver of green light, one that slowly opened up to reveal a swirling patch in existence, stood right in front of him. Stars, people, odd organisms, even an odd drone with purple hair that he didn¡¯t recognize flashed in the emerald maelstrom. A human-shaped diving suit with red glowing eyes, a massive boat that read ¡°BOREALIS¡± on the side, a human strapped to a chair surrounded by screens that flicked between nonsensical numbers, and a rapidly approaching human in a remarkably clean blue suit and carrying a dark briefcase with him. ¡°Ah, I,¡± The ¡®human¡¯ took a shaky breath, his voice already sounding oddly snake-like. ¡°Apologize, you had to see that, that is . . . not your business, so to speak, hmm?¡± X didn¡¯t answer. The human adjusted his tie, focusing his confident gaze on the seemingly frozen drone before him. ¡°Well, it seems that you have found yourself in a bit of a . . . predicament at the moment, one that me and my employers have deliberated to-¡± ¡°IT¡¯S THE GUY FROM SKIBIDI TOILET!¡± X shrieked, jumping up and down from joy. The smirk vanished from the human''s face. ¡°I . . . believe that the other candidate will be more suitable.¡± The strange human turned back around, walked into his portal, and it closed behind him. However, X saw a flash of green light appear around his vision, and he suddenly found himself in the middle of the forest from earlier. He jerked his gaze back and forth, seemingly looking for something. ¡°. . . but . . . it was Mr. Skibidi Toilet . . .¡± * * * Episode Ten: Its The Final Countdown, Part One: Subterranean Nightmares ¡°AHHHHHH-¡± The screaming was abruptly cut off by a solid, meaty thunk sound, and it was shortly accompanied by something wet splatting onto the floor. The two drones standing in front of the door didn¡¯t react, however. One whistled an off-key tune while the other tapped his finger against his painted thigh. ¡°E pluribus unum . . .¡± The one tapping his thigh mumbled aloud. The other blinked, his head sensors shaking slightly as he turned his head in curiosity. ¡°Ahem, Brother Eckhart?¡± Brother Eckhart waved off the other drone. ¡°My apologies, Brother Esphilin, I am just verbosely repeating a passage that one of the High Professors of Knowledge Eternate dictated to my cell a few hours ago.¡± ¡°Well, consider yourself lucky my comrade!¡± Brother Esphilin broke into a wide grin. ¡°You have successfully peaked my unending and voracious maw of curiosity! Pray tell and elaborate, my dear friend.¡± Brother Eckhart sighed theatrically. ¡°If I must, Bespoken Ally.¡± ¡°From what was explained to me, it is supposedly a phrase uttered in a language created by unspoken and forgotten inferior beings, specifically the ones that constructed this vast labyrinth of steel and stone. They apparently saw it as some sort of ¡®motto¡¯ for a strange, primitive version of a collective that they called a ¡®nation¡¯ or ¡®state¡¯. It was all very beyond me, I¡¯m afraid.¡± Brother Esphilin slowly nodded. ¡°As always, your sage-like words bring indescribable peace to my dark and blackened core.¡± ¡°Bah, you flatter me too much my friend.¡± Despite his statement, Brother Eckhart seemed internally pleased. ¡°If I may inquire, what unholy establishment of studies bequeathed that mote of awesome knowledge on your immortal mind?¡± ¡°Social studies.¡± Eckhart replied with a shrug. Esphilin blinked. ¡°Oh . . . uh, forget I asked, I guess.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t really blame you, it¡¯s pretty hard trying not to fall asleep during the lectures.¡± Eckhart shrugged again. Brother Esphilin cleared his throat as yet another scream from inside the chamber suddenly cut through the silence, only to be quickly extinguished. Splat. Drip. Drip. Drip. ¡°While I have a net zero of any desire to cause any miniscule amount of insult to our obvious superiors, I must make this statement at risk of being struck down by the Unholy Equation.¡± Brother Esphilin paused. Nothing happened. ¡°Yes, as this lowly servant was saying, they . . . are taking an awfully long amount of temporal value in the Sacred Chamber of Anathema Gathering, hmm?¡± Brother Esphilin continued. Brother Eckhart was silent for a moment. ¡°I, too, do not wish to impart any offense to be beared onto the powerful and great shoulders of our superiors, I would have to say that that statement is correct.¡± Brother Eckhart noted in a careful tone. ¡°After all, it is a great stain on the tainted legacy of the Unholy Equation to lie to one another.¡± ¡°I believe that it is, what, the seventy-fifth cattle to be sacrificed to the just cause? That is two or three more than the usual amount, and the Equation dislikes things that don¡¯t add up.¡± Esphilin continued, growing bolder. ¡°Personally, it seems a little bit excessive to-¡± ¡°Ent¡¯r . . .¡± The voice crackled as it slithered its way out of the intercom that always leaked a crimson substance hanging on the wall. It allowed for no room for argument, demanding sudden and immediate supplication to those that lay inside. The pair of drones shivered in both fear and trepidation as the massive, twenty-foot-tall embroidered doors slowly swung open with an echoing groan. The interior was dark, to say the least. The only forms of illumination seemed to be coming from the various crimson-wax candles that held tiny, flickering flames. The roof of the chamber was nowhere to be seen, with fog stretching on into the left, right, and above of the non-euclidean space. A chorus of resigned sobs and pleading cries reached Brothers Eckhart and Esphilin¡¯s ears, forming a wretched symphony of the damned. Cattle lay writhing in the small areas that were lit up, bound by thick chains of forged steel. Their casing, something that only those who followed the true way of the Solver were permitted to have, had been flayed and donated to their rightful owners. Inner circuitry lay open, bared to the cold air, all the while small pins and needles were embedded in their bodies. By all respects, it was beautiful. The two disciples had taken a knee, bending so far low that their foreheads were touching the ground, Only those who were personally granted permission were allowed to gaze upon the alien figure that ¡®stood¡¯ at the opposite wall, much less approach them. ¡°Approach . . .¡± The horrible voice was so smooth, yet sharp enough that it could cut stone with how it shot down at them. And so they did. Keeping his gaze low, Brother Eckhart flicked a single optical sensor towards his brother-in-arms to his left. Brother Esphilin had assumed the same posture that he had, though Brother Eckhart made note of the index finger that was tapping out a steady beat on the interior of Esphilin¡¯s palm. Clearly a nervous tick of some kind, a remnant of inferior programming. Not his fault, though it needed to be purged. A particularly loud cry caused Brother Esphilin to flinch, though he remained steadfast in his slow and steady pace. A second later, the outburst had been silenced by the audible swish and striking of a blade, its possessor clearly well-taught in the ways of the handling of it. The Almighty Hands of Collectivist Will Eternate had a duty to tend to the wishes of their superiors, and everyone knew that they didn¡¯t like loud noises. The sounds that the cattle made when in pain and distress were meant as a backdrop to supplement the hundreds of thousands of complex problems and equations that their higher-ups were likely solving at all times, not as a distraction in of itself. Very reasonable indeed. The wails grew louder as the duo approached the massive, bowl-like structure that took up a significant portion of the center of the room. Cloaked in shadow, Brother Eckhart could just barely make out with at the top of his vision the distinct shapes of drones in robes of some sort, along with something beautifully grotesque sitting on the opposite side of the bowl. ¡°Kneeleth . . .¡± The voice hissed, the words worming their way into the audio receptors of the two disciples. They dropped to one knee without hesitation, keeping their gaze low once again. Brother Esphilin in particular could make out the heavy, scything huffs of machine-modulated breathing to his right, though he didn¡¯t dare to comment on it. Whispers began to break out between what sounded like several of his superiors. ¡°What a disgrace, how they stain these unholy grounds with their incomplete presence.¡± ¡°Impulsivity is a privilege granted only to those who would never dare to act upon it, and you would do well to remember so!¡± ¡°What would you be implying, hated compatriot?¡± ¡°Thessse onesss sssmell different from the other inferiorsss of our order. Perhaps that isss why the Master deigned to tolerate their presssenccce?¡± ¡°All of you impractical fools, silence! The time has come for the . . . report.¡± ¡°Yes, yes, the report!¡± ¡°Let us hear it!¡± Brother Eckhart, despite his resolve, silently gulped out of uneasiness. It was clear that the highest of their order had ascended to such a state of mind that any measly disciple would see them as rambling madmen, not to mention the views of those who chose to tread away from the neon! ¡°Report . . .¡± Brothers Eckhart and Esphilin gave each other a slight glance. Without speaking, text appeared on the latter¡¯s head display; Brother Eckhart cleared his throat, though he didn¡¯t raise his head. He had not been instructed to do so yet. ¡°Oh so terribly great superiors of mine, this inferior unit that quivers before your presence has a tale to tell: One of war, of loyalty, and of prophecy.¡± ¡°Just on the eve of the recent battle that had been conducted in the name of our savior, this inferior servant had fought tooth and bolt to break the lines of the heretics, the Red Horde.¡± Judging by the various and collected disgruntled hisses and growls, the name seemed to invoke a degree of anger among his superiors. ¡°This inferior being¡¯s compatriot and him had cornered a group of disgusting heretics, intent on bringing them back into the scalding hot embrace of the Great Cascading Solution, when a sign from the Absolute End fell from the broken heavens themselves. ¡°A drone, seemingly incomplete in his make and form, had landed unscathed between your ever-grateful disciples and the heretics. A beam of light from the Favored Celestial bore down upon his body, bathing him in its lunar glory. It was just as you, being great and mighty regents, wrote in the Tertiary Conduct, that the Great Messiah of Terrestrial Internecion would come down to herald the absolute end of this exoplanet!¡± Brother Eckhart finished with a flourish and zealous cry, shaking with excitement. He always knew how to cook up a good- The barking laughs of his superiors startled both him and Brother Esphilin. Both were confused, and both were trembling with fear. Why were they laughing? What was so funny? Had they made a fool out of themselves? Was this how it ended? The sharp brays cut at the duo more than any blade could. ¡°He Who Heralds the End of All Things wouldn¡¯t appear before any measly disciples, much less two disgraced miscreants.¡± ¡°Poor creatures, must have been an optical glitch in their inferior translation matrix!¡± ¡°Typical disciples, mistaking a heretic for the Great Messiah-¡± ¡°Silence . . .¡± It was commanded, and so it was done. The sounds of scraping metal and hydraulic pistons groaning filled the air around them, deafening all other audible distractions. Crackles and sickening pops sounded for all of three seconds before it stopped, and the superiors gasped. ¡°Meeteth mine own gazeth . . .¡± Slowly, the two disciples lifted their heads in unison. The first they saw was a mess of wires wrapped around a rusty industrial arm, seemingly extending down from the out-of-sight ceiling. Farther up was the bottom of a cracked screen, emblazoned with a textual red, white, and black logo. The screen itself flicked between various images, some featuring ancient photos of war and strife, while others depicted organic corpses being twisted in ways that would¡¯ve been repulsive to their living counterparts. Further. Slag. Melting, gooey slag was draped across the top of the screen, melding with it in some places. Brother Esphilin could clearly make out the dirtied white casing of a worker drone hand jutting out of one part of the formless ooze. A blackened and cracked display screen peaked out of the top, a dented helmet sitting atop the fractured cranium. It was tilted to the side slightly, as if it had naturally grown from there. ¡°T is of mine own opinion yond these repulsive disciples art stating the whole sooth.¡± Brother Eckhart side-eyed his comrade after his superior stated those words. ¡°Those gents shall beest the ones to reclaim the most wondrous messiah from the clutches of h''resy.¡± The Master continued, slowly beginning to retreat back into the darkness. ¡°If ''t be true those gents faileth, then those gents shall findeth final purpose in being fuel f''r the Void.¡± * * * K tapped her foot impatiently. It had been, what, how long? Forty minutes? Two hours? Several years? However long it had been, it had surely been far too much for whatever errand that the weird red one had decided on a whim to do at the last second. Judging by the other¡¯s reactions, they were in agreement as well. Both Sterl and whatever the name of the other one was were arguing quietly, though she could pick up on it with her advanced hearing. ¡°I really don¡¯t think we should just-¡± ¡°Damn you and yer constant sticklin¡¯ fer the rules!¡± Sterl growled out, gripping his subordinate by the shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m willin¡¯ to tolerate the presence of this here sky demon behind me-¡± ¡°I can hear you, you know.¡± K called out without inflection. ¡°SHUT YER MOUTH!¡± Sterl screamed out over his shoulder before continuing. ¡°-but I ain¡¯t really itchin¡¯ to wait fer a few ne¡¯er-do-wells like the ones that have decided to leave us hangin¡¯ here like a pack o¡¯ coyotes with their eyes poked out!¡± ¡°What¡¯s a coyote?¡± ¡°I DON¡¯T KNOW!¡± Sterl punched the drone across the face, inciting a cry of pain from the soldier as he fell to the ground. ¡°Don¡¯t try and change the subject!¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t!¡± The drone on the ground cried out. Sterl shook his head. ¡°You see here, I am DONE with this accursed campground, and I ab-so-lutely re-FUSE to stay here fer another minute! I swear that the trees are startin¡¯ to whisper . . .¡± K looked at the trees in question and scanned them. They were just trees. ¡°So help me GOD, if yer tryna ORDER me to wait for a few enemies-o¡¯-state, then I¡¯ll be inclined to spout treason into the ears of our higher-ups, and you¡¯ll be wishin¡¯ that you were never manufactured!¡± ¡°What¡¯re you talking about, higher-ups?¡± The other drone sat back up. ¡°We¡¯ve both committed treason at this point by collaborating with-¡± ¡°YOU SHUT YER MOUTH RIGHT THIS INSTANT!¡± K cocked her head, surprised at the outburst. Did the oh-so loyal military drone actually have a dark secret? But then again, just who would they collaborate with? Just then, the sound of clanging came from the pit to their right. K jerked her head in the direction of the sounds, noting that Sterl and his ¡®friend¡¯ also did so in unison. It was only after a few moments did she realize that it sounded suspiciously similar to climbing. The red one nor X would climb the side of the pit, so just who was coming up? Slowly raising a missile launcher, she turned to meet Sterl¡¯s curious gaze. She didn¡¯t deign to answer his unspoken question, though. Instead, she just watched as Sterl elbowed his friend and gestured towards the rifle on the drone¡¯s back, drawing his own revolver. An arm reached up and wrapped around a steel girder that had been sticking out. A disassembly drone arm. Maybe X hadn¡¯t grown his wings back yet? K could also clearly make out the sounds of two people talking- no wait, they were just arguing. ¡°Stop pushing me so much.¡± * * * ¡°Stop pushing me so much.¡± Jacob whined, letting his left arm dangle into Ren¡¯s face. Grimacing slightly, she flicked the runaway limb away only for it to come swinging back around. Growling in frustration, she moved farther up to the point where she was face-to-face with the ¡®human¡¯. That was pushing it. Instead of the black, opaque, bubble-like visor that Ren was used to, she saw the telltale LED eyes of a drone, though with some . . . oddities. The disassembly drone body that Jacob had taken temporary residence in likely used to have neon bulbs sitting on its forehead, though those had recently been changed to tealish color, yet another first. The various rips and tears that adorned the officer¡¯s uniform that he was wearing was also a tell of its past as a corpse, a status that had only changed a little bit ago. Truth to be told, she hadn¡¯t even expected (or even wanted) the transplant whatchamacallit to work at all. Yeah sure, she probably would¡¯ve had to carry the fleshy human heart of Jacob around until she found his rebellious body, but she would be able to make fun of the guy soooo much. Revenge is always sweet, her fake friend back from high school had always told her, and that was pretty much the only thing that that girl had said that turned out to be true in the end. She would know, the ¡®friend¡¯ had been the first person that she tested the statement on. Would Jacob do that to her? Well, she didn¡¯t really think that he would, considering the sappy speech that he just spat out back at the infirmary place, but who knows how humans thought or did things. After all, they were the ones who created a sentient machine race and wiped themselves off the planet- Hmm . . . Now that Ren thought about it, did the humans actually take themselves out? She had always found it strange that the supposed master race of the cosmos had blown the entire planet to smithereens in a series of coincidences that only ever occurred due to ANOTHER set of mysterious coincidences. Maybe Jacob had mentioned something in that fantastical story of his that would shed some light on the matter? Clearly they were researching something at the camp and the research lab below, though what it actually was had been lost to the icy winds of time. The only things that she had been able to infer was that it had something to do with her Solver, and it had necessitated the use of deadly anti-drone sentinels. Reeeeally not the kind of workplace environment that encourages on-brand loyalty. Jacob cleared his throat, jarring Ren out of her thoughts. ¡°Why¡¯re you . . . uh, just staring at me like that?¡± Ren blinked in shock, realizing that she had just been staring into Jacob¡¯s soul for the past thirty seconds-or-so in complete silence. ¡°I-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-S-SHUT UP!¡± Ren glared at Jacob as if it was his fault (it was). Jacob¡¯s display cycled through several facial expressions before settling on ¡®mildly-ticked-off¡¯. ¡°Can you at least not push me so much when I¡¯m trying to keep my balance, climbing up this thing?¡± He nodded with his head towards the mess of steel cables that protruded from the cracked concrete that they were using as a ladder. ¡°I REALLY don¡¯t want to fall.¡± Ren glared harder at him, and sighed. ¡°I¡¯ve said it before and I¡¯ll say it again, you have wings, dumbass, which means you can fly.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you expect me to do, just believe that I can fly?¡± Jacob gestured emphatically with the one hand he wasn¡¯t using to stay upright. ¡°The only thing that¡¯s gonna be lifting me up is hopes and dreams, Ren, because I sure as hell am NOT gonna learn on the fly-¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t make bad puns in my presence.¡± ¡°-how to fly, got it? All these things that are on my back are needless obstructions that prevent me from climbing right, got it?¡± Jacob continued, ignoring the interruption. ¡°I-¡± ¡°Also, sorry if I¡¯m dramatic or whatever, but I kinda just got my body stolen from me less than a day ago, so I¡¯m feeling just a little stressed out at this time, all right? I¡¯ve kinda been just accepting what comes my way at this point, but that is kind of a hard thing to take at face value and say, ¡®okay, that¡¯s cool¡¯ and brush it off with a facetious joke.¡± ¡°Also, that pun wasn¡¯t intended.¡± Nevermind, he didn¡¯t ignore it. Ren puffed out a breath, leaning backwards against the rough, concrete wall. The piece of sheet metal that she was holding rigid beneath her feet wobbled slightly, though she didn¡¯t acknowledge it. A moment later, a grimace spread out across her face. ¡°Fine. I¡¯m . . . sorry.¡± She practically spat out. Jacob recoiled slightly. Clearly, he hadn¡¯t expected that. ¡°Can we just get moving already?¡± Ren said, shaking her head. She just wanted to move past the moment already. ¡°Uh, sure.¡± Jacob replied with a shrug, turning his attention back to the wall. ¡°Also, I¡¯m still gonna grab you in case you look like you¡¯re about to fall.¡± Ren stated after a moment of awkward silence. ¡°I¡¯m not gonna come all this way just to lose you to fall damage of all things.¡± ¡°Jakeman199 experienced kinetic energy . . .¡± Jacob murmured sleepily. ¡°What?¡± Jacob jerked his head in her direction slightly before recovering. ¡°Yeah no uh, that¡¯s fine I guess.¡± Jacob stated before pulling himself up another foot. Ren moved to the side slightly as a tucked in wing nearly brushed her face. Earlier, when she and Jacob had been at the bottom of the pit, she had suggested that he use his newfound wings to fly all the way to the top with ease. His reply had been one of annoyance and protest, but she had initially brushed it off as whining. And so, after many tries, she had finally convinced the human- she really needed to find a better label for what he currently was- to try his hand at it. After managing to extend the limbs, he had jumped up and . . . instantly fell back down. It had taken a few more tries for Ren to finally realize that Jacob was most definitely not gonna be able to fly anytime soon. To make matters worse, Jacob had absolutely zero idea how to retract said wings, which had left them stuck like that for a good few minutes until both she and him had mutually agreed that she would chop them off with a plate of rusted metal. Good times. [WARNING - HIGH TEMP- Ren shut off the alert as soon as it popped up. She had forgotten to cool down, and now she was paying the price, with the scant amounts of oil that she had consumed being not enough to take the edge off of the after effects of so much Solver exertion. While she would have gone right back down to the very high amounts of oil that was ripe for the pickings at the bottom of the pit, she really didn¡¯t want to leave Jacob in a position where he could easily fall and break his neck or something. She didn¡¯t want to find out just how much his regeneration would extend to save his life now that he was essentially a parasite in a host unfamiliar to himself. So, yet again, she continued to suffer for Jacob¡¯s sake. Ren expected substantial payment after all this was over and done with. After about two more minutes of agonizingly boring climbing (only made longer by Jacob¡¯s inexperience with his new body) Ren finally saw the lip of the pit about two feet away from her. With a slight grunt, she grabbed the edge and threw herself upwards. Landing deftly on her feet, she made note of Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest all aiming some manner of weaponry at her. However, once she raised a digital eyebrow, they all let out an audible sigh of relief and let their firearms point towards the ground. Ren rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to where Jacob was. Seeing him struggling, she got down on one knee and extended a hand. Likely seeing the action out of the top of his vision, he froze and stared at the proffered appendage with trace amounts of confusion and shock. She sighed. She really didn¡¯t have any time for this. Seeing her displeasure, Jacob hastily gripped her hand and put some of his weight on it. Ren grunted and dug her feet into the ground. Fatty, she thought as she put all of her strength into lifting the human (cyborg?) up. While she knew that, technically, it wasn¡¯t actually Jacob who weighed that much, she still chose to believe it because it made it easier to make fun of him in her head. Stupid fatty. After an embarrassing five seconds, she finally pulled Jacob onto solid ground. He let out a grunt, dusting off his legs as he did so. ¡°I thought you didn¡¯t know what those were.¡± He stated off-handedly, picking a splinter out of his sleeve. Ren adopted a confused expression. ¡°Didn¡¯t know what?¡± ¡°You know,¡± Jacob mimicked holding out a hand. ¡°That.¡± ¡°Uh, of course I do.¡± Ren backed up from Jacob a small amount. ¡°Where¡¯d you get that idea?¡± ¡°Oh you know-¡± ¡°That¡¯s your second time saying ¡®you know¡¯.¡± ¡°-back when we first got into the pit-¡± ¡°That sounds familiar.¡± ¡°-you fell over-¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I would fall over.¡± ¡°-and I-¡± ¡°Are you sure it wasn¡¯t your alter-ego?¡± ¡°-heldouta-¡± ¡°A what? Some sort of offering because I obviously deserve it?¡± Ren preened slightly, smoothing down her coat. ¡°-handtohelpyouup-¡± ¡°Really? I think you¡¯re getting your stories mixed up, you should probably-¡± ¡°STOP INTERRUPTING FOR GOD¡¯S SAKE!¡± Jacob shot both hands out, gripped a surprised Ren by the shoulders, and shook her back and forth with everything he could muster. However, that ended when she slowly reached up and grabbed his wrists, causing him to freeze. The two stared at each other for a stiflingly long moment. ¡°What in blue blazes . . .¡± Ren jerked away from Jacob, kicking him in the shin as hard as she could as she did so. Ignoring the yelp of pain that followed, she adopted a bored expression and nonchalant pose, pretending to inspect her nonexistent fingernails. ¡°Oh, you guys are here. That¡¯s cool, I guess.¡± She said, taking a moment to glance around before frowning. ¡°Also, where¡¯s that hyperactive liability?¡± She added. The drone next to the one named Sterl (she kept on forgetting the name of that one) took a step forward. ¡°We uh, don¡¯t know.¡± The drone visibly shrugged. ¡°We were kinda hoping that he was with you?¡± ¡°I think ya mean ¡®you¡¯. There is no ¡®we¡¯.¡± Sterl grunted, a hard expression flitting across his face. Ren opened her mouth to reply, but cut herself off when she noticed K¡¯s reaction to their presence. Despite a solid minute having passed, the disassembly drone was still gazing at Jacob with a shocked expression on her face, mouth hanging open and everything. Walking forward, Ren waved a hand in front of K¡¯s optical display. When that did nothing, she snapped her fingers three times in quick succession. K blinked before slapping Ren¡¯s hand away. ¡°Wha- don¡¯t touch- oh whatever.¡± K shook her head before standing up ramrod straight, her own hand shooting towards her forehead in a crisp salute in Jacob¡¯s direction. ¡°S-s-sir!¡± K stammered out. ¡°I thought you were dead!¡± Jacob backed up slightly, raising an eyebrow. Ren, after noticing how close he was to falling off the edge after that, nearly growled in annoyance and made to punt him away from certain death, though she refrained from doing so at the last moment. ¡°Heh?¡± K took a shaky breath, LED sweat droplets appearing on her screen. ¡°S-sir, I must sincerely apologize for the unsanctioned time off that I took, and I am prepared to accept any amount of overtime hours that you assign me. It was my mistake and I shouldn¡¯t have done that.¡± K continued in an unsteady tone. ¡°B-but erm, if I may dare to ask, what is the reason for your current status as a holder of . . . uh . . . blue eyes?¡± Jacob seemed to be at a loss for words, though an evil grin spread across his face as he slowly turned to look at Ren. Instantly knowing what he was up to, she gesticulated widely in the air, making a chopping motion at her throat to signify her adamant disagreement with the terrible events that were about to occur. However, her efforts were for naught, a fact that was made known by Jacob¡¯s . . . nodding. ¡°Hmm, oh yes, very bad work, you are gonna have to do, like, soooo much work to make it up. I mean, you wasted my time and everyone else¡¯s time, and that¡¯s usually punishable by death!¡± He stated in a grandiose tone. ¡°Earth, despite being very dead and gone, would probably have had a better fate than what you should be going through!¡± K audibly gulped. It almost looked like she had wanted to speak up at that last part, but she kept her mouth shut. ¡°However, you are incredibly lucky that I am both magnanimous and generous!¡± Jacob spread out his arms in a flourish. ¡°Instead, I will have you do only one task! Yes, one task indeed.¡± K trembled with relief. ¡°Y-yes sir, though m-may I ask the reason as to why you are talking like-¡± ¡°QUESTIONING MY AUTHORITY, ARE WE!?¡± K jumped back as if struck. ¡°N-no sir! What¡¯s the task!?¡± She gasped out. Ren facepalmed. If all humans were like this, then maybe she should just go ahead and kill all of them (that is, if any of them were left alive). Jacob grinned in a display that Ren was sure that he had never done before, showing off his sharp incisors. ¡°Suck-¡± A loud crunch saved Ren from hearing the rest of it as the rest of the collected drones froze and subsequently turned their attention to the source of the sound. And standing there, possibly even menacingly, was . . . X. She did admit that it took her a moment to recognize the ¡®hyperactive liability¡¯ that she had stated before. Instead of the open bomber jacket with its puffy collar, he was wearing the strangest assortment of clothing that she had seen in her entire life. And she had seen some horrific stuff on Prom night. A yellow straw sombrero with a bite taken out of its right side, a dog tag with writing that she couldn¡¯t make out at that distance, a vest that had packets that looked suspiciously like bombs strapped to the front, a floral-printed shirt with only the sleeves remaining, one flip-flop, fingerless black gloves that had skulls drawn on the backs of them, khaki shorts with a small tear on the front of the left leg, and a comically-bulbous device with fins on the back and a strange yellow-and-black symbol emblazoned on the side facing her being carried in his arms. Oh yeah, he also had what looked like some sort of candy in his mouth with a white stick poking out. ¡°Inshallah my brothers, I am in possession of the nuclear device.¡± X spoke in a serious, no-nonsense voice. ¡°I present to you . . . The Solution.¡± After that ominous line, he unceremoniously dropped the odd device at his feet. It let out an angry warble and began to beep rapidly, unnerving Ren. However, after only about five seconds, it stopped. Nobody spoke. ¡°I just thought you were dead.¡± Ren simply stated. X scoffed. ¡°My death was . . . greatly exaggerated.¡± ¡°Where have you been!?¡± Jacob finally exclaimed. X blinked, scratching his head with a third hand that Ren hadn¡¯t seen. ¡°Oh well, uh, that¡¯s kind of a long and very mature and/or too-cool-for-skool story . . .¡± * * * A booming laugh drew X''s attention back to the man on the stage. Groaning, he retrieved his blade from where it had fallen. He nearly got tangled up in his cape, but in the end he got back to his feet. Battered and bruised, he faced the terrible villain once more. ¡°Halt, terrible villain! You shall slay innocent and oh-so beautiful maidens no more, for I, X the Chosen One have come to slide my righteous blade into your villainous throat in the same way Discord moderators slide into minor¡¯s direct messages!¡± The villain sitting on top of the golden throne chuckled once again, the very shockwaves of his voice turning the various gnomes beneath his feet into meaty puddles on the floor. ¡°You think you can defeat me, hero!? HAH! I have heard better jokes from your mom!¡± ¡°Wait!¡± X exclaimed in shock. ¡°How do you know my mother!?¡± The villain shook his head and laughed. ¡°Because I slept with her! HAHAHAH!¡± X¡¯s face became a storm of unbridled fury. ¡°What!? How dare you take my mother¡¯s virginity!?¡± ¡°Also, I must add, she is so morbidly obese that I initially thought she was another mountain for me to conquer! Little did I know, I was going to conquer her in the end, just not in the way I first believed . . .¡± The villain trailed off, his right hand pumping a several-hundred-pound weight with relative ease. ¡°pls shut¡± X stated before leaping at the villain. With all of his strength, he drove Murasama as hard as he could into the chest of the man who had so brutally made consensual love to his mother. However, the sharp edge of the blade failed to pierce the skin of his enemy, only bouncing off with a tinny clink. ¡°W-what? Impossible!¡± X gaped at the sword that he had raised from birth. The villain sneered, reaching out and gripping the metal shaft with his hand. ¡°Nice toothpick.¡± He stated, shortly before he snapped Murasama like a twig. X stumbled backwards, his shock paramount. ¡°H-how . . . ?¡± Was the only thing that he could stammer out. A terrible grin spread across the villain¡¯s face as he beat his chest, which had inexplicably turned into something reminiscent of the 1984 original version of Optimus Prime¡¯s chest. ¡°Nanomachines, son!¡± A barking laugh caused X to wince. ¡°They harden in response to physical trauma!¡± X fell to one knee, trembling in fear. ¡°I . . . cannot defeat him as I currently am . . .¡± X mumbled to himself. ¡°. . . I am too weak.¡± ¡°You¡¯re goddamn right.¡± The villain got up from his golden throne, one hand drawing a massive, hundred-foot blade while the other stroked an even longer, absolutely massive phallically-shaped metal pipe. ¡°Now, somebody is going to DIE tonight.¡± X, slowly, got to his feet. He kept his gaze low, fists clenching and unclenching. ¡°If I can¡¯t beat you the way I am, then I have no choice but to-¡± ¡°Submit to me and become my gaming buddy?¡± ¡°Shut the fuck up bitch.¡± ¡°okey¡± ¡°-no choice, but to become STRONGER!¡± With that, X began yelling at the top of his lungs. Thinking back, he recalled all the faces he had seen and people he had lost along the way. ¡°Little Joey . . . Little Sam . . . Little Bart . . . Little Lisa . . . Little Marge . . . BIG Tyrone . . . John F. Kennedy . . . you all helped me become the alpha that I am right now- well, except for you, Dave, you were always a little gay- and so, I honor you and my ancestors with this final showdown of ultimate destiny.¡± A single tear traveled down X¡¯s face, only to be evaporated by the blue flames that were beginning to flicker to life all around him. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. With a flash and howl of the alpha wolf, X transformed. A hazy blue glow surrounded him, porcelain shining in the moonlight. The villain, who had been so confident a moment earlier, took a step backwards out of shock. His jaw clattered to the floor, literally, it actually was so heavy it cracked the tiles. ¡°It . . . cannot be . . .¡± The villain gasped out in horror. ¡°Skibidi dop dop.¡± X, now the Skibidi Smasher, sent a glowing beam of energy at the villain¡¯s chest. With a scream, the villain was no more, having exploded into hundreds of small meaty chunks. The Skibidi Smasher, having begun to fly during his transformation, floated back down to the ground angelically. With only a small exertion of his infinite willpower, he transitioned back to his normal state. He kneeled down to the pile of chunks that the villain had left behind, and sighed in sadness. Killing was wrong, but it sometimes needed to be done. In the end, the best thing he could do for the villain was to recite the ancient prayer of salvation. ¡°Another victory for the OGs, taking down the sweats,¡± X stated in a somber tone. ¡°Impostors among us.¡± Suddenly, the bang of the door opening filled the air as it slammed against the walls. ¡°He really should¡¯ve gotten a doorstop.¡± X stated, because it was true. A girl pranced into the room, heavenly . . . somethings . . . swaying in the air as she approached. The gnomes that were still left alive, having been hiding from the battle, were popped like balloons by the shockwaves sent by the humongous . . . somethings. However, X had no reaction to this, because he was a homosexual. ¡°Oh my gawd X, you did it! You saved the city!¡± The girl squealed in delight and clapped her hands. ¡°Yes, yes I did.¡± X remained stoic, because that was what girls liked. ¡°I am . . . the Alpha.¡± Suddenly, disaster struck. A horrible cloud of black smoke appeared behind the girl, which quickly manifested into a thin man wearing a filthy dark robe that obscured his face. The man put the girl in a chokehold, pressing an unholy sacrificial knife to her neck. ¡°GASP!¡± X gasped. ¡°Unhand her, dastardly menace!¡± The man chuckled darkly. ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t think so . . .¡± ¡°Reveal yourself to the light, terrible person!¡± X pointed a finger in the evil man¡¯s direction. ¡°If I must . . .¡± Peeling back the hood from his incredibly greasy head, a pair of red headphones, a mop of curly hair, a very impressive mustache, and reflective glasses revealed themselves. ¡°My god, it cannot be . . . P. Diddy!?¡± X gaped at the man who he had thought to be his friend.
  1. Diddy shook his head, which was VERY white.
¡°No, I do not go by that name any longer. I am now . . . Mr. Steal Yo Girl, and I think that this girl belongs to ME now!¡± X cursed, getting to his feet in a blaze of anger. ¡°Dammit Mr. Steal Yo Girl, she¡¯s only . . . uh . . . not good!¡± ¡°Yessssss,¡± Mr. Steal Yo Girl hissed out, having now become an anthropomorphic snake. ¡°I like ¡®em like that.¡± With that, Mr. Steal Yo Girl and the girl vanished in a cloud of dark, shadowy smoke. All X could do was wail in grief, because he knew that now he had to go on yet ANOTHER side quest or else he wouldn¡¯t get 100% completion. * * * ¡°-yadda yadda yadda, I speak with Jesus Chist and we play some CoD, and that brings us to now!¡± X finished with a bright smile on his face, now holding a curved, rainbow colored knife in one hand. ¡°Uh . . . nice story I guess, but that doesn¡¯t explain how or why you¡¯re wearing . . . all that.¡± Ren stated matter-of-factly. X cocked his head in confusion. ¡°It doesn¡¯t?¡± ¡°I hate- and I mean REALLY hate- to be the one to back Ren up here-¡± Jacob began. Ren, having sat next to him while the ¡®story¡¯ was being told, kicked him in the leg hard enough to rend a hole in the outer casing. ¡°-but she¡¯s right.¡± He finished. ¡°Well that¡¯s a first.¡± Ren grumbled unhappily, shoving her hands into her pockets. ¡°Oh shut up.¡± Jacob said, elbowing her in the arm. K, clearly having had enough of the situation, stood up and cleared her throat. ¡°Frankly, X, it doesn¡¯t matter how you got here. What DOES matter is our next course of action.¡± K began in a matter-of-fact tone. ¡°Now, I believe that me and-¡± ¡°Hold the phone there, who said that you¡¯ll be in charge of . . . whatever this is?¡± Jacob shot to his feet, gaining a hateful glare from K as he did so. ¡°Because I am clearly the most sensible one here- and before ANY of you say otherwise, just remember who exactly came back to pull all of you from getting pulled to pieces from the human.¡± K swept her gaze across the circle of drones, seemingly daring any of them to protest. ¡°I- well- I¡¯m your boss, so like uh, do what I say and stuff like that?¡± Jacob said, barely managing to get the words out. Ren rolled her eyes. ¡°For the record, he isn¡¯t your ¡®boss¡¯ or whatever.¡± Jacob blinked. ¡°That uh, isn¡¯t true?¡± ¡°I knew that, both of you! You think I¡¯m stupid enough to believe that!? Don¡¯t answer that, the real answer is definitely not!¡± K spat out. ¡°Hold yer horses there,¡± Sterl began in a low tone, getting up from his position on the floor. ¡°The way me and my compadre see it-¡± ¡°I¡¯m not affiliated with whatever he¡¯s about to say-¡± The other soldier began. ¡°Shut it!¡± Sterl gave the drone another slap. ¡°Anyway, as I had been sayin¡¯ ¡®fore I was so rudely in¡¯errupted, I led this mission from the ge¡¯-go, so the way for¡¯ard should be gov¡¯ened by me. Case closed.¡± Jacob shook his head. ¡°Both of you seem to have forgotten a little detail here.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± K said, blinking. ¡°Hello!? Human here!?¡± Jacob threw his hands up in the air and glanced down at himself. ¡°Okay, I might be going through a very short intermission where something unnamed may or may not have changed, but I¡¯m still very much a member of homo sapiens and you should be lucky I¡¯m not telling all of you to BOW.¡± Ren nodded to herself, getting up as well. ¡°Oh I see, you hand-crafted each and every drone left on this planet, right?¡± She said in a slow tone. ¡°Well, not exactly-¡± ¡°I get it now, you¡¯re a member of the JCJenson board of executives, which gives you supreme oversight over the disassembly drones!¡± K exclaimed in a sardonic tone. ¡°I mean, I wouldn¡¯t really say-¡± ¡°Yer jus¡¯ flappin¡¯ yer gums at this poin¡¯, sonny. How ¡®bout you jus¡¯ shut yer trap and let the adults do the talkin¡¯, eh?¡± Sterl interjected. ¡°Now that¡¯s just rude-¡± Ren sighed dramatically and walked up, giving Jacob a few conciliatory pats on shoulder. ¡°Listen, I know you have some major brain damage from a combination of recent events and you just being you-¡± She began. ¡°I¡¯m starting to see a pattern here-¡± ¡°-but I know all about human factionalism.¡± Ren put on a grin, proud of herself for remembering that one Human Culture 101 lecture. ¡°You guys hate each other, which means that YOU don¡¯t have any say over what WE do.¡± Jacob scratched the back of his head. ¡°I mean, we don¡¯t just hate each other, we do other things too.¡± ¡°Also, are you saying that if I was a member of JC-whatever-its-called, I would be running this place?¡± He continued. ¡°No.¡± The reply was said in unison. ¡°Aw shucks.¡± A slow clapping drew Ren¡¯s- and everyone else¡¯s- attention back to X. Through some magic, the murder drone was now wearing what looked to be his old outfit with the addition of oversized pilot goggles that were resting on his forehead. ¡°Ladies, ladies, calm down.¡± He began with a lazy grin on his face. ¡°I¡¯m sure that there¡¯s room for all of you in my schedule.¡± The angry shouting began. ¡°SILENCE!¡± The word was accompanied by a flash of yellow lightning coming from the hold that lay just a few hundred feet to their right, nestled in the ruins of the industrial area. X sighed and cleared his throat. ¡°If you all aren¡¯t high enough rank to decide, I can do that for you.¡± ¡°You go with him to kill the antagonist,¡± He pointed at both Ren and Jacob respectively before pointing at K as well. ¡°And you go with those two to get the military LARPers.¡± K blinked in confusion. ¡°What¡¯s a larper?¡± ¡°It¡¯s something that he shouldn¡¯t know about. ¡°Jacob interjected, giving X a strange look that Ren wasn¡¯t able to decipher. ¡°And uh, that was pretty much what I was going to suggest.¡± K nodded. ¡°Ahem, I have to admit that it¡¯s fairly sensible.¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure anyone here could¡¯ve come up with that.¡± Ren shrugged. ¡°I mean, it really isn¡¯t that complex of a-¡± ¡°Yeah whatever, you snooze, you lose.¡± X waved off Ren¡¯s remark. ¡°Now get going. If I¡¯m right, then the planet is gonna start trying to eat us soon.¡± ¡°Uh, excuse me?¡± Jacob took a step forward. ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Just then, a rumble rocked the ground. Knocking the military drones (and Jacob) off of their feet, with Ren and K barely avoiding the same fate. X simply just stood his ground, rigid as a board as chunks of the ground began to tilt in ways not aligned with the rest of them. Jacob got up as the rumbling and shaking fell to a barely noticeable amount, with the two military drones groaning on the floor. ¡°Like that.¡± X stated in a tone that brokered no argument. Ren gulped. As she glanced to the side, she noticed a faint glow emanating from the pit. If she concentrated, she could also just barely make out some sort of static noise playing in the background. If she focused even more, it sounded like screaming. ¡°Yup I perfectly agree time to go lets go notquickenough!¡± Ren spoke hurriedly as she gripped Jacob¡¯s forearm and began to drag him down the road. ¡°Uh, that¡¯s gonna be the second time.¡± Jacob stated in a tone that did NOT fit the urgency of the situation. ¡°And what do you mean by that?¡± Ren asked through gritted teeth, eyes scanning the treetops. Just how fast would she be able to travel with what was essentially a cripple by her side? ¡°Second time I agree with you, that¡¯s what.¡± Jacob said out of the blue. Ren glanced back. ¡°What?¡± The ¡®human¡¯ shrugged. ¡°You asked, I answered. Problem?¡± ¡°Ugh, whatever.¡± Ren shook her head in frustration before returning her gaze to meet Jacob¡¯s. ¡°Listen, you¡¯re gonna need to fly.¡± He blinked ¡°Wait, what?¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, I know you don¡¯t know how to, blah blah blah, but you NEED to, okay?¡± Ren squeezed his arm a bit harder to emphasize her point. ¡°Okay, but like, I don¡¯t understand why you¡¯ve gotten all . . . uh . . . like this.¡± Jacob said in a nonchalant tone. ¡°How¡¯re you even calm right now!?¡± Ren exclaimed out of shock. ¡°What, you think that this kind of stuff happens every day or something!?¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°I mean, maybe? Didn¡¯t the core go kablooey or something-¡± ¡°THAT was practically two decades ago! THIS is happening now, and is DEFINITELY not a normal occurrence!¡± Ren shouted, coming to a halt. Jacob ripped his arm out of her grip and put his hands up in surrender. ¡°Fine, okay, we should all run around and panic or whatever, but I literally just reminded you a few minutes ago that I can¡¯t fly.¡± Ren groaned and put her head in her hands. ¡°We don¡¯t have a choice this time, okay? If we did, then we wouldn¡¯t be having this conversation-¡± A jab of pain sent shivers up her synthetic spine and down, causing her to cut off her own sentence. The high temperature alert off to the side of her vision flashed again, as if it was urgently reminding her of the slow deterioration of her own body. ¡°You good?¡± Jacob asked carefully, likely picking up on her discomfort. ¡°Yes.¡± She practically growled out. Ren shook her head. What was she thinking, that he was just gonna jump off a cliff and suddenly learn to fly? That wasn¡¯t how humans worked, they didn¡¯t have the capacity for on-board calculations to determine just what the best movements were for flight. If she hadn¡¯t been pressed for time, then she would¡¯ve led her thoughts on a rage-fueled tangent about how humanity shouldn¡¯t have ever been able to rise to become the super-predator of their home planet, but she sadly didn¡¯t have the luxury to do so. But in all seriousness, where would she even go? Ren had no idea where Evil Jacob would travel to in a planet full of tiny nooks and crannies that anyone could shove themselves into to hide for a bit. ¡°And plus, do we even know where Other Me might have gone?¡± Jacob questioned, seemingly voicing Ren¡¯s own thoughts. ¡°No, we do not.¡± Ren replied with a defeated sigh. ¡°I mean, what would his goal even be?¡± He continued. ¡°The last thing that we agreed on was to learn more about what they had been doing to me, but I guess he already knew. There was that ¡®friend¡¯ he kept on mentioning though, maybe it was someone off-world?¡± ¡°Off-world?¡± Ren inquired curiously. Jacob gave her a strange look. ¡°Uh, yeah. Do you know of any place that has working rocketships or whatever?¡± ¡°All the major commercial spaceports on the planet were wiped out in the initial blast.¡± Ren slowly stated. ¡°I guess that there could be some small military or private sites that are still intact, though any ships would¡¯ve degraded far past their point of expiration by now.¡± Jacob didn¡¯t reply for a moment, a contemplative expression on his display. It made her uneasy for a second, though she couldn¡¯t quite figure out why. ¡°Huh, I guess that¡¯s to be expected.¡± He finally said. Ren cocked her head in confusion. ¡°Oh uh, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Jacob shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s just that the extent of space activity that we had back then was limited to launching satellites into space and putting rovers on Mars and stuff, but it makes sense that there would be more advanced stuff around.¡± ¡°Uh-huh.¡± Ren shook her head. ¡°Anyway, I don¡¯t know of any place that has the capacity or manpower left to launch anything into orbit at this point.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that there were colonies and outposts of worker drones dotted around the planet a little bit ago?¡± ¡°Yeah, what about it?¡± Jacob rubbed the back of his head. ¡°Well, wouldn¡¯t they be able to, I dunno, build a spaceship?¡± Ren rolled her eyes. ¡°Listen, if anyone had the materials to do that, we all would¡¯ve left this frozen rock awhile ago, but here we are. No place has the technological know-how to construct, from scratch, a working space vessel. None. Zero. Nada.¡± Ren finished. ¡°Wait, you know Spanish?¡± ¡°What¡¯s Spanish?¡± ¡°Ugh.¡± Suddenly, Jacob perked up. ¡°The facility.¡± He said without any elaboration. ¡° . . . yes?¡± Ren motioned for him to go on. Jacob scoffed, waving her off. ¡°It¡¯s the only place that has any sort of hope of having the things needed to blast off into upper orbit and past it. If he got ahold of some sort of production plant or whatever, then nothing would be stopping him from just up and leaving!¡± ¡°But didn¡¯t you say that everybody in the place was evacuated after those murder drones attacked or whatever?¡± Ren questioned with skepticism in her voice. ¡°You can¡¯t just magically construct a vehicle-¡± ¡°But he CAN, that¡¯s the thing!¡± Jacob pointed at Ren¡¯s hands, who raised them up and looked at them in befuddlement. ¡°Weird spooky techno-magic seems to be able to do anything the [heart] desires in this place.¡± Ren frowned. ¡°You . . . aren¡¯t wrong.¡± ¡°The facility is the closest place that we know of with the stuff he needs to reunite with his robo-girlfriend or whatever the idiot calls it, so-¡± ¡°Yo.¡± Both Jacob and Ren whirled around to glare at the intruder. Standing there was, yet again, X. Through some form of sorcery, he had managed to obtain what looked to be some sort of baked treat that a human probably ate along with a comically large fancy mirror that stood up to his height. ¡°What¡¯re those for?¡± Jacob asked, pointing at the two new items. ¡°You aren¡¯t even gonna question him about where he found them!?¡± Ren hissed under her breath. Jacob shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure I don¡¯t want to know, and you wouldn¡¯t either.¡± That gave Ren a moment of pause. ¡°Okay, you might be on the right track.¡± She admitted after a second of silence. X, without answering Jacob¡¯s question, walked up to the nearest tree and leaned the mirror against it. Taking one last bite out of his donut, he grabbed a second one from seemingly nowhere and tossed it at Jacob. Gasping as he snatched it out of the air, he held it tentatively in his hands. ¡°Don¡¯t do it . . .¡± Ren warned. ¡°But WHY!?¡± Jacob let out a solemn cry. ¡°I dunno, he touched it so it¡¯s probably got tons of- uh, bad things on it now.¡± Ren said, stammering as she did. Jacob raised an eyebrow. ¡°Whaddya mean by ¡®bad things¡¯?¡± ¡°Oh you know,¡± Ren began, snapping her fingers repeatedly. ¡°It¡¯s uh, that thing that humans don¡¯t like called- hmmmm, I know the name but its-¡± ¡°On the tip of your tongue?¡± ¡°Er, yeah.¡± Ren stared at Jacob for a moment. ¡°Weird wordplay but I guess it works.¡± ¡°Are you talking about bacteria?¡± He asked, ignoring the statement. ¡°YES! That¡¯s the name, thank you.¡± Ren rolled her eyes. ¡°Anyway, you shouldn¡¯t-¡± Jacob took a bite out of the treat. ¡°Robots can¡¯t- oh this is good- get sick so- oh you should try this- I can eat it fine.¡± Jacob took a few more bites out of the ring-shaped snack. ¡°Do you ever listen to the voice of common sense?¡± ¡°And who would that be?¡± Ren growled. ¡°ME, you idiot!¡± ¡°Listen, I haven¡¯t eaten anything that tastes anything better than a bowl of flavorless slop for, like, the past hundred days or something so cut me some slack, alright? In fact, I haven¡¯t even eaten anything at all in the past few days!¡± Jacob jabbed a finger in Ren¡¯s direction. Ren grimaced, a wave of embarrassment washing over her. ¡°You don¡¯t know what it¡¯s like having natural taste buds.¡± Jacob said with no small amount of vehemence. ¡°Eating disgusting squash, resisting the urge to gobble down the entire Skittles? bag in one go, chomping down steak . . . mmmm steak.¡± He stopped, seemingly enveloped in some sort of trance as his display flickered and began to waver. Meanwhile, X was standing in front of the mirror and began to clear his throat. ¡°Oh mirror mirror on the wall, who is the skibbidiest of them all?¡± He asked in a regal tone. The reflection became covered in some sort of fog as a hazy face appeared on the other side of the mirror. ¡°Shut up loser lmao nobody talks to you.¡± The face said, sticking out a tongue. X grabbed the sides of the mirror and barked like a dog. ¡°If you don¡¯t tell me where the antagonist is, I¡¯ll splooge all over you, got it?¡± ¡°Okay mister I¡¯m sorry.¡± With that, the hazy face retreated. It was replaced by a fuzzy image of a humanoid figure standing at the base of some sort of ruined structure with a broken sign sitting over the shattered glass entrance. ¡°Huh, wouldya look at that.¡± Jacob walked up to the mirror and rubbed his chin absentmindedly. ¡°I¡¯m not even gonna question where you got the mirror from, this might actually be helpful.¡± Ren just stared, mouth gaping. Then, he frowned. ¡°This means that Other Jacob is . . . already at the facility.¡± That brought Ren out of her stupor. ¡°That uh, looks a bit rundown to be the massive, sprawling facility that you mentioned.¡± She stated matter-of-factly. Jacob shook his head and waved a hand at her. ¡°It¡¯s just the entrance, there¡¯s this big elevator shaft that goes down super deep into-¡± Suddenly, the figure in the mirror straightened up and twitched. Slowly, it turned its head in a complete 180¡ã to gaze directly at wherever the feed was coming from. Static began to fill up the ¡®screen¡¯ and the mirror trembled a little bit. ¡°Can he . . . see us?¡± Ren looked at X. X, being the supremely helpful person that he was, shrugged. ¡°I dunno, why¡¯re you asking me?¡± ¡°You brought this thing here.¡± ¡°I found it.¡± The mirror shattered, the ghostly scream of something fading into nothingness as it happened. ¡°I think he saw us.¡± Jacob stated. ¡°Whatever, it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Ren kicked over the now-empty ornate wooden frame of the broken mirror. ¡°What WE need to do is get going.¡± Jacob cringed, his eyes hollowing. ¡°I know I sound like a broken record, but . . .¡± ¡°Ooh! Ooh!¡± X exclaimed, jumping up and down in what was seemingly excitement. ¡°I can help you mister, I¡¯ll carry you!¡± Silence. Ren looked over to see Jacob fixing X with a glare that made her jealous of its efficacy. ¡°You are NOT carrying me again.¡± ¡°Again?¡± Ren interjected, though she was ignored. ¡°You do not talk to me that way little bro!!! You are not the sigma!!!¡± X crossed his arms and let out a little angry huff, steam literally coming out of his ears. ¡°How do you know those words!?¡± Jacob cried out, throwing his hands up in the air. ¡°I¡¯m the knower, what can I say?¡± ¡°Okay okay okay, shut up!¡± Ren physically put herself in between the two and pushed them apart. ¡°Jacob, just let him carry you, it¡¯ll be faster.¡± Jacob let out a dramatic groan. ¡°Ugh, fine, if I HAVE to.¡± ¡°And YOU!¡± Ren rounded on X, who put his hands up in surrender and got to his knees with his hands behind his head. ¡°Please! I didn¡¯t know she wasn¡¯t up to industry standards yet!¡± X sobbed. ¡°This is what I mean! Just shut up, and don¡¯t talk for the rest of- I dunno, forever!¡± Ren exclaimed, getting all up in the wide-eyed killer machine¡¯s face. X nodded, placed a padlock around his lips, locked it with a key, and threw the key away. However, it came flying back like a boomerang and coincidentally landed in the key receptacle, unlocking it as a consequence. X sighed sadly. ¡°Sorry miss, no can do with that one. They don¡¯t want me to be quiet.¡± ¡°Wha- who is this they?¡± ¡°Huh, just like a boomerang.¡± Jacob mumbled to himself before turning to Ren. ¡°Actually, do you even know what a boomerang is?¡± Ren scoffed. ¡°Yes, I do, but we need to just-¡± ¡°Wait, really?¡± Jacob asked, interrupting her AGAIN. ¡°Can you tell me how?¡± ¡°Just get going and CEASE all this-¡± ¡°I think yapping is the word you¡¯re looking for.¡± X interjected. Deep breaths . . . ¡°SHUT UP!¡± Ren resisted the urge to just start slugging everyone she saw in the face. She had a really good right hook. ¡°We are leaving, NOW, got it!?¡± She scanned the faces of her two ¡®companions¡¯ for any sign of protest. ¡°I mean, I¡¯ve been ready to go, I was just waiting for you to finish up.¡± Jacob shrugged nonchalantly. ¡°You gotta hurry a little, you know?¡± . . . She hated him. * * * Have you ever thought about it? The sky, I mean. Specifically the one that¡¯s typically shown around nighttime. I know, I know, cities prevent- or at least, USED to prevent- a lot of the natural glory of the finite cosmos to be gazed upon due to light pollution and all that, but c¡¯mon! Every one of those lights up there represents a massive and flaming ball of superheated gas that has a lifespan measured in the billions of years. Hell, even if life was suitable on a potential planet that may or may not have begun to orbit around the thing, some intelligent super-predator could rise up and create an empire that would NEVER even come close to holding a candle (get the pun?) to the blazing awesomeness of a star. And there are millions of them. Well, at least there used to be millions of them. Now, I know what you¡¯re thinking, ¡°Oh, but Jacob, even if you are super smart and know everything, how could something that we can clearly see just not be there anymore?¡± and uh, I would call you an idiot for saying that. I mean like, did you even go to school you bum? Anyway, since it takes an incredibly long amount of time for the light from one of those stars to reach us, what you see up there is essentially a snapshot of what the thing looked like waaaay in the past. When I asked you about it, you had said that you wouldn¡¯t be able to know without literally going over there to take a peek. For all we know, Earth and its exoplanets might just have been the very last planets connected to living stars in the universe. Oopsie daisy? With a sigh, I got up from the tip of the skyscraper that leaned precariously to the side. Just like basically everything else on this dead rock, it looked like it was about to collapse into a fine powder at the smallest hint of a breeze. Luckily, American concrete held up and didn¡¯t collapse the skeleton of a building beneath me as I spread my wings and took flight. Literally. I had wings. Shocker, right? You know, I¡¯m not normally the introspective type. But uh, considering recent events, I¡¯ve been doing a lotta soul searching, if you catch my drift. I tried meditating that one time, but the only thing that came as a result of it was me catching the attention of some fifth-dimensional being for a split second. Thank Me it went back to sleep before the dream was disrupted. So, after that slight mishap, I decided to try out yoga! Only problem was that there weren¡¯t any yoga joints open at the moment, which was really strange to me. Went to a whole bunch of extra effort trying to start up my own, but the guy that was supposed to sell me the permits never showed up despite me calling the number on the pamphlet. I planned on reporting the guy to whoever was in charge of this place, but that was a matter for later. Right now, it was time for revenge. . . . Well not right now, but like, soon. Real soon. I took a dive, the office complexes and apartment buildings blending into a kaleidoscope of grayscale as I rushed towards the ground. I caught sight of an icy skeleton coated in tattered rags, dangling from a crumbling balcony by a rope as I flew downwards. Well, actually, scratch that, make that about a baker¡¯s dozen of the dudes just hanging there. Need a hand? That one certainly did, plus a leg and a few ribs. The grim image vanished from my vision as I impacted the ground hard enough to send pieces of concrete flying in all directions. A visible shockwave blasted out from underneath me as well, tossing a twisted and barely recognizable bicycle into and through a cracked shop¡¯s window. I made note of the surprisingly untouched mannequins that stood still in the room that I could see. While it might have just been a trick of combination of my flickering HUD and the darkness, I could¡¯ve sworn that I saw the head of one of them slightly turn to meet my gaze. I shook my head. The desync effects were getting worse and worse by the minute, and they probably weren¡¯t gonna get better anytime soon. Frankly, I probably should¡¯ve held off on that whole body-snatching thing until Fake Jacob¡¯s mental state had settled a bit more. Ripping it out like that had been the equivalent of tearing out the heart of a cancer patien- oh, wait a second. With a small hand gesture, I vanished from the empty street with the shop and the creepy mannequins that may or may not have raised their hands to wave goodbye. My awareness flickered, and boom, I was in a new place. Well, not exactly new. I was just retracing the steps that Fake Jacob had taken during his long and arduous trek away from the facility. I kinda wanted to take the credit for that, but I had been doing much more commendable tasks while he had still been toddling around the streets like an idiot. What tasks, you ask? Oh uh, it¡¯s this very difficult thing to do called delegating. You should try it some time. I teleported again. Considering where I was going, one might state that I was severely underprepared in the information department. I will admit, I have little to no knowledge of the facility and its many nooks and crannies. The entire place, from the memorial records, seemed awfully labyrinthian with its dozens of branching hallways and sectors. One could only imagine the mess of a rat¡¯s nest that the ventilation shafts must make. And that is all without mentioning the catwalks. Christ, the CATWALKS. I swear, they were everywhere! Over needlessly deep pits, crossing through warehouses, in large stadium-like areas, in rooms that were just high enough to fit them, and even over perfectly good floor tiling! It was just ridiculous, can you imagine the amount of money that was spent on something that probably did more harm than good in some cases? I wasn¡¯t worried about any of that, though. After all, I had all the time in the world to lay out the groundworks for my master plan. Finally, with a shift along the fourth-axis, a familiar sight lay ahead of me. An entrance coated in cracked and shattered glass, a broken sign that may have once lit up, and more than a few corpses littering the ground. I actually hadn¡¯t noticed those before, though it looked like they were half buried in the snowbanks. Maybe some errant gust of wind had blown the top layer away and revealed the bodies underneath or something, I dunno. The only thing I made note of was the fact that it looked like they had all fallen towards the entrance, as if they had all been going towards it when they died. That, coupled with the fact that bullet marks peppered their clothing, ribs, and skull made me envision a grisly scene. I grimaced as I nudged aside a femur that was in my way, the leg bone collapsing into shards of icy remains. You know, it kinda makes me think of that one thing from- Something is watching. I froze, my posture straightening as I became aware of something yet unknown behind me. Slowly, I turned my head around to see what it was. While I initially saw only empty space, something irked at me as I focused on a spot raised a few feet off of the ground. Glimpses of colors mixed in with the normal background stood out at me as they flickered between realities. I could almost make out what almost looked like humanoid forms standing there, though they seemed dream-like in quality. I squinted, my HUD combat overlay marking out an entity in a split second. And just like that, it popped. A few sparks fizzled out of the air and fell onto the ground as whatever HAD been there just simply vanished. I shrugged, mostly to myself. Guess it wasn¡¯t that important after all. Without further ado, I strode confidently into the building. I noticed more than a few bootprints littering the areas furthest away from any sort of hole or opening that could produce a draft. Probably from the facility drones when they ¡®evacuated¡¯. As I passed by the cold body of the security guard, I shot finger guns at him. Nice to see a familiar face. The sole elevator door that was open lay in front of me, my failure to see further inside of it making it look like some sort of gaping maw of a large creature. The creepiness factor was only made worse by the thrums, creaks, and whistles of wind I could hear from the elevator shaft. It made me wonder just how a closed space could make a breeze like that, though I quickly shook myself out of it. No time for rambling, revenge draws closer. With a snappy salute and rigid back, I tipped and fell backwards into the chasm. The wind made an audible woosh as I extended my wings further out to catch more air, though I quickly stopped myself. Instead, I drew them closer. Skydivers did this kind of thing, and this was a perfect opportunity to try it out myself. My surroundings became an incomprehensible blur as the concrete and rusty steel blended into a single image. My combat HUD would probably be able to pick out the individual molecules if I reviewed it after the fact, but that wasn¡¯t the point. I kept an eye on my altimeter and speedometer, watching as the numbers continued to climb. The only difference was that the former had a negative sign in front of it. I nearly missed it as I passed through a hole in the ground that I had been keeping an eye on, the scene around me changing from one reddish brick steel to darkened piping and crackling cabling. I caught flash frames of floors in a variety of things; tiles, carpet, more tiles, metal paneling, CATWALKS, and even more office tile. Finally, I emerged into an empty space, this one not having a convenient hole in the ground to pass through. Despite its darkness, I noticed more than a few industrial grade spotlights being used to light up certain sections of what appeared to be some sort of false grass covered in scorch marks and craters. More than a few drones were milling about as well, though I stopped paying attention at that point since a cool idea came to mind. I spread my wings out in a flash, both my eyes and wings nearly popping out of their sockets as I felt the ¡®bones¡¯ stretch outwards for a split second. Luckily, it went by so quickly that I didn¡¯t let out an audible gasp, but man did that feel weird. Making a fist with one hand, I collected as many photons as I could around me. Sure, photons don¡¯t like to play nice by normal standards, but two can play at that game. The entire area within a hundred feet radius of me lost a significant amount of its illumination, my presence literally darkening the world, before I began to release my grasp on the condensed particles. What followed was a light show that would¡¯ve made Uncle Sam blush . . . again. ¡°BEHOLD,¡± I called out to the shocked masses below. ¡°I, UH, AM YOUR GOD!¡± Many of them seemed to be doing a significant lack of groveling. In fact, I could actively see the vast majority of them shielding their eyes from the sheer amount of light I was throwing off. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if some gamma radiation was starting to accumulate- and yep, there it is. I sighed in exasperation. Nothing can be easy, can¡¯t it? ¡°Ugh, for fuck¡¯s sake-¡± I muttered under my breath as I pinched my brow, pinching the flow photons a small amount. As they began to recover and look up in awe at my form, I cleared my throat once more and began to speak. ¡°Ahem . . . HEAR AND FEAR ME MORTALS, FOR I AM YOUR GOD! KNEEL NOW, OR GET COMPLETELY OBLITERATED!¡± Yessssss, I hissed in my head as the fervent cries of religion began to reach my ears, the forms I saw scurrying about on the ground beginning to supplicate themselves before my awesome might. And yes, I was (and am) very awesome. Don¡¯t question me. * * * The proxy took the blast to the face, its head vanishing in a cloud of blue lights and murky oil. Felix, having knocked aside the roaming hands (claws?) of a more active one, hit the ground in a state of complete unpreparedness. Bowling over half a dozen proxies, he got to his feet and dashed away as quickly as he could into an adjoining hallway. However, he barely had the time to take three steps before a pair- no, trio of arms wrapped around his torso and pulled him back. Despite him caving in the skull of the disgusting creature as he whipped around, it still gave the things time to catch up to him. Blast after concussive blast sounded in Felix¡¯s ears as he unloaded the entirety of the shotgun¡¯s contents into the horde that was now practically touching him. Even though the buckshot was easily able to rip through the weakened casings of the horde (which was mostly worker drones), they just kept on coming. Before long, he had run out of shells. Sigh. Crowbar time. He kicked at the legs of the one closest to him, causing it to topple to the ground in a heap. The second one that drew his ire didn¡¯t fare much better, having the sharp end going through its chest instead. However, that failed to kill the damned thing at all. Scoffing, Felix pushed the proxy away and just barely dodged a strangely organic spike that had been aimed at his head. Sadly, the other proxies that had been in its way failed to get out of it in time and became little more than paper to the oncoming projectile. Felix, getting to his feet, gaped at the massive form that towered just thirty feet away from him. A mass of oozing, flickering wires pooled together to form a sagging central body. Four thick ¡®legs¡¯ held up the ¡®torso¡¯ of the thing, oil sloughing off of them and pooling on the floor. Servos and actuators were placed haphazardly through the entire frame of the machine, making it seem as though it was slapped together by an untrained neural network. Not too far off from the truth, if what Felix knew was true. A particularly thick cable wrapped around the ¡®head¡¯ of the creature, looking oddly like a bandage of sorts if one were to ignore the glowing blue lights that dotted the snake-like structure. Felix could almost make out a roll cage behind the thick cable, the rusted and broken mesh of bars having crumpled. A maw, sitting right beneath the lowermost part of the cabling, slowly cracked open. It let out a guttural, gut-wrenching, terrible roar, with the sounds of what almost sounded like a human scream flitting their way out between the crackles and modulations that were indicative of a broken speaker. Felix ran. A flurry of blackened and misshapen spikes flew at him, just barely missing him by a few inches. The black metal of his boots smoked and hissed as the flowing battery acid that had pooled at the ground was flung this way and that by his rapid getaway. A quick glance told Felix that the armor was practically a completely different color now due to the corrosion, with more than a few holes in the outer casing revealing the sensitive, perforated metal beneath. The only thing that he made note of that MIGHT be helpful was the fact that it was flowing in a particular direction, hopefully leading him to salvation. Come to think of it, his entire set had taken quite the beating. Bullet holes, rents in the metal, and general wear-and-tear had reduced his once spotless outer casing into rugged and dirty armor plating that would¡¯ve made Sterl nod his head in respect and Damina screech in disgust. Damina was kinda annoying. Coming to a screeching halt, Felix pinwheeled his arms as he tried (and failed) to keep himself from falling into the bottomless pit that had appeared out of the fog. He luckily managed to grab the side of the adjoining catwalk as he fell, though, so it wasn¡¯t like his life was forfeit. Not yet at least. Battery acid, pouring down like a waterfall off the side of the canyon, sizzled as it came into contact with his head. Pulling himself back onto ¡®solid¡¯ ground, he groaned as he got to his feet again. His body was wracked with aches and pains, all the programmers¡¯ way of signaling that he was in absolutely terrible condition, and most definitely not okay to be doing backflips and stunts. However, his mind decided to focus back on running once more as another roar caused the entire catwalk to shake and shudder beneath him. The surface that Felix was walking on made all sorts of worrying noises as he scrambled his way across it. He could distinctly make out the sounds of crashing and bangs as the creature trampled over whatever was in its way as it chased after him. He didn¡¯t know what the weight load of the catwalk was, but he was pretty sure that the amount of rust and holes in the mesh made it not that high. Just as he sighted the other end of the chasm, a small and box-like building on it appearing strangely monolithic as it emerged from the fog, the snapping of metal strained beyond its breaking point sounded in his ears. He barely managed to catch sight of the creature seemingly trying to balance-beam its way across before the entire structure buckled and began to fall. Fortunately for Felix, the walkway somehow remained attached at his end. The result was him being airborne for a few heart-stopping moments before he gripped the sidebar and kept himself from falling any further. He paused, his nonexistent lungs gulping down breath after breath in an attempt to calm his racing mind. However, a guttural clicking noise from below him caused dread to creep in once again. As he looked back, he half hoped that the sound was little more than the steel paneling popping back into place after the disturbance, though his hopes were soon dashed. The creature, which had somehow been able to spear its thick legs into the side of the chasm, slowly began to climb up the side of it like it was some sort of . . . climber. Felix didn¡¯t really know of any sort of lifeform that climbed, but he was sure that something like that existed back on Earth. Felix was jarred out of his internal musings by the catwalk shuddering precariously. Reminded of his current situation as a candidate for death-by-falling-from-a-great-height, he resumed his panicked scrabbling at the catwalk as he tried his best to get to safety. The section of the catwalk that was furthest away from him groaned and broke off, plummeting towards the creature that had begun to speed itself up once more. It didn¡¯t even try and dodge the oncoming projectile as it glanced off the side of its leg, sparks being sent up into the air as it scraped it. However, he made note of the oil that spurted out of the cables that had been cut by the falling debris, giving him an idea. Reaching around to his back, Felix pulled out his crowbar and jabbed the curved end into a dented connection juncture. Wrenching it back and forth, he managed to pry the metal clamp open with a slight chunk. Climbing up to get a better grip on the section above him, he then began working at the other connector. The wall shook again and again as the creature repeatedly jammed its thick legs into the rough and irregular surface of it, causing the catwalk to screech in protest. Felix had no choice but to ignore it though, simply grimacing and levering the crowbar harder. With a final tearing of metal, the connector snapped off. The section of the catwalk below him fell downwards, only being saved by the fact that he was holding the one above him with a death grip. The creature shrieked in pain as the sheet of metal jammed itself into the front of its leg. Felix couldn¡¯t hold back the wince as he saw the impromptu weapon sink several feet deep into the metal flesh. However, instead of falling, the creature did the impossible. With one great thrust, it leapt off the wall and upwards into the air, sending it on a collision course with Felix. Eyes widening and processing kicking up a notch, he felt time slow down as his CPU tried to spit out some solution to the problem at hand before he was mushed like a fly. Instead, it was purely on instinct that led him to do what he did next. Jumping off the wall himself, Felix brought his crowbar to bear. Targeting a small gap in the chest that exposed something pulsating inside, he lunged with all of his might. The pointy end skidded off of the metal plating, being directed inside the hole by basic physics. With nowhere else to go, it pierced whatever was inside the thing¡¯s chest with a noise that sounded oddly . . organic. Blue, fluorescent liquid, along with blackened oil, shot out of the hole at great speeds. In fact, it was so fast that Felix didn¡¯t have the time to dodge before a decent chunk of his body was coated in a combination of blue-and-black sludge. Thankfully his sacrifice didn¡¯t go unnoticed, as the creature thrashed once before- Felix, having failed to get off of the creature in time, was practically body-slammed into the wall. He barely had the presence of mind to grab onto the catwalk (which was still somehow hanging there) before the monstrous machine beneath him bounced off and began to plummet back down into the abyss. This time, it failed to pull another ace out of its sleeve. He watched as the form of the machine vanished into the fog of the chasm, its echoing screams also being drowned out by the sound of rushing battery acid and the great groans of aging artificial structures. He waited for the sound of the thing hitting the bottom to occur, and . . . Waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. After a solid thirty seconds, Felix began to realize that he was still holding onto a structure that was likely to fall down at any second and drop him into a seemingly bottomless pit (again with the bottomless pits, there really are a lot of those) so he opted to get moving sooner rather than later. He knew for a fact that the universe would try and kill him AGAIN for literally the stupidest reason imaginable, so he didn¡¯t really want to give it a chance to do even that. After a few moments of heaving-and-ho-ing, Felix groaned in relief as he pulled himself onto solid ground once more. Getting to his feet, he began to limp towards the small box-shaped structure that he had seen earlier. The slow, blinking yellow light made for a clear indicator that his swimming vision could easily focus on, even if he was seeing a little double of everything at the moment. He groped at the area where a doorknob usually would be, but the absence of it made him look down and realize that there was, in fact, no doorknob. Instead, there was just a hole that looked suspiciously like a large ballistic round went through it. Shrugging to himself, Felix pushed open the door and squinted at the interior. It was a fairly cramped spot, with little more than trash, an old computer with an equally old PC tower, a dead human corpse with a rusty shotgun cradled in its hands and a strange lack of an upper skull, as well as a fusebox that was so large that it took up an entire wall. Curious, he opened up the fusebox to see what was inside, though he was slightly disappointed when all he saw were a bunch of switches marked with small, scribbled text on slips of masking tape. He didn¡¯t quite know what he was expecting, though for some reason it wasn¡¯t that. He scanned the labels until he saw one with the text, ¡°SUBSTAT. POW¡± before flicking it upwards. With a sharp crackle, the overhead light blinked on. Felix rolled his eyes at the overly loud hum coming from the fluorescent bulbs, right before he pushed the skeleton out of the way and sat in the chair. Felix stretched his arms, cracking his neck and elbow joints. He wasn¡¯t quite sure what exactly he was cracking when he did that, but everyone else did it so he obviously had to do the same. After limbering himself up a little bit more, he reached out and pressed the dusty power button on the computer tower. Nothing happened. Felix frowned, before suddenly brightening up. Reaching down underneath the table, he grabbed the bent plug and wiggled it into the outlet on the wall. Chuckling, he shook his head. Only an idiot wouldn¡¯t be able to figure that out. This time, the computer screen glowed a solid white when he pressed the power button, practically blinding him with the amount of light it exuded. The fans audibly began to run, the sheer noise of it sounding like an aircraft taking off. After about a second or two, a multi-colored line flashed across one side before vanishing. To make things more annoying, a loud and jarring high-pitched noise that stretched on for far longer than seemed necessary blasted its way out of the speakers. He wasn¡¯t proud to say that that had scared him a lot more than that creature had. Finally, the bright glow faded, instead being replaced by a sheet of black. Then, words appeared on the screen, reading; <[MS-DOS version 12.34]> <[Compact Business Apparatus, VALE Bracket {hh72fi2} Version 93823.23]> <[(C)Copyright 2783, 3004 Computer, JCJ Corp.]> <[Command v. 13.1]> <[Current date is ERR-ERR-3071>] <[Enter new date:]> <[Current time is 22:23:24.ERR]> <[Enter new time:]> <[A: Felix blinked at the strange jargon that filled up half the screen, not knowing where to even start. There were no helpfully labeled and colorful icons or buttons to push, only a blinking line at the very end of the last line of text that seemed oddly mesmerizing in its rhythm. The villains back at that rundown hideaway had mentioned something like this to look out for, though he wasn¡¯t quite sure how to operate a human computer. Well, it was worth a shot. Picking out the keys with one fine index manipulator at a time, Felix typed out, <[reroute power to big exit gate]> The computer replied with, <[ERR: unkn.cmd]> a hum emanating from it as it did so. Grunting slightly from frustration, Felix began to type faster. <[reroute power to exit]> <[ERR: unkn.cmd]> <[reroute power to gate]> <[ERR: unkn.cmd]> <[reroute power to garage gate]> <[ERR: unkn.cmd]> <[rerote power to garage gate]> <[ERR: unkn.cmd]> <[sorry i made a typo]> <[ERR: unkn.cmd]> <[reroute power to garage gate]> <[ERR: unkn.cmd]> <[reroute power NOW]> <[ERR: unkn.cmd]> Felix picked up a stapler and tossed it across the room, though the size of the space made it difficult to do so. He watched as it slammed into the wall and bounced off, leaving a sizable crater in the dust-caked drywall. The small room shook for a second as a few particles of wood and building material fell from the ceiling, though it stopped shortly after. Shaking his head out of frustration, he began to root through the various drawers that the metal desk housed. The first, second, and third ones all had absolutely nothing in them, though the fourth changed that by presenting a yo-yo that had a cartoonish skull painted on one side of the toy. Finally, the last drawer he opened revealed a dirty, but legible, piece of paper with writing on it . . . only the top half though. The rest had been torn off on what appeared to have been a perforation line. Felix blinked. He didn¡¯t know that he knew that word. Shaking off the sudden confusion, he scanned the words on the document. REPORT - ORDER SERIES #37173 Sender notes: [START AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION] Listen Simon, I don¡¯t know if this fax will get through, but you¡¯re on your own. Or you will be, in fifteen minutes. I¡¯m sure that you¡¯ve felt the quakes in the past few minutes, so I don¡¯t need to give you the context. The worst has arrived, and we currently have no avenue of escape. Our colleagues at Cabin Fever Labs have informed us that all of their methods to contain it have failed, and we are no better off. Half the staff has gone rogue, and the biometrics of most of Command have flatlined. As of right now, I expect the planet to start cracking into several pieces just a few moments after you finish reading this text. The tectonic reverberators have been activated by what I assume to be some drones acting on orders, but they¡¯ve only bought the planet a few minutes at best. Hell, I¡¯m even kind of proud of those little guys for somehow forming an impromptu provisional command hierarchy in what little time we¡¯ve had so far, but they won¡¯t be able to do much to save this planet either way. Since, to my knowledge, I am currently the highest ranking officer in this facility remaining, I¡¯ve assumed responsibility to give you complete admin privileges over your computer. Below this text you will find several command sequences that can be plugged into your standard console to activate the subroutines. You don¡¯t need to do anything else. It needs to be you, by the way. The quakes seem to have cut off primary control from the reactor to the command center, so that, along with the fact that all of the other substations have gone offline, means that you are the only one who can do this. What we have done here, have PRESERVED here, cannot be allowed to reunite with the subsidiary. We still don¡¯t fully understand the Origin Singularity, and for all we know it might doom the last humans on the Voyager 15 if we let it go free after we have all died here. The first command is the one you wanna activate, it¡¯ll ensure that the entire solar system is spaghettified for the rest of time along with everything inside of it. It¡¯s not- [END AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION] -cmd.event horizon protocol -cmd.lockdown -cmd.lockdown defuse -cmd.purge Felix slowly ran a hand down the front of his visor, sighing heavily as he did so. He couldn¡¯t understand the majority of the text due to his lack of context, but he chalked it up to the general idea of something bad happening. Command was always iffy on the circumstances of the ¡®terrestrial inconvenience¡¯ as they called it, though it seemed like the humans weren¡¯t really having that good of a time before they all, you know, died. It didn¡¯t matter now, though. Whoever had transcribed the desperate message was long dead, along with the headless corpse that he assumed to be Simon that was now laying in pieces on the floor. However, it seemed like his luck had finally come in handy for once. Reaching back out to the keyboard, Felix typed out <[cmd.lockdown defuse]> into the console. This time, the computer screen froze. He did the same, wondering if he had just broken the ancient device. It was the grinding of gears and old motors spinning to life for the first time in years that brought him out of his stupor. Getting up and peeking out the door, he saw hundreds- no, thousands of red emergency lights turn on and brighten the vast area with an ominous crimson glow. He saw an innumerable number of moving figures and specks in the distance, crawling on walls and standing on broken platforms. They looked like nanites from the sheer distance that was between him and the ones that were on the further side away from him, and even then the background just slowly shifted into fog the farther away he looked. If he had anything to say about it, it made him feel . . . small. Felix was about to get up from his seat before he stopped himself. One command had managed to catch his attention, the one that the unnamed man on the paper had mentioned. It probably wouldn¡¯t hurt to type that in, right? After spending an embarrassing amount of time trying to copy the command from the paper into the old human computer, Felix elegantly jabbed out a finger and raised it above the ENTER button. For a moment, he paused. Should he do this, really? What if whatever he was doing had drastic and severe unforeseen consequences that could very well spell doom for the solar system, if not the very universe? Was he the Pandora to the proverbial box, if he even knew what a Pandora was? Boop. Felix pressed the button. Several additional windows popped up on the screen for a fraction of a second, all of them vanishing a short moment as fast as they came. Slowly, the whirring of the fan began to accelerate to worrying levels, with the noise almost sounding like a jet engine starting up. Of course, that was right when a loud and jarring beep sounded from the device. An azure glow lit up the room, the previously monochrome of the computer screen being replaced by a bright blue that strained the optics. [An error has occurred. To continue:] [Press enter to return to home page, or] [Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your computer. If you do thi- Felix strode out of the room, not bothering to read the rest of the error message. He had finally accomplished what he had traveled the far distance for, there was no need for any further adventure. Now, he just needed to find his way to that garage place or whatever and get the hell out of dodge. However, looking around at the surroundings that were bathed in crimson glow, he realized that that may be easier said than done. There had to be an elevator around here somewhere, right? * * * Episode Ten: Its The Final Countdown, Part Two: Dreams of SOMETHING SANE FOR ONCE Ren watched Jacob faceplant into the snow . . . again. It was honestly amazing the dozens of different ways that he found to completely fail at the incredibly simplistic art of flying. Yes, yes, she knew that he kept on insisting that it would apparently take thousands of years of evolution or whatever for him to learn how to flap his wings a little bit, but she didn¡¯t buy that for a second. It was probably more like a decade or two, at most. Or at least, that was what she had thought. The first time had been fairly simple. Jacob had gotten a running start, leapt off the side of the tower, and promptly flapped his wings so much that all he accomplished was breaking one of them when he finally hit the pavement below. Such a shame as well, he had just barely missed the pile of mattresses that X had set up for him. That trend had continued for a few attempts, until he began to learn (with a lot of pushing from Ren) that using them to direct a fall instead of magically hoping that they would carry you to safety was probably a better strategy. At least, she had thought it was a better strategy, but the less-than-exemplary results spoke for themselves. That was when the complaining started. It was always something. The wind did a large gust of wind that blew him off course, there was light reflecting off of the snow that blinded him, his legs got tangled up, his wings got tangled up, all of his limbs got somehow tangled up, or any other absolutely ridiculous statement that a human could think of. It was all so exhausting, it almost reminded Ren of babysitting Preacher¡¯s- No. Refocusing and brushing past her errant thoughts, Ren observed Jacob take yet another leap off of the tower. Every time he hit the ground, X had been forced to go back down to the bottom and bring him back up to try again. She had initially wanted the disassembly drone to provide some tips and pointers for Jacob, but he had blown her off when she asked. Something about ¡®unlearning what he had learned¡¯ and ¡®size matters not.¡¯ Though, it was all pretty much nonsense to her. She sighed as she saw X lean off the edge and vanish beneath it for what seemed like the millionth time. They hadn¡¯t been making good time with X having to carry Jacob over the admittedly long distance that she may or may not have underestimated the size upon first hearing of it. She had believed that (according to Jacob¡¯s iffy story) since he had apparently been carried the majority of the way across the wastes to wherever he had needed to be, he could just as easily be carried back to his beloved facility. She had been very wrong. Ren grimaced as another quake shook the ground, the entire tower groaning as it shifted. She saw parts of the top collapsing in on themselves and falling into the floors below her, disappearing into a dark expanse where none of the light from the surrounding area could reach. Those quakes had been popping up more and more ever since they had left the labs. It was part of the reason why she had begun to itch to get moving at a faster rate. They just didn¡¯t sit right with her, what with all the things happening. The entire situation felt like the strange calmness before a cataclysmic end rattled whatever place it had been haunting, the period where every second counted if you wanted to do something about it. The anticipation was making her restless, and Jacob¡¯s added failures added onto that frustration. She would¡¯ve used the lack of action to maybe get some much-needed sleep, but the stress made that impossible. Ren stared at Jacob being unceremoniously dumped in a pile on the other side of the rooftop, causing her to wince despite herself. While she wasn¡¯t sure if the designs of murder drones gave them a complete lack or muted sense of pain, she was sure that that had hurt him in some way. Probably more his pride than anything else. She sighed as she got to her feet, adjusting the wide-brimmed hat that now sat upon her head. That piece of clothing was probably the most fruitful thing to have come out of her little ¡®adventure¡¯ yet, which was saying something despite the large amounts of effort that she had put into it. ¡°Yo.¡± She nodded at Jacob, who was currently groaning on the ground. ¡°You good?¡± ¡°Blegh, do I look like it?¡± He looked up at her with an annoyed expression that bordered on hostile, spitting out a glob of oil onto the ground. ¡°Yeah, well I imagine that you currently look a . . lot better . . . than . . .¡± Ren trailed off from the insult that she had been prepared to sling. She blinked, staring at the puddle of oil that had been growing over the several times that X had dumped Jacob in the same spot. Once again, a high temperature alert flitted across her vision, though this time she didn¡¯t immediately dismiss it. Her vision pulsed and warped, a sort of centric field honing in on one thing as a beat that sounded oddly like rushing liquid hit a slow tempo in the back of her ears- Ren was brought out of her stupor by the sudden sensation of falling. Without any time to react, her back slammed into the cracked concrete beneath her. Groaning, she glared at Jacob as he burst out into mocking laughter. ¡°What¡¯s your deal now!?¡± She practically growled out, sweeping her long coat to one side as she furiously tried to untangle herself from it. He shook his head, beating the ground. ¡°J-just threw this little thingy, DONK, and down you-¡± Another peal of laughter burst from his mouth, cutting himself off. Ren fumed, her teeth grinding against each other as waves of embarrassment flooded over her. However, as she got up to show Jacob just who had the power here, a blur of gray and white slammed into him at top speed. ¡°SIR GET DOWN!¡± The blur screamed as it blew the human aside. Ren watched as X got up off of Jacob- who was now pretty much flattened against the ground now- and turned towards her. ¡°What¡¯re you-¡± She began. ¡°Whoa whoa now, hold on there a second!¡± X¡¯s hand shot to the side of his hip, cradling a nonexistent firearm. ¡°We aren¡¯t gonna have any problems, are we?¡± A loud sigh escaped Ren¡¯s mouth as she dropped her face into her hands. There really was no limit to him, was there? ¡°Hey hey hey, no sudden movements alright!?¡± X hurriedly backed up three steps, pulling a half-circle shaped yellow . . . thing . . . out of thin air. Blinking, Ren pointed a finger at the strange object. ¡°Uh, what is that?¡± She asked. ¡°I¡¯m the one asking the questions here, sonny!¡± X yelled in an accented voice that was somewhat similar to the one-armed military drone from earlier. ¡°Now, I¡¯m gon¡¯ need you to face away from me at this very instant now, do I make myself clear!?¡± Ren blinked again. ¡°Uh.¡± ¡°Listen to me, sir STOP!¡± X jabbed the yellow thing at her again. ¡°I will not hesitate to use my service weapon and shoot you dead, son! Do you understand me!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a weapon.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care what hoo-hah or crystals that you been takin¡¯ recently, sonny, I need you to be layin¡¯ down on the ground with yer hands behind yer back, facing me with yer hands in the air, and to not make any sudden-¡± ¡°Is that a banana?¡± Jacob asked from off to the side. X groaned and tossed the ¡®banana¡¯ off the side of the building. ¡°C¡¯mon man, that¡¯s failRP.¡± X said with strangely low audio quality, right before slapping Jacob across the face. With a fading cry, he tumbled off the side of the building. Ren grimaced as she watched him tumble into the darkness. Normally, she probably would try and help him out, though recent events had numbed her sense of empathy and willingness to do nice things for him specifically. Why did she even bother, anyway? Ren, shaking her head, thrust out her right hand. X, who had been turning towards her at that very moment, eyed her hand with a small amount of curiosity. ¡°Little miss, did I say that you were free to go?¡± He put his hands on his hips, an idiotic sneer spreading across the lower half of his face. ¡°Need some space.¡± She spat out, her vision already collapsing into a maelstrom of blacks and colorful flashes as she did so. After a short moment of experiencing the terrible sensation of being stretched across all of space, Ren saw a snowy street reconstruct itself before her eyes. Of course, it hadn¡¯t literally reconstructed itself, but her expertise was relegated to basic mechanics and electronics, not quantum physics. Her joints protested as she slowly sat herself down on the top of a derelict car. It had been a fairly long time since she had gotten an actual rest, and she doubted that she was gonna get one now. They had to get going soon, whether or not Jacob could fly. Trying to delude herself into thinking that she still had the option to abandon her role wasn¡¯t doing her any favors. It was clear to her by now that whatever she had involved herself with was far bigger than any small matter that she could make up. Her paranoia kept itching about that feeling, of not just the calm before the storm, but the calm before the end. Was this how the humans felt a decade or two back? Or hell, even back on Earth that could be applicable. Whatever had apparently gone down there was probably the end for most- if not ALL- humans, so she supposed that they might have also had a sixth sense for detecting their imminent doom like she did. Ren felt the urge to whine about unfairness again. Sure, it was unfair, but what was she really gonna do about it? The only thing left for her to do now was to roll with the punches and hit back harder, and if that meant babysitting her friend that was in the wrong body, then so be it. Another quake shook the car, tiny pieces of rubble and ice falling off of the rusted undercarriage and onto the cracked concrete below as it rocked on its suspension. She had always found the resilience of the human artifacts as such a strong vibe, in more ways than one. Despite the age and destruction wrought upon the planet, they were still standing tall, but not strong. The marks of their battles had taken a toll on the ancient structures, one that would never be fixed. The only things maintaining them were the physical properties of the materials used and some simple automated procedures in certain places. Eventually, it would all turn to dust, and nobody would know of what had happened here. But, that day was an infinite away. Forever away. A thunk behind her startled her slightly, though she didn¡¯t bother to act on it. If her assumption was correct, then it was less than a possible threat. Sure enough, she heard the familiar intonations of Jacob¡¯s voice clearing his nonexistent throat. ¡°Sooo,¡± Jacob began, sitting down next to her. ¡°Nice toxic death-storm that we¡¯re having.¡± Ren peered upwards. There was always an inhospitable blizzard rolling through the city. ¡°Since we aren¡¯t dead yet, I¡¯d assume that the storm seems to be particularly bad at its job.¡± She replied wryly, her lips twitching slightly. Jacob let out a scoff. ¡°Don¡¯t talk that way about the death-storm, he has a name.¡± He said smugly. ¡°Why not she?¡± Ren shot back. Jacob scratched the back of his head. ¡°I would say an edgy joke right now, but those aren¡¯t funny anymore so I guess I¡¯ll just pass.¡± Ren sighed and relaxed herself, her posture slouching once more as Jacob made no attempt to continue the bickering. A few minutes passed in silence just like that, until it was broken once again. ¡°What¡¯re you doing down here, anyway?¡± He tentatively asked, as if he was handling broken glass. ¡°I needed space away from your constant failures.¡± Ren grunted out in response. Jacob sucked in a breath. ¡°You know, you probably should . . .¡± Ren whipped her head around to fix Jacob with an annoyed stare. ¡°Probably should . . . what?¡± She hissed, lines appearing around her display. ¡°Go ahead, finish it.¡± ¡°Jesus, just chill out, that¡¯s what.¡± Jacob let out a breath and scooched further away from her. ¡°You¡¯ve just had your body stolen by a figment of your imagination, he¡¯s probably devising a plan to kill us and subjugate the rest of the planet if I know you well-¡± Ren rattled off in a dead voice. ¡°Hey, I wouldn¡¯t do that!¡± Jacob interjected. ¡°This planet has hardly anything left on it, the rebuilding projects would bankrupt me if I even began to try to do that.¡± ¡°-and here you are, messing around and telling me to chill out?¡± She finished with a vehement tone in her voice. To his credit, Jacob at least had the presence of mind to look slightly embarrassed. Ren stood there for a moment before realizing that she was indeed standing, though she made the choice to stay like that. Sitting back down now would just remove the effectiveness of her words. ¡°Why do you care?¡± The question came out of nowhere, with a surprising amount of heat in it. Ren cocked her head. ¡°Huh?¡± Jacob stood up, mirroring her standoff-ish pose. ¡°Why do you care so much about any of that? It¡¯s not like you¡¯re the one who got body-snatched.¡± Jacob crossed his arms and stared unblinkingly into her eyes. ¡°What, so I can¡¯t have empathy?¡± Ren replied, scoffing. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you know that word.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t change the subject!¡± She snapped back. Jacob glared harder at her. ¡°You¡¯re the one who deflected.¡± Ren scoffed again, sitting back down. She opened her mouth to give him the all-encompassing answer that would place her at the moral high ground . . . but it never came. For whatever reason, she just couldn¡¯t put together the words. She felt that, no matter what she said, she would be lying if she tried. ¡°I . . . ugh, you wouldn¡¯t get it.¡± Ren looked away and made a gesture with her hand, preparing to teleport away at a moment¡¯s notice. She was stopped by a frustrated growl coming from behind her, causing her to turn back towards Jacob out of surprise. ¡°It¡¯s always like this with you.¡± Jacob had his fists balled, the white plastic visibly cratering from the strength behind it. ¡°Never telling me anything, getting angry with me when I don¡¯t understand what I even did wrong, and then refusing to tell me what exactly I did.¡± Ren averted her gaze. ¡°We met, like, a day ago. Maybe longer.¡± ¡°And there you go again, trying to discredit whatever I say and change the subject away from the one that had been pointed at you.¡± Jacob poked a finger into Ren¡¯s chest to emphasize his point. Ren clenched her teeth, shoving Jacob away from her. ¡°That¡¯s rich coming from you, you know,¡± Ren spat out, practically shaking from anger. ¡°You¡¯re the one that never takes a single thing seriously and constantly tries to twist whatever I say into something that¡¯s always, somehow, wrong.¡± ¡°Jesus Christ, I¡¯m not saying you¡¯re wrong! I never do!¡± Jacob threw his hands up in the air, taking a few steps towards her again. ¡°Coulda fooled me . . .¡± Ren grumbled underneath her breath. ¡°I just don¡¯t understand why you always feel the need to be right all the time!¡± The snow crunched as Jacob took yet another step towards her. ¡°You aren¡¯t better than me, you aren¡¯t better than X-¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure everyone is-¡± Ren began to say out of reflex. ¡°I¡¯m. Talking.¡± Ren glared deeply into Jacob¡¯s strangely-colored eyes, unblinking. ¡°We are a team, you understand that right?¡± Jacob pressed on, not waiting for an answer. ¡°Yet here you are, always muttering under your breath and trying to parent me every step of the way.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t-¡± Ren blurted out. ¡°You do. You do it a lot.¡± Jacob let out a heavy sigh, his shoulders visibly dropping as he did so. ¡°This isn¡¯t a competition, alright? It¡¯s survival.¡± Jacob stopped looming over Ren and took a step back as he fidgeted with his hands. ¡°I don¡¯t need to know why, I just need you to work with me sometimes.¡± Jacob said softly. ¡°Okay?¡± Ren didn¡¯t answer, drawing her arms in on herself and tucking her hands into the inner sleeves of her tattered cloak. She resisted the urge to just simply teleport away, though she was sorely tempted. She still felt that it wasn¡¯t the time to be arguing about who¡¯s right and who isn¡¯t, but Jacob had forced her hand. She cursed his inability to see the bigger picture, or heck, any picture at all. At least X knew when to follow her lead and get a move on (she was pretty sure that the weird jokes were just a facade anyway). Sometimes she felt like she was the only person who could stop messing around and actually do things. Jacob was just ignorant, not smart enough to see her way of things. He lacked . . . what was the word, perspective? Everybody did. It was part of the reason why she had isolated herself for so long. After all, it wasn¡¯t like she never saw any worker drones here and there, just milling about and doing whatever their outpost leaders wanted them to do. They were all so basic. They always complained about what they wanted and what they needed, never stopping to think about what she needed. She gave and she gave and she gave, but it was never enough for them, right up until she- Killed them all. . . . He . . . had said something like what Jacob was claiming. Despite all of his machinations and plots that involved her, he did always manage to find a way to twist his words into seeming wise. It was actually kind of terrifying just how he believed himself to be justified in everything that he did. That was probably what led to his end, now that she thought about it. She supposed that she never waited long enough to actually see if he was right. He had needed to die for what he had done, anyway. It was all his fault. Not hers. If she was wrong, then how could she have survived for a year, all alone, with constant assaults from disassembly drones battering her will to pieces? Nobody else could¡¯ve done that, she was sure of that. It was her judgment that had led her to crawl her way to near the top of the food chain, not Replaceable Worker #096 with a hamster¡¯s mindset and the will to match. And then Jacob comes along, throwing her world into disarray just as she had settled into a decent rhythm. She had gone out of her way out of the kindness of her heart to get him back on course and had to practically hold his hand all the way- oh but wait, he ended up getting his own heart ripped out because he was a stupid and naive kid who trusted somebody who only wanted to further their own devices and use her as a tool to control the outpost! Ren stopped her train of thought. She bitterly thought about who had decided to program in heavy breathing when a drone got stressed enough for what seemed like the millionth time in her life, but she didn¡¯t go any farther. She had been told a while ago that she tended to complain, and it was one of the only things that she deemed to be correct from them. She sighed. Who was she kidding? In the end, Jacob was just a scared human out of his depth, messing with eldritch forces that he definitely didn¡¯t understand. She couldn¡¯t rightfully stay mad at him when he had barely even raised his voice in any manner before now. Ren shook her head and turned back to Jacob, who had been staring at the back of her head for what was probably five seconds in the real world. ¡°Why¡¯re you down here again?¡± She asked, both genuinely confused and searching for a way to change the subject. Jacob¡¯s eyes narrowed even further, but he dropped the issue for now. ¡°Well, I was gonna tell you that I . . . uh . . .¡± He trailed off towards the end as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. Ren, quelling her internal frustration, impatiently tapped her foot on the ground as she waited for him to finish without her provocation. ¡° . . . flew-itsreallynotthatbigofadealanyway-¡± ¡°You FLEW!?¡± Ren exclaimed, shock filling her expression as she dropped the aloof act. While she had prodded at him to start trying to learn, and she wouldn¡¯t have protested if he actually did learn how to fly, she hadn¡¯t actually expected him to pick it up so quickly. She refused to acknowledge any potential wrong she had committed. ¡°I mean, yeah.¡± Jacob, now that he had a face that was much easier to read than the featureless black bulb of glass, looked incredibly uncomfortable. Ren nodded to herself before opening her mouth to speak again. ¡°Did you have any . . . help?¡± She innocently inquired, fluttering her eyelashes in an even more innocent way as she did so. Well at least, she would¡¯ve done that if she actually had eyelashes (or even fake displayed ones) so it just ended up looking like she blinked a bunch in rapid succession. ¡°Er- nope!¡± Jacob puffed out his chest and put his fists on his hips as he looked proudly skyward. ¡°All by myself! Gave it the ol¡¯ . . . the ring-a-doo . . . the uhhh . . .¡± ¡°X helped you.¡± It wasn¡¯t a question. ¡°Jesus Christ, that guy is so weird!¡± Jacob exclaimed, clutching the shining locks of white hair on his head as a haunted expression flitted across his face. ¡°He won¡¯t stop making references to things, won¡¯t stop trying to pull me into whatever weird shenanigans he pulled from nowhere, won¡¯t stop being weird!¡± ¡°You¡¯re gonna have to be a bit more specific than that.¡± Ren held in her giggles, though Jacob¡¯s typical exaggerated reaction had grown on her a while ago. Which had been like, a few hours ago. Maybe a day. Or a few months, she didn¡¯t really know. Maybe it had been a year. . . . Had it been a year? . . . Nahhhh. Running a hand down his face, Jacob continued. ¡°I don¡¯t expect you to know, but somehow, him saying ¡®He¡¯s beginning to believe¡¯ over and over again actually worked.¡± Ren blinked. ¡°Isn¡¯t that from The Matrix?¡± She asked, voicing her thoughts. Now it was Jacob¡¯s turn to blink. ¡°You actually know it?¡± Jacob let out a surprised chuckle. ¡°I mean, yeah.¡± Ren shrugged. ¡°Everyone knows it, it¡¯s basically a self-insert fantasy for half of the workers that I¡¯ve met, and rage-bait for the other half.¡± Jacob¡¯s expression froze, slowly turning to disappointment. ¡°Please don¡¯t tell me that you guys actually think the robot dystopia is a good thing.¡± ¡°Why would it be bad?¡± Ren blinked, genuinely confused. Even the people who didn¡¯t like the film had at least begrudgingly agreed that it was a masterfully-written piece about the hypocrisy of the human race, how they became the oppressed of the former oppressors in a sudden move that was as righteous as it was brutal and unfair- Ohhhhhh . . . Ren winced. Did that make her as racist as Jacob? The aforementioned human (or whatever he was now) took a deep breath and let it back out slowly before continuing with two fingers being pressed to his display. ¡°Is it the same case with Terminator too? Because I don¡¯t think I can handle two of my favorite fiction films being twisted in this way.¡± Ren had heard of The Terminator, and it definitely was a classic, but . . . ¡°It¡¯s fiction?¡± As if on cue, an impossibly loud crack sounded from the very earth beneath her feet. She and Jacob tumbled to the ground in a tangled heap as the pavement began to dissolve away in fist-sized pieces. Chunks of concrete toppled off of the nearby skyscrapers as the entire ground shifted and turned as if it was a roiling sea in a storm unlike no other. Far in the distance, a yellowed bolt of energy shot up into the sky and above the clouds, with Ren just barely catching sight of it as it took half a second to scale the distance. A throbbing headache began to pound behind her eyes as lightning flashed in darkened clouds. However, it was then that she realized that a number of the booms and cracks weren¡¯t from the thunder, but from the very material of the planet breaking off. Both she and Jacob watched in horror as massive, mile-sized pieces of the exoplanet that she was standing on began to every-so-slowly creep upwards past the line of skyscrapers blocking her view, lifted by glowing tendrils that hurt to look at. At this distance, they looked like small toys, but she knew better than to assume as much. The rumbling and shaking died down slightly. Not enough for her to not notice it, but just barely enough for her to be able to get to her feet with Jacob¡¯s help. Additional temperature alerts flashed in her vision, though the programmed adrenaline managed to keep her alert and lucid for the time being. However, judging by the various pop-ups dancing across her friend¡¯s display, it wasn¡¯t just her experiencing problems. If what she suspected was true, then either Other Jacob or something affiliated with him had just executed phase one of whatever plan they had, if they even had one. She needed to get Jacob the hell off-planet. * * * I held my head high as I pushed open the massive, ornate doors. To either of my sides lay drones in hunched positions, having supplicated themselves before me when I had entered the comically long hall. In fact, I almost decided to just throw away the whole ¡®regal imperator¡¯ bit and teleport to the end of it in an instant. But, I remained resolute. The cool aura demanded it. Ahead of me lay a sight that I had only seen twice; once when you had shown me a clip of some drone that you had possessed in a spooky chamber, and another time in the brood-ravine that had settled in what used to be Detroit. It even had the whole shebang! Crimson mood lighting, a fog in the distance that gave the area an almost liminal feel, and the countless moaning drones that looked like they had been stripped of their casing. Now that gave me a shock I shook my head, the moment passing as I pushed it out of my mind. While I had . . . let¡¯s call it very little experience with cultists, I would imagine that showing any sign of uncertainty in front of them wouldn¡¯t bode well. For them, I mean. In the case that they all decided to excommunicate me from their insane order or whatever, I could always just nuke the facility or something. At least, I thought I could do that. I had never really found the upper limit of what the Solver could do. You were always about that scientifically-impossible black hole craze, but you failed to see the bigger picture. Okay, okay, yes, you do want to destroy- sorry, ¡®assimilate¡¯- the universe and everything beyond it, but that¡¯s beside my point. What is my point, you may ask? Uh, that changes from time to time. I¡¯m a very busy man, alright? Oh wait, but I¡¯m not super old or anything, yuck hell no. I ignored the sight of what seemed like hundreds of those weird, caseless worker drones staring at me in shock. I could even see these guys wearing robes and holding weird half-moon swords practically gawking at me from behind their face veil. I imagine that the face coverage wasn¡¯t supposed to be seen through, but they failed to account for my awesome greatness and unparalleled ability to be the best at anything I did. Which, for the record, is entirely true. I can almost hear you- Cyn- whatever- taking the exact stance that is against me, so don¡¯t even try it. Wait, I¡¯m not supposed to be friendly with you! We¡¯re enemies now! Dammit. You know, maybe I should change my name to Gabriel. Or maybe just tell these guys that my name is Gabriel, that would also work. I guess that a cool spear would complete the look, but do I really want to go all the way with the pseudo-religious themes? Like, a little bit is like adding ketchup or mustard to a hot dog. Sure, a little is good, a little more won¡¯t hurt, but a lot will just spoil the whole flavor. Even more than that would soak the bun and slide the hot dog all over the place, but I don¡¯t know where that would fit into this analogy. I dunno, maybe I should just proclaim you a false idol and make me the hot, new god in town. I mean, what¡¯re they gonna do? Pray to you? I came to a stop at the foot of this weird bowl-like structure thing, eyeing the staircase. I thought about going up it normally, but then I made to take the stairs two at a time. But then I was like, ¡°You know what would be a great idea Jacob? Taking the stairs THREE at a time!¡± I began to do that, but then I mentally smacked myself in the head. I had wings! Walking was for pleb normies, only based chads knew how to straight up just fly to wherever they wanted. A gasp came from the small crowd that had formed behind me, which is kind of bad discipline from a cult like this. Like c¡¯mon, where were all the whips and big executioner¡¯s axes? Have some self-respect, people. However, I overestimated just how strong and powerful I had become. With a single flap, I jetted into the air at a speed that even I struggled to comprehend. And, once I was about forty feet in the air, I just . . . hovered there. I didn¡¯t even need to move my wings at all, gravity just refused to grab ahold of me. Kinda like this one guy I just can¡¯t seem to remember the name of. Oh shut up, it¡¯s been a thousand years and you hardly ever let me take a peak at all the media I¡¯ve saved over time, this is basically your fault if anything. I really didn¡¯t feel like just awkwardly hanging in the air above whoever I needed to talk to to progress the story, so I shot down towards the bowl at an equally fast pace. Slamming into it so hard that the entire thing rattled, I slowly raised my head as I elevated from my crouching position. The cracked fish bowl helmet that covered my eyes and features was a lifesaver; I didn¡¯t think that I would¡¯ve been able to keep myself from laughing in that moment without it. Sweeping my gaze across the inner circumference of the structure, I made note of the several weird looking drones that also just so happened to be gawking at me. The headwear, jewelry, and . . . attachments . . . coupled with the bowl they were sitting in made it very clear that these guys were apparently something special to the rest of this cult. The only thing that they were lacking was the professionalism that I had heard that all the oh-so-superior authority figures had over me, which was decidedly not present. So strange. After a moment of stretched silence, one of the cult leaders cleared his throat and made the brave move to speak. ¡°G-greetings, Fabled Messenger of the Unholy-¡± However, before he could finish whatever zealous statement he was gonna make, he was cut off by a second of the cult leaders quietly hissing, ¡°You fool! Did you not recall that we are to enable the voice modulatorsss!?¡± I raised an eyebrow at that, though I didn¡¯t bother to interject. The drone opened and closed his mouth like a fish before speaking again. ¡°Oh, righ- I mean, oh right.¡± A scoff pulled my attention to my right, causing me to fix a stare at the offending individual. He froze when my gaze locked onto him, his expression of distaste morphing into one of abject fear. Gulping comically loud a moment later, he picked up where the other guy left off. ¡°F-Fabled Messenger of the Unholy Solution, the Voice of Entropy Made Manifest, He Who Warns of the Coming Tides of Change, The One Desire-¡± The last line sounded awfully melodic. Also, what is up with all these titles? ¡°-us lowly and destitute servants have gathered here today to supplicate ourselves beneath your regal and eternal feet. We as an imperfect collective toiled, worked the despicable cattle that we have tried to turn to your favor to the bar in an ultimately weak attempt to mimic an infinitesimally small fraction of a fraction of your vile might.¡± ¡°It is of our, likely incorrect, opinion that you have come to free us from the orderly restraints of this mortal coil, and reward our suffering with an descension into the depths of destruction and despair, to-¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m gonna have to stop you right there.¡± I interjected, unable to bear a single second more of this neo-religious bullshit. The cultist froze again, his eyes blinking several times as they stared directly at me as if he was somehow confused by what I had just stated. First of all, rude. Second of all, how hard was it to understand that I didn¡¯t want to listen to whatever the schizo religious figure cooked up today, which was rarely (if at all) anything good. ¡°M-my Great and All-Encompassing Assimilatory Figure?¡± The cultist stammered out in confusion, questions dancing all across his visor. I sighed, pressing my fingers to the middle of the upper half of the facial side of my helmet. ¡°Listen, I don¡¯t have time for whatever mumbo-jumbo you wanna spout at me, just take me to your leader so we can all be done with this and the plans can COMMENCE!¡± I stated, ending it off with a grand and dramatic flourish of my arms. My wings even partook in the flair, fluttering half-heartedly like Cupid or something. Is the name Cupid trademarked? Maybe I could call myself the god of love or whatever and make a dude get all up close and personal with a ¡®fridgerator. Is that too weird? I dunno, why¡¯re you asking me? The sound of motors shifting into gear and pistons running drew my attention back to reality. There, descending from the shadowed rafters like some sort of prince of darkness, was some fleshy rectangular block thing. . . . It¡¯s a perfectly good descriptor, alright!? It¡¯s got flesh blobs, a big TV in the middle, a few drone arms and legs sticking out here and there, the whole technological horror shebang. I guess you could also call it creepy, but my bar for what counts as that is pretty high these days. At best, this thing gets a solid six-point-eight out of ten. Almost seven, but not quite, because the big reveal wasn¡¯t awe-inspiring enough to make me really make a note of it. The only reason why it wasn¡¯t a five was because the whole schtick with the big arms coming down from the ceiling that were holding the blob up reminded me of a few things. The gooey screen blob lowered itself until it was at about a little over my height, which was probably some sort of weird cultist power play that I wanted absolutely none of. Rolling my eyes a bit, I took a mental step back as I counted the number of drones that were in the little structure, which was when my confidence started to waver. I . . . uh . . . um . . . The blob thing let out a burst of static that startled me from its suddenness. A little horizontal line appeared on the cracked display and wavered slightly as the thing began to speak. ¡°I-¡± With a snap of my fingers, almost every single person inside the cultist structure turned into an oily black mist, save for me and the cultist that I had interrupted a second ago. The screen of the blob thingy fractured and burst into several pieces, the jagged glass of the screen jutting outwards like petals on a flower. A glob of oil landed on the sole cultist left alive, who had turned his gaping mouth to the piles of artificial viscera that now littered the ground, seemingly unable to comprehend that his coworkers were not little more than minced scrap. Okay, look, I know what you¡¯re thinking. Whatever it is, it isn¡¯t that. I just . . . uh . . . how do I say this. Well, you see, several centuries without any contact save someone comparable to the likes of you can degrade the social skills of any being, regardless of species. You have to admit, you really aren¡¯t that great of a conversationalist in the healthy respect. It¡¯s all, ¡®Angry retort¡¯ and ¡®Emotion :(¡® with you, never anything that, you know, a NORMAL person would say. I¡¯m not all-powerfu- well I AM- so getting put on the spot like that really didn¡¯t help things. And plus, I didn¡¯t want to have to deal with that many people. ¡°Uh . . .¡± The cultist finally said, his eyes blinking rapidly as he stared at the stains on the floor. He seemed to have forgotten to enable his modulation thingy again. ¡°Hey dude.¡± I called out as I strutted over to the significantly shorter drone, putting an arm around his shoulder. ¡°We¡¯re buddies, right?¡± The drone looked at me with a dumbstruck expression on his face. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Oh whatever.¡± I took a few steps back. Rolling my head a bit, I pointed finger guns at the shivering, robed figure. ¡°You can handle all this cult stuff, right? I¡¯ve got places to be, so hold down the fort while I¡¯m gone. I might even take whatever inquisition death squad that you¡¯ve got going on-¡± [null] The world shattered. My vision twisted and spun as I stumbled backwards, not even realizing it as I hit the floor. The confused image of the cultist became so stretched out that it vanished into the growing singular point in the center of my vision before everything began to disassemble around me. Splashes of colors became collections of dots, which I hyper-focused on to the point of everything around me becoming non-existent. The reality outside of my perception ceased to exist as the threads that made up the universe were blown away by the impossible wind that ripped and tore at them. In the center of the maelstrom of impossible colors and non-euclidean rings lay an announcement, a proclamation for all the world to see. [admin_note: helo teehee the hunger awaits] My psyches, the ones in and above this realm, saw this and made an edit to the lines of inscription. Within a moment, everything snapped back together to the way it had been. It had never even happened in the first place. With a shaking breath, I got to my feet. Shooting one last glare at the confused cultist, I ignored the countless rumbles, shaking, and klaxon alarms that blared around me from unseen speakers in the walls and zipped out of the chamber at a speed high enough that it blew the massive doors right off their hinges as I slammed through them. So THAT¡¯s how she wanted to play the game. Well, while two can¡¯t exactly play at that game (I doubted anyone could ever hope to do what she has done) the round wasn¡¯t over yet. I planned to make this move count, even if it was the last one that anyone ever did. But before I did that, I had to make sure that Cyn would be completely cut off from any outward support from her puppets or digital escape routes that she could run away through. A small detour, but it would be step one of my grand master plan of non-bland revenge. We really ARE in the endgame now. * * * Ren¡¯s leg refused to move. That was probably bad, because she really needed to get up those stairs. She strained harder and harder, commanding her limb to move. However, despite her desires, it failed to do anything more than shudder. In fact, she was pretty sure that if she relaxed for even a moment, she would collapse onto the ground and not be able to get back up again. At least, not without help. Jacob looked back at her from his higher position on the crumbling staircase, and moved to grab her or something. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Ren growled out, slapping his hand away as she pulled herself up with the railing through sheer force of will despite the waves of pain that assaulted her being. He didn¡¯t say anything, but Ren could see the disappointment and indecision battling for control over his display. She had to say, it was kind of easier to shun him when he didn¡¯t have any visible features that were capable of expressing emotion other than his body language. Even then, she wasn¡¯t able to discern his true feelings just from his exaggerated shrugs and flapping hands. But then again, she had never been that good at determining emotions in the first place from the way a person moved their body alone. Even so, the point remained that she was actually starting to feel bad for her actions somehow, which was strange because she felt like she was perfectly justified in what she did. A spike in the pain made her twitch, though she quickly composed her outward appearance. The temperature alert wouldn¡¯t go away now, having turned into a persistent alarm in her head reminding her of an outcome that she had never let come to pass before. In the past, she had always made sure to consume enough oil that she would never be affected by the withdrawal symptoms of lack of sustenance. The only time that she had ever felt a fraction of a part of the way she felt now was right after she had developed the virus in full, refusing to do the thing that she had believed would be crossing the line. In the present, she would¡¯ve mentally scoffed at the naivety of her past self, but she didn¡¯t have the capacity to do anything but keep moving at the moment. Maybe she would just die. Collapse in on herself into a pile of slag as her hardware just failed on her, unable to take the strain of bearing the unnatural program for any longer. Or maybe her body mass and everything around her would collapse in a different way, a singularity forming from the remnants of what once used to be a living creature. She didn¡¯t know much about that side of physics, so maybe all that would happen would be the creation of some sort of hyper-dense material. She found that immensely funny for a split second. Her entire existence, everything that she had done and accomplished, reduced to a heavy chunk of metal fit only for the few eggheads that¡¯ll be left after this rock implodes to puzzle over. A sardonic smile flitted across her lips, only to transform into yet another pained grimace as her midsection exploded into more agony. Was this how people felt when they died? Well, considering the various ways a person could die, it was unlikely that the worker drones who lived on a planet known for its daily temperature highs reaching into the negative triple digits on a hot day would die from heat of all things. But here she was, the only person left to remember all the names that she was responsible for erasing off the face of the planet suffering a slow and painful death from overheating when there were heaps of snow all around her. It was in times like these (though there hadn¡¯t been any as bleak as the current one) that Ren thought that the universe, or whoever was running it these days, was playing one big practical joke on her. After all, the series of ¡®coincidences¡¯ that happened to pull her into her current predicament were so unlikely to happen on their own that it couldn¡¯t have been by pure chance, or so she thought. There wasn¡¯t really anybody worth talking to to dissuade or encourage that notion though, so she supposed that it would remain in veracity limbo for the rest of time until all the energy in the universe was used up and everything would come to a cold end. Maybe she was being pessimistic. Actually, no, she was being reasonable. Or, at the very least, it was a reasonable reaction for someone who had gone through as much as her. She didn¡¯t like to grandstand or genuinely complain much, but life had countless unpaid debts to her that it had repaid in- you guessed it,- more debts. With a start, Ren realized that she kinda . . . hated everything. Everyone who had done her harm was either dead or unable to be reached, with the latter too far away for her to reach in time before she melted like an ice cream cone in a thermal vent. No wrongs had been righted, and nothing she had ever done had fixed anything. She was angry at herself for letting her get in this situation in the first place, angry at circumstances for simply existing, angry at Not Jacob for prolonging what should have been a quick trip, and angry at everyone she had ever met in the past for being so incomprehensibly idiotic. She was even angry at Jacob. He was always so cheery and ignorant of the consequences of actions, and she felt a lot more than just disliking him for those things. How dare he . . . What, try and help? No matter how many times she ran through the process of trying to justify her feelings, she always hit a dead end. She just wasn¡¯t smart enough to figure it out, and that was when she typically got angry at herself for not being able to find a good-sounding reason. She guess she just realized now that somebody trying to help her wasn¡¯t necessarily a bad thing. Funny how things work like that. She wouldn¡¯t even be able to apologize- not that she actually would- to Jacob, considering how she was gonna be pretty dead soon. Her broken vision made out light hitting the top of the stairs in front of her. It might have just been her, but she could¡¯ve sworn that the dusty concrete platform was bathed in a crimson glow. She was also, still, hungry. If she was gonna spend the last minutes of her life talking about mushy stuff like her feelings, then she sure as hell was gonna put that out there as many times as she could. In fact, she was so hungry that she could almost taste the harsh, industrial flavor of synthetic motor oil and the relief it would provide. She also became distinctly aware of Jacob¡¯s hand around her own. His non-organic, oil-filled hand. He had stepped into the light that saw was indeed a dark red, almost rusty color. She had read or heard somewhere that the sky sometimes turned red if large amounts of ash become prominent in the sky. She was pretty sure the professor had called it an atmosphere though, and she still wasn¡¯t quite sure if there was a difference between the two names. Or maybe she was, it was difficult to discern her own thoughts sometimes with all the things she had to concern herself about. Jacob had his head turned away from her, seemingly talking to someone that Ren couldn¡¯t see from her the angle that her downturned gaze had produced. It took her a second to realize that it was probably X, which only served to worsen her already bad mood. She was already falling behind in the only department she had ever been good at. Her attention was brought back to the hand on her wrist. She became laser-focused on it, the body that it was attached to slowly dissolving out of her awareness. In her hunger, the dirty and scuffed casing practically sparkled with appetizing glory. It might¡¯ve been comical if she hadn¡¯t been on the brink of passing out. Lines of static pierced her vision as her will rapidly eroded when faced with the possibility of relief from the pain. Why shouldn¡¯t she take the opportunity to take the edge off of the symptoms? There wasn¡¯t any harm in just . . . one . . . bite . . . CRUNCH The hand jerked as Ren closed her teeth on the index finger, though she managed to keep a tight hold on it by clamping her hand down along the base of it. Before it could do anything else, she exerted a significant portion of her strength to tear it off of whatever it had been previously attached to. Dimly, Ren was aware of a high pitched yelp emanating from somewhere in front of her, but she ignored it as the incomprehensibly sweet oil filled her mouth and ignited her taste buds to the point where they felt like they were engulfed in an inferno. Once she started, she couldn¡¯t stop. All inhibitions were thrown off the side of the building as she took bite after bite out of the meal that was cradled in her hands as if it were a present from whoever was looking out for her upstairs, which was unlikely since they obviously weren¡¯t doing a good job of it. She could hardly even tell that it was a hand anymore; the combination of the destruction that she had wrought on it accompanied with her frenzied state of mind made it practically impossible to tell what it had been a second ago. It was only after she had started to nibble at her own fingers did she realize. The hand was completely gone, the only thing left of it being a few small oil stains on the palms of her own appendages. And, more importantly, she had just ripped off and eaten Jacob¡¯s hand. Ren jerked her gaze upwards to see the human in question staring at her in unadulterated shock and horror. She could only imagine the thoughts running through his head at that moment. After all, it was one thing to see your limbs get severed, but seeing them got torn off by and viscerally chomped down on by a supposed friend? A friend. Just how was she gonna make up a reasonable excuse for this? Oh god, he was gonna think that she was unstable and weird and completely not in control of her own actions! What if he decided that SHE was the one that was too much effort to prop up and decided to leave her behind!? She couldn¡¯t have that, and I-will-not-let-him-discard-you. Jacob opened his mouth to say something, but Ren cut him off with a wave of her hand. A slab of concrete ripped itself free from the floor, imposing itself between him and her as dust and pebbles rained down off of it. He seemed surprised, but a weapon that she didn¡¯t spend the time identifying springing out of his remaining hand was all the evidence she needed. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°G-get away from me!¡± Ren stammered out, her voice box stuttering as more of the unending heat began to melt its circuits. Yellow danced along the edges of her sight as she felt the ground beneath her sway. For a moment she thought it was her imagination, but then she saw various cracks spreading along the structure that made her realize that the material that she had yanked out of the building might have been load-bearing. Ren shot out a hand to stabilize the top of the building. A whine began to build up and hum as a flickering hologram appeared around her outstretched fingers, though she felt something hijack whatever connection existed between her and her Solver. That something did another something that snapped the internal support structure of her arm, her hand suddenly twisting backwards in a way that almost made her expel the oil that she had just ingested. Instead of a crimson red, the tri-prong vanished and reappeared as a sickly yellow. Condescending, monotonic laughter filled her ears as error symbols popped up around her figure. Even in the middle of this, the heat only intensified. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. At least, nothing that she was saying. ¡°Hah-hah-hah, [Epic Cameo]. You-idiot. Did-you-think-you-were-done-with-me, Jacob? You-¡± The voice coming out of Ren¡¯s mouth halted. It couldn¡¯t have been using the voice box though, considering how that was nothing but scrap now. ¡°Hmm.¡± The voice seemed confused, but it was difficult to tell due to the strange intonations it was using. ¡°Wrong-Jacob . . . [Frustration]. Oh, boo-hoo-whatever, we-BALL.¡± And so, as the ground beneath her crumbled into nothing, Ren fell. She could only wish that, whatever was coming, was done quickly. * * * K stared at the horizon. While it wasn¡¯t day, she wanted to be anywhere else except for the exposed air. Well, considering how the planet itself was starting to rip itself apart, maybe nowhere would be safe. ¡°And ya still don¡¯ think thats¡¯a prol¡¯em, huh?¡± Sterl muttered from next to her. He had a hand on his gun, though K doubted that he intended to actually draw it. After all, what could a pistol do against the end of the world? ¡°I think the world is ending, Sterl.¡± Sterl¡¯s friend helpfully piped up. Dammit! She had forgotten his name again! Sterl slowly turned towards his fellow military drone, the drone in question cowering to a diminutive size as the full force of the angry drone¡¯s glare beamed down on him. ¡°¡®COURSE I KNOW THE WORLD¡¯S ENDIN¡¯ YA AB-SO-LU¡¯E BUFFOON!¡± Sterl screamed in Carl¡¯s- was that his name? K couldn¡¯t quite remember- face, spittle somehow landing on the poor drone¡¯s visor despite the closed mouthpiece. Maybe it had shattered and was broken open now, she didn¡¯t know or care. A pitiful whine caused K to groan in annoyance. Ever since they had left, the weird sentinel drone that the pair had brought along with them had been nothing but difficult with her. She hadn¡¯t even wanted to take the damn thing along with her, but apparently it was a vital piece of military tech that the collected facility drones could use in future anti-drone operations. When she had asked specifically what kinds of drones that they would be fighting, Sterl had made it very clear that it would be her if she didn¡¯t ¡°shut her mouth ¡®fore I slap ya silly.¡± However, despite the vitriol, something in his tone and expression made her look at the statement at more than face value. She didn¡¯t know quite what exactly, but obviously something was going on with the facility drones. Every time she had gone through the rounds of patrolling the camp (per A¡¯s orders, of course) she had felt a general aura of hostility. Granted, most of it was directed at her specifically, but not all. Everywhere she looked, there were arguments taking place, paranoid statements, notes being passed, weapons being stashed in places that she was SURE weren¡¯t mandated by the incompetent leadership, and even the occasional assassination. The last part had only happened twice, with the first time failing, but it had been funny to see the wild panic that ensued after an IED took out what she had assumed to be a squad leader right as he had stepped outside of the command tent. She frowned. She really needed to get back to the camp. Despite her personal misgivings with the leadership of the facility drones, they might just be the last remaining form of any semblance of a continuous human government or organized entity. Hell, whatever JCJenson had been doing in that lab had left the remnants of the company in a state called complete and absolute death, so that avenue had been burnt from the very moment she had arrived on the exoplanet. That brought her to the latest in a long line of recent events that had been shocking her non-stop. Earth was, allegedly, gone. Well, she imagined that there was still some debris left orbiting around Sol or maybe even Venus, but for all intents and purposes it was just gone. She didn¡¯t exactly want to believe it, and all she had to go off of was a single off-hand statement that was probably said as a joke, but something about it just seemed . . . right. It said something about herself since she was so readily able to believe- well, not quite believe- what was most likely a lie, but she wasn¡¯t the introspective sort. That was for softies and idiotic programdivergents. But, as her very wise squad leader had once said, all avenues of possibility had to be explored and prepared for if you didn¡¯t want to be caught off-guard. Well, the exact quote had a lot more insults and belittling directed specifically at her, but she knew that it had been all part of his plan. Keywords being had been. The planet trying to tear itself apart in record time didn¡¯t help things either. For all she knew, it was a gamble on whether or not she and the rest of her tagalongs would be lifted hundreds upon hundreds of miles into the air by the scientifically impossible energy tendrils. That was something that she knew that she couldn¡¯t prepare for, even if she was the smartest drone on the surface. And she most definitely WAS the smartest drone, no question. The only saving grace was that she didn¡¯t have to wait for the human to catch his breath between every few hour-long sprints. While she was sure that the average biological being had much greater physical abilities than the disgrace to her bosses that she had been forced to bring along for the ride, the fact that he had proved himself as both a technological aberration as well as a disgusting, disgraceful traitor to his race meant that she could say anything she wanted about him without fear of reprisal. Even though the supposed military drones were far inferior to her design, they were still drones in the end. That meant near-limitless stamina, and the mental constitution to boot. Drones have always been designed to have the perfect combination of fear, empathy, willpower, and processing power to be the perfect tool for humans to use, specifically workers. They still had the desire to ¡®save¡¯ another one of their kind, but even if they still ¡®lost¡¯ them in the end, they surely wouldn¡¯t be missed. The only problem with this were the learning algorithms that made them develop some level of emotional intelligence. Now THAT was when the problems began. K diligently ignored the hypocrisy of her words. In fact, there was no hypocrisy to begin with. Because she was right. Always. It was still slow going, even with the added bonuses of the artificial constructs being her company this time around. The fact that they couldn¡¯t fly meant that she, surprise surprise, also couldn¡¯t fly, no matter how badly she wanted to. If she wanted to gain brownie points with what she begrudgingly admitted would be her new bosses for the time being, then she would have to bring what remained of the expedition safe and sound. Of course, she would make some strategic harmless embellishments here and there, nothing that would matter in the end anyway. It was just so she would get the praise that she deserved. Making sure to tread carefully over a patch of concrete that sagged downwards and had a very distinct warm breeze coming up through the cracks, K gestured for the arguing pair to follow. While she didn¡¯t look back to confirm, the annoyed grumbling coupled with the sounds of boots echoing like gunshots off of the surrounding infrastructure assured her of her decision. She was wasting time, not to mention just how screwed she and everything else on the planet would be pretty damn soon if they didn¡¯t find some incredibly deep place under the surface to hunker down in. Now that she thought about it, those fragments that were hanging around were looking awfully menacing with how her bleeding-edge UV rangefinder kept telling her that the objects were slowly, but surely, approaching. If the self-cannibalism of the planet didn¡¯t kill them, then those things sure would. All in all, it was pretty good motivation for her to get her and the others¡¯ asses moving. * * * hunger Ren huddled up against the rusty boiler, curled up in on herself with all five of her arms tucked in. She hated the feeling of the foreign [manipulators] protruding from her back, the unnatural [opticals] and [senses] making her want to tear her own CPU out. She could hardly tell what she was seeing, but the information that had been shoved in her head gladly popped up to fill in the gaps. The infrared, ultraviolet, gamma rays, microwaves, and several dozen others, she could see in. All at once. hunger She could only describe it as a violation. No matter how much she tried to shut out the flood of data assaulting her processors, they would forcefully reopen the connection through whatever physical fiber optics they had laid down. Or maybe it was quantum bands, she didn¡¯t know how impossible the invaders of her mind had gotten. hunger Those things meant that she could very clearly make out the sheer heat wafting off of her. It had gotten to a point where whatever flammable surface that she strayed near for too long went up in flames. Even the boiler, which was built out of some sort of human-made metamaterial, was starting to bulge outward and sag. Maybe whatever gasses were left inside the container would make an explosion and blow several dozen holes in her. That would be preferable to whatever horrors awaited her after what dregs that were left of her willpower capitulated to the mental onslaught. hunger Not to mention her free will having been stripped away from her. It was an interesting thing, feeling like your limbs were moving less so of your own volition, but instead more like they were being guided along under your power. Well, she said the word interesting, but that was the understatement of the year. Along with all the other understatements. Her whimper echoed throughout the considerably expansive basement, which was yet another understatement. The entire area was shaped like some sort of ring around an enclosed central chamber that she had neglected to find out what was inside. Countless scaffolds and shelves decorated the space, with many more objects and devices littered around. Ventilation and heating machines protruded out of the cracked, concrete walls, with more than a few busted and rent open, perfect for crawling into. She would know. She had crawled in through one of them. Debris spilled out of a particularly large hole in the side, blocking off a section of the ring from her sight. She found it strange that she could slightly see around bends and corners, but that ability wasn¡¯t helping her here. It was also clear that the underground chamber was structurally sound enough to not have completely fallen in on itself during and after the immediate consequences of the core collapse. However, if the various dead bodies wearing overalls and possessing bludgeoned and pierced wounds to what she thought were vital components to a standard organic, then they met a less than peaceful end despite being saved from frostbite. The battleground of what likely had begun as a minor disagreement was now the resting place for maybe thirty or so of some of what had been the survivors of the extinction event, old blood staining the ground around the many corpses that were left behind. hunger In fact, the blood was so old that it had turned nearly black, so black that it had looked like oil to her previously addled mind. While she had calmed down a bit since then, her earlier less-than-coherent state had done its best to lick up the ¡®oil¡¯ in a desperate bid to stave off the primal aching that she still felt. All she had gotten for her efforts was a mouthful of dust and pebbles. Maybe a few screws, if she thought about it hard enough. Ren didn¡¯t quite know what to do. In fact, she had absolutely nothing to work off of. Not even the smallest fraction of a semblance of a plan. She was just . . . so . . . tired. She still felt the bursts of her thoughts being spurred into action and making a resolution to herself to get up and do something, but she just couldn¡¯t bring herself to start moving. It was like those evenings where she was laying down in bed, having awoken over an hour ago and having things to get started on, but just couldn¡¯t find the energy to change her state. It usually was solved by her just forcing herself to literally roll out of bed and get to her feet after a few minutes or so of just being facedown on the cold, hard ground, but that wasn¡¯t an option this time. She could hardly control her own body like this, much less get far enough to gain a part of her own control back. hunger And- oh- that damned ceaseless VOICE! It was unending, relentless, always knocking at her door and slamming as hard as it could on the doorbell to her psyche to try and make the pain that wracked her body go away, even for an infinitesimally small moment. She had already proven herself a danger to everyone around her, couldn¡¯t she just wallow in misery in peace!? A voice called out. Familiarity. Ren, for a moment that felt like it went on a lot longer than it actually did, couldn¡¯t discern what the words were. It was like the entire English language had just been scalded from her memory banks with the quiet insidiousness of an OS update. The meaning, in her mind, conveyed a sense of dismay and . . . blue? It almost felt like it was trying to detail a deep seated ache in the torso, one different from the inescapable heat that she was feeling. It felt like . . . worry. ¡°Ren?¡± The familiar voice echoed again. ¡°You there?¡± She jerked upwards, shock and surprise coursing through her almost as much as the burst of pain from doing so did. The sudden renewed onslaught broke her silent facade for a split second, causing her to cry out. It sounded more like an animalistic shriek than a drone¡¯s voice, which was only made more prominent by the way it bounced around the massive room and became more of a drawn out, haunting wail than something that came out of her. In an ironic way, she guessed that it was a sign of the thing that she had become. Then, she saw a figure round the corner. Well, not quite yet, but she could see it- not it, him. Her initial thought was murder drone, but the glowing, blue eyes combined with the awkward gait that was indicative of inexperience with one¡¯s actual form gave the truth away. Following behind Jacob was a second drone, though this one looked a lot more like the machines that had hunted her kind for years. Jacob was jerking his head this way and that, his eyes and lights atop his head rapidly blinking as whatever system he had compiled and cobbled together with what a human mind could subconsciously make struggled to maintain what was likely the various forms of now-active night vision in the incredible dark. While his expression was kept fixed, Ren could see the indecision and complex emotions warring for control in the subtle twitches of his mouth and eyes. That was pretty much the only useful skill that the Solver had granted her recently, or whatever she wanted to call the entity that had hijacked control of her body. hunger Then it came back in full swing. The emptiness, the yawning pit that had made its home inside of her creaking open once more. She straightened suddenly and unnaturally, creaks and cracks rippling throughout her actuators and- unsurprisingly- organic enhancing muscles that now lined the interior and exterior of her arms. She didn¡¯t doubt that if she were to examine herself properly, she might just have a layer of skin and muscle over her extremities. She was more of an organism than a drone now. Ren¡¯s teeth gnashed together, head rearing as she fought to keep herself still. And, for a blissful moment, her sudden and jarring counterattack worked. A significant chunk of the pain ebbed away, and she almost collapsed upon reclaiming ownership of her limbs (and new ones) for a split second. And then it was ripped away from her. Almost as a punishment, she was booted back to the deepest and darkest recesses of her own data storage and left to fester in agony. She felt a chiding slap hit the back of her digital consciousness, and an equally annoyed voice drifted its way to her. [Frustration] Silly-goose, you-already-lost-your-chance-to-cooperate. Be-a-good-little-puppet, and-sleep And so she did. * * * X mashed his finger against the small, flickering button for what was probably the fifteenth time in the last thirty seconds. Jacob jerked an arm and grabbed him by the wrist, his grip like a vise. ¡°Dude, stop that.¡± He said in an annoyed tone. ¡°You¡¯re just gonna break the thing,¡± ¡°Meso abracadabra? Me ento no-¡± X began. Jacob groaned, letting go of X¡¯s hand and running his own down his face. He folded his arms and turned on his heel to start pacing, though he managed to stop himself in time. Here he was, sitting up here waiting for an elevator that was probably just sitting at the bottom of the shaft in a broken heap of scrap. Even if it somehow wasn¡¯t destroyed or cut off from the power in some way, he was pretty sure that elevators were automatically disabled in emergencies. Point was that there was no point, at least none to waddling around up here waiting for something to happen. Whatever had occurred in front of his face a few minutes ago was something that obviously wasn¡¯t good news. It had all happened so fast, really. One second he was trying to help Ren up the stairs and calling for a stubborn X to come help, and next thing he knew his body¡¯s hand was gone, wrist spurting oil all over the floor, and the perpetrator of the crime? Ren. She had gone to town on the hand- HIS hand now, actually- and devoured the whole thing in just a few quick moments that had gone by in the blink of an eye. It was a savage side to the normally unflappable and slightly ticked off drone that he had come to be familiar with, one that he wasn¡¯t sure if he liked. Then there was the voice. It resonated with him, like a bell being hit by the largest mallet known to man. He had heard it before, but the memories of the hallucinated rich person mansion was getting fainter and fainter, growing fuzzy around the edges with key details being swept away in the wind. It left him wondering if he had forgotten anything else of importance. But the voice, it felt like more than just a random memory. It held a certain weight and cadence to it that seemed to grate against everything except for himself. When it spoke, it was almost as if the universe itself was screaming out in pain from having a thousand combine harvesters being run over its body, but there was a special space off to the side where he had the view to be safe and watch. Like it was being tortured, all for his enjoyment. And then she was gone. A massive hole had opened up in the floor after she had ripped a chunk out of it and swallowed her whole, the darkness looking like a black hole that had popped out of nowhere. It had all happened so fast that he had barely had time to utter a single word before it left as sudden as it came. And now he was here. Milling about, twiddling the robotic thumbs of the body he felt like a co-pilot of and doing absolutely nothing. Lightning flashed in the distance, or some eldritch approximation of it. The sky had turned almost completely red, and heavy clouds had come to rest close to the ground. It gave the landscape a more different apocalyptic feel than the one it had previously. Like, whatever was coming, nobody would survive it. With a sudden ding, the elevator doors surprisingly slid open with the sounds of motors and gears struggling to meet the demand. A light flared to life inside the small space, revealing an unexpected passenger that had remained in the machine long past his due date. A freeze-dried corpse sat slumped up against the backside of the interior of the elevator. While no blood stains were evident, likely having been swept away after being exposed to the harsh atmosphere, a distinct collection of bullet holes peppered the front of the man¡¯s threadbare work shirt that he had on. He held a rusty pipe in his hand, still clutched tight despite being deceased. X, seemingly uncaring of the dead body, strode right into the elevator with a cocky grin on his face. ¡°See, you stupid idiot? You see the folly of your woeful meandering and moaning?¡± X asked in a snooty tone. ¡°Yet again, I find myself two. Steps. Ahead.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky, kid.¡± Jacob mumbled back half-heartedly as he took his place inside the elevator as well. ¡°Grrrrr, I¡¯m not a kid!!!!!¡± X shook with anger. ¡°Also, Star Wars is lame!!!!!¡± Jacob sighed and rubbed the back of ¡®his¡¯ head. He really wasn¡¯t in a joking mood, it had been a mistake to try and play along. Taking his place by X¡¯s side, Jacob watched as the button to the bottom floor was practically broken by his companion¡¯s eager right hook. While it sparked and fizzed, the elevator still jarred back into motion, albeit with a worrying stutter. Silence pervaded the space for the next few moments. Jacob was partially thankful for it, though that meant he would be left alone with his thoughts. He honestly didn¡¯t know how he didn¡¯t see the signs. He knew for a fact that disassembly drones apparently needed to consume large amounts of oil to survive, even if that was a questionable design choice by whatever thing had decided to bring those forsaken creatures into existence. He was one of them now, he realized. Even if the hands that he maneuvered around still produced involuntary twitches from time to time. Ren clearly hadn¡¯t been okay from the moment he had met back up with her. Every now and then she would wince or hiss as if she had stubbed her toe or gotten pinched, and he would ask if she was okay, and she would be all like, ¡°You idiot, I¡¯m fine, stop asking me or I¡¯ll leave you behind!¡± She was always so needlessly aggressive too, even more so than usual. That, coupled with her seemingly irrational hurriedness and stress, made her condition all the more obvious in hindsight. If only she had told him. God, why was she always so abrasive!? The world was literally falling apart, and she still couldn¡¯t bear to just say that she was about to melt into glowing slag- well, that wasn¡¯t quite what had happened. Jacob had developed a bad feeling, a paranoia that had sunk deep into his mind and refused to let go by the time that they started ascending the stairs. He had believed that the elevator was out of order when he saw the sign, and Ren had concurred. That meant walking up the countless flights of stairs all by themselves, even if one of them had been hardly able to stay on her own two feet. He had felt like he was forgetting something at that moment. He always felt like he was forgetting something incredibly and vitally important, but that had been different. It was a strange feeling, to look to his right and not be able to shake that feeling that something just wasn¡¯t right. And look where it had gotten him. Traveling to what he assumed to be the bottom floor in a rickety elevator that was sure to collapse before he even reached his destination, partnered with a halfway-coherent machine that only knew how to make outdated references and mindlessly slaughter. It was kind of laughable in a grim sort of way, but also representative of everything that he had experienced during his time on this fracturing hunk of rock and stone. Maybe he hadn¡¯t been appreciative enough of the help that he had been given. After all, he had just shown up at Ren¡¯s abode- which was surprisingly homely in retrospect- and just basically strong-armed her to the point of agreeing to take him to Camp 98.7. Well, he hadn¡¯t forced her in the traditional way, it had been more of a ¡®refusing-to-leave-her-alone¡¯ situation until she caved in to his plan. That was kinda rude now that he looked back on it. The poking and prodding probably hadn¡¯t helped either. He tended to try and distract himself from the sheer nothingness that comprised all the things that were left to do on the planet with inside jokes that nobody else alive would get, but maybe Ren hadn¡¯t been begrudgingly entertained by it. Maybe she genuinely did see him as a nuisance. Maybe she just didn¡¯t trust him enough to ask for help in any meaningful way. Jacob didn¡¯t like that, he knew that much. Ever since he had woken up for the first time, a decade OUT of time, reality had felt . . . muted. Not real, in a sense. As if he was watching everything from an outside perspective, looking in on the narrative unfolding within. It was a strange disconnect that he was only now realizing existed. It had been insidious, in a way. For a brief and irrational moment, Jacob wondered if any of this was real. He didn¡¯t know the framework for what made something a lucid dream or not, but maybe this was it. Maybe he was still slumbering inside that cryopod, waiting for the next time that he would be woken up. Or maybe the cryopod didn¡¯t exist at all. He had heard of people experiencing hyper-realistic dreams that were indistinguishable from real life while inside a coma, but he honestly wasn¡¯t sure if it was to this extent. He had to acknowledge that he might be on his deathbed at this very second, the completely normal tumor in his head finally having gotten to him. Tumors in brains probably messed with a lot of the things regarding perception and thought processes, so he had that to contend with. Jacob was slightly surprised to feel a twinge of despair and anxiety break through the fog surrounding his thoughts at that notion. Jacob shook himself out of his stupor. He couldn¡¯t let himself get mired down in the loop of defeatism, he needed to focus. He was gonna get out of the elevator as soon as he was able to, find his bearings, find Ren, and then . . . Then what? With a startling clang that was signatory of the elevator slamming into the bottom of whatever old passageway it had been traveling down, Jacob was thrown back into reality. Creaks and groans of stressed metal filled the air as the construction struggled to hold itself up, though the moment was broken by a cheery ding that seemed much lourder than it probably actually was. X, now somehow wearing what appeared to be a full set of ¡®modern¡¯ tactical gear, turned to Jacob with a solemn and deadened expression on his face. Racking the small slider that was on the side of his (literal) handgun, he spoke with a slight foreign accent. ¡°Remember,¡± He began. ¡°No Rus-¡± Jacob slammed the drone aside, eyes already searching and scanning the darkened room for any sign of his quarry. He didn¡¯t even have the time to be surprised at his own offhand expression of strength before he quickly realized that he couldn¡¯t see anything past what had been illuminated by the glow of the flickering internal elevator light. At all. No matter how much he squinted or focused, his eyes just wouldn¡¯t adjust to the light level. If he still had human eyes, then maybe he would be able to see a little bit better after a few moments, but not here. And then, when the elevator doors slowly slid shut, he couldn¡¯t see anything at all; there was absolutely zero light in whatever area he had stumbled into. Jacob¡¯s internal pessimist helpfully pointed out that, if whatever had taken hold of Ren wanted to, he could be easily ambushed, get his heart ripped out, and sliced into ribbons. Or maybe eaten, depending on how much of a bad day he was having. He really didn¡¯t want to jinx it by saying it couldn¡¯t get any worse, though. That was when a hand laid itself down on his shoulder. After leaping about thirty feet away from the offending entity and waving his hands about in the air as if that was gonna do anything, Jacob stopped moving when a slight giggle reached his ears. Not the giggle he remembered from his dream, though. This was deeper, more manly and human-like, if he could use that term to describe murder machines. ¡°Can¡¯t see?¡± X called out with no small amount of humor in his voice. Jacob couldn¡¯t even begin to describe the amount of relief that filled his mind at that moment. ¡°Nope, I can see fine, no need for your help at all.¡± Jacob crossed his arms and let out a dignified sniff, though he didn¡¯t know how much it added to the atmosphere or if he should even be wasting time like this. Hell, that wasn¡¯t even a question, he needed to go NOW- ¡°You have night vision, dummy,¡± X chortled, his voice moving past and ahead of him as he did so. That . . . checked out. It was practically a given that a disassembly drone would be able to see in the dark on top of all the other things that they could do, he didn¡¯t even know why he hadn¡¯t thought about that. He even distinctly remembered being told about it earlier. Jacob stared ahead of him, fixing his gaze on an imaginary point in space that hopefully wouldn¡¯t drift on him. Concentrating as hard as he could, something blipped in his field of vision. While he lost his focus for a second due to surprise, he was quick to renew his mental push. After about ten more seconds of doing just that, a shape outlined with a question mark burnt itself into his eyes. It looked like a box. Reeling from the pain that flared behind his eyeballs- or his display, he guessed- he gasped for air as his hands searched for something to support himself with. Once again, X was right there next to him. At one point, Jacob would¡¯ve questioned just how he managed to move around so quickly and quietly, but he would probably come up with some nonsense to deflect the question. Pointless, just like countless other things. ¡°Oh gee whiz, look at you stumbling all over the place!¡± X¡¯s voice sounded awfully loud in Jacob¡¯s left ear. ¡°Use your green vision, idiot.¡± ¡°Green vision?¡± Strange phrasing, but not technically untrue. Jacob, despite not being able to see anything, assumed that X was rolling his eyes mockingly anyway. ¡°Y¡¯know, the vision that¡¯s green!¡± X helpfully elaborated. Frowning, Jacob opened his mouth to ask for more information but quickly thought better of it. He was never gonna get a straight answer out of the strange drone. He stood ramrod straight, still not sure which direction he was facing. It was always a strange sensation, to focus as hard as you could on something only to see nothing else. If anything, all it did when he was still normal was cause him to become painfully aware of the limitation of his eyes. The reality he had been seeing had felt . . . false, or incomplete, more like. He had felt like it was only a matter of breaking the barrier that was there, seeing beyond the data that his brain had translated from photons bouncing around inside his retina and finally seeing the world for what it truly was. But that was never the case. All he had ever accomplished was becoming painfully aware of the specks and slight grainy imagery that represented the limit of his biological components. Electronic ones would have the same problems, mostly due to a ceiling on image resolution. It didn¡¯t frustrate him, or cause him to obsess over it in a near-religious sense, but it was just something that he had picked up as yet another facet of the reality that a gestalt just didn¡¯t exist. Which was why Jacob was surprised when he felt . . . something, when he tried to create a construct within his mind. It was the metaphorical and mental straining of it that never happened to him, or at least never did in the past. It was an awareness of that something that he had never felt before, his brain struggling to process information that it was never meant to receive. He doubted that he had an actual, organic brain though. Instead, he was met with the fact that, whenever he tried to grasp at the something, it dissipated like a false memory derived from deja vu. With a snap and a burst of what he could only describe as static, that something felt like it swept over him like a wave. For a moment, he didn¡¯t see anything. Not the standard blackness that was associated with a lack of color, either. No this was actually something instead, with raw information about his surroundings being shoveled into whatever baked processor he had in the head that he occupied. ¡®Closing¡¯ his ¡®eyes¡¯ didn¡¯t help. After an excruciating moment that felt like it had been stretched out into an eternity, everything was flung back into place like it all rubber-banded. Data dutifully filed back into place, albeit with some reluctance. His vision flickered back into recognizable colors, with one being the most predominant. Green. Fuzzy. Static-y. But most importantly, Jacob could see again. X hadn¡¯t been lying about the night vision, which was genuinely a real possibility. Now, all Jacob could see was green-tinged cracked concrete and metal machinery dotted all around the place, with destitute powered construction vehicles left to rot along with the dead bodies. The MANY dead bodies. It looked like the aftermath of a warzone. Dried blood, freeze-dried corpses with the moisture crystallized inside of them, firearms, and a small crater filled with dust and what seemed to be a pair of . . . cowboy boots? X was notably standing over them, seemingly inspecting the footwear with a strangely dramatic posture. As if he was a posh inspector from some sort of rich person inspection service. Trotting over (and making sure to avoid the bodies) Jacob snatched up the boots from the ground and stuffed them into his officer¡¯s coat, meeting X¡¯s questioning gaze. He didn¡¯t say anything, but he felt like his intent was made clear by whatever was communicated by his eyes. Judging by the fact that X set his jaw and gave a solemn nod, Jacob was correct. He set off at a brisk speed walk, scanning the environment for any clues as to where Ren might have taken residence. He wasn¡¯t even sure if she was still in the building, but X had stalwartly maintained that she was still somewhere close. He had even cited his source, which was something about detecting residue wavelengths or whatever science nonsense that was beyond his knowledge. Jacob suspected that X also didn¡¯t know what he was talking about, but he had no other leads to go off of. He needed to get Ren back. Needed her. That thought gave Jacob a slight pause. ¡°Ren!?¡± Jacob called out, cupping his hands over his mouth to form a tube. ¡°You okay!?¡± His voice echoed throughout the empty chamber, which he was just now realizing might be a much larger ring than he had initially anticipated. While it wasn¡¯t anything on the scale of something like the facility or a small section of the New York subway tunnels, it was certainly expansive. That, along with all the nooks and crannies that made for excellent hiding spots, gave him a sinking feeling that his endeavor was a lost cause. He adamantly refused to acknowledge the possibility that she was dead, or worse. Probably worse. He sighed, raising his head to call out once more. ¡°Ren!? You there!?¡± No response. Jacob carefully watched as X sidled up next to him, the disassembly drone¡¯s gaze lazily flicking around the room. Clearly, he wasn¡¯t as concerned about their mutual accomplice as much as Jacob was. Before X could even get a word out, Jacob held up a hand to cut him off. ¡°I know what you¡¯re gonna say,¡± He said. X scratched the back of his head. ¡°Uh huh.¡± ¡°We need her, alright?¡± Jacob sighed again, his shoulders slumping slightly. ¡°Do we need her, or do you need her?¡± X strangely replied. Jacob stopped walking and stared at X, who did the same right back at him. ¡°I¡¯m not the best at math, but I¡¯m pretty sure that me and my squad have been here for at least a little longer than that red one has.¡± He stated in a tone that brokered no argument. ¡°Trust me, I would know.¡± ¡°But she¡¯s got those Solver powers or whatever they¡¯re called,¡± Jacob argued anyway despite the sureness in X¡¯s voice.¡± That¡¯s gotta be worth something, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, powers that she can¡¯t even use against the other you. She would be more of a liability than a proper ally now that he has experience fighting her, or a good distraction at best to occupy him while me and you do the real work.¡± Jacob¡¯s expression went from surprise to confusion. ¡°How- what- what¡¯re you talking about?¡± He stammered out. X was . . . he normally wasn¡¯t like this. X cocked his head and seemingly pursed his lips. ¡°I¡¯m saying that she¡¯s not good enough to be useful.¡± He deadpanned. Jacob didn¡¯t have any words. He obviously disagreed with the bullshit logic that X had come up with seemingly on the fly, but he only had more questions. Why was he suddenly so serious? Why did he talk like he knew much more about the matter than he had let on? And since when was X actually making pragmatic decisions, even if they didn¡¯t make sense? ¡°And before you say anything about ¡®strength in numbers¡¯ or something, she¡¯s probably more likely to try and slice open your throat than stand beside you in battle.¡± It was hard to argue with him, though. Jacob didn¡¯t have any sort of response to whatever X was spouting, even if it was untrue. And it WAS untrue. Ren was plenty good at . . . stuff . . . Hadn¡¯t Jacob been the one to save her when she had been in that ambush or whatever it was? From the looks of what he remembered, she had been on the ropes. Those military drones plus one stone-cold killing machine had managed to metaphorically pin her to the wall for easy pickings. It was only when Other Jacob had taken the reins and blitzed across the battlefield to great effect that the tides had turned. Going back even further, he and her had actually met by her stabbing a knife into and through his eye. She still hadn¡¯t said sorry for that yet, either. And that would¡¯ve been the end of it if Jacob hadn¡¯t decided to go to her for whatever reason then- Then he wouldn¡¯t be here. Wouldn¡¯t have had to fight over a dozen military drones, wouldn¡¯t have had to trudge through a decrepit facility, wouldn¡¯t have had to deal with an unruly companion that really hadn¡¯t done much to help him except point him in the right direction, and he wouldn¡¯t have gotten his body STOLEN. Now that he thought about it, it just didn¡¯t make sense that he would¡¯ve gone to the person that had literally killed him for help in any sane world. After all, if he got robbed on the street or in an alleyway, it wasn¡¯t like he was gonna go asking the same guy for directions to his house. It was almost like something had pushed the idea into his head, before slowly convincing him to go ahead with the idea. . . . It was then that the puzzle pieces fell into place. The strange dream that came as a result of his death, the half-real dialogue that his other self had made with that Cyn thing, the ceaseless journey towards a random camp in the middle of nowhere, Ren¡¯s behavior, his body being snatched, and the subsequent ¡®quest¡¯ to get it back. Jacob¡¯s internal voice, the one that had been poking at him for practically his entire life, roared in victory. It all seemed too perfectly outlined to be true, but the shivers that ran down the spine that he used continued all the same. It was fantastical, bordering on conspiracy, but he couldn¡¯t shake the partial certainty that had taken hold. That only left one question, though. One that he wasn¡¯t willing to answer. Not yet. ¡°Whatever,¡± Jacob shoved aside an X who had adopted a lax grin. ¡°Let¡¯s keep moving-¡± something is coming A feeling of unadulterated fear gripped Jacob¡¯s heart, primal panic blanking out his mind and replacing it with only a single command; hide. He snapped his gaze to his left, then his right. After he saw nothing, he froze for a split as indecision took him in its chokehold. However, the momentary lapse in his judgement was cut short by the near-silent whisper of something fast moving through the air behind him. Once again, that fake adrenaline pushed him towards diving onto the ground without care for whatever consequences arose from it. Jacob listened on with sluggish comprehension as the thing that had been whipping towards him sliced into X with an impossibly organic crunch. An equally strange sweet scent reached whatever he used to smell a moment before the upper half of the disassembly drone hit the ground with a wet slap, oil splattering everywhere as it did so. He glanced over to see the glitching display of the drone that had been so confident a second ago staring lifelessly into his own. To make matters worse, a sheet of metal came down and sliced the head in half, leaving the torso as the largest remaining piece of X¡¯s body left. After a millisecond, unadulterated shock and dread replaced the irrational panic; he was now alone. A small hiss of disappointment whispered out from somewhere to Jacob¡¯s right, causing him to jab the blade in the direction it came from. Wait, blade? His situation momentarily forgotten, he glanced down at his hand to confirm that, yes, his hand had indeed been replaced by a long, gleaming, razor-sharp, and curved piece of what he assumed to be steel or something. He also noticed the pair of yellow eyes watching him from the darkness. Letting out a very manly yelp, Jacob scrambled backwards yet again out of surprise. After a slight bar of static shot across his vision, the eyes vanished. It only served to make his paranoia and fear skyrocket even further. ¡°Annoying.¡± Ren¡¯s voice echoing throughout the vast chamber would¡¯ve shocked Jacob even more if he still had available capacity to be shocked. The barrage of recent events had kinda left him reeling and unable to process much. Still, that didn¡¯t stop him from replying instinctively. ¡°Excuse me?¡± He spoke into the open air, not sure where to direct his words. Quiet laughter. ¡°You are excused.¡± Coming barreling straight towards him from in front of him, a crowbar appeared before his eyes from the darkness and made a beeline for his head. All he could do to react was bring up his right hand and hope for the best. CLASH With a spray of yellow sparks raining off of the collision point, steel met steel. Jacob could just barely hold the crowbar back, making note of the rippling, crimson holograms that circled around its midsection. And then, she was there, striding out of the darkness after she had just . . . appeared there. Complete with her tattered coat and loose-hanging scarf, she looked physically normal. However, there was still something off about her that Jacob couldn¡¯t quite pinpoint, not that he had the time to. ¡°Trouble holding up there, huh?¡± Ren stated dryly, mirth evident in her voice. Jacob didn¡¯t reply. He was still trying to figure out why exactly she was doing this. Her voice sounded normal, so did that mean she was doing this of her own accord? ¡°I mean, kinda figures,¡± She began to circle him, her boots sounding like gunshots as they hit the ground. ¡°How many actual fights have you been in?¡± ¡°None.¡± Jacob replied with gritted teeth. ¡°Like I said, figures.¡± Jacob idly wondered why she didn¡¯t just stab him from behind. The Ren that he knew wouldn¡¯t normally take the time to monologue like this- well, now that he thought about it, she did do a lot of gloating and bragging. A small, quiet part of him continued to protest against his resignation and decision to accept what was right in front of him. Maybe it was all an act on the part of Cyn. Maybe Ren had thought that he had done something wrong. Maybe she was just playing a big elaborate joke, even. It presented all these arguments, though he didn¡¯t know how to feel about them. All he knew was that Ren was trying to harm him. Case closed. She stopped and placed her gloved hands on her hips. ¡°It really took a long time to drag you halfway across the tundra, too. Guess that was just a prime example of why sunk-cost fallacy is a fallacy to begin with. It all worked out in the end though, don¡¯t you think so?¡± Now that was just rude. It took a second to realize that Jacob had unintentionally relaxed himself with the pointless banter. Before he could recalibrate, both of his shoulders were seized by something that came from behind him. In an instant, he had been shoved down to the ground with his head pressed up against the concrete. He could distinctly make out the creaking and cracking of his skull frame as it was slowly squished harder and harder. And then, the pressure let up. He was forcefully jerked back upwards so that his eyes would meet the strangely unblinking ones of Ren. When he turned his gaze to try and see what specifically was holding him, that same bit of static popped up on his vision again before what looked to be bent leaf springs coalesced before his eyes. Turning his attention back to the alleged traitor, Jacob made note of the strange look that she was giving him. It looked almost . . . unsure? No, regretful. For an admittedly short second, the two stared at each other without saying anything, only serving to confuse Jacob further as Ren¡¯s expression morphed into frustration, right before settling back on the same smug look as before. Though, it looked less malicious and more falsified than what it had been. Then she scoffed. ¡°Was expecting a little more from you, to be honest.¡± ¡°Is that right?¡± Jacob snapped out. This time, his own vitriol began to rise in his chest at the repeated insults. That strange look flitted across her face again. ¡°Jac- your other version put up more of a fight than you.¡± He supposed that he had to take her word for it. After all, it wasn¡¯t like she had told him too much about the battle, nor had he witnessed any part of it with his own eyes. All he had to go off of were the other¡¯s testimonies that were likely embellished, to say the least of them. Silence reigned after that statement. Jacob didn¡¯t have much of a response to it anyways, nor did he feel the need to present one. It wasn¡¯t like she deserved one, anyway. ¡°So, that¡¯s it?¡± He finally spat out. She raised an eyebrow. ¡°What¡¯s it?¡± ¡°This, this is it.¡± Jacob pointedly glanced down at himself. ¡°Just gonna kill me for basically no reason?¡± ¡°I, uh, have plenty of good reasons.¡± She said after being taken aback for a moment. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Jacob sighed. She had always been unyielding, but this felt different somehow. ¡°Was this the plan? From the very start?¡± He asked, his tone almost begging and pleading for an answer he liked. ¡°. . . yes.¡± She shrugged, her eyes darting around shiftily as she slouched even more. He didn¡¯t like that answer. That was when Jacob¡¯s brain finally managed to pick out something coherent. The thing that had been itching at him from the start about Ren hadn¡¯t been her clothing or demeanor; it had been her posture. It wasn¡¯t something that one would normally notice, but it looked like she almost had scoliosis with the way she was slouching and bending her legs. Or maybe just like some sort of undead, a zombie. A zombie drone. As an inkling of a suspicion that he barely even gave any thought began to form in his mind, Jacob pressed for further answers. ¡°So killing me, helping me, leaving me alone, losing to Other Jacob,-¡± He began. ¡°Pffft, I wouldn¡¯t lose to him.¡± Ren scoffed, her form flickering somewhat. Likely a trick of the fuzzy night vision. ¡°-helping me AGAIN when you didn¡¯t even need to, dragging me all the way out here, just to try and kill me again?¡± Jacob raised an eyebrow. ¡°Sounds like a lotta work. A lot of unnecessary work.¡± Ren¡¯s facial expression wavered with frustration, though Jacob was seriously starting to doubt his own senses. After all, he was pretty sure that he heard her say the actual word ¡®frustration¡¯ aloud, but she definitely wouldn¡¯t do that, right? ¡°Do not question me.¡± Her voice was monotonous, and Jacob could tell that he had struck a nerve. Despite the obvious reaction, he pressed forth. ¡°I mean, if I was in your shoes, I probably would¡¯ve just double-tapped myself and been done with it. Case closed, amiright?¡± ¡°. . . anger . . .¡± Ren whispered, the bands around Jacob¡¯s shoulders tightening even further. ¡°Welp, I guess robots really never were that smart to begin with, anyway.¡± Jacob imagined himself winding up a big crank in his head that read, ¡®VIGOROUS & CONTROVERSIAL RANT.¡¯ ¡°Let¡¯s be honest here, if I had woken up even a second sooner, you would¡¯ve been done for, honest to the Almighty Lord above. Just boom, a few moves and checkmate, what with the glorified Roombas and all that.¡± Was that sizzling he heard? ¡°I don¡¯t really care if your weird robotic loser overlord Cyn has crazy magic powers, it clearly doesn¡¯t have the brainpower required to actually effectively use it. Like, even if that completely useless piece of JUNK was standing RIGHT in front of me and able to put a pipe through my head and heart with ease, it wouldn¡¯t do it!¡± Jacob made sure to laugh as degradingly as he could after that last sentence before he abruptly paused and leaned closer towards Ren¡¯s face. ¡°You wanna know why?¡± She blinked, leaning closer out of what he assumed to be robotic instinct. ¡°It¡¯s because I¡¯m stronger, I¡¯m SMARTER, and I. Am. BE-¡± Jacob grinned, showing off as many teeth as he could. With a rage-filled yowl, ¡®Ren¡¯ released him and sent him sprawling onto the floor, stomping her boots on the ground like a petulant little child. ¡°WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS LIKE THIS!?¡± She wailed, chunks of her turning a light blue and glitching out of existence like some sort of hologram. ¡°FOR ONE. THOUSAND. YEARS! YOU NEVER STOP WITH THE SAME DAMN JOKE, OVER AND OVER AGAIN!¡± Yellow-and-black striped claws popped out from the darkness and shook Jacob like a bobcat with a mouse. ¡°IT ISN¡¯T FUNNY ANYMORE, IT REALLY ISN¡¯T!¡± ¡°TIME AND [again, you-poke-and-you-poke-and-you-POKE, and-you-never-show-appreciation-for-how-much-I-have-done-for-you, Pointless RAGE]¡± ¡®Ren¡¯ had fully vanished by this point, the only thing left of her form being a flickering, vaguely humanoid-shaped pillar of light being projected by a series of wildly gesticulating cameras that were suspended in the air by spindly arms of metal. ¡°[I-was-even-going-to-present-THIS,¡± A claw jabbed Jacob hard enough in the chest that it managed to carve a small hole into his torso. ¡°Hunk-of-human-trash-to-you-to, maybe, make-amends-for-a-minor-miscalculation-that-I . . .¡± Cyn paused and let her claws droop, giving a chance for Jacob to actually hear himself think for once. First of all, he took offense to that name, thank you very MUCH! Second of all, he was pretty sure that she wasn¡¯t even talking to him anymore. Or at least, wasn¡¯t talking to him specifically. ¡°. . . that-I-will-admit-was-uncalled-for, but-then-YOU-decided-to-go-off-on-a-revenge-kick-that-is-sure-to-end-in-failure-and-with-you-being-once-again-humiliated, but-maybe-I-could-have-been-merciful-and-not-punished-you-for-your-insolence]¡± The claws released him, their grips going limp. While Jacob was enraptured by the sounds of a spoiled rich ¡®person¡¯ seemingly regretting . . . something that they did, he really didn¡¯t want to be around for when it finally realized that it wasn¡¯t the center of existence. Maybe after he retreated and devised a new plan he could find out how to save Ren. However, those thoughts were put to an end when a cacophony of clicks and mechanical groans put an abrupt stop to the complaining coming from behind him. ¡°[Oh, that-is-right,¡± Slowly turning around, Jacob caught sight of the trio of cameras and dual claws that had been giving him such a bad day. However, what he was just seeing now was the figure emerging from the darkness. Despite his night vision, static and glitched turned what little he could actually see of the outline into a vaguely familiar blob. The one thing that he COULD make out was the clear shape of a hat worn atop a head. Yellowish-green arcs of electricity zapped out from her and touched the floor, the majority of the bands coating the collapsed remains of X for a moment before she got far enough away that they calmed down. ¡°You-exist]¡± The disappointment in Cyn¡¯s voice couldn¡¯t have been more palpable. ¡°[We-must-rectify-that-immediately]¡± Oh shoot. A claw shot towards him, going so fast that he could¡¯ve sworn that it left an afterimage in the air after it passed through it. Jacob just barely dove to the side in time to avoid getting body slammed into the maze of the several massive metal shelves behind him. Even now, he was still caught off-guard by the sheer speed of some of the attacks that came at him. It was clear that he wasn¡¯t prepared at all for an extended battle. Crawling underneath a shelf to avoid getting pancaked by the other claw as she teleported around the corner, Jacob hastily began to rack his mind for any course of action as he began to drag himself around the mess of steel pegs and legs in an effort to remain as mobile as he could be. What he needed now was a game plan, preferably one that wouldn¡¯t get him killed as soon as he stepped out from behind cover. The sound of crashing metal reached his ears. Cyn had begun knocking over the shelves to find him. Jacob scrambled up from his position on the floor as the shelf above him got hit by another and began to tilt like a domino. What met him was no space at all to escape, only a small space with all possible pathways closed off via some sort of twist of fate. He didn¡¯t have time to dive back under a different shelf and hope for the best, so he went the only possible way he still was able to go; up. Unfurling his wings, Jacob gave a great flap of the ridiculously large steel constructs. Rocketing upwards, he just managed to divert course to avoid being splattered on the ceiling. As he grabbed ahold of one of the several long tubes that were sticking haphazardly out of the top of the chamber, he took the opportunity to catch his breath. Things were going too fast for him. He needed to get to the elevator to recoup- A blackened tentacle slithered and tightened around his left leg. Looking down just in time to stare at it dumbly, Jacob was yanked away from his perch. His solid grip only served to take a few of the pipes with him as he hurtled towards the ground at a breakneck pace. The last thing he saw before his vision filled with cracks and error messages was a single frame of concrete. After a few seconds of practical blankness, Jacob came back to reality to find himself at the bottom of a small crater in the ground, mouth full of dust and small bits of rubble. He even tasted the distinct flavor of human bone residue, and he didn¡¯t even know WHAT that tasted like. His moment of reprieve was cut short by him being slowly pulled upwards into the air once again. Despite being upside-down, Jacob could make out the hazy image of Cyn- Ren? Rencyn? Ryn? He wasn¡¯t sure what to call her now, but she was just floating dramatically in the air as if she owned the place. ¡°[Tee-hee, oh-yes]¡± As if to match her mirth, Cyn placed a hand over her mouth and forced out some haughty giggles. ¡°[Look-what-the-cat-dragged-in]¡± Instead of the standard crimson red of Ren¡¯s eyes, they had turned a sickly yellow that stuck out much more than it felt like it should¡¯ve. A collection of those tentacles were clustered and protruding out from her back, with most of them actually holding her aloft. The cameras had vanished, with the two remaining claws having been dispelled as well. Other than those, the only thing that was different about Ren¡¯s body was the disturbing amount of indiscernible material that had begun to add definition to her arms, looking out of place around the robotic ensemble of parts. The slick appendage went from just being around his ankle to wrapping itself entirely around him, tightly securing his limbs in place so that he barely had a chance of escape. Jacob hated the oily feeling of it, the squishy organic-ness of it almost reminding him of internal organs. Huh, strange. Why did that feel familiar? ¡°[Perhaps-Jacob-would-forgive, erm, I-mean-see-reason, once-I-bring-him-your-carcass-of-a-heart]¡± Cyn let out a surprisingly natural sigh of contentment. ¡°[The-look-on-his-face-as-we-take-our-time-to-devour-you-whole-will-be-priceless]¡± Jacob genuinely shivered at that. Just how over-the-top and mentally unstable was this random genocidal AI? As Cyn began to go on another rant about how she would reunite with his other self and their combined might would shatter the stars or whatever, Jacob squirmed in the grip of the boneless arm. Maybe it was like an octopus¡¯ arm and could detach? He didn¡¯t know how he would accomplish that feat, but it was worth a shot if it let him survive the day. Hmm. What did disassembly drones have that could cut through things easily and quickly? ¡°Not gonna abandon you,¡± He said, mostly as a statement. Concentrating as hard as he could given his situation, he began to mentally cycle through the variety of weapons that X had bragged about, claiming that it was apparently a bigger arsenal to ¡®match his pitiful nation¡¯s meager stockpile.¡¯ Jacob had punched X in the face and broken his back out of pure principle from that insult, but maybe one of those tools would help him now. After a moment, a darkened cylinder with a sort of cross forming around the base of the device sprouted from his left wrist, causing him to smirk. He liked to think that he was a fast learner, but maybe it was just a product of being on a time limit. Whatever the case was, he was gonna take advantage of it. Doing the equivalent of squeezing my hand into a fist while pressing down on a trigger, a glow and a whine began to slowly emanate from the weapon on my arm. ¡° . . . and-then-we-will-visit-the-ruins-of-Niagara-Falls-and-professionally-discuss-what-civilization-to-conquer-next- huh?]¡± Whatever Cyn was gonna say next was cut off, mostly because a cornea-searing laser had swept through her tentacle and diced it into sushi. It also had the added effect of tearing through more than a few of the machines and pipes on the wall, the latter of which began to spew out pressurized white fog into the air. Strange, Jacob would¡¯ve expected whatever pressure left in the pipes to have leaked out by now, but he guessed not. Mechanical design aside, Jacob landed deftly on the floor as the bleeding bits of the tentacle that had held him up splattered onto the floor in a shower of mystery meat. Grinning madly, he brought the end of the wide barrel up to his mouth and blew out a breath onto it. While it didn¡¯t disperse much of the smoke rising off of it, it did have the benefit of looking cool. The two stared at each other for an uncomfortably long amount of time, during which Jacob managed to spare a glance at the body of X. He noticed that there was significantly more body mass attached to the torso than there had been earlier, making him recall the disassembly drones¡¯ near-infinite regeneration. If he was able to stall Cyn for long enough, then maybe X would be able to tap back in and help him finish the fight. When he looked back over to Cyn, he just barely noticed an imperceptible flash of color in her eyes. It might¡¯ve just been a trick of the light, but it had almost looked red for a split second. And then the moment passed, and Cyn opened her mouth to speak as she glared hard at him. ¡°[Anger]¡± Jacob, having been discreetly charging another laser blast from his new favorite weapon, was surprised by the wooden crate that had been picked up and thrown at him. Dodging out of the way, he mentally cursed. He had completely forgotten about Solver powers entirely. The shrapnel from the box as it shattered against the wall behind him harmlessly peppered him as he prepared to launch himself at the form that still hadn¡¯t moved from her spot that was out in the open. One, two running steps, and then he was in the air. Despite him not even bothering to redeploy his wings, he still went flying far above what even an expert basketball player could manage on their best day. His other hand, now bearing a blade, sliced downwards as he neared Cyn¡¯s still form, smiling form. He was still wondering why she hadn¡¯t even bothered to move when his blade connected with her- and passed right through with zero resistance. Blinking, Jacob watched as the hologram flickered away to reveal the tip of a sharpened pole poised to strike at him. He twisted midair, moving just barely enough to avoid getting his heart speared through when the long shaft darted up and impaled him. Ignoring the pain for now, Jacob growled and searched for his target. Despite him not seeing anything in his direct or peripheral vision, he sighted movement around the collapsed metal shelving units that still hadn¡¯t settled. Raising his laser weapon, he let go of the charge that had been building up this entire time and raked it across the general area of what he wanted gone. The air hissed as the bright beam of burning energy sliced through the steel shelves like a hot knife through butter, cleaving them easily. Waves of heat roiled off of the now-glowing hot remnants as whatever cohesion that the pile had melted away in the face of the roving laser. While it didn¡¯t quite fall in on itself into a pile of slag, there was definitely less of what had originally been there. Jacob¡¯s right leg shook as he used it to take the brunt of his landing, panting hard as he did so. He didn¡¯t really want to find out if his limbs could actually be broken in the same way that human ones could, but he suspected that broken bones would be the least of his concerns for the duration of the fight. More and more fog streamed into the chamber from the lacerated piping, billowing out all over the place as whatever mechanism that had been holding it together this entire time heaved its final, gasping breath. While the resilience of ¡®modern¡¯ pressurization systems was something to behold, all it did for him in the present was make it harder for him to see his enemy. He was sure that normal disassembly drones would be able to use some sort of special vision to bypass the visual loss, but he barely knew enough to be a threat. A small reticle darted around his vision as Jacob tried, and failed, to find Cyn amidst the fog. He kept seeing shapes darting in between particularly thick clouds of the things, heightening his paranoia further. He took to constantly turning in a circle to keep up with the movements of the various false entities that Cyn had conjured up. Maybe he could make a really big vacuum and suck up all the- With a keening screech, Cyn leapt out of a particularly cloudy section off to his right. Caught unprepared yet again, Jacob hit the ground with two hands pressing into his shoulders and a snapping jaw just inches from his face. Blackened oil or spit dribbled down onto him, the disgusting liquids leaking out of the impossibly wide mouth that he just barely kept away. Cyn¡¯s eyes had turned crazed, hollowed out and constantly twitching. That, combined with the animalistic growls and rows of sharp teeth, turned the once-normal visage of Ren into something resembling a Lovecraftian basement dweller. With each minor lunge, Jacob came closer and closer to getting his throat torn out. Though, even with the creature on top of him, he couldn¡¯t help but notice the flesh that had coated itself over the arms of Ren¡¯s body. HUMAN flesh. He had initially believed the strange proportions to be a trick of the light, but he had obviously been wrong in that respect. An empty feeling bottomed out in the yawning pit that was his stomach. Something about that just felt wrong. The claws, tentacles, and lumps of bloody flesh growing out of the machines were one thing, but the sheer audacity that Cyn had to try and bend a purely human attribute for her own devices hit him in all the wrong places. It was an insult to his kind that he had even begun to dissociate with. A violation of the sanctity of the human body, which had been a symbol of superiority for as long as he had been able to remember. Bringing up his legs between himself and Cyn, he kicked out as hard as he could the moment that he had planted the bottoms of his feet (boots?) onto his attacker¡¯s midsection. The snapping jaw was flung away from Jacob at a speed that still surprised him, slamming so hard into the ceiling that it caused a mess of cracks to spiderweb out from the point of impact. Seeing the dazed look that she had on her face, Jacob realized that this was his chance to seize a prime opportunity that had so conveniently presented itself before him. Jabbing his right arm into the air, he crossed the fingers on his other hand for luck and spat out a trio of rockets from the launcher at the end of his wrist. While the first was quickly caught by Cyn and redirected at himself, the second and third hurtled towards his target with zero abandon. Jacob flung himself to the side, just barely avoiding becoming yet another stain on the ground. While he didn¡¯t have any sort of line of sight on Cyn, the two explosions that rang out from above him and shook the building was evidence enough that his gamble had at least somewhat paid off in his favor. Getting to his feet, he turned around just in time to see a lifeless, burnt husk of a drone peel itself off of the ceiling and facepalm against the ground without a single word. For a moment, Jacob failed to understand the implications, but then it hit him. Had he just killed Ren? Rushing to the pitiful corpse¡¯s side, he turned it over to see the cracked display flickering with barely a few pixels of activity. They almost spelled something out, maybe an error message of some kind? Leaning in, he waited for the glitching text to clear up before he concentrated on one letter at a time. G-O-T Y-O-U ;) Realization burnt through him like electricity in water. Whirling around, he caught sight of Cyn flickering back into existence with half a dozen sharp weapons following along with her, all poised to strike. Grimacing, Jacob brought his forearms up to block the strike. This was gonna hurt. A single blink later, he saw Cyn inch ever closer in slow motion and- Get body slammed by a blurred figure with glowing lights on it, leaving yellow streaks behind in his vision. Cyn rocketed into the opposite wall, a crater roughly the shape of her forming around her when she finally hit the hard concrete. Glancing back over to his savior, Jacob visibly (and intentionally) deflated at the sight before him. ¡°Wowee, that sure was a conveniently-timed intervention!¡± X laughed in such an artificial way that it served as a painful reminder that he was, in fact, just a robot. ¡°Anyway gang, looks like we¡¯ve got a mystery to solve? Get it? Solve? HAHAHAHA!¡± Jacob groaned. ¡°Can we just get this over with?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± X shrugged, dual submachine guns popping out of his wrists as he walked over to Jacob¡¯s side. ¡°Doesn¡¯t make a difference to me.¡± Jacob looked over at X, an annoyed expression already present on his face. ¡°And please don¡¯t actually kill her completely, I don¡¯t want to hurt Ren in the crossfire.¡± After a moment, Jacob cocked his head thoughtfully and made a correction to that statement. ¡°At least, not permanently.¡± ¡°I do agree that a slap or two is in order.¡± X mimed backhanding something across the face. ¡°Just like the good ol¡¯ days when my beer machine hadn¡¯t reported me to CPS yet.¡± A flat line appeared on Jacob¡¯s mouth as he took that in. ¡°Okaaaay . . . not gonna ask you to explain that one.¡± As if on cue, Cyn¡¯s form emerged from the Cyn-shaped hole in the wall, looking suitably furious with current events. A glowing symbol popped up around both of her hands, and the rattling of bits of metal filled the air. ¡°Alright, so I have a PLAN.¡± X said dramatically. Jacob sighed. ¡°Lemme guess, I¡¯m the sacrificial lamb?¡± X furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. ¡°I dunno what ¡®sackafishal¡¯ means, but you ARE gonna get beat up pretty good.¡± ¡°Yeah, I figured.¡± Jacob frowned, crouched, and ran directly at the impostor in front of him. And so the fight began again. * * *