Aiden hummed slightly from their spot on the edge of the entrance, staring at the moon. It was probably going to be a new moon soon.
"You ever wonder why murder drones, y'know, murder so much?"
They didn't get a response.
They turned to see Chad asleep in the nest, Aiden's jacket draped over him. Good, because they didn't have chargers right now. Not-so-good because they could only regain so much energy from sleeping.
Aiden still had their sweater on, along with a couple of shirts, but that didn't stop their coding from convincing them they were still cold. Which never made sense, because apparently they've overheated multiple times because of this? They didn't remember when it ever happened, only knowing about it from friends and family who've witnessed them collapsing every now and then.
They returned to staring out the hole in the wall.
They never expected their program to work this well.
It honestly just started out as a collection of data they managed to scrounge up from the computers the humans had left behind that weren't corrupted. Random facts and statistics about woodland creatures, behaviours like mating rituals and nesting. Then, they got bored, and decided to feed the information into a rudimentary AI program to theorize about what other rituals could've existed before the core collapse. Aiden originally had it all on their own laptop before transferring it to the harddrive.
The laptop that was still back at the colony.
The laptop that held almost everything they didn't have enough memory to store in their own banks.
Which was a lot.
Maybe they should get Chad to ask M to bring them back to the colony, if just for a little bit, since he could apparently talk to animals better than them. And they were one who's researched all this!
It was fascinating, however, to observe how M behaved. He didn't seem to have picked off one creature or another, but the AI program must've mixed everything together as it integrated itself into his coding. The most obvious traits M showed, though, were evidently off of birds or maybe felines, judging from the trilling and chirps he used instead of words.
Maybe next time— if there is a next time —M's own "intelligence" resurfaces, they should make up a sort of code to communicate better. Aiden's seen videos every now and then of pets being trained to use buttons to "speak" with their owners. It was as interesting as it was cute, and Aiden was already thinking of the coding and materials it would take to make their own.
They heard flapping in the distance. Looks like M was back.
They stood up and made their way back to the nest, knowing M would probably drag them there anyways.
As they sat down, something else caught their attention.
"Put me DOWN, bird-brain!"
Okay, so that voice for sure wasn't M's.
Aiden stood up just in time to see M land with a very familiar purple-haired drone in his arms. The instant he was on the ground, she pushed herself out of his arms and right onto the floor.
"Bite me, you weirdo!" Uzi shouted, crawling backwards until she hit the edge of the nest.
She whipped around to see the other two drones sitting in it, "Aiden? Chad!?"
"Salutations, Uzi," Aiden waved awkwardly, "mind keeping your voice down? We don't have chargers here and Chad needs his beauty sleep."
Uzi struggled to sputter something out, whipping her head from Aiden, Chad, still sleeping, M— who'd gone to pace near the entrance for some reason —and back, "Wha— how— HUH!?"
Aiden shrugged, "I put a program in M and now he's being, like, broody like a chicken or something."
"What the hell does that mean?!" Uzi shouted, standing up and backing away from M, making sure to dodge around the nest, "He literally kidnapped me!"
"Yeah, did the same with us," Aiden said nonchalantly, sitting back against the edge of the nest and staring at the roof, "he's pretty nice, though. Helped Chad with a panic attack, tried to get us food that triggered said panic attack, and originally went out to get me some supplies that I see he didn't come back with." He looked back to Uzi, "Personally, I say that mostly makes up for the kidnapping."
Uzi stared at him for a moment before letting out a melodramatic groan, "And I just had to be trapped with the local sociopath! Ugh!"
She kicked a random piece of rubble before passive-aggressively sitting on the edge farthest from M, still pacing, "Let me guess, you probably want me to update you on my situation too, huh?"
"I mean, yeah, that'd definitely be appreciated, yes."
M was panicking.
He should go. Leave this nest. Bring his children somewhere else, somewhere safer and not in the general direction he flew off with the purple one.
But he didn't. He stood watch and kept guard, because his young were used to this place. Change was often interpreted as "bad."
That predator, it was probably very angry he'd stolen its prey. It was probably going to come back, and it was probably going to try and take the rest of his young with it. But M's protocols were still active. He still needed to protect. He would fight tooth and claw to protect his young, even if he died in the process.
Ignoring the sensation of boiling underneath his metal, he looked over to his nest. It seemed his young were getting along well.
That was good.
That was... good.
But... why was he in pain? Why was everything getting so hot?
He held a hand to his chest. Nothing wrong, just... it felt as if he was burning.
Again, M was distracted by the sounds of wings flapping. He whipped up just in time to see the predator from before in the air. He immediately spread his wings, hissing loudly. Thankfully, this made it stop just in midair.
He heard someone approach from behind him, a quick glance revealing it was the newest young, the little runt of the litter. He quickly darted in front of it, using his tail to urge it back towards the nest, not taking his eyes off of the predator still hovering in the air. He wouldn't let it reach his young. He won't. He won't.
Then, he noticed something sitting on the predator's shoulders. A more focused look made him realize it was the green-eyed young with the hat. He cursed himself for not grabbing it too. He bet the predator might try to use it as a bargaining chip... whatever that meant. Only the part of him that wasn't as fluffy as the rest seemed to understand it.
He started panting as the burning sensation grew. He caught the predator's expression change, and it seemed to yell something to the smallest. It responded after a few moments.
Then, things started getting quiet.
No one moved. No one spoke. Even as he tried to stay focused on staying in between the predator and his young, he kept finding himself narrowing in on that fire in his core.
It hurt. It hurt a lot. But he needed to protect. Protect. Please.
A box appeared in his vision, but he didn't understand it. Then another. And another.
Until, suddenly, his limbs buckled underneath him. Even the icy wind that suddenly billowed in didn't snuff the lava that washed over his wires. Everything hurt so much— was he boiling alive?
Fortunately, he was quick to lose consciousness after that.