Copper-9 a planet once vibrant with lift both artificial and organic, was little more than a frozen wasteland now. The humans that once called this vibrant Earth-like world home were reduced to little more than winter-bleached white bones strewn across the planet's surface some frozen in place but most lying where they died when Copper-9's atmosphere all but evaporated when the core collapsed taking an entire section of the planet with it. While many would consider that the end of life on Copper-9 it was the subservient robotic worker drones that for a time inhabited the planet post-core collapse in numbers that would be comparable to a rapidly developing nation, if they had been truly been left to their own devices the worker drones likely would have developed their unique civilisation on the ruins of the colonists.
Yet that was not the case, Copper-9 was not the cold jewel of artificial life it could have been, it was nothing short of a cold empty grave and scrapyard respectively. While the core collapse had permitted the mass extinction of organic life it had been something else that had brought the artificial life to the brink of extinction, the worker drones had become prey for a new type of artificial life built and designed with the singular purpose to hunt them down and drink the oil that existed inside each of them. Once numbering in the millions the worker drones had been reduced to scattered pockets of communities cowering in fear for the most part in bunkers and other such structures hoping that these would keep them safe.
This new status quo was only broken on the rare occasion worker drones dared venture beyond the safety of their bunkers and doors for whatever reason, and one such break was happening at a bunker colony. A single worker drone with purple hair and a matching display dressed in dark clothing made their way across the snowy tundra stopping only once to glance back at the bunkers doors before continuing. This worker drone that once called the relative safety of that bunker home was Uzi Doorman, an outcast amongst worker drones for her opinions on their cowardly ways of hiding behind the blast doors and hoping they would be enough to keep them safe. Until they malfunctioned long enough that they could not be fixed in a single morning, and at that point they would be an easy buffet for the predatory murder drones that fed on the oil of her kind.
It was her drive to finish the, in her own words, 'sick-as-hell-railgun' by scavenging the last part she needed from the wasteland of snow and bodies both organic and artificial. If Uzi was being honest with herself as well it might be the last time she would see the large doors that lead into the colony she could consider home, but there was nothing within to truly call home for her. Only a father who saw the doors as his 'real daughters' to start and the outright scorn from the other residents, it was little to keep her tied to the colony.
Slowly and with care not to make too much noise Uzi slowly worked her way across the snow-covered wastes heading towards the large spire built from the corpses of worker drones that had been slain and likely drained dry of every drop of oil, she kept low and watching the sky knowing that the murder drones often would swoop in from above before going to the kill. Moving slowly and carefully Uzi made her way closer to the corpse spire she worked her way around the outside looking for a way inside.
Pausing briefly she looked up as the spire built from the corpses of worker drones, the eerie tower was not completely dark like one would expect, across its surface and reaching up to the peak blinking red lights existed. Seeing these lights sent a shiver down what would pass as Uzi's spine, it was something all worker drones knew well the red light of the final thing a worker drone visor could display the 'FATAL ERROR' message. Knowing that this message could only displayed put Uzi on edge, it meant those dead worker's corpses had just enough residual power to display that error they might have enough processing power left to feel the simulated approximation of pain programmed into worker drones to ensure they avoided costly hazards.
Uzi let out a shuddering breath to steady her nerves as she crouched behind a large pile of debris, peaking just over to stare into the spire's interior and sitting in the centre bathed in the moonlight that streamed in from a large hole higher up in the tower sat the clawed pod that had brought the murder drones to Copper-9. "You can do this," She told herself glancing around not only the interior of the spire but the derelict buildings, in case the tell-tale yellow lights of a murder drone were watching.
With a final glance around to check Uzi made her way inside the spire, taking care to mind her footing to avoid either tripping or knocking over something that could alert anything she had not spotted on her way in. While everything had seemed to be going her way Uzi had not noticed how the displayed error symbols upon the various dead worker drone visors visible from the spire's walls, nor did she notice the gentle hum reverberating within the spire. If Uzi had noticed the hum now filling the tower she would have connected it to the typical noise linked to data transferred between wireless networks, but with her focus on finding the final part she needed to get her railgun fully working, she just ignored the noise.
Taking her time to sift through the rubble that was lying about the pod it did not take Uzi long to find the part she needed, a microreactor from the look of it as the original one she had scavenged from closer to her colony's bunker had burnt itself out before even firing a shot. Holding the new pulsing green reactor in her hand, a smirk crossed her face, with this new core Uzi was sure her railgun would work as intended.
Working quickly and with a practised ease she began to remove the spent reactor tossing it off to the side before placing the much newer one in its place, it was not a quick process to swap the reactors over and it was one that required Uzi to devote most of her attention to what she was doing. It was this singular focus on her task that led to Uzi failing to notice another figure stalking up behind her, the fact the figure had entered from the hole high up in the spire did not matter as her attention was entirely on installing the reactor. Now standing behind her the figure that was much taller than her peered down watching her connect the last few wires before breaking out into excited giggles as the railgun powered up.
"Ooooh, that looks nifty." The soft masculine voice spoke from the new arrival. "What's it for?"
Uzi was too wrapped up in the fact her railgun was now functional at first and failed to take into account who this new voice likely belonged to, "It's my sick-as-hell-railgun!" a grin spread across her face, "I built it to deal with the murder bots!" Her excitement kept her focus more on the railgun's completion than putting any thought into the second voice's origin right up until she heard a slightly unhinged chuckle, Uzi finally realised that the second voice wasn't in her head.
A slow dawning sense of dread began to rise inside her as slowly Uzi began to look up, only to be greeted by the unsettling grin and sickly yellow X visor display of a murder drone. Oil dripping from the corner of its mouth the scraping noise of its metal claws flexing as it stared down at Uzi, this was not a situation Uzi wanted to be in nor one she was likely to survive. Yet this murder drone hadn't just killed her, was it toying with her dragging out the kill? It didn't matter all that mattered right now was not becoming these robotic nightmares next meal.
Uzi flinched as she felt the murder drone run a hand along her arm, its claws scraping against the soft outer shell and applying just enough pressure to make her wince. Not enough the break the shell at first but any more pressure and the bladed fingers would have definitely drawn oil, the murder drone's other hand came up to the regular drone hand gripping the underside of Uzi's chin effectively immobilising her as the murder drone lent its head down closer to her face. Uzi could feel the heat radiating from the murder drone's touch and while like her and the other worker drones, they did not breathe she could still feel something like hot breath prickling across her visor and outer shell.
"That sounds kind of dangerous don't you think?" The murder drone purred as he moved his syringe-tipped tail around to gently press against Uzi's neck, the tip pressing into the neck casing enough for her to feel but not enough to let her know a sudden move would end badly, "You could hurt someone with that." Taking the bladed hand off Uzi's arm the murder drone returned it to a regular configuration and reached for the railgun. A hand now firmly planted onto the railgun it gave a tug ripping it from Uzi's grip and tossing it off behind the two of them, the railgun clattering off into some dark corner.
"There," The murder drone hummed his grip not loosening as the free hand moved back to holding Uzi tight, "It has been a long time since a worker drone was this close to the spire, especially one like you." The murder drone leaned in closer its mouth inches away from Uzi's neck.
Uzi felt herself reflexively mimic the gulping motion, an automatic response to fear something she cursed mentally just like the fact she had been programmed to simulate sweating, right now though she needed to get out of this murder drone's grip. Her eyes flicked around searching for something, anything she could use to break free from this grip and make a sprint for her railgun, the chance she could escape and win was slim at best, but she'd rather get killed fighting than an easy meal ticket for this thing. It was at that moment she noticed how interested the murder drone was in her neck, taking a moment to think about as too why Uzi felt it, the gentle throb of oil leaking out from a small cut. Something she had likely received from how this thing was handling her, like a slow leak the oil dripped from the small cut on her neck pumping out in a constant rhythm with the ticks of her processor.
Uzi suppressed a shiver and whimper as she felt the murder drone run its warm slippery tongue along her neck tasting the oil that was leaking from the small cut, as it purred at the taste of the vital fluid Uzi came up with a plan. It was crazy, ridiculously dangerous and had a high chance of death, but so did coming here to scavenge and looking at how that had turned out for her what did she have to lose that wasn't already on the line?
"Hmmmm, your oil," The murder drone sighed leaning in closer its fangs scraping against her neck as it spoke, "I have never tasted oil so warm and sweet." Uzi shivered again as the murder drone once more ran its tongue along the slow leak.
Fixing the murder drone's sickly yellow X display with a cold glare Uzi steeled herself for what was likely to happen next she spoke for the first time since the murder drone had grabbed her. "Bite me!" Uzi snarled through gritted teeth, bracing herself for what was to come.
Letting out a maniacal chuckle the murder drone let its mouth spread wide into a huge mocking grin, "Well if you are offering," almost too quick for Uzi to be ready the murder drone moved one hand to the top of her head and another along her arm forcing the arm out and her head to the side giving it easy access to the softer casing of her neck. Her neck was now exposed the murder drone wasted no time in clamping its jaws tightly around her neck easily pricing into the soft flexible metal and beginning to suck the rich oil from her neck.
Uzi let out a sharp gasp in a mix of shock and pain, the feeling of this monster sucking her dry nearly sent her body into painful spasms as she felt the warm lubricant that her body somehow produced being drained. Fighting back the woozy feeling that was threatening to overload her processor and render her just another corpse in the tower, she seized her chance.
With her free hand and as much speed as she could muster Uzi shot the arm out and grabbed the murder drone's syringe-tipped tail, not wasting a single moment she wrenched the tail away from the other side of her neck and brought it around past her face slamming the needle point into the visor of the murder drones face. As the tip of the needle punctured the murder drone's visor it let out a screech of agony and dropped Uzi to the snow-covered ground, before staggering back and pulling its own tail from its visor.
Pressing a hand to her neck in an attempt to stem the flow of oil as best she could, Uzi staggered to her feet glancing around quickly before spotting the green glow from her railgun. Scrambling away from the murder drone as it was still thrashing its syringe tail still logged in its own face, her body running as if it had been overclocked Uzi managed to reach her railgun taking it up in her free hand. Wasting no time Uzi turned around to face the murder drone the railgun haphazardly aimed in its direction, Time seemed to slow down for Uzi as she squeezed the railgun trigger.
The weapon let out a high-pitched whine before a vibrant green beam of energy lanced out from the barrel illuminating the entire inside of the spire, as the beam of green energy lanced out from the railgun's barrel towards the murder drone the overpressure sent a mixture of dust and snow up into the air while also launching Uzi backwards. Making a mental note to never try and fire the railgun a second time one-handed Uzi wasted no time in looking across to wear the murder drone had been standing to be treated by the site or the now headless murder drone topple backwards.
While no one would have faulted Uzi if she celebrated taking down a murder drone, she didn't have that luxury right now, quickly putting her railgun onto her back Uzi kept her hand pressed to the still leaking puncture holes in her neck and stumbled towards the corpse spire's entrance putting as much distance between herself and the spire as she could. Her optics struggling to adapt to the now raging snowstorm outside the tower Uzi found herself stumbling out into this barely able-to-see panting in a combination of exertion, simulated adrenaline and fear. With each step she took Uzi could feel her oil pumping itself out and oozing between her fingers, right now she didn't care too much about being quiet and just needed to find somewhere to bunker down and hope that she could patch the puncture holes before she leaked out enough oil to prove fatal.
Eventually, Uzi found herself stumbling into the back of a derelict truck panting with exertion Uzi moved to prop herself up against the wall hand still clamped around the puncture wound on her neck. Finally allowing herself a moment to feel safe she left a smile grace her face, she'd done it something to her knowledge no other work drone had managed to do. Her, Uzi Doorman had managed to kill a murder drone, it led to her breaking out into a fit of weak giggles as she slid down the truck's inner wall her optics flickering on and off. "Hee, suck on that...Dad." Letting out a shuddering breath Uzi felt herself slip into recharge, her body shutting itself down to conserve its oil supply.
- LINE BREAK -
Today had been different for Serial Designation N or just N for short, it had started like many other regular days since he and the other two disassembly drones Serial Designation V and Serial Designation J had arrived on Copper-9. Like always it had started with J giving him very helpful and constructive criticism about his overall attitude, work ethic and usefulness to the company before he had been ordered to guard the spire while she and V went out to hunt down any worker drones outside their hideyholes.
While boring N never minded guarding the spire it had gotten rather repetitive as of late, so he had taken to patrolling a little further out than normal, hopefully, J wouldn't mind that he had done so. She probably wouldn't especially when he had been able to snag a kill of some random worker drone just standing out in the open. He'd just not tell her or bring it up unless she asked, he could do that.
Yet something had really spiced today up upon his return to the spire, he had found another worker drone, this one actually inside the spire scavenging of all things. Such a bold move if he was being honest and something that piqued his interest, saying nothing about the worker's more unique appearance than most. N had not been able to help himself but sneak up behind the drone and strike up a very one-sided conversation about what she was doing.
It had been during convocation N had managed not only to taste this worker's oil, it had been the sweetest, richest and new on intoxicatingly good oil he had ever tasted. But N had learnt this worker and built something to fight back with, not that it'd matter once he had drunk this worker dry then her little toy would be just another piece of rumble laying about the spire.
That had not been what had happened, however, and what currently led to N lying on his back as the repair nanites inside his body rapidly began repairing his missing head, that worker drone had got the drop on him. They had used his desire to drink her oil and escaped his grip only to blow his head off. This thought bounced around the remains of his processor as the nanites continued their repairs.
"Ow ow ow that hurt," N sat bolt upright rubbing his nearly formed head the moment the nanites had finished repairing him, now repaired N jumped back onto his feet his optics looking around trying to find the worker drone yet there was no immediately obvious sign of the drone. Until he looked down and Saw the splattering of an oil trail leading out into the snowy wastes, well he'd be able to track that worker drone down at least.
"Idiot, get out here!" Or not, N winced at the angry yell from outside the spire, it seemed like J and V were back and by the sound of it, the hunt probably did not go well, knowing better than to keep J waiting N made his way outside the spire.
As N made his way outside he saw J standing there staring down at the trail of oil leading away from the spire, before either N could greet J or J could ask N what had happened V drifted down from up above her wings folding into her back.
V chuckled as she landed walking up towards the pair "Yo, we got an already injured worker running, I kind of want to practice balloon animal shapes with. ...What happened here?" V gestured a bladed claw at the oil and then damage to the spire, damage likely caused by the residue blowback of Uzi's railgun.
"Oh hi V," N cheerfully called out only to get an eye roll in response before turning to face J, who had an already annoyed expression on her face, tapping her fingers on her elbow her arms crossed. "Well J a worker drone was scavenging around the spire, they managed to get away." N gave her a weak smile as J stepped closer examining him her optics narrowing.
"How?" J asked her optics remaining locked onto his, "Did a worker drone manage to get away N?" While J kept her gaze on N wanting an answer V crotched down dipping a bladed finger into the oil puddle on the snow, While J stood there listening to N stumble out a response as to how the worker got away V lifted her now oil coated blade up to her mouth and licked the oil form the blades tip.
"So let me see if I have this straight you Synergistic Liability," J ground out through clenched teeth while staring at a father sheepish N after he had explained what had happened, "Rather than just killing the worker drone you decided to have a nice friendly chat with the toaster then a lovely little drink of oil," Shape paused watching as N sheepishly nodded, "And it used that to not only offline you briefly but escape without it had used to offline you, it that about right?"
N could only nod in response, seeing the look of annoyance already across J's face and knowing if he tried to explain in any greater detail it might just make her angrier, so he decided to keep his mouth shut, while J began to pace back and forth thinking N looked over at V noticing she was standing stock still her visor displaying wide eyes while a single blase finger hung in her mouth.
V gently removed the blade from her mouth as the oil slithered down what was approximately her throat, it was like no other worker drone oil she had drunk since arriving on Copper-9. The oil was intoxicating in its taste, the small slither she had just ingested had done more for her internal temperature than drinking an entire worker drone ever had. She needed to find the source of this oil, V turned to stare at N and J waiting for J to reach a decision about what to do.
"V track this toaster down," J turned to look at the other female disassembly drone, V stood up a grin spreading across her face as J's order, "In one piece, if one of them can build something that can take down then it might have a colony that are like-minded."
V smirked before crouching down and letting her bladed wings unfurl from her back before letting out a manic giggle and launching herself into the air following the trail of oil left on the snowy ground, V let the smirk on her face break out into a wide smile. Oh, she would bring this little worker drone back in one piece, but not before she had a nice long drink of its oil.
While V took flight the follow the oil trail J moved past N stalking into the corpse spire, N following close behind wringing his hands in worry. "So J why'd you want V to bring the worker drone back and not just kill it?" N asked curious about what J wanted with the drone.
J turned to look at N and smirked, "A toaster that was able to make something to bring you down, you misfiled audit is intelligent, more like us than the other toasters, it could be useful or the starter of a real threat to the company," J turned to stare out over the snowy wasteland flicking a pigtail out of her face, "And a threat to the company is a threat to us, so better to nip such a problem in the bud before it can become a real problem.
