Murder Drones: New Models

Five days had passed since J and Izun arrived at the waterfall. During this time, Izun had trained hard and managed to reduce his overheating. Now, under the pounding water, he cooled down in just two and a half minutes instead of five and a half. After several days of trying to strike the waterfall, he had also grown used to the constant pressure of water crashing down from above. As usual, J sat beneath a tree, lost in thought. Her reflections were interrupted when Izun approached. Izun: You can congratulate me! I cut my overheating time down to two and a half minutes! J: I’d praise you if you eliminated it completely. Underwater you cool twice as fast, which means without it you’ve reduced overheating from twelve minutes to five. But five minutes isn’t enough—you’d melt in forty seconds. So it’s better, but still useless. Izun (sadly): I see… J: Enough. Let’s move on. We’ve been traveling for a week, and five of those days were spent here. Izun: Right! I’ll check my strength on that rock again. J: Honestly, I don’t think much has changed. They walked to the boulder Izun had been dragging along the road. The small Drone prepared to strike. J: Hit it with all your strength. Izun: Okay! He swung and struck. Izun (clutching his hand): Aaaah! Ow ow ow!! J: Look! Izun leaned closer and saw a small crack in the stone. Izun: That’s it?! I hoped for more… J: Be glad. Last time you didn’t even leave a dent. Now you’ve made a crack. By my calculations, you’re two and a half times stronger than when we started. Izun: Really?! J: Yes. And for the record, at eight years old you’re already at the level of an adult Worker Drone. Izun: Really? J: Exactly. Izun: Thanks, Aunt J! J: SHUT UP!!! *Power Scale (Main Characters)* 1. J — 60 2. N — 50 3. Ted — 12 4. Izun — 10 / Uzi — 10 5. Khan — 8 J: Let’s go. Izun: Okay! Izun tied the boulder to himself again and followed the Disassembly Drone. After the waterfall’s training, the stone no longer felt so heavy. Together, they entered the great forest. --- Plains Sector — Town of Grass Hamlet RCNC9 — Uzi’s Office Uzi sat studying another document. But her thoughts weren’t on work—they were on N. The whole situation with J gnawed at her. She couldn’t ask N directly because of his schedule. She hadn’t seen him for a week, and her mood had been broken ever since. Suddenly, a knock at the door. Uzi: Who’s there? To her surprise, V entered. V: Hey, purple! Uzi: V?! You’re back from vacation?! V: Yeah. Yesterday. And I heard you’ve been stuck here for a week. Uzi: Well, I have to. V: Of course—the core situation is a total mess. Uzi: Don’t remind me. V (sitting on Uzi’s desk): Why so gloomy? Uzi (forced smile): Oh… nothing. V: You can’t fool me. I can always tell when you’re broken and when you’re cheerful. Uzi (smile fading): It’s J. She showed up. V: WHAT?! J?! Uzi: Yes! Can you believe it? And according to her, she’s been living on the street next to yours for nine years! V: No way! Uzi: I didn’t believe it at first either, but she was convincing. And she has a son! V (shocked): Then why are you sad? That’s good news! We thought she was dead somewhere. By the way, who’s the father of her son? I just want to know who managed to live with her. Uzi: That’s exactly why I’m broken. V (leaning on the desk): Okay… Uzi told her everything that happened the night J came to their house, where Izun was now, and what she suspected. After hearing the Worker Drone’s story, V stood silently and walked to the door. She paused in the doorway. Uzi: Don’t tell N anything! I’ll say it myself… maybe. V: Fine. *leaves, closing the door. Her display glows angrily as she clenches her fists* You bastard, N. You’ll pay. --- Taiga — 63 km from Izun’s Home Izun: It’s beautiful here, but the bushes and local flora clearly don’t like us. J: What did you expect? This is the taiga sector—two thousand kilometers of wild nature. Izun: And we have to cross all two thousand?! J: No. Otherwise our journey would take five years instead of two, because we’d have to return. Izun: And when will we return? J: We’ll walk for a year, wherever the road takes us. Then we’ll stop in a town. And the remaining year we’ll spend returning. Izun: Got it. Maybe we should stop? It’s already getting dark. J: Fine. I was about to suggest the same. ***INTERESTING FACT: The taiga sector is made up of towering spruces with massive trunks in width. The ground is covered with countless bushes, many of them thorny. This sector is highly valued by builders, since it contains an enormous supply of timber, and the trees grow at an incredible rate—especially during the summer season. In the mornings, a mist often drifts across the ground, creating an eerie atmosphere. Because sunlight refracts through the spruce needles, the sky in this sector appears to have a light‑green hue, giving the entire landscape a surreal, almost enchanted look*** /Night\ Izun sat by the fire, warming himself. J stayed a little farther away, hidden in the shadows. Izun: Honestly, I felt more comfortable sleeping back in the stone sector. J: Why’s that? Izun: Well, if I couldn’t sleep, the starry sky was always visible. J: I see. Enjoy the peace while you can. Izun: Why? J: Just a warning. Back in the Frost Era, peace was impossible for Disassembly Drones. There was no Freezer. We had to kill Worker Drones and drink their oil to avoid overheating. Izun: No way! J: I’m serious. Izun immediately recalled times at home when there was no Freezer, and his father suffered from overheating. He would ask Izun to leave the room, stay inside with his mother, and later emerge fine—while she looked exhausted. Now Izun understood why. His thoughts were interrupted by the crunch of branches in the distance. Izun: What was that? J: How should I know? I’ll check. You go to sleep. Izun: Okay. J flew into the forest. Izun switched to sleep mode. She scouted the area but saw no one. Landing in a clearing, she scanned with her sensors. Movement registered. Heading toward it, she was suddenly caught by a rope that bound her spikes and left her hanging upside down from a tree. J: What the hell?! A trap! Footsteps approached. J quickly pulled her costume down with one hand to cover herself, since hanging upside down exposed her body. With the other, she tried to switch to her weapon, but nothing worked. She felt weakened. A Worker Drone carrying a fire axe approached the helpless J. --- Izun found himself in a crowd of Drones, staring at a Worker Drone standing against a wall. She lifted her head and looked straight into his display. ?: You have a bright future. Keep my drawings and look at them again in fifteen years. Then you’ll remember me—and maybe we’ll meet again. A male voice shouted: ?: Raise weapons! Aim! Fire! The Worker Drone’s body was riddled with holes, oil spilling out. Izun: NO!!!! --- Izun jolted awake by the fire. Izun: Damn! That dream again! Last time was half a year ago… I’d forgotten. But it’s back. looks around Aunt J?! Silence. Then footsteps nearby. Izun sensed danger and extinguished the fire. Peering out, he saw a Drone dragging something. Izun followed carefully. They reached a clearing. Izun hid behind a rock. The Drone was dragging a sack soaked in oil. Izun: What the…? Through a hole in the sack, Izun saw white fur—and black ribbons tangled in it. The same ribbons J used for her braids. The Drone also carried a fire axe stained with oil. Izun realized this Drone might be a killer, and J his victim. Tears welled up as he hid. Meanwhile, J—with her hair loose—returned to the camp, not noticing Izun or the extinguished fire. J: Hm. Where? Hey! Izun! Where are you, brat?! Damn it! spreads her wings and flies back the way she came Izun peeked again. Only the sack, axe, and shovel remained. Izun: Where…? A hand touched his shoulder. He turned—and saw the same figure. Izun: Aaaah! Terrified, he kicked the stranger in the stomach, sending him crashing into a tree. Izun rushed to the sack, trying to untie it, but failed. The figure recovered and approached. Izun (backing away): Don’t come closer! hands glowing green, charging his photon beam ?: Whoa! Easy, kid! Izun: Why did you kill Aunt J?! ?: Who? I didn’t kill anyone! I’m just the forest undertaker. I guard the woods from poachers and dispose of dead animals. Izun (calming, canceling the beam): Really? Undertaker: Really. You must mean that Disassembly Drone who got caught in my trap? Izun: Yeah… probably. Undertaker: I freed her. She went back the way she came. Izun: Then what’s in your sack? Undertaker (opening it): Look. Inside lay a dead animal with white fur, like a giant hare. Izun: B-but why are J’s ribbons in there? Undertaker: Ribbons? Oh! I must’ve forgotten to give them back. Izun: Oh… Undertaker: If you know her, please return them. Izun (taking the ribbons): Thanks. And… sorry for hitting you! Undertaker: It’s fine. You’re a kid—you were scared. Though for a kid, your kick was awfully strong. Anyway, go on. Izun: Okay! runs off, waving Good luck! Undertaker (smiling, waves back): Izun dashed through the forest. Izun: Great… now J’s going to scold me. Suddenly, he collided with someone rushing toward him. Looking up, he saw J. J (rubbing her head): Ow… how did I not see you? Izun: Aunt J? J: First—DON’T CALL ME THAT! Second—how many Disassembly Drones do you know around here? Of course it’s me. Izun: I figured from the first point. Izun hugged her. After two seconds, she pulled away. J: Enough with the affection. Izun: By the way, I’ve never seen you with your hair down. J: Seriously? Oh, damn, right! Where are my ribbons?! Izun (hands them over): Here. J: Oh, thanks. takes them and begins braiding her signature style Izun: How did they end up with the undertaker? J: When I went to check the noise, I got caught in a trap. Hanging upside down, I tried to free myself but couldn’t… Izun: A rope stopped you? J: Not just rope. It was wire made of Ootsuri Copper. Izun: What’s that? J: Our planet Copper‑9 is named for its high copper content. Near the core lies a unique copper called Ootsuri Copper. It’s like normal copper but harder. When Worker and Disassembly Drones began living in peace, Workers were still wary. With our help, they forged weapons from Ootsuri Copper—just in case. The wire blocks our inventory and wings, disables receptors, and reduces strength depending on concentration. That old man had strong wire—it cut my power fivefold. But once I explained we weren’t poachers, just travelers, he freed me. To release my spikes, he had to press them, so I used my ribbons. They must’ve fallen into his sack. Damn, I didn’t notice I was flying with my hair loose. Izun: I see. I was scared you’d been killed. J: Even in that state, killing me is very difficult. Izun: I’ll remember that. J (finishing her braids): Perfect. Now let’s return to camp.