Murder Drones: New Models

Taiga — 75 km from Izun’s Home Izun: Look, Aunt J! A lake! J: Don’t call me that! But the fact you noticed the lake is very convenient. Izun: Are we going to it? J: Not just that. Izun: What else? J: We’re going to swim. Well—only you. Izun: Hooray! runs toward the lake Reaching the water, Izun stepped in a little. Izun: Ugh. Cold. Behind him came the sound of wood cracking. Turning, the purple Drone saw a massive tree falling toward him. He leapt out of the water onto the shore and dashed aside. Izun: What was that?! J: Oops! Sorry! I was chopping down a tree. Izun: Well, you should be more careful, Aunt J. J: Call me that again and the next thing I chop down will be you. Izun (folding his arms): Meanie. --- Plains Sector — Town of Grass Hamlet RCNC9 At that time, N stepped out for another break. He closed the locker room door and headed toward the bench. But his walk was interrupted by an angry V. V (furious): Finally, I caught you on break. N (cheerful): Hey, V! How was your vacation?! V: Mine was fine, but yours is about to get very bad! N (surprised, a drop of fear): What do you mean? V: Tell me how you had fun with J! N (thinking): How does she know about that? Did Uzi tell her? What do you mean “had fun”? What are you…?! V (angrier): Don’t play dumb! I know J came back—and that you two have a son! N (panicking): What are you talking about?! We don’t have a son! V: And now you’re denying it! Did you even think about Uzi?! N: V! I can explain! You see, J herself wouldn’t have wanted it, so I… um… V (shocked, mouth open): Y-you mean… you had a son against her will? N (confused): What? V (covering her mouth): You… against her will… forced her… N (finally realizing): Wait! That’s NOT true! The Disassembly Drone began slowly backing away, then quickly walked off, glancing back at N. N: V, what’s wrong? Where are you going? V: Don’t follow me! Or you’ll force me against the wall too! If you managed that with J, who’s stronger than you, then me—who’s weaker—would be an easy target. N (following): Wait! What are you saying?! V (breaking into a run): And you used to be in love with me! Surely now that I’ve exposed you, even though I have two children, you wouldn’t spare me! N stopped, watching V run away, leaving him alone in the corridor. N (falling to his knees, sobbing, then shifting to rage, raising his arms and shouting): DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! --- Power Scale (Main Characters) 1. J — 60 2. N — 50 3. V — 40 4. Thad — 12 5. Izun — 10 / Uzi — 10 6. Khan — 8 --- Izun watched closely as J worked with the wood. Eventually, before his eyes appeared a small boat carved from a tree trunk. J: Done! Izun: Is that… a boat? J: Not “a boat.” It is a boat. Izun: And why do we need it? J: You’ll see. Now take that boulder you’ve been dragging and load yourself onto the boat with it. Izun gave her a strange look, but eventually climbed aboard with the chunk of stone. J pushed the boat, and once it was on the water, she jumped in. They drifted toward the center of the forest lake. Izun (looking into the water): So why are we here? J: Because now comes a dangerous training. Izun: Dangerous? How? J (tying the stone with a vine): Dangerous in the sense that if you don’t try hard enough—you’ll die. Izun (shocked, terrified): Wh-what?! J: Ready? There’s no turning back. Izun: W-well… I guess so. J: Excellent. J tied the vine to Izun’s body, then placed her hand on his shoulder. J: Don’t fail me. With a sharp motion, she took off into the air. The boat spun 360 degrees, and after the flip Izun was gone—while J calmly landed back on the boat. Izun was terrified by the suddenness, not realizing at first that he was sinking fast. He tried to swim upward, but couldn’t—the cursed boulder was tied to him. Izun (muffled underwater): Mmm… mmm… No words came out, and his strength was failing. Was this the end? ***INTERESTING FACT: Drones do not require gas to breathe. They can sense odors and the dryness of the surrounding atmosphere, but actual breathing is unnecessary—they are machines, after all. This means they can hold their breath indefinitely. The problem arises in liquids: despite not needing air, Drones can still drown. Their bodies contain tiny gaps that lead inside the chassis, and when water fills them, the sensation is essentially the same as a human drowning. One advantage, however, is that Drones lack organic visual organs. As a result, they can see underwater without difficulty, unaffected by the distortions or limitations that humans experience*** The purple Drone looked around, but aside from the darkness faintly lit by scattered rays of sunlight, he saw nothing. Glancing upward, he realized he was drifting farther and farther from the surface, until finally he felt the impact of the stone against the ground—he had reached the dark bottom. Every second spent here grew worse. Opening his system parameters, Izun saw that his body was filled with water at 34%, and the number, along with the dreadful sensations, continued to rise. There was only one way out: try to untie himself from the stone and leave it forever at the bottom. But the vine was stronger than it seemed. What distracted him from struggling was a vibration in the water around him. Perhaps his tactical training with J had sharpened his sensitivity to the environment. Looking closer, he froze in horror—a massive creature swam past, resembling an Earth shark but with differences: glowing eyes, semi-organic, semi-mechanical limbs, and enormous size. Izun (thinking): Oh, damn! It passed by, then—like in a horror film—suddenly turned toward him. After pausing for six seconds, it sprinted at him like a predator, jaws opening wide. Terrified, Izun forced out every ounce of strength, and to his surprise, despite the stone, he began swimming upward at great speed. The shark-like beast missed and slammed into the bottom, stunned for a few moments. Meanwhile, Izun’s system warned that his body was now 75% filled with liquid. J, all this time, sat calmly on the boat, sharpening her claws and blades from her remaining arsenal. When she noticed bubbles rising in front of her, she looked toward them. Out of the water appeared Izun’s head, his display covered by wet purple hair. Izun: Aunt J, help me!!! J: If you hadn’t called me “Aunt,” I would have. Izun: Please! There’s…! Before he could finish, the massive shark burst from the water, mouth wide, aiming to land on the boat and drag J with it. But the Disassembly Drone didn’t hesitate—switching her claws for a large grenade launcher, she fired straight into its throat. The beast exploded mid-air, torn to pieces. Bones and entrails rained down into the water beside Izun. Instead of blood or oil, a golden, sticky liquid—like tree resin—splattered everywhere. J (shocked): What the hell was that?! Izun: I don’t kn… Relaxing, Izun forgot the stone still dragged him down. Izun (thinking): Damn! Gathering his strength again, he swam up and reached the boat, climbing aboard with the stone still tied. His system reported water draining from his chassis, stabilizing his functions. Izun: Whew! Thought I was done for. J (unties the stone): Well done. You managed. Now take us to shore. Izun: What do you mean? J: I’ll tie you to the boat—you’ll swim us to shore. Izun: But I can’t swim! I don’t even know how I surfaced just now! J: Not my problem. You’ll have to learn. Izun: And what if more of those things show up?! I want to live! J: They shouldn’t be in lakes like this. Their habitat is in the sea sector, and even there they’re rare. Eventually, J harnessed Izun as the boat’s engine. He had no choice but to swim, dragging the vessel along. J: You’re awfully slow. Izun (struggling, choking on water): I can’t anymore! J (stroking her chin, scanning the lake): Oh! Look—another fish! Izun: AAAAAHHHH!!! Suddenly, Izun surged forward at incredible speed, like a motorboat, swimming better than professional athletes. J worried the vine might snap from the force—or that she’d be thrown into the water. --- Evening J sat closer to the fire than usual, holding a long stick with Izun’s clothes drying over the flames. The purple Drone sat naked by the fire, hugging his knees. J: Why so gloomy? Izun: Why did you kill that shark-mech? J: It tried to eat us. So I killed it. Izun: But… it felt wrong. J: Oh, don’t start! You remind me of your father when he was young—soft-hearted! Among killers! Izun: Tell me about my father during the Frost Era. This was important to Izun. He had long realized that Ted’s story—that N met Uzi during the Thaw Era—was a lie. J (smiling faintly): He was hopeless. His behavior was more like a child than a Disassembly Drone. Social, too—which annoyed me and V. In short, a fool. Izun: And how did he meet my mother? J: Thanks to that meeting, we live today in peace. Izun: Interesting. J: She, like all Worker Drones, hid in a bunker, afraid of us. Then she snapped—decided to kill us. She built a railgun from scrap, left her shelter, and came to our base. At that time, N arrived, while V and I were hunting. She shot his head clean off—literally. Later, we returned and rebooted him. After his head was restored, his recognition system was broken, so he didn’t realize your mother was a Worker Drone. That’s why he didn’t kill her. Then, thanks to her recklessness, we infiltrated the bunker. N sided with her. A battle followed. They tied up V, and me… well, I underestimated them, and they killed me. Izun: WHAT?! Then how are you…?! J: Alive? I was restored on Earth using my backup copy. During the Thaw Era, humans sent Disassembly Drones along with a machine that stored three backups for each of us. It’s still kept somewhere near your city. Izun: So each Disassembly Drone can be revived three times? J: Yes. Izun: Cool! J: But not in all cases. You can’t be revived if you die from wear, what humans call old age, or from disease. Izun: I see. That’s why Disassembly Drones are so strong. Damn! I’ll have to work hard to be like that. J: You want to be that strong? Ha! Never in your life! I don’t believe it! Izun: Maybe if you trained me properly—instead of torturing me under the guise of training! J (smile vanishes): Torturing? Me?! Do you even know what we went through to become this strong?! Our training was monstrous! We weren’t used to our new bodies, yet they pushed us until we begged for death! Then, to make us true killers, they erased our memories! And for what?! For what did we obey so blindly?! Just to be puppets of one deranged Worker Drone from the trash who never valued kindness?! Izun: Sorry! I didn’t mean it! J (calming): Fine. And sorry for yelling. Just understand—those trainings were only the tip of the iceberg compared to what we endured. Unlike us, you choose to be stronger. Right? Izun (nods): J: Good. sets the stick beside him Put your clothes on—they’re dry. Izun: Thanks. --- Night J was already asleep, while Izun busied himself near the lake. He had built a small wooden cross and fixed into it a large tooth from the shark-mech, which he had picked up after it exploded. Izun: There. Rest in peace. Even though you tried to eat me, you fought to survive. And you were the only one of your kind here. I hope you sleep peacefully.