KAX Unit Folder

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Beep… beep… beep… beep…

The quiet beeping of the radar on a continuous scan filled the air, coupled with the muffled sound of tracks rolling over snowy grounds and half-buried junk. The undertone of the low growl of the rumbling engine a few steps clashed with the whistling of the howling winds of a blinding blizzard outside the vehicle… 

— “You wanna call me that to my face b***h!? You wanna talk smack you ugly h**!? Come on b***h say it again! Say it again!!”

…and to ruin it all, the disturbance caused by someone’s self-centered preference, having the volume far too high on their obnoxious shows. Nat climbed her seat to face the back of the truck where the open passage to the med-bay was open. There, K laid on the stretcher with a show playing on the fixed tablet of the room.

— “Do you have to play your stupid middle-aged drone shows so loudly!? The radio stopped working, and that thing isn’t playing music if you’re hogging it!” Nat screeched.

— “Shut up!” K shouted.

— “I’m getting a sense of Deja-vu, I wonder why.” A commented with a decent amount of sarcasm. “Right. Why are you on the stretcher? Your legs were back in place three days ago, is it that hard to be in the same room as X?”

— “I don’t wanna hear their boring crap, much less watch it! I’m allowed to be here, and use this. You were the one that complained a stretcher isn’t comfortable to sleep on, so be glad you aren’t on it!”

Rolling her eyes, the driver would look over to the dash of the co-pilot, watching the radar make rounds without detecting anything unusual, and the compass pointed slightly off north. They had been driving in a single direction for a while now, and seeing mainly desolate structures with no signs of activity or many resources to take from inside. Thus, their current path was geared towards a city several kilometers away, one they had to cross dead forests, frozen waters and ghost towns to reach, but possibly hosting bountiful areas to raid, and drones to put out of commission. 

A turned the wheel slowly, adjusting the direction of the truck to match the direct line of the north indicator on the compass, then glanced at the screen with the map, seeing it was a long straight shot ahead and needed no line of sight to reach.

— “Judging by how far the map reads us from… I’d say we are about 326 kilometers away from the city. It’s a straight forward drive from here, though we may need to refuel at some point, stop by a bunch of vehicles, or search for one of those gas pumps out here.” A explained in great detail, pointing to the map for further elaboration.

— “Oh shoot, didn’t think we were low so soon– let’s keep going until we are almost dry, maybe we can find cars along the way and try pulling the gas from inside of them!”

— “Should I tell X we’ll need help to thaw fuel without losing any of it for the truck?”

— “We can do it later! His turn to drive with K will start in uh…” Nat glances at a clock on the wall, one that had not moved in a while. “...Soon enough! Let’s keep going and see where to stop laters!”

And with an obedient nod, A focused on the path ahead. 

But not too long after their conversation, something, soon, would prove to be badly amiss. 

The vehicle began to sway from side to side, the thick white blanket along the ground quaked, and the frozen terrain caused the truck to begin losing the path intended, as the compass shook around trying to match the direction desired. 

Nat, while taken aback by the sudden movement, would try to hold onto the console and remain on her seat with her eyes locked over the radar. It was starting to flicker and malfunction, yellow pop-ups flashing and vanishing before she could read the text in them, but nothing was being picked up as intended. 

A tried to stretch her neck to see the same, but in trying to hold the truck steady, she would be forced to focus on fighting the mechanism as it bounced up and down, shifted side to side, tossed along the slippery ground.

K… just held still since the tablet was well mounted on the wall, holding on better than most of the crew and equipment.

— “What is this earthquake!? It's bad– I can't keep the truck steady!” A claimed during her desperate efforts to pull the wheel back to, or even stop the truck lest they end up driving into something hidden in the blizzard.

The leader looked around through every window as if anything would be visible near, or even far off in the distance, muttering things impossible to hear over the rumbling of the ground shaking– but just as suddenly as this seismic phenomenon began, it unexpectedly seized, and the truck was left skating sideways on an incline.

— “We’re on a slope! Hold on!!”

The tracks slid down a speedy descent, the whole vehicle turning sideways, but soon began to slow down as the ground evened out beneath them all. All screens and lights in the cab went haywire, the map distorted entirely and was rendered useless, just like the compass and radar which were completely disabled. Even the light above was barely functional, but the noise of an inconsiderate viewer remained.

— “The tablet survived!? Shut that thing up or I’ll kick your butt!!”

— “Go f*** yourself!!”

Choosing to ignore the pair, A attempted to reboot anything in reach, but saw no results. The screens continued to behave the same. The engine was still perfectly functional at least.

Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!

— “Nat!? A!? Are you both still alive in there!?” X called out from outside, his red eyes visible from the bottom of the window on the door.

— “We’re a-okay! I survived, A is well, K is fine!”

— “If only.” X hissed between his teeth. “The caravan was left a mess back there, everything thrown around!”

— “Maybe we should take a break and camp here…” A comments, aware that her attempts on fixing the system were turning out futile.

— “Maybe.” Nat opened the door to meet X and the prisoner. “We’ll set camp here for a bit, the radar is all ker-fuffled, and the compass and everything, so just move everything so we can all head back there! Now shoo!”

—

The team (except K) moved into the caravan, with everything tossed and turned out onto the ground. Now organizing everything, they discussed what to do about the electronics up on the front. They had no way to navigate terrain in these conditions and no sense of orientation from the thick blizzard all around them, so repairing any of the equipment and getting themselves back on track was their only option.

— “So the map is all wonky, the compass is dead and the radar is completely out. Anyone got ideas?”

The majority of the group remained quiet, gazes going around between Nat, A and X, some landing upon Boone but his eyes were fixed on the wall contrary to him either way. — Raising his hand, X offers a solution. “Maybe the system just needs to recalibrate! If we hold the antennas mounted–” — “Alright, that's just dumb, anyone else?”

Baffled by being shrugged off in such a way, X turned to look at Boone in disbelief. He wanted to complain but knew that the leader would get the final word. Nat turned to A, and leaned in closer with a contemplative finger on her chin. — “Hooow about we do something with the internals?”

— “Like..?” — “You know, the wires and the thingies, all that stuff inside the dash? Surely you can unplug and move some things around in there!”

— “Nat, the system is likely to be scrambled badly, and it seems we have something worse in there. We’d need to hard-reboot the systems and calibrate everything first.” A refutes, recalling the manner the programs on the front behaved before going down.

— “Theeen maybe we can try fixing what is making them act all wonky, then just work using the programs themselves! You know how to access the… the uh…” Losing the word, Nat snapped her fingers a few times. “The thing! For adding orders for the thing to do!” — Both A and X, puzzled, would give a plain “Huh?” and “The what?”

— “That thing where you go into the system as like- a more boss-tier and can tell it to do more things!”

— “That doesn’t help!” X exclaims.

And in the middle of what felt like a game of charades where Nat had all liberty to explain properly, and somehow failed to do so, Boone looked over to A, who looked ready to burst into flames out of sheer confusion, and leaned in closer.

— “The command-and prompt.”

— “Uh? The command prompt…? Right! Right right! Boone said it! The command prompt, we can try getting the systems to reboot directly through there! And– X knows how to do that! Right...?”

— Having the ball thrown at him out of the blue, X stammered, choking out a direct: “No the hell I don’t!? Why me? Do you!?”

— Flustered at being called out, A looked away with a hand to hide her shame, cursing under her breath. “If I did I would be on my way by now you jerk.”

— “Just go in and hit whatever!!” Nat squeaked in a high voice, all three seemingly about to break into another argument.

— “I can-n try.” Boone said with his stare still off into the distance.

— And simultaneously, they all turned and begged. “PLEASE”

Skipping a couple of minutes ahead, K could be heard letting out light chuckles over the pointless drama happening in his shows as he continued to slack off, uninterested in the arrival of both the prisoner and the headache of the team to the cab to fix the system. With a toolbox in X’s hands, and Boone already inspecting the dash, the worker would spot traces of pop-ups forming amongst the pixels, and vanishing shortly after. Something was messing with the system, and was better off purged.

— “Screwdriver.”

After undoing a metal panel on the front, and exposing an array of wiring and a few switches, Boone got to work. He followed wires, hit a few switches and turned a couple knobs here and there, all with the light of his helmet to make things easier. A few clicks more, and all the screens went dark.

— “Oh– everything left.”

— “Where to?” Boone so naturally enquired.

— “They– oh shush. The screens turned off.” X huffed.

— “I know-ow.” A click came from below the dash.

— “Okay everything is back on now.”

A few more adjustments now, with X overseeing the displays and Boone fine-tuning the system, and the two would manage to make the map run first out of everything, showing the map and where the truck was pointed through wavering signals.

The truck had been turned directly west of the trajectory they had been following, but was not too far off course since the earthquake. The engine was still functional despite everything, so the two settled on notifying the rest and focusing on getting back en route. The two stepped out of the cab, and moved to the entrance of the caravan–

zzzzzzZZ-

CRNNNCK!!!!!

The back of the truck was crushed from the side out of nowhere by something that zipped through the air, crushing the wall, destroying the engine, and dealing significant damage to the middle area of the truck from the impact. K said nothing, but his ire was evident: The tablet was torn in two, destroyed upon impact by the mounting deforming around it.

— “Oh dear…” X mumbled. 

SLAM

— “X WHAT THE FLIP FLOPPING FRICK DID YOU DO!?” Nat screeched.

— “I DID– WAH– Boone!?”

The worker picked and set X behind him as the impact area began to produce a faint scraping sound. Something was in the landing zone, and it was currently trying to claw its way out from the caved-in metal. Nat looked to the two, becoming aware that this could be important, and rushed in to pull A along. 

All four now stood at the side of the truck with weapons drawn. Boone’s plows, X with a blowtorch and hammer, A with a saw and a bone-cutter, and Nat taking cover behind the trio. All three, on high alert…

A claw reached from the inside, and gripped onto a torn edge of the walls, and began to pull from below… And out from within came a set of lights akin to A’s yellow eyes, flickering. The figure stood above them, and began to shamble ahead, its heavily damaged visor riddled with error signs all across, and its hands scratching at the sides as it stepped off the truck, illuminated by Boone’s helmet light, approaching with slow steps towards the team…

But before they knew it, this thing's tail, would erratically thrash around with no pattern, until the razor sharp tip thrust itself deep into its own chest, and pulled trying to free itself from the host’s body. It seemed to struggle, likely wedged awkwardly inside and unable to pull away as much as it tried, leading this drone to stumble, stagger, grasp at the tail and eventually, collapse. Its headband dimmed until dark, while its visor remained full of warning signs.

— After a solid minute of watching it motionless, Nat spoke up from the back. “...Let’s just set up camp for now.”

Everyone was now outside of the truck or caravan, busy with something of their own; X made an impromptu bonfire out of items that weren’t vital in the caravan, as even the battery connected to power the lights were crushed inside the truck. Boone was put to inspect the crash site under A’s request, seeing if the engine was truly a lost cause. K, grouchy as always, was given a flashlight to search for the food containers so they could all eat once done, and lastly, Nat and A were together closely to the fire, inspecting the drone on the ground. 

— “It looks like us.” A pointed out.

— “Yeah, it kinda does…”

— “The damage… broken visor, dented body, joints dislocated or outright broken, this tail… It looks like it had a sort of glass container here, but there’s only small shards still left on the edges, and it's connected to the spike here.”

— “But it’s not dead, right?”

— “I don’t think so. Impressive to be in this condition but not actually dead.”

X called out from his side of the bonfire towards Boone for an update as the two continued their inspection and diagnosis.

— “Boone! How’s the truck looking?”

— A intervened with her own belief of the damages. “I don’t think the truck will be able to run, it looks bad even from here. We might be stranded for now, it’s too dark, and who knows if there’s anything hunting out here. We’ll need to stay in the caravan after this.”

— Boone faced the bonfire. “Engine tot-t-alled. Wiring t-to the cara-c-caravan severed beyond repair-r. The cab still has-s power.” 

K stepped out from the caravan with a box of food under his arm and the flashlight in the other, pointing it at Boone for no reason before giving his own two cents about the matter. 

— “So, stranded then! What will a busted up engine, a caravan with no power and a freak coming down from the sky earn us?” He dropped the box directly beside the fire. “Nothing! We’re screwed, and might as well just start building coffins like humans used to!”

— “But the prisoner said we still got power! Didn’t you both fix that stupid dash?” Nat enquired X, to which both nodded. “So we aren’t completely aimless! If we just go in there, look around, beep beep boop beep a few things, maybe we can find another truck, and keep heading for the city!”

Nobody had objections on the matter.

— “Great! A, go with X and look for anything of use out here on the map, and warn us if the radar says anything is near!” 

— “The radar isn’t reaaally working no… or the compass… orrr…”

— “Great, just go see what there is, X.” She insisted with an annoyed grumble.

And so, they moved into the cab leaving the door open. Boone and K stood a good distance away from one another around the fire, waiting for news to arrive. Nat however would hover over this strange drone on the ground attentively. Something caused her interest to gravitate towards it, but what was it? Was it that it looked so akin to the very team members she was the leader of? Or that it was in such condition, but clearly still alive? She picked up its hand; the long, sharp claws had edges like no other. She grazed her finger over it, and saw how even the lightest slide along the blade made a cut. She knew what everyone carried, all their tools and weapons, yet only these claws had such sharpness. She looked deep into the visor, the yellow of it, and although she couldn’t quite spot what made this drone special, she felt it was important, meaningful. She put a hand to its cheek, deep in thought…

— “Nat! We found somewhere we can go!” X called out from inside the truck.

— “You did!?” She raised her head. “Both of you, come here and tell us while we eat!”

— “And hurry!! I’m starving and I’ll tear off this tall freak’s arm and eat it if you don’t!!” K warned, earning from Boone a roll of his eyes.

The group gathered around the fire and began passing cans of batteries to each one, except for Boone, who under his title of prisoner was excluded. X disagreed with this, and went around to retrieve a second can for him. 

— “Oh, you’re giving him a ration?” A asked while reaching into the box.

— “Yup, he’s been helping a lot so he earned it.”

— “True, here.” 

— “Really treating the prisoner, don’t you think?” K disparagingly remarked.

— “Well if we can feed rabid drones like you then a helpful prisoner can get food too!” 

K looked daggers at X for that comment, referring to him as rabid as if he were some sort of guard dog in this team. He almost got up to get physical over the comment when he was interrupted by none other than the leader, calling him out.

— “K! Don’t fight him!”

— “Why!? If I gotta deal with his stupid comments, I might as well see if he’ll do it to my face!”

— “No need! You’re my best fighter here, and we are in the middle of nowhere. So shove those batteries into your mouth because I need my strongest member fed and ready to kill things if we are attacked!”

With his tail stiff and a scowl, K sat back down, removed the tin can’s lid, threw it away and shoved a couple batteries into his mouth to hold back from cussing out X outside of his head. The other simply shook his head and handed the rations to Boone. 

A moment of silence formed as everyone focused on their meal, looking into the waving flames at the center of the circle. A knew she had to give the news of a possible plan of action now that the truck was busted, but as she pieced together how to present it…

Loud booming and rumbling began to echo in the distance…

—  Looking around, X spoke up first. “What is that..?”

And before they could ponder any further on the source… the ground began to shake again, more violent than the last, the truck rattling with all the contents within being thrown around before rocks and pebbles began to fly their way.

— “Another earthquake and now things flying here! Take cover!”

— “Crap– Everyone to the caravan!” X orders. “Come on Boo– BOONE!?” He squeaks as he is picked up and carried inside.

At the steps, A turned to see the leader still on her knees down on the ground, her stare fixed on the distance. “Nat!! Get the hell over here!!” Upon receiving no response, A rushed back out to pull Nat awake, being followed by X and Boone.

A fell near Nat trying to stay up on her feet, calling out her name again and causing her to wake up. X rushed to bring A back in, Boone rushed to pick up the unconscious drone from the snow, and all rushed inside. A squall rushed through the outside of the caravan, with what sounded like debris crashing upon its side repeatedly, colliding like a bullet storm with the exterior, denting it or blowing the windows in. Everyone waited low to the ground as the chaos continued in the relentless shaking, and only rose back up as it began to subside.

The entire group remained speechless, waiting for any further movement to follow, and once it seemed to be truly over, everyone looked to one another.

— The first to break the silence was Nat. “...Sorry– sorry! I guess I just zoned out a little hard, my bad…!” She tried laughing it off, but that answer seemed carelessly ignorant in A’s eyes.

— “Eww why’d you bring that thing inside?” K complained, kicking the unconscious drone on the floor, whose display had turned off fully.

— “Oh you brought him in! Ehh- Who did? The prisoner?” Nat, uncertain of what to say just… gave him a thumbs up and a faint smile. “Awesome! Okay uhm– We probably lost a box of food and the fire is probably out, but we should focus on the important part!”

Nat stood at the window, watching as the blizzard had cleared out a little more, and the glow of Copper 9’s moon began to slowly seep into the trailer.

— “A!” The leader dramatically turns, pointing at the doctor. “Did you find anything of use from the map earlier?”

— “Affirmative! X and I browsed the nearby area that the map could still locate, and from what we can tell, at about 38 klicks from here heading… that way, there’s something.” A vaguely points in a general direction.

— “What did you two find?"

— “From what we can tell, it might be a sort of facility we can take refuge in, maybe another mining facility.”

— “Alright! For tonight, we’ll have to rest here, hope the winds don’t get funky again in the morning, and then we’ll head off. I’ll set turns!”

Thus, with two inflatable mattresses, the couch, the integrated bed, and a set of blankets, five beds were set for each member. For two hours, Nat would keep watch alone, and after that, X and Boone, then A and K, until tomorrow dawn.

As everyone entered sleep mode, Nat descended the caravan making as little noise as possible, moving to the front into the cab of the truck before the dash, where the map was still on display.

— “Singing bell, where’d you go…?” Nat utters.

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Thank you so much for reading chapter 3 of this project! We hope it was a good read and that the work put into it enhances the reading experience. I (Mod Neil) personally want to thank Andrew and Noi for their beautiful work with both the art and the styling of this chapter. It really gives so much more pizzazz to the story having their help and this project wouldn't be half as fun to make without em~

See you next chapter!

Credits

Writing: Neil

Art: Andrew

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— “YOU’RE DEAD!!!”

A hostile voice calls, the silhouette of a drone before the work lights, the figure of a long coat and the unmistakable shape of a chain and a dangling ball in place of the left hand of this newly arrived drone. Despite the intensity of its call, the worker looked over to X and pointed lightly, asking wordlessly.

— “It’s just a co-worker, a super dramatic one so don’t- don’t pay him too much mind, let’s turn our lights off, and try walking by alright?” X cut the flame from his tail, and Boone shut the flashlight off.

— “Hey don’t ignore me you d***! Why is that dope still alive?! You were supposed to kill him and leave whatever the hell you found outside! AND I CAN STILL SEE YOUR EYES!!”

— “Crap– I was going to fetch everything after! Do you not see how long this tunnel is!?” He rebutted with an arm towards the void behind the two.

— “You’re so stupid I swear– I CAN ONLY SEE. YOUR. GOD DAMN. EYES!!”

As both X and K began a shouting match over who was right on a victorless battle, Boone decided that it was best to follow X’s advice and ignore the other. He began to roll ahead with an awful racket alongside him, only being taken notice of once the glow of the work lights reached him. In response to this insolent display, K swung the flail directly at the head of the worker, who was just out of reach, and did not react as the rough metal swingle barely missed his goggles.

— “Where do you think you’re going? You’re a runaway, hoarding whatever is down here, so sit still you idiot.”

— “Hey hey hey! Leave him alone!” X called out and ran to Boone’s side, standing in front of him with his arms open. “There’s no reason to kill him, he has been stuck here for 2 years doing nothing but digging a tunnel!”

— “3 years.”

— “Yeah that!”

— “I don’t care! You heard Nat, whatever signal is still active here does not matter anymore, this place was full of runaway drones, and hoarders!”

— “And this one has been all alone! He didn’t even know everyone else was killed!”

— “And he should have too, so move your sorry ass out of the way and I’ll do the honors!”

K grabbed X by his jacket’s collar with his offhand, pushing him aside and stepping forth to meet eyes with Boone. Like earlier, his expression remained neutral and bored; seeing a drone with such a lack of emotion to being told they were being killed just like their family was annoying. Daringly, K began to spin the flail and smirk up to the worker.

— “A tall, bulky bunch of dead scrap. That’s what you are, you f****** waste.”

— “Stand d-d-down, last warning-ing.”

— “Or what, huh?” 

K spun the flail preparing to swing it straight to Boone’s right temple, but was caught by the chain as X swapped his hand with a clamp, tightly catching the chain before it was whirled at Boone’s temple. This was not received lightly; K jerked his arm forwards to pull X closer, and delivered a direct blow at his head, knocking him down and stomping his head into the ground until he let go. 

— “Again with this! Why do you always go so soft on these weak, useless, cowardly drones!? You follow orders and that’s it! No wonder Nat doesn’t f****** like you, you’re–”

SLAM! Tck-shhhhhhhhh…

X raised his face from the dirt only to see K had vanished from over him, with Boone now in a sort of boxing stance, with his forearm seemingly having extended, now sliding into its normal length. He had just punched K straight into the wall to the right, and laid on the ground with a sluggish realization of what happened.

— “He hit me… You!! You just HIT me!?” K groans, getting up holding his side with his right hand, letting the flail sit on the ground for a moment.

— “Improper-r workplace behaviour-viour, stand d-d-down.” The worker ordered getting into a defensive position, the plows on his back sliding onto his forearms to imitate shields.

— “Oh my god he can fight.” X whispers in awe, getting up to stand at Boone’s left and bringing out a blowtorch and hammer to replace his hands.

It became a standoff. The initial aggressor was transparent with his ire, mouth trembling with words held back as the faint sound of wind would become audible to all three in the tense silence between them. X was the only one to notice, glancing towards the entrance of the tunnel where the faint howling came from; K must've found another way in.

But his focus snapped away as a loud revving sound came from K, the source being a crudely-made chainsaw to swap out his offhand. It was clear he wanted casualties here, even if it included X as a temporary fatality.

Soon enough, K lunged at the two, and saw as Boone wound up a punch straight to his head, which he ducked under, and instead swung the flail directly to X’s leg, and crawled past the two from between, dodging a wild kick thrown by X in retaliation with added heat from a thruster on his foot. He snuck around Boone who spun late trying to track him, reaching to catch as he could.

At any opportunity that opened, K attacked X and did his best to see just how slow Boone was. He got to sneak plenty of hits with the flail right at his co-worker, striking the legs or arms, leaving quick, long but superficial cuts using the chainsaw, doing dirty sweeps and even delivering a brutal uppercut right into X’s chin! Until now, X was trying to catch the middle of the chainsaw with the tongs, planning to burn the chain for it to deform and jam it, or flat out break it. If he did succeed, then it would be easier to have this annoying rat in their grasp! 

Boone was struggling to keep up. He had landed a firm strike earlier due to K being distracted, but now he was actively slipping past his reach, slowed by how stiff his joints were. It felt like having several knots on his body limit him. At this moment, though, he wondered…

— “When was my last shower?” He ponders…

His train of thought was derailed as his safety glasses were cracked open when being struck with the flail, the goggles caught the impact and dipped inwards, not enough to make contact, but enough to split and fall from his head. While he did not even flinch, the gravity of the situation was a bit clearer now if K finally hit his face in some way. 

X was growing weary of the constant hits and nonexistent results of trying to stop K. He kept swinging, burning the area nearby, bringing the clamp down– nothing! But he saw an opening as K finally swung upon Boone, and caught the chainsaw by the middle with the clamp, pulling it to torch the belt and break it! 

The aggressor was now X, as K tried to pull him in for another attack, but fruitless as X held his stance with his weight pulling down. K raised his arm to bring the flail down right at the other’s head, yet was caught at the wrist by Boone from behind. He grunted and pulled, attempting to seize himself free, and managing to do so by retracting the chainsaw in, and back out, now aiming it straight to Boone’s eyes!

CLANG! Vrr-rr-rr-rr… 

A stuttering engine, the chainsaw was caught, the belt connected with Boone’s plows acting as shields, stopping the attack by catching it between both slabs with the chain stuck, unable to pull itself!

— “Bulls***! What are those things even made of?!” K complained and pulled at the flail, only for his leg to sting with an awful, sizzling pain “OW- X YOU RAT!!” He cried out, looking down.

Red hot, the flail’s end was burning into the side of his leg and becoming affixed to it, with every pull prying at the half molten metal of the swinger and him. Now distracted and vulnerable, the rescuer replaced the clamp with a hammer, and repeatedly bashed it against their opponent whilst Boone kept the chainsaw trapped. Every hit, K screamed in pain and anger, losing focus, shrinking lower to cover himself, until finally cutting losses and deciding to detach the chain of the flail, as well as the chainsaw, swapping for his hands, and reaching into his pocket quickly.

— “YOU FAULTY FREAK!!”

A Hail Mary, as his last ditch effort to get an upper hand was to play dirty. He slammed his palm onto X’s leg, and suddenly, X tensed up, groaning as his visor blinked, and was overtaken with red. He fell backwards as both weapons retreated, and returned to his hands. He held the side of his head, an awful noise filling it, and struggling to move, he remained stunned on the ground.

The attacker kicked X on the side once up on his feet in frustration, only to turn back and be met with a very short-lived view…

Boone’s incoming fist, aimed center to his head, with the crushing impact feeling like his head would’ve nearly detached from his neck at that very moment, eyes closing tightly, body being pulled behind, everything going black for a moment.

He was sent flying past X, his visor cracked and head spinning, landing on the wet dirt. He reconsidered his options given he was barely able to get up on his feet at the moment. X dying here was not his problem; it was the worker that he would struggle to break given how devastating his hits were. So after a moment more planning, he decided to retreat. Once able to stand, he stumbled in the direction of the entrance attempting to reach A through the communicator in his jacket.

— “A!! A, if you can hear me, X is down, his stupid ass died to the drone down here, let's just pack and leave! Hello?!” His acting was lacking, for sure, but the communicator beeped thrice, indicating it was still a dead zone.

— “Boone! Get him...!”

Orders received loud and clear. The sturdy miner detached one of his plows from his arms, sending the other to cover his back yet again, and wound up a throw with his arm circling before him. He took aim, and braced… and hurled it like a frisbee!

The wind being cut by an uneven yet relatively flat object caught K’s ear, except he wasn't able to look back or avoid it, as the wedge tore through his back and split his lower abdomen from the rest. He tumbled to the ground with a grunt, and remained there hissing to the pain. 

His legs? They ran off, literally. He even called for them to come back.

— “Nice… My head hurts horribly… let's get out before A comes down too.” 

Standing up, swaying slowly to the side, and with a noisy ringing to his ear, X began to walk past K and ignoring the barrage of insults and swears lobbed his way. Boone, although aware something was wrong, proceeded to follow his rescuer, ignoring K in the same manner.

The two continued until reaching the ore elevator where X came through, but more importantly: The darkened stairway was now allowing a breeze to enter and slide down to the main room, meaning a way was opened by K. Both looked up, and while it was tempting to hurry out, Boone gestured for the rescue to wait. — “Uncertain structural-al integri-rity. I’ll check-ck-ck.” 

Without needing confirmation, the worker began to ascend the stairs first with X a few steps behind. The two ascended until reaching an obvious blast zone, where Boone assured it was safe to advance. The way looked clear, just a hint of snow over the steps. Thus, they continued, and eventually reached the surface where a large metallic hatch was frozen open right beside the facility. The two peeked carefully into the foggy distance, looking for any possible threat, and saw the outline of a vehicle not too far off from them, a yellow light alongside it.

X gestured for the worker to remain quiet (which meant absolutely nothing considering who he was asking this from) and signaled to head back into the facility through an open doorway nearby. Once ready, both snuck inside when the light seemed to turn away, ending up where X was initially. Now with Boone’s more safe flashlight mounted on his helmet, there was no risk of the spilled oil from late drones going ablaze now. All there was now was the lifelessness of the facility.

— “Right, you must be suuuper stiff from being in there for so long, damp and dirty all the time. I’ll see if there is a med-bay of sorts!” X turned, and before stepping away, he was caught by the tail running in place for a moment. “Oh come on, don’t tell me you know where it is.”

Boone shook his head, and pulled the other close by the tail, inspecting his body, seeing the cuts K made were now healed, so at least that was not a concern to deal with. Still, Boone seemed to have picked up on something odd, the plow on his back sliding to his left arm, and using it to strike something off X’s leg; he felt something yank at him like it was stuck to his left thigh, and everything felt hazy, then slowly cleared up. He looked around on the floor, crouching to pick something that looked like a tag with some ugly rusty spikes on it. 

— “Ma-malware.”

— “Huh, when was this stuck on me...?” X asked, inspecting it all over, and dropping it due to accidentally poking his finger with one of its spikes. “Ow, okay, maybe best to leave it there.” 

— “Prefer-r-rable. The medical unit-t is this way-way.”

And now with Boone as the lead, the two reached a door at the back that was left closed since last visit, and both went inside. They reached a small and quite simple room for drones to be checked and aided for any injuries, compared to every other room bathed in oilshed, this room was pristine. A welcome change in X’s mind. The worker rolled himself towards the stretcher and sat atop of it with his legs hanging off the edge. He removed his only item of clothing, being the reflective vest and placed it at his left near the wall. Caught off guard, the rescuer stumbled back and shielded his poor innocent eyes, which was futile as his eyes were not on his face, but on his head. 

— “HEY WOAH WOAH NO NEED TO UNDRESS YOURSELF?!” X shrieked with a high pitch and turning his back on Boone.

— “Why?”

— “We just met????????????”

— “And?”

— “You- I can just check without- no need going nude- You don’t- Ah forget it…”

— “Okay.”

Trying to ignore the oh so horrible nudity of the worker, X began to look around at any issues he may have. His inspection was surprisingly thorough, removing his helmet, shining the light in areas of interest for a better look up close to catch any details. 

His joints seemed to stiffen up with certain movements, while others were done effortlessly, likely from the years of repeated motion. 

His tracks were muddied up all to hell, which explained why they made such an awful noise when rolling. There were even a few pebbles stuck in them.

Plenty of dirt stuck to his body, dry and wet, falling off when scratched.

It was a hastily done maintenance, but working with the available resources, such as a screwdriver, and a can of lubricant aimed right where his joints were most stiff, his body would start recovering more of its mobility in due time, and some of his flexibility as well!

The process was not as slow as X had expected it to be. The passing of time in the cave was likely arduous on his body, but it appeared that Boone had maintained himself in a fairish condition up until being found. It explained a little more how he was not completely hopeless during the encounter with K.

— “Alright, I checked your joints, cleared your tracks and I think— big emphasis on ‘I think’ mind you— You should be set to move with a bit more ease. Roll around and move yourself friend!”

As ordered, Boone stood up and rolled around. His tracks made far less noise now that all the issues internally were dealt with, so it looked promising. Next, he began to stretch, twisting, turning, and following a sort of routine to test his mobility. Surprisingly enough, he had a great sense of balance, managing to position himself up on one leg with the other raised at the knee and his arms outstretched. Both arms up? Yup, twisting his torso side-to-side at the same time? Also that, leaning back on the other leg, outstretching the other now as counterweight? That too! Limbo curl backwards? Perfectly executed! Finesse like a ballerina if she was built like a metal wall! 

X for a moment lost track of what he was supposedly testing, and applauded the spectacle, until recalling what they were supposedly doing, and looking around for his jacket on the bed. When he took it though, he saw an intriguing patch on the back that he had not spotted on the way here with such poor lighting. 

— “MOT Inc, unit BD2.” He glances up with a smile. “That’s your real name? MOT?”

— “...”

— “Oh no wait– That’s your uh– maker, my bad!” He laughed awkwardly as Boone raised an eyebrow. “Oh wait, BD2, that would make more sense… You know, I was originally called something like that. WL8, Welding unit #8. You were..?”

— “Bulldozer unit-t.”

— “Oh yeah! That explains the heavy ass plows.” Inspecting the vest in and out, he made a very, very sharp observation. “This needs a wash.”

— “...”

— “...Right, obviously.” He tapped his forehead and handed the jacket back. “Let me see if the coast is clear for us to leave now.”

Peeking through the door and making use of what little light entered the rest of the building, he inspected the surrounding area for any signs of life that entered the building, possibly looking for him, or his idiot co-worker. Boone in the meantime threw back on his vest, helmet and took another pair of safety goggles hung up on the wall to replace the prior ones, first patting a thick layer of dust off of them. The two were now peeking out of the door as loud steps and hard bangs would echo from deeper within the building’s walls; turns out K’s legs managed to get here somehow, bumping into everything and dangerously close to a way out!

— “Oh crap– That’s K’s legs without the whole idiot attached, we gotta catch them so they don’t alert A or Nat. You block their way, I’ll chase!” 

— “Underst-stood.”

And both stepped out, and towards the pair of legs as it was jogging in circles. X thought this would be a breeze to deal with. Just take them and throw them back into the ore chute so they can escape! Of course it wasn’t. The moment he stepped near, the legs began to run away! It became a chase for the stupid pair of legs going around this open area of the facility, knocking things over, kicking ores and other things along its path while bumping into walls and changing course! Boone tried to catch it like a goalie, waiting still, but missed by a mile, tracks slipping on the oil after being tricked by its side-to-side hopping, and falling with a loud thud. Then, X tried to chase it and grab them as they ran and ran, only to do a sudden turn and failing to follow, attempting to correct, overdoing it and falling face first to the ground, a bucket tipping over onto his head. 

— “God dammit! It’s just a pair of legs, how are they more annoying than the dipstick that was attached to them!?” 

X fussed as he got up to continue the chase, throwing the bucket at the pair of legs, yet froze when spotting a yellow light in the distance through an open gap on the wall, one that the legs were running towards.

— “Oh no no no- It’s A!!” 

He tried to chase after them, but stepped right on a large chunk of ore midway that made him tumble forwards yet again, left to watch helplessly as the legs ran off into the lights, and bumped into the source. The chase was over, and it was now clear that K was bested, but X and the cause of the signal were ambiguous as to their fate…

[Be-beep, be-beep.]

Through the communicator, two voices came through.

— “X? K? Where are you both?”

— “A!! X is a f****** traitor!! He has the last freak that was down here with him, tried to fight me just to let him run away!! Find him and rip his head off!!”

— “Hoo boy… Where are you K? Your legs are here, but not the rest of you.”

— “Crawling out of the stupid cave! Put them in the truck so you can give them back!”

— “Cave? Huh, okay. I’ll move them soon, I’ll have to put them to sleep for now and see if X is still near.”

X scrambled to get up, and went to help Boone on his tracks as he laid there peacefully. Clearly he had no idea what to do knowing that he has now been snitched on, and this could mean only one thing.

— “Nat? I need a radar check, See if you can spot X’s communicator nearby.”

— “Okie dokie! On it right now!”

— “And HURRY, I want X’s HEAD!!”

X’s communicator began to beep once rhythmically, meaning it was being tracked. He was bound to be caught now, and in his mind? It was all burning down.

The lights in the distance began approaching, and there was no way for them to leave without an obvious trail to follow them, or the radar picking them up. No place to hide here that wouldn’t get caught with how noisy everything was when walking on it, the white snow would leave oil prints of their escape, and the communicator already marked their start point. X struggled to pry the communicator off his jacket and threw it into the depths of the facility, then turned back.

With a huff, X faced Boone.

— “I’m sorry, I really, really wanted you to be safe from them, but they won’t let you be! It’s our job to rid runaway workers like you but I can’t protect you if they will lob my head off too! Just try and run– roll! Roll away from here as fast as you can!”

But Boone remained unfazed…

— “Boone..? They’ll tear you apart, it’s only a chance but you could still get away from my team. I don’t want you to die after being in a cave alone for years– That’s a miserable death!”

His eyes fixed on X’s eyes.

— “Why aren’t you going..?” He asked, shaken up, with tears welling up.

— “D-d-don’t cry, first-rst.”

— “Oh– Shut up!”

— “You rescued-cued me-e-e. I will protec-ote-ct you.”

For a moment, X could not believe his words. Was it out of pity? Willingness to die at the hands of his team, just so X didn’t die alone? He believed everything was to end now, he would be killed, Boone would be slaughtered, the drone he met not long ago was going to spend his last moments protecting his rescuer and die from it! Everything felt so awful!!

Step… step… step… step…

— “X? I see you there! What happened with K and you now?” A voice called from nearby. “Is that the drone that was under the facility?”

Tense with the bitterness of defeat, X turned back, unsure of how to respond.

— “Nooo…?” He answered like an idiot.

— “Why didn’t you kill him?”

— “He was stuck there for 3 years! He doesn’t deserve to die! Leave him be! I’m done with you all in the team!!”

— “But did you at least retrieve everything like you said you would?” A shouts looking around with a flashlight now in hand, as she approaches the duo.

X’s simulated sweat would disappear post question. She did not judge his rebellion, nor the declaration of breaking off from the rest? He had a hammer at the ready in his hand, fully planning to bash A’s head in to flee, but the way she seemed cool with any of this just made the moment feel like he was being over dramatic. Boone did think so, but it was hard to tell with his face. 

— “Retrieve? You mean the food and all? Wait wait wait– are you not mad he’s still alive?”

— “Not really! Or at all, to be exact.” She finally reached the two, where X stood between them, defensively with his arms out. “Is that the guy? Goodness he is tall– Did he beat K?”

Confused, X looked back and forth, befuddled that nothing was wrong. He was almost bawling moments ago and these two are now standing before one another just like THAT!?

— “Wait wait wait- You don’t care he is alive, but that I didn’t bring the boxes I said I would bring!?”

— “Yeah! I was waiting to load them onto the truck! I even sent K to look for them, and then I heard an explosion, and now his legs are just out there on the snow without the rest of the idiot attached. So I assumed something happened between you two again. At first I thought those were your legs.” She titters.

— “First off, I do not lose to him! And secondly, you’re not mad at all!?”

— “Why would I be? Nat doesn’t even check for the signals unless I remind her to. I can tell her we ‘found the last one and killed them dead’ and she would take my word for it.”

— “I– Wha– But we were here just to..! And he– you–” 

Frustrated at the absurdity of how casually this unfolded, X stammered pointing to Boone repeatedly, wordlessly trying to say several things along the lines of this supposedly being some big betrayal, and the pair of rebels had to have been set for the gallows!

— “Why did you even bring him out if he trashed K?”

— “Because he helped me! He was stuck in a cave digging for 3 whole years, then K shows up, goes ‘Rah rah rah!! X you suck!!’ and Boone just BOOM!! Punches him so hard K is whining on the floor and– I wanted him to leave so he doesn’t die down there!”

Intrigue set in as A heard these relatively accurate descriptions. She pointed the flashlight up and down to inspect Boone a little more closely with her eyes while taking slow steps around him. He appeared sturdy, durable. To hear that he apparently bested the most violent member of the team, and was perfectly still even when supposedly in danger… This was quite an interesting worker drone for sure… She turned to X and gestured for him to turn with her for a little privacy.

— “Okay, the guy seems like he could be really, really beneficial to us in the team. Maybe I can convince Nat to let him on board as a helping hand, so that way you don’t see him die here? I want to learn more about him, too. Would that be a good compromise?”

Unsure as to if this would truly be a deal worth accepting, X remained silent contemplating this choice. He could leave Boone here, with no closure whether he’d move on himself or settle for this morgue of drones, likely to be killed by whatever else wandered here. That or take him in, and let him be near the likes of K and Nat…

Eventually, with a long, weary sigh, he nodded. A would give him a simple thumbs up, and tap her communicator.

— “Nat? X found something in the facility, a worker, but he doesn’t seem like a threat, but he doesn’t seem defenseless either… X says he beat the lights out of K solo.”

— “With X.” Boone clarified.

— “And apparently with– Oh he does talk– with X’s help he said.”

— “Oooh! A random drone you all found just beat K like that? Bring him to the truck! I want to see him!”

— “You heard her. Your new friend can come, but I cannot say what Nat will want or do, I admit. Is it okay if I check on him though? Three years in a cave could have been rough on his body.”

— “He has no choice! Bring him here A! He will be our prisoner!” The other voice shouted through the communicator, seemingly overhearing the prior comment.

With reassuring pats on the back for X, A guided the two out of the facility, commenting that they’d come get the supplies found here afterwards. They still needed to find the rest of K nonetheless, and there he was! Crawling towards the truck!

— “F*** X, f*** that stupid piece of s*** drone and everyone to hell, and my stupid f****** legs for abandoning me, f****** **** **** ************ ****...” The rabid drone muttered to himself, crawling his way to the vehicle.

— “Hello K, your legs are a few STEPS away if you wish to see them.” A jests.

— “OH HA-HA-HA, YOU M************ JERK!!.”

Before leaving, they brought K and the legs inside, then finished clearing out the facility of its goods, including the food from the cave’s repository, and a couple of boxes with inflatable mattresses to have better places to rest. A had been complaining that sleeping on an ambulance stretcher is non-ideal lately. 

Once done, they set off into the snowland, away from the mining facility in the team’s expedition vehicle, which was composed of two parts: 

The front half was the main vehicle, rolling on large tracks over the snow, with a driver and passenger cabin, a medical installation, and a few storage lockers adorned with colorful stickers to label them. 

The other half of the vehicle was more of a camper in tow, where the rest could lounge around until turns rotated. It had a couch, a large bed, a kitchen and room for resources to be stored.

Ultimately, things wound down for X. He sat on the bed watching Boone as he slept on the couch, sitting upright and still as a statue in front of the TV bolted to the wall, with cheesy action movies playing. X had tried turning it off earlier, to which Boone woke up, stated that he was still watching, then passed out again. In the front, A and Nat were driving and co-piloting, searching on the dash for any structure worth exploring, or areas to clear out of its squatters. And lastly, K was on the stretcher a few steps behind the two, lying down as his legs slowly reattached back onto him, with nothing to do but to watch on a tablet a movie just as cheesy as Boone’s.

Only uneasiness left was the question of what will happen in the future with this rescued drone, and if X truly made the right decision.

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Thank you for reading the second chapter! We tried to make this post superior to the very first one, as well as adjust a few things here and there with the blog website to make it more pleasant for readers. We had feedback regarding the background and colouring, and here it will be no different: If you have any feedback, please let us know, with a DM or a comment! And if you have any friends who are into Murder Drones that may like this story, please, do send share it with them!

Andrew Note: "i just want to point out the color for K" he says because he suggested either "bullshit gray" (#b5b5b5) or just #696969 lmao.

Credits

Writing: Neil

Art: Andrew

HTML colours: Noi

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— “There is still one more drone here, most likely underground and hiding deep in the caves of this facility… So here I am now, exploring this weird… creepy… rusty place… That's a furnace, furnace… furnace… big… thing? Overflowing elevator with shiny rocks…”

The drone approached a tall pile of raw ores spilling from a wide compartment with chains hanging down to a dark void. Looked big enough to crawl into. Best to consider exploring it later on. For now there was still a lot to look through that he missed on his first visit here.

Wind howling outside, loose sheets of metal bending to the currents entering through every gap, chains on the ceilings dangling, with hooks at the ends slowly turning on their hinges. So quiet, so still since the last time he had to enter this place; Last he was here, it all was screams, alarms, objects crashing and so on. Now it felt unbearably quiet, with the plash of his feet going over the puddles of oil being the only familiar sound. The place was quite dark too, the lights being killed the moment their attack began leaving this place hardly easy to traverse or investigate properly. Weren’t not for the flame at his tail he would be going around with his hands reaching ahead to find the nearest wall, given only the “Fatal Error” screens of the dead were the only thing easy to see in the way.

Wary to not let any oil splatter on the walls or floor be caught by the flame of his tail, whilst his other hand held out an extinguisher at the ready, he continued wandering and searching for clues of the last remaining active signal the radar kept picking up back at base, indicating something was still active in the facility, causing signs of activity to flare up. He went up to a second floor via the walkways, passing by an empty office with a chess board on the desk and knocked over pieces, a spotless bathroom, and a lounge area where lifeless corpses were piled in the corner, including one of a Worker holding a baby close in her arms, both with a gaping hole through their bodies. The explorer pressed his teeth, a little revolted to the scene, grateful that he let K deal with this one than himself. The baby crying would’ve likely made him freak out… 

[CLANG!! Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick…]

Startled, he ran back on the walkways causing a racket, killing the flame as to not light anything on fire on the way and meet the source, only to see that same elevator with piled up ores now moving, the chains climbing up with rhythmic pauses, until a large metal container filled with more metals reached the top, slamming into the ceiling of the shaft and tilting forwards, spilling more raw ores into the pile. This was it! That had to be done by somebody, and they must be where this elevator was operated! He jumped down to the first floor, approaching the elevator as the box began to descend again and decided to waste no time, crawling inside and landing atop the container, going lower into the facility… a bit too slowly, though. 

[Be-beep, be-beep] — “Hello? X here.” He reported, reaching into his jacket and tapping a small device to establish a connection.

— “Reading you clear, how is the search for the last signal going? Did you find any other supplies that could be of use that we might have missed?” A higher voice responded.

— “Hi A!! I looked around for a while, found a couple more boxes of food and tools while I was wandering and left them at the front, but I alsooo got a lead on the signal! I’m currently heading down a shaft to a lower level that was caved in where something was moving, so it had to be the last worker!”

— “Great, I’ll go fetch them with K once you are out. For now, focus on getting whoever is still down there going around. Nat says that if they are still down there moving and causing activity to be picked up in here, then it means they must have more supplies we can take.”

— “Gotcha! I’ll call you when I secure the place!” Enthusiastically announced, but received no answer. “Hello? A? Still there?”

[Be-be-beep.]

The communicator had lost connection as X went lower into the elevator tunnel, and decided to let it power off while the ride continued. 

It continued for about 8 more minutes, until finally, light began to seep into the tunnel from the edges of the container, white lights that soon enough began to fill the tunnel as X reached a wide opening. Big enough for him to climb out. To his right was a room with shelves housing boxes of canned food, helmets, flashlights, inflatable mattresses and other mining equipment neatly organized. On another shelf were many heavy hunks of metal that looked akin to a shovel's end, or something like that, although too big and heavy to carry and use. Also notable, there was a bed in the corner fully set up, with an impressive tower of empty battery cans nearby.

After backtracking, accidentally knocking down a broom and scrambling to catch it, X was now back at the main room. Now he turned to the room in front of where he arrived. Opening the door to find a small room into two elevator shafts, with the elevators themselves half crushed, likely from a free-fall. To the left was a staircase that was pitch black looking up to where it went. 

Returning once more, he was faced now with the last area, which unnervingly so, was a tunnel which had no visible end to it. Long wires reaching deep into it, work lights set throughout shining down and… track marks, which went back and forth between every room except the elevators, meaning whatever was still here retraced these steps repeatedly. Best to make sure, and investigate.

— “Hello? Anyone there?” He shouted into the deep cave, only to hear the sound of his own echo fade, and fade… and fade… “Is anyone still here? I saw your bed in the room here! Behind me- Back here! Come here!” 

Still no response. 

Thinking there was no other way the source of the activity here could’ve gone to, or hidden, X huffed, and began to walk down the long tunnel.

It was so long, the work lights strewn about and the extension cords reached deep, and the tracks kept going on and on. The walk continued for so long, it had been 15 minutes and he noticed the entirety of the right side was lined with large rocks, while the left was completely clear of even a single pebble that was not already half buried into the dirt. Odd, but meaningless, surely. Even more worrisome was how the lights began to become more and more scattered, more scarce, and more spaces of darkness in between. About 10 minutes more and the tunnel was now completely dark, and forced X to yet again use his tail as a light source to continue ahead. Another 30 minutes went by, and the drone had already grown a little tired of this cave, and how deep it ran, but noticed a faint noise he couldn’t quite describe. There were other paths, other openings in the way, but the tracks did not go into them, only straight down the tunnel.

After about 20 or so minutes more, X noticed something in the distance, and cut the flame again. He squinted into the distance, and noticed a light at the end of the tunnel! He wondered if it was finally his time to reach Worker Heaven, but then he realized the sounds were louder now! It was something burrowing into the dirt, hitting rocks, it was the worker! He backed a bit and got into position, directing fuel into the soles of his feet to use thrusters and cut this out once and for all. He jumped, and propelled himself forward at a great speed! 

Flying at breakneck speed, X slammed his foot right into the back of the drone’s head, slamming it into the dirt in front of it before it even realized he was coming! He jumped off the wall and lit his tail again, seeing the machine wedged into the dirt by the head and shoulders. But now, he realized what a different worker he had just killed.

— “Woah… This guy was huge! The tracks, the arms- Are those wedges on his forearms!?” Baffled by this, he approached to inspect the corpse further.

Yet the worker moved, setting its hands onto the wall, and pushing itself against it, pulling out of the dirt with ease, and turning to X, who backed away hastily.

— “Whah- You’re alive!? I should’ve shattered your entire head! How the..!?” Now on the offensive, his hands retreated into his arms and were replaced with a powerful welding torch in one hand, and a hammer on the other, aiming the blue flame directly at the drone. He was towering, imposing, as if this was a damn wall turned to a drone! Or at least that’s what X saw in his perplexed state. The other, however, would reach behind him and cause two loud metal clangs to echo in the tunnel, the wedges on his arms now set on his back.

— “Improp-p-per work behaviour-viour. Please behave during w-w-work hoursss…” His voice was deep, firm, monotone. “...Personal-l protection equipme-ment missing, return and retrievvv-ve said equipment before working.”

— “You sound so weird— but that doesn’t explain how you aren’t a crushed can from that! Why are you in this cave? Why are you even in this cave? It feels endless!”

— “Exaggerated-d.”

— “Shut! Shush- shh! What have you even been doing the entire time you were here?!”

The drone, whose bored expression had not shifted during this entire exchange, raised both arms, and stretched them out to the sides, presenting the damn tunnel. 

— “Digging, I get it! Why even make a tunnel that probably gets kilometers away from the mining place? Is there anyone else here or some sort of amazing big crazy thing you all discovered?!” The drone began to feel around the cave, patting the walls, ceiling, the ground and so on. “Why are you even digging here?”

— “Orders.” 

— “So you’re just digging a giant fricking tunnel because ‘orders’ said so?!”

The drone nods.

— “...Why– How long have you even been down here?” Struck by curiosity, X put his weapons away, feeling a long exposition about to happen.

The drone tapped his chin, gazing up to the ceiling, and then using his fingers to count something in silence. 

— “Order active-ve for-r-r 1095 days-s.”

— “...............Huh?”

He nods again.

— “Why are you even here?! Everyone above is dead and you are here digging the longest fricking tunnel in drone history with your own two hands! Er- Your plows! Whatever!”

The stranger had turned to face the wall of the tunnel again, the plows sliding from his back to his arms, and as he was about to strike more dirt loose, the revelation of the facility being nothing more than a bloodscape caused him to freeze, and look over to X.

— “Repeat that.”

— “Shoot- I mean that the people back at your facility above were killed! I- I was passing because someone told me there was a signal somewhere here!”

Speechless, the drone’s shield/shovel-like plows would slide onto his back again, and looked back into the abyss of the path to here. The light of his helmet shined bright, but could not reach beyond a few steps ahead. 

While his gaze remained unwavering, and neutral, it was clear to X that this big man was at a loss.

— “...You okay..?” The question resonated in the echo… “Actually scratch that- Why haven't you left? Did you have no contact with anyone above?” 

— “Negative. Communica-a-tions ceased long ago-o. A cave-in from an earthquake lo-locked the ent-trances-ances down. Too unstable to breach-ch from inside, likely safer from outside-side.”

— “Down here for that many days, digging a big stupid tunnel all on your own…” 

The two faced the cave, aware of where it started and standing where it ended, though both felt it as if it were an eternal passage leading nowhere. Unnerved, X glanced at the stranger, and saw a scribble on the side of his helmet. 

— “Boone Doser… is that your name..?” 

— “It is. Prior-r name was BD2, but my co-workers-s chose it.”

The realization sank deep into X’s head, and stepped a little further away from Boone. Those drones in the facility were his friends, family... He turned to him and put a hand on his shoulder, a plan surging.

— “Let me get you out! Down here you’ll rot until you break down, and die in a grave too big and empty! My team wants you dead– but you wasted so much here, I want you to go out and die with a bit of dignity out there, where the wind will encompass you!” 

The blank stare of the drone was unnerving after pouring out his hope to give the drone an opportunity, but his only good eye grew with joy once Boone gave another solid nod.

— “Yes! Yes- I’ll help you climb out through where I came in! Let's go!” 

Excitedly grabbing his arm and pulling him, X fell over as all his strength was completely neutered by how heavy the drone was, toppling onto the ground, and rolling over to face him.

— “Ow- Hey come on! You know the way back, it's just a long walk from here! …What’s wrong..?”

Boone raised his hand, pointing towards the empty path, and then, signaled for X to keep quiet…

…boom, boom, boom, boom, boom! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!! 

BOOOOOM!!!

The shockwave of an explosion tore through the air of the cave, a powerful blast of wind cutting through the path and crashing into the wall behind the pair!

— “Oh sh… we gotta go back, and find one of the caves to hide.” X warned with distress, getting up and sprinting down the path.

This time though, Boone followed, rolling only steps behind him. The two rushed for about 4 minutes straight, slowing down along the way, now walking towards the entrance. 

— “Are those paths that look like caves safe? The ones on the sides of the tunnels?” 

— “Negative, they’re small spaces-s where-rrr-re ores have been extracted-d, but do not go deep-p-p into a cave syst-stem.” 

— “So dead ends, great…” 

And as they began to see a faint glow from the work lights off in the distance, something announced itself in the echo, a hostile call into the depths of the cave.

— “X!!! YOU USELESS, LAZY, F****** WASTE OF SCRAP!!! I KNOW YOU’RE HERE!!! YOU’RE DEAD!!!”

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