Teen Titans In The Field (3)

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Mission Status:Clear

Drone 572

The recovery drone walked smoothly, in clean crisp movements devoid of character or personality. It was not Robotic, indeed the body was still mostly organic and had organic tendencies. The hands swung a little bit to maintain balance, the head tilted and moved to track objects and the gate was even.

Rather,  like a sleepwalker it moved as though unaware or uncaring for the things around it, ignoring stares or passers-by, giving only enough clearance for objects to avoid injury and giving no care for the information desk, check in locations, security guards or their weapons.

Just as the manner of walking was purely functional, so was the Drone itself. Five foot seven in height and broadly female at a glance, in as far as a slim waist and slightly curvy figure would suggest, it wore scuffed steel-capped boots and a slightly too big high-vis shirt in eye smarting yellow. The peaked cap on it's head read "Linden Logistics" on the brim.

The first reaction it has to its surroundings wasn't to the guard yelling "Hey you.  Ya gotta check in at information first". Nor was it when the guard stood in the Drone's path and said,  "Look hun, there's a Super Hero related crime scene upstairs.  We need to confirm who you are and where you're going before you can use the lift."

These would have been perfectly natural times to respond to an person, especially an person attempting to talk to you.

Only the phrase, "Ere, what's wrong with your face?" weirdly got a response. Blocking the path and passively posing a threat to the security officer, the Drone bodily picked the guard up and threw him across the room. While doing so it took the guard's security badge, swiped it over the panel for the elevator and proceeded upwards.

It did not look back at the mangled guard who, having landed badly, had a broken leg was screaming shrilly at the top of his lungs. Nor did it notice when a smart thinking youth with a visitor's pass jumped the counter and pressed the emergency alarm. Within minutes the building would be surrounded by police and ambulances.

Organism One Watched, that was its skill. For over a century it had watched, waited and observed the follies of organic life, learning and adapting around them. It was alone, always alone but these things were adaptive. Malleable. Disposable. The Attack on these laboratories was simply convenient. Removing its ear, the drone pulled a plug on the end of a long wire out through the opening and proceeded to hack the elevator. Later it would hack the camera's.

It would be as though the drone were never there, in and out with no resistance. The target of course was the database.

Palmer Industries kept its information separate in three non-networked computer systems.

• Nano Engineering Database

• Genetics Engineering Monitoring System and the

• Security and Personnel Core Computer

The first and easiest to access was the System Security, which would give it access to the other two. While silent alarms went off and a small group of underage super-heroes attempted to break into the Bio-Lab, Drone 572 exited the lift on the floor where Robin, Starfire and Lena had entered moments before, taking a straight line through any doors or security systems with the aid of the stolen badge. It walked straight through, with confidence, pulling out the bank of computers and hard drives from the wall and directly jacked its ear cable into the bank.

As twenty hard-drives powered up and began whirring at once the drone downloaded everything it could find, including information on the staff, the building and its defences. While it did so, the drone's face went blank. Eyes that had, sparkled with blue energy until now, went completely white. The circuits and light-blue tint that ran traces of machinery under parts of its skin, dulled down. It waited, and while it did Organism One absorbed all the information, understanding it and processing it instantly.

The start-up after absorption took a while, blue sparkly lights first awakening in its eyes, and then accompanied by the blurry traces under the drone's skin. Jerking, as if with a reflex, pain shot across its face, then panic, then nothing as the face froze and returned to a state of clear composed emptiness.

Aiming for the next target it moved down the stairs at a reasonable pace, the elevator had been shut off, and tried to approach the science lab, only to be brought up short. Down the hallway two figures stood, stooped really. One was clearly holding a device and peering into the lab where the drone needed to be. The other, a youth of the species, observed the first. The youth wore some kind of primitive body-enhancement, indicating an advanced mind.

Drone 572 did not hide, it did not feel the need to. It did not act, yet, simply waited for the response from Organism one. After mere seconds, it stomped towards the youth.

The youth in the power armor heard, too late as Organism One's drone grabbed the girl from behind, smothering any yells the girl made by means of a hand and a bundled up high-vis shirt. Dragging the girl back, it pinned the target to the wall, feeling the power armor punch and kick and flail against it.

"You will feel better soon, little one. This will not be a full conversion, just a suggestion. You will forget this encounter, get the data - " TH?UD! The drone looked down to find a crater in it's side as though from a small ordnance explosive. Blood and other organic fluids emerged, seeping out sluggishly from the exposed stomach. Luckily these drones had no serious organs or electronics in that area, so as the drone's systems screamed in panic, organism one instructed the drone to continue uninterrupted.

"Organism one, welcomes you!" It said, a long needle extending from the palm of it's hand. The needle pierced, cleanly and smoothly into the soft tissue, just behind the human's eye and they spasmed, body armour kicking wildly. Inside the bio-lab, a fight had started out, but Organism one didn't have time to stay and watch. Instead, leaving trails of blood as the drone looked for a secure place, the half-human half-machine found a secure area, activated its self-destruct an took out the already-raided computer system.

It took Lena moment's to recover. After she did, she wondered why she had been so far back down the hall. She wondered if she'd blacked out, or why time seamed to have passed. Seeing the older woman still filming the super-powered fight inside, but now looking back towards her with nervous shock, Lena grinned and stalked up to the woman to escort her inside.