Murder Drones: Born from ashes

Chapter 7 : Formulation

J careened towards a lone soldier. The child's look of terror followed by a whimper as she flew through him, blackened snow revealed the exit wound. She grinds her feet against the floor to dampen the impact. The faint footsteps told her there were more, but the crackling of it's carbine gave away the position. She flipped backwards out of the flurry of bullets, stray bullets decorated her legs with dents. The insurgent screamed something before retreating into the shadows. She pursued it, for it would bring her to it's pack. The insurgent spins around and fires at her a few times before diving through a window. J's wings blew through the concrete and drew out her pistol. Her bullets threw the drone onto the ground and its carbine 10 feet in front of it. It rabidly groveled towards its weapon. J landed on its legs and slowly dug her toes inside. She wedged her feet into a set of wires to anchor the insurgent.

The hunt was over, she lifted its head up. The narrowed green eyes put up as a façade of bravery didn't phase her. Too many were put down like this to keep track.

"Kill-"

""Kill me you fucking tin can"," she interrupted, "is that all they teach you?"

The façade was broken and the whimper came back, "Please..."

""Please don't do this". It puzzles me how you all think. The mentality that you are all so unique saying the same things. All of you are empty shells filled with these selfish ideas..." she trailed off as she heard the sound of running.

"Selfish...You are no hero. And anyone who you think would worship you left you to die." she ripped its oil storage out and drank it before whistling a tune. A flash of yellow lights came from the corridor followed by a cacophony of maniacal laughter, screaming, and gunshots. She turned back to the drone which had broken itself from its wires and grabbed its carbine. A trail of melted snow followed. It was only a matter of time so J walked over to the drone.

"Who is this for?"
"Us" its voice crackled. J was infuriated as the light died from the insurgents visor with only a fixed grin. Another one died and would be forgotten. They were all fake people.

She passed through the hallways and saw what became of the remaining insurgents, the bomber drones made quick work of them.

A bomber drone sat over a drone. The drone's legs and arms were torn off and its mouth was soldered shut. A bomber drone was adjusting the dial on its head.

"I saw a caravan moving west, there has to be a camp here..." he placed his bladed fingers onto a dot on the map.

"There's no way, we infected everyone there months ago." muttered the bomber drone. The lights on the visor flashed. She approached the two.

"534," her voice was met with a sudden jolt and a turn. Some bomber drones were living longer than expected. She didn't want to deal with another drone like N, and he was their commander

"What is this?"

"This is just a drone I found, I want to get map data from him."

"Let me do it then."
"No"
"I'm your higher up, 534. You do it my way or don't bother. You're doing it wrong anyways."

"It's my own thing, let me do it."

"Your "own" thing? Since when did we teach you to do something other than your duty?"

534 looked at the machine. The bomber drone nudged it over to his Lieutenant and she slung the body onto her back. She reached the top of the building, it was more decrepit than the last one they were in. J had been pushing the front further into the Worker Drone encampments while N was still doing infiltration jobs despite being their last repair drone. J was beginning to suspect the longer he spent with the insurgents, the softer he became.

N sat in a chair, staring into a photo of him and a friend during simpler times. She was gone, he took everything from her in the name of the mission. He wanted to forget about her and accept what she became, but it could be the only proof she ever existed. N instinctively drew his pistol at the doorway. J remained motionless.

"You can't kill me." N lowered his pistol, laughing as he took the empty helical drum out.

"Of course I can't."

"Death is what dictates the battlefield." J said, walking past him as if he weren't there. She did give N the courtesy of putting the photo into his coat before she spoke again.

"Why do you still hold onto these things? They are nothing more than leeches." N stayed silent as if he were being lectured. J smirked to see the face in the reflection of a dirty window.

"Think about it. How much oil has been drained from this planet?" J said, looking down into the small community of bomber drones.

"The average overpopulated planet consumes at least a billion. We consume twice as much. Enlighten me N, say we let these things escape the planet. If they are truly how you say they are, they'll kill everyone else to ensure their own survival. We're doing it right now."

"You can't pretend J, Anyone would want to live." N said, joining her next to the window. The Worker Drones were getting harvested of their oil. They were bolted to walls as the bomber drones sucked oil from their torso and necks. The under city was decimated.

"You call this living?..." she mutters, looking at her right hand, "Look at us. Just calculations."

"The fact you've considered it already says something about you."
"It doesn't mean anything. We are not real, we are protecting those who are. The real world matters more than us."

"L came from that real world, she didn't have a good time."

"L wanted to be human. Leave a mark as proof she existed. It just keeps getting worse." J was disgusted with how far they had fallen. Things would be better in her hands.

She couldn't bring herself to do anything more than what she remembered. She never listened to L when they talked. Words didn't have meaning to her, but faint memories began to creep back. No, it wouldn't justify all that has been done. If they win against the insurgents, things would be back to normal again.