Murder Drones - Model Mix-up

Pilot - Reprimandation

Deep within the wintry expanse, Wesson is fleeing through the snowy shroud, stumbling and sprinting for the colony. He knows what happened with Z was a fluke. He's not going to get lucky a second time, much less a third. Far behind him, one of his hunters stalks him, latched onto the side of the Corpse Spire with their claws. While this drone would love nothing more than to take flight and destroy this Worker... they've had express orders to be patient. And their leader is... preoccupied.

V — "Oh, Z~!" she hums as Z exits the landing pod. V waits a moment, allowing her subordinate to stand upright and cross her arms before continuing. The two stare at each other, the shorter giving her boss a glare and the larger responding with a lifeless, toothy grin. "I have a few questions for you, like—" she suddenly surges forward, ensuring there's hardly anything between her and Z, "—WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

Z — "Jesus—! Back up, freak!" She pushes V away, releasing her claws expectantly. "I was just talking to our new freaking squad member, chill out!"

The two drones stare each other down, their claws and teeth bared. Somewhat irritated by the disruptive noises, J flies down to her teammates, leaving Wesson unattended. Not like it matters.

J — "Okay, what is it this time?" She appears unamused as she looks between the two. Clearly, this is typical.

V — "Well, this little half-pint here seems blissfully unaware that a WORKER just ran out of the pod!" she snaps at J. "I have no idea how this idiot mistook them for some 'new squad member'—!"

Z — "Oh, shut up! Not my fault I can hardly see! Bite me!"

The two press their foreheads together, glaring at one another. J steps forward and separates them before glossing over Z's appearance.

J — "You can... hardly see?" she asks, noting the red light glowing on Z's headband. "Ah."

Abruptly and unprompted, J slaps Z across the face. A reboot is initiated as Z's visor progressively displays a small wall of text topped with a warning sign.

SYSTEM REBOOT

HARD REBOOT INITIATED...
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--SLAP ACCEPTED--
PARSING DATA: SYS://".../OPTIC_SENSORY_DATA"
COOLING IT WITH THE //CHAR TRAIT: ANGSTY TEEN// TROPE
REESTABLISHING CONNECTION [29.180621, -90.746746]
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SYSTEM INITIALIZED

The messages vanish moments later as Z's eyes return. She begins cycling through her footage, the fuzz and distortion fading to reveal the silhouetted drone she'd been talking to was... an unusually short, and very nervous, Worker Drone, now highlighted as [TARGET LOCK] as opposed to [ERROR]. She skips forward, watching the scene where the drone was worriedly asking what'll be next after the Workers are exterminated, looking up at her with concern...

And then, she rewinds to just seconds before she'd lost her memory. Her body was hovering just above the terrified Worker, gazing down at him... before noticing a new piece of text beneath the drone's tag: [PLOT ARMOR DETECTED]. Soon after, she realizes there's the barrel of some weapon pressed against her face. She hears a loud sound... and the footage cuts to black.