On-Brand Loyalty

Month Three: On The Hunt

Much like every night on the frozen wasteland that was Copper-9, an intense blizzard swept through the air. White coated the ground and buildings, glistening in the shining light of the moons above. Outside of what appeared to be a large warehouse, two male Worker Drones in nearly identical bundled-up clothing stood outside the entrance. The only notable difference between them being the color of their eyes, one red and the other orange.

The both of them were silent, staring into the eerie emptiness of the ruined city around them. Snow began to slowly pile around them due to their motionlessness.

Finally, the red-eyed drone turned to his companion. "Hey, ever wonder why we're here?"

The orange-eyed drone was startled at his friend's sudden question and briefly stared before looking back off into the distance. "That is one of life's great mysteries, isn't it? Why are we here?" He solemnly stared up at the night sky. "Is our freedom from human enslavement the product of some cosmic coincidence? Or is there really some omnipotent God watching and controlling our every whim as part of some ultimate plan?"

Orange turned back to his companion and solemnly shook his head. "I dunno man, but it keeps me up at night."

Red only had a blank expression on his face. "... What? I meant why are we out here, away from the colony?"

With an embarrassed blush, Orange looked away. "Oh. Uh...right."

Red raised an eyebrow, "What was all that stuff about God?"

"Uh...Nothing."

"...You wanna talk about it?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Red rolled his eyes and went back to complaining, "Ok but seriously though, why are we even out here? Far as I can tell, we're just standing out in the cold and staring off into nothing."

Orange held up a hand, "Well yeah. Cuz we're keeping an eye out for Murder Drones."

"But wouldn't standing out here just get their attention as opposed to, you know, staying inside where it's safe?" Red argued, "Like even if did see one, what the heck are we gonna do about it? Chances are they'll just eat us before we can get a message out, then they'll pillage everyone else.

Orange tried to counter. "We could try fighting it?"

Red had to contain his laughter. "How?! We don't have any weapons, and I've seen one of those things pick up and throw a flipping car, we couldn't do jack to them. This is stupid!"

"Affirmative."

Both Workers flinched and looked up to the source of the sudden voice. Silhouetted by the moons was a Disassembly Drone, floating in the air and staring down at them with unusual glowing red eyes. One of its hands shifted to claws and reared up for an attack.

Red sighed. "Son of a b-..."

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V grumbled to herself as she stepped into the spire. She'd been in a bad mood all night and J finally got annoyed enough to let her go back early. Unlike her leader, who was always only concerned about having their numbers as high as possible each quarter, V always just enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and the sensation of murdering helpless prey. And yet something had been eating her up for a while now.

As she extended her wings to fly up the roof of the spire, V paused and turned her attention to the meager home of little ol' Dror. V could only frown in annoyance as she thought about just how much the short Worker Drone's presence had changed things for her squad.