Murder Drones | Asset Protection

Chapter 3 | Mountain of Robotic Bodies

JcJenson Transport Ship
Grounded
Copper-9

"So you're telling me that high command has not a single idea on what we just encountered?" I ask exasperatedly to the captain.

To which he simply responded, "Negative."

"Of course, just brilliant. At this point, this whole operation's going to end up as a suicide mission soon."

"That's the point of our gear, Cecilia. Top notch from JcJenson's workshops. We're the first in the line to receive it."

I throw up my hands for a moment in disappointment, nearly spilling the bag of assorted mixed nuts in my hands. We were back inside the transport ship, so I didn't have to wear that clunky suit of armor anymore. Meaning I could finally eat something since we first landed on Copper-9. I got thrown violently and nearly crushed back at the comms station, I earned this, alright? Let me eat in peace. 

Stepping into the room came our technician, holding a file in one of his hands. He takes a seat by the two of us with a sigh, glancing down at the document for a moment before glancing up and between the both of us.

"So, anything new?" I ask.

"God. It makes no sense. Jenson's logs haven't a got a single record of the incident. All they dispatched were a few Disassembly Drones and a technician, not an eldritch abomination."

I raise an eyebrow and vaguely motion towards the file, he gets it and tosses the file towards me, sliding for a moment upon the table before stopping in front of me. Opening the file, the first documented logged the first squadron of drones dispatched by JcJenson.

"So that's the first squadron they sent in. Designated N, V, and J. I suppose that's just how Disassembly Drones are labeled . . . We've lost track of them."

"What do you mean, 'lost track'?" I glance over at the three drones. One of the drones distinctly having noticeably more incident logs than the others, "And what's with this 'J' one?"

"Ah, that one. It got destroyed."

I stare at him dumbfoundedly, "Destroyed?"

"It was repaired and dispatched alongside a JcJenson technician."

"Wait wait wait wait- It was destroyed? You're telling me the worker drones fought back? And they actually succeeded?"

"That is indeed what I'm saying, yes," he nods.

"The bastards are armed with actual weapons? Wha- God, alright . . . So you mentioned it was the 'first' squadron?"

"Another few squads of Disassembly Drones was dispatched after that incident, around the same time the technician landed down."

"We have any clue where *any* of them are?"

"Let's see," he grabs the file and flips to one of the final pages, scanning it over before speaking, his eyes not leaving the document, "Let's see. First squadron was deployed . . . literally on the other end of the planet from us."

"Eh, guess we won't be seeing much of them then."

"Then another few drop pods were sent down to Copper-9. Good amount of them landed 'relatively' close to the first squad's landing zone. And by that, I mean a radius of at least a few miles," the technician pauses for a moment as he focuses in on a specific point on the page, "Huh, looks like one of those pods landed relatively close to our LZ. I suppose that's why JcJenson told us to drop here."

My mind recalls the silhouette of the mountain of bodies I glanced over when we made the journey towards the communications facility, was that the Disassembly Drone's handiwork? Things might start getting hairy already.