On-Brand Loyalty

Month Seven: Lurking in the Shadows

The normally quiet and eerie halls of an underground bunker became bursting with activity as a dozen or so Worker Drones bolted through the halls, red lights tinting the walls and blaring alarms drowning out any sound. A single drone tripped and fell, taking one of his fellows beside them tumbling to the ground. The rest of the group kept on running and only a few moments went by before screams of horrible agony caused chills to course down their mechanical spines.

One of them panicked. "Robojesus those monsters are super close!"

"Shut up Barry! Emergency exits are just around the corner!"

He was right, but unfortunately after turning into the next corridor, they're met with a large door with a keypad. One of the drones ran up and rapidly put in codes yet it failed to respond. The group of drones started hitting and pulling at the door with no effect. They're trapped.

"Dammit! Someone must have already gone through and sealed it from outside!"

"They just left us all to die!? What the hell!?!"

"Come on guys we gotta find another way to-...!"

Any arguing silenced immediately when the red lights and blaring alarms abruptly shut off, leaving them all in darkness, only lit by their various colored eyes, all of which immediately hollowed and turned towards a thud at the other end of the hall.

At first, they could only make out a darkened outline due to the lack of illumination, but as soon as the familiar five yellow bulbs and sideways 'X' symbol appeared, the workers all shared a collective gasp. All hope of escape was abandoned as an elongated blade extended from their arm, illuminating everything with a sickening yellow glow.

Serial Designation D glared with a silent rage as he brandished his glowing blade, longer and slimmer than any other Disassembly Drone could hope to achieve. As electricity began to coat the empowered blade, D took a single step forward and with a single swipe the majority of the drones in the room found themselves bisected by a yellow aura.

Oil splattered across the corridor as the remaining Workers desperately clawed at the sealed door as D butchered more and more of the group along the way. Their numbers dwindled in seconds until there were only two left.

One, in a last-ditch burst of bravery, jumped straight onto D's face, blocking his visor and grabbing his neck as if trying to strangle him, their fellow survivor dashing around past them. D barely acknowledged his attacker as his tail snagged and wrapped itself around the neck of the escapee. A simple yank and the drone's neck gave way with a CRUNCH, tossing their severed head through the air with a stream of oil left behind.

D subsequently responded to his would-be strangler with a nasty chomp to their soldier, his fangs piercing straight through the metal and sending a searing pain for his prey's body. As they yelped in agony, D grabbed their leg and yanked again while his teeth kept them in place, the result was the drone's brutal bisection as the Murder Drone savored the resulting oil bath he so graciously provided himself.

Throwing the pieces aside, D scanned around the carnage to see no drone left standing. Only corpses, spilled oil, and red "FATAL ERROR" messages on any visors still intact. D grunted as his cracked visor started to spark and he felt an unpleasant pain pulse through his body, the "HIGH TEMP" warning suddenly blared in his vision. He deactivated the power-supply in his blade causing the light to fade as it became just a normal sword and reduced his overheating. D glanced at the oil staining the weapon before giving it a long lick, the oil already cooling his systems down.

D heard a faint panting and turned behind him to see one Worker Drone had indeed survived, halfway at least, attempting to drag their legless self to who-knows where. He rolled his eyes and strolled over, barely giving the drone time to even beg before he stomped their head like an egg. D grinded his foot against the remains, as if stamping out a bug.