Murder Drones Megacollab

Prologue

          "I really need to figure that out..." Cassandra's eyes flashed red as she walked toward the fight, taking her railgun out and ordering the army behind her to just wait.

          Ignoring the clanking of the drones behind her, the Supreme Commander looked at the carnage ahead. What were those three doing here? Would the plan still work after this? Their little ambush was horribly compromised, she thought.

          Saving those worker drones would be a bit more difficult...

          Getting authoritarian power would be so much more of a pain than she thought—and she already expected the worst. Cassandra was more annoyed than she could ever be concerned, but kept stepping forward anyway.

          Suddenly... the noise of the army completely disappeared. Cassandra turned around to her horror.

          Everything shut down.

          The hundreds of drones still waiting behind her completely stiffened. Then, before Cassandra could even react, the visors on every last one of them went pitch black. Cassandra dropped her railgun, looking back at the fight: G. H. Even K. Everybody was lifeless.

          What? What the hell? Is this some sort of twisted ga-

class WorkerDroneUzi63:

     def __init__(self, serial_number):

          self.serial_number = serial_number

          self.active = True

     def deactivate(self):

          print(f"Deactivating Uzi #63 with serial number {self.serial_number63}")

          self.active = False

          It is difficult to tell whether the sound of her body tumbling to the ground was swept away either by the frigid winds attacking this planet or the sheer vastness of this massacre. You see-–this was not the end of a single person. In fact, this was not the end of even hundreds. It may be difficult to believe, but this was the end of millions. Every last drone on the planet—worker drone and disassembly drone—was left erased and shut down. Well, at least in a sense. Nobody died at the very least.

          This was not anything like the first catastrophe befalling Copper 9, if that was not already clear enough. While that one ended in flames and chaos, this one was...

          Silence.

          It was almost as though the planet had stopped rotating, a few gusts of wind making only the faintest bit of noise. One could call it a graveyard, just above ground. Nobody dared to make a sound any louder than that.

         Then that silence cracked, though just barely, under the sound of steps at the top of one of the decaying buildings that littered this planet. A faint bit of purple lights up in the darkness, watching the small squad of drones that remained frozen.

          Perfect. She jumped off her perch and tapped a button on her shoes. Her boots glowed as they hovered onto the apartment complex. This angel of crude survivalism slid down the side of the collapsed building, remaining silent among the winds. Finally, it landed above the snow—still hovering above the floor.

          The cameras were still off, she noticed; that should make things easier. This version of Uzi drifted toward Cassandra, taking out a USB drive. She took a moment to lift the deactivated drone's hair, looking for the right port, and plugged it in.