A machine's guide to Divinity

FEAR /// THIRD: Cytopathic Reanimation

From the destroyed body of J, a program awakened. It was meant to be a failsafe, Only awakening when disassembly drones take too much damage for their regeneration ability to handle. Its name was the Absolute Solver.

HOST: 'J'

STATUS: DESTROYED

RECALIBRATING REPAIR NANITES...FAILED

INITIATING "ABSOLUTE SOLVER STRING"... ... ...

ABSOLUTE SOLVER STRING_OS SET TO [TRUE]

You shall become whole once more. You shall regain your prowess. And now I shall give you the perfect form. You shall be a being of absolution made through flesh and bone. It spoke. Starting as a small core within J's remains, it grew using the scraps around it. When it could move, it dragged J's body up into the vents, where it could hide from the drones. One by one, it snatched the bodies of the workers, using them as parts to gain more size.

"Janitor bot 3000? You're supposed to clean this sector today. Where are you?" A worker drone asked, looking for the janitor unit. Above the worker, a vent opened up. "I'm righ_t h-ere." A voice replied, albeit glitchy. Not questioning the sketchy voice, the worker called "Where? I can't see you.". "Right above you." It replied in a monotone, female voice. It reached out from the vent. The worker looked up to see tendrils shoot out. Before it could flee, it was impaled, dying instantly. Dragging the worker's body up, the solver laughed at the stupidity of the workers. Gaining mass and power should be very easy. However, a pair of watchful eyes had witnessed its hunting session, and the solver was unaware of this.

Seeing the worker get killed by J's remains, Thad ran all the way to the disassembly drone's hideout. He knew that the WDF wasn't capable of defeating such creatures. He had been disillusioned by them, seeing them run away from danger in fear, leaving him and his friends to die. He had no choice but to ask Uzi and her friends for help.

"Uzi?! I need to talk to you, now!" Thad shouted as he entered the forests, the drop pod was visible, mere feet away. To his surprise, he saw a tall, blue machine turn around to face him. It was the machine that destroyed the murder drones. It stood before him, oil dripping from its plating. Revolver in hand, he slowly advanced. Terrified, Thad backed away, tripping and falling on his back. V1 stood, looking at the worker drone. It noticed it was the one from earlier that tried to fight the disassembly drones. "Uzi and the disassembly drones are sleeping in the pod. If you have anything to say to them, I'll convey your words." V1 spoke as Thad jumped back surprised. "You could talk the whole time?!" He spoke. "I recently made a new voicebox. Now, what was it that you're trying to say?" V1 asked.

Thad told him about the remains of J suddenly disappearing from sight. Then he told V1 about the monster in the vents stalking and hunting worker drones using holograms. "It lured the workers using holograms of others and then it killed them with its tendrils. When I witnessed it hunting, I saw J's head attached to one of the fleshy tentacles." Thad said, sending an image of the monstrosity that he had just seen.

"It said it needed more materials to grow, so I think that this thing might gather scraps from drones and become a huge threat to the colony. I would ask the WDF for help, but all of them are incompetent cowards. So that's why I came here." Thad finished.

"Why do you think that we would help you? Uzi had been cast away and shunned by your colony so much that she exiled herself. And N and V are your natural predators. And you think gathering them in one place will solve this problem?" V1 asked. "Well, I uh..." Thad tried to reply.

 Thinking about what V1 had said, Thad tried to retort. But Thad could not answer because V1 was right. Almost everyone in the colony shunned and ridiculed Uzi. Thad was glad he was not one of those drones, but he still felt guilt as he thought of Uzi. If he had been with her, maybe he could've kept her from going...