Workmates?

The Odious Queen

3:11 AM
Camp 98.7

"And... where exactly is this... secret laboratory supposed to be?" J, who accompanied them made sure to pronounce key words prominently to express her frustration of having to stroll through the underwood of a frozen forest behind camp 98.7. "Well... according to my research it should be a straight shot from here right into... THAT direction." The worker drone, Uzi, pointed towards a group of trees and brushing that looks intentionally planeted, as to block vision onto something. V sighed and fired a rocket with HE filler at the vegetation. The tree that was hit directly splintered apart almost entirely, sending debris and wood all over the place. Brushing was torn away and two more trees were lifted out of the ground including their roots.

"Was that really necessary?!" Uzi exclaimed, bewildered by V's brash action. "What? I thought YOU wanted to go there." The disassembly drone cleared her throat and then pointed at herself. "I just help with clearing the path." Uzi grunted. She still wasn't on good terms with V, especially after the incident with the soldier drones outside the colony. "Whatever people, there's no room for hostilities in this group, so lets focus on the mission." Tessa said as she took the initative and stepped through the torn brushing. The group silently agreed and followed her.

Just as V was about to start moving again, N put a hand on her shoulder. "Was THAT really necessary?" He asked with a frown and a monotone voice. V could tell he was clearly disappointed by her actions causing her system to fabricate a panic response. "... W-Well of course! She was the one that started!" The male sighed and his hand slid off her shoulder. He opened his mouth but closed it again and then just followed the group without looking back. Meanwhile V ran through multiple scenarios in her head on how to make it up to him and then stumbled over a fallen tree. She landed in the snow and grunted.

Frustrated, but still motivated enough to follow the group, she stood back up. Then suddenly a warm liquid began running down her left thigh. The drone looked down and noticed a rather big wooden stake stuck in her abdomen. V sighed and pulled it out, knowing full well that her recovery system would repair any damage before anyone would notice. She then caught up to them and stopped to take in what everyone was looking at. 

An enormous industrial plant was stretched out right in front of them. The place was riddled with pipes, cables, storage tanks, extraction locations and on it's far western edge a large sink hole, that seemed to have swallowed a part of the facility. Uzi shrugged and lead the way, slowly making her way across the various steel bridges spanning across important looking machinery and conveyor belts. The group began to follow the enthusiastic worker drone. Whilst wandering across, N noticed a rather small shed in the distance. An interesting looking vehicle stood right in it's singular gate, the front half in the open, the rear half in the shed.

"Hey, uh Tessa? What is that over there?" The male pointed towards the machine, making sure the human acknowleged what he was looking at. "Oh. That is a Medea-Class Destroyer. Forceful, terrible, unbreakable. Manufactured only in Pan, and designed to withstand the rigours of Eleutheria's perpetual night." She continued walking, leaving N with literal question marks on his visor. "Excuse the question Tessa, but what are Pan and Eleutheria?" The human stopped upon this question and turned to look at him.

"Long before JCJenson expanded into the Universe, there were lots and lots of "Skyfarers". People who took it upon themselves to explore the wilderness of space, equipped with... Steam Locomotives designed to Hover in the Sky. Most of them where retrofitted with combat systems after discovering that Space... is not as peaceful as they thought it out to be. There were grand stations littered all over the Universe, acting as a resupply hub for the trains and creating settlements on planets.  That is how humanity initially began to spread across and populate everything that we know of today. They were replaced once JCJenson's superior astronautic technologies opened up new ways of travel." 

"And... if you don't mind me asking, but does that Locomotive still work?" N could barely hide his excitement. A relict from a long forgotten chapter in humanities history?! Count him in! "You can always go check. I recon it'll take a few hours to find the exact location of the laboratory." With those words she signalled H and J to follow her and began to leave. N and V stayed behind, with N gazing upon the smooth black shell of the machine. "C'mon V! Let's explore that building!" N extended his wings and dashed over to the abandoned shed. 

The female disassembly drone glanced over to the trio that began to follow Uzi and then back to N. Fine, she'll explore with him, but just once. They still got a mission to attend to... Onwards! V followed her male counterpart to the shed. Once safely landed on a strip of rail she made sure to watch her step and not stumble over one of the many crossbeams connecting the two strings of steel. And then she came face to face with what N wanted to explore. An enormous beast made of steel and special alloys, suited for even the harshest conditions of the sky. The machine was atleast seven times her height, maybe even eight.

She walked past the locomotive and opened a door in the brick facade of the building. The interior was dimly lit as the roof was torn open in certain places. It looked like the facility had been built right around this shed, ignoring it. Storage tanks and larger buildings were overshadowing the smaller brick construction. And then she noticed N who was inspecting the rear of the Medea-Class Destroyer. V looked up to the cabin and noticed a nameplate spelling The Odious Queen onto the side.

She turned away and began to investigate the building herself, rumaging through old documents and photos until she found something of interest. An old black and white picture with The Odious Queen in the background. Visible were fifteen humans and some animal companions. Perhaps it's crew before it was abandoned? She folded it gently and stored it in an empty weapon compartment in her left arm. 

"V!?"

The female drone jumped as N suddenly appeared right behind her. "This thing is AMAZING! It runs fully on steam and uses liquified coal to light a fire inside of it's boiler. Said boiler boils water and-" She blinked twice in bewilderment as they stared at one another. N suddenly felt heat rushing up to his visor. "S-Sorry... I just thought that... maybe you'd be interested." The male drone sheepishly added as V's posture and gesture softened. "You're fine N. Just uh- why did you want to see this?"

N's eyes beamed right back up with passion upon hearing her question. "Well... I am somewhat interested in human history. How did they even get across the universe in the first place? And when? Why? It's a topic I'd like to learn more about because... eventually I'll learn what our actual purpose is... Besides murdering innocent workers." V was surprised by this answer. She expected some nerdy brabbeling about technology, but this was an actual good reason to be looking into. Maybe it'll even twist his way of seeing how they were created... maybe he'll completely forget about the absolute solver. But they opposite could also be the case, maybe he'll discover just how gruesome their creation process was and... The female didn't want to continue following her thoughts as they led down a rabbit hole of N suffering in the worst possible ways.

"... V? You there?" Because V had been absent and completely still for an uncomfortable amount of time now, N lightly tapped her shoulder to bring her back into the real world. Her eyes focused on him and she slightly nodded. "Yeah." N noticed a certain undertone in her voice. "What's on your mind?" he asked, walking past her and sitting down on a broken workbench. Now she had to act quick. If V accidentally revealed what she was actually thinking it could lead to a catastrophe. "I was... wondering how they got this... absolute GIANT of a machine into motion!" As she talked, she picked up pace trying to hide her uncertainty.

"Oh." N answered, jumping right back down from the workbench. "I'll show you, come." N wandered across the shed and climbed up a slim ladder located right in front of the cabin on the locomotives side. V sighed in relief and followed him. The smooth steel made it very difficult for her to climb the ladder, because her legs were not... exactly designed to mount slim, rounded surfaces. Annoyed, she spread her wings and flew to the sidewalk, which was mounted next to the enormous boiler, where N was waiting for her. "Follow me." N waved at her and pulled a very thick bulkhead-like door open on the face of the cab. Both drones stepped inside, not knowing what awaited them.

They're still here...