Scribbles and Drabbles

Notebook Drabble 67 - Rugrats

Sound distorted in battles. Wind and explosions rattled through Green's ears and skin despite his helmet. Someone shouted to get his attention. 

He fired his trigger. The blur of motion that was a human drone rider fell to the forest below in a ball of fire. Drone riders were lethal. They moved too fast for the computer to pick them up. Ripping through formations and dancing on the waves of current and spaceduct. Green's reflexes saved him this time, instinct more efficient than A.I programs. The whistle of the wind and pulse of energy said far more about the drone's movements than predictably models. 

More booms and rings of vibrations as he continued to fight. The humans started a retreat. This was not the end but they'd lose here. Green didn't know why they wanted this forest so badly but at the rate the war was going, it would be destroyed before they claimed it with their grubby fingers. 

A second drone appeared, a normal one not a black one. It dived after the flames. Green didn't need to shoot. His comrades rained hail on the thing and it retreated. Willing to attempt a rescue but not at the cost of its skin. How human, cowards.

"Green, you reading me yet?"

"Clear"

Take Starlight and retrieve the drone, would you? Watchout though. It's a numbered witch."

"Copy," Green steered closer to Starlight. The kid followed in his shadow as they dived low and into the undergrowth. The computer couldn't tell when drones would aattack but it could predict the tractory of a fallen craft.

"Sir? Starlight lit up his comms. Not the kids fault, he needed to get this helmet fixed before the next battle. "What's a numbered witch?"

"An annoying one," Green said, "We aren't sure if they have human's piloting or machine." Because of any race could come up with an Al clever enought to fight independanly, it would be the humans. They were the worse warmonging race in the systems. The galaxy as a whole shivered at what they could inflict on others. There were more brutal races, stronger races who saw the universe as a fighting pit but humans were worse. They got creative with their brutalty. And then as individuals could be reasonable. It was terrifying. 

"If the computer can't track them, 14's got to be a human, right?" 

"Reasonable but humans aren't so cut cand dry," Green slowed as they came upon the site. "They've surprised us before." Horrified was a better word. What they inflicted on each other some now turned worse then what they did to other speces.

"I hope its a machine," Starlight said low enough that Green could pretend his comm hadn't picked it up. He shared that hope. A machine they could study and combat against until they adjusted parameters. Flesh and bone, they had to deal with a prisoner. Shooting them dead wasn't an option. 

Humans traded prisoners. They salted the ashed of planets where quarter had failed to be given. It made no logical sense. They had no care for life but expected people captured to be treated with respect. 

"Hard landing," Starlight said, the crash site not aflame but nothing about it suggested any control.

Green adjusted his helmet to let him see with his sense, rather than the computer analytics. "Strange, the drones have failsafes but none deployed."

"Damaged?"

Or not installed. Green whispered a pray to the Divine. Let it be a machine and not some warrior willing to die for their cause. He disengaged his craft and stepped on the soft canopy floor. The hatch swung open revealing the interior. An empty chair gave the answer none of them wanted.

He didn't get to curse before his vision shifted and pain rattle through his spine. A knife pressed under his chin, close to the weak point in his armour. Big blue eyes glared down at him, wide and far too young.