Murder Drones : Born From Ashes REDUX

''You're a sick old man, and

 Eyes dove from his hiding spot, quickly pivoting his body to kick himself behind a pile of rubble. He picked up his pocket radio.

"Hello again, friend."

"Greetings old man." the voice responded.

"They're gone now, we can do that final hunt now."

"You're talking about that nanite snake, right?"

Eyes felt a toxic pang strike his chest. He looked down expecting to see a claw jutting out his left breast and dripping in scraps of metal and computer parts, but nothing was there. What was this new feeling?

"That creature is none of our business. It's you versus me."

"That's hardly fair."

"This isn't a game anymore. If you leave this place alive, you will have to tell Serial Designation J where they are headed. I cannot risk this mission so we can take a leisurely stroll."

"I understand."

"We start in 5 minutes, ready?"

–

Eyes climbed up onto the highest point, a satellite frame. Here he had a good view of the battlefield. Once he saw H move he would reposition accordingly.

"It's also a good place to get shot."

Eyes immediately snapped into survival mode. He slid down the metal frame and slid down the ladder. When he landed he felt himself be crushed by the speed of his descent, his old joints creaked and screamed in pain. He kneeled over for a moment and stood back up. He had to focus, he had to get to the factory. Using a mirror, he stacks up against an open window and observes the field through the reflection, there. Whatever it was, it must be in there.

The only clear path was on the ground, where that snake was. Though if he used the struts on the floor below him he could make his movement much easier, the only risk was if H had a view he would be a metaphorical sitting duck.

"We used to be so robotic, don't you think?"

Pushing out the metal frame of the openable window, he slowly inched across the sheer ledge, the active smoke grenade tacked on his belt burned his vest, and the only way to keep moving was at a snail's pace as to not protrude from the smoke spilling all over his body. He kept a mental map of the exact motor movements he would need to take as to not fall.

"I never trusted those programs, not after what happened to master. You remember, right? I didn't care if the machine attacking him was company property, I had to save him. You remember them? Kane and Jane?"

How did this thing know who those homo sapiens were? Of course he remembered, but the only animals that would have known of their existence would be the three of them- no. The company would know, right? At Least one human must have seen the record before they were transferred to god knows where. A crack of a 50 cal rang in his ears, he ducked down and felt the air vortex generated by the speeding round ripple from him. The point of origin would have missed even if he continued his movement, it meant H was too far to be able to use his heat vision or x-rays. Eyes finally felt himself press against the wall and he shifted slowly to his right and climbed into the window.

"I hated you, I thought we were family, and you just betrayed me. I had an elaborate plan, being concocted in my head. Maybe I'd find a way to convert myself into an AI and escape into the internet and hunt you from there, stick a bomb into my chest and grab you, I even thought of stealing one of those snipers and killing you, or maybe I'd just break out of this hell hole and crash a vessel into Copper9. I was so mad with hatred that I never considered that I'll be dead the moment you leave."