Rust

[Warning: Data Recall Failure. Please Report Failure To (??ERROR??)]

     Time seemed to go in slow motion. I leaped upwards, bullets whizzing down the dark hallway behind the blast door, and clutched a thick pipe. I had only seconds until he reacquired me. I pushed myself towards him, and threw him to the ground as he attempted to fire again. I thought rapidly. His torso was covered in steel and Kevlar, and all his vital systems were behind that. I had to keep him occupied long enough to get at them. I knew just the thing. I slashed through all the pneumatic pistons on the forearm of his right arm, and—whistling furiously—the arm went limp. He struggled beneath me, but I managed to keep him down as I yanked off his chestplate, balled my right hand into a fist, and smashed his CPU. He immediately sagged. I stood up. I felt cameras on me and turned back the way I came. Hundreds of drones stood there, some still clambering out of their pods, others already raising their guns. I turned and ran back into the exit as they began to open fire, bullets sparking off my armor. I heard a bullet punch through one of my pneumatic tubes, and the fingers on my right hand stopped working. I sprinted down the hallway until I came to another recessed doorway on the side of the hall. Inside was a stairwell. I looked at the stairs, then down the hall, then back the way I came. I could see the green outlines of other drones moving closer, their red lights overwhelming parts of the NV.

   I took the stairs three at a time. At the top there was a door, which hung slightly ajar. A dim, flickering light illuminated the inside. I retracted my NV camera and peeked inside. There were six odd-looking drones inside, all contours and covered in tan or brown rubber. I could see no corruption indicators, but cloth was covering most of their bodies. They were talking.

    "It'll be fine, Elizabeth! If we stopped pillaging these things and used them, we would never have to worry about soldier raids again! " one of them said loudly.

    "Khar, they're dangerous! Haven't you read anything about tombs? These things are always there, and they always kill. " A smaller, more curved one retorted.

    "Those were security, we're turning these on ourselves! And have you ever heard of a tomb just for these? We could be famous, the first people to discover a new type of tomb. Besides, they can't get through that blast door. We'll just watch them for a while, make sure they're safe, " the first one said, turning away. I decided that now would be a good time to alert them of my presence.

    "I apologize, but the drones below have become dangerously corrupted. They cannot help you, " I said, stepping into the room. Every single one of them pulled guns seemingly from nowhere and trained them on me. I hurriedly ducked behind a crate, yelling, "FRIENDLY! "

    I heard one of them murmur, "Was that one of them?"

    Another said, "Oh Khoor. If it's through..."

    "Hey, robot man! Step out, we won't shoot!" A third yelled.

    I slowly stood up. Their guns were lowered, and the curved one who had been arguing stepped forward.

    "What are you doing here? How did you get out?" It said. I replied simply with, "I was woken up and for lack of other orders came out here. I should warn you. I could not seal the door behind me, and corrupted drones are downstairs."

    It bit the bottom of its mouth slit and looked around me at the door.

    "Khoor's Smoke. We need to leave now, " It said, "Drone, can you help us get out?"

    "I do not know where the exit is. I can assist with getting there, if you are aware of the location," I replied.

    It looked up at me with wide eyes. "You speak, and think..." It said, "I've never found..." It stopped and smiled tentatively. "I'm Elizabeth. I'm a human. These guys back there-" it pointed to each in turn "- are Khar, Jakob, Copper, Mikhail, and Jon. I'm a 'she', and they're 'he's'." There was a loud clatter behind me on the stairs. I whipped around to see the end of a drone's leg as it fell down the stairs. Every single one of the 'humans' raised their guns again.

    "C'mon, lets go!" The one named Copper said. They ran out onto the stairs. There were dozens of drones making their way upwards, and they all turned and fired. Bullets tore through Jon before he could make it to cover, and he collapsed. A collective cry went up from the group, and Mikhail darted out and dragged Jon's body behind cover. A veritable upside down hailstorm of bullets came from downstairs, and the group couldn't move.

I slid my wrist blades out again, watching the approaching drones. I waited for one of the humans to finish firing their gun over the solid banister, then leapt out, tackling one. As it struggled underneath me, I brought my left blade up in an arc across its camera wires. I held the blind drone up in front of me as the other drones turned, spraying lead at me. I threw my makeshift shield at the nearest drone, then leapt again, bouncing off the stair bed above me and landing on the next. I slashed wildly, cutting clusters of pneumatic pipes. I felt more bullets pinging off my hull, and could hear the pops of pneumatic pipes. My left arm fell limp as I jumped sideways, falling down the middle of the stair shaft. I landed heavily, surrounded by more drones. They looked at me with apparent surprise as I scrambled upwards. I slashed wildly with my working arm as I pushed through them. In the confusion, many of the drones behind me began shooting into their comrades.  I reached the end of the hallway and looked back. Many of the drones were damaged or destroyed, most with friendly bullet holes in them. The few that were left raised their guns, then stopped. There was a thud behind me, and I turned. I could hear gunfire from above, and the shouts of humans, but my concentration was taken up by the hulking black-painted LASER drone standing in front of me, its bulky camera examining me balefully. A yellow light blinked on its chest, and a whipcord-thin antenna sprouted from its back. It said, "Unit has damaged frames under [self/unit] command. Explain mission."

I looked up at it, saying quickly, "I was attacked by Slow Red drones, I assumed they were rogue."

It contemplated me, its angular laser apparatus dangling from its stubby left arm. "Frame in question is not under storage listings."

I paused, and realized I had no response to that. It hefted its laser, my yellowish green light reflecting off the focusing lens. "Respond to command hails, or be designated rogue."

I backed up, searching for my command logs. Indeed, a number of commands had been sent to me by the LASER unit. I sent a response hail, and I felt myself connect to the command network. It was a mass of conflicting code and signals, interrupted by the LASER unit's orders. The other drones were definitely Slow Red. I spoke to the LASER drone again. "Targets upstairs are non-hostile, I talked with them."

The large drone paused. "Term received again, [I]." It looked me over carefully. I panicked.

override.All: Shutdown// Auth: 03R.KJ51

INPUT: [??ERROR??]

All the drones--on the stairs, behind the LASER, on the landing--stopped. Their joints locked as they sagged, and their internal gyroscopes desperately balanced the drones as they tottered. The LASER drone looked at me, its focusing apparatus rising. "Rogue confirmed. //WARNING// Rogue drone in vicinity. Terminate with extreme prejudice."

I jumped yet again as the invisible beam shot out below me, burning a four-inch mark into the concrete stair bed. I landed on the drone's front, scrambling over its camera as it raised its right arm to pull me off. In a split second, I realized with dismay that its tubes were encased in armor. I grabbed my limp arm, jamming the blade into the crack of his back panel. As it pulled me up, the blade pulled the panel off. It threw me against the wall, then aimed its laser apparatus. The beam cut across my left side as I scrambled to my feet, and I felt countless subroutines go dark. My vision flickered for a moment, then I was in the air again. The beam tracked me, burning the concrete centimeters behind me as I ricocheted off the wall. I landed and rolled as it turned, getting up behind it. I slashed almost without thinking, the blade cutting through wires and modules. The drone shuddered, then jerked to a stop. I paused for a moment, then reached out and shoved it over. It made a satisfying gonging noise. I turned and looked around me, at all the frozen drones, and began wondering what even I didn't know about myself. A clanging from the stairs distracted me. The humans were hurrying downstairs. There were only five of them, one carrying another over his shoulder. They looked at me in apparent alarm.

"Did you do this?" the one named Jakob asked, looking around.

"Yes... but it was an accident.", I said, walking over to one disabled drone.