Murder Drones: Disassembly Required

Both N and the Captain made good points. Cloris nodded, cupping her chin.

”There's quite a few ways to get good will, aren't there? Hopefully Ray and the others will be able to give us more information on the bunker and the drone behavior. It should be fairly simple, given the lesser AI of worker drones.”

Oh if only she knew. Much like Ray, she was in the dark about the Copper 9 Drones, just like she was. She looked at N in amusement as she sat in her chair.

”I'm sure they won't be able to tell the difference N.”

She looked at Aegis, immediately planning things out in her head. ”Then we'll have to make restoring the generators our first priority. And restoring the parts of the ship around them.”

Cloris followed Karasu out, looking back at N briefly before looking at her captain.

”It's hard to believe that someone gave a disassembly drone that kind of personality. I wonder, is it a way for them to cope with their work easier?”

---

”He clearly wasn't in his right mind! That monster hacked him or stole his sentience! You know, the thing I did to that stupid guy in class!”

After that, she stared at Chaos. Then she grinned at him. ”Oh I'm definitely crashing at your place sometime.”

---

”Hey! I'm interrogating all of you! So shut your mouths!”

Uzi barked at the voices. She stared at the hologram of her mother.

“I don't understand. What do you mean by witch? I can't cast spells or anything like that.”

She stared, looked in confusion. ”Absolute Solver? Is that some kind of program or something? Wait… is 002 my mom? Why do you keep calling my mom that?! Her name was Nori! Noooor! Eeeeeee!”

Uzi backed up from the Hologram, her back slamming against the sealed door. She pointed her gun at the hologram, shouting at it.

”Not another step imposter! Or I swear to robo-jesus I'll blast you into oblivion!”

N also pointed out that getting rid of the monster was pretty sure to build up some goodwill with them too. The Captain can't help but nod at that.

"That's an excellent point. We use that and our plans moving forward to deal with any possible threats they're up against, I think they'll be a lot more interested in helping us out."

After having said that, N gives another salute and assures Karasu that he can count on her. He gives her a thumbs up in response.

Aegis's quick rundown of their power situation was pretty good too. Sure, there was a time limit, but it had massively improved from what it was before. As Cloris remarks that the generators should be the first priority, Karasu voices his agreement;

"Yeah. The sooner we have power running, the easier everything gets. We'll be able to get our machines running and we can fabricate all kinds of things out of raw materials. It's our best starting point."

After the two of them left, Cloris then began to comment on N's unique personality. She had her theories regarding it, but Karasu wasn't quite as certain.

"Well. I've seen some Drones adapt to some pretty wild situations... I don't think we're dealing with a simple case of Humans with a lot of coding time on their hands anymore."

The Captain admits, and then continues;

"Copper-9 has been like this for some time now. I think the Drones have gotten pretty far past what their initially limited programming would allow. Worker Drones and Disassembly Drones both."

In any case, as they step into the Cafeteria, things are a little bit of a mess... But it could certainly have been much worse. The important things can still be operated, and they can still get drinks and food.

The Captain carefully steps over some of the objects and things tossed out of place. A little bit of reorganization will do for now.

"Well... Could have been worse, I guess."

Karasu eventually settles on a chicken and cheese sandwich and some chips. For drink, he prepares some flavored water and then sits down to finally get to eating this meal.

Back on the bridge, Aegis can't help but smile at N's enthusiasm over her new role.

"Well, for the moment it's just waiting for them to give us another call. But just between you and me... That's a little boring. We should try to work in those call signs and that line if we can."

The Ship's AI responds, and then follows with;
"As long as we can still effectively receive and relay information, of course."

---

J softens up as Chaos mentions not wanting to lose anyone again. She gives him a concerned expression -- but soon enough her confidence is back and she nods.

"I guess I better go save that idiot, then."

As Chaos looks himself over and realize that he's lost the mine -- J makes a note of that. That was going to be important to remember for later... But even more importantly than that, he reeled from some pain in his chest. J helps him over to the wall so he can lean against it if he needs to.

"We're pretty lucky if it's just a little sore. But take it easy to be sure."

As for V's earlier suggestion -- Ray seemed to really like the idea, so much so that he turned to her and gently grabbed her by the arms while talking about how she was a genius. This prompts the Disassembly Drone to blush in response, but she clearly appreciates the attention and praise too.

Still, he does further expand on that by saying that J and V should take separate paths in there. V gives a nod at that.

"Good idea. That way if it sees one of us coming, it will still be distracted."

They had their plan of action now. But before it was executed, Ray and Chaos both asked them to be careful. J gives a confident smirk as per usual.

"We've got this. Just goes to show you not to send a Worker Drone to do a Disassembly Drone's job!"

With that remark, J spies a vent she can use, and immediately sets off into it. V then glances over at Ray.

"Don't worry. We'll be fine. And we'll get Uzi out somehow."

Having said that, she pops open a different vent, and away she goes...

Each Disassembly Drone is working their way through the surprisingly spacious ventilation shafts. These things must have wormed their way through the entire facility -- which included the Warehouse.

They're moving quietly, and as they come to each respective grating, they begin to carefully remove them in order to get inside the darkened room. Each one of them immediately takes stock of their surroundings.

If they have enough of an opening, they begin to sneak their way over to the door that was locked, to see if they can get it open for the rest of the group... And also to see if they can spot where Uzi and the Solver Beast are at.

I lean against the wall, holding onto my stomach. "Thanks J... I appreciate the help"

Thankfully the pain is slowly fading away, but it still hurts as hell. "If only Worker Drones keeps pain meds as decoration" I half jokingly said. I take a good look around the room and notice the doors control panel. I tap the word "Open door" and a big red error appeared. "Damn, where is that doorlover when we need him. I think you need to fix the doors gears or something Ray. Im useless in that department." I grab a nearby swivel chair, wipe off some dust and sat in it.

Cloris looked over at the captain with surprise. At least as surprised as she could look with the lower part of her face masked. [color=jade]”It’s highly likely there have been significant changes within the Copper 9 drones. There’s a significant amount of time after the Copper 9 incident that hasn’t been accounted for. It’s anyone’s guess as to what type of modifications they’ve made to themselves. But the disassembly drones shouldn’t be that different then they were when they were first sent here.”

Cloris paused, tilting her head down slightly as she walked forward. [color=jade]“Rather, I hope that the safeguards that are in place don’t change anytime soon. I’m not worried too much about N, mind you. That said…”

Cloris paused, then laughed quietly. ”Don’t mind the musings of my mind Captain. I shouldn’t drag you into my world. Of always thinking of the worst thing that could happen. That’s what it’s like to live as a scientist I suppose. You have to consider everything, the good and the bad.”

When they made it to the cafeteria, Cloris noticed something rather odd. In the corner of the room, written in green crayon of all things was a confounding message.

”Cloris is cute”

Cloris stared at the message. She had become stiff as a statue. ”How did that get here? Unless that monstricity decided to write that in crayon with its dying breath, I don’t see how this had could have gotten here. We all woke up at the same… wait.”

There was a pause. Then she let out a sigh, looking down and shaking her head. ”Chaos was out before the rest of us. I’m going to have a word with him when he gets back."

---

Oh, it didn't like that. Uzi noticed immediately: how this thing hated it when she called her mother by her actual name. Despite the situation, Uzi found herself giving the thing a smug little grin.

”Don’t like it when I call her Nori? Well too bad! Cause apparently my mom was an awesome badass that made you quake in fear! And I don’t care what kind of promise she made to you either!”

Uzi wanted to know as much as she could about her mother. In fact this was going to be one of the things she was going to ask this creature. It was comforting to know that she apparently was something that this monster was afraid of. But at the same time, it only deepened the mystery around her. But Uzi wasn’t afraid to dig around in the dirt: she’d find out about her mom, one way or another.

Unfortunately, that small moment of control didn’t last for very long. It seemed completely unconcerned by the railgun. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try. She took aim at the hologram, bracing herself against the door.

”Fine! Then prepare to eat plasma imposter!”

Uzi willed her finger to press down on the trigger. But then a yellow light grew brighter and fighter. Uzi clutched her chest, leaning back against the door. She felt her knees buckling.

”ugh! What’s happening to… me…”

Her vision flickered. The yellow light almost filled her entire vision. Her body started to slide down the door. And then…

It faded as the thing’s attention was brought away from her. Uzi wasn’t even aware of her surroundings as she fell backward through the door. She landed on her back, her arms stretching out behind her head. Her railgun slipped from her grip and clattered to the ground behind her.  




”H… help! What’s… going on?!”

Uzi’s voice was distorted. Like there was a bug with her entire autio system. Yellow lines of text scrolled across her vision. An outside observer wouldn’t be able to see most of it: but they would be able to see this displayed on her visor:


Then, there was a change. Another line of code popped up across Uzi’s vision. It began to overtake the yellow lines that across her screen. Words flashed across her visor. The color of the symbol changed too.


An additional line of text cropped up underneath it:

Restarting to initialize changes.

Then the display on Uzi’s visor completely shut off. And she became motionless.

As Aegis and N are enjoying their little bit of time together, the situation does take a bit of a turn -- at first it's just white noise and the brief cuts of music. But then there's what is unmistakably a voice. Aegis's eyes widened as she caught the bits and pieces of what it was saying.

Then she steps over to N.

"N. I heard someone talking when you were switching through the frequencies. Try to hone in on it."

No one else should have been on Copper-9, but that was definitely a voice that she heard. And it didn't match anyone on the crew either. There was the possibility that it was a Drone... But either way, she wanted answers. N, understandably, hadn't caught any of that and just wanted to have a bit of fun. Which was fine, but... They stumbled on something important here.

"It looks like this is going to get a lot more interesting than we first thought..."

Aegis was already trying to put together a log of what the person was saying. Both a direct transcript, and what they were POSSIBLY saying.

Right now, the most direct possible translation she had was "Listen to the voices in the dark", or perhaps... "Don't listen to the voices in the dark"

Both were possibilities. Neither sounded very good.

---

Meanwhile, on Karasu and Cloris's end... Cloris expressed her surprise over the theory, and suggested that the Disassembly Drones shouldn't have had as much time comparatively to adjust like the Worker Drones did. The Captain wasn't quite as sure, however.

"We don't know how long they've been here, Cloris. And they've been on their own, forced to adapt to the situation as well."

Having said that, Cloris then began to share why it was so concerning to see how much they've changed -- the safeguards. Or how they might change, or even get removed. The Captain smiles softly as the woman further tries to excuse the ramblings of her mind.

"I won't say that your fears are unfounded. But it does seem rather unlikely. We all have a common enemy, and that drives people together, rather than apart. We will have to treat them as people, however. Regardless of whatever stances we might have had otherwise."

Their conversation was interrupted however, as Cloris makes an unusual discovery. The scientist begins to wonder who could have possibly written such a message, and then... She realizes that Chaos was the most likely culprit here.

That realization is what leads her to wanting to have a talk with him later. The Captain lets out a small chuckle at that.

"I guess it was pretty lonely for him, he only really had Aegis to talk to. Natural that he got a bit of a crush on you, Cloris."

Having said that, Karasu then continues on to point out;
"But you may not have to worry about that crush anymore. J seems to have taken that spot, and she seems to reciprocate that interest with him."

---

V had been making her way over to the door to open it for Ray and Chaos. But the simple action of kicking the door was enough to rapidly change the entire atmosphere of the warehouse. The beast roared in anger and turned it's attention to the door -- and thus, to her.

The Disassembly Drone turns to face it. And as the clawed tendrils rushed towards her... A wide grin spreads on her face, and the eyescreen displays a signature glowing "X".

As one of the clawed tendrils closes in on her, she fends it off with her own claws -- and as the mass speeds for her back, her tail lashes out with precision, striking right at the center of it's limb. Then her wings sprout forth, and she kicks off of the ground as more of the tendrils begin closing in.

Then she begins to nimbly weave between the tendrils -- moving in such a way that they'd get caught on her bladed wings, and then she'd grab hold of them with her clawed hands. She begins to twist and pull them into a collection, and then she begins to pierce her tail into them repeatedly, picking a new target and angle each time.

"Hehehehahaha!!"


She then releases the tendrils just as they become fiercer in their struggle, and then she raises her tail up high, poised to strike as she readies herself into a combat stance.

"Nice to see you... Cyn."

She calls out to the beast.

"You know, we never finished the last game we were playing... Let's fix that. No more running this time."

V's words dripped with malice, and she begins to slowly walk forward, clearly hoping to spot the creature or another one of it's limbs.

J, for her part in this, held back, taking an advantageous position and watching this play out for now. If V needed assistance, then the best kind of support would come from an ambush -- that was what the twin-tailed Disassembly Drone had deduced.

Though right now, there was the impression that this creature was stuck inside the warehouse with V, rather than the other way around...

"What's the matter, Cyn? I see you're still making the same old abominations, but you seem so much more... Afraid this time."

"Wait, that wasnt me who wrote that!" I blurted out randomly, like I knew some accused me of doing something I clearly didnt did. "...Anyways..."

I continue to tap on the "open" prompt until it finally lit up a green text reading "Access Granted". We finally got the warehouse doors to open, but before my eyes I saw Uzi fell through the doors.

"Uzi!" I rushed over to her as she fell onto the ground, ignoring the pain signals my brain has been sending throughout my body. "Uzi, are you okay!?" I worryingly questioned. Witnessing the onscreen glitches on hers screen visor and Uzi going limp as she shuts off sends me into a panic. "Damnit! Uzi, I dont want to loose you!" I screamed, picking up hers limp body. "How... Do I fix a worker drone?". During my panic, I seem to forget that Uzi monotony said that she is restarting.

”True, we don't know how long they've been here. But it can't have been long enough to counteract core directives.”

Cloris nodded at her captain. ”I've been doing that. For all intents and purposes, they're living beings with their own sentience. There's no sense in mistreating people who's help you need.”

Cloris sighed, rubbing her hair with her hand. ”All of that is true. Still, I question where Chaos's head is at sometimes. He's good at his job though, so his eccentricities are tolerable.

Cloris hurried to the bridge when N called out for them. She frowned as she came across the message.

”But the darkness is where that creature dwells. Is that message a code of some kind?”

Speaking of code, Cloris leaned forward, staring at the screen.

”Really good work N. You were right to call us. Now then, I might as well try the most obvious number code. Hopefully those numbers will correspond to the alphabet.”

Cloris took out a small notebook and pen from her coat pocket. She didn't go anywhere without a handy notebook. She turned a few pages, then started scribbling down.

“It is that simple. But this was a message meant for humans. A machine is more likely to associate numbers with coding. Someone wanted this to be read.”

Cloris put away her pen, then held up the completed message to N.

”Find me where the spire of corpses meets two towers”

”You've been here for awhile N. Does this mean anything to you?”

---

Uzi was off for a few minutes. Then her visor flashed. Her eyes popped back up. She let out a low moan, looking up dazedly at Chaos.

”Chaos? What's going on?”

She asked groggily. It seemed like she wasn't 100 percent just yet.

It didn't take N very long at all to tune in on the voice that they heard. The static still made it difficult to hear -- anyone could have easily missed it unless they were paying attention... Or they were like Aegis.

Still, the suspicion she had of what the voice was saying certainly made things all the more concerning -- it was confirmed, and... Furthering that suspicion was the fact that this was no mere accident or glitch. It was a purposeful broadcast to them, and one of the monitors listed off numbers.

Aegis immediately noted down the exact numbers and their placement, as a precautionary measure. N then had the right idea to call the Captain and Cloris back onto the scene to see this...

"You're right to be concerned, N -- but I think we can agree this isn't boring, at least..."

The AI remarks, showing that she was just as much on edge about this.

---

Cloris really seemed to be concerned about the possibility of the Drones turning on them, or at least having the capacity to do so. But Karasu calmly shakes his head.

"None of them have shown any real hostility towards us. If anything, they seem rather taken with the first Humans they've seen in awhile. I don't think we have to worry along those lines, as long as we treat them fairly."

But at least on that much -- Karasu and Cloris were in agreement. The Drones were people, sentient life in all the ways that counted. So it was worth treating them with respect.

That said, the technician seems a little dumbfounded by the eccentricities that Chaos held. But as long as he did good work, there was no reason to be concerned, right? That was her conclusion.

"I think we're all pretty eccentric. That's why we decided to throw our chips in on a ship with no affiliation to any companies or governments. You'd think we might see more of that, given we're in the ultimate age of exploration right now."

After having said that, though. The pleasant conversation was interrupted. N called them back to the bridge in order to see something. The Captain gets up from his seat and promptly makes his way back -- and Cloris is doing the same.

As they arrive, they're immediately shown the numbers on the screen, and the mysterious broadcast is still playing. Cloris immediately takes out a notebook and a pen, and Aegis soon announces her own efforts.

"I'm running the numbers through cipher keys, trying to find out if they're a hidden message. They don't match coordinates, obviously."

She did try to plug them for coordinates, but naturally, it didn't get much of anything. As she continues running her efforts in the background, Cloris soon finishes her own method and shows a very clear message.

Aegis puts a halt to it all, and has to simply agree with her conclusion;

"It was meant for Humans. I'm sure I might have thought to try that at some point, but it would have been after eliminating every other possibility. This wasn't sent to us by chance either. Something knows we're here and they're trying to communicate with us, without anything else realizing."

Karasu takes all of this in, falling silent as he thinks it over. N could maybe recognize what that meant, and if she did... Then they needed to carefully consider a plan of action.

---

It was for the best that V was in the zone right now. If she had heard Ray, she would have hesitated long enough for the enemy to take advantage. The beast demanded for her to silence, and then stated that Cyn was not here right now.

V giggles at that.

"Seriously? So you're just one of Cyn's discarded toys?"

After that taunt, the thing begins to move -- something that she can faintly see even in the darkness. Then she sees the light building, and she begins to go from a walk, to a run, and then she breaks into a sprint.

As the laser is fired and begins to sweep across the room, she dives and flaps her wings, taking flight and picking up even more speed, now moving away from the beam. As the tendrils close in on her, she suddenly swoops down low and shifts her trajectory to the opposite direction.

She had just circled around the beam, and probably gotten some of the tendrils caught in the blast as a result. When more of the tendrils close in, she lashes her tail out again, stabbing the limbs -- thus setting the priority for it to be rid of the infection.

When the beam begins to change it's trajectory, and the tendrils close in again, she flaps her wings strongly and soars over the beam, circling to the other side, and using her clawed hands to bat any incoming tendrils down into the laser.

Then the Solver Beast began to speak with it's many voices. V simply continued to close in on her target while flying around the hazards... Then with it's last words...

The "X" on her eyescreen is replaced her normal eyes, and her grin fades. Her clawed hands retract, and then two guns are produced. As the tendrils close in again, she purposefully kicks off of them, surging even faster towards the beast as she sails incredibly close along the beam.

All the while, she's brought her guns close together.

When the laser beam has fizzled out and she rides her momentum -- kept courtesy of her wings -- all the way to the front of the creature: THAT is when her plan is revealed.

She holds both guns forward, pointing the barrels right at the face of the monstrosity.

They weren't ballistic weapons.

"Die."

With that command uttered, both of her guns fired at once, and the beams crossed together into a larger one. THIS couldn't be countered by Solver, and she knew it. The energy and the resulting effects of it being fired together meant that it was rather bright, too.

As for what spurred this sudden change in V? That was simple.

The threat towards Ray did it.

I sigh in relief when Uzi's visor came back on and strung back to life. "Oh thank god you are alright! Can you stand?" I gently put her back on hers feet, keeping her steady so she can ready herself. Im expecting a 'I dont need help, human!' and swipe my arms away. But Im glad she is alright. "Jeez, you made me worry back there. Glad you are okay."

"I have no clue what just happened to you, Uzi."


Meanwhile all this I keep hearing the commotion inside the warehouse. "They're really busy in there, arent they?" I jokingly say, to ease the tension. "Man, Im really glad the Disassembly Drones is on our side."

Cloris nodded at Karasu. ”I don't think they'll ever willingly turn on us. But even if they're resistant, there's always the chance they could be used against us by an outside force. Contingency plans are a must given our circumstances.”

Cloris laughed, putting a hand on her hip. ”I'm starting to get that. Who knows what kind of character's we'll run into?”

Cloris nodded at Aegis. ”It was good that you took that angle. Either way we would have found the correct code more efficiently.”

Cloris put a hand under her chin, thinking things over.

”I doubt it's the creature, but we know that there's more than one out there.”

Cloris looked at the disassembly drones. ”N, are there other disassembly squads out there?”

---

Uzi surprisingly didn't push Chaos away right away. She seemed a little shaky on her feet. She rubbed her head.

”The last thing I remember was a flash of light. That thing did something weird to me.”

Uzi tried taking a step forward, only for her legs to wobble, she looked around, locating her railgun.

”I hate to admit it, but you're right. But I'm not going to sit here while they and… RAY!”

Uzi shouted out as the human got hit by the monster. His suit was damaged, and she didn't know if he could survive for long with that compromised. She tried running forward, only to trip and fall right next to her railgun. She grabbed it, turning to look at Chaos.

”Chaos, help me get up! I'm going to blast this thing into oblivion!”

Cloris praised Aegis's approach to the situation -- but ultimately it was a fact that Humans were capable of solving this more quickly by comparison. That was just the nature of this kind of message... And that brought up another solid point of discussion.

"We're probably working on a time limit, then. The sender probably anticipates that it would take AI awhile to figure out what this is saying -- but it's not impossible."

Karasu points out, and soon adds;
"So if we wait too long, we might miss our window of opportunity here."

The Captain falls silent and closes his eyes as he thinks it over... This was a difficult decision, because they needed to be ready to respond to a potential call for help from their expedition crew. They also had a mere fraction of the manpower to work with to investigate this mysterious message.

It wasn't like Karasu could ask N to help or go see what it was about either. Even setting aside the obvious issue that they wanted a Human to show up, if the others did need help...

Plus, Cloris did raise another possibility; there WERE other creatures out there. Though it was unlikely that would be the sender in this case. N and Cloris also briefly exchange information about this location.

Finally, coming to a decision...

"I'll go investigate this."

Karasu declared -- and then soon gives his reasoning afterwards.

"N, Cloris, and Aegis. You're all equipped to defend the ship, support everyone, and respond if there are any calls for help. We still have to send someone who is capable of fighting, though. That would be me."

---

This Solver Beast was certainly a difficult task to rise to. And V would be lying if she said it was a cakewalk. But... She had some tricks that it couldn't possibly be aware of until it was too late. Even in the face of it's crab claw-like appendage clamping down on her, she brace her body to and pushed against the force with her arms, legs and wings, while holding her aim where it needed to be.

Her tail swishes down and stabs the claw repeatedly.

This time though, she heard Ray as he shouted for her -- she had to keep her focus! She blasted the monster with everything she had -- and it ultimately paid off. She blasted it's head and eyes clean away!

The monster was sent reeling from it; in pain, but not dead and certainly not fully dealt with. It's loss of grip on her let her flap her wings and only receive a grazing blow from the beast's wild flailing. It's tendrils writhed wildly, hoping to strike ANYTHING. But they were easy enough to avoid and counter due to the creature's blindness.

But she did have enough of a window to see Ray get struck by the monster and sent crashing to the ground.

V's eyes go wide, leaving only hollow rings instead of the normally fully colored eyes on her visor. Then her brows furrow and she turns her gaze back to the main body of the monster.

With another flap of her wings, she gains height, then another, and another... And as she gets to the ceiling, she turns upside down in order to cling to the ceiling for a moment. All the while she's staring down at the struggling body of the monster.

She shifts her hands to claws, and braces herself... And then she kicks off of the ceiling! Diving straight at the body; and she repeatedly flaps her wings in order to gain even more speed.

With her claws at the ready, she plunges straight into the chest of the beast, and begins to claw her way inside! From within, she begins to stab the Solver Beast with her tail, targeting as many areas and vital points as possible as she continues to tear a path throughout the creature's main body.

J finally springs into action. Though it's not to support V like she originally thought. Instead she's rushing over to Ray, and she picks him up. She's pulling him to the others, and on the way there...

"Hold on! V's inside that thing, and she's tearing it apart!"

J called out to Uzi. Now that the distance had been closed, she looks over to the monster's main body, and the struggle it was no doubt having with a Disassembly Drone ripping it apart from the inside.

"We need to get her clear of the blast... That, or wait for her to finish it off."

With that said, she then sets Ray down and begins to look him over. Fortunately, it didn't look like he had any injuries... But his suit had a hole in it.

"Hand me that tape he was talking about. There's a hole in his suit!"

J asks, looking over to Chaos.

I ran over to Uzi where she fell over. I noticed hers Railgun and picked it up for her. With my free hand I grabbed Uzi's hand, helping her up in the process. I handed her hers railgun. "You good, Uzi?" I said as Uzi got back on hers feet.

"Right! J, catch!" I yelled, tossing her the sealant tape. I take out the plasma cutter Ray gave me from earlier. "I'll follow behind Uzi as you patch up Ray! This thing may not hurt the beast a lot, but it should help us if it attacks again." Despite the pain, the adrenaline coursing through my body blocks a lot of it.

With that I reload the plasma cutter and help Uzi traverse through the warehouse, aiming the plasma cutter just in case of any surprise attacks from the Solver Beast.

”That's my line of thinking too. But I couldn't discount the possibility of that thing being behind this. You know it better than I do N.”

Cloris paused, stroking her chin. “Then It's possible one of the other squads could have taken interest. But the message said “me.” So maybe the squads aren't what they used to be, but they have members here and there.”

There was a possibility that these squads would have suffered casualties. And then the captain insisted they would go alone. N raised an objection. Cloris crossed her arms, looking at her captain sternly.

”N's right. Going out there alone is suicide. Let me come with you. I can provide support and cover your weaknesses. Besides, there might be more codes to deal with.”

Cloris looked over at N. “I'm uniquely equipped to explore hostile environments. Besides, we're not entirely sure how long this will take. I don't want you caught out in the sunlight N.”

---

”Yeah, I'll be fine. As soon as I blast that creep in there.”

Uzi stared at J with disbelief. “Wait, she's inside the thing?! Is she crazy?!”

And it didn't seem like it was going well. Uzi grit her teeth, staring at the monstrosity.

”Damn it! I wish I could get her out of there!”

Uzi clenched her fist in frustration. Suddenly a purple light popped up around her hand, and a line of text cropped up on her screen. Suddenly her eyes focused on a particular point within the monster.

”Scanning. Unable to directly effect main body. Pulling foreign subject out.”

There was a flash of purple light that came from within the monster. Then suddenly V was just there, right next to Ray. Uzi stared in shock.




“Wait, what was that?”

The purple light around Uzi's hand flickered, then disappeared. She just stared, completely stunned at what happened.

”How did I do that? What just happened there?”

Only one thing was going through her mind right now. The voices of that thing calling her. “Witch” over and over.

Unsurprisingly, Cloris and N both raised their objections to his plan of action -- but Karasu had his reasons for wanting to do it this way.

"Listen. N is the only one that can get out there fast enough to help anyone."

He starts making his case; soon adding...
"Which means someone needs to be here operating the communications too. Ideally, nothing happens and it's not necessary, and you just hold down the fort."

He states, and glances between N and Cloris.

"... If something DOES happen. Then there will be two people that can defend the ship. Especially in case N freezes up again. Or, you can hear from either the expedition team or me, and then send N out to help. If something comes up while she's out, then you can alert her to what's going on."

The Captain makes a very well-reasoned argument. But considering how worked up they were, he knew that he needed to sell this last point in particular.

"That, and I fought in wars. I know how to handle myself even in extreme conditions like this. And if there are more codes, I can communicate them straight to you, Cloris."

Karasu lets them both process this for a moment, before finally finishing his case on this note;
"We also don't want to spread ourselves too thin. Sending one person makes the most sense."

With his case fully made, he lets it hang in the air for a little while, and then he lets out a small sigh.

"However, if you two still vote against it, then we'll need to carefully consider how to proceed. Including potentially letting this lead slip away."

---

Predictably, Ray started asking where V was -- he was also hurt. But he was trying to push through that AND stand up to try and help her. J has to hold him down.

"Hold it, you idiot!"

She chastises him, and then catches the tape that Chaos threw to her.

"Your suit is damaged, and if you get too close to that thing, it's going to hurt you worse!"

The Disassembly Drone uses her tail to help keep him in place, and then she tries to patch the hole in his suit.

Meanwhile, inside the Solver Beast's main body... V is still carving a path through the struggling monstrosity, causing as much damage as she can -- because every single thing that she does here will slow it down, hampering it's regenerative abilities. Not to mention each injection of her Nanite Acids would speed up the rate at which it's breaking down.

It was all going according to plan. Up until something unusual occurred; a small robotic crab revealed itself before her. Given the cramped confines they found themselves in, it was eye-level with her. She only had a few seconds to process the information before it leapt at her!

She moves her her hand and skewers it with her claws. After dealing with that thing, several more of those things were coming out of the woodwork to remove the infected parts, and some of them were also turning their attention to her. V realizes that this is already NOT going her way, so she changes her plans and starts to carve her way out of the beast.

Though before she gets too far on that front, she suddenly finds herself back in the warehouse room. Once more she pauses for a second and processes what has just happened -- then she quickly turns to Uzi.

"Stop being distracted and blast it before it recovers!"

She shouts, and then turns her attention back to the monster's main body. Hopefully she bought the group enough time to take it down...

J, meanwhile, she points to V now that she's in plain view.

"Look! V is right there! Now stop struggling, dammit!"

V then looks over at Ray and J, and she moves over to them -- and uh, also realizes that she's covered in what is essentially a bloodbath right now. But...

"Ray! You're alright!"

She says in a relieved tone of voice.

Both Disassembly Drones had questions, but they could wait for now... Especially since that monster wasn't down for the count yet. J manages to finish the patchjob on the suit, and then she lets him stand up.

Then she and V turn to face the Solver Beast's main body. J chimes in at this point.

"Now would be a great time to use that railgun you keep talking up!"

I witnessed Uzis hand flickering. "We gotta learned what happened to you, Uzi." I try to smile, but Im still worried about her. "Im sure your alright though"

"Alright, V is safe! Ready? Fire!!!" I yelled excitedly, I cant wait to see this thing dead.

Cloris shook her head as N brought up the obvious. ”There are a number of possibilities. Something could have gone wrong with their communications. Or maybe the teams aren’t in condition to contact you guys. If that thing has spread as far as I think it has, then it’s possible a significant amount of your comrades are already gone. The fact that they’re contacting us in code means they’re worried about someone or something getting their hands on this message.”

And a Myriad of other possibilities. But she wasn’t going to go over all her suspicions until she had more to work on. Cloris looked back at N, tapping the side of her forehead. ”I don’t forget anything I see these days. I got a long, hard look at J’s schematics, remember? I must say, you’re quite unique as far as disassembly drones go. Your designs are top notch. But you aren’t a fan of sunlight.”

Cloris looked at the Captain, folding her arms. ”We can’t let this chance slip away. We now know that thing has multiple bodies running about. There’s likely more than just the two we’ve encountered so far. So we need all the help and information we can get. That said, I’m not comfortable letting you leave the ship on your own captain. There’s more to survival out here than just combat experience. The more pressing matter are the elements out there. Even with the coordinates, it would hard for you to see out there in that blizzard. And you’d have to keep track of your oxygen. It’s too risky to go out there alone for you.”

Cloris let out a sigh. ”I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I think I’m the best equipped to go out on a solo mission, given the environment. My eyes can see in the dark and can pick up things you can’t. I have a modification that will allow me to breath for a time if my oxygen runs out. I’ll be able to handle any zombie drones that come my way too. So if anyone goes out alone, it should be me. Otherwise I recommend going out in pairs.”

---

Uzi looked over at Chaos, then down at her hand. Then she clenched her fist, a determined look crossing her face. ”Nothing’s wrong with me Chaos. Lets just get this over with.”

Uzi snapped out of it, clutching her gun with both hands.”You two don’t have to tell me twice! Watch and learn!”

She pointed her gun at the creature as it started ranting at her. ”I don’t know anything about the promise my mom made to you! Or why she would even make one with a monster like you! I’m not number 2! I’m Uzi Doorman! And I’m going to kick you straight down to robo-hell!”

Uzi had to jump to the side to avoid the containers thrown at her. She saw the mine slide past her and onto the feet of the creature. She stumbled back as it lunged at her one last time, and she stumbled onto her rear and backed up just enough so it couldn’t grab her. She raised her weapon and pulled the trigger.

”FRICKING BITE ME!!!

Uzi pulled the trigger. The was a brief beeping noise, then a flash of green light erupted from the gun. The shot would completely decimate anything in its path.

Cloris and N still had their objections -- and Karasu had more or less figured that was going to be the case. But they also seemed to understand that there was a time limit on this, too. N wanted to play it safe and insisted that whoever it was could just send another message at another point. Cloris, on the other hand... She wanted to be the one to go solo here.

The Captain shakes his head.

"I've dealt with conditions like this before, Cloris. Not to mention I have the actual training for it."

He replies, and then turns his attention to N.

"I understand your concerns. But I do know how to handle myself. I wouldn't be taking any risks. That's another reason why I'm willing to go."

Still... That did nothing to address Cloris's own argument for why she should be the one to go, or otherwise they would have to go in pairs. But Karasu was unwilling to spread things that far thin.

"Like I said, if we leave just one person at the ship, we're leaving it vulnerable and we compromise the whole advantage of having someone that can communicate with all the expedition teams."

Karasu thinks it over for a little while longer. But it seems like everyone had their opinions on this, and they weren't willing to budge, so...

"If we can't agree on a course of action, then I'll be ruling that we'll ignore the message for now, and we'll just hope that the others give us good news soon so that we have a better idea of what we can do."

---

Fortunately, Ray seemed to be cooperating right now... Though J was still using her tail to make sure that he did.

"Well until you all learn not to go literally running towards the monster, I'm going to have to take a more hands-on approach!"

At least she wasn't directing all of that ire towards Ray, because she also glances towards Uzi...

But in any case, now that V was here, Ray was being a lot more cooperative. The patchjob didn't take very long now that he wasn't struggling so much too. Ray mentions that he took a direct hit, and then also remarks that V could probably use a bath right now...

That prompts the Disassembly Drone to look herself over.

"Uh... Yeah..."

That was all she could muster as a response. But then the monster's main body started making noise -- and then it began to move. Uzi and Chaos ran in, supporting each other while facing off with the injured beast.

But it soon becomes pretty clear that this thing is NOT going down without a fight. V and J both move to provide covering fire for the two of them. J, for her part, is firing from long range on the crabs. It would only take a single shot, and if she lined it up in quick succession and fired... The beast wouldn't have the time to perfectly block everything AND still go after Uzi and Chaos.

V races closer, and she brings out missile launchers -- and fires them to destroy the shipping containers before they could get too close to Uzi and Chaos. In the midst of the frantic battle, Ray has the perfect opening to get the mine and kick it right into position...

And as it goes off after the creature steps on it... V and J both freeze in anticipation, watching as Uzi readies her shot and fires the railgun.

The warehouse is engulfed in a massive green light, and as the light levels start to come down... Both V and J stare in shock.

There weren't ANY readings left. That thing was totally annihilated...

"... Oh."

J managed to remark with that much, and V seemed to finish the sentence soon after.

"Shit!!
I need to figure out how to make my own energy weapons that strong..."

V stomps once in frustration. She really wanted to kill this thing herself. But... At least it was dead now, and everyone was safe.

I fire at each tendril that tries to attack us. Thankfully it was strong enough to destroy each tendril. I watch as Uzi prepares hers railgun. Shipping containers blocks v, j and my tracks from going any closer, but thankfully Uzi managed to fire the killing blow to the beast. I witnessed the green glow from behind the containers.

"You did it Uzi, you are amazing!" I yelled excitingly. After the beast is confirmed dead, I walk around towards Uzi. I signaled for a high five "At top!"

And after all the excitement is over, I questioned the group. "So... what happens now?"