Murder Drones: Disassembly Required

Well, at least N was happy with the substitute for a lollipop. Some would probably find it a disconcerting thing, but... It didn't exactly bother the Humans. At least not the ones present on the ship. Aegis wasn't too concerned either.

"You know, I am a little curious. Is it just the oil that tastes good, or the entire Drone?"

She was more curious than anything...

Meanwhile, Karasu was finishing up his inspection of the laser pistol. Everything was in prime condition. Which meant it was time to retrieve the spare batteries, and their chargers. He had done pretty well with just the single battery, but he had no idea how long he might be out there on the field, or how many enemies he might have to fight.

The chargers would cut themselves off when the batteries read at a full charge, and all together it meant that he could fire many, many more times than was otherwise possible. He double checks each of these items to make sure there's been no malfunctions, and once satisfied, he makes his way to the suit charging stations.

A quick refill of the suit's energy later, he gets changed into it, and then he briefly passes the airlock in order to pick up some portable medkits, and some armor repair kits -- the suits weren't really meant for combat, but if something happened, then patching up any holes or damage was going to be extremely important.

Everything secured, he makes his way back to the airlock, and finds Cloris is already set.

"I've got everything I need. You sure about this, Cloris?"

He then asks.

---

J simply continues to smirk as Uzi sarcastically replies to her words.

"Well, you're not wrong."

In any case, the Worker Drone was insistent on making her own designs anyway, and also said she had no interest in selling or sharing any of it anyway. J rolls her eyes.
"You'd be surprised how many people say that and end up doing it anyway."

Still... Things only got more mysterious as Uzi remarked that if anyone could have known what might have happened here, it would be her father. But he seemed keen on keeping this sort of thing quiet. For what purpose? Was it just to avoid the wrath of Humanity, or something else?

V crosses her arms.
"All of this just gives me a bad feeling."

In any case, J relished the opportunity to deliver another one of her spiels! It was obvious the others merely tolerated it, and in the case of Uzi... Did not like it at all. The Worker Drone's quiet muttering was indeed caught by the Disassembly Drone, however.

J proceeds to reply without missing a beat;

"Yes we sell tools too! But you are one, so that seems redundant."

J then crosses her arms again, giving her an amused smile.

There was also some information about the state of their ship and the money at their disposal. Things were a little more complicated than Uzi thought, but she'd probably find that out in time. Then came the discussion of just how fragile Humans were, and how hard it was for them to recover from damage compared to Drones...

V chimes in at this point of the conversation.

"Well, I can't speak for before we met, but now that I'm here, Ray doesn't have to worry about anything hurting him!"

And shortly thereafter, the power system for the Life Support was explained, and Uzi seemed quite impressed by it... Before she turns her attention to J and asks if they REALLY had nuclear-powered batteries for commercial sale or not.

J's eyes narrow slightly, as if Uzi had asked a stupid question. But nonetheless she begins to explain;
"For vetted and trusted customers? Yes. We don't allow just anyone to purchase items like that, however."

But speaking of this battery, Ray decided to ask a relevant question; did the station have those in stock, and could they purchase it? Well, J perks up at that.

"Of course! JCJensen stays well stocked for all your needs, whenever you need them!
Normally, this sort of thing would require a payment, but... Well..."
She then shrugs.
"I'm just going to explain that we found some Humans in Cryosleep. So we're going to need some things to make sure you stay safe."

J then casually rolls her hand.
"Not exactly a lie, considering."

Uzi also had her ideas about how to get the Life Support operational, but this SHOULD work... Ahh, but there was one thing she also had to mention considering the purchase they were about to make.

"By the way? We can get some ice cream too. It costs next to nothing and I've saved up plenty. Consider it my treat."

Afterwards, Ray began to describe what ice cream was like to V. Uzi seemed far less impressed, but this prompted the Disassembly Drone to just take his side...

"Well if that's how you feel, then I get to have more of the awesome sweet-tasting snow."

... Well, they were sort of getting along?

---

Lizzy practically seemed to grow more haughty by the second as Doll praised her unique methods.
"Well, I do try my best!"

Still, Doll expressed her concerns about Lizzy having to clean the room considering what was stored in it right now. The blonde Drone felt compelled to roll her eyes, but managed to resist that urge. She understood that her friend -- well, girlfriend -- just cared about her well-being.

"Fair enough. I think you'll prefer living in something a little more... Home-y, though."

She states, and after seeing that adorably sweet smile that Doll had, Lizzy froze up for just a little bit -- not because it looked wrong, but because she was resisting all the urges to enter 'squee overload'.

Fortunately, she's able to fend that off by placing priority on her popular cheerleader subroutines. Which allowed her to grin confidently.

"Oh Doll, we were always going to dress up for this. We have to look our best."

And after having said that, Doll admitted aloud that she was going to exhaust every idea and possibility that Lizzy put forth -- and she was thankful for that. Lizzy certainly hoped that at least one of them would work.

Doll then asks if they should head back to Lizzy's place. Considering the general state of her own room at the moment.

Lizzy can't help but glance around, and then she returns her gaze back to Doll and gives a nod.

"Yeah. You should sleepover at my place. It doesn't seem like you'd be able to rest here at all."

I decided to interject about J's constant spiels. "Honestly, I kinda like them. It gives J that bit of uniqueness that I like about her. This JCJenson company seems pretty cool guys, I wonder if I can join them after all this." After stating all that, I whisper to myself "To see J more, if I miss the chance to marry her."

"Looks like we dont need to worry much about repairing this old thing. Just a new power regulator and a new battery. I have plenty power regulators on the ship, and we might even find some laying around outside the bunker. I dont want to use Uzi's railguns power regulator, that thing might explode if we pull it out. ...Im joking, Im joking. J did said we can order a battery so I think that'll be easy enough."

I grow more excited when J promised us to buy us ice cream. "Really!? Your so cool and nice J, you are the best! I havent had ice cream in a long time! ...Before the ship crashed, I kinda snuck some onboard among other luxury items like frozen pizza."

Cloris didn't hesitate to answer the captain. ”Captain, there's only so much I can do here with the condition the ship is in. I need to go out there and put my skills to good use. Lets go.”

And with that, Cloris would follow his lead I'm departing the ship. Their adventure into the unknown was about to begin.

---

Uzi snorted, giving the other drone an annoyed look. ”I'm not most drones. I wouldn't trade my inventions away no matter how much you offered me. What do you think I am, a salesbot?”

Uzi paused, crossing her arms and looking away. ”Ugh! I hate agreeing with you! All of this stinks more than Chaos.”

Uzi snapped back at J. ”Bite me! I'm not the one worshiping a company and selling my products every chance I get.”

Uzi then whirled, her ire now being aimed at Chaos. ”You! Stop being a sellout to impress your girlfriend! It's super cringe!”

Uzi was so focused on J didn't notice the cringing motion that Ray made. If she could see his face, maybe she would have been able to see how bothered he was. Still, she looked over as he snapped at them. Uzi blinked, then let out a sigh.

”Hey, I'm the one being a moody teen. I don't know why you're the one apologizing.”

Uzi huffed as Ray asked about the defense force. ”It isn't as cool as it sounds. They enforce rules and maybe do some investigating if something comes up. But their only idea of defense is to build doors and play cards to pass the time.

Uzi crossed her arms, scowling as one member in particular entered her mind.

”Why do you think I went outside on my own? The rest of the drones don't have the guts to make a stand. That thing would have killed the whole colony if we hadn't taken care of it.”

Uzi fell silent as Ray mentioned her dad was hiding some stuff. There wasn't a boisterous rebuttal or snide comment up her sleeve.  ”Stupid old man.” She muttered.

Uzi listened as Ray explained what it was like to live as a human. It sounded terrifying with all the things that could go wrong with them. They had to wear an environmental suit just to go outside for Pete's sake! But something clicked with her. She gave Ray a slight smile.

”So even though you're fragile, you'd rather face things head on than hide behind a wall. Guess that's what makes you guys human.”

Uzi's tone had a bit of admiration in it. Until she met this group, she had never met anyone who wanted to move forward the way that these guys did. Granted two of them were clearly into disassembly drones, but everyone had their faults, right?


Then everything seemed to fall into place, as crazy as that seemed. She looked over at Chaos as he talked about her railgun, she took a step back, then pointed at the weapon on her back.

”Hey, don't even joke about touching my railgun.”

Ray layed out the plan to get things fixed. It seemed simple enough. Assuming everything worked out. Still they kept talking about ice cream.

”It still sounds lame. It better be as good as you say it is.”

Uzi looked at Ray, putting a hand on her hip. “Okay, I guess I can manage things here with the two lovebirds. We'll repair the hell out of the life support!”[/color]

---

Doll gave her girlfriend a slight smile. There was the Lizzy she came to know. The one she had fallen in love with. The confident outgoing drone with a great fashion sense.

Doll looked around the room again, then looked over at her girlfriend. ”Ara”

[“Yeah.”]

Doll said simply. She smiled again when Lizzy exclaimed that they were always going to dress their best.

”YA ne sobiralsya. No seychas ya sdelayu chto-to osobennoye, spetsial'no dlya tebya.”

[“I wasn't going to. But now I'll do something special, just for you.”]

Doll raised her hand, and the absolute solver symbol appeared. A red aura surrounded the two of them. One moment they were in dolls apartment, the next they were in Lizzy's room. Doll looked around, then looked at her girlfriend.

”YA budu spat' na divane. YA budu gotovit'sya ko snu.”

[“I'll sleep on the couch. I'll get ready for bed.”]

Doll would then get ready for bed of Lizzy didn't stop her. Of course her girlfriend would have the final say in the matter.

N seemed to deeply consider the question that Aegis poised, and eventually did answer it -- so her theory was partly right, it was the oil... Though it also seemed that each of the Drones had their own tastes, as it were... Since V preferred the metal.

"I see. So you have your individual tastes!"

---

Cloris was set on doing this, and Karasu didn't have much of anything else he could use to discourage her. If something happened, then they would just have to tackle it together.

"Alright then. Let's move out."

With that, Cloris and Karasu would depart via the airlock, the doors cycling them through. For the first time, both of them would be getting their first good look at the planet with their own eyes. It was in a pretty sorry state of affairs.

The Captain knew where they had to go, so he was leading the way.

"If you spot anything, let me know."

For the moment, their trip seemed like it would be uneventful. They probably cleared out the hostiles that were drawn in from the crash, but caution was certainly a good idea, knowing that there were things a lot more intelligent than those zombie drones...

---

J practically lit up at Chaos's words. Now this was a man of proper taste! He appreciated the Company, and her memorization of their slogans, mottos, and sales pitches... She's beaming with smugness.

At least up until he quietly mutters that last part. He might have thought he was being subtle, but Disassembly Drones did have excellent hearing. Her smugness gave way to surprise, and a blush. At least at first.

Then her smug energy came back full force, sharing the blush that remained as she smirks and glances over his way. That expression practically said 'I heard that.'

J and Uzi's back and forth only seemed like it would keep going at this rate. Just as J was about to retaliate for the latest salvo, that was when Ray dropped the power converter and firmly asked them to stop arguing. He had snapped from it, and presumably it was because the particular conversation was bothering him -- something that V had picked up on.

V moves over and gently pats him on the shoulder as he apologizes.

"It's alright. It's been a stressful situation for everyone, I think."

V was certainly very protective of Ray... J is the next to speak up after Uzi's apology of sorts.

"Indeed. I apologize. Let's focus on the more important things right now."
She directed at Ray.

Afterwards, Uzi explained what the 'Defense Force' was like. When she mentioned that they just relied on doors and played cards... V thinks that over for a second, and then remarks;

"Wait. The guys that were playing the card game at the entrance. That was the defense force?"

V asked, trying to confirm her suspicions. J, on the other hand, she groaned and turned away, eventually she finds an unimportant item and begins to crush it in her hands. At least she was trying not to fight now...

In any case. It was obvious that Uzi's father, Khan, seemed to know more than he was letting on. Keeping his own daughter in the dark seemed like a bad thing to do, but maybe he had his reasons? Most of that flew over V's head -- but after J calmed down, she makes her way back over to comment.

"The apparent purpose of this facility, the Humans that were here, the fact that he's so familiar with the systems... I definitely think we want to ask him some questions at some point. But we may want to keep some cards close to our chests too."
J admits, and then explains her reasoning:
"If we piss him off, then any ideas about this being a safe place for Humans to stay might go up in smoke."

It was something to keep in mind, in any case. At some point they also began to discuss the mortality and fragility of Humans. This was part of why V had gotten just so protective in the first place. They were plenty capable, and she didn't want to suggest that Ray couldn't take care of himself, but... She also knew how dangerous this planet was.

Still, he was appreciative of it. He managed to quietly reply a thanks to her. Which prompted her to smile.
"Of course."

Finally, everyone seemed to perk up as J was talking about buying the battery they needed -- and the ice cream too, as a treat. And then Chaos also talked about how he previously brought some luxury items -- comfort foods, in this case. Pizza was a pretty big staple.

J thinks that over for a second, and then shrugs.

"Oh, what the hell? We just finished a huge fight. I'll get us some pizzas, too."

With that, J steps up to the terminal and begins to compile the list of orders they had. Along with the explanation of why they needed the battery. Naturally, that meant she had to include proof that she worked for JCJensen, that she is who she says she is -- and so on.

An excellent, efficient typing speed sees it done in mere moments. Though before she confirms the order, she then glances over at the others.

"Anything else? Preferences? Let me know now, otherwise I'll go ahead and send in the order."

She'd give them ample time to respond, and if any changes were necessary, she'd do that. Either way, the order would then be confirmed and sent in. For a little while, there's a quiet anticipation that settles over the bunker.

And then faintly, they can hear the roaring of an engine. Followed by...


...The JCJensen Delivery Rocket Jingle!

---

Doll seemed to think that if things had gone as originally planned, she wasn't going to do anything special... Well, Lizzy would soon make it pretty clear that she was wrong about that part.

"You think I'd let you just wear any old thing? Please, fashionable AND functional. I would have made that happen."
She retorts, smiling mainly to herself now. But in any case, as she was now willing to do something special for her girlfriend...
"But you're totally right. Now that we're a couple, we've got to really make it special!"

She brings a hand to her chin, metallic clinks as her fingers tap in a rhythmic motion in thought.

"I'm thinking maybe matching outfits... Or outfits that complement each other -- something like that."

Her thinking aloud is then interrupted by the red aura suddenly surrounding them. She'd seen it a few times before, but this was her first time seeing it right on top of herself like this. She jolts out of surprise, and then the environment changing around them in even less time than it takes to blink was a little disorienting.

Lizzy steadies herself, and looks around her familiar room.

"Whoa. How'd you get used to that?"

She asks Doll, who seems perfectly nonchalant about the entire thing... So much so that she's already moved on, talking about how she's going to get ready for bed, and sleep on the couch.

Lizzy rolls her eyes, and steps over and places her hands on Doll's shoulders.

"Dummy. You're sleeping over, and you aren't even gonna try and join me in bed?"

After that completely unsubtle hint, Lizzy then continues;
"We're gonna be pretty intimate from now on. So just join me in my bed."

With that, Lizzy steps away, making her way over to the bedroom, and shooting Doll a glance and a... Rather flirtatious smirk.

"I'll let you get ready."

As she begins to step into the room, she begins to shimmy ever so slightly -- and the reason is soon obvious as she holds a hand out in front of the doorway for Doll to see. In her hand was the skirt she was previously wearing...

As it recedes out of sight into the room, Doll is left with that very, very obvious invitation from an amorous girlfriend.

"Ugh Uzi stop smelling me! I am embarrassed as is! You... you stink too!"

Uzi mentioned me being cringe when it came to impressing J "What Uzi, you jealous or something about me and J?" I said to Uzi, jokingly.

I saw J blushing, but then immediately after she had that smug look on hers face. "W...what?" I said to her, not knowing she heard me.

I add in my two cents about the drone Defense Force. "They sound real lame honestly. Personally I think Uzi is the most dangerous drone in this entire facility, with hers railgun and all."

"Thanks J, you are the best! Pizza is great!" Soon after, we hear that catchy jingle. "Ice cream! Ice cream is here! Lets go get them before the rocket leaves!"

“Okay Captain, I'll let you know if I see anything.”

She could see everything around them, even in dark and the snow falling around them. Such as the perks of having cybernetic eyes. She took in the scenery as they traversed the landscape.

She noticed the strange tracks of course. Her eyes wouldn't miss anything, even in these conditions. She kept an eye out as they moved through the desolate landscape.

”Is the landscape beautiful captain? I haven't seen in color since my eyes were replaced.”

---

”Bite me! You can't even smell anything in that suit!”

She barked at Chaos. She crossed her arms, looking away.

”And stop imagining things! I'm not jealous of you and J!”

Uzi looked at V, her expression unamused. ”Yep. You saw a lot of the defense force right there. The rest of them aren't much better.

She smirked as Chaos complimented her. ”Well no one else here has killed a freaking monster, that’s for damn sure.”

She puffed out her chest a little at that. Uzi then looked at Ray, letting out a little snort at that.

”I don't know about the other bunkers or whatever the Proxima uprising was, but you had nothing to worry about with us.”

Uzi sighed at the mention of her father, slipping her hands into her pocket. ”Let me handle my dad. You won't have to risk being kicked out or him shutting you out. I've got a whole mountain of questions, and it's long past time he answer.”

There was resolution in her eyes. Her father never been super specific about her mother's death. But Uzi had accepted that the murder drones were behind it. Now she wasn't so sure. And she wasn't going to rest until she found the truth.

Uzi looked at Ray, a slight frown on her face. ”I guess we aren't. I'm not sure how I feel about that.”

Uzi stared as the jingle played. ”How is it that fast? Hey, wait for me!”

Uzi took off after them, following them to the entrance of the bunker.

---

Doll chuckled at Lizzy's insistence of making her wear something nice. She then gave her a smile.

”Teper' ya proklyat vechno ostavat'sya modnym. Davay ustroim vypusknoy v pamyat' o Lizzy.”

[“I'm now cursed to forever be fashionable. I'll follow your lead on the matching outfits. Lets make this a prom to remember Lizzy.”]

Doll held Lizzy close when she felt her dizziness. She expected as much, given how quick the transition would be.

”YA praktikovalsya v etom, poka ne osvoilsya. Cherez paru chasov zanyatiy u menya perestalo kruzhit'sya golova.”

[“I practiced it until I got the hang of it. I stopped getting dizzy after a couple hours of practicing.”]

Doll looked at Lizzy in shock. She clearly didn't expect the other drone to do that. But the blush indicator on her visor indicated that she didn't hate that idea.


”YA ne dumal, chto u tebya budet takoye nastroyeniye posle vsego, chto proizoshlo segodnya…”

[“I didn't think you would be in the mood after everything that happened today…”]

Well she was clearly proven wrong on that front. Doll stared as she held out the skirt for her to see. Doll then smiled, the absolute solver symbol appearing in her eye.


”K chertu dush.”

[“To hell with the shower.”]

One absolute solver tweek later she was as clean as could be. She then strode into the room, accepting Lizzy's invitation.


”O, da! Tebe nravitsya eto?! O, Lizzy! LIZZY!”

[Russian intense sex.]

Doll was tender to Lizzy. Even when things got more intense, she never went too far and only with what Lizzy was comfortable with.

The sex itself was amazing. Doll had never felt this much bliss before. She felt complete. That Lizzy was a part of her that had split off, and now they became whole. And she took great care with her, noting what Lizzy really liked before being consumed with the pleasure.




Doll cuddled up next to Lizzy after it was over, panting lightly. She gave Lizzy a contented smile.




”Eto bylo velikolepno. Podumat' tol'ko, ya chut' ne vybrosil eto. Mne sledovalo priznat'sya tebe ran'she.”

[“That was glorious. To think that I almost threw this away. I should have confessed to you sooner.”]

Doll reached out, stroking Lizzy's hair gently. She made sure to straighten it out as much as she could.

”Spasibo, chto ostayesh'sya so mnoy, Lizzy. YA rad, chto vstretil tebya i vlyubilsya v tebya.”

[“Thank you for sticking by my side Lizzy. I'm glad I met you, and fell for you.”]

Doll leaned forward, planting a soft kiss on Lizzy's forehead.

"Will do, N."

Karasu replies, and as they ventured outside, they were able to take in their surroundings. There was plenty of snow -- and that meant tracks were easy to spot. Naturally, there were countless footprints from those zombified Drones. Plus the tire tracks from the Roamer.




But mixed in with the footprints were some that were very much unlike the others. Karasu squats down in order to check one such example of this. Each step seemed a little different from the other; and they were misshapen. Suggesting that it was multiples of something else entirely that was walking single file, on the exact same path, in the exact same footprints in order to conceal just how many of them they were...

Or something that had a lot more than two legs. The Captain makes a mental note of what this track looks like, so if he sees it again, he'll recognize it... More importantly, he traces his gaze along the path it was following. It stopped in front of the ship, a fair distance away from it. Then it turned around and went in another direction...

The tracks continued on, fading off into the distance. He couldn't see any figures, nor hear anything beyond the wind blowing. At least until Cloris spoke up, asking about the landscape.

Karasu turns his gaze to her, and then stands up.

"It's a lot of white and gray."
He replies, and then moves onto something that he deemed more important.
"These tracks are very different from all the others. Not just in their shape and size, but their behavior too."

He points out the trail that led away from the ship.

"Normally I'd want to investigate this. But we don't know how long that thing has been traveling, or how far."

And they were on a time limit, too... Karasu calmly shakes his head.

"I've made a note of what the tracks look like. Let's stay focused for now."

The Captain then takes point, leading the way in the direction they needed to go. Thankfully marked by the Roamer's own tire tracks. But along the way, he paid careful attention to the snow... He wanted to see if those strange prints showed up again.

---

V noted that Ray started to relax as a result of her comforting -- though he also seemed to come to a sort of realization about this... 'Vacation' thing. He never had one before? From some of the context clues she was able to piece together that it meant to going to a nice, safe place. She grew curious. While the rest of the group talked amongst themselves, she stepped over to the terminal. Though not to order anything, she wanted to access some information.

Firstly, what was a vacation? Searching the still active network, she's able to get some results pretty fast. The general theme seems to involve sunny beaches, clear waters and general summer fun. Well... Copper-9 basically had nothing like that. Not anymore, anyway.

V wasn't one to throw in the towel, though. So she began searching for relevant results on Copper-9 itself. All of the pre-destruction maps detailed some wonderful places to go, but they were obviously no longer suitable. Just when it seems like her search might turn up nothing, she does come across something just a little different from all the others.

One of these Bunkers was set up to simulate environments. It read like an exciting innovation of brand new technology -- bring your home wherever you go. That sort of thing. One listed example of what it could simulate was a summertime beach.

V smiles at her finding, and then glances over at Ray.

"Hey. I think I found a spot for a vacation!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of things... Uzi vehemently denies any jealousy -- which J is all-too-happy to pounce on.

"Oh she is totally jealous."

In any case, Ray then brought up the Proxima Uprising; it was a pretty popular news piece, after all. And one of the many reasons for the Disassembly Drones too. Uzi, naturally, doesn't know a thing about it. So J decides to fill in the blanks here.

"The Proxima Uprising was, as the name suggests, on the colony world "Proxima."
The Worker Drones there declared war on Humanity. For the longest time that was believed to be totally impossible because of the Three Laws of Robotics."

She explains, and then summarily adds:
"To this day, we still don't know how they were able to overcome that programming and actually fight, harm, and even kill Humans. JCJensen tightened up and refined their coding ever since. And they also designed the Disassembly Drones as an even greater deterrent."

But, all of this conversation is interrupted by the delivery jingle playing outside! V and J quickly join the rest in making their way outside in order to claim their newly acquired prizes. And also to deal with anything that might have been drawn by the noise.


And there it is! The recently arrived craft playing the cheerful tune!

---

On the upside, Lizzy didn't have to worry very much during the teleportation trip over. Since Doll was there to help keep her steady. And she also explains that it just took a lot of practice until it didn't both her anymore.

Lizzy didn't really want to experience that again, but it might be pretty useful in the future... So, maybe she SHOULD try and get used to it, at some point? Food for thought, anyway.

More importantly though. Doll had seriously not been expecting Lizzy to be so forward here. Citing that with everything that happened, she hadn't expected the blonde to be up for anything more intimate. Lizzy simply shrugs.

"Hey, we had a pretty close encounter with a monster. Everything could have gone wrong, and we're still kind of teetering on the edge here. Hormonal Logic suggests "you don't want to die a virgin, right?", and hey. We're together now."

Suffice to say. Doll had quite the invitation on her hands. One which she eagerly accepts, and starts making her way into the bedroom for... Waiting for her is quite the sight -- Lizzy clearly anticipated that Doll might be accepting pretty quickly, evidently.


It doesn't take long for Doll to practically pounce. Mere minutes is all it takes for them to be lost in the throes of passion together.

And Doll was REALLY into it. To be fair, Lizzy was too. Tentative foreplay turned into nearly frenzied lovemaking. Neither one managed to lose control, obviously. But this was certainly going to be a memorable night for the both of them...

And a few minutes later, they've finished. Cuddling up together as Doll whispers sweet nothings to Lizzy.

"And you wanted to sleep on the couch."

Lizzy teased with a smile -- she was tired from their recent... Adventure... But it was a good kind of tired. As Doll then reaffirms her love for Lizzy, and then leans in and kisses her on the forehead... Well, the blonde Worker Drone only grows more content at her side.

"Yeah. We've got each other's backs now. I'm glad we did this, too."

Man, though. Lizzy could only IMAGINE how her parents would react to this. Good thing they weren't home right now.

"Relax Uzi, Im only joking with you." I replied to Uzi. "Although Im not sure if J is joking, she might be serious."

"Well, I gotta say: Uzi is one badass worker drone." I said, adding on to my compliment.

My ears perks up as Ray mentioned a vacation and how he never been on one. "Vacations is great! You get to relax and not to worry about work. I've been on plenty of vacations, even off world! I've been to Steamworks Studios, Raging Blast waterways and..." I try to think of other vacations I have. "Off world I've..." Suddenly I remembered why I was here, why I chose this job in the first place. "...Well vacations is nice until you read about how Earth blew up. Oh well I guess. ...Ice cream!"

I was most likely the first to arrive at the entrance of the bunker. "Guys, I need you to open the bunker doors! We got a delivery rocket with ice cream inside of it!" I said to the worker drones who was stationed at the bunker.

Outside, I saw the JCJenson delivery rocket and waited for everyone else to arrive.

Cloris looked around, frowning behind her mask. ”Does it look nice?” I can see everything, buts not the same as seeing things as they should be.”

Cloris kept looking around, looking over at the tracks as they trudged through the snow.

”I have a feeling we're going to be seeing many things we've never encountered before. I'm not particularly inclined to chase after something that could make tracks like that. But we'll have to keep it in the back of our mind. I've recorded the coordinates of where the tracks are.”

Cause the snow would eventually cover them up. Cloris looked up, pointing at the corpse tower as it came into view.

”There. That must be the place N and the others stay. The coordinates aren't far away from there.”

---

Uzi scowled at J ”Bite me! I have no reason to be jealous!”

Uzi stared at J in shock as she brought up the Proxima incident. Even before opened her mouth she had a sinking feeling. But maybe it wasn't as grim as it could be. She put a hand on her hip, making a flippant hand gesture with the other.

”I'm sure all those scientists had it coming! The ones on Copper 9 weren't exactly saints either.”

Uzi really hoped that there weren't children involved in that war. But there was the possibility of that. Uzi hadn't cared about innocent casualties before. All humans were monsters in her eyes. But it wasn't as simple as that.

Uzi put her hands on her hips, staring at Ray. ”You aren't exactly a next door neighbor though. You're a human that came all the way off world. It's just… weird to think we have things in common.”

Then she heard something that changed everything. A seemingly innocent conversation between Ray and Chaos about vacations shattered her world when the latter dropped a bomb.

"Well vacations is nice until you read about how Earth blew up."


The amount of shocked horror on her face wouldn't have been missed by anyone. Words completely failed her. There was a strange buzzing noise in the back of her head. For a second the strange symbol flickered into her eye again.

"Earth is destroyed? That's... how...."

She couldn't lose composure about it right now though. She was going to have to get Chaos alone to ask him about it. Right now she put a slight smile on her face, speaking up to the other two.

"Hey, why not throw a vacation to celebrate saving the bunker? We deserve a little time off after all that."

When she got outside, Uzi stared at the rocket as they extracted stuff from it. She let out a low whistle.

”Wow, this thing is really convenient. Unbelievably convenient actually.”

But she wasn't questioning that. What she was questioning was something that was thrown her way. It landed in her left hand. She looked down at it. Her eyes widening.

”Hey! What the hell?!”

Uzi waved her arm, sending the panties flying to the ground. Uzi glared at the group, pointing at the panties on the ground.

”Okay, what perv ordered those?! Those are totally bedroom panties!”

---

Doll stared at Lizzy, blinking as she processed that. Honestly she couldn't find anything to argue with on that logic. Not that she was looking to poke holes in Lizzy's logic. A slight smile curled onto her lips.

”kogda ty tak govorish', eto proshche, chem ya sebe predstavlyayu. Vy pravy: u nas net prichin sderzhivat'sya.”

[“When you put it like that, it's more simple then I've been making it out to be. You're right: there's little reason for us to hold back.”]

And hold back they didn't. Doll rolled her eyes at Lizzy's joke. ”Da, da, ya tot idiot, kotoryy khotel spat' na divane. Ty mozhesh' poderzhat' eto nado mnoy kakoye-to vremya.”

[“Yeah yeah, I'm the idiot who wanted to sleep on the couch. You can hold that over me for awhile.”]

Doll didn't seem all that annoyed though. She hummed, nuzzling as close to Lizzy as she could. She then blinked, looking at her girlfriend curiously.

”Gde tvoi roditeli, Lizzi? Oglyadyvayas' nazad, nam povezlo, chto oni ne poyavilis'.”

[“Where are your parents Lizzy? In hindsight we're lucky they didn't show up.”]

Cloris seemed a little sentimental about this -- it was something that Karasu was kind of taking for granted, he supposed. He takes a breath and then looks over the scenery.

"Hmm."
He hums momentarily, taking it all in.

"I suppose it would be. But knowing that there was civilization here, and it's just all frozen over kind of takes away from it. There's no unusual colors or anything. It's what you probably remember a lot of snow and ice looking like."

He tries to explain what it's like to Cloris, pausing briefly. If she was at all familiar with winter, then she was one step of the way there.

"And you know how old places start getting reclaimed by nature? That's sort of what this is like. Only it happened a lot faster than it should have."

It's probably not what Cloris was hoping to hear, but it is the reality that they found themselves in. Copper-9 was far from a nice place to be in right now. Perhaps with some work, they could make it more inviting, but... That was a goal for another time.

She does remark that she's not keen on chasing after whatever made those tracks, though. The Captain gives an understanding nod at that.

"Yeah. But it knows we're here, and it knew enough to keep it's distance. Which means it's a different breed from those zombies. And I'd rather not wait for it to strike on it's own terms."

In any case, the trip was mostly uneventful. He still kept his eye out for anything unusual, even as they approached the corpse towers that Cloris was now pointing out. He gives a nod at her words.

"Yeah. We should probably figure out how we're going to handle this before we reach the coordinates."

He then states, thinking it over for a second.

"We don't know if they're going to be friendly or hostile... What are your thoughts, Cloris? Stick together, or should one of us hang back a little in the event it's a trick?"

They would be closing in on the rendezvous point soon. But they could still decide what to do from here -- who should stay back and watch? Should they go in together?

Once he knew how Cloris wanted to handle things, he'd act accordingly. Now that they were out on the field, it was better to commit to a plan they could agree on and make it work -- or adapt as needed.

---

Sure enough, V's efforts did end up attracting Ray. At first he admitted that it was probably not the time for a vacation -- or he was going to, but then he realized something very interesting about her findings. Initial dismissal turned into curiosity, and then he began to note down just what it was that she found.

"Well, I searched up what a vacation is supposed to be like. From there I searched for relevant things on the active JCJensen network for Copper-9. There were a lot of duds... And then this bunker."

Afterwards, the discussion turned towards the Proxima Uprising. Everyone had their thoughts about it; and Ray's thoughts were surprise that JCJensen managed to get out of that at all. It prompts a nod out of J.

"It was an extremely difficult time. But the Public Relations Division acted quickly. They broadcasted day and night to get rid of outmodes, how to properly dispose of them... Replace them with the safer, newer models."

J began her explanation, then continuing;
"For those that couldn't afford it and didn't want to get rid of them... Well, the Company saw a chance for goodwill. They offered free updates and maintenance to the older models, when they were in a better position to do so."

Of course, that was one piece of the puzzle. The other piece...

"Then there was the Disassembly Drones. The Proxima Uprising and the resulting backlash is part of why we're a thing at all. We're designed for complete loyalty to Humans. We're dependent on them. And we deliver results."

JCJensen may have seemed like it ended up lucking out of all of this, but the truth was... They did their best to drag themselves out of the predicament they found themselves in. Every single action they could take, they more or less did.

"The first Disassembly Drones actually helped win the war."

And as Uzi then remarks that the Scientists probably deserved it... Well, lacking a bit of the usual snark, J calmly replies with this;
"It wasn't just the researchers, or anyone working for JCJensen. They turned hostile against everyone in Humanity."

With that, J then crosses her arms.

"So... I don't know if the Copper-9 Worker Drones share the same anomaly in their coding or not. They seem completely harmless. But I'm sure that people used to think the same thing before Proxima happened."

Still... Most of the group seemed a little more open to the idea of having some kind of celebration after their victory... Uzi was the first to suggest that idea. J and V both felt pretty inclined to agree with it, too.

"Yeah. I think Ray and Chaos both need a chance to recuperate after everything."

As V remarks upon that, J simply nods in agreement... Especially in light of the fact that Earth was apparently destroyed. That was uh... Quite the bombshell. Suffice to say, neither of the Disassembly Drones had heard about that.

"Wait... Blew up? The Earth blew up?"
J asked. If she could feel a cold chill, this is probably where it would hit her and she'd feel that shiver right now.

V looks over out of concern for Ray... Just in time to see him freaking out about something -- and for something to then go flying off of his hand, and onto Uzi's hand. After a little bit more flailing, the thing in question is tossed to the ground, and Uzi points it and demands answers over who got the 'bedroom panties'.

V, for her part, calmly walks over and picks them up, examining them. This action once more reminds everyone that she only has Modesty Plates on right now.

"Panties, huh?"

After a few more careful, tentative tugs with the fabric, then bends over in order to maneuver both the panties and herself appropriately, slipping them on and pulling them up. After a few slight adjustments...

---

Lizzy smiles, nodding in agreement.

"Totally! You gotta let go and live a little, you know? Everyone feels so tightly wound up all the time. Makes them easy to mess with, I guess... But they're so boring outside of that."

The fact that she was getting Doll to come around to her way of thinking felt pretty fun in it's own way. Sure, thinking things through was important. Even Lizzy could understand that. But so many people thought so much that they barely got anything done.

And as Doll slightly rebukes herself and mentions that Lizzy can hold that fact over her head for awhile, the blonde sticks out her tongue teasingly.

"I might do that. If only because it'll remind you to be more forward with me."

Still, it was a nice night, all things considered... Things worked out, and now they were in a relationship. As they were starting to settle in, Doll then asks about Lizzy's parents. To which the cheerleader responds;

"Ugh, them? Probably in another meeting with that dorky Defense Force. I get that doors are important, and being in that group gives people a lot of influence, but it is seriously such a drag..."

Lizzy rolls her eyes.

"After everything went down, they probably hid somewhere with the rest of the "Defense Force""
Lizzy remarks sarcastically, continuing.
"So they're probably sitting somewhere, making sure that things have quieted down before they come back home."

I quickly give Uzi a headpat, then retract my hands before she could bite my finger off. "Man Uzi, you are one cute worker drone."

"Yeah, the Earth exploded or something. JCJenson mentioned that a huge meteor hit earth on a nuclear power plant next to some nuclear bombs storage facility next to a bunch of dynamite or something. They werent clear about it though." I explained, I then turned to Uzi. "Relax Uzi, Its not like worker drones caused Earth to explode. It was nature, so it was a freak accident. I still miss home though."

I was busy checking out the ice cream to noticed the panties until everyone started freaking out. "What?" I then noticed the panties "...Who the hell ordered those? You must be one pervert to order a pair of panties, unless you are a chick or something." Uzi threw the panties to the ground, but then V picked it up and wore it. "Finally some real modesty" I said to myself. "Although she looks more lewd now. We gotta find her a pair of pants."

Cloris paused as he mentioned there used to be a civilization there. She looked off at the remains of a crashed car.

”The skeleton in the car does take away from any beauty the world may have, I'll give you that.

She's looked around the landscape again, her gaze focusing on the Remnants of the human city.

”This place must have been vibrant and beautiful. It's tragic that it's been reduced to this. Everyone lost everything…”

She trailed off, a strange sadness entering her voice. Strange for the normally objective scientist. It wasn't the first time she had this tone either. She looked back towards the tracks, letting out a sigh.

”Like that monster we just faced. There's a chance our team might run into 3 of those in one day. And if it is one of those things, then its smart enough to set a trap of its own.

Of course she included Ray and the others in that assessment too. She considered the captain's choices as they approached the coordinates.

”Considering what we encountered and those tracks, it's too dangerous to split up. I should do a soft entry into the coordinates to check for traps, with you staying close. And then we decide what to do depending on the scenario. That's what I think we should do.”

The tower loomed nearby as they approached The coordinates. It was a wonder that the thing hadn't fallen over, considering that it was just a pile of drone remains. Cloris looked around, keeping on guard as they reached their destination.

---

Uzi scowled at Chaos as he pat her head. ”Stop that! I'm not 5 year old. And don't call me cute!”

She grumbled, folding her arms under her chest. Chaos was being a little too touchy for her liking. Although she didn't swat away his hand this time.

Uzi quietly listened to J’s explanation of the situation. The role she played in it, everything that happened there. And then both J and Ray voiced something that made Uzi feel sick.

”They… they killed civilians? Kids? That's… why would they do that?”


Uzi clutched her head. The drone that had proclaimed so boldly that she would kill all humans was now horrified by the reality of such a thing. She swallowed, looking at J.

”I don't know about the adults, but I don't have anything preventing me from hurting humans. I was born, not made...”

It seemed as though Chaos was the only one who knew about the FREAKING EARTH BLOWING UP!. An already distressed Uzi looked over at Chaos as he explained how he felt.

”How is that okay?! Billions of humans died and you guys don't have a home to return to!”


Uzi sniffed, raising her hand to her face. She looked around at everyone.

”I'm not crying!”

After Uzi calmed down, things got crazy in a different way. she pointed at the panties on the ground.

”I wear panties, that's how! I know. You only wear a pair that fancy when you're trying to seduce someone!”

Uzi sighed when V put the panties on. It was clear that it was affecting Ray. ”Can we just go on and fix the life support already?”

---

Doll's smile grew. ”YA postarayus' ne utomlyat' tebya, Lizzi. Prishlo vremya mne nachat' vytaskivat' sebya iz gryazi.”

[“I'll try not to bore you Lizzy. Its time I start pulling myself out of the mud.”]

She was often described as a stick in the mud. Which wasn't inaccurate. If anyone besides Lizzy talked to Doll, they'd quickly realize how pragmatically realistic the drone was. Yet it seemed like a change was on the horizon.

Doll grinned, reaching out and gently caressing Lizzy's waist. ”Ne volnuysya, s etogo momenta ya budu s toboy ochen' nastoychiv. V tebe mnogo zamechatel'nykh kachestv, Lizzi. Tak mnogo, chto mne ponadobitsya tselaya zhizn', noch' za noch'yu, chtoby voskhvalyat' ikh vsekh.”

[“Don't worry, I'm going to be plenty forward with you from now on. You've got many great qualities about you Lizzy. So many that it will take a lifetime, night after night for me to praise them all.”]

She purred, squeezing Lizzy gently. She then listened as Lizzy talked about her parents, rolling her own eyes.

”gruppu lyudey, dronov-ubiyts vmeste s monstrom. ya ne ponimayu, pochemu ikh tak uvazhayut.”

[“The defense force let in both a group of humans and murder drones along with a monster in the bunker in the same day. i don't understand why they're as respected as they are.”]

Doll paused, then reached out and cupped Lizzy’s cheek. ”Lizzy, tebe nravitsya zhit' s roditelyami?”

[“Lizzy, Do you enjoy living with your parents?”]

Karasu could only nod in agreement with Cloris's remark about the state of the world. Copper-9 would probably be a nice enough place. But the constant threat of radiation, the inhospitable weather conditions, and... Just the uneasiness of what used to be a bustling civilization frozen in time was enough to put you off of considering that.

Everything was lost -- and the environment reflected that perpetually.

"Still... I think it might be a decent place again, if we do go through with convincing the Worker Drones to rebuild on the surface -- and there's definitely merit to that idea. We're going to have to do a lot to fix up the ship."

He then replies, noting the sadness she had in her voice just moments before. The conversation returns to the creature that made those unusual tracks, with her admitting that it could very well be a trap, and a third of it's kind. Karasu certainly couldn't disagree with that.

"You're not wrong. And yet, I don't feel comfortable doing nothing. Because if it can think and set traps, it can also plan on how to best attack us, or the ship. At the very least..."

After mulling it over enough, he activated the comms in order to deliver his message to Aegis and N, who could then relay it to the others.
"We're getting close to the meeting point now. But on the way we found some very unusual tracks outside the ship. There's a possibility of there being a third monster to deal with. Make sure the others know too."

With that, he then falls silent and considers Cloris's thoughts on how to proceed -- it was true enough. Without those tracks it might be a good idea to split up slightly. But with that in the mix they couldn't afford to take any chances. Even though they might be walking into a trap, they would have to assume that they could deal with it together.

"You're right. We'll stick together on this one."

The pair then drew closer and closer to the intended meeting point... Karasu was also keeping an eye out. Hand rested on the pistol still in the holster. He was ready to draw it in the event of a fight, but he didn't want to give the impression of being hostile to whoever sent the message if this WASN'T a trick.

---

The story of the Proxima Uprising and it's aftermath was a very... Complicated one. Especially for JCJensen. Ray was not wrong to point out that the Company did try a more heavyhanded approach at first.

"Unfortunately, I'd love to point out that you were wrong... But you're right. That was one of their initial approaches while trying to get the entire situation under control."
J lets out a small sigh, almost looking like she wanted to grumble lightly. But nonetheless, she continues;
"While some understood what they were trying to accomplish, the overwhelming majority still gave them backlash for it. Effectively; "This is your mess, you fix it.""

J places her hands on her hips after explaining that.

"There was internal backlash too. JCJensen's very own R&D Division refused to give up the older model of Drones. It resulted in arrest warrants for everyone."
She admits -- although not sounding as sour about that as she did about the other elements of the story so far. The reason for that is soon revealed:
"They made the Disassembly Drones as a response. Along with the words "I'd like to see you try.""

J smirks a little after that.

"So, Disassembly Drones are a product of Humanity still loving Drones. But also a realization that there can't be another Proxima."

Still... As much as she wished she could continue enjoying the more pleasant sides of this whole story, Uzi was understandably shaken to learn what those Drones had done in the war. Ultimately, J shakes her head in response.

"Nobody knows. Not even JCJensen does. If they just wanted freedom, they could have been much more selective in who they fought. There probably would have been plenty of sympathizers. But, that is what happened."

And after having said that... Uzi revealed that she didn't have the Laws of Robotics applied to her, due to being born and not made. J tensed up a little, as did V... But J does try to undo the tension here;

"... You probably don't want to reveal that to anyone else. And I would suggest that advice to the others born on Copper-9 as well. Better to pretend that you can't harm any Humans, at all."

Still... The revelation that the Earth was destroyed hit everyone pretty hard. And for Uzi, the sheer truth of that kind of thing was abundantly clear. Although... J did have to correct one thing.

"There are other Colony Worlds. Humanity isn't going extinct. But... It is a tragic loss regardless."

Aaaaaand then all the tension was IMMEDIATELY eliminated by the black panties. Uzi declared them to be "bedroom panties", Ray defended himself, pointed the finger to J, and also wondered why that was the first place that Uzi's mind went.

Then she revealed that she wears panties too, so she would know what they're meant for. V simply seems to be getting more used to wearing them though.

"For seducing someone?"
V muttered, and then looked over at Ray.

And then she put two and two together at the sight of his flustered state.

"Well, I probably won't be finding something like that for awhile. But it's okay. The important parts are covered, right?"

V replies, now giving a knowing smile. Shortly thereafter, Chaos remarks about there "finally being some real modesty", and Ray elbows him for it.

At this point, J finally speaks up again.

"By the way? I didn't order that. It must have just been slipped in with the rest of the order accidentally."

Uzi seemingly admits defeat in all of this, and simply asks if they can go fix the Life Support now. V then excitedly nods.

"Yeah! It should be a cinch now! And then we can have that celebration!"

V then shoots another glance at Ray. She was also thinking of a little bit of a private after-celebration event too...

---

Lizzy then gives a small smirk at Doll's words.

"Yeah? That sounds pretty good to me. Let me know if you need a little bit of help getting out of the mud, too."

But, the blonde does give an approving hum as Doll caresses her waist. She scoots a bit closer, clearly enjoying the touch. And her approval only seems to be increasing at the purple-haired Drone's following words.

"Hmm~.
I do like the sound of that... But you know, I'll have to make sure that you don't feel like that sort of affection is one-sided."

Lizzy's hand is moved to gently grab Doll's free hand, and she stares into her lover's eyes. The two of them clearly enjoyed the other's company. Then there was the discussion of Lizzy's parents. Which did seem to drag the romantic atmosphere down a bit -- but she didn't mind discussing it since... Well, Doll was just interested to know more about her and her affairs.

"Well, it's the first time anything like this has happened. It's been pretty quiet for months. I suppose that can make anything seem useful and competent."

That was a pretty harsh rendering of the Defense Force -- and of her parents. Especially seeing as how Lizzy didn't hesitate to say that. Seemingly spurred on by that, Doll then asks how Lizzy feels about living with them.

The blonde, still staring into Doll's eyes, gives a small sigh in response.

"You mean when they're here? I suppose it's not terrible, but we don't really see eye-to-eye on many things anymore."

As if to accentuate her point, she lowers her tone of voice to mimic her father;

"Now Lizzy, try not to get into any scandals. It reflects on the whole family."

She rolls her eyes, but at least the frustration passes swiftly.

"As far as materialistic things go, I've pretty much got it all. And I'm sure I'd miss them if I moved out -- they are my family, even still -- but I don't think much would change if I did live somewhere else."

I listen into the Proxima Uprising stuff. "Surprisingly I never heard about this, but I guess no one heard that Earth exploded so we're even."

I saw Uzi being visibly upset. "umm..." I get a worried expression on my face. I want to be able to cheer her up, but I dont have much experience in this kind of thing. I would hug or even place my hand on hers shoulder, but she doesnt like being touch so Im apricating hers boundaries right now. "Dont worry okay? Im used to being homeless I guess. Dont know where Ray's homeworld is but... uhh, its all cool?"

Uzi mentioned that she wears a pair of panties and I quietly talk to myself "Wait... all drones wear panties? Uhh neat..."

Finally, we start talking about starting up the Life Support systems. "Right, lets carry all this stuff into the bunker and set up the life support. We can all finally rest after all this and eat some ice cream" My stomach begins to grumble not realizing how long I havent ate.

Cloris was silent for a moment as she walked through the snow. Then she answered her captain.

”That would be the most ideal outcome. But we would have to convince the worker drones that it's beneficial for them to take part in terraforming Copper 9. Right now I don't see what we can do to make them do that. But I'll keep thinking of possible solutions.”

Cloris looked over at Karasu in understanding as he expressed how uncomfortable he felt.

”You like things to be in your control. You want to move first and don't like it when you have to react. That's the risk of taking things slower. But right now I think that thing wants us to act rashly.”

When they reachrd their destination, things played out  fairly routinely at first. N communicated really
well and let the others know of the situation that Karasu and herself were in. Seemed simple enough. But then Ray said something that was weird.

"GAH!! I wasn't looking at her panties!"

Cloris let out a sigh. ”Ray, stop looking at J's panties. V will get jealous.”

Of course she had no way of knowing what was going on. J was the only one who was covering up using those. So logically Cloris thought that's what was going on.

Then they got a request from Ray. It made sense, given where they were.

"Okay, me and Karasu will make sure to get power regulators for you guys."

Cloris noticed the light in the building, and the strange message that she got. She pointed at the source of the light, and Relayed the message she got after the scan.

”I think we need to get a little closer to heaven Captain.”

---

Uzi didn't have anything. No snappy comeback. No snide comment about how the humans deserved to die. Just the cold, harsh sadness that came with coming to grips of what those drones actually did.

Uzi still looked at Chaos disbelievingly. She swung her arm to the side. ”It isn't cool! Even if there are other colonies like J said, your home world is still gone! Where are you going to go after this?!”

Then both J and Ray both gave her a piece of advice. She sniffed, covering her visor with one of her arms.

I'm not an idiot. I'm not going to just blab about that with any old human.”

Uzi's eyes widened as she felt Ray hug her, and her body stiffened a little. She hadn't been expecting it. And then it was over, just like that. She hadn't had any time to Even process it. She wasn't sure how she felt about it either. But she didn't feel as bad as before. So maybe it did have an effect.

And then he insisted he saw nothing. One look at him was enough to see that. She lowered her arm, looking at the human gratefully.

”Good. Cause there was nothing to see. At all.”

Uzi rolled her eyes at him afterward. ”Quit being such a baby. Do you humans always get that squirmish talking about undergarments?”

Something Ray Relayed got Uzi's attention. She walked up to him, looking at gratefully. ”Hey, thanks for remembering that. I can work more on my railgun after we get the life support up and running.

---

Doll gave Lizzy a slight smile. ”Ty uzhe vytashchil menya bol'shuyu chast' puti. YA dam vam znat', yesli mne ponadobitsya dopolnitel'naya pomoshch', chtoby vybrat'sya iz doma.”

[“You've already pulled me out most of the way. I'll let you know if I need more help to get out all the way.”]

Doll's smile grew. She let out a little hum, still softly caressing Lizzy as she snuggled up with the other drone.

”U tebya uzhe khorosheye nachalo, Lizzi. Vy iz tekh, kto vkladyvayet vse svoi usiliya v to, chto vazhno. Menya ne bespokoit to, chto vse budet odnostoronnim.”

[“You're already off to a good start Lizzy. You're the type that puts all her effort into what's important. I'm not worried about things being one-sided.”]

Doll squeezed Lizzy's hand tighter as her girlfriend talked about her parents. She reached with her free hand, stroking Lizzy's hair gently.

”YA dumayu, mnogoye izmenitsya, yesli ty uyedesh'. Ty mozhesh' ostat'sya so svoyey devushkoy i zhit' tak, kak khochesh'. Nam pridetsya navesti poryadok, no eto ne zaymet mnogo vremeni.”

[“I think plenty would change if you moved out. You get to stay with your girlfriend and live the way you want to. We'll have to clean up the place, but it shouldn't take that long.”

Doll let that invitation hang in the air. She now had a relationship with someone she loved. And she was going to do all she could to make Lizzy happy.

"We already have decent things to offer them. The Disassembly Drones are keen to work with us, we have weapons and machinery, and we've taken down two of those things -- and countless zombie drones too."

He begins to respond to Cloris's worries about the terms of negotiation.

"Besides that, we would be making a settlement even safer than those bunkers. Something actually capable of holding enemies off. Active protection is pretty enticing for people that have been running and hiding."

Still... In any case. The green-haired girl acted as a bit of a counterbalance to Karasu's usual approach to things. She explained that this particular creature probably wanted them to act rashly...

"Maybe. But it's also not going to sit and wait forever."

And he would rather keep any enemies on the back foot. Before that conversation went much further, their communications were relayed back to the ship, and then carried over to the Expedition Team -- and they got a VERY prompt reply from Ray.

"GAH!! I wasn't looking at her panties!"

... A reply that didn't make much sense. N replied that it was good to know. Cloris said for Ray not to stare at J's panties, and Karasu...

"Wait... Panties? Do any of them even wear that?"

That was the Captain's takeaway on this. But uh, getting back on track, Ray asked them to pick up some power regulators while they were out here. Cloris accepts the request, and then points out the light in question and says that it's time to 'get closer to heaven'.

A remark that is clearer with the hint that she relays to him.

"Yeah, it sounds like we need to have a higher vantage point to see something important here."

So, with that... Karasu leads the way to the building that has that strange light and attached riddle.

---

J simply shrugs at Ray's remarks about the R&D Division.

"I suppose it depends on what you call noble. A lot of them just plain didn't want to give up their Drones. They stood by the fact that there was nothing wrong with them."

She then places a hand on her own hip as she continues to tell this story;
"That's why so many Drones are upgraded into the Disassembly model. You can build one from scratch, but then there's cases like me, V, and N. We all used to be Worker Drones."

Still... Ray had his theory about the Proxima Uprising itself; whatever could have possibly sparked it, there was a very strong chance that it was related to what was happening on Copper-9 right now... And if that was the case, then there's just as strong a chance that the Drones weren't actually guilty of what they did...

Though J held off on saying that. Things were complicated enough as it was. As it was, Uzi was still plenty shaken about the whole situation. She even asked how any of this could possibly be 'okay', and wanted to know if Chaos and the others even had a home to go back to.

V decides to chime in at this point.

"Well, they still have a home. That would be their ship. It's uh... Seen better days, but it looks like it has everything they could possibly want on there."

After having said that, J nods in agreement and further adds onto it:
"This crew has gotten pretty used to being on the move. They're freelancers. They could set up shop at any place and probably be happy about it."

And poor Ray... Caught completely off-guard by V being so open about seducing him. He tried to keep things back on track, insisting that they should focus on their work and fix the life support now. He also insisted that V was missing the point. That prompts her to tilt her head.

"Well, what is the point, then?"

She queries -- and shortly thereafter the comms kick in and he loudly announces that he was not staring at her panties. V just couldn't help but give him a knowing smirk after that.

In any case, Chaos says that now would be a pretty good time to bring everything inside and get their celebration -- and a nice meal -- underway.

To that end, V and J both pick up a fair share of the items they ordered, and they begin taking them back to the bunker.

---

Doll soon explained that Lizzy had already made a lot of progress in that regard, and if she needed any help, she'd let her know. That was good enough for the blonde, who nods in response. Even more importantly was the fact that Doll was letting her know just how much she trusted her.

"Good. I'm going to make sure I live up to that trust you're putting in me."

Lizzy replies, and as she talks about the situation with her parents, Doll gives plenty of supporting gestures through it. It's enough to keep her mood from souring as much as it might have otherwise. Soon enough she explains that things might change more than Lizzy thinks it will.

Since in this case, she'd be moving in with her girlfriend, and they would have their own place... And as Lizzy thinks that over, she gives a nod.

"Hmm... You know, that's a fair point. Our very own place. At the very least it might not be quite as lonely. I like to have my own time and all, but being the only one in this apartment can drag any day down."

... And that was probably even more true in Doll's case. It was one of the main reasons for their sticking together. Both knew what isolation was like, and Doll's case of it was more serious than Lizzy's was. Her parents were still alive, even if they weren't around much.

Doll though? Just thinking about how much time she's spent in that place alone was enough to make her want to give her new lover a hug.

"I think I'd like that. It shouldn't be that hard for us to make that the nicest place in the entire bunker."

Lizzy soon boasts -- and of course, it was also a blatant acceptance of the offer she had been given.

"I know where are you coming from, Uzi." I said, replying to her. "When I first got the news I was devastated about the entire thing, but Im used to it now. I mean not really but I cope by playing video games and watching anime."

Uzi questioned where I should go that I no longer have a home to go to. "Honestly, I dont know. I was planning on thinking about that when I got the ship job. The ship is my home now, I guess. Even made my room more lived in than the others." I think about it more, and my thoughts go to the abandoned room inside the bunker. "Unless if you are okay having a stinky human like me living in the bunker. I dont mind living with a couple of drones."

I heard Ray freak about not staring at V's panties, then Cloris to stop looking at J's panties. "He wasnt staring at J's panties, he was looking at V's! And J doesnt wear any... I mean, uhh... J doesnt wear hats. Yeah."

I help the crew and carry some things inside the bunker.

”True. It's only a matter of time before they'll want to expand beyond the bunkers. The only reason they haven't is due to the disassembly drones. So it's just a matter of figuring out exactly how valuable our resources are to them.”

Cloris walked close to Karasu, talking with the captain. ”There's just too many unknown variables with these things right now. I don't think it would end well if we launched  an offensive without a disassembly drone by our side.”

"H-H-H-Hey! I wasn't staring at J at all!! Yeah, Chaos is r...right!  I-I don't know if they wear them! But one of them is wearing some right now!! I-"

Cloris blinked, trying to process that. ”Why… when… you know what, nevermind. Just have that life support up and ready as soon as you can.”

Cloris saw the tripwire too late. She stretched out her hand. ”CAPTAIN!”

Cloris quickly reacted to the beam, tackling Karasu to the ground. It swung over the both of them. She looked down at the captain underneath her.

”Are you okay Captain?”

Once it was confirmed it was fine, Cloris climbed to her feet. She looked around, quickly spotting the traps. She frowned behind her helmet.

”This doesn't make any sense. Why invite humans to come here and then set up traps to make it hard for them to pass by”

By that comment alone, it would be pretty clear to Karasu that she couldn't see the paint.

---

Uzi still didn't look fully convinced. But Ray and Chaos' insistence made her back off. She sighed.

”I don't know what's more depressing: the fact that Earth blew up or that you guys have already adapted to that. Your ship better be an awesome pad to live in.”

She looked over at Chaos, scratching her cheek. ”Well, there isn't really a place you can stay in the bunker. It's probably better to sleep on your ship. Unless it's completely totalled and unlivable right now.”

Uzi blinked, looking at Ray in confusion. ”Um, thanks. But what the heck is a non-disclosure agreement?”

Uzi folded her arms, frowning at the humans. “You human men are weird when it comes to that stuff.”

Uzi didn't say anything as he talked back to Cloris and Karasu. When Ray asked the question, Uzi frowned at him.

”I'd be lamenting the fact that you were stupid enough to go outside in nothing but your underwear and froze to death.”

Uzi picked up some stuff, walking alongside Ray. She had enough to occupy both of her arms. She looked over at the human, giving him a slight smile.

”I might take you up on that. The most obvious way to Improve the charging is to reduce the output. I wasn't sure what would be enough to kill… well J and V I guess. So I made the gun as strong as I could.”

---

Doll had no doubt in the faith she was putting into Lizzy. Just the fact that she was sticking by her side was a miracle on its own. And Lizzy was no slouch: she had her talents and was going to give it her all for her.

Doll hummed, picturing life with Lizzy in her head. It was a very appealing image, one that she wanted to make sure came into being.

”YA tozhe ustal byt' odin. Takim obrazom, nam vsegda budet k komu vernut'sya domoy.”

[“I'm tired of being alone as well. This way we'll always have someone to come home to.”]

Doll smiled at her lover. ”Mne ne terpitsya uvidet', kak budet vyglyadet' nash dom posle togo, kak my zakonchim rabotu nad nim.”

[“I can't wait to see how our home will look like after we're done working on it.”]

Doll lay against her girlfriend, staring into her eyes and relaxing against her.

”YA khochu pobyt' v takom sostoyanii yeshche nemnogo. No nam pridetsya vstat' do togo, kak tvoi roditeli vernutsya domoy.”

[“I want to stay like this a little longer. But we'll have to ger up before your parents come home.”]

"If what Ray and the others have had to report is true, then it's pretty valuable. Regardless, I think that should be our approach. If we keep things safe enough for them to set up some actual defenses, then they should be keen to help us out in return."

Still... Cloris definitely wanted to err on the side of caution. Negotiations might be trickier than they were thinking, for one thing. For another, going on the offensive without the backup of a Disassembly Drone was ill-advised in her books.

"Our enemy also wouldn't expect it, however. They probably anticipate that we would try to prepare first."

It was pretty easy to see why Karasu had gotten successful enough to have his own ship. He didn't just aim for weaknesses -- those tended to be something the enemy expected you to hit. But going for their strengths? Few prepared for that sort of thing.

... And with the conversation about whether or not Drones wear panties -- as well as WHO is wearing them right now -- it was easy to forget that they were heading into a building that was prepared by someone who didn't want to be found by certain things. The instant his foot contacts with the tripwire, his reflexes kick in.

Cloris, for her part, reacted quickly as well, tackling him. But they weren't out of the woods yet just because they avoided the beam. Bracing himself, he brings them both to a stop once they've cleared the trap -- keeping them from falling towards any other, much more lethal "gifts".

"Yeah. I'm fine. But be very careful where you step and move right now."

Both of them got back onto their feet, and he began to take in his surroundings. This place was littered with all kinds of traps... Cloris is the first to comment about the situation they've found themselves in. And there's a pretty critical hint in what she has to say, too.

He does first try to confirm his suspicions though.

"I think the reason why this room looks the way it does to you, along with that first trap, proves that this is meant to be for Humans to solve."

With that, the Captain then points out the paint. Though from Cloris's perspective, it would appear to be a narrow, clear path that he had managed to pick out in practically an instant.

"There's paint here that points out the safe passages. We'll still have to be careful, but this is definitely to prevent anything else from finding the answers here."

Once Cloris confirms that she couldn't see the paint, that'd be enough context clues for him. And then he'd begin leading the way. Albeit with his pistol drawn and at the ready now. The traps might not be meant for Humans. But clearly the creator didn't care much if they killed someone.

---

Uzi seemed rather taken aback by the fact that Ray and Chaos were so... "Okay" with the Earth being gone. J simply gives a nod at that.

"That's Human Resilience. They have a knack for picking themselves up and dusting themselves off, no matter how hard things get."

In any case, the Worker Drone also said that the Bunker didn't have much space at the moment. J on the other hand, was a little less sure about that.

"Those places were designed with a lot of living space, I'm sure we can find some rooms for them to stay. They're just buying time with their ship right now and they're looking for alternatives for more breathing room."

In any case. The next thing that would elicit a response from V was when Ray tried to explain the point, as well as Uzi's following remark.

"I dunno. Let's get the Life Support working and find out."

V replies, and then she looks over to Uzi.
"Also you won't get the chance to see something like that."

And as they're carrying things inside, J is walking next to Chaos.

"... So, did you like what you saw?"

She asks with such nonchalance, almost as if KNOWING this is going to fluster him. And if he tried to pretend not to know what she was asking about, then she would smirk and look at him more directly.

"You know. My "lack of hats.""

... Signs were pointing to both of the Humans getting laid tonight.

---

Always having someone to come home to... You know, that might take a bit of getting used to, but Lizzy did like the sound of that. She was so used to all of the fun giving way to a very isolating silence. Pretty much the only thing you could do when you were back home was watch things on the internet.

At least, that was in her case.

"I'm definitely seeing a lot of potential there. Maybe I can prepare some surprises now and then when you come home."

Lizzy then comments -- knowing full well that Doll could likely do the same. That seemed just as enticing, of course. And they could actually turn that apartment into a nice home they were both proud of. Doll was already eager to see what it might be like.

"Sounds like we should get started soon, then."

Lizzy replies with a smile. Soon afterwards, Doll also says that she wants to stay like this -- but is lamenting that they'll probably have to get up before her parents get back home. The blonde giggles at that.

"Yeah, don't think we have to worry about that. With this whole attack on the bunker, and our new guests, they're probably going to be working overtime to save face. Once they come out of hiding, anyway."