The Pilot (4)

(Before this chapter starts I'd like to ask all my readers to join my discord server. In the server you can talk with me, get updates on chapter releases, and even implement your own ideas into the novel!

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Thank you!)

JR

-

Uzi trudged along in the snow as her robotic feet sluggishly took step after step. The coldness confused her mind. She had never felt so alive like this. 

I forgot how it felt to be cold...

The last time she had been out in the snow was when she was just a baby worker drone. Khan had built the doors after Uzi's mother, Nori, was killed by a disassembly drone right in front of them.

The memory was barely visible in Uzi's mind. She was too young for it to be anymore than a blur.

Even though she barely knew her mother, the day Nori died was the day Uzi began to hate the disassembly drones. Once she found the last part for her railgun, then she could finally start putting up a fight instead of hiding for all her life.

I'm probably the only worker even attempting to fight back…

She looked around at the unfamiliar ruined buildings and heaps of drone bodies left in the wake of the murder drones. She couldn't exactly remember where the drone's landing pod was, but Uzi knew it had to be somewhere near the mass amounts of bodies. It was all just a game of hide and seek at this point.

She peered around corner after corner of the ruined buildings searching desperately for their pod. She scavenged every single body she came across but none of them had the part she was looking for.

I need to find HIM.

Uzi hadn't ever seen the drone she was looking for, but she knew what he looked like. 

She stumbled into a large, closed in, and dark coliseum-like building and spotted a ruined landing pod with multiple spider-like legs sticking into the ground. 

"Holy crap…"

Hundreds of mutilated worker drone bodies stacked up endlessly along the walls of the building and all around the center near the pod itself. Uzi felt sick at the sight of hundreds of her kind laying in the oil soaked snow with no sign of life within them. 

This is… Horrible.

Her pupils widened as she saw a lone body laying in the snow, separated from the rest.

I guess that's him.

She slowly made her way over to the drone and looked down at it. It was much taller and bulkier than the worker drones. Uzi noticed that its left arm was some sort of cannon while its right arm seemed like a blade of sorts.

It makes sense. The guardian was made to protect people. Too bad he had to die like this.

Uzi had heard her father tell stories about the Guardian Drone.

They were created by JcJenson to protect the humans and manage the worker drones on Copper-9 from any internal and external threats. When the planet blew up they decided to coexist with the worker drones and integrated themselves into worker society.

But then the Disassembly Drones came…

The Guardian drone guarding the area near Uzi's home fought a group of three Disassembly Drones when they first arrived. He bought time for thousands of workers to run and escape, but he never rose up again.

"Found it!"

Uzi scrambled around the inside of the Guardian and pulled out a glowing green cylinder. It emitted a light hue in her hand as she gripped the railgun on her back and rested it on her leg. She fidgeted with the gun for a moment before sliding the guardian's core into the center of the gun.

"Hell yeah!"

Uzi stood up and examined the rifle. Instead of being red it had returned to the original green color it had once been before it imploded. It writhed with energy as Uzi's hands 

She twirled it around for a moment before smirking. 

This'll show everyone…

Before she could finish her thought a loud thud rang out in Uzi's ears. She whipped her body towards a pile of dead worker drones and dove for them without even looking towards where the sound had come from.

Crap, crap, CRAP!

She grabbed a reflective piece of metal and angled it towards the pod so her body wouldn't be visible. She could make out a drone crawling on the wall of the landing pod scanning around.

Uzi began to panic slightly as the disassembly drone snapped its head towards her past prints in the snow. The drone launched itself up into the air and extended its wings before slamming down onto the snow mere yards away from Uzi.

Nonononono…

It unleashed the claws from its hands and ripped apart the body of the guardian drone. The corpse was destroyed in mere seconds and left only the remainingsliced metal and oil dripping from random pieces. 

Please go away… Please go…

The drone launched itself back up into the air. Uzi let out a sigh of relief as the drone went higher and higher before flying off.

"Phew, I need to get out of here."

Uzi waited a few more moments before slowly standing up. She gripped her railgun tightly and held it with both hands as she quickened her feet. The snow began to fall on her once more as she made it outside the large building.

She smiled as the snow hit her visor. The bunker was mere minutes away. Once she got back she'd show everyone that they had a real fighting chance now.

Uzi let out a loud giggle as she began running towards the bunker, railgun in hand.

"Best. Day. Ev-"

Her speech was interrupted by a large shockwave knocking her backwards slightly on to the floor. Uzi began to hyperventilate as she looked up and saw the same disassembly drone staring at her with a yellow "X" strung across his visor and a disgusting sharp smile.

Uzi frantically stuck her left hand in front of her face as her right hand grabbed desperately towards her railgun.

She recoiled in pain as a sharp stinger pierced through her hand. Uzi flinched but grabbed onto the railgun and took aim in a singular movement.

"BITE ME!"

She gripped the trigger with her right hand and used her injured left to steady the gun as it began to charge. The railgun began to glow a bright green before releasing an ear-piercing sound as a beam of light shot directly at the disassembly drone's head.

"HA, take that!"

Uzi began to laugh as she stood up. Her laughter stopped as the wound on her hand began to spread. Her hand was melting slowly. Uzi gripped her wrist.

She looked down at the disassembly drone. He was sprawled out on the floor with no head remaining. Uzi smirked triumphantly as the dead drone's oil coated the snow. 

"WHAT!? NO NO NO"

The drone's head began to rebuild and form again right in front of Uzi's eyes as she watched on in horror.

She frantically pulled the trigger of her railgun but it hadn't recharged yet. 

I'm defenseless…

She closed her eyes softly. There was no point in running, Uzi knew that. She was wrong, they were never supposed to fight the disassembly drones, the workers were fated to hide behind closed doors forever.

However, that wasn't how Uzi Doorman, daughter of Khan, thought.

Uzi dashed towards the ruined body of the guardian drone. It was a hundred or so yards away, but she knew it was possible to reach it before the male disassembly drone repaired its head.

Faster, Faster! 

Uzi pushed her robotic body harder and harder as she dived the final few yards to the corpse.

Her knees slid on the snow as she grabbed the disfigured cannon of the guardian and forced it to charge up while her body quickly turned to where the disassembly drone had been.

"What the hell…"

It's gone.

Uzi looked around and clutched the guardian's arm harder as she looked around for any signs of life or movement.

…

"Hiya!"

Her body jumped as a voice called out behind her. She turned around and quickly took aim before firing at the disassembly drone. 

He grabbed the cannon and crushed it before it could fire.

"That's dangerous buddy, you should be careful!"

His tone was innocent and sweet. He stared down at Uzi.

"You're pretty… Small… for a disassembly drone."

"W-what? Disassembly drone?"

"Geez your memory must be all wacky, you really don't even remember what we are?"

We?

"I'm Serial-Designation N! I'm kind of the leader of the squad around here."

N reached his hand down and Uzi gripped it with her left hand. The sharp pain from N's grip reminded her of the acidic wound plaguing her hand.

"Ah-…"

"What's wrong? Just use your saliva."

"What?"

"Your saliva… It heals the acid, if it didn't then I would've died a lonnnnnngggg time from my own tail haha!"

Uzi looked down at her hand and then at the disassembly drone towering over her.

"Hey, how about we go over there to that, uh, landing pod?"

N looked towards the landing pod and smiled before replying.

"Sure! I love doing anything!"

-

The warped figure pulled her hand out of N's mouth and wiped it on the floor. She looked down at her hand in disgust.

This is, uhm, new.

"Can we agree never to talk about this again…"

"Yeah yeah… Never…"

N shuddered after he replied. His head hurt and his memory was foggy.

What happened to me?

He looked around, his vision had been glitchy and pixelated ever since he woke back up. He could not remember what had happened before he awoke.

"Wait, you never told me your name!"

How rude!

The female disassembly drone looked at him for a moment.

"Uzi, my name is Uzi."

"Nice to meet you Uzi!"

"Yeah, so uhm, why were we sent here again?"

"Jeez, your memory must be even worse than mine! We're here to kill the worker drones silly!"

"And… Why are we doing that again?"

"Uhm, besides their warm, succulent, and juicy oil so we don't overheat? It's just what the company wants!"

"Okayyy… So what does the company plan to do after we kill all the workers."

Uhm

N thought for a second before shrugging his shoulders.

"No idea!"

He smiled.

"Do you ever think the company might… Get rid of you once you've served your purpose?

I-

N looked down at his hands. The company hadn't given them any other directions besides killing the workers. They hadn't even told them how to land the pod.

"I- I'm not sure…"

He smiled awkwardly as his visor glitched for a moment. The small glitching figure looked around the room for another moment.

"What are all these buttons for?"

N thought for a second.

"No idea!"

The smaller drones eyes widened.

"I could… The worker drones could repair this ship for us!"

"Why would they do that?"

"We could get off this planet, go back to earth, and then kick those human's asses!"

"Why would we hurt the humans…"

"They sent you here to die N! Don't you see that! Once we kill all of the worker drones then they'll kill us too!"

"They wouldn't do that silly!"

"You don't know that N!"

N's smile faded as she looked at the female drone.

Uzi looked towards a large blinking screen near the center. N followed her eyes and saw a stationary dot in the center with three more dots speeding towards it.

"What are those dots?"

"Other disassembly drones!"

"WHAT!?"

She must be shy.

N focused on the screen for a moment.

"Don't be scared Uzi, the others are really nice! Not sure why three dots are coming since our squad only consists of L, V, and me but oh well!"

He looked back and noticed Uzi was gone.

Where'd she go?