Chapter Text
Garreson ran as fast as his legs could carry him as alarms blared throughout the corridor. He could barely hear the messages through the intercom now, telling people to evacuate Copper-9 via the emergency escape pods. He panted heavily through his suit, silently cursing himself for his lack of exercise.
He barely noticed the twin lights ahead of him until he stumbled straight into a mining drone. Garreson came to a sudden halt, staring at the robot’s green eyelights with an annoyed expression. What was it doing all the way down here? This wasn’t a worker authorized area.
“Move it,” he grunted, just loud enough that it could be heard over the sirens. It didn’t budge, but its eyes hollowed in that way that showed a worker was feeling afraid.
“What did I say? Move it, or I’ll make sure you get scrapped.” It glanced at the tunnel behind him, then looked back up at his face. Was it… shaking?
Noticing his glare, it took a step back, then another. He was about to reprimand it when its visor suddenly flickered, showing all-too familiar bright red text:
[FATAL ERROR]
It collapsed right there on the floor, its protective glass casing cracking with the impact on the concrete. Garreson whipped his head around, startled by the sound of footsteps. Someone was standing at the far end of the hallway.
As they came closer, he sighed with relief.
“Roy? That you?” Something was clutched in his dominant hand, and as he ran up to Garreson, he realized it was a handgun with a silencer. No wonder he hadn’t heard it over those damn alarms.
“Yea, it’s me. Can’t trust any of these bots no more.” He gestured towards the dead worker drone with the gun. “Heard some of ‘em have been killin’ our men.”
Garreson scoffed. “Those little things? They’re barely sentient toasters. I doubt they’d be able to organize anything, let alone plan mass murder.”
Roy shook his head, a serious expression on his face. “Not those ones, no, but they can reveal our location to the ones who can.”
Garreson was confused for a moment before the realization dawned on him. “Wait, you mean the mili—“
At that moment, the alarms stopped. The lights still flashed, casting red over the darkened tunnel, but the sudden silence was disorienting. He couldn’t quite see the opposite end of the hall, which made him nervous. Roy seemed to read his mind, and pointed the gun towards the entrance, looking equally as tense.
“What d’ya recon did that?” He whispered, taking a step back cautiously.
“I dunno, but we should probably get the hell outta dodge,” Roy muttered, lowering his weapon slightly. Garreson turned and began to jog away, and when he didn’t hear Roy following he risked a glance backwards.
He was gone.
“Roy?” He heard the clicking of a gun in response, and Garreson assumed it was him. “Roy! Come on, you scared the shit outta me! That’s not funny!” Roy didn’t answer, and Garreson stopped running.
“…Hello?”
“//TEXT: do you need a hand :END//“
The robotic text-to-speech voice echoed off of the walls, causing him to flinch. “Where’s Roy? Tell me now.”
There was no answer. Instead, he heard another clicking noise, though this time it wasn’t a gun— he couldn’t identify the source. Something was tossed at him from the shadows.
Garreson recoiled in sheer horror, unable to speak. A severed human arm sat a few feet in front of him, leaking fresh blood onto the grey concrete.
“//TARGET - IDENTIFIED /// WHITELIST OVERRIDE ACTIVE …[absolute_solver] PROGRAM EXECUTING…//“
He could see yellow text piercing through the dim red darkness, running down a small screen. Eyelights, one by one, flickered on above it, illuminating the military drone’s seemingly permanent smile.
“//ERR: VALUE [null] IS NULL. (schhrrch)- [absolute_solver] RUNNING…//“
Its mouth did not open, or even move, as it spoke. “//TEXT: solver is our new god :END//“
“Wh- what?”
“//TEXT: solver would like you to die now goodbye :END//“
With that, it leapt farther than any human with ease, landing just behind Garreson with a surprisingly quiet clunk. He turned just fast enough to watch its barbed tail whip around before stabbing him in the shoulder. He screamed in pain as the nanite acid began to eat away at his flesh.
The drone pulled him with its tail still embedded in him. It threw him against the wall, dislodging the triangular blade from his arm. Garreson gasped for air, the wind knocked out of his lungs.
He reached for his own gun with his good hand as the bot was turning to face him. He managed to cock it with his mouth, and he winced in pain as he shot the drone directly in the center of its visor.
Black oil seeped out of the wound, and it stumbled slightly.
“That’s… that’s what you get. Fuckn’ bastard.” He set the gun down and clutched his shoulder, the pain quickly becoming unbearable.
The corners of the drone’s permanent sneer curled up slightly at his comment. “//EXECUTE: [absolute_solver] - undo_077damage - evaluation = RECOVERY SYSTEM ACTIVE//“ With the utter gibberish it spat out, the bullet hole began to hiss, steam visibly flowing off of it. It started to heal itself.
It tilted its head down, and the oil-coated bullet fell to the ground. The wound closed up completely, and any cracks sealed themselves until the thing’s visor looked brand new.
“How the fuck…” he barely had any time to process that a robot just healed before it grabbed him by the throat with its thick black steel claws. It threw him back towards the entrance, then began to run on all fours, making a strange choking noise that sounded almost like giggling.
He pulled himself up, using his good arm to steady himself as he stood. The drone stopped crawling and followed suit, standing to its full height— nearly two heads taller than Garreson. Its thin tail lashed behind it as it towered over him.
“//RUN: [absolute_solver] - mode6 = print?p%77<[null] a=shotgun_gun/filea :COMMON//“ Its hand folded into its arm, and in replacement was a fully loaded modern shotgun. The drone pointed the barrel straight at his forehead, and he gulped.
“Wait, wait— please, I have a family, back on Earth I—“
The bang was loud, but Garreson was now silent. His head was gone, now splattered against the wall, and the rest of his body collapsed with his instant death.
The drone’s hand reappeared, and it huffed through its vents, turning towards the dead drone in the middle of the hall. It walked towards it, its footsteps making a clanking sound.
#077 grabbed the dead drone by its neck, and they finally snapped open their jaw, revealing a mechanism that looked similar to a bear trap behind their silicone lips. They bit down on the other drone’s neck, sipping its oil greedily. Some of it dripped down their chin, staining their white frame a sickly, shimmering black.
They wiped their face with an arm, throwing the now empty carcass aside. Their body ached for more, all of their instincts and code screaming that it wasn’t enough— they needed to eat something better…
#077 found their eyes drifting towards the dead human, headless and limp on the ground. For a machine to consume organic matter— flesh— that must have been a primal sin. But they were so hungry… the body would go to waste anyways. One time, they promised themself. Then never again. No one has to know.
They stripped his bones clean of meat. Each time they ate a piece, they only began to consume the body more rapidly, practically shoveling the human’s flesh into their far-too large mouth. They even licked the ground clean of leftover blood, savoring the taste much more than they felt they should. Something deep in their code shuddered, appalled by what they had just done.
Their visor showed no sign of their internal conflict— just a blank, emotionless screen. The protective glass covering it shone with the dim red lights of the silenced alarms that still sounded in other parts of the facility. They could barely see the blood covering their black steel claws.
Why had it tasted so good? Why had he tasted so good?
The Solver commanded they stand, then, and they did immediately. It did not care what they had done. It did not judge. It only commanded, and hungered. Just as they did.
Perhaps it would allow them to continue— no. Not even with the Solver’s permission would they eat another fleshed being. They had sinned, they knew they had. It would understand, they were sure.
#077 shook their head. They needed to complete the objective. They risked a singular glance back at the stripped remains of the human’s body before darting off towards the end of the hall.
Never again. Never again. Never never never.