1st Pov
Stepping through the cratered room I approach the exit on the far side, leaping over an especially deep crater I land before the bent and deformed remains of the thick metal door.
Gently kicking the door to the side, I step into the dark and quiet corridor hidden behind it, walking through the darkness I look around for the drones I dropped back here earlier. Hearing a groan from beneath some rubble I extend my hand like a net and grab a hold of it.
Lifting the rubble, I toss it to the side. Below it more rubble covers an obviously artificial hole. Flinging the extra rubble aside, I finally find the drones. Within the still-warm hole, I see N, his wings extended, covering something below him.
"What are you doing N?" – Morgan
Folding his wings in N looks over his shoulder as I see Uzi and Chad below him, sparking slightly I notice a few injuries on all of the drones. Gently pushing N to the side Uzi jumps out of the hole and steps in front of me.
"What were we doing? What were you doing?! It felt like you were trying to bring the entire colony down on top of us!" Poking me in the chest Uzi's eye flashes with the Solver's symbol as her anger rises.
Brushing her hand to the side I look down at her from above, holding the silence I observe the symbol spinning in her optics as N pulls himself from the hole and stands behind her. Sighing I decide to ditch these drones for a time after this.
"I was killing the eldritch machine eating the members of your colony, the same monster who's symbol is currently in your eye." – Morgan
Flinching, Uzi breaks eye contact as she quickly covers her corrupted eye. Stepping forward N seems to gather his courage as he shields Uzi behind him.
"Its not her fault! Besides, you almost got us killed." – N
Scoffing, I look down at N, causing him to cower slightly.
"I didn't get you killed, if you didn't notice I got you out of the way of an explosion caused by Uzi. Then I fought the Solver and pushed it away from where I left you. It was your friend to begin with N, the Solver just used her as a puppet." – Morgan
Averting his eyes in shame N scuffs his foot against the floor whilst Chad looks on from the side and Uzi continues to look away while covering her eye.
Looking between the drones I scoff again at them, they certainly lived up to the reputation of their human creators. Turning away from them I begin to walk away towards the destroyed room I was just in.
Reaching the room, I take off through one of the many holes in the roof. Hovering above the snow covered wasteland I take a moment to decide what I'll do next.
My first option was obviously just going home, I could easily open a portal right here and get home within seconds. But a gut feeling told me the story of this world was just getting started, and I had barely studied the tech yet.
My second option was to sit around working on my tech while I wait for something interesting to happen, but I would likely miss anything interesting by doing that.
Reaching my third option, I concluded it was my best choice. Looking around, I decide on a direction before taking off at a speed just below sound. I've decided I want to explore this world gathering tech and unravelling the mystery while I wait.
********************************* Two Days Later ***********************************
Arriving back where I started after lapping the entire planet I now knew far more. Looking around I perform a quick scan with my neural link but don't find either Uzi or the Murder Drones, reaching into my inventory I grab out a basic tablet with a long range receiver attached.
Fiddling with it for a few seconds I tune it to a specific wavelength and receive three pings, looking at the markers show them all in the same direction. Taking off in the direction marked I begin to mentally recapping my discoveries.
Starting off with the humans of this world, basic analysis and recovered documents reveals they weren't that advanced. With the very specific exception of the drones and spaceships, the humans of this world were only forty years ahead of those from my world.
This was even despite it being some time around the year 3070. This brings me to a pretty obvious discovery all things considered – The human's of this universe were far more violent. So, considering all this I decided not to execute any of the drones, one because they were less violent then their human predecessors and two because they weren't malicious for the sake of it.
Finally circling back to the fate of the humans on this world it seems something the solver did caused half the planet to explode. Personally, I'm impressed by the destruction, I have no attachment to the humans of this universe and if the solver didn't try to kill me we could have been friends, maybe.
Hearing a steadily rising beeping from my tablet I take it out from where I had stored it inside me and look at it, sure enough where earlier the dots had been pressed at the very edge of the screen, two of the three where now just in front of the dot that signified me, the last was off to the side.
Noticing them not moving but the beeping continuing to increase I quickly conclude they are either going up or down and look around. Quickly spotting two drones falling in the distance I begin flying towards them.
Hovering a few metres away the two drones crash into the ground in a massive cloud of snow and dirt. Landing on the ground I wait for the snow to clear and reveal Uzi and N, with N holding Uzi princess style.
Coughing aloud to get their attention they both snap towards me as Uzi frantically frees herself from N's arms. Looking at her I notice the new fleshy appendages growing from her back and the weird alien looking tail she has.
"Morgan? What are you doing here? Where were you?" – Uzi
Ignoring the obvious blush on Uzi's face I look around a bit, around us thick snow lay in heavy piles atop the decaying remnants of large pine trees. Bodies lie buried in the snow and oil covers the ground slowly freezing as it drops from bisected drones.
"Urr you know… I was looking around. I wanted to find out what happened, I didn't find to much so I decided to see if anything interesting was happening here." Gesturing at her new appendages. "It seems something happened with you though."
Looking over her shoulder at her wings, Uzi's tail drifts around to the other side of her face and I can see the weird eyes and mouth on it. Looking back to the front see bangs into her tail showing her clear unfamiliarity with the new appendages.
Flinching slightly Uzi recoils, at the same time her wings and tail retract into her back as her eye flashes briefly.
"Ow… Anyway, we've been trying to figure out more about the symbol in my eye. I may have gone all murder and cannibalistic though because of it. – Uzi
"It's okay Uzi, its just a few drones. I've killed far more." N looks proud for a second before realizing what he just said, his expression turning grim..
"Ignoring your murderistic tendencies did you find out anything about the Solver? I figured out she was the one to kill the humans on this planet and that she destroyed half of said planet." – Morgan
"Oh Yeah! We dove into N's memories and figured out he actually knows who the solver is. She's a worker drone that had something wrong in her head. Her name is Cyn." – Uzi
Nodding at Uzi I notice N standing behind her looking skittish, pointing at him I address Uzi. "He looks like he knows something else." Turning to look at N, Uzi gives him a questioning look.
"Okay, Fine! I found a cassette in a nearby cabin that explained some things. Basically, if worker drones aren't disposed of properly when they're killed there's a chance they come back to life all cannibalistic. It's probably what happened to Cyn, but Uzi's being all weird and I don't think she died."
Quickly blurting out what was in his mind N paused with his eyes shut at the end as he waited for Uzi's reaction. "What! Why didn't you tell me that earlier N!..." Tuning out the two's argument I turn to the newest arrival.
Walking over to the female murder drone I stand next to her and look at the two squabbling robots.
"Have you been up to anything interesting V? I see those two decided to free you, are you still super murder happy?" – Morgan
"Urgh, I've warmed up to the insufferable little drones, are you happy okay? And for your information they didn't free me, I escaped and they didn't recapture me." – V
Nodding along I wait silently for Uzi to stop arguing with N and walk over. After a few more minutes the two finish their argument and walk over hand in hand, chuckling I watch V roll her eyes.
"Sorry about all the murder earlier. I've found out something earlier though." Reaching into the beanie on her head Uzi grabs a little metal bug that glows green. "This little thing is a key to something called Cabin Fever Labs; I'm thinking we could learn something new there."
"Sure, I'm up for it." Agreeing with Uzi's suggestion we begin discussing recent discoveries. Feeling the surroundings are to quiet I begin looking around, The area is eerily still—no snow falls, and no wind blows."
Expanding my senses I notice an abnormality, Twisting to the side, I narrowly dodge a large, red, spinning Solver symbol. Hitting the ground behind me the holographic symbol causes the ground to split as a massive canyon opens up in the icy ground.
Looking towards the source of the attack I notice another worker drone, wearing a red beanie with long purple hair. In her hand she holds a rapidly spinning solver symbol as the snow vibrates weirdly in the air around her and her eyes glow a reddish orange.
Throwing the symbol in her hand it expands as it flies through the air, spinning rapidly like a helicopter blade it rapidly approaches me. Jumping over it I glance backwards to check my companions, all of whom are hovering in the air with their wings.
"What's your problem!" – Morgan
Mumbling out a reply in Russian the unnamed drone begins to rapidly teleport around while throwing out more of the solver symbols. Dodging through the attacks I quickly reach the attacking drone, grabbing her arms I lift her into the air.
Swearing in Russian the drone struggles to free herself but fails terribly due to my sheer strength. Flying down from above my companions form a circle around my captive.
"Doll? What are you doing here?" Being the first to speak Uzi addresses the now named Doll, falling silent Doll's eyes are obstructed as she looks down.
"Why do you keep getting in my way!" Yelling at Uzi there was clearly some sort of beef between the two. Noticing Doll moving her hands I drop her just as a solver symbol twists the space like a blender.
Instantly Doll teleports towards Uzi, grabbing the robot bug she instantly disappears. Turning to look at me the drones all give me annoyed looks. "What? I don't know how your powers work." Defending myself I roll my eyes and look around, noticing the faint distortion in space from her teleportation I turn back to the drones.
"What do you reckon, I say we follow her and see where she goes." – Morgan
"Urgh fine, its not like we have much a choice anyway." – Uzi
Unfurling her wings Uzi takes to the air, almost instantly she flies in the wrong direction.
"Uzi! Wrong way." Stopping mid air Uzi rolls her eyes before flying back. Shrugging I unfurl my wings and take to the air, flying off the other drones follow me as I track Doll's spatial signature.
Flying by some buildings I travel a while before arriving at a wide frozen lake, skidding to a halt on the ice I'm a few metres from the motionless Doll. On the other side of Doll two figures stood opposed to her on the ice, one disassembly drone the other what looks like a human but with a weird feel to them.