A room.

Yes, a room. And a full one to boot. Filled from top to bottom, left to right, side to side, with various computers, databases, desks, and other assorted items of the office workplace. And that wasn’t it. People, yes, people, were in it as well, seated at the aforementioned desks, working on the aforementioned computers, and uploading information to the aforementioned databases. Yes, truly an outstanding room.

These men weren’t just your average office grunt. They were some of the smartest people that their employers could get their cold, dead hands on. They were working towards a single goal, a goal that could change the way humans went about life as they knew it. It was something attempted many times over, bright-eyed individuals thinking that they were going to be the next Einstein, and yet always falling short. Sometimes through fault of their own, they failed in their goal, their dream, their greatest achievement, and were forgotten to the winds of time.

But no longer.

No longer would humanity stay in the dark. No longer would they remain behind this single, incomprehensibly frustrating barrier. No, this time, it would work. They would shatter this wall, reduce it to atoms. With advanced technologies and the lessons from forebearers who failed, they would carry the flag as pioneers, pioneers for humanity's destiny, and forever be remembered in the hearts of people for centuries to come, just like Einstein, Newton, and all the others names that anyone could recognize in a heartbeat.

But of course, with progress, comes hesitation. Malcontents, the ones who are afraid of the unknown, unwilling to take the leap into that great chasm we call the future, to claim it as our own. They are the ones who make societies stagnate, to flounder and perish, not with war or a bang, but through cowardice, and laziness. Some of the men and women that were working towards this great goal, they were these icons of collapse. They were blind, blind to the wonder and success this would bring them. They were so worried about if they should make this, when they should be asking, “CAN, we do this?”.

A man, who’s name appeared to be a Dr. Dan, leaned over to a woman on his right, who had a nametag just like Dr. Dan, her name tag reading Dr. Onaja.

“Taka, look at this data.” The man turned his monitor to face Dr. Onaja.

“What the hell? This isn’t even related to artificial intelligence, much less computer science. If anything, this should be in a medical center, not a computing task group. Where did you find this?” Dr. Onaja looked questioningly at Dr. Dan, who was growing increasingly frantic.

“Okay, so, you see, when we got the latest batch of reports, I noticed that a huge amount of it was redacted. While it didn’t really hinder our work, I was wondering why we were sent basically a classified document, which had a government seal of all things on it. So, I did a bit of digging.” Dr. Dan paused before continuing.

“I managed to find the unredacted versions of the reports through a backdoor, and I found some . . . interesting . . . discoveries. The things that I found were related to our work, but something was off. The documents kept mentioning some sort of experiment, a reference from where they were getting the data from. After I managed to track down the origin through countless shell-planets, I cracked open a government network based in-” Dr. Dan was cut off by his coworker.

“What?!” Dr. Onaja whispered. “You hacked into a GOVERNMENT network!? You could get put into federal prison for that!”

“You think I don’t know that!?” Dr. Dan shot back. “I had to take the risks to find out the black cards this company has been dealing!” He took a deep breath. “Anyway, after I cracked open the network, I dug into an experiment hosted by the government, and I found something bad. Something really bad, Taka.” Dr. Dan stopped, a haunted look entering his eyes. “I- you know what, I’ll just show you.”

Dr. Dan looked around the room, checking to make sure that nobody was watching him, before opening a document on his computer. Dr. Dan and Dr. Onaja leaned in to see the screen, with Dr. Dan controlling the mouse. As he scrolled, and Dr. Onaja began to read, Dr. Dan began to talk.

“It started a long time ago, back in the early 21st century if you can believe it. Details are a bit fuzzy from back then, but it appeared as though a boy with a strange growth in his brain was brought in by a project funded by a political entity known as the United States. They monitored the growth of his tumor, not knowing the significance of it before they took him. However, it began to act very strangely for a tumor, almost . . . intelligent. As time went on, it appeared to be hijacking essential sections of the kid’s brain, assimilating them into itself. Seeing this, the project was absorbed by an agency within the United States after declaring the boy dead. They placed him into an experimental cryo pod, and injected nanobots into his brain to both prevent the spread of the tumor, trying to gain as much data from it as possible, and keeping him alive while in stasis. This progressed for a long time, days turning into months, which turned into years, decades, centuries, you get the gist.”

Dr. Dan stopped just as Dr. Onaja read the next paragraph. Her expression turned to confusion as she tried to process what she was reading, before understanding the text, with her expression turning to one of shock.

“As the tumor got worse, data began to run dry, and the kid had worsening chances of survival, the people running the experiment got desperate. In a bid to make do on their investment, they enacted more and more invasive experiments and tests, some simply activating sections of his brain to see his and the tumor’s reactions. These included jumpstarting extreme pain, mind you.” Dr. Dan took a shaky breath.

“They sliced away sections of his mind, his personality, of him. With practically complete control over his brain, they could make him think he was a warlord residing in another dimension, in theory. They did their best to restore himself after each of these tests, but, and while this didn’t happen often, sometimes, something was lost in transit.” The pair grimaced.

“Apparently, this is still ongoing, and then we get back to how this is related to us. Supposedly, while brains typically look like the standard, wrinkly, organic construct, the tumor had formed a much more complex, yet easy-to-understand pattern. It rearranged the parts of the brain that it had assimilated into different forms, neurons straightening out, shapes conforming, you know the like. It even began to formulate the DNA it had taken into different things, turning them into, ‘an eerily similar design to modern code’.” Dr. Dan quoted from the document.

“I stopped reading here, because I noticed that some automated sweepers were taking measures to lock down the site, so I saved what I could and logged off, writing down the rest from memory. And I’m sure you can infer how this is related to our work.” Dr. Dan took a deep breath and looked at Dr. Onaja. “Well?”

She blinked and shook her head. “I’m just . . . shocked. I’m still partly thinking that this is just some sort of prank.” Dr. Dan shook his head to deny that. “Well Hal, even if this is real, what do we do about this?”

“Release it of course! I’m planning on sending this info to every major news network around the stars, and I have several sleeper backups that’ll activate if I don’t access them in a month. They’re buried so deep within shell networks that no net trawler could find them in such a short amount of time.” Dr. Dan appeared to be ranting now. “Even if they take me out, they won’t stop the tide of retribution that's coming to them. Th-”

He was cut off by the door to the room opening, and four security guards accompanied by a man in a blueish suit carrying a briefcase walked in. The room went silent as the quintet made their way to Dr. Dan’s and Dr. Onaja’s desks silently, with the pair looking on in shock and horror.

The guards circled the desk, with the man in a suit approaching Dr. Dan’s desk, leaning over it.

“Dr. Dan, this might seem sudden,” The man stopped to take a halting, shaky breath. “But we are going to have to politely ask you to come with us quiet-” He was cut off by Dr. Dan suddenly springing upwards, diving towards one of the guards in a desperate bid to escape.

In the end, it was futile, as the guard that he had attempted to tackle yanked the stun baton that he had been fingering out of the holster, pressing the button to activate the device, and bringing it to bear, poking Dr. Dan with the business end right in his chest. Electrical currents surged from the weapon for a moment, before touching upon the fragile human they were directed towards. Dr. Dan froze, his body seizing up. The guard quickly took the device away from him, causing Dr. Dan to slump to the ground, unconscious.

The man in the suit adjusted his tie before nodding to the guards. The guards, in unison, picked Dr. Dan up by his arms and legs, before walking out of the room. The man in the suit looked at Dr. Onaja, who was watching the scene with bewildered eyes.

“You too.” The man took a shaky breath. “Come with us. We have much to… discuss.”

Dr. Onaja gave a shaky nod, before getting up from her desk, and walking off with the man in the suit.

* * *

The cold wasteland yielded no sound.

Well, there was noise. There was the constant howling of icy winds sweeping through the atmosphere. There was the creak and groaning of old metal, squealing from the stress of carrying their weight. The occasional rumble and quake that signaled a building collapse, which would quickly fade into background noise.

Yes, there was sound, just not of the social kind.

Humanity was dead on this world, well and truly gone. They had been vaporized, their skin and clothing burnt off their skeletal frames like leaves to a fire. For all of their progress, they were naught but insects, barely able to hold a candle to the raw, unbridled might of nature, and their own failures. The only thing left living in this harsh landscape was metal.

Of course, that wasn’t going to be the case for long.

The sound of crunching snow could be heard, in a fast, repetitive pattern. A noise long forgotten, something that hadn’t been heard on this planet for years. The telltale sound of somebody running in the snow.

A figure rounded the edge of the crumbling street corner, diving into a crater which was partially covered by a car. Snow particles constantly falling made it hard to see what they looked like, but while it was humanoid, the head was far too large to be human, and too short to be nothing but a child.

They huddled underneath the wreck, hurriedly glancing back out of the small hole they had crawled through to get into the improvised safe spot. What they needed to be protected from was yet to be discovered. Although, this was quickly remedied by what happened next.

A shadow passed overhead, looking like a soaring bird through what could be made out in the hazy moonlight. The small huddling figure couldn’t see that from his position, but whoever they were, they remained alert. After a minute of cowering, their frightened shaking came to an end, and they peaked out from underneath the car to investigate what was going on above. At first, they couldn’t see anything, and they breathed a sigh of relief.

However, this momentary peace was quickly disrupted by a three-fingered claw reaching under the lip of the wrecked car, grasping it, sharp edges digging into the weaker, degraded metal of the automobile. The figure lunged backwards, shuffling further and further into the crater until their back hit a wall. The wreck creaked as whatever was hunting this poor soul lifted the car up, throwing it high into the air behind it, allowing the prey to gaze upon their death in the last few moments of their life.

It stood tall over the edge of the crater, with claws extending outward from their conical forearms. It was wreathed in a cloak, the ragged edges billowing in the icy wind. Their head was large, similar to the cowering figure below, with the outline of a hat seated upon the top of its head. While details couldn’t be made out from the predator, a single thing stood out. Five glowing circular lights were set upon what would be the forehead of the creature, the main thing illuminating the dark alcove. On the face of it, lay a glowing “X” taking the place of facial features, staring uncaring at the pitiful being below it. Wings could be seen, spread out from the back of this horrible entity, appearing like Death, and for all intents and purposes, it was Death.

The predator leapt downwards, reaching its claws towards the doomed individual, impaling it along the shoulders. The prey gurgled, getting slammed and pinned against the wall by the superior strength of the terrible creature who was determined to see the end of the prey. The smaller figure looked up in pain, meeting what might have been the eyes of this predator, staring deep into them for mercy.

The predator denied the prey this, pulling its claws in two opposite directions, this having a violent effect on the prey. The weak material of the prey gave way to the much greater strength of the predator, and with a wet tearing noise, the being was torn asunder, separated into two parts, that last vestiges of life flickering out in moments.

The predator, now finished with the hunt, brought one half of the prey to its wide mouth, a toothy maw crunching into the remains of this creature, once a proud being, now reduced to naught but fuel for the ever-growing machine of death and mayhem.

The predator dropped the halves of the prey, retracting its claws into its hands. It leapt back out from the hole, gazing up into the boundless skyline, and possibly, noteblock choirs playing in the moonlight. The creature, without prey, extended its wings back out from its body, taking to the skies to return to its lair.

* * *

“Ugh, when is she getting back?”

Two people were inside a room. Well, not exactly a room. It was more like the cabin of a spacecraft, now broken after a high-velocity meeting with something called the ground. And these “people” weren’t exactly people either. Their official term was a disassembly drone, a being operated by artificial intelligence capable of waging large-scale mass destruction, equipped with missiles, lasers, guns, claws, and multiple other weapons, and dedicated to the complete and utter annihilation of an artificial race called the worker drones, but most drones just aptly called these war machines, “murder drones”. (roll credits!)

These two androids were simply, for lack of a better word, just chilling inside the wrecked starship that served as their home. They were waiting for a member of their squad to return from a hunt that they had embarked on, and were taking much longer than usual to get back.

“I’m not really sure. If she doesn’t get back in a couple minutes, we might have to go look for her. She usually doesn’t take this long, and I’m starting to get annoyed.” One of the drones said.

“I don’t see why I can’t just go get her, A. I’m reliable.” The drone, if anything, was probably not reliable.

The other drones shook his head and sighed. “Again, no means no X. If I send you off to try and find her, you’re more likely to get distracted trying to fly to the stratosphere or something.”

X scoffed. “Oh come on, that was one time. I’ve already learned my lesson.”

“Which is?” A asked.

“To gain a higher distance plus more speed, instead of going up straight from the ground.” X replied confidently.

A shook his head again. “So you didn’t learn your lesson.”

X frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I asked you if you had learned to not try these crazy stunts anymore, and focus on the task, but instead, you told me some facts and tips that would help you attain escape velocity.” A said matter-of-factly.

“Well, uh, yeah, that too.” X said, deflating slightly.

“Either way, I still wouldn’t let you go, because guess what? She’s back.” X looked up, staring at the open doorway. The doorway, being several feet above his height, didn’t allow him to see outside, so he attempted to get a closer look.

However, as he did that, a metallic foot swung through the opening, clocking X square in the forehead. With a yelp of surprise, X clutched the area he had been so brutally impacted, falling back down onto the floor with an unceremonial clang.

A looked up in surprise, staring at the figure in the doorway, who was now looking down shocked at their unwitting victim.

“So nice of you to join us K.” A didn’t seem exactly ecstatic with the arrival of his squadmate. “We WERE going to go look for you, but I suppose that your entrance is much more appreciated.”

Despite K’s earlier persona of being a man-made abomination of science, created for the sole purpose of bloodshed, war, mayhem, and destruction, she now assumed the form of a cowed subordinate who was just found slacking off on the job by her supervisor, which wasn’t that far off from the truth.

“I, er, I'm sorry sir. I got caught up chasing this one worker. They managed to lose me around that forest of concrete at the 32nd East Turnpike, you know the one, with all the meteor craters?” K pleaded for forgiveness.

A scoffed. “Whatever, just try to wrap up your hunts when you're alone next time, alright? This is the third time we’ve had to wait for you.” A sighed. “I’m having a hard enough time as it is already trying to manage the newly cleared territories, and with your constant disappearing acts, it’ll be impossible.” A waved her off.

K opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it when A shot her a glare. Instead, she shot off a crisp salute, before looking down at X, who was still on the floor.

“Oh my head, it hurts. Please, somebody call for an extract, I’m dying here. You maniac, you, ugh-” X’s moaning and groaning was cut off by K grabbing his arm and yanking him to his feet.

“Come on, let's get outta here.” Without giving X time to reply, she practically dragged him up the ladder, up and out of the small pod.

A looked back to check to see if they were gone, which they were, before scoffing for what was probably the thousandth time within three minutes. “Idiots.”

He looked back down at the console, absentmindedly pressing a few buttons. As usual, the only effect that action had on any sort of function, if any, was several sparks shooting up from the console, one hitting A in the face. He cursed, swatting at the air for a moment before realizing that the sparks had already ceased for the moment. He scoffed again, before scooting away from the devilish spark-emitter to get away from the pesky glowing annoyances.

Leaning back, A did a mental review of their current state.

One, they had recently cleared out an entire colony, leaving an area consisting of many miles empty of worker drone activity, save for a few rogue survivors from their assault. They were already clearing those away, so put a pin in that for the time being.

Two, with a large area all to themselves, and with only three people to patrol the area, some of the more brave, but mostly idiotic colonies, were trying to send out people to try and rescue the scattered survivors from the recent bunker raid. While all the attempts had been thwarted so far, the determination of these foolish people would eventually bear fruit in the form of a first-hand account of their tactics, capabilities, location, and more essential information. While it was extremely unlikely that the worker drones would try and kill one of them, they could still use that critical info to their advantage, by devising new tactics to protect themselves from them, to avoid them, to hide. So far, he was still working on plausible answers to this.

Three, recently, they had been falling farther and farther down the leaderboard of the squads on Copper-9. While the newest successful assault had boosted them up a lot, this newfound status would not last unless they managed to consistently crack bunkers open at a fast rate, something very unlikely.

Four was a problem that had sprung up from the third one. Due to their lowering status, it was only a matter of time before an investigation was launched into their combat effectiveness as a squad. If they were found wanting, they would be moved to lower-scale assignments, or worse, they might have their memory wiped, and repurposed as little more than servants.

Five was something they could not solve, and could only be avoided. Due to the amount of damage that had been wreaked on the infrastructure of the human cities around the planet, their structural stability was, as one can expect, not exactly up to code. The place was built to last, but even the reinforced supports and buildings that had survived the initial blast were beginning to fall, at least in their sector. Just last week, a skyscraper had collapsed on top of their heads, nearly burying them in several thousand tons of concrete. This newfound danger was only making things more difficult for the squad, and would only get worse. The only solution was to speed up their efforts, which combined with everything else, seemed impossible.

In short, while things weren’t too bad in the present, the future was looking out to be a very dangerous and dark time for the squad, and as squad leader, A needed to do something fast.

Or else he might not live to see the next year.

* * *

The sounds of clanking footsteps filled the corridor.

Unlike the majority of this planet, noise was a very common occurrence in this place. Deep within the recesses of the exoplanet lay a facility, more bunker than anything, designed to house the administrators of the defunct mining operation in case of an emergency. Of course, certain entities had decided to make a deal with the parent company of the aforementioned mining operation, repurposing the sprawling bunker into an underground research complex, all designed to perform research on a single subject.

Of course, all that had ended when a rather large detonation of the core had ended up in catastrophe for the humans currently on the planet, killing all but one, that one being the aforementioned test subject. That one was housed within a cryogenic stasis module, the latest one. It was quite expensive to run, as a cheap and reliable cryo pod had never been created, as you could either choose between cheap or reliable, not both.

As for the footsteps mentioned earlier, those were the telltale sound of metallic boots marching down the hallway, doing their scheduled patrol. What they were, well, that's a bit more complicated.

They were automated security drones designed for the sole purpose of guarding the facility and what was housed within. Their current protocol for what to do in the case of an emergency that renders human response teams unable to reach them for an extended period of time was to simply guard the facility until further instruction can be given, a major oversight that didn’t end too well for the inhabitants of this cold bunker.

Many worker drones were also inside the facility to assist with the upkeep and maintenance of all essential systems, to keep the complex running. They were all programmed with the standard intelligence of a worker drone, with more combative programs and tools added to the security designated androids.

Of course, that brings us back to the present, where two drones are doing their patrol through the more outer sections of the facility. This area was less patrolled, as only the very edge and inner core of the complex was guarded to the fullest extent. This was prioritized less due to the area being of less importance than the others, as it didn’t really contain anything essential to the goal of the security drones.

The pair rounded the corner, passing underneath a light, allowing a glimpse of the armed robots to be seen.

They were wearing jet black armor, the plating appearing glossy in the low light level. They had what looked like some sort of rifle or machine gun, toting them around in the standard position. They were wearing a helmet that, like the rest of the body, was heavily armored in black plating. Their eyes were exposed with a clear visor that allowed them to see. A section of metal stretched across their mouth to keep it covered.

As they walked, clanging along the corridor, a rusting panel came loose on the ceiling, falling. It was airborne for a moment before hitting the ground, making a large banging noise.

“Jeez, this place really is falling apart.” One of the drones said, his voice garbled by some sort of radio.

“Tell me about it. Did you hear about the collapse of that bridge a couple days back? A catwalk in the Theta Labs gave out, and it took four people with it. Apparently, it took them three hours to get them out of that pit.” The other one replied.

“Wow really? How come I never heard about that?” The first one asked.

The second one shrugged. “You never really get into what everybody else is saying Dave. I’m telling you, you should get more involved.”

“Nah, I don’t need to.” The first one waved off the suggestion, when just then, a voice came over the radio.

“Patrol 12-B, report in, what was that noise? Have intruders breached the facility?” The voice asked in an urgent manner.

The second one replied. “That's a negative dispatch, a panel came loose and fell in front of us. No intruders here.” A slight beeping noise emitted from his mouthpiece as he stopped talking to dispatch.

The radio crackled again. “Confirmation received for intruders, we are now cooking your section.”

The pair looked at each other, surprised. “I said negative, dispatch, negative! I repeat, no intruders!”

The sound of laughing came over the comm, slightly cutting out in a short blip for a second. “Oh, you guys are so funny. You actually thought we were gonna burn your section, right? Oh, you always fall for it.” The voice continued laughing.

The second one did not appear as humorous as dispatch. After mumbling something about annoying children, and murder, he closed off the open channel.

“Yeesh, that guy keeps on playing his jokes, huh?” The first one shook his head.

The second one only nodded to him, marching along in silence.

* * *

The command room was, as always, full of robots.

Maintenance workers bustling about, checking all of the hotwired systems to see if they had blown up, security drones checking every alcove for any sign of hostile influence, various drones controlling communication, and the top brass of the facility monitoring it all, and planning for what's to come.

“General, I’m not sure if your numbers are matching up.” Stated the lead engineer.

The general looked back at the drone. “If they aren’t matching up, then we’d be dead in three seconds.

Three seconds ticked down, with nothing happening.

“See? Nothing to worry about.” The General waved his hand nonchalantly, knocking over a pile of papers.

The Lead Engineer sighed. “I wasn’t walking about the reactor inspection that your men had done, I was talking about your patrols.”

The General focused an eye on the Lead Engineer, the other looking at his twiddling thumbs. “What’s wrong with my patrols? How can an engineer know what patrolling requires and its standards?”

“I’m not trying to say that your patrols are patrolling wrong, what I mean is that I’ve been comparing numbers, and it seems that what your patrols have been stating about the facility's structural integrity has been false.” The Lead Engineer stated.

The General spat out the sip of whatever was inside his cup that he had taken. “My patrols are saying things that are wrong!? Impossible, I trained them myself.”

The Lead Engineer didn’t even flinch, likely expecting the outburst. “First of all, you didn’t train them yourself, they were programmed that way, and have you heard of what happened yesterday?”

“What happened yesterday?” The General leaned in, confused.

“You probably didn’t read the reports that had been sent to you, but they did mention a catwalk collapsing when three security drones and a single worker were crossing the gap. It took us quite a while to get them out, and one of them is still recovering.” The Lead Engineer was getting increasingly monotone, more often than not deadpanning his words.

“Hah! Let me guess, the guy that’s still injured was the worker drone, right?” The General seemed to take enjoyment from the plight of the worker.

“ . . . yes.” The Lead Engineer was bravely keeping his composure. “Either way, your men had reported not a day prior to the incident that the catwalk was perfectly fine, and able to be used to the fullest extent.”

“Eh, people make mistakes. Nobody died, so no harm no foul, right?” The General waved off the issue.

This small statement appeared to be the straw that broke the camel's back, as the Lead Engineer sprung up from his seat, opening his mouth to begin a screaming match that would likely last for a few hours. By the reactions of the drones around them, this seemed to be a common occurrence.

However, right when he intended to correct the General on his many mistakes, the lights turned red, and an alarm began blaring. The drones all around the room jumped in fright, with the security drones bursting into action, kicking down the door and charging into the room to check for hostiles. Luckily, no loose trigger-fingers were seen at this moment, so a gunfight did not ensue.

The Lead Engineer and the General regained their composure quickly, standing up.

The General began barking out orders for his men.

“Assume lockdown procedures now! We need to centralize all security drones into fortified positions immediately! I want men to reinforce the border, and keep area traffic at a minimum in case we need to evacuate to the inner sections!” While the General was telling his soldiers what to do, the Lead Engineer approached one of the men controlling the console.

“You there, what’s the alarm about!?” The Lead Engineer yelled.

The drone jumped in shock again. “It’s, er, I believe it's the reactor, sir.”

“Elaborate.” The Lead Engineer ordered.

“Well, the automated system appears to have detected a breach in the fusion containment chamber-” The man was cut off by panicked yelling from the drones around him.

“The reactor!?”

“It's gonna blow!”

“We’re doomed!”

“Ow, that’s my foot!”

The chaos was silenced by the General firing his pistol into the air. With a loud, reverberating bang, everybody looked towards him. The Lead Engineer walked up to the General, before explaining the situation to him.

“Alright, so, intruders are a negative, disregard the previous orders to reinforce our border, but make sure to regulate the traffic and keep our men calm. What do you say, Engineer? This is your area of expertise.” The General seemed much more cordial now that a professional situation required a professional attitude.

“Ok, first of all, we need several workers outfitted with heat protection to enter the reactor sector. Once we identify the breach we can coat it in sealant, and devise a more permanent solution later. We have countermeasures that can keep the breach safe for at least a week, so no need to panic, everybody.” The Lead Engineer’s words managed to calm the workers down.

* * *

“Status report.” The Lead Engineer ordered.

“Well sir, we managed to identify the breach, but it wasn’t in the containment field. It was in the power transfer station.” The assistant said.

“How bad was the damage? Any critical systems in danger of burning?”

“No sir, we patched up the damage, and the seal will hold, and we can repair the lines. But during the time that the breach was open, we lost millions of units of saved power. The facility life expectancy has dropped from twenty more years to about five months.”

“Tell me, why did the computer not identify it correctly?”

“Age and damage, sir. The initial blast from the planet hit the computer in a bad way. As you know, we had repaired the damage done to the computer itself, but its preservative functions had been disabled. And so, age has been hitting it hard, and we have been trying to conserve the materials we have left to replace the bad ones.”

The Lead Engineer didn’t reply, just hanging his head.

“Sir?” The assistant questioned.

“What?” The Lead Engineer replied.

“There is the matter of the . . . asset . . . we have safeguarded.” The assistant appeared to be withholding bad news.

“What is it?” The Lead Engineer felt a feeling of dread creeping up on him.

“While the facility can be powered for five months on the remaining power, the pod that the asset is in can only be powered for . . .” The assistant paused.

“Come on, spit it out already.” The Lead Engineer insisted.

“For three more weeks.” The assistant finished.

“Damnit!” The Lead Engineer slammed his fist down on the table, putting a sizable dent in it.

“Is there any way to divert more power?” He asked.

“Sir, we both know that the asset’s housing chamber runs off of a separate grid that has a different connection to the reactor than the facility, and we can’t simply funnel more power into it. While it is theoretically possible to jury-rig a direct connection between the facility’s grid and the asset’s, there is an extremely large chance of frying the asset from a slight miscalculation or mistake in construction.” The assistant explained.

The Lead Engineer groaned. “We need some sort of help, or maybe a way to get the asset off-planet.”

“Long-range comms are impossible to get back up, and it would take years to send a transmission to the closest star with the capabilities we currently have.” The assistant replied.

“We are screwed.”

* * *

The wasteland was warm. Relatively.

As man-made horrors ravaged the surface, as a forgotten project manned only by the remnants of facility personnel futilely tried to save the one they were charged with protecting at all costs, as prey attempted to save themselves against the aforementioned man-made horrors, the world didn’t really care.

Despite the ants fighting on its surface, the planet spun along without a care in the universe. Sure, it had cared when a huge chunk of its planetary mass decided to eject itself up and away from it, but it had recovered, or at least gotten used to the loss. Of course, planets didn’t have any sort of intelligence, so this is all metaphors and the like.

As the sun rose, chasing away the darkness, both literally and figuratively, the aforementioned darkness, or at least a certain three of them, only felt one thing.

Annoyance.

“Oh come on, get down from there!” K yelled.

“Don’t worry about it, if he wants to risk death, it’ll be a reprieve on us.” A nonchalantly stated.

“Sir, I’m not sure if-” K was cut off.

With a yelp of surprise, X fell from the top of the corpse spire, tumbling head-over-heels until he collided with the indomitable entity called the ground. A small crater was formed in the snow as well from the impact.

“Ow. That hurt. Was quite fun as well!” X peeked up from the ground, shooting to his feet.

A simply sighed, gripping his forehead in frustration. A just walked back inside the pod, hearing the two outside arguing as he entered the spacecraft.

A was about to just go to sleep when he heard an odd beeping noise. He looked around the room for a moment, trying to identify the source of the sound. He managed to pinpoint the origin of the beeping to the alcove under the desk, so he kneeled down to take a look.

Underneath the console was several assorted items, like gas canisters, useless replacement parts, defunct modules, extra consoles, and other things not of importance. Moving aside a loose panel that was in the way, it revealed a box, about a foot wide and long, with two dials, a number pad, a blank screen, a microphone attached by a wire, and a single blinking red light, the source of the beeping.

A pulled the device out from under the cavity, placing it on top of the console. Pretty much everything was either damaged or out of power in the spaceship, so seeing something operational was a bit of a surprise. As to why it was beeping, A had no idea, but he intended to find out.

A small label placed on top of the device might have helped, if it wasn't scratched out, so A had to do some more in-depth investigation. There was a button right next to the blinking light, and when A pressed it, as that seemed like the only course of action at the point, the screen lit up, with the words, “GEO-POSITIONAL-LOCATOR ACTIVE” and after a moment, a map of something popped up on it, with two areas highlighted with a dot. One was green, and one was red.

Text appeared above the green dot, labeling it, “YOU ARE HERE” with the red dot being labeled, “DISTRESS SIGNAL ORIGIN POINT”.

A stared in confusion at the device, wondering what the hell it meant.

* * *

“Ok so, what exactly is that thing?” X poked at the device.

“Don’t do that, you idiot!” A slapped his hand away.

“Geez man, alright.” X backed away.

“So, you found this thing in our pod, and it detected a distress signal from some sort of area, and you believe it’s some sort of call from a human holdout?” K didn’t appear to follow A’s train of thought.

“Yes, I do.” A simply replied.

“Why, sir?” K inquired.

A didn’t reply, instead turning the device around to expose a logo on the back. The logo in question was none other than the insignia for the government.

“Uh, that's cool. Why do we have a GPS signal locator from the government?” X entered the conversation.

“I believe that the company had sent us here with this thing to give us the opportunity to rescue a government facility, perhaps an embassy of sorts that had been forgotten or assumed dead in the blast.” A stated.

“Sir, every single human was killed in the blast. None survived. The company told us this themselves.” K reasoned.

“Then it might just be something that the company or the government finds important. The facts remain, the company gave us this, this is telling us to go somewhere, and we are following its signal. That is final.” A finished with a stern tone.

“I, er, yes sir. When are we leaving?” K asked.

“Right now.”

“Right now?”

“Yes, right now. Also, I’m not going with you. You and X are going alone.” A stated.

“What?” K seemed shocked.

“Someone needs to stay here to monitor the device, and since neither of you are trustworthy enough, I’m the one staying.” A said.

“If you say so sir.” K seemed to have lost the will to fight with the squad leader.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“What about you X? Any problems?” the group turned towards X.

“Nah. Sounds like fun. Hope I get to blow something up.” X shrugs and goes back to twiddling his thumbs.

“Good. Now get out. I have important, uh, monitoring to do.” A waves his hand. “Dismissed.”

“Uh, sir?” K leaned back in.

A sighed heavily. “What is it?”

“It’s daytime. We can’t leave.” K says.

A groans.

* * *

“Ugh, I can hardly see where we’re going. Why couldn’t we leave later?” X attempted to swat the flurry of snow out of his face.

“The sun just set.” K replied.

“So?” X asked, annoyed.

“So since we left right when the sun set, we will now have more time to travel while on the road.” K reasoned.

“Ok, so?” X shrugged, or tried his best to shrug, it’s kinda hard to do that while you’re flying at high speeds through the air.

K didn’t facepalm, as she didn't really want to attempt that while flying through the air at the aforementioned high speeds, so she just ignored him and went back to staring ahead.

The pair stayed in silence for the next few hours, or K stayed silent while X constantly complained. Eventually, the sun had started to rise, so they had to take shelter, or be brutally vaporized the moment a single photon touches upon the metal of them, which seemed like a suspiciously major oversight for such a technologically advanced mega-corporation.

K scanned the ground for a suitable shelter, which was quite difficult considering that the amount of damage that had been wrought on the planet had rendered most of the buildings more akin to a sieve than a contained, sealed environment. Finally, she spotted a ruin that appeared to have little to no holes peppering the shell of the wreckage, so she deemed it good enough for their purposes.

The pair touched down, fleeing into the ruin with about ten minutes to spare before the sun’s light would reach the surface of the planet. The wreckage might have been a skyscraper at one point, but had since fallen into severe disrepair, now being little more than a collection of walls and columns that served no purpose other than to look like it was pulled straight out of a severe apocalyptic wasteland that had most likely seen better days, or maybe just Los Angeles. Either way, it was fitting for the current scenario.

Once inside the collapsed building, they delved deeper into the dark recesses of this horrid necropolis. It appeared as though, that whatever the building had once been used for required the use of a basement. Only more the benefit to these two intrepid travelers, as it provided another layer of protection against the deadly rays of the sun.

The basement had lost any semblance of what it once was long ago, now reduced to crumbling rooms with the occasional pile of rubble. The pair didn’t really care about this state of disrepair, as their own home wasn’t exactly what one would call comfortable.

Eventually, the two settled on a room that didn’t have any point of entrance or exit, save for a single doorway that was relatively intact. The room was bare bones and small, not even fifteen feet across, with only a few filing cabinets to occupy the otherwise lonely room. There wasn’t a single source of light, but that didn’t really affect K and X the way it would normally affect your average human, since obviously, the drones had to be outfitted with night-vision, every military-capable piece of equipment should. Anyone who believes otherwise is most definitely wrong, and anybody associated with the aforementioned wrong person should disassociate themselves from them immediately, or risk facing extreme retribution.

“Welp, only an entire day to pass by. What do we do now?” X kicked a rock into the wall.

“Anything. I can’t go to sleep since we basically did nothing other than fly for miles, so as long as it doesn’t severely threaten the structural stability of this place, I’m open to it.” K replied.

“Huh. You know, why would we get boredom programmed into us in the first place? Seems like a pretty major oversight on the part of the company.” X inquired.

“The company never told us, in fact, they never really told us anything about our programming. However, my guess is always going to be better than yours, so my theory is that; when we’re bored we will actively search out more worker drones to kill to stave off the boredom. Boredom is always a great motivator to start doing something.” K explained.

“Yeah alright, doesn’t mean I have to like it. Worst thing they could give us, in my opinion. As long as you don’t consider the wiped memories, broken ship, overheating problems, no assistance whatsoever, and-” X was cut off.

“Quiet! You’re treading on very dangerous territory here, X!” K whisper-yelled, almost as if she needed to be quiet herself.

“Psh, if the company cared about what we said, I would’ve been vaporized a while ago.” X nonchalantly replied.

K grumbled, crossing her arms and sitting down on a fallen filing cabinet.

“Just, watch what you say, alright? We’re stretched out enough as it is, we don't need somebody dying to make it worse.” K says.

“Aww, someones getting all sentimental or something. You care about me now?” X smiled evilly.

“Oh shut up.” K waved a hand angrily at X, who chuckled for a second.

The pair sat in silence for a good thirty minutes before a groan from X broke the silence.

“God, I can’t take it anymore. I’m so bored, I’m tempted to just try and see how hot the sun is.” As if to prove his point, X got up.

“Fine. What do you wanna do to pass the time?” K got up as well, seemingly prepared to forcefully stop X from going outside.

“I dunno. Catch?” X shrugged.

“No, maybe later. How about chess? Much more suitable game for me.” K suggested with an ounce of superiority.

“Seriously? Chess? THAT’S what you suggest? We don’t even have any chess pieces, and even if we did, I don’t even know how to play.” X fixed K with a deadpan stare.

“It’s fine, I can teach you. As for the pieces, we can just find stuff around the room, maybe carve a few out. It’ll give us more stuff to do.” K insisted. “Come on, I know you’re bored.”

X groaned. “Ugh, fine. But I’m not getting the pieces, that’s gonna be your job.”

“That’s fine with me.” K said, smirking in triumph.

* * *

“And since I’ve got thirty kills, I get to deploy the tactical nuke.” To emphasize his point, X threw a rock at the area where they were playing, scattering several pieces.

“Ah, but you see, I researched the nuclear resistant tank tech tree, so my tanks are immune to your nuke.” K placed multiple staplers down in a triangle formation, advancing on X’s scattered line.

“Yes, but can they resist my special photon blast!?” X flung a small pebble at a very high speed towards one of the staplers. The pebble lodged itself in the crook of the clamping mechanism, stopping it from closing shut,

“But now you’ve used your last railgun shot for the next thirty minutes, and I seem to recall I destroyed your orbital cannon.” K dropped several bent paper clips from a couple feet up in the air onto the ground.

X leaned back and put a feigned look of panic on his face.

“Dear god, you're right! It seems I must pull out my last weapon!” X put what looked like several paper clips bent together to form a humanoid figure out from behind him, placing the lone piece against the super-tanks. X then shoved another bent paper clip into the figure’s hands, turned into the shape of an axe, it seemed.

“May I present, Jordan Friedman! Outfitted with the latest Harmful EnVironment suit from the company Dark Mesa and his trusty fireaxe, he can easily take on your pathetic super-tanks.” X proudly stated.

K scoffed, continuing to advance her tanks. However, that expression quickly turned to one of shock when X used Friedman to bat away the tanks, turning them onto their sides.

“What!? How?!” K spluttered in surprise.

“Hahaha! Now it is time for you to face defeat at the hands of Friedman!” X proudly yelled in triumph.

K could only watch in shock and despair as Friedman tore through her lines, destroying anything that came in his path. It was as if, no matter how many troops she sent towards him, he simply just cut down with the ease of lifting a finger.

Friedman slaughtered his way towards the heart of her territory, where he came into contact with her main commander.

* * *

Friedman gazed upon the pitch black throne that this wretched being had wrought from the souls of the vanquished. While he didn’t express his displeasure through outward speech, his opinion on the matter clearly showed on his face as he approached the vile entity that sat upon it. The commander of the enemy, the one he must kill, Commander Grimace, scourge of the galaxy.

“Ah, I see you aren’t a fan of my little assortment of tributes.” The commander’s voice was gravely, and had a robotic scratch to it. “Tell me, Friedman, was it worth it? All the death, the suffering, just to kill me? In fact, for all of my superior intellect, I can’t even begin to comprehend your motives. It’s as if you're just following an order, a set path that has become your objective, an objective you will complete at all costs.”

Commander Grimace coughed, a wretched hacking noise that grated on the ears. “Hmm. No matter. I suppose I will just kill you and add your weapon to my collection.” To emphasize his point, this hated being presented the choice tools of his victims, all concealed within his cloak. “Time to die, Friedman.”

Commander Grimace rose from his seat, hacking and coughing all the while. He shed his dark cloak, revealing his cybernetic body. Once, he might have been a respected warrior, but now he was nothing but a twisted facsimile of a living being.

But he wasn’t done yet. Commander Grimace’s two arms split into four, as the limbs unlinked themselves through whatever technological mechanics this thing had put into itself. He pulled four small metal rods from his waist, holding them as if they were swords. Pressing the buttons, Commander Grimace caused four bright glowing scimitars of energy to sprout from the ends of the rods, now known to be handles for these lightblades.

Jordan Friedman, not wanting to delay any longer, dove at Commander Grimace, and the two entered a duel that would decide the fate of the galaxy for eons to come.

The pair clashed weapons, with Friedman taking two blades on his fireaxe, with the other two coming up to slash at him from two different angles. Friedman lunged backwards, avoiding the incoming blades by a fraction of a hairsbreadth. Friedman remained stoic, trying to prepare himself for another pass.

Without giving Friedman time to catch a breath, Grimace pressed his advantage, slashing over and over again at Friedman, never relenting. The cyborg likely had much higher capabilities than a human, and could exact much more damage. However, Friedman didn’t give up in the face of this dangerous foe, simply blocking when he could, and dodging when he couldn’t block.

The two continued to clash blades, the scales tipping mostly in Grimace's favor. It seemed like that while Friedman was putting up a good fight, it was doing little more than to just delay the inevitable.

However, when Friedman was tiring out, his axe growing heavier in his arms, he saw it. The opportunity that he had been waiting for had presented itself. The slightest gap in Grimace’s guard, inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but Friedman saw this as his lifeline.

With what seemed like a choreographed move, Friedman moved his body, just slightly to the left. The glowing blade of Grimace swept past his ear, clipping off a hair in the process. This movement put him right in the perfect position to shove his fireaxe right into the smallest hole in Grimace’s chest cavity, where his lungs would be.

Normally, the force that Friedman had pushed the axe with wouldn’t have breached the ballistic material that made up Grimace’s lungs, but with Grimace’s lunge forward, it added the force needed to penetrate the reinforced lungs. And to add onto the damage, Friedman shoved a grenade in there just in case.

Grimace froze for a moment, before stepping back with a hacking cough.

“What . . . have . . . you . . . done!?” Grimace’s voice was rasping even worse than usual.

However, Grimace wouldn’t have time to figure out what Friedman had done, as his chest was having a bit of a rough time. In fact, while the chest did a fairly apt job of keeping the explosion contained within Grimace’s body, it didn’t really bode well for the essential parts of Grimace that were left. To clarify, his brain had been cooked like a child sticking a fork into an electrical socket.

Without much fanfare, Grimace just dropped like a stone, his laser weapons flickering out like candles.

Friedman looked passively at the corpse of his enemy.

He was dead, his goal completed.

* * *

“How!? How did that single person destroy this entire army!? He had barely anything compared to the amassed weaponry of my forces, but he still waded through them like they were nothing!” K gawked at the little paper clip man that had annihilated her army.

X tutted, a grin on his face. “You just gotta get good, K. All of this is nothing but a skill issue.”

“Besides, this isn’t even chess! I still don’t know how it devolved into, whatever this is!” K crossed her arms, glaring at X.

“You’re just a sore loser, mad that I’m better at you than this stuff.” X leaned back.

“Ugh, whatever. Oh, would you look at that, the sun is setting, time to go!” K sprang up, walking with a purpose towards the doorway, her fists balled.

X simply laughed.

* * *

“So this is the place?” X asked.

The pair were standing in front of a low standing building. Well, it was less so a building and more rubble at this point, but some semblance of structure had remained.

Like everything else in this wasteland, it likely used to be some sort of skyscraper, or at least something close to it. The top part had long since collapsed, and now only the first few button floors were standing. The odd thing about this one was that it seemed to be powered on.

A few flickering lights were shining on what looked like a sign that was carved into the concrete above the entrance. Most of the words and letters had been scratched out, with the only legible writing spelling, “E__C____E ASSEM___”. It wasn’t very helpful, but the fact that the building did have some power left was a notable thing to remember.

“Yep. I remember the coordinates, and this is as close as we’re gonna get. And plus, this place has power, so it makes it pretty obvious that something is here.” K replied. “Pretty impressive.”

“So uh, we gonna go inside or what?” X looked towards K.

“I guess so.” K replied.

Nobody made a move to go into the building.

“Come on, go ahead.” K pushed at X.

“No, you go first.” X pushed back at K.

“But why? This place is perfectly fine, so just go in.” K insisted.

“Here, how about we go in at the same time? I’ll count down.” X suggested.

“Alright, I’m fine with that.” K agreed,

X counted down from three to zero.

Still no movement.

“Just go already! I counted down!” X glared at K.

“I didn’t see you moving at all!” K accused X.

“It’s just a damn door! How is this difficult for you!?” X shot back.

“Fine! I’m going in!” K stomped towards the revolving door, with X following suit.

The pair stepped through the spinning glass, well, maybe just the spinning part, since all the glass was broken.

The tile floor was coated in a thick layer of dust, rubble, and snow, likely having been part of the cracked ceiling. The tile itself was cracked but whole, with only a few sections of flooring torn up in certain places. A receptionist desk was across the hall, however, it was only manned by a skeleton wearing the ragged remains of what might have been some sort of business wear.

There were three elevators, or what might have been elevators, if they weren’t in complete disrepair. The middle one, however, was framed by two skeletons with what seemed like what used to be combat vests, and two snow-covered submachine guns. The elevator doors were slightly cracked open, exposing the empty shaft.

The pair moved through the room, with K stopping to look at the deceased security guards.

“Huh.” She remarked.

X didn’t hear her, as he was poking his head through the middle elevator doors to get a good look at what was down in the dark chasm.

“Hey! Get away from there!” K yanked X away from the edge.

“Why? Isn’t that where we’re going?” X asked.

“We don’t know yet where the distress signal could’ve originated from. We have to investigate this entire place for the origin point.”

X pointed at the leftmost elevator. “That one is full of rubble, the right one only goes up, and there isn’t any intact floor but this one. The only place we can go is down.” X reasoned.

K scoffed. “That doesn’t- well, I guess that makes sense. Uh, you wanna go down first?”

* * *

The command room was quiet.

Thankfully.

Today was a quiet day for multiple reasons. Some might say that the populace was worried about their impending doom, and were in shock about it. Some might say the same, but about the impending doom of the asset, of which they were programmed to always make sure they lived, and it’s a core aspect of their being as well. Some would say that everyone had just been burnt out from all the excitement yesterday, and were now just chilling. Perhaps it was all just one big coincidence, though some would say that there were no coincidences. However, those who would say that coincidences didn’t exist were most definitely wrong, as that would imply that chance never existed, since a coincidence is a product of chance, which is influenced by probabilities.

You could say that coincidences didn’t exist in a more esoteric or metaphorical definition, but we’re getting off track.

The command room, as always, was filled with drones managing and monitoring the essential systems of the facility. Those essential systems, contrary to what some might think, did not include communication, or at least in the literal broader sense.

Due to the planet being a hellhole wasteland cut off from basically all outside contact, communication to and from the planet wasn’t exactly possible at the moment. They could remedy the issue by launching armored rockets into space to get past the debris field, but that raises the question of where they would get the rockets from. There might be a few leftover shuttles scattered around the planet, but if they even existed at all, they would be few and far between due to the blast.

And so, that has led the facility personnel to disregard long-range communication as a high-priority subject, assigning a single drone to watch the comm room at all times. And so that’s why it was a rather large surprise that, when the drone ran the ping function, it bounced back.

For context, that wasn't supposed to happen, even before the blast. In no world did the standard functions of the long-range comms include that part, or in that short of a time.

For even more context, the reason why it happened was because, as the signal went up through the concrete and rock, it usually runs up the elevator shaft and out into the atmosphere, where it would intercept a satellite, which would then send the information through the portal connected to the satellite, which would send the message to wherever it needed to go. The satellite would send a different signal back to the facility to confirm that their signal was received and made it through.

However, as the facility signal ran up the elevator shaft, it hit something that it completely bounced off of, sending it right back to the receiver. I’m sure you can guess what the signal bounced off of.

The drone stared at his screen for a moment before muttering something about trash electronics and aging tech, before adjusting a few dials and sending out the signal again. However, his efforts only confirmed that either the tech was aging and trash, or that something had gotten in the way of the signal’s path.

The drone groaned, before turning around and yelling at one of his coworkers.

“Hey Dave!” The drone called out.

“What!?” Dave asked.

“Listen, I think we’ve got a blockage in the elevator shaft, it’s stopping the signal from passing all the way through.” The unnamed drone replied.

“Just increase the signal strength, it’ll be fine, Al.” Dave suggested.

“I already did that, and it didn’t work. I can’t increase it anymore without the signal interfering with short-range comms. Just send out a guy to clear it up. Doesn’t need to be pretty, just get him a buzzsaw and a plasma cutter.” Al said.

“Tch. Alright, fine man. You owe me after this though.” Dave pressed and held down a button on his console, before muttering some terse words into it and letting go of the button. “Should be all dealt with now.” Dave said back to Al.

“Thanks man.” Al replied.

“No problem.” Dave said back.

* * *

“Man, this tunnel is dark.” X complained.

“It doesn’t matter, we have night vision.” X replied.

“So what? Still annoying.” X continued complaining.

“How? You can see perfectly fine right now, and plus, it’s always dark outside, so we always use night vision. Why aren’t you complaining then?” K inquired.

“Because this place is, like, super dark.” X reasoned poorly.

K was about to reply when she heard footsteps echoing down the dank tunnel, along with a bouncing flashlight.

“Shh, be quiet. Someones coming.” K shushed X. X would’ve continued talking if the incoming person didn’t round the corner at that second.

In fact, the aforementioned person seemed to not be a person at all, but one of the infamous worker drones. They were carrying a flashlight, along with what appeared to be a belt full of tools, and a couple power tools strapped along his front and back.

The worker drone stopped dead at the sight of them. And then, surprisingly, he began to talk.

“Uh, hi. I didn’t know that command sent some people ahead of-” The poor worker drone didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence, as X dashed forward quicker than the inferior eyes of the worker drones could see, slashing his claws and trisecting the doomed drone in an instant.

“X!” K yelled out.

“What!? It was a worker drone. We kill those guys. Ugh, it wasn't even worth it either, no fun.” X grumbled.

“Well, what if they had some sort of info? We could’ve tortured it out of them and then killed them later.” K reasoned.

“Yeah, but we were told to kill all the worker drones. Why would they give a worker drone important things, and then tell us to kill them all if they wanted us to recover those important things?” X shot back.

“Jeez, you’re just full of smart ideas today.” K said.

“Maybe you’re rubbing off on me.” X suggested.

“I doubt it.” K replied. “Let's keep moving.”

* * *

“Uh, Al?” Dave called out.

“Yeah, what is it?” Al replied.

“Well uh, is your signal working now?” Dave asked.

“Uh, yeah. Thanks man.” Al turned around.

“Wait, listen. Remember that guy that we sent to fix that blockage?” Dave inquired.

“Yeah? What about it?” Al asked.

“Well, his vitals blinked out. Like fully.” Dave replied.

“What? Are you sure that it wasn’t a glitch?” Al suggested.

“I just ran diagnostics, so no. I think we might wanna send a security squad to investigate. Maybe he just fell and crumpled his head on a crossbeam, accidents happen.” Dave said.

“It's your call man, I’m not involved in that kind of decision making.” Al said.

“Yeah. I just wanted to run it by you.” Al turned back towards his console, repeating the motions from last time.

“Security has been contacted, and they are on their way.” Al mumbled to himself.

* * *

The pair hadn’t even moved thirty feet from their original before they heard more footsteps, these ones sound heavier and clunkier.

“Ugh, there's more. Prepare for a slaughter.” K retracted her left hand, replacing it with a submachine gun.

X chuckled, not retracting his claws. “Hopefully this time is more entertaining.”

The clanking of boots grew louder, causing X to crouch and K to raise her gun. The group rounded the corner, and much to the surprise of X and K, they weren’t your average worker drone.

Sleek black chestplate, sleek black helmet that showed their sleek black screen and unique eyes from behind a tinted sheet of bulletproof glass, sleek black everything. The drones had come up in a group of four and had clearly prepared to get shot at. However, judging by their expressions, they were just as surprised to see the murder drones as they were to see them. Along with toting assault rifles, these drones were clearly a modded security drone, outfitted with weapons and armor that a soldier would normally wear, and probably the knowledge to use it.

The surprise on both sides wore off quickly, but as the security drones were raising their guns, K already had hers aimed at the ready.

The rapid banging of gunfire filed the passageway, K unloading her rounds at her targets. However, the bullets, probably due to their low caliber, simply pinged off of the dark armor of these strange security drones. By the time K was switching to her missile launcher, the security drones had drawn a solid bead on K, and were pressing down on the triggers.

Bigger bullets ripped through the air, most hitting their targets. While K had drawn her wings to swing them out in front of her to protect herself, X had charged forwards. This would normally be a very bad idea, but through sheer luck, the drones had noticed K first due to her raised firearm, and didn’t notice X until he was already at the leftmost drone in their line.

Claws slashed down, and while low caliber bullets didn’t seem to do much to these jacked-up drones, the super-sharp edge of the disassembly drones claws seemed to tear through their armor normally.

X’s victim didn’t even have time to cry out, as his head was turned into something more akin to sliced bread, his limp body falling limp onto the ground. Seeing this, K switched to her claws, and waited for a lull in the gunfire that would signal the drones running out of ammo.

That moment came a moment later, with the clicking and sliding as the drones tried to quickly change out their empty magazines for fresh ones.

That would come far too late, however.

K dove forward, and with X already getting to work on his second victim, she had a great opening to enter melee. She speared her claws through the first one she had seen, impaling both sides of their chests, before curling her claws, which would shred the internal systems of the security drone. It would be incapacitated for a moment, but it would give her time to attack the next drone in line.

Letting the body slide off her claws and onto the floor, K moved towards the last drone, who now had what looked like a baton out, keeping it between the drone and her. However, his efforts would be in vain, as X had just bisected his second victim, and was now looking for a third, decapitating the drone. The baton fell out of limp hands, clattering to the ground.

K was turning around when she realized that her being blocked by the drone had impeded her by one second, which might not seem like a long time or a big deal, but that one second was crucial, a fact that was proven by the drone she had left bleeding out finishing her reload, firing a single shot into the back of K’s unprotected head. K stumbled forward, toppling to the ground limply.

X looked at K with a surprised glance, before he slashed downwards at the security drone, ending her life in a moment.

“Hey uh, you good?” X crept towards K.

“Ugh.” K groaned after a tense moment. “That hurts.”

“Shoot. You’re not dead. Welp, can’t wish for everything to come true.” X smirked.

“Oh shut up. The only reason why you aren’t filled with bullet holes was because I took them all for you.” K clutched the back of her head, getting up.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, all I hear are excuses. Now let's get moving, I don’t like the idea of turning into a bullet sponge.” X motioned for K to follow.

“Yeah, alright.” K said, following him.

* * *

“So you’re telling me, that five, FIVE, of our brave men are dead due to an unknown threat?” The General asked tersely.

“Er, yes sir.” Dave answered.

“And why didn’t you tell us about this earlier?” The General inquired.

“Well uh, I didn’t think that it was a major problem-” Dave was cut off.

“You didn’t think that the deaths of our men were major problems?” The General leaned in.

“No, there was a man before-” Dave was cut off yet again.

“Doesn’t matter. I want you out of my sight.” The General waved his hand, with Dave enthusiastically obliging.

The General was silent for a moment, likely pondering on what to do, before settling on the obvious route of action. Taking a radio out of his belt, he held it to his mouth, before speaking into it.

“Initiate lockdown, code 117, orange tier. Reinforce the outer border, and leave two avenues of retreat for our men.” The General ordered.

“Affirmative. Activating lockdown, orange tier code 117, reinforcing border.” The radio spat back out.

* * *

Bullets perforated the air.

The two disassembly drones were taking cover behind a concrete barrier. In front of them was a massive gate, complete with closed blast doors and various defensive points, of which there were many. However, the pair couldn’t determine the exact count of the defense points due to the hailstorm of live rounds coming from them, which makes sense, considering they were defensive points.

X and K were making their way through the dark tunnels, trying to stay alert, though they couldn’t have prepared for the sheer size of the thing they had encountered, as who in their right mind would put a massive blast door underground, when the ground made for a perfect blast door in of itself. However, the facts remained true, something that was emphasized by the enemy force trying their best to turn them into swiss cheese.

K was waiting for a lull in the gunfire, but considering that this was a much larger force than the one they had encountered earlier, they would have much more ammo, and much bigger guns. While they had stopped firing, this was likely due to not wanting to waste available ammo, and would probably resume firing once she left her cover. And so, drastic situations called for drastic measures.

Taking a page out of X’s book, she spread her wings, flying many feet up into the air, likely surprising the enemy drones. While she was up in the air, she took aim with her missile launcher that she had just taken out, firing a single shot towards the small slit that they were firing out of.

Her aim struck true, the projectile flying forwards and through the gap, with the explosion sending a large jet of flames out of the gap, along with a few screams and a scorched limb, and having the added effect of large-scale panic.

Taking the hint, X dove forwards, landing at the foot of the gate, changing his hands into large blades, plunging them into the steel door, and began carving.

K flew forwards, retracting her wings to fit through the gap, and landing on the catwalk that the drones had been firing from. Many drones stared back at her with fearful eyes, and they began raising their guns too late.

A large laser beam decapitated roves of drones, while a flurry of explosions sent her victims flying. Bullets flew everywhere, a few finding their homes in K’s body, despite her best efforts. Luckily, they didn’t cause much damage, due to her powerful regeneration.

The drone’s fates were sealed by X flying upwards, landing right behind the haphazard line that the drones were trying to create, slicing a few drones in two as well.

K dove forwards, claws out, slicing and dicing the drones as if she was cutting vegetables. At this point, they were too close to open fire, and so many of the remaining drones took out crackling batons to try and cover the escape that single drone was making, who was also holding some sort of device in his hands. However, that escape was cut short when he ran too close to X, who casually stuck a claw out, slashing it upwards, cleaving the top half of the drone’s head off.

It only took a few more seconds for K and X to finish up the stragglers, one of which had been holding her hands up in surrender. Of course, they didn’t oblige, with X bisecting the poor soul in a heartbeat.

When K impaled her current victim through the eyes, ending their life, K looked around for more, only to find none. With an estimated headcount, she realized that her and X, in total, had killed about fifty of these security drones, with probably a few retreating.

“Huh. That seemed real easy.” X stepped up right next to K.

“More like they weren’t prepared for our capabilities. In situations like these, we’re pretty kitted towards shock-and-awe tactics.” K explained.

“That’s nice and all, but I’m not sure I ask-” X was cut off by K punching him in the arm with a good right hook.

“Don’t even start. I really don’t want my good mood ruined.” K glared at X.

“Jeez, calm down, just joking ‘round. Also, I found this.” X held up the device that the retreating drone had been carrying.

K picked it up. It appeared to be a rectangular flat screen, activated as well. The display was showing what looked like a maze of corridors and passageways, with a green blinking dot being shown in a large room.

“Huh. This might be a map.” K slid her finger across the screen, causing it to scroll right. “And this dot is us. Which means . . .” She pointed towards the passageway. “We now know where to go.”

“Nice.” X grinned.

* * *

“Come on, let's go people! We’re evacuating here, get a move on!” The drone pushed several other people into the dim tram car.

“So, do you know what the hell is going on here?” A drone asked another one sitting across from him.

“Your guess is as good as mine, man. I was just told to go reinforce the outer border, but a little bit after that me and my squad were called back to this evac point, and they never told us why!” The second drone crossed his arms.

“Same story with me. I’m Fern, by the way.” Fern said.

“Heh, yeah. My name’s Felix.” Felix replied.

“You guys wanna know what happened?” A voice called out from the side of Fern.

“Huh? Yeah sure man. What's your name?” Felix asked.

“Names Sterl.” The drone introduced himself, leaning into the light.

“Good lord! Your arm’s gone!” Fern looked on in shock at Sterl's arm.

“Just my left forearm, shouldn’t be too hard to replace. But anyway, I’m ain’t talking ‘bout myself, I’m talking ‘bout what happened.” Sterl cleared his throat.

“So, just like y’all, me and my boys were called to one of the inner parts of the outer border to reinforce it. But, it seems like you two didn’t listen fully to the announcement.” Sterl pointed a finger at Felix and Fern, the former motioning for Sterl to continue.

“Well, we was told that it was an orange tier code 117, lockdown.” The pair Sterl was talking to gasped. “Yep, intruders. Not friendly ones either, considering I ain’t got an arm no more.” Sterl rubbed the broken edge of his stump.

“Anyway, we had just lost contact with the defense point ahead of us, so as is normal procedure, we sent a single scout with an open channel to see what happened to ‘em, that person being your’s truly.” Sterl chuckled. “Once I got there, I was met with nuthin’ but devastation. Dead drones everywhere, limbs littering the floor and walls, nuthin’ left. The most peculiar thing though, was that some seemed cut up, like they was chopped apart.” Sterl nodded when the pair gasped again.

“Yep, and on my way back to my defense point, they were besieged by something, prob’ the things that attacked the one ahead of us. And once I got there, welp, I was greeted by a familiar sight. They were all dead, save for a few survivors. And the things that killed ‘em? Devils, I tell ya. Claws, tails, wings and the like. We didn’t stand a chance. I recognized that the situation was lost, so I decided to run away with the information I had. But, it wasn’t that easy.” Sterl shook his head.

“I got too close to one, and it noticed me. The damn thing didn’t even turn around, just poked me with that tail of theirs.” Sterl motioned towards his arm. “Wasn’t any old stabbing thing either. Darned thing musta had some sort of extra ingredient, cuz the moment I looked back, the place where I got hit was smoking and sizzling, with a pretty painful glow to it.”

Sterl looked back and forth between the pair.

“So? How did you survive?” Fern questions, on the edge of his seat.

“Welp, I did the only rational thing that a sane person woulda done in my situation. Moment I got away, I readied my gun, and blasted my way through the armor, yanking the darned thing off once it was hanging by nuthin’ but a flap o’ metal.” Sterl nodded. “Didn’t see no other way outta that.”

The pair looked at each other and back towards Sterl.

“Wow.” Felix said. “Well, at least we now know what we’re going up against. And guess what? Our tram’s leaving.”

The tram had been filled up to capacity, with about one hundred drones packed side-to-side next to each other, leaving the port behind them empty. Then, it lurched into motion, the magnetic propulsion system quickly building up speed, until they were zooming past the middle sections of the facility.

And things would’ve worked out for the passengers, if they hadn’t delayed for so long. When the tram was leaving the station, a slight bang had been heard overhead. Nobody noticed it, as those kinds of things weren’t a rare occurrence, as sometimes when the rails were just activating, the metal beams would knock into each other, not too big of a deal. However, that proved to be a fatal mistake, something that was proven about thirty seconds into the ride.

Without any warning at all, the roof burst open, the sealed environment cracking open like an egg with the use of explosive ammunition. The drone let out a collective yelp of surprise, and leapt for their weapons. As they did this, two large figures dropped in, squashing a poor man with their entrance. It was a bit hard to make out their features due to the dim light of the car, but it was fairly obvious as to who and what they were on account of the entrance. One of them had an arm raised, which fired out a missile towards the end of the car. The explosion severed the connections between the car in front of the car that these doomed individuals were inside.

Gunfire burst into existence, with most of the drones missing their shots due to the shaking of the tram car as the magnetization wore off, and the beams knocked into the rails below. The situation got worse when the drones ran out of ammo, as yet again, in their panic, they had expended all of their ammo to eliminate these threats, which clearly didn’t work out.

Sensing an opportunity, the murder drones pounced, beginning yet another slaughter. The trio of drones that had been calmly chatting earlier was turned into a duo when Fern was sadly too slow to dodge the swooping claws, getting bisected burger style in a single swipe.

Felix and Sterl looked towards each other, then back at the growing distance between them and the tram car ahead of them, before nodding and making a break for it.

In a scene that could’ve made it onto a certain action movie about people fighting in a bullet train that severely overused the combination of plot holes and deux ex machina, Sterl and Felix pushed and shoved their way through the various drones who were futilely trying to make a stand against these devils, trying to outrun their encroaching death.

The tight corridors of the tram car slowed down the attackers, preventing them from simply swinging their arms around and getting kills, no, they had to stab more often than not. This worked to the drones advantage, but it wouldn’t save most of them.

However, Sterl and Felix made it to the open doorway of the tram car, wind rushing by. The rails were sending up sparks from being repeatedly knocked into at such high speeds, and the pair could tell that they didn’t have much of a time window left, and so they took their shot.

Sterl leapt first, clearing the gap with ease due to his enhanced powerful legs. Landing on the next car, which was filled with many shocked drones, Sterl turned around just in time to see Felix..

Felix jumped right after Sterl did, soaring through the air as he did, and yet falling short. Whether it was due to him not putting as much effort into it as he could’ve or the lessened weight of Sterl allowing him to make it across the gap, Felix didn’t know, only that he began to plummet to the rails below.

However, a hand grabbed him. Only a single one, as the other wasn’t exactly present at the time. Sterl hauled Felix up with more than a bit of effort, both of them landing on cold, hard metal. The two breathed heavily, but they weren’t done yet.

“Come on,” Sterl wheezed. “We’ve gotta keep going.”

Felix took a moment to answer. “Why?”

To answer his question, a missile streaked into the side of the tunnel, narrowly missing the tram car.

“Cuz of that, pardner.” Sterl got to his feet, helping Felix up as well.

However, they were stopped by an officer.

“Hey you. Soldiers. What the hell happened back there?” The officer was several ranks above the pair, and so the two of them snapped to attention.

“We were attacked, sir. The intruders from earlier have breached the tunnels, and are now attacking our tram cars, sir.” Felix saluted for good measure.

The officer didn’t answer them yet, turning around and barking out an order that the rest of the drones in the tram car followed, grabbing their guns and sorting themselves into position.

The officer turned back to the two.

“Well, you boys are gonna be safe here, I tell ya that.” The officer nodded. “You got any guns on yourselves?”

Sterl shook his head. “No sir, but you ain’t understandin’. We can’t hold back these darned things, not with this many men. And even if ya pull more people from other cars, we can’t fit the number of men it would take to bring these things down. With all due respect, sir.”

The officer shook his head. “Now I be doubting that, soldier. What we have here are some of the best men we could scrounge up. However, if it’ll settle y’all, I’ll send both of you to the front of the train to relay this information. Now off with ya, that's an order.”

The two soldiers quickly saluted, before running off towards the front.

* * *

Half.

Out of the hundred men that had been in transit in that specific train that was heading to the inner sections of the complex, about fifty had made it through. Which was pretty good numbers for our intrepid duo, because they constantly had to play catch-up with the train due to its immense speed. Luckily, they never fell too far behind due to them using a variety of means to propel themselves forward, such as using their wings, explosions, explosions combined with their wings, and jumping from the falling tram combined with wings and explosions.

However, eventually they had fallen off after a lucky shot domed X in the head, causing K to catch him before he fell under the tracks, where he would’ve been crushed by the demagnetized tram car.

And so, that left K and X crawling through the vents, since they couldn’t traverse the tunnel, as a train could come and turn them into a paste so fine that their regeneration wouldn’t have a chance to even try and repair them at any moment.

“Ow! Get your foot out of my face!” K yelped.

“You’re the one going too fast!” X shot back.

“What are you talking about!? You’re going too slow, I’m just going at my normal pace!” K argued.

“I’m crawling through a vent, I can’t go as fast as you! Sorry, but I’m built normally, not like a wire frame stick figure like you!” X said.

“I don’t look like a stick figure! Now you’re just speaking nonsense.” K glared at X.

“Sorry, but it’s true. Now shut up before they hear us, I think I can hear voices.” X looked back at K, who clammed up.

The two slid along the metal duct, trying to be as quiet as they could inside an echoing vent. Luckily, by some turn of luck, it seemed they weren’t noticed. X stopped at a grate in the vent, looking through it.

“Why did you stop?” K whispered.

“Shh! I’m trying to listen.” X whisper yelled back.

X could see a hallway, more clean than the outer border. He checked the map that he had, and he could see that they were deep in the inner section. Inside the hallway were two drones, who appeared to be guarding a door. The two were talking, so X strained his ears to listen in on what they were saying.

“-Yeesh, did you hear about the northern tram?” The first one asked.

“Yeah. It was a massacre. I was actually on it, but I was in the front. All I heard was for us to prepare for battle. My squad was in the back, none of them made it out.” The second one replied.

“That's gotta be rough, my condolences man.” The first one said.

“Yeah. I really wanted to get a picture of one of them too, would've been cool to show around.” The second one seemed a bit glum.

“Well, at least you got to see the aftermath. I was herded off and told to go over here with you.” The first one motioned around.

“I’ll tell you then. I swear, half of the train was cut off by those things. You could see scorch marks around the area where one of the trams used to be. I heard that only a few managed to make it out of the back rows.” The second one gesticulated widely to emphasize his point.

“You got a picture?” The first one inquired.

“Sure I do.” The second one reached into his pocket, taking his hand off his gun for a moment. The first one leaned in to see what he was pulling out.

However, before the two drones could comment on the gruesome photo, X decided that this was the moment to strike.

Slicing through the vent cover, X front flipped downwards, landing on his feet with a thud.

“Hey, fellas.” X stabbed out, skewering the surprised duo in the heads, killing them instantly.

“What the hell are you doing!?” K dropped down from the vent as well. “We're gonna get caught!”

“The vent won’t go much farther, just a couple hundred more feet, and plus, I was bored.” X plainly states.

“Fine, I guess that makes sense. Just be careful. Actually, why am I even telling you to be careful? You never listen anyway.” K glares at X. “Let's just go.”

“You got it.” Without another word, X dashes off, sprinting down the corridor.

K groans, running after him.

* * *

After butchering their way through several unsuspecting guards, K was pretty sure they knew where they were. Considering the alarms were blaring and the sound of footsteps were getting ever closer by the second, she believed it was a pretty fair assumption to make. And so, they were forced to jump into yet another vent, which luckily nobody was around to see, and make their way towards the most heavily guarded section of the facility. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the central reactor, or one of the many power reactors that were dotted throughout the complex.

A little bit of fun facts for you here, the facility they were in, was technically multiple facilities combined into one large complex. You see, a place this big couldn’t be used for just one thing, and so when it was converted from a luxury bunker for the many executives who ran the planet, several other government-funded scientific operations settled in. These were many, like research on powered exosuits, biological weapons, and since the top-of-the-line cryo pod currently out was extremely expensive to run, and not at all resource efficient, so they were researching new ways to do that as well.

And so, that’s why multiple backup reactors had been placed in different sections of the complex, and the main, central reactor powered them all the majority of the time. However, contrary to what one might believe, it was not the most heavily guarded area in this place, only taking second place. No, that honor lay in a sealed area set in the inner section, but off to the side, as the central reactor was in the center, why else would it be called the, “central” reactor, huh?

Anyway, the only logical conclusion K could draw from this was, that whatever the drones were guarding, it was more important than their literal lifeline, the reason why they were all still living. And maybe, just maybe, that important thing might just be what K and X came for.

And so, that is why K and X were fighting through wave after wave of security drones, carving a path to the center. Thankfully, several helpful arrows pointed towards their objective, so at least they had that going for them. However, for some reason, the security drones just couldn’t be as helpful as the arrows, ah, what a shame. That has unfortunately led to X and K being dismembered, shot, and torn to bits several times from the heavy weaponry that the inner section had.

It seemed as though that these security drones, well, a more apt name would be military drones, had been underestimated, as they were willing to throw every single one of themselves at the disassembly drones to prevent them from taking what was theirs. A respectable aspect of them, but it wouldn’t save them, especially since they were right at the door.

The huge blast door, at least fifteen feet tall, was made out of what looked like reinforced tungsten. And if it was as thick as it looked, then K and X combined had absolutely zero chance of breaking through.

Luckily, physical attacks weren’t the only weapon they had up their sleeves. They also featured top-of-the-line hacking capabilities, able to inject viruses into electronics by pressing a device up into the desired receptacle, in this case it was a massive blast door opening system, and letting the virus do its work.

K retracted her left claw, replacing it with a long device with a hole at the end, a more futuristic looking gun, which might define it in the loosest sense.

“Alright X. Prepare for the door to open.” K warned.

“Yeah, alright. It’ll be nothing.” X brushed it off.

K shook her head, before pressing the end of the injector up into the card reader on a screen on the wall, which was likely the controls for the door.

After a few seconds, with the screen flashing a few times with an error symbol, the doors groaned, like the yawn of a massive beast just awakening from its slumber. A slit appeared, which then became a gap, which turned into something big enough to walk through. And that's when the moment was ruined by bullets streaking through the passage.

X unfurled his wings, letting the projectiles ping off of the reinforced metal, before raising his arm to fire off a missile.

“Don’t!” K yelled at him. “You might damage what we came here for!”

X lowered the launcher, too distracted by the gunfire to quip back at her. X listened closely, concentrating. He discerned the rapid banging of gunshots into background noise, picking out the sound of spent brass clattering against the ground. The door was halfway open now, and from the gaps in his wings, it looked like several mounted machine guns had been placed in the room, along with a rather small amount of drones, only about twenty if he were to guess. He looked upwards, seeing nothing on the ceiling, and so he raised his missile launcher, ignoring K’s protests, and fired a shot upwards.

The resounding blast caused rubble to rain down, not too much, only a slight annoyance, but it did the job to distract the drone for long enough for X to make his move. Diving forwards, X beheaded a pair of drones that were in his way, while throwing small shurikens at the machine gun operators to keep them from firing at him. K, deciding to finally stop hiding, lunged into the battle, bisecting a drone in the process.

And what followed was a slaughter.

While the drones tried to fight back, they had made the mistake that all of their recent predecessors made. They had let the disassembly drones get too close, and since melee wasn’t exactly the military drone’s specialty, they didn’t fare too well in the ensuing battle.

And so, the last drone fell to a rather spectacular display of teamwork on K and X’s part, them having sliced the military drone into many parts on either end. The pair scanned the room for survivors, only to find none. The only things left in the room were them and a rather large capsule in the center of the room.

The pair approached it, with X reaching out a hand to touch it, and K slapping his hand away.

“Don’t touch it!” K scolded him.

“Or what? It’ll explode?” X looked back at K.

“Maybe! We don’t know!” K glared at X.

X shot his hand out, laying a single finger on the cool exterior of the foggy plastic cover.

Nothing happened.

“See?” X said.

“Oh fine. What the hell is this thing anyway?” K looked back at the machine.

It stood about ten feet tall, towering over the pair. It had a thick plastic cover that appeared to have fogged up, obscuring whatever was inside from view. The back was also covered by a formed metal panel, protecting the guts of the machine from damage. It had the general look of a more ovular object, maybe a capsule of sorts.

“Oh hey, this kinda looks like a cryo pod.” X nods.

“What? Why- oh yeah, it kinda does. Wait, that would mean-” K cut herself off.

K thinks for a moment, her mind putting together the pieces and clues, her LED eyes widening in shock.

“If this is a cryo pod,” K began slowly. “And if the company really wanted us to retrieve this, and all of these military drones were protecting it, then what’s in this capsule must be . . .”

“A human.” X finished.

The pair looked back at the pod with a newfound glow in their eyes.

“And it says here that he’s perfectly fine.” X pointed towards a screen on the side of the cryo pod, which appeared to be displaying normal vitals.

“What should we do?” K asked no one in particular.

“Let's let ‘em out.” X suggested.

“For once, I agree with you. We can’t drag this thing all the way back up and to our base, it’s far too heavy, but I’m afraid if we let whoever they are out, well, humans are fragile, they might die.” K frowned.

“Well, only one way to find out.” And without another word, X pressed the big red button labeled, “EMERGENCY DEFROST”.

Alarms began blaring, and a hiss sounded as the plastic door unsealed itself for the first time in decades. Fog pooled at the foot of the capsule, covering the ground in frost.

And the last human left on the planet awoke from sleep.